Banana-Oat Nut Bread with Cream Cheese

I love cream cheese and love to just nibble on a piece off of a knife. Yum! In fact, I remember my grandmother used to have celery with cream cheese stuffed into the cupped area of the stalk for family gatherings. What a way to get celery into a kid! Although...I confess to eating the cream cheese out of the cupped area and giving the celery back to my grandmother on occasion! That said, cream cheese on banana nut bread with a piping cup of tea is wonderful. What a way to wake up in the morning!

Below is the recipe I use. It is our hands-down favorite. It is not original (found it on Allrecipies.com), but I have tweaked the recipe to our own liking. Full of nuts (optional, of course) and oats, it is healthy and moist and yummy. You must use overripe or at the very least ripe bananas. I have found that otherwise the bread is just not as good. I have frozen overripe bananas (when I didn't have the time to cook the bread) and made the bread at a later time, but the cooking time will be a little longer because of the added moisture from the freezing. Make a double batch and freeze the other bread or give it away to someone.
The whole house smells great while it bakes. Enjoy...and don't forget the cream cheese!

1/2 cup margarine
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe or overripe bananas
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (more if you want it really nutty)

Heat oven to 300 degrees. Lightly grease 9x5 loaf pan.
Cream together margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the banana and vanilla.
Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt in separate bowl. Beat into creamed mixture. Stir in oats and nuts. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour and 25-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of loaf comes out clean.