More new Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday goodies to try. Out with the old, in with the new......

We have two more Thanksgiving dinners to go, lucky us!  We had lunch with my family today, tomorrow we have our own dinner, and Saturday dinner with more of my family.  The two Hollywood boys from the Hartley side of the family were discussed a little bit today, we talked to one on the phone, and we got an offer to come out to stay with him in California for free and as long as we like.  In case you are unclear, Jeff and Justin Hartley.  Pretty cool if I say so myself.  Anyhoo, I digress.

So I am revamping the old menu and adding some new dishes to see what happens.

The green bean casserole was successfully replaced by green beans almondine, and I am going to attempt these adorable stuffing muffins with mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy to replace plain old dry stuffing and mashed potatoes swimming in full fat butter with some kind of gravy that has internal organs of a once alive chicken chopped up and thrown in (gag).

Now lets replace a dessert.

Out with the old done-to-death-can't-eat-anymore-pumpkin bread and replacing it with; drum roll....... chocolate banana bread.
love banana chocolate chip bread but I am thinking I am going to love this equally as much.

I found this fabulous recipe at Two Peas and Their Pod blog.
Here is whatcha need:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 3 large brown bananas  (1 1/2 cups mashed)
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 1/4 cup canola, vegetable oil, or melted coconut oil
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg (I am going to use an 
• egg replacer b/c eggs are *****)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, divided
• 
  
• Here is whatcha do:

Heat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and sea salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mash the ripe bananas with a fork. Add the melted butter and oil and stir until combined. Stir in the brown sugar, egg replacer and vanilla extract. Stir until smooth.

Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, don’t overmix. Stir in 3/4 cup of the chocolate chips.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of chocolate chips over the top of the bread. 

Bake for 50-65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out mostly clean, you might have some melted chocolate chips on the toothpick and that is fine. You just don’t want a lot of gooey batter. Check at 50 minutes, just to be safe. Oven times vary.
Remove the pan from the oven and set on a wire cooling rack. Let the bread cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the bread and carefully remove from the pan. Let the bread cool on the wire cooling rack until slightly warm. Cut into slices and serve.

I will be back with an update as soon as we give these a try.  It is fun starting new traditions and trying to do things differently.  Same=boring and in this family, we do not have time for same or boring.  

Please check out my Vegan/Vegetarian Thanksgiving and Christmas board on Pinterest.  Lots of healthy choices, lots of variety. 

And Please check back for an update on the food switches to see how they worked.  So far, so good!

Happy Thanksgiving