chocolate swirl banana bread

for the past week, my roommate genni and i have been craving banana bread.  craving literally.  every time i looked at those too-ripe bananas my mouth would water.  last night we both needed a little break from homework {already? yes.}, so while she whipped together a few quesadillas for us, i finally used the old bananas.

but of course, i'm me, and i changed the recipe.  i'm beginning to think that's inevitable for me.  every time i cook {or bake, lately} i simply can't help thinking, oh! it would be so good with this instead... why does it want me to put that in? strange... i don't think i will.

the same thing happened with the banana bread - and it was a fabulous success!

two beautiful loaves of chocolate swirl banana bread {today with breakfast, lunch, and dinner!}.

chocolate swirl banana bread

4 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups date sugar

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup applesauce

1 T maple syrup

1/4 cup cocoa

4 large eggs

3 cups mashed ripe banana (6 bananas)

2/3 cup vanilla yogurt

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

dash of salt

first, i whipped together the applesauce, date sugar and honey (all of this was done with a fork, by the way, due to my college-lack of mixer).  after it creams and looks delicious, add the banana, vanilla and yogurt.  mix those up then add eggs. . . really, you could combine that, but i was working with a too-small bowl and trying not to make an overflow mess on the counter!  next add the flour, baking soda and salt.  (the original recipe wanted me to combine those first in another bowl, but i was lazy and it worked just fine this way!)  once this is all together, take about 3 cups of the dough and scoop it into another bowl.  add the maple syrup and cocoa to this smaller bowl.

next is the fun part!  i scooped the un-chocolate dough into two bread pans evenly, then scooped the chocolate dough on top of it and swirled it around in the bread pans with a spoon.  the inside came out so beautifully!  it was a good surprise to cut the first slice and see beautiful dark swirls because i thought i mixed it too much to be able to see the chocolate.  

bake at 350 for an hour!  which is way too long, by the way.  the smell almost killed the bread because genni had to keep me from opening the oven!  

end result: delicious.

especially dipped in hot chocolate!

i'm not a bad blogger... just a really good liver.

i've done yoga everyday for the past two weeks {except sunday}.
i ran yesterday for fourty-five minutes - at night {an accomplishment this semester}.
i've eaten three meals a day for the last four consecutive days.
today is the first day i haven't finished all my due homework this semester.
january is practically three-fourths of the way over and my nights of almost-eight hours of sleep are already more than last semester.
i go to family home evening.
and drink lemon-cayenne warm water in the mornings.
i've giant journaled twice this month,
and drawn three cartoons.
i've only been late to class once - by fifteen seconds.
my books are now color-categorized.
and the pictures on the wall are rearranged - not to mention the kitchen cupboards!

but lately, i just don't write quite as much.
i'll write more -
when i feel like it.

my favorite thing about this week is weather so warm the snow's melting!  well, yesterday and the day before.  today will give us new snow. . .which is better than old snow, anyway!