When life gives you bananas…

by hungerintervention | Oct 22, 2015 | Afterschool Meals, Blog, Healthy Recipes, Senior Community Meals | 0 comments

Who doesn’t love a great banana bread recipe? We sure do! The great part about banana bread is that you want the bananas to be past their prime ripeness, when most people would want to throw them out. Luckily for HIP, when we get a large quantity of bananas we can quickly turn them into delicious banana bread and muffins for both our Senior Meals and Afterschool Snacks programs with this easy recipe banana.

Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole-wheat flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 large egg
4 tbsp (1/4 cup) butter
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ cups mashed ripe bananas

Directions:
1.      Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2.      Grease and flour a 4×8” loaf pan.*
3.      Sift flour, salt, baking soda in a bowl in a small bowl.
4.      In a separate bowl, beat eggs, butter, sugar, and vanilla together. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and beat well. Stir in mashed bananas until well combined.
5.      Pour batter into prepared dish.
6.      Bake for 40-50 minutes or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack before serving.

*Alternatively, you can use this recipe to make one dozen muffins. Use a muffin pan and decrease baking time to 20 minutes.

As the first spotlight of the year, we would like to highlight Nick and his immeasurable contribution to our Senior Community Meal program! Nick has helped with check-in for meal service for about 8 years.

Nick found out about HIP through Jerry Berger, one of the founders of HIP, at his local church. What began as a new volunteering experience became a routine part of Nick’s life as a retiree. “Volunteering keeps me busy and is one way for me to socialize.”

As a front-facing volunteer, Nick’s unique position allows him to engage with the people around him as well as observe budding relationships grow. He likes seeing “how seniors grow in their [inter]actions with each other.” and appreciates the camaraderie he sees between HIP staff and volunteers. He also found a physical benefit by getting in some exercise while putting up and taking down tables.

We hope his story will inspire others to volunteer in their communities. In his own words: “Yes I would recommend volunteering at HIP for those that have the time, are looking for a way to help the community, or just need something to do while looking for a job. They could be like me, retired and need to keep busy.”

As a pivotal part of the Senior Meals crew, we are so happy to see Nick’s familiar face every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Thank you Nick for all that you do!