Saturday.

On this fine Saturday, I've already been quite productive. I went to my old workplace to train the new receptionist who took over my position (long story), ran an errand and spent a couple of hours deep-cleaning the two bathrooms at our apartment. So what do I do for a well-deserved break?

I bake.

Yes, that's right. Baking has become quite theraputic for me. If I had a bigger kitchen and more money, there'd be a lot more baking. (My husband is sort of nervous about this, because he doesn't want to get fat from eating all the goodies I make.) But alas, I have a very cramped kitchen, hardly any countertops and a tight budget, so I bake every once in a while. Maybe 2 or 3 times a month? (Is that actually a lot?)

We had 4 bananas sitting on the counter and they've started getting those brown spots. The bananas were mushy to the touch. What else is there to make than banana bread?

Courtesy of a great new food blog/website that I've found, Simply Recipes, here's a great recipe (I added semi-sweet chocolate chips, yummm):

Ingredients

• 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour

Method

No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

Make sure you stop by Simply Recipes. There's loads of great (and easy-to-make, it seems) recipes and I'm excited to try new ones!