Banana chocolate chip oatmeal bread and teaching

 

Yes! I'm still here! busy but baking and trying to post. This past two weeks have been insane. My exam at OHSU on Friday night (yes yes, Fri-day night), was the end of this crazy days of just studying. Granted I need to bake when I take a break, otherwise I'd be going insane. For real.

Anyway, other than classes, what keeps me busy is teaching. My little kiddos, or not so little, since a lot of them are decades older than me. I teach general chemistry lab. It's fun, it's a lot of work. Sometimes it's really frustrating but in general it's a dream come true. 

I honestly believe that if you can get people excited about what they do in a lab, everything becomes much easier when they go back to the textbook. I have to say, I'm a lucky gal. I had wonderful T.A's (for those who are not familiar with the terminology, teacher assistant). I loved my lab classes and I'm still really good friends with some of my teachers. 

I have to admit that I already have my favorite kids. The ones who are really interested in the class, that are excited about learning and are a pain in my ass asking questions all the time. And then obviously there's the stereotypes. Cute girl who doesn't listen to me, hot guy who thinks his 'goodlookingness' is gonna give him a good grade, smart guys who don't need any help or give me any trouble... and so on and so forth. 

The worst part is the grading. You should see my desk. Full of reports with millions of corrections. They are scary those reports. You would think that by this time, in college, students would know some grammar. Don't be fooled, they don't. I guess we'll have to teach them how to write. Right?

Anyway, the one thing I didn't expect when I started teaching was the exhaustion and the hunger. After my Wednesday evening class, which ends at 8PM, I just want to eat a dinosaur and go to bed. The key to prevent myself from starving is making big pots of soups and stews during the weekend so I can just come home and eat. Not sleep. That's not allowed yet. 

This banana bread was what happened a few days ago, when I really needed a break from grading. It was sort of a birthday gift to my friend Ali, who's birthday was around that date. It's not a cake, but it made her really happy. I'm sure you'll love it. Lots of oats, whole wheat flour, bananas and the kick of chocolate chips. Mixed and baked in an hour, self made recipe!. Too easy not to make. 

Banana oatmeal chocolate chip bread

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

3/4 cups brown sugar

1 cup old-fashioned oats

2 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

1 stick of butter

2 large bananas mashed

1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 F

In a bowl, cream the sugar and the butter. Add the eggs and mix until combined. Stir in the bananas and mix until creamy. Mix in the flour and baking powder. Add the oats and chocolate chips and combine with a spatula until homogeneous. If desired, top the bread with a few banana slices to make it prettier. Bake for about 40 min, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean. Let it cool before slicing so the chocolate chips remain intact.