One brown banana, sitting in the bowl
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one brown banana in need of a loving tummy
The trouble is, she didn’t tell me until I had bought the last bunch.
It’s quite a milestone actually, as bananas was one of her weaning foods. I used to mash them with avocados and mix into yogurt.
With a little bribing intellectual reasoning and discussion about food waste, I managed to get her to eat most of the last bunch with the promise that I wouldn’t buy any more. Sadly there was one fella sitting there looking more and more neglected and browned off as the days went by. As I’d read from WRAP that 1.6 million bananas get thrown away every day in the UK I had to think fast to ensure I didn’t contribute to this shocking statistic.
I figured there was no way LMG would eat it now that it was speckled (she’s the only banana eater in the house in case your wondering; oh, apart from Sunrise the bunny – but she’s only supposed to have an inch a day of her favourite treat so it would take her an awfully long time to finish the entire fruit).
Sunrise the bunny after eating banana
We also had another ingredient that had adopted the label of ‘leftovers’ and I will forgive you if you laugh out loud at this one.
We had some chocolate left over. I know, crazy right?
The aforementioned chocolate had been melted in a bowl for serving over profiteroles at the weekend and after use the bowl had been put into the fridge. Being of the lazy sort when it comes to food preparation, my two had just left this in the fridge to turn white and harden.
It was time for my thinking cap, and a little domestic goddessness and now it would seem Little Miss Green likes bananas again; just in a different form thanks to:
Mrs Green’s Banana and ‘chocolate chip’ loaf
Ingredients
3oz butter
1/4 cup fructose (you can use caster sugar and will need to add around 1/3 more)
1 egg
1 very ripe mashed banana
1 tsp lemon juice
scrapings of chocolate from the profiterole sauce (feel free to go all posh and buy chocolate chips – around 100gms should do it)
1/3 cup natural yogurt
pinch salt
1 1/4 cups self raising flour
Method
Preheat oven to 180
Cream together the butter and fructose
Mix in the beaten egg until you get a smooth batter
Add the banana and lemon juice and mix well
Add the remaining ingredients and put in a greased loaf tin
Bake for 30-40 minutes until golden
Leave to cool before picking up and moving otherwise it breaks in half 😉
cream butter and sugar
add the egg and mix until you get a smooth batter
mash and mix the banana and lemon juice into the batter
add flour, yogurt and chocolate chips
bake until golden
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Tags: recipe
it looks good, Mrs Green, but do you have any clue what I could use instead of yogurt, please – I’m severely lactose intolerant, and wouldn’t enjoy eating the rest of the pot of soya yogurt I’d have to buy to make it – even if I could find plain soy yogurt!
Hi Mrs Green,
The off-season affects many staples, like bananas. Pineapples are also showing early staining just now. The answer is to switch to more recent fruit eg pears.
Soups are definitely good at this time of year and homemade best of all. Recent efforts include local butcher sourced lamb shank/barley based (like scotch broth), ham rib/lentils or peas, all with carrots and onions. There are food waste consequences leaving bone, meat scrap and fat leftovers. The bokashi can deal with the lot, though local birds scoff all meat/fat pieces within seconds.
Cakes are another interest and pastry types a new focus. Short crust is simplest requiring only plain flour and butter plus water with filling eg bramley apples, rhubarb or mincemeat. Rolling the pastry is the biggest challenge and getting a perfect circle for the plate is difficult, but practice makes perfect. Eating is not a problem. My single effort, using a Braun food processor, pales into insignificance compared to my late mother’s 3-4 hand mixed cakes.
Bananas CAN go in the fridge – it is just that the skin does go black! This slows down the ripening process in a warm house but it may be difficult to persuade people to eat them! They can also be frozen without skin ready to go in smoothies.
Your cake looks yummy and I bet it smelt good too (you miss out if you buy ready-made). Using yoghurt instead of fat is interesting I’ll get around to having a go!
My favourite easy way to use up spotty bananas (I like them bordering on green) is to whizz them up with cold milk. You don’t need to add anything else. A very lazy very yummy treat.
They are a very interesting fruit.
Duh missed the butter LOL! Oh I can smell it now and it’s getting closer to lunch-time.
@John Costigane: John my local pub puts a rectangle of pastry over just the top of their chicken and mushroom and other pies. These pies are in oval dishes and the pastry corners hang down like table cloth corners. I think this makes it easier/quicker for them to make. I pull this crisp golden pastry off the side of the dish to eat it rather then waste it.
no recipe comment today, it looks good–but yes i did laugh out loud at the photo of the relaxed cat with a slight overbite–until i realized it was sunrise, the bunny.
@Diz: You could use a small pot of flavoured soy yogurt; strawberry would be nice.
@Jane: Thanks for that, Jane. That is the easiest type as you say. My efforts include a base, and top, of short-crust for ease of handling while eating, but a homemade steak (&kidney) pie would be as you describe. Puff pastry is also used but this requires a lot of extra processing, folding in particular, to give its characteristic springy texture. This is therefore a bought option ( plastic pack included) which can be rolled into any suitable shape.
@Diz: Try a recipe like this one http://www.recipetips.com/recipe-cards/t–1922/banana-bread.asp instead. No dairy in it at all, and you can add the chocolate chips to it.
I love the picture of the rabbit!
@Diz: Hi Diz, looks like some of the lovely ladies have already come up with some suggestions; hope you find something that works 🙂
@John Costigane: John, Alas I’m no pastry chef and it’s a standing joke that my pastry is somewhat, robust. Enough to line hungry stomachs, but as you say, no one seems to have too much difficulty eating it 😉
@Jane: thanks Jane; I thought the flesh went black too, so I’ve learned something new – yep, whizzing into milk for an instant milkshake is a great way to use them,
@nadine sellers: Awww, I think i would be concerned if my cats had had a mouth like that LOL! Sunrise gives an extra special smile for you x
@Attila: @Hazel: thanks for sharing your ideas with Diz; you’ve inspired me too!
[email protected]John Costigane: I wrote a long reply this morning, but something obviously went wrong. As long as you’re not making vol-au-vents or something, flaky pastry is a good, plastic-free alternative to shop-bought puff pastry. It won’t give the mille-feuille effect as it’s not folded, but it makes fab sausage rolls!
I use Delia’s recipe, and it takes about the same time as shortcrust and no rubbing in :o)
@Hazel: Flaky pastry sounds a great alternative, Hazel, which can be used for desserts as well eg in apple strudel.
@Mrs Green: Shortcrust is a fussy material, needing plain flour sieved, butter, not too hard or soft, chilling mixture for 30 minutes before leaving out to reach room temperature (about 5 minutes). Rolling can then commence after liberal flouring of cleared table and rolling pin. When rough circular shape is formed rolling pin width in all directions, use both hands to lift carefully onto plate, and trim using excess for repairs, just like plastering. Does your routine vary much from that, Mrs Green? My own efforts are not works of art but are always eaten and finished too soon.
That banana looks “just right” to me. I use oldish bananas in smoothies–banana, three or four strawberries from the freezer, same with mango, a few blueberries, oj and yogurt. Of course, any fruit or melon will do. I ad NO sugar, NO ice cubes, or NO water.
My friend gave me eight speckled bananas no one in her house would eat. They lasted me another eight days! Of course, I do love sandwiches–whole wheat bread, organic peanut butter, Miracle Whip, and sliced bananas! YUM!
Why can the banana only have one inch of banana? My three hens get one banana cut in thirds. They love bananas.
LOL @ the picture of the banana! The rabbit is cute too. Thanks for sharing the recipe. That picture reminds me of a site that I go to quite often to check how long foods last.
The site is http://shelflifeadvice.com. It lists the shelf life of hundreds of foods including fruits, meats and pastas!
Check it out, you’ll love the site!
Lovely recipe for a brown banana, unfortunately I don’t own an oven.
My brown banana’s, if ever left, ussaully end up in a desert or smoothie.
On the subject of banana’s turning brown(ish). i know people who throw out a banana whenit’s got one tine brown spot. Ridiculous with a capital R.
Just because the outside has a few (or more) markings doesn’t mean it is bad!
@John Costigane: My routine isn’t much different. But I did learn something new this week, from LMG of all people! She made pastry at school which was very light, much better than mine. Her secret was not to roll it too much; just once in each direction before using. It certainly seemed to make a difference…
@Practical Parsimony: Funny how we are all different. On the very few occasions when I have eaten bananas (which I could probably count on one hand as I’m not fond of them) I can only stomach them if they are still green and hard! Bananas are not a natural or nutritious food for bunnies’; they are too high in sugar and can lead to problems if they have too many such as digestive upsets or diabetes.
@B: Nice site, B – thank you for sharing.
@mieke: Using them in smoothies is a good idea; I’ve done that a lot in the past. Even this banana was ‘perfect’ inside; it was just over ripe. How does living without an oven work for you – are you a raw food eater? Would love to hear more as we are just about to go freezer free.
Leaky Brown Leeks . Terrible I forgot a pack of leeks and they went brown and were leaking through the compostable see through packaging .YUK .What does one do ???? They were inedible ,not now classifyable as food at all so could not even put them in food waste bin which is collected each week by council recycling teams jut in case they gave the recycling team lupus They got put in refuse bin by mistake still unopened ie in their original leaky packaging , .Only consolation to me is that i used only one food waste bag that week .
@Maureen: Hi Maureen, Oh no! We’ve had similar things happen too, it makes a real mess and is difficult to deal with. I think you did the right thing! As long as we learn for next time, that’s all that really matters….
Just did the BBC 2010 News Quiz and bananas according to a survey were the most wasted item of food – followed by milk. Young single men being the worst offenders. What can we do to enlighten these young wasteful people?
@Jane: Seems such a shame for them to be wasted in the UK when they have been transported so far 🙁 Not sure how to enlighten people Jane…