Bananas on the Counter and Apples in the Fridge

The spotted brown bananas on the counter, and the last of my neighbor's apples in the fridge could be ignored no longer.  Yesterday I tried out two new recipes I found on other blogs, and came up with a pretty yummy invention of my own.

Four small loaves of Zucchini Banana Bread and one large loaf of Apple-Zucchini Bread.

In addition to the bananas and apples, I had some shredded zucchini in the freezer . A search of my Pinterest boards turned up some quick-bread recipes with which I could use all three.

Both quick-bread recipes I tried turned out wonderfully well. The tutorials by the bloggers who supplied the recipes were excellent, and I followed them exactly. I'm sharing the links to the recipes for both of them - and some photos of the baking that I did.

The first recipe I tried was Apple-Zucchini Bread from the blog {Nancy C} 

Apple-Zucchini Bread - unbelievably good served warm!

Then I made four small loaves of Zucchini Banana Bread from Averie Cooks: Recipes for Sweet Teeth.        

It should be noted that I baked my small loaves a lot less time than she baked her one large one. In my oven, it took about 40 minutes - just until a toothpick inserted in the center came out clean.  The recipe also includes instructions for Browned Butter Cream Cheese Frosting, but I did not make it. This recipe is delicious enough without it!

Zucchini-Banana Bread is as pretty as it is tasty.

Remember when I said at the beginning of this post I came up with a recipe of my own invention?  I plan to publish that in tomorrow's post, but here is a hint as to what I made:

My inspiration came from:

• a cake mix about to expire (how did that happen?!)
• the very last of the neighbor's apples
• a bag of caramels left over from another recipe.

I added just a couple of other ingredients to these items I wanted to use up, and make something quite delicious.  It's going to be a gift for someone, so I'm not going to tell you what it is quite yet.  ...

Cake mix, eggs, oil, cinnamon, apples and caramel ... put them all together and the results are scrumptious!

Any guesses what I made? I will publish my recipe tomorrow!

(Just a reminder, if you ever want a recipe you've seen previously on this blog,you can always check the recipe index at the top!)

This post may be linked to one of the great link-up parties I follow and list on my blog. Check them out!