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I hope that everyone had an enjoyable Father’s Day and that you were able to spend time with the dads in your life. We spent the day with both of our dads and I spent a portion of the day doing some baking for a Father’s Day treat to go along with our gift.
This year, I bought the dads a pound of Starbucks coffee. Coffee is always a good no-brainer gift and I was able to get a pound of it for $6.99 at Target, which I thought was a pretty good deal. Now usually I pair this with a coffee mug, but I have noticed lately that both of our fathers’ coffee mug collections are getting a little bit much for them. I know that this is a gift that they get frequently, from one of us kids, and so I decided to not do that this year. Last year though, I used a coupon and hit a decorate-your-own pottery place and I made a mug for my dad. It is his absolute favorite mug and he uses it every day. He won’t let it go through the dishwasher and I always see it sitting by his coffee pot. Maybe one of these days, I will make another mug, but he seems to really like the one he has now. This is a good (and personal) alternative to the coffee mug gift.
With the coffee, I wanted to pair it with a sweet treat. The dads in my life are very health-conscious though and so I didn’t want to bring them a snack that they couldn’t eat. Trying to pick something healthy was a challenge, but I was up for one. Thankfully, I had just checked out a new book at the library called, “Fast Food Fix,” by Devin Alexander. In this cookbook were all these restaurant favorites, but she makes a copycat version of them with half the fat & calories. I decided to give her version of Starbuck’s Banana Pound Cake a try since I thought it would taste so good with the coffee. I did these pound cakes in my stoneware mini loaf pan (one of my all-time favorite purchases from Goodwill for five bucks!) and they turned out absolutely perfect. In the mini loaf pan, they looked done after about forty minutes. You will just want to check it a little bit more frequently if you are doing it in a smaller pan.
I really liked this recipe and thought that it was a nice treat with the coffee, but not that overly-stick-to-your-teeth sweet that leaves you with a tummy ache.
The book is full of some really great recipes and I am excited to try a few more out, given the success of the pound cakes. I hope you guys can give these a shot! It was a great way to use up some of my ripe bananas that are in my fruit basket. If you are looking for a stick-to-your-teeth treat, try my heavenly banana bread.
Starbucks: Banana Pound Cake
Ingredients: Butter flavored cooking spray, 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1 cup mashed very ripe bananas, 1 cup sugar, 2 egg whites, 2/3 cup fat-free vanilla or banana yogurt, 2/3 cup chopped walnuts (I omitted the walnuts)
Directions: Preheat the oven to 350. Mist a 9x5x3″ nonstick loaf pan with cooking spray. Set aside. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine the bananas, sugar, egg whites, and yogurt. Using a sturdy whisk or a spoon, mix until throughly blended. Add the flour mixture. Stir until no flour is visible. Stir in the nuts. Pour into the reserved pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry. Cool in the pan on a rack for ten minutes. Remove to the rack and cool completely. Cut into eight slices. Serve warm or room temperature. Wrap and refrigerate any leftovers for up to three days.
According to her book, this will shave off 57 calories, 11 grams of fat, and 10 grams of saturated fat- not too shabby!