I decided to use our fresh-picked strawberries to make a variation of our favorite quick bread recipe and made Strawberry Banana Bread. I love to make healthy, whole wheat, naturally-sweetened, fruit or veggie quick breads for us to have for breakfast.  It is easy and healthy for mornings that I don’t feel like much breakfast prep. The girls love theirs with some unsweetened almond milk.

Did I mention that it tastes as good, if not better than it looks?

Healthy Whole Wheat Strawberry Banana Bread

Made with whole wheat flour and sweetened naturally with pure maple syrup.

Ingredients

• 3 large overripe bananas (brown are best)
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/4 cup sunflower oil
• 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk (or other non-dairy milk)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 heaping cup of chopped strawberries, plus 2-4 more for slicing and placing on top of the loaf

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mash the overripe bananas until free of any lumps. Whisk in the maple syrup, oil, almond milk and vanilla extract. Add the chopped strawberries, reserving the sliced ones to place on top of the batter.
3. In a medium mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and sea salt.
4. Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients in the large mixing bowl. Do not over mix or the loaf will not rise properly.
5. Pour batter into a lightly greased or non-stick 9 x 5 loaf pan, top with the reserved sliced strawberries and bake 50-55 minutes, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
6. Allow to cool completely before removing from the pan.

We are planning on picking more berries soon because we ran out and they were so delicious! I think that I am going to try a sugar-free jam recipe soon, so stay tuned for more sweet summer strawberry recipes! 🙂