All In a Days Bake

Inspired by the shift in weather, I threw together a sausage and kale soup loosely based on this Caldo Verde recipe. The dinosaur kale in the garden has been giving it a valiant go in spite of the occasional snow, but I felt I should make the most of it while it was still edible. The soup quickly transformed into a melting pot of assorted vegetables in the fridge, such as carrots, green bell pepper, purple kohlrabi, yellow onions, butternut squash, leftover sweet potato puree with some chia seeds added for good measure. We initially paired the hearty soup with some grocery store Italian-style bread and were both terribly unimpressed with the quality, so I decided to bake a couple of loaves of our favorite English Muffin Bread for the leftovers on Sunday. Paired with some Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter? Perfect.

Since the oven was already warm and I had three bananas specifically for bread, I did a quick search for banana and chia seed bread, then settled on the recipe from the website Plated. (Incidentally, I should specify that I'm trying to use up a packet of chia seeds from the pantry.) M. had some black walnuts already shelled so I added those and a little vanilla because for some reason it seemed odd that it wasn't included.

Banana Walnut Bread with Chia Seeds

• 1 large ripe bananas
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 cup natural cane sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup black walnuts
• 2 tablespoons chia seeds
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Heat oven to 350° F and butter a 5" x 9" loaf pan. In a mixer, combine bananas, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and unsalted butter and thoroughly mix. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients minus black walnuts, then mix gently by fork. Combine with wet ingredients in mixer. Once mixed, remove from stand mixer then gently fold in black walnuts. Pour mixture into greased baking pan, place in oven, then bake for approximately 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool on a rack, then enjoy!