Spinach-Avacado banana bread

What do you do with 3 avocados that are on the verge of going bad and a bunch of leftover spinach in your fridge?

You make spinach-avacado banana bread, of course!

My mom spent two weeks with us (God bless her!) after Calvin was born to help with the kids, help with the house work and help keep me sane. It was so wonderful to have a helping hand to load the dishes, do the laundry and play with the older kids. 

Over the course of two weeks, mom got me thinking about spoiling food and how much I waste.  I thought I was pretty good about that and then I started to make some mental notes about everything I was throwing out. Turns out I waste a lot more than I thought! So I'm trying to be much more intentional about using what I have before it goes bad. Hence, the spinach avocado bread. 

You see, my mom comes from parents that survived the depression and they really did not like to waste. 

Growing up I used to spend 2 weeks in the summer with Grandpa and Grandma and it was always, "turn out the lights before you leave a room, only use a little bit of toilet paper, don't keep the water running while you brush your teeth......"

Grandma didn't say these things in a harsh or nagging sort of way, but she was a teacher. And, teachers always take every opportunity to teach! I guess she was a pretty good teacher because I still think about those things today. 

And of course, now that I have kids of my own I find myself teaching the very same concepts to them. So, well done Grandma! Your legacy lives on! 

Back to the bread. 

I love banana bread. The kind of banana bread that isn't too mushy and has a natural sweetness from almost rotten bananas and just a little bit of crunch from those perfectly toasted walnuts. The kind that you put a little smothering of salted butter on top of and it makes just the perfect balance of sweet and salty. This was that bread (though mine was a bit mushier than I had hoped) and it was even a little bit healthy because it had some spinach mixed in!

Banana Bread 

Adapted from Joanne Chang

1.5 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs 

1 cup pureed avocado and spinach mixed 

3  very ripe bananas 

2 Tbs. sour cream

1 tsp. vanilla extract 

3/4 cup walnut halves, toasted and chopped

 - sift together dry ingredients

 - beat together sugar and eggs on medium until light and fluffy

 - add in avocado mix 

 - add in bananas, sour cream and vanilla. Continue mixing until just combined. 

 - fold in the flour mixture until combined, make sure no flour streaks are visible. (If your batter looks a  

   little runny, do add a little more flour so you don't have bread pudding like I did!) Pour in to prepared    

   loaf pan and smooth the top.

 - bake for 1-1.25 hours or until golden brown and the center springs back. 

 - let cool for at least 30 minutes and pop it out of the pan

(gotta be honest, this recipe is a bit rough. . .I didn't write anything down in the process, so it's based on some rough estimations, but you get the idea, right?!) 

I'm salivating just thinking about it right now. But, that could be because I'm not eating sweets at the moment. . . . yum!