Gone Bananas

The first place I go when I walk into Stop and Shop is the cart of produce "seconds". It's a cart they put out full of produce that needs to be sold and consumed ASAP. I often find large bunches of organic bananas for 50 cents on there, and go, well.. bananas. I buy just about every single package on there. Bananas are easy to mash and freeze, I have plenty of recipes for them, and Logan eats at least 2 or 3 a day. They're by far his favorite food.

I've been meaning to make a vegan banana bread for awhile now. I have a recipe from my mom that was passed down from her grandma. It's an instant favorite and is always requested at family gatherings. Making it vegan was very simple. I substituted oil for butter and apple puree for eggs. Mom usually adds chocolate chips, which is the icing on the cake. Everything tastes better with chocolate! I used half of an Endangered Species Chocolate bar, to keep it animal product free. The bread came out amazing. It tastes just like the original. The only difference is the color, which is a few shades paler than the non vegan version. I only made one loaf, but I wished I made more. Logan keeps going up to the counter and saying "cake". I'm glad to have his approval!

Banana Bread

Makes one loaf

• 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup safflower oil (you could use vegetable oil too)
• 1/2 cup apple puree
• 1 cup of mashed banana (about 2 1/2 small bananas)
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1.5 oz of vegan chocolate, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 350º.
2. Mix the sugar, oil, apple and banana in a large bowl.
3. Add the flour, powder, salt and soda. Mix well.
4. Fold in the chocolate.
5. Grease a 9 x 5 loaf pan, and fill with the batter.
6. Bake for 45 - 50 minutes, until a knife or toothpick comes out clean.

I still had a lot of bananas leftover, so I pulled out the dehydrator and made banana chips. I sliced 5 bananas very thin (about 1/8 of an inch), dipped them on a plate sprinkled with cinnamon, and placed them on the dehydrator trays. They took forever to dry, about 10 hours.

I put some of the dried bananas in a jar to have on hand for a snack. The rest I crushed up and added to some organic green tea. I buy loose tea from a cute little tea shop called You, Me and Tea in Port Jeff. It gave the tea a very subtle banana flavor, but it was hardly noticeable. I can't wait to try the same thing with strawberries this spring!