Guiltless Banana Bread

4 bananas

1 cup sugar*

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup pureed white beans**

Mash bananas and mix in sugar- let sit about 15 minutes. Mix all other ingredients together in another bowl. Then add banana mixture. Mix well...until very few lumps remain. Pour batter into a greased pan (I just spray mine real quick). Bake at 325* for 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Health information: 12 grams of fat, 2160 calories for the entire recipe; divided by 18 it is0.7 grams of fat and 120 calories per slice.

So originally the 1/2 cup of white bean puree is really 1/2 cup of vegetable oil...but I read about the substitution and I wanted to try it. It turned out really yummy and I feel less guilty about having a second slice! I promise you can not tell there are beans in the bread. I am no health fanatic but it seems like an obvious choice if I can make such little changes to my "normal" without being able to tell. *And I am sure you could make it even more healthy if you used Splenda instead of white sugar (that would make it only 85 calories per slice), however I didn't do that because we didn't have Splenda on hand...because I'm not that much of a health fanatic, remember? :)*

**No for those of you wondering about the bean puree, here is the scoop. I used one can of Great Northern Beans- drained and rinsed. Then put them in a bowl with a couple tablespoons of water and pureed them with my hand blender until it was a peanut butter consistency. This made just over 1 cup of the puree- I used half and put the other half in the fridge to try in a future recipe.**

Give it a try! What have you got to lose? It is a yummy snack that has protein, iron, and fruit in it...and I find that it is more filling too! :) Good luck!