Roasted Strawberry Banana Bread

One of my goals for the year was to try out some new recipes, and experiment a little more with baking.  I have been reading skimming recipes from Skinnytaste.com for over a year now and bookmarking the ones that I thought looked good, or were something I was willing to try.  Two weeks ago I finally went back and printed about 7-8 recipes ranging from smoothies, bread/muffins, and frittatas.  My first try at a new recipe was the roasted strawberry banana bread, since I had made banana bread so many times before I thought it was nice to be able to make something I hadn't made a million times before.  

Ingredients:

·                     1-1/4 cups strawberries, diced

·                     3 ripe medium bananas, mashed

·                     2 tbsp unsweetened apple sauce

·                     1 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour

·                     3/4 tsp baking soda

·                     1/4 tsp salt

·                     2 tbsp butter, softened

·                     1/2 cup light brown sugar (not packed)

·                     2 large egg whites

·                     1 tsp vanilla extract

·                     baking spray

Sorry I just wanted to show off my resourcefulness of using these extra jars we had for baking stuff at school

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly spray a loaf pan with baking spray. Place the strawberries on a baking sheet and roast for 25 minutes, remove and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt with a wire whisk. Set aside.

In a large bowl cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Add egg whites, bananas, apple sauce and vanilla, and beat at medium speed until thick. Scrape down sides of the bowl.

Add flour mixture and blend at low speed until combined, do not over mix. Fold in strawberries and pour batter into the prepared loaf pans; bake in the center rack for about 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Skinny taste had some slight changes based on ingredients such as only using egg whites, less butter/margarine, brown sugar instead of white, and whole wheat flour instead of regular flour, although it is called skinny taste so I would think it isn't as much caloric intake and is a little healthier then other recipes you might find.  

*First recipe:  mainly a success.  It did sink a little (yes mom I put in baking soda) and look deflated after sitting out of the oven for an hour, but then again the banana bread I make usually does too.  Can definitely taste the strawberries.  My only change might be the roasting process of the strawberries, maybe mine were a little mushy, but they look like they stuck to the pan, so maybe after 10 minutes move them around a little bit.  I don't know, the recipe says dice, maybe just slice them instead.  

Recipe from: Skinny Taste