LINDA'S CHOCOLATE CHIP BREAD WITH A TOUCH OF BANANA

As most of you who follow my blogs know, I have diabetes and several auto-immune diseases.  I have had a lot of my colon removed, too.  I try to eat a healthy diet, but I do enjoy good food!  I had a desire for something new one morning about a dozen years ago, so I went into the kitchen and came up with this.  This is a very healthy version of bread.  You will find more common ways of doing this in ( ) if you don't want to go as healthy as I did.  It really does taste good and is good for you, too.

1 bag (8-oz) sugar-free chocolate chips
1/3 cup no-sugar-added applesauce (salt-free butter)
1/3 cup canola or coconut oil
1 cup Splenda Granulated
3 eggs or 3/4 cup egg substitute
1 cup white whole-wheat flour*
1/2 cup garbanzo bean flour*
1/2 cup pecan meal (all-purpose flour)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup mashed ripe banana
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease a 9-inch loaf pan, muffin cups, or mini-muffin cups; set aside.

In a 2-quart mixing bowl cream the applesauce, oil, and Splenda together until creamy.  Beat in the eggs.

Combine the white whole-wheat flour, garbanzo bean flour, pecan meal, baking powder, and salt together.

Combine the banana, milk, and vanilla in a small bowl.

Alternately add the flour mixture and the banana mixture to the creamed mixture beating after each addition.  When well blended, pour into a 9-inch loaf pan, muffin tins or mini-muffin pans (your choice).

Bake bread/breads at 350 degrees until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  This could be as short a time as 15 minutes for minis or about an hour for a loaf.

Note: My loaf is not high because I wanted to see how the mini muffins would turn out, so I took part of my batter for those.  This bread will not be as high as regular bread made with sugar and refined flour.  However, it will be more like a conventional loaf than the one pictured here.

*Or all-purpose flour although I never use it. It is better, especially for diabetics, to use whole grains rather than refined ones.