sweet home alabanana bread

Some of the most unusual things become real events when you live up here. One is mail. Of any sort*. Another is being given a ride while running to work (yes running, because when you have a one hour lunch break to fit an appointment at the bank, get lunch and cover the 20min walk to AND from work you have to rush. How do working people get things done!?). Through this I have met some lovely people, including the town manager. Don’t worry, I would always give them a good look over before accepting the ride, but I’m learning that this is part of community living and building up trust.

But a particular significant event is when food mail arrives. We had only been here less than a week, yet when these boxes were unloaded from the plane two days delayed (after living off rolled oats and Dairy Milk chocolate left by previous tenants) we were joyous!

When it comes to food there are two options – buy from the local store and spend heaps a lot, or order it in from a nearby city (Yellowknife or Inuvik) and risk delay and squashing of produce. We got both this time. Nevertheless, squashed bananas still make good banana bread.

When butter is over $6 a block (and that’s Canadian currency) you learn to improvise. Baking with oil will become commonplace. When you have a limited range of baking supplies you also become creative in the tools you use, as you will see in later posts. This loaf turned out fine baked in a brownie tin and sliced roughly with our treasured one and only knife. It makes for a great, not-too-sweet, low calorie morning tea.

*If you are feeling that way inclined, our postal address is Box 386, Norman Wells, NT X0E 0V0 😀


Sweet Home Alabanana {Banana Bread}
Recipe from Eat, Shrink and Be Merry, my new Canadian cookbook.
Makes 16 slices

Note: Using ripe bananas is important as this recipe doesn’t use a lot of sugar. Mine weren’t ripe, just squashed so this wasn’t very sweet. And don’t bother with buttermilk – a splash of lemon juice or vinegar to your milk (powdered for us) works just fine. This freezes well, sliced, in snaplock bags.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup oat bran
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (3-4)
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup chopped dark chocolate

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350˚F (180˚C). Spray two 8×4 inch (20 x 10 cm) loaf pans with cooking spray and set aside.
2. Mix flour, oat bran, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Mix and set aside.
3. Beat together eggs and brown sugar on medium speed of electric mixer for 2 minutes. Add bananas, buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Beat again until well mixed.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix just until dry ingredients are moistened. Do not use electric mixer. Fold in nuts and chocolate chips.
5. Divide the batter between the two load banks and bake for 30-35 minutes or until inserted toothpick (or spaghetti stick) comes out clean.

Nutritional information per slice
173 calories, 6.4 grams of fat, 28 grams of carbohydrates, 1.9 grams of fiber and 4 grams of protein

3 thoughts

  1. I love your blog Christina – the writing, recipes, photos are all beautiful. Where are you working at the moment? All the best for your new adventure!

  2. This is such a different way of life, it’s seriously fascinating. I love how gracefully you’re adjusting to all of it and still making time to blog and come up with wonderful recipes!

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