Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread

I had some really, super-ripe bananas that were on the brink of prudent usability. I hated to waste them, since they were nice,large bananas...and I hate throwing away food. I think of tossing food as a personal defeat; especially an item that can be re-purposed pretty easily, like bananas. So, I scoured my cookbooks for a new recipe and came up with this one. It is from the first cookbook I ever purchased on my own, called Great American Favorite Brand Name Cookbook. It is one of my favorites, because it was the first cookbook I ever really used as an adult. It basically taught me how to cook. Sadly, it is now out of print. There is a second volume out there, as well...but I think that is out of print, too. Once in a while, I can find them both on the 'used books' section of amazon.com, but not too often. One of these days, I need to track down the sequel and purchase it to make my set complete.

This recipe is super-easy, and looks pretty good. I did not have any walnuts or pecans (traditional banana bread nuts), so I used unsalted peanuts for the 'nut' portion of this recipe. Also, I had a bag of chocolate chips in my pantry that I thought was half full...but it turns out someone in my house has been snacking on them. I literally had 10 chips left. Oh well. I used them any way, even though the quantity I had was no where near the 4 ounces that the recipe called for. I did compensate by adding extra nuts, so I hope it all works out.
This will be nice to have on hand for breakfast this week. My husband and son both adore banana bread, so I hope this recipe turns out okay. I was going to bring it to my MOMS Club, Mom's Night Out function this week...but I think I will come up with something a little less experimental. I will let you know how it turns out.

Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread

Ingredients:
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup milk
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 package (4 ounces) Baker's German Sweet Chocolate coarsely chopped
1/2 cup chopped nuts


Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Stir eggs, bananas, oil and milk until well blended. Add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt; stir until just moistened. Stir in chocolate and nuts.

Pour into greased 9x5 inch loaf pan. Bake for 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan to cool on wire rack.