Celebrating the Planet with Imported Bananas

So how was your Earth Day? Excepting the hiccup that Zoë scared us with a barking cough last night, our day has been pretty chill. We'll still read The Lorax (as we do every year)... Holden and Danny walked to and from church today (Zoe-bug and I stayed home), and we started out the morning with made-from-scratch banana pancakes.

Yes I recognize the bananas were not local, and the carbon-footprint of said fruit may equal heating my house for a day in the winter... (perhaps?)  All that insight is not lost on me at the store every time I purchase them, but it somehow escaped my conscience this morning. I tend to look the other way, and hope other people do too as we usually buy the organic variety...but that's not really saying much when they're shipped from Timbuktu (actually, I'm not entirely sure where they're from). But I'm sure you get my drift.


Can you say conflicted?


Anyway, if you want "Conflicted Earth Day Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes," I'm including the recipe below. I don 't do a lot of food blogging per se - but these were really a hit with my family. We didn't even butter them. And since I changeded them a little bit, it will be easier for me to find them. I may even Pin my own creation! Ha!


So -
Holden takes his with PURE maple Syrup (not that HFCS crap).
Danny takes his with a dollop of whipped cream (w/ a little vanilla and a dash of sugar beaten in).
Zoe and I take them with both (though Z has to wait a bit as of course she gets them breastmilk style).


I started with this recipe from "All Recipes" and then just tweaked the ingredients to what you see below - I've even put brands on a couple of things, just in case you were interested.

Also, please note this recipe is supposed to "serve 6"...or in our case a  very hungry family of 3-eaters with a couple of extras left over.

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon Organic evaporated cane sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder (I use Bob's Red Mill)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg beaten ("local from Oakdell" is our preference here)
• 1 cup milk (Winder 1% for us)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 ripe bananas, shipped across the globe for your enjoyment and then mashed

Directions

1. Combine flour, sugar, vanilla, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together egg, milk, oil and bananas.
2. Stir flour mixture into banana mixture; batter will be slightly lumpy.
3. Heat gridle medium high heat. Pour batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Cook until pancakes are past golden brown on both sides (since they are, after all wheat pancakes); serve hot.

To circle back - Zoë's bark is back to just  a normal safe "cough" and since she's had no fever and seems relatively happy and is just nursing a lot I am cautiously optimistic (second and third nights are usually the worst- right?). We spent a lot of time in the yard - maybe all the dirt and dust did something?


Speaking of, yesterday I was reminded again of why I love to garden. I loathe yard work... but gardening is an entirely different story. I can almost taste the tomatoes now. Too bad we can't grow B-A-N-A-N-A-S in this climate.


Happy Mother Earth Day!!!