Vegan Mango Banana Bread

We pretty much have to have bananas in our house at all times.  It's a fruit, so guaranteed that Gavin wants it.  It's good for you so I should have them around for just that reason.  And they come in their own natural packaging, which makes them travel-able.  Gotta love something you can just grab & go, right?  Right.

The problem with bananas though is the Ripe Factor.  Once the spots appear, I swear by the next day they're almost completely brown.  And once they're brown, forget it...no one touches them.  Now, any good little baker knows that brown bananas are absolute perfection for banana bread.  But sometimes, I get tired of just banana bread.  Sure I can mix things up a little and make banana walnut bread (woo) but...meh.  Yeah, bored.

This is so not boring.

Vegan Mango Banana Bread
Recipe from Joy the Baker

3 medium or 2 large ripe bananas

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 ripe mango, sliced into chunks

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease and flour a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.

2.  In a large mixing bowl, mash the bananas well. Add the sugar, oil, and vanilla extract, and whisk briskly to incorporate.

I love the color contrast of the white flour and warm spices

3.  Sift in the flour, baking soda, spices, and salt. Use a wooden spoon to mix until the wet and dry ingredients are just combined.  Fold in mango chunks.

MANGO!

4.  Transfer the batter to the prepared pan.  Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. The top should be lightly browned and a knife inserted through the center should come out clean, or with just a few crumbs.

I feel like these happy yellow tidbits should be smiling at me

5.  Remove from the oven and let cool for 20 minutes before transferring out of a pan and onto a wire rack to cool completely.  Banana bread will last, wrapped at room temperature, for up to 5 days

Sooooo, I would have a picture of the baked bread...I should.  I really should have snapped a shot of it.  But....... we ate it too fast.  Sorry!  Yeah, so you're just going to have to bake some to know just how cute and DELICIOUS this bread is. 

Mango Lassie

After yesterday's gut-busting brownies, I thought perhaps I should put something up that's on the other end of the health spectrum.  Don't run away from me yet though!  I'm a firm believer that "healthy" does not have to be "bland."  Stick with me.  Trust me. :)

When it comes to smoothies, I'm pretty opinionated.  I like my smoothies with fruit and juice.  Period, end of discussion.  Once you start introducing dairy products to the blender, it ceases to be a smoothie to me.  Shakes have dairy in them.  Smoothies are juicy goodness.

Look!  A mango porcupine!

But (you knew that was coming didn't you), I was going through my cookbooks the other day and this one caught my eye.  For one, it did not claim to be a smoothie.  It also features mangoes, which I'd just picked up a couple from the store because they were on sale (yay sale!).  And being only four ingredients long (wahoo!!), I thought, "why not?"

Get ahead: cut up mangoes the night before and store in pre-portioned baggies

Prepare yourself.  These are like drinking sunshine.

Mango Lassies
Recipe from The Food You Crave

2 ripe mangoes
1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
2 tbsp honey
2 cups ice

1. Mangoes have an oval-shaped core (I know, they're weird).  So to cut the fruit off the core, you basically just cut off the two sides.  I like to score the mango halves, invert the peel, and then cut out the juicy flesh.  Thanks to the scoring it cuts off in nice neat cubes.  Whatever your method, you want to get the mango away from the core, off the peel, and diced for the blender.

2. Blend the mango for a minute until the fruit is pureed.  Add the remaining ingredients and blend until ice is crushed and the drink is a gorgeous frothy pale yellow.

Mango meets yogurt meets honey.  Yummy!

As you can see, I like to pour this into my water bottle and take along as a standalone breakfast, or have with an egg sandwich or some kind of wrap.  It's cool, it's refreshing, it's happy to look at.  I like it. :)  The plain yogurt gives this drink a bit of tang, which I happen to like.  If you like your smoothie-esque beverages a little sweeter though I'd recommend using vanilla (or strawberry!  Ooo, strawberry-mango would be a tasty combo).