Brokey. Banana Bread Recipe.

You know, internets?

I gotta be honest with you, there are too many times in my life where I have been broke.  So, so very broke.

Remember when I moved to San Francisco and couldn’t find a job for three months? Remember the year I worked at a hot dog cart? Remember when James and I were just married and he broke all the bones in his body?

Remember last month?
(Ahem.)

So this month I’m going cheap, cheap in the kitchen. It seems like the kitchen has been the place I’ve had to be sneakiest about how to out-scheme my brokeness .

One thing first about this whole Brokey series.

Yes, I know that somewhere in the world there are people broker than me, people so broke they can’t afford the internet, people so broke they can’t afford meat, corn, flour, clean drinking water.  Rather than get in the slippery slope of an argument (WHAT IF THEY CAN’T AFFORD CABLE?), let’s just enjoy my cost-saving kitchen tips this month. Thanks.

That said, let’s kick this off with some banana bread, shall we?

This is good for when you’re broke because it feels like a treat. It’s a kind thing to do for yourself in the morning when you’re already beating yourself up about the dentist bill in collections.

Enough of that awful self-talk!

I know you’re trying the best you can, you’ll pay it when you can.
Now make some banana bread and some tea and say something nice to yourself.

Since we have a one year old in the house, we have roughly forty bananas on the counter at any time. Since her appetites have become fickle indeed, we often have forty brown bananas on the counter at any time.

Enough of this exposition!
Helen Jane’s Updated Banana Bread Recipe ahoy!

Helen Jane’s Banana Bread

Preheat oven to 325°.

Ingredients
3 large ripe bananas
2 beaten eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Topping ingredients
1/4 cup sugar (I use raw sugar — hey!  pick up some raw sugar packets and crust it for free!)
1/8 tsp cinnamon

Directions
Mash together the bananas, eggs, vanilla and 1/2 cup of sugar until soupy.

Sift the flour, baking soda and salt together into the bowl of banana mush.

Stir with a spoon until blended well.

Scrape batter into loaf pan.

Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on the top of the loaf.

Put in the oven.

Bake for 60 minutes or until spaghetti strand inserted in the center comes out clean and there’s a nice sugary crusted top.

Let cool in pan fora bout 15 minutes before running a butter knife around the edge of the pan and removing the loaf.

When you eat this banana bread you’ll remember that you’re a pretty nice person doing the best you can.  You’ll pay that dentist bill soon.  And that’s what’s important.

Tags: banana bread recipe, breakfast, brokey, cheap food, vegetarian

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