Going Bananas at Breakfast!

Piccolo Pane con Banane, Avena, Ciliege & Mandorle 

Individual Banana Bread with Oatmeal, Ground Almond & Cherry

Yes, yes... I know... yet another of my little Sunday morning "breakfast in a stone pot" creations. Well- get used to it! Breakfasts don't need to be complicated, you don't have to reinvent the wheel every time you want to drive the car to the same place after all and it is just about having something yummy to get your day going. Am I right, or am I right?

This time, I thought of another way to use up that last over-ripe banana I had, that I was feeling too guilty about to just throw it away- because I KNEW I could manage to do something with it. Banana loaves are a much loved way to do just that- but I only had the one banana and I didn't particularly want to have to deal with having a whole loaf to consume by myself... that would have been the next left-over dilemma! So I made myself a little, individual loaf in a baking dish and added fresh cherries into the mix to make it a little more special... and ended up making it a lot more special! And I made it like this...

I mashed the banana and added 2 tablespoons of ground almonds and 3 of oatmeal to it. Next came a small splash of milk, a teaspoon of Stevia, a teaspoon of cinnamon, a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of baking powder. I beat this together, simply using the fork I had mashed the banana up with and set it to one side whilst I pitted and quartered the cherries.

It only took 5-6 cherries for this individual serving.

I spooned half of the mixture into my little baking dish and covered it with cherries, then spooned the other half on top and covered it in cherries again... only this time a little bit more decoratively being as there would be visible! I then popped it into a pre-heated oven at 350°F for 15 minutes, after which time it had puffed-up about a quarter of its size again and was beginning to form a crust.

At that point, I took it out of the oven, gave it a drizzle of honey and then returned it for 2-3 minutes under the broiler to brown and become crispy... yum! Obviously, I could have waited for it to cool and removed it from the dish to enjoy... but being as impatient as I am, I just spooned it straight out of there whilst it was still warm! Chances are you will do the same! And chances are, you will enjoy the moist, nutty and fruity flavor- just mildly sweet and low in fat, it is also as healthy as it is yummy! So go ahead and give it a try... and enjoy!