Banana Bread Two Ways

No beer in this post. Just bananas. I didn't get a picture of the loaf, because you know what banana bread looks like. Not that bananas are anything new either (to most of us), but:

<---- Mmm, bananas.

This is the only banana bread recipe I've used since college. Call me boring - maybe there are better recipes out there - but this one always turns out well. It's slightly adapted from Cooking Light magazine (I know! Light! - but I promise it's good) from probably at least six years ago. Here's the basic recipe:

2 c flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 c sugar
1/4 c butter, softened (hence, light)
2 eggs
1 and 1/2 c mashed ripe banana (about 3 - I usually have this many or more old nasty brown bananas lying about in my freezer, which is where they go when I buy bananas, don't eat them, and don't have time right then to make banana bread)
1/3 c plain yogurt - you can use low-fat if you're really into the light thing...
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Cream softened butter and sugar with mixer; add eggs one at a time and beat well. Add banana, yogurt, and vanilla; beat until well blended. Add flour, baking soda and salt and beat on low until moist and incorporated. Spoon batter into buttered (or cooking-sprayed) loaf pan. Bake for about 1 hour, until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes or so in pan on wire rack, then remove from pan and cool on rack.

TOTALLY AWESOME VARIATION: Marbled Banana Bread -
Same measurements for: flour, baking soda, salt, sugar, butter, banana, eggs, yogurt. Recipe doesn't call for vanilla but I don't see why not, if you really wanted to.
ADDITIONAL INGREDIENT: 1/2 c semisweet chocolate chips

Follow same procedure (up until putting the batter into the loaf pan). Melt chocolate chips in a medium bowl for about a minute in a microwave and stir until smooth; cool slightly. Add 1 c batter to chocolate and stir to combine well. Spoon chocolate batter into buttered (/cooking-sprayed) loaf pan alternately with plain batter (keep in mind there is much less chocolate batter as you portion it out). Swirl batters together using a knife - a figure eight type patter usually works. Then follow same directions as above for plain loaf.