BANANAS

Our darling neighbor, Mike,  gifted us two banana trees this week.  He has been trying to talk us into taking them for THREE YEARS now.  He has offered them to my boys as they rode their bikes through the neighborhood, offered them to me as we stood in line together at Hy-Vee.  But, when he told my Alabama born-and-raised  husband that they were originally from Alabama it was all over!  So, now, I have two "Alabama" banana trees planted in my back yard.  What's a girl to do?

Luckily, this winter, I found the MOST AMAZING recipe for BANANA NUT BREAD on southernliving.com and will never make anything else with my leftovers!  You can seriously use what you have in the pantry right now to make these!  I made them into muffins and they were FANTASTIC!!! I made 1/2 with nuts and 1/2 without.  Filled up my giant cookie jar!  The hubby and kids were FIGHTING over them!

The great thing about these is that you can use low-fat EVERYTHING and no one will ever know!!!  Bananas are so sweet, they hide all the healthy stuff!

I am told that my banana trees will grow to be 8-12 feet tall by end of summer and produce 2-3 new plants each.  I'll have to dig them up and bring them in for Winter, but, that's OK.. I will have organic bananas and I am so excited. I'll keep you all updated!!!