Marbled Chocolate Banana Bread 1.0

This is the best endorsement of my recipe I could have asked for! Especially, since I made it during a bout of insomnia at 3:30 this morning! I missed a shot of his initial two-fisted cram. :-)

The loaf went to the park today to visit with out of town friends and their babes. Here's Mike enjoying a butter slathered piece while wee marmoset Verena is busy nestling.

It was well received (most frenetically by young Ian), but it could have been more moist. I'd planned to use unsweetened applesauce in it, but found the jar I had in the fridge to be "not viable". Flavor was there though. The next version can only be better...I've already gone out and bought the ingredients I'll need for Marbled Chocolate Banana Bread 2.0! We're talking about a whole grain, oil and butter free, lightly sweetened with agave nectar bread. Alright, so the dark chocolate chip marble could be of contestable healthiness...but everything else IS pretty good for you. I suppose you could use unsweetened cocoa powder in lieu of the melted dark chocolate chips if you want to be a party pooper. I'm going to post the 1.0 version and the recipe as I plan to make it in the 2.0. Debbie has promised to let me know if she thinks the second version will work in the comments section! Hear that Deb? ;-)

Marbled Chocolate Banana Bread 1.0:
(Inspired by this recipe from Cooking Light)

2 cups organic whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup organic flaxseed meal
1 tsp aluminum-free baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp fine sea salt
3-4 mashed ripe bananas
1/3 cup Greek yogurt and fat-free plain yogurt mixed...I didn't have enough Greek
1/3 cup agave nectar
2 eggs lightly beaten
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
canola cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350.
Mix dry ingredients through salt in a medium bowl.
Place wet ingredients, bananas through eggs, into a larger bowl and mix with a hand mixer until well combined.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet and continue to mix on low to medium until just combined.
Place chocolate chips into a microwave-safe bowl and nuke for 25 second increments, stirring in between. Mine went for a total of 50 seconds and then I just stirred them until any remaining chunks melted.
Mix one cup of batter into the chocolate, stirring well to combine.
Spray an 8.5x4.5 inch loaf pan with canola spray and spoon both the plain batter and the chocolate batter alternately into the loaf pan. Swirl together by drawing a knife though the batters willy nilly (that's a technical term).
Bake for about an hour, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in the pan on a wire rack, then remove from pan and cool completely on the wire rack.


Marbled Chocolate Banana Bread 2.0:

The only changes to the first version are adding applesauce, and using 1/3 cup of straight Greek yogurt. Baked using the same instructions but the cooking time will need to be longer. Alright Deb...what do you think?

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup flaxseed meal
1 tsp soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp fine sea salt
3 large overripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup agave nectar
1/3 cup Greek yogurt
2 eggs lightly beaten
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
canola spray