Two days before Christmas, my brother flew to Southern California to join us for the holiday. He texted us updates as he packed, drove to the airport, and waited for his flight to take off, but before he even left his apartment, he wrote me to ask if I wanted him to bring me the really ripe banana on his counter.
I’ve developed quite the reputation with my family… Everyone, including my grandma, knows I always leap at the chance to take ripe bananas off of their hands and bake with them… And Grandma will even leave bunches of them on my front porch!
On Christmas Eve, my brother walked the mile from Grandma’s where he and my parents were staying to my house, and he carefully carried the banana in his backpack, gingerly packing it on top so it wouldn’t get squished. When he arrived, he gave me a hug and presented me with the prized piece of fruit, and I motioned to him to sit at the kitchen island while I baked.
However, I saved the banana for another day… And instead, I whipped up two special Christmas desserts for my brother to enjoy! With his many allergies, it’s nearly impossible for him to find store-bought sweets that suit his dietary needs, so I told him I’d bake him anything he wanted.
He picked these cookies (literally our family’s all-time favorite cookies!) and a modified version of these brownies, and as I measured and mixed together the ingredients, we laughed and traded stories, filling each other in on everything that had happened in life since we last saw each other at Thanksgiving. My travels, his PhD work, new friends, holiday parties, two weddings… And as a result, our catch-up time absolutely flew by!
After a jam-packed Christmas Day, including presents and holiday movies and those special desserts for our simple holiday feast, the rest of my family felt a little exhausted and planned a low-key schedule for the following day with “naps” as the main item on their agendas. So during that time, I headed back into my own kitchen to turn my brother’s ripe banana into…
This Healthy One-Bowl Chocolate Chip Banana Bread! It’s relatively quick and really simple to make (no mixer and only one bowl required!), and it’s incredibly moist and tender… Almost like cake!
This easy banana bread is also full of natural sweet fruit flavor, which pairs perfectly with the abundance of rich chocolate morsels. You know me… I’m a huge chocoholic (I even wrote a chocolate cookbook!) and always include it as part of my healthy diet! 
And each slice is 130 calories!
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