Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins / Bread

I have been on a quick bread kick lately. I seem to keep making them as treats to give away or to go along with our meal. So I decided to declare this Quick Breads Week. First up - Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins / Bread.

I had a freezer full of brown bananas and needed to do a little reorganization so they needed to be used. I also am in a calorie burn competition at work and having been pushing extra hard with the workouts, so I'm a little hungrier than normal. So having a sweet fix like banana bread around has been a lifesaver!

I went out in search of a banana bread recipe that was a little different and found one that called for sour cream on Foodies, Inc. So I decided to give it a try.

Original recipe provides (per serving):

194 calories
8.7 g fat
27.4 g carbohydrate
0.9 g fiber
2.8 g protein

I made the usual changes: I substituted reduced fat sour cream for the full fat version as well as used unsweetened applesauce in place of the butter. The result was awesome! I made 12 muffins and 2 medium sized loaves out of a double batch of this. The muffins were gone in just a few days. The loaves made it to the freezer. One was delivered to my coworker who is a new mom. The other one waits in the freezer for it's final resting place (which just might be my belly!).

Rock Your Banana Bread - BETTER

1/3 cup reduced fat sour cream
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter desired baking dish (muffin tin, loaf pan, etc). Combine sour cream and baking soda in a bowl. Cream applesauce and sugar in a large bowl. Beat in eggs, bananas, and sour cream mixture. Sift in flour and baking soda. Stir in chocolate chips. Spoon mixture into pan. Bake for one hour for 9x5 pan, 30 minutes for muffin tin, 45 minutes for 4x8 pan, etc.

Take it out of the oven , let it cool and enjoy! Makes 20 servings. Per serving:

153 calories
3.7 g fat
28.1 g carbohydrate
1.0 g fiber
2.7 g protein

***You could probably omit the chocolate chips here and save a bunch on calories and fat... that really wasn't what I was going for :) ****