oatmeal

I love oatmeal. There was about 3 months of my life that I ate oatmeal every single morning for breakfast, and while I don't have that kind of devotion to it any more, I still love a good bowl of oatmeal. This is how I make mine.


In a saucepan combine the appropriate amounts of old fashioned oats and water or milk as well as a sprinkle of cinnamon and nutmeg, a handful of chopped pecans and some honey. Allow this to cook over medium heat until it thickens.


Then stir in about 1 chopped banana and allow to cook for just a minute before enjoying a delicious and nutritious breakfast of champions.

This is just one of the many variations of oatmeal that I have made. One of the things I love about oatmeal is that like shortbread it is a very basic thing and so it is easy to make many variations of the same thing and each one has a bit of a different flavor and taste to it.

banana bread

I used to make banana bread all the time. My favorite coffeeshop would give me all of their old or unusable bananas to make into banana bread. At one point, I actually had about 30 bananas in my freezer. I was a little overwhelmed. They all eventually found their way into banana bread which found it's way in the the stomachs of many happy people.

However, one of the foods that my roommate is allergic to is bananas. . .sad day in happy town. I had just enough bananas left in my freezer to make one more batch, so I decided to make it up and send it with the muffins to my friend who was entertaining house guests last weekend. And here's the thing about my banana bread. I almost never make it the same way twice. Yes, I have a recipe that I gauge off of, but every time I make it I decide I want to try something a little different. And honestly, I don't even really remember what all I put in this batch as I didn't really write it down as I was making it, but I will try my best to remember.

Banana Bread
1 cup sugar (I used 1/2 coconut sugar and 1/2 dark brown sugar)
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg
3 Tbsp. applesauce
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups flour (I used a combination of almond flour, whole wheat and unbleached all purpose)
1 Tbsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. (approx) cinnamon
dash nutmeg (or some fresh ground)
2/3 cup sour milk
(I didn't have any milk on hand, so I used almond milk with a bit of vinegar in it)
3 very ripe bananas
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Mix together shortening and sugars.

And this is where I stopped taking pictures. Add in the egg, applesauce and vanilla. Mix well. In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients. Then alternately add the milk, bananas, and dry ingredients to the sugar mixture. I add a banana, 1/3 of the milk, 1/3 of the flour mixture, and repeat until it's all in. Mix well. Then stir in the chopped pecans. Pour batter into two greased regular loaf pans. Bake at 325* for 40 to 60 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. My oven takes about 40 to 45 minutes.