Apples to Apples, oh and eggs are soooo last year.

When I was younger, we had family game nights every Sunday. The usual boardgames would include chess, scrabble, trouble, ect. ect. It wasn't until a wacky Wednesday night when, accompanied by low doses of sleep that I discovered apples-to-apples, the game where you just describe things.

Yes, I may have been sheltered. I know this is an all-American classic. Yet with my new found knowledge, I decided to take game-night to a whole new age-group. My apartment now holds racks of nonsensical board games, and we often share food during those rainy nights where we all should be studying but would rather sit on my stained apartment's carpet and laugh at how cute we can be with word combos.

Now what does game night have to do with outdated eggs? Well, we've all heard about the salmonella outbreak, and my roommate is conveniently also allergic to eggs. So when it comes time to break out the batter for game night munchies, we had to find something to go along with our gluten-free dessert recipes.

One of my favorite original recipies is my recipie for banana bread. It's versatile, and I always have the ingredients on hand, even in my work-study-job funded kitchen. The only problem was that not only did it include gluten ingredients (flour) but also eggs(!!!). eggs are essential in quick breads because they bind the gluten together. What we found to work wonders in place of eggs was the adding of applesauce. Whoah! We decided that we didn't need to hit the gym after satisfying our sweet tooth craving for sweetness. Our health-conscious points shot through the roof. This bread is healthy also because instead of fattening butter, I used olive oil; and instead of loads of granulated sugar, we squeezed in some maple syrup and brown sugar. What we ended up with was a totally rustic, melt-in-your-mouth bread that was a total hit when combined with a friendly game of apples-to-apples.

1 c. brown sugar

8tbsp olive oil

2/3 c. applesauce

3-4 ripe bananas (dependent on size and how banana-y you like your bread)

1 tbsp milk (or use vanilla soy milk for vegan banana bread)

1 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 c. rice flour

1 tsp baking powder (or 2/3 tsp. double acting baking powder)

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp vanilla

2 tbsp maple syrup (I've used molasses before also)

preheat oven to 325

mix brown sugar and olive oil well

add applesauce and mix well

in a separate bowl, mash bananas until smooth (if you leave big banana pieces in they'll show up as grayish chunks in your bread)

add milk and cinnamon to mashed bananas

sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together

add banana/milk/cinnamon mix to sugar/butter

stir in maple syrup and vanilla to wet ingredients

add dry ingredients and mix just until the flour disappears

pour into a greased pan and cook 60-70 minutes, or until a fork comes out clean

enjoy! I serve it with a squirt of extra maple syrup, but that may be because I'm addicted to the rustic flavor!