Vegan Banana Bread and a Happy New Year

I hope everyone had a happy New Year. Brett and I contemplated going to a friends house for a night of poker for a while, but (happily, I'm a homebody) we ended up staying home, enjoying some good freshly ground coffee (a blend of Costa Rica and Sumatra - yum), and playing basketball. And I was actually able to stay up until midnight!

On a side note, the whole basketball thing started out innocently, I had never been too into the Playstation, but after learning that Brett and I could play together, I decided to give it a try. Now I am hooked.

So with that in mind, I decided to be lazy and have soy "cheese" pizza last night, rather than making the Kung Pao Tofu, so I could play more basketball. Nice, eh? I will be making that tonight. Speaking of the Kung Pao Tofu, Brett went to the store yesterday and got a red bell pepper for me, I thought it might be good to add some sautéed bell pepper to the Kung Pao. The thing he brought home is HUGE. Almost scary, I am wondering if it is genetically modified or something. I was questioning whether or not I want to eat it. We took a picture of it so you can get some idea of how big it is. Now I know someone has probably seen bigger peppers than this, but I am used to farmer's market and homegrown small, you know, normal sized peppers.










Anyways, I did bake some vegan banana bread last night. I have been working with a recipe I modified from http://www.vegweb.com/, and have made it both plain and with chocolate chips. The Chocolate Chip Banana Nut Bread is oddly delicious. I wasn't sure when I first tasted it, and neither was Brett. But when we went back to try it again when it was completely cooled, it was wonderful. I am planning on trying this recipe out and putting blueberries in it, but the new bunch of bananas I got isn't quite ripe enough yet.



















Vegan Banana Bread
1 cup white flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup mashed bananas (2-3 bananas)
dash of cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
egg replacer equivalent to 2-3 eggs (I use Ener-G, it takes 3 1/2 tsp. of Ener-G powder and 5 tbsp. water; mix before adding to dry ingredients)
1/3 cup soy buttermilk (to make soy buttermilk mix one cup plain soy milk with one tablespoon lemon juice)*
VARIATIONS: chocolate chips, blueberries, nuts, whatever sounds good

*Banana bread freezes well, so you could always make a few loaves and freeze them, and the buttermilk will last in the fridge for a few days.

Preheat oven to 325.

Mix flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl.

Add mashed bananas, cinnamon, vanilla and applesauce to the dry mixture and stir.

Add egg replacer mixed with water and stir.

Pour into greased bread pan (I use canola spray).

Bake at 325 for an hour and fifteen minutes or until knife comes out clean when stuck in the middle of the loaf.

Well, time to enjoy my day off work!