Banana Walnut Bread with Oat Streusel // USMLE Step 2 CS

So, since my last post, I took yet another US medical licensing exam (Step 2 CS) AND applied to internal medicine residency. How’s that for a busy week!?

Step 2 CS is the clinical skills portion, where medical students are tested with standardized patients (and yes it’s a 12 hour test!). Also Step 2 CS could only be taken at a Clinical Skills Evaluation Center in 5 cities in the entire USA – Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, LA, and Philadelphia! Yep if you’re a medical student that doesn’t live in these cities, you have to freaking fly and get a hotel just for this exam.

Luckily since I was in Houston, I didn’t have to book plane tickets and a hotel. One of my friends tested with someone who flew from Africa to Houston just to take this exam since international students need to do it too! And an infamous med student a few years above us signed up to late for the Houston center, so he had to fly to Philly for the exam. Step 2 CS is already the most expensive test, excluding travel costs.

Hopefully all the big hurdles are over, and assuming I passed everything *fingers crossed,* I don’t have to take any more boards during medical school! Yay!

All of these exams and the cost of applying (we pay per program) adds up. I had a strong application, and since I was doing internal medicine, I applied to 30 programs – my classmates applying for dermatology or orthopedic surgery spent $$$$ since they had to pay for +100 programs.

With all that’s been going on as a 4th year, I’ve been behind on posts; I baked this banana walnut bread waaay back in July! I was on my medicine subinternship where I act as an intern resident – carrying my own patients, calling consults, writing orders, admitting and discharging, and I wanted to bring food for my first night call.

All I have to say is night call is bad for your waistline.  Especially if, like me, you eat to stay awake.

Although a lot of work, sub-i’s are definitely an awesome experience – nothing like responsibility to your sick patients forces you learn fast!

I was talking to a fellow classmate, who commented that somehow over transition from 3rd to 4th year, everyone definitely matured and became so much more responsible. Although the M.D. was always a distant light at the end of the tunnel, it suddenly seems a lot closer once starting the final year!

The past few months – especially the last 3 weeks – have been really tough, and I’ve built up quite a sleep debt. I’ve applied to various residency programs and, like thousands of neurotic med students, wait eagerly for interviews.

Right now’s the calm before the storm (of interview season), so I’ll catch up on some Z’s (and baking) while I can!

Not only is this banana bread super delicious / gorgeous with that streusel topping, the texture is as fluffy as a pillow! I confess, I kept poking the top because it was so springy. 

Since this was the night call snack/ breakfast for my medicine sub-i team, I kept with a classic banana bread recipe (adapted from Food Network) – generally, I try not to substitute many “healthy” ingredients when serving a crowd, especially if the majority is male, haha. So this is an easy and foolproof quickbread recipe, using ingredients you probably already have. Enjoy!

Banana Walnut Bread with Oat Streusel

Ingredients
BANANA BREAD
2/3 cup granulated sugar
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

STREUSEL
1 tablespoon butter, cut
2 tablespoons oats
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon brown sugar

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325F. Butter a loaf pan.

With a mixer, cream the sugar and butter in a large bowl. Beat in the eggs, then mix in the mashed bananas and milk. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, mixing by hand until just combined (do not overmix).

Pour batter into loaf pan. Combine all the streusal ingredients then sprinkle on top the the batter in the pan.

Bake for 1 hour-1 hour 10 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool completely before slicing. Enjoy!

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11 Comments

  1. you're accomplishing so much (and inadvertently making me feel like a total schlub…)! this bread looks perfectly moist, and streusels are among my favorite things in the world!

  2. big fan of celebrating stressful weeks via baking… as we speak I'm making a pumpkin bread, so I'm in the same boat as you with the big workload haha. I love banana walnut bread and I've never thought of adding oat streusel, will have to give this a try! xx

  3. Yummy!! Banana bread for night call sounds perfect. I recently had a week of night call and what a brilliant idea it is of yours to bring banana bread to night call. I don't think I've really brought anything yummy to night call before. I will keep that in mind next time there is night call and bake ahead of time 🙂