One of the greatest kitchen shames is having to throw food away because it’s gone bad. It symbolizes so many things that make me cringe at my very core! Wasting food, wasting money!, lack of proper planning, disorganization, and yucky things that shouldn’t ever be in a kitchen! But unfortunately, I must admit that it does happen on occasion. So it’s especially odd that on any given day, visitors in our home will find a big bowl of rotting bananas on the kitchen counter. I’m not talking ‘hmm those bananas have a few too many brown spots for my liking’, I’m talking ‘what is that scary shriveled up black thing over there?!’. Not only is this a common item in our kitchen, but a source of rejoicing when the bananas reach maximum ickiness! The girls will keep a close eye on them and excitedly inform me when it’s finally time for… banana bread! But why wait SO long? Most banana bread recipes just call for ripe bananas, some just say bananas! We think we can do better than that, so we’re putting up with the “yugh!” of rotten bananas in order to get the best flavor, and health benefits out of our bananas!
Although the scientific name for bananas, musa sapientum, literally means fruit of the wise men, it’s a little lacking as far as overall health benefits go. Don’t get me wrong, you’ll get some of your daily dose of vitamins and minerals, but it’s not giving you much as far as most fruits go. But enter in the ripening (let’s be honest, extreme, uttermost, over ripening) and suddenly you’ve got something worth eating! During the over ripening process, the natural sugars in the banana are given a chance to develop, giving the banana a much sweeter (and stronger) flavor, perfect for when you don’t want to use a lot of extra sweeteners! This process of converting the banana starch into a higher sugar content also allows for easier digestion as the banana becomes over ripened. As the enzyme polyphenol oxidase is released, the enzyme bromelain develops - helping to reduce inflammation and soothe issues in the digestive tract including ulcers. The banana’s typically low level of antioxidants also increases significantly, helping the body to combat foreign pathogens as well as natural oxidative stress.
When you combine the health benefits of the over ripened bananas, the antioxidant powerhouse of pure unfiltered honey, and the sprouted grain, you take an old time favorite recipe and completely reconstruct it into something new. A soothing comfort food with the secret power to aid in digestion and fight inflammation with the added benefit of calming any digestive discomfort from a variety of causes.
So next time you notice you have some bananas that seem to be slightly passed their prime, don’t do anything rash! Just stick them in a bowl, hide them in the corner, and do your best to forget about them for awhile. Next time you and your crew are craving something yummy, you’ll be able to pull them out and whip up this easy, one bowl recipe, have a delicious treat, without the typical side of heaping guilt! And if you’re anything like us, you’ll be buying extra bunches of bananas every time you go to the store, just so you know you’ll always be able to pull this one off at a moments’ notice!
Banana Bread Recipe:
3 Farm Fresh Eggs
3 Ridiculously Ripe Bananas
1.5 Tbsp Pure Vanilla
3 Tbsp Honey
2 Tbsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 C S.G. Flour *
1/3 C Coconut Flour
Mix wet ingredients, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt together thoroughly. Then add flours and mix until combined. Pour into sprayed loaf pan and bake at 350° for 50-60 min (until a toothpick comes out clean)
.
Optional: Swirl Natural, Unsweetened Nut Butter on top before baking
*You could sub all whole wheat flour if you don’t have access to sprouted grain flour. Just make sure you're getting the real whole grain stuff - bran, germ, and endosperm included.
If you're looking to go paleo you could easily substitute almond flour - but beware! Although almond flour sounds incredibly healthy, the vast majority of almond flours are made by blanching almonds before milling them, so most of the nutrition of the almond leeches out into the water and leaves the almond flour itself useless.
If you substitute AP flour for the sprouted grain flour just be sure to drop your quantity to a total of about 3/4 cups. Because of its dense nutrient content, sprouted grain flours don’t absorb liquid nearly as well as AP flour, so your substitution ratio is never 1:1.
댓글