Whole Wheat Banana Bread

We're in a bit of a transition period in my household. I'm slowly trying to get us all to eat healthier and am transitioning us to more whole grain-based products. The girls have been great about eating things made from whole grain, but Alex has been the difficult one. Things with whole grain taste "healthy" to him and, thus, don't excite him as much. Take this Whole Wheat Banana Bread, for example. I said I was going to make banana bread and his response was "Ooohhhh!!" But when I followed-up with, "it's going to be a whole wheat banana bread," his response turned to "oohhh...?" The excitement was gone. It also doesn't help that he seems to have this superhero power of detecting when something is made with "healthy" ingredients so he can taste when I've secretly switched out ingredients to make something healthier. Regardless, I went ahead and made this bread and it turned out to be a huge success. The girls loved it and Alex ate it without any "but it tastes healthy" comments.

Whole Wheat Banana Bread
Source: Breadtopia

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
½ cup packed light or dark brown sugar
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups mashed ripe banana (3-4 medium to large bananas)
¼ cup honey 
2 large eggs
2 cups whole wheat flour, traditional or white whole wheat 
Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Lightly grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.

Beat together the butter, sugar, baking soda, salt, and vanilla in a medium bowl until smooth. Add the banana, honey and eggs, beating until smooth. Add the flour, stirring until smooth.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and bake the bread for 50 minutes. Lay a piece of foil gently across the top and bake until a cake tester (like a toothpick) inserted into the center comes out clean, 10 to 15 minutes more.

Remove the bread from the oven and allow it to cool for 10 minutes before turning it out of the pan onto a rack to cool completely.

Enjoy with a glass of milk. Yum!