Hawaii for Cheap(er): Grow some bananas--make some bread!

Aloha!

I thought I'd start a blog segment about saving money--basically cooking and playing for less. This is crucial for my family cause many costs get hiked for islanders. However, I think most my tips can be helpful anywhere. In fact, most of my ideas are from my lovely mother who raised her 4 children on one pastor's income.

One of my favorite, or not-so-favorite, memories of growing up was drinking chunky milk! Gross, right? Well, it's not as gross as it sounds! It wasn't chunky cause it was spoiled, it was just previously frozen. With two growing brothers, my mom could barely keep our milk stocked. She would buy it from the dairy farm in bulk and then freeze full gallons in the deep freezer.

I'd often pour it over cereal only hear the *glunk, *glunk, *glunk, sound as ice chips fell onto my raisin bran. While at the time I figured I'd never freeze my own milk...it was so weird (no offense, mom)....I was wrong! My, how one's perspective can change when she pays all her own bills ;). I now think freezing milk or anything else possible is brilliant!

Okay--so I just made some awesome (healthy) banana bread with the bananas we grow in the front yard. Now, I realize that not every climate is ideal for growing bananas, but if you live in Hawaii and have a smidgen of a yard, I suggest it! They grow quickly and easily here! Getting started with a banana tree is cheap and then the production is free!

The only problem is that when you cut down the ripe bananas...they are all ready at once! Be prepared to share, bake, and freeze!

Let me share some pics and then my new fave recipe. Happy baking (and maybe growing) to you!

The trees grow quite tall and it's important to cut down the whole tree that produces the stalk of bananas.

We usually have two banana trees growing at any given time.

The trees grow new shoots so the banana tree life cycle continues pretty effortlessly.

This is maybe half of what one tree yielded a couple of weeks ago. Did I mention that they are apple bananas? Yum!

Okay--the good stuff--banana bread! I added flax seed and dark chocolate to the recipe!

Just before I baked the bread. I just put it in a 9x13 since I don't have a very big bread pan.



Whole Wheat Oatmeal Banana Bread (with added flax seed and dark chocolate)

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/8 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used Greek)
• 3 mashed bananas (or like 10+ mashed apple bananas)
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla (I'm liberal with vanilla)
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup oats
• 1/4 cup pecans (I left this out since chopped nuts are hard for B. I added 1/4 cup flax or more and 1/2 of a crushed dark chocolate bar).

Preheat over to 350
Cream butter and sugar
Add eggs--beat
Add yogurt, bananas, and vanilla--beat
Add flour, salt, and baking soda--stir
Add oats, pecans, flax, chocolate, anything else! ha! -- stir
Bake--1 hour (check at 45 min if baking in 9x13).

Consider this:

• Double or triple the recipe.
• Save out what you'll eat soon.
• Share some with neighbors.
• Package up some loafs and pop in freezer. Enjoy later!

(I like to serve warm with ice cream for dessert!)