Great Snack to Solve a Problem

I have a problem with food waste. It is something that I have been working on since the beginning of this year, and I think I have gotten better about a lot of it.

I used to buy too much of everything. I was overly ambitious on what I wanted to cook for the week and never really got around to cooking all of it. Usually the problem is that their is only two of us and I tend to cook for four or six people. So, we have lots of leftovers, which we could not finish it fast enough. And I never got around to cooking the other dishes because we were still working on finishing the first meal I cooked at the beginning of the week. It was a major problem.

One of my goals was to cook something new every other week. This I have found to be challenging, not because I could not do it, but because I cannot decide what to cook. Instead of just picking one recipe, I would pick three each week. And each of those meals said it would only make four servings, but to us it felt more like six servings. We don’t eat a lot at dinner because we eat so late. Because of this, I have decided to let go of that goal for now. I will still try new recipes, but I would rather focus on not wasting food. I made this decision at the beginning of March, when the pandemic was beginning to rear its head, and grocery store shelves became a lot more bare. And I really hate wasting the food that I buy and the money that I have spent on it.

I have gone back to simple meals. I pick a protein, a vegetable, and a starch. Sometimes I don’t have a vegetable on our plates, sometimes I don’t have a starch. It depends on what I have in my fridge now and my energy to cook. I have gotten so much better about not wasting any foods. Though there are still a couple items that I have a hard time not buying, and an even harder time using before they go bad.

The number one culprit in my shopping cart is fruit, especially bananas. I have grand goals of making a smoothie every morning before work, or in the afternoon before a workout. It rarely happens. It really did not happen when the gasket on my blender broke. I have ordered a new one, but it is going to be awhile before it arrives. And I had five bananas left, what to do… I used one in my oatmeal one morning, it was good but the others were way to mushy for my liking.

So, I made banana bread. And honestly it is now one of my favorite snacks. Sometimes even a quick grab-and-go breakfast. Grab it in muffin form or slice off a piece from the loaf and toast it. Both ways are good. It is even better when you slather nut butter on top and sprinkle on some cocoa nibs. It tastes extremely decadent, but I know that there is good things in their too, like protein, healthy fats, and antioxidants.

Banana Bread

• 4-5 (1 _^1/2 cups) mashed ripe bananas
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 _^1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 ^_1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 350^oF. Grease pan that you will bake the bread in, or line cupcake tins with paper wrappers. (Having it in muffin/cupcake shape makes it easier to grab-and-go.)
2. Mix together dry ingredients; flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a large bowl.
3. Mix together the mashed ripe bananas, sugar, and melted butter. Once combined add eggs and vanilla extract in a medium bowl.
4. Add wet mixture to the dry mixture all at once. Mix together till everything is incorporated. It is normal for it to be a little lumpy.
5. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for at least 10 minutes before removing from pan and cooling completely on a wire rack before slicing into.