WW Friendly Fruit Cake Banana Bread

I love ripe bananas. But since I’ve been on WW, I find I often have overly ripe bananas. It seems even if I eat one banana a day and only buy bunches with five or six, the last couple become overly ripe before I’ve eaten them all. I’ve made this lower calorie (i.e. WW friendly) banana bread several times. This version is definitely not as WW friendly as some others, but I think the taste is worth it. This recipe is adapted from https://www.thisfarmgirlcooks.com/hawaiian-banana-bread/.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce, 0 pts
• 1/2 cup Splenda brown sugar mix, 26 pts.
• 2 large eggs, 0 pts on Blue
• 2 very ripe bananas, mashed, 0 pts.
• 1 cup crushed pineapple (do not drain), 0 pts
• 2 cups flour, 25 pts.
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut, 4 pts.
• 8 Maraschino cherries, 4 pts.
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans, 12 pts.

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, cream applesauce and sugar together with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time and beat to incorporate.
3. Stir in mashed banana and pineapple.
4. Add flour, one-half cup at a time, alternating with baking powder and baking soda, and salt
5. Stir in coconut, Maraschino cherries and pecans
6. Pour mixture into a greased loaf pan (9×5). Bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

This bread is so good. A 1/12 piece (which is still a good size slice) is roughly 6 points on the Blue plan. You can, of course, reduce the points by not adding the pecans, but since my husband LOVES pecans (I can hardly keep him out of my baking pecans), I think it’s worth the extra points. You could further reduce the points by using half the brown sugar blend and substituting that half for regular sweetner (your choice, I’m partial to sucralose).