Cream Cheese Banana Nut Bread

I always buy too many bananas. And there's nothing I dislike more than an overripe banana in my breakfast. Yuck. So once they develop the tiniest hint of overripeness, I peel them and stick them in a baggie in the freezer so I can make this recipe whenever I want!

1 cup sugar

6 ounces cream cheese, softened

5-7 ounces buttermilk

2 bananas, mashed

2 eggs

2 1/2 cups baking mix

3/4 cup chopped pecans

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Grease 5x9 inch or 4-6 mini-loaf pans.
• Cream sugar and cream cheese in bowl until light and fluffy.
• Beat in buttermilk, bananas, and eggs.
• Add baking mix and pecans, do not overmix.
• Stir until just moistened.
• Pour into prepared pans, and bake for 1 hour or until done.

This is one of the first recipes I ever came up with when we got married. It's a variation on the recipe below from a cookbook entitled Rebul Recipes 2006 our good friend Laneita gave us.

1 cup sugar

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

2 bananas, mashed

2 eggs

2 cups baking mix

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Follow the instructions from above. I think I developed my recipe because I wanted a fluffier bread (from the buttermilk) and I like lots of pecans. The variations go to show just how forgiving banana nut bread is. Try other stuff in there, like cinnamon or chocolate chips!

Photo courtesy of the Monkey Blog.