Banana Bread- A staple

I make banana bread probably more frequently than I make anything else.  This is probably because I feel a compulsion to use up the neglected bananas so often left on my kitchen table by my housemates, and banana bread is a great way to use bananas that are past their prime.  The first time I made banana bread I followed a fairly traditional recipe, with good results, but then after that I started varying the recipe to make it healthier.  At this point, my banana bread is usually almost vegan (I still need real chocolate chips) and thus I can gobble it up relatively guilt-free.  The only problem is, I have never made the same banana bread twice because I never remember what variations I did on which recipe.  Luckily for me, banana bread is a very forgiving food to bake, so I have never had a terrible banana bread experience.  The worst was probably one time when I forgot to spray the muffin tins before I put in the batter, and then because there was barely any oil in the batter the muffins stuck like whoa to the pan.  It still tasted good, but I learned my lesson.

Anyway.  In an attempt to use up the cream cheese frosting from when I made Red Velvet Cupcakes last week, I decided to make banana bread.  I figure they'll even each other out- healthy banana bread + unhealthy frosting = mediocre health level, but delicious snack.

I kind of followed this recipe, but with a lot of variations.  My list of ingredients:

3 ripe bananas
1/2 cup mixture of maple syrup and corn syrup (I was running low on maple syrup so I supplemented with Karo, but it would probably be better and more maple-y with just maple syrup)
1/4 cup brown sugar
splash of vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
decent sprinkling of cinnamon
chocolate chips
chopped pecans
nonstick spray for the pan

Note 1: I was running low on flour, so it was a scant 1 1/2 cups, but if I had more flour I probably would have done about 2 cups of flour, and added some applesauce in (maybe about 1/4 cup?).
Note 2: These came out pretty sweet, and I'm saying that as someone with a huuge sweet tooth, so I would probably cut back on the brown sugar and/or maple syrup next time.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Mash the bananas in a bowl until you really can't mash them any more.  I don't like chunks of banana in my bread so I try to make it really mushy.
Add the maple syrup, brown sugar, and vanilla to the bananas, and mix until combined.
Add flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon, and mix until combined.  Taste it to see if it needs more cinnamon (yay no raw eggs in the batter, so tasting is definitely salmonella free!)
Roughly chop up some pecans- I did about 2 handfuls worth. Add them and some chocolate chips (about a handful and a half??) to the batter, and stir to combine.
Spray pans with nonstick spray (I used muffin tins and a loaf pan) and fill them about 1/2 to 3/4 full of batter- it won't rise that much.
Bake for 20 min, then check for done-ness by sticking a toothpick in the middle to see if it comes out clean.  I think my muffins took about 25 min and the loaf took more like 30 or 35, but just keep checking on it.

This bread is pretty dense, but it makes for a nice, hearty snack.  And it's delicious with the cream cheese frosting.