Healthy Recipe--Lowfat Oatmeal Banana Bread

I love to bake. It's like therapy for me. Sometimes though, the things we bake aren't the healthiest. Take an innocent sounding recipe like banana bread. For a small slice we're talking anywhere from 200-500 calories and sometimes lots of fat. The solution? If you're trying to watch fat and calories you can almost always find a healthier version that still tastes good. Bonus, this recipe also has good for you oatmeal. I love Joy's description of her banana bread so much, I just pasted her whole post here.

I’d like to introduce you to Low Fat Oatmeal Banana Bread. If this bread were one of your dear friends from high school, it would be that friend who wore old lady shoes because they were the most practical, and played the trombone, and was the super smart editor of the school newspaper. This bread would be the friend that was super sensible, and sweet and just downright made you feel good about your day.
Go ahead, think of this Low Fat Oatmeal Banana Bread as your friend… and then it eat. No, there’s nothing weird about that.

This bread is packed full of happy, heart-healthy oats, cinnamon spice and crazy ripe bananas. It’s just the thing to throw together over the weekend, slice up, wrap individually, and freeze for breakfast for the entire week. I just grab a slice from the freezer as I’m running out the door, and by the time I have a chance to eat it, it’s perfectly defrosted. Of course the microwave and toaster oven work wonders too.

Low fat Oatmeal Banana Bread

Joy the Baker

makes 1 loaf of 10 slices, 4 points per slice

- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1/2 tsp baking soda

- 1/4 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp cinnamon

- 3 tsp canola or walnut oil

- 1 large egg, beaten

- 2 medium egg whites, beaten

- 3 large bananas, ripe

- 1 cup uncooked old fashioned oats

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a loaf pan and set aside. In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients including the oats and cinnamon.
In a smaller bowl, mash bananas with a potato masher or fork. Add oil and whole egg and mix thoroughly.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well. Batter will be fairly thick.
In a medium sized bowl, with an electric hand mixer, beat the egg whites until medium stiff peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the batter in three additions.
Pour batter into pan and bake until top of loaf is firm to touch, 45 to 50 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes. Flip out and cool on a wire rack for another 10 minutes. Slice loaf into 10 equally sized slices.

Sincerely,

The Fit Mamas