Recipe of the Week: Chunky-Monkey Sweet Bread

It's been a busy week and it's only Wednesday - ha! ha! I've had several errands to run the past couple of days, along with a dentist appointment yesterday, so I haven't been home to do much of anything. My best bud Jamie and I met for lunch at the Olive Garden today, and then went to see Snow White and the Huntsman at the theater. It was a fairly good movie...on a scale of 1 to 10 I'd give it a 7; but getting to spend time visiting and laughing with my friend was the best part of the day!

Now to share the Recipe of the Week with you, which is a sweet bread loaded with white chocolate chips, pecans, and dried cranberries. The top has a sugar crust, which adds a nice texture to compliment the moistness of the bread. It is delicious served warm with just a little butter spread on top; but it's equally as tasty when it's served cool with a glass of milk or a cup of coffee. It can be made into one regular-sized loaf, but as you can see in the photo above, I chose to spread the batter between 3 mini loaf pans so that I could send one loaf home with my son, put one up in the freezer, and have one for Mike and I to snack on!

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/3 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 2 large, ripe bananas, cut into chunks
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup pecans
• additional granulated sugar to sprinkle on top

Method:
In large mixing bowl combine first 7 ingredients, making a well in the middle of the dry mixture. Add milk, eggs, butter and bananas to well and beat on medium speed until combined. Fold in dried cranberries, chips and nuts. Pour batter into one regular loaf pan, or divide batter between 3 small loaf pans, that have been coated with butter. Sprinkle granulated sugar on top of the batter in each loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 40 minutes for the small loaves, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the loaves comes out clean. Cool in loaf pan(s) for 5 minutes, then turn loaves out onto a cooling rack. Once loaves are cooled, wrap in plastic wrap until ready to serve. Wrapped loaves may also be placed in Zip-Loc bags and frozen until ready to use. Enjoy!

Have a blessed day!