Strawberry Banana Bread

One of my greatest joys of motherhood is having the chance to view the world through the wide eyes of my two little kids. Everything…everything is so much more fun and exciting and vibrant to them. Especially something as simple as strawberry picking.

I’ve driven past the family-owned U-Pick strawberry fields in Carlsbad for years, but I’ll be honest – the thought of my little kids (particularly my 3-year old little boy) streaming down the rows of ripe red berries gave me a little pause. But this year, I mustered up the courage to bring the kids strawberry picking. You know what? It was actually kind of a breeze (and we got an amazing Strawberry Banana Bread out of it!).

The rules of strawberry-picking

I was anticipating berry-covered clothes, berry-covered children, bees, mayhem…we actually had none of that. In fact, my kids didn’t pop one single berry into their mouth until we returned home! It turns out, they enjoy a good hunt even more than a good snack (especially just after they’ve had lunch).

On the strawberry hunt

Or maybe things went so smoothly because we were at the fields for all of 10 minutes. That’s all the time it took to fill our bucket – shortest outing in history! My little kids would have loved to comb through the rows for a lot longer, but at $10 a bucket (!!) I thought it would be best to head on home to partake of our strawberry loot.

Our sweet haulOn the drive home the kids and I tossed around ideas for what we could make with the strawberries. “Strawberry cake!” “Strawberry lemonade!” “Strawberry…STRAWBERRIES!!” We really couldn’t go wrong with whatever we chose – as long as it had strawberries, we were gonna love it.

I remembered an incredible banana bread recipe I recently tried, from a recipe on the Scharffen Berger website. The original featured, of course, chocolate but I thought it would also be the perfect base for a Strawberry Banana Bread. Replacing the lemon juice in the recipe with pureed strawberries still gave the recipe the benefit of acidity (helpful for leavening and the light texture) as well as a hint of berry flavor. I also mixed in chopped fresh strawberries and decorated the top with strawberry slices (I love their natural heart-shape :-)). It was all I could do to keep little mitts off of this loaf so I could snap at least a few photos to share. 🙂

Happy Mother’s Day!

Strawberry Banana Bread

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

14 Comments

  1. Kalyn wrote:

    You must be such a fun mom, and what kid wouldn’t want to pick strawberries. And the bread looks great!

    Posted 5.11.13 Reply
    • Thanks, Kalyn! We do have lots of fun together. 🙂

      Posted 5.11.13 Reply
  2. Angela wrote:

    What a great swap out! I need to be more adventurous like that.

    Posted 5.12.13 Reply
  3. I’ve always been obsessed with banana bread… it’s something I grew up with my mom making once a week. And gosh does this one sound good. Love the inclusion of strawberries!

    Posted 5.12.13 Reply
    • Weekly banana bread! That sounds like a pretty fabulous tradition. 🙂

      Posted 5.12.13 Reply
  4. Jeanette wrote:

    Love how pretty the strawberries look on top Kathy!

    Posted 5.12.13 Reply
  5. This looks like perfection! I love taking the kids strawberry picking, such a fun tradition 🙂

    Posted 5.13.13 Reply
  6. Shaina wrote:

    Those strawberries look fantastic. Amazing. I am so jealous right now. I bet we don’t see berries until mid-June here. Until then I’ll live vicariously through you and those adorable children of yours.

    Posted 5.14.13 Reply
  7. You can’t get any fresher than picking your own!

    Posted 5.14.13 Reply
  8. Acsa wrote:

    I’m so glad I found you through Pinterest. I am making this strawberry banana bread tomorrow morning for breakfast. Thanks for sharing. 🙂

    Posted 8.6.14 Reply
  9. tasha wrote:

    So I accidentally pureed all the strawberry will it be fine to still use a half cup u think

    Posted 12.9.14 Reply
    • Hi Tasha — it’s hard to say, I havent made it that way. I guess it would be worth experimenting — it might come out even better, who knows? 🙂 Kathy

      Posted 12.9.14 Reply