free banana bread

Hello, reader.  How are you doing?  We are still riding the pneumonia ride here.  Ming gets better then worse.  It’s interfering with his ability to do his things, like walk with friends and serve free banana bread at Food Not Bombs.

We went to the ER two days ago when things peaked and I was scared for Ming’s life.  I’ve learned a lot–maybe soon I’ll make a post about pneumonia, in case you ever face this bear.

free banana bread

Meanwhile, I’ve been experimenting with free banana bread.  It’s not 100% free yet, but I’m getting there.  The things I still pay for are oil, maple syrup, vanilla, and cinnamon.

The free ingredients are overripe bananas that a friend dumpstered or what have you, Mormon pancake mix from a free pantry, water, and government surplus canned sweet potato pie mix or pumpkin or butternut squash.

My first try was like this.

I based my recipe on this, veganized and doubled.  I mashed up four overripe bananas in a large Earth Balance container and put them in the fridge.  The next day was Friday, Food Not Bombs day, so I baked the banana bread in the morning.

I rubbed coconut oil in a large pyrex, turned the oven on to 350, and mixed everything together.  It was quick.  Yes, it was done baking in about half an hour.

I thought about putting in nuts, but a lot of people in poverty have bad teeth.  Seemed safer to leave the nuts out, but I do have free government walnuts, pistachios, and hazelnuts right now.  Lots of urban foraging these days.

The free banana bread went over well at Food Not Bombs, but I have no way of tasting it.  I don’t eat gluten these days, so I’m having faith that it’s tasty and sweet enough.

addition of sweet potato pie mix

Second try, I added a can of government surplus sweet potato pie mix.  The contents of that can is sweet potatoes, sugar, and nutmeg.  It gave the batter a pretty slightly orange color, and sugar in the can meant I needed to use less maple syrup.

That batch smelled even more delicious than the first.  I think I’m on to something.  Please consider my methods.  Mormon pancake mix is mostly flour with the leavening agents.

free

I have turned down free oil at the food bank.  So next time, I hope to say yes.  And I’ve seen sugar also.  So maybe one day, I won’t need to sacrifice the maple syrup.

What do you think?  I’m proud to feed people delicious vegan food with materials that might otherwise go to waste.  It’s fun.  I hope Ming is well soon and can gather more feedback on the almost free banana bread.