Banana Bread

I made these last night with the help of both my kids, can you tell that my family loves banana bread?  It was the first time I let Rebekah stand on a chair to help me; she loved it!  She kept telling me "I like cooking", even this morning!  They each ate 4 or 5 muffins last night, and then had more for breakfast!

The recipe came from my mother-in-law, Ann.  I love that it uses shortening instead of butter because my little girl is allergic to dairy.  Also, I used 1 cup regular flour and 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour. 

Here is a tip for the bananas: when you have overripe bananas going bad on your counter, just stick the entire banana, peel and all, into the freezer.  When you're ready to make banana bread, just defrost in the microwave (or on the counter) and squeeze the banana out the top of the peel.  I usually buy the bags of bananas at the groccery store that are $1.99 for approximately 6 pounds.  Our best score was last week at Aldi's, they had an entire bag for $0.10, yes you saw that right 10 cents!  We bought 3 bags, but I wish we would have bought more!!!  Mashed bananas are also great in pancakes.  Just add 1 mashed banana to your regular pancake batter.  You may need to cook them at a slightly lower temperature so they cook longer and aren't mushy in the middle.

Banana Bread
As written, it makes enough batter for 3 regular loaf pans.  I made 48 mini muffins and a small cake pan.

2 cups sugar
1 cup shortening
6 ripe mashed bananas
4 well beaten eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda

Cream sugar and shortening, add bananas, eggs, vanilla, flour, salt and baking soda.  Stir until blended.  Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes.  Enjoy!