The Good Life with a side of Banana Bread

I watched a TedX "The Good Life" by Robert Waldinger recently (what with 2016 TED happening in Vancouver one must choose to live vicariously). Robert asked a "simple question" what is your most important life goal?   When millennials were asked the question - the top 2 goals were  #1 Getting Rich #2 Getting Famous (move over Oprah, Bill Clinton...)

He talked about a 75 year study done by Harvard on what keeps you Healthy and Happy and the results were breathtaking -

# Good relationships keep us happier and healthier. Period
#Social Connections are good for us (family, friends and community) Socially disconnected people are, according to Waldinger, “less happy, their health declines earlier in midlife, their brain functioning declines sooner, and they live shorter lives than people who are not lonely.”
# 1 in 5 Americans will report that they are lonely
# It's better to be single than to be in a relationship filled with conflict
# It’s not just the number of friends you have … it’s the quality of your close relationships that matters.” ( dang - there goes my justification for my 800+ Facebook friends and 2000+ Linkedin friends)
If you want to watch the talk you can here :


So when K2 and I  saw the ripe bananas on the counter today we did a little happy dance, K2 knew there was baking in our very near future. Here's to "the good life" with a made from scratch Banana Bread which will honest to god have you reaching for a second piece (or in the case of my son his 3rd).

BANANA BREAD

Servings: 10 Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 45  minutes

INGREDIENTS:

1½ Cups Bob Red Mill’s Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
2 Ripe Bananas

¼ Stick Organic Butter

1 cup of Milk or use water  (I used 2% milk)

1/4^th Cup Truvia Baking Blend

½ tsp. Salt

1 Large Organic Egg

1 tsp. Baking Powder

4 tbsp.  Walnut Pieces

2 tbsp. Guittard semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 tbsp Vanilla Extract

DIRECTIONS:

1.     Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F

2.   Combine mashed bananas, milk, Vanilla Extract, Truvia Baking Blend,  egg, and butter together in a bowl. Mix flour and baking soda together in a separate bowl; stir into banana mixture until batter is just mixed. Stir salt into batter. Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan.

3.    Fold in the Chocolate Chips and the Walnut Pieces

4.    Bake for 45 minutes in a well greased  9*5 Loaf Pan .Run a knife through it, if it comes out clean the cake is done – otherwise bake for increments of 5 minutes.

      Pour yourself a glass of milk and take a big bite of your banana bread. Let's eat and drink to your, health, family and friends (now get off Facebook...I know I will be ;-) )