Healthy Banana Bread loaded with all the good stuff....not only Whole Wheat but Eggless too

It's been little busy over here, summer vacation is over. Trying to set some routine after 2 & 1/2 months of  break. Mind is working hard again to find interesting options for school lunch & after school snack, on top of that this year in 3rd grade they have to take snack too. So here's this simple recipe which I feel is a very good option for any time of the day snack, we have been eating this as morning breakfast with a glass of milk or coffee. It's quite filling & healthy too. It's Banana Bread but not regular kind, I'm using not only whole wheat flour but oats also in this. I had no plans of making this bread but thanks to my little one she has found one new hobby, whenever she can grab a banana she likes to peel it, until now she usually would eat it too, but now-a-days she only peels them & she's done. Now what do I do with 3 peeled bananas in a day. So I twisted my regular banana bread recipe added few more things to it and here goes the recipe(please do check the variations at the end of the recipe, got whole wheat version too) :

What U need :
dry ingredients :

• 1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp. all purpose flour (I used maida)
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour(I used atta-flour used for making Indian style flat bread)
• 1/2 cup quick cooking oats
• 1 /1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. dry ginger powder(optional)

wet ingredients :

• 3 med. size ripe bananas
• 3 Tbsp. veg. oil
• juice of 1 orange
• 4 Tbsp. honey
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar

good stuff :

• 2 Tbsp. dry roasted flax seeds
• 1/2 cup roasted, chopped almonds
• 10 dates chopped

What U do :

1. Take all the good stuff(nuts & dry fruit etc.) & sprinkle 1 Tbsp. of flour on them & mix them with the hand so they get good coating of flour. It  helps preventing them from sinking to the bottom of the pan.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients using a fork making sure no lumps are formed.
3. In a big bowl mash bananas using the back side of fork & add rest of the wet ingredients from the list.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet ones. Gently mix them.
5. Add mixture of good stuff to the batter, fold it in.
6. Bake it in the greased loaf pan for 35-40 min.(till the tooth pick comes clean) at 350 degree F.

Note :

This bread was little crumbly but very flavorful, it reminded me of fruit cake & was quite soft even for next couple of days. I did made this for 3-4 times in this month but every time with little variations. Actually this recipe is very forgiving one can easily adjust the ingredients according to the availability or taste. All the variations had almost same amount of oats.

Variations :
First was with half all purpose flour & half whole wheat flour.

 Second was with totally whole wheat flour, came out really good without any compromise on taste.

Third was again totally whole wheat flour but I added 2 Tbsp. of Ragi(finger millet) flour & 1 Tbsp. of flax seed(alsi) meal(powder) also. Instead of almond & dates I only used around 1/2 cup of black raisins & I didn't had any oranges so I added 1-8 0z. carton of apple juice, reduced oil to 2 Tbsp. only(works fine) also reduced the sugar a little bit. Bananas used were also one & a half only. I baked them in mini bundt pan so baking time was reduced to 16 min. only at 350 degree F(recipe yielded 12 mini bundt cakes-I had filled each cavity to 3/4 level). I highly recommend this recipe if you are trying to bake with whole wheat flour as it was light & not at all heavy texture. And these were not at all crumbly. Here's the click...

And this wonderful healthy bread/mini bundt cakes  goes to Champa for her weekly bake-off.

Indian flat bread Roti using Finger Millet(Ragi) flour

How I made these......I had some ragi(finger millet) flour in the pantry needed to be used so I was looking for some recipes other then dosa & idlis. While surfing the net last month I found the recipe for ragi bhakri here and very same day I made these flat breads/roti. You can call it roti, thepla, bhakri or prantha basic difference is how you roll it & cook. I must say these were really tasty, I was little doubtful that my daughter will like it or not, so I twisted the recipe little bit by adding some known flavors to it. Her first reaction was why you used brown flour again(she refer to Ragi flour as brown flour as sometime I use it in idlis or dosas)........I quickly answered her it's not brown flour it's made using your favourite brown dal(whole masoor).....immediate reaction Oh! can you do that....yes Honey! why not(situation under control.....sometime it's good not to tell all the truth to the kids). She took first bite & asked....... do you have more of these? Yes! Mission accomplished. She loves it for morning breakfast or as after school snack and it hardly took me 20-22 minutes in whole : which included kneading of the dough & 10 minute resting period of the dough also.

What U need :

• 1 cup of finger millet (ragi) flour (available at Indian grocery stores)
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour(atta)
• 1/4 cup chickpea flour(besan)
• salt as per taste
• black pepper as per taste
• 1 tsp. carom seeds(ajwain)
• half onion finely chopped
• handful of fresh cilantro finely chopped
• 2-3 green chillies chopped(optional)
• 1 Tblsp. of evoo
• water to make the dough

What to do :

1. Mix everything(except water) together using hands.
2. Using just enough water knead it into soft dough. Let it rest for 10-15 minutes.
3. Divide the dough into equal size balls(little bigger than ping pong balls).
4. I have used whole wheat flour in this dough which makes it really easy to handle, so you can easily roll it using rolling pin like you would do making regular Indian roti or otherwise just pat the dough ball between your palms till you get around 5-6'' flat disc.
5. Cook it on a hot iron griddle on medium heat. I takes around 1 minute on each side depending on the thickness and size of roti. Drizzle some oil on both sides, once cooked it'll be crispy and dark brown in color.
6. If serving to kids top it with some ghee/butter as flours like corn, bajri, ragi make the bread/roti little dry kind, so it's always good to add some sort of fat like ghee/butter. I also served green chutney along with it.

This post was due from one month or so, the day Madhuram announced JFI-Ragi event, I wanted to post it but didn't had very good picture(my pic. is all glossy with the ghee as I specially made these for kids), now finally I'm posting it with the original pics only, didn't get the chance to click when I made these again. So here it goes to :

1)  JFI-Ragi event brainchild of Indira hosted by Madhuram of Eggless Cooking.
2) Sudeshna and RV's Food for 7 stages of life - Healthy Fast Food event
3) Srivalli's event Kid's Delight : Wholesome breakfast.