Moist Vegan Banana Bread (Gardens, Blondes, Scissor Therapy, Mothers. . . And Need I Say More?)

A really good vegan banana bread. Really good. And moist. And made even better with a swipe of Earth Balance across the top. Perfect snack. Perfect dessert.

I made mini loaves for this recipe because this way I wouldn't feel like I was eating an entire loaf by myself, just several "little loaves".

I have tried to grow Oriental Poppies for three years. I have just thrown seed and thrown seed. This is my first year for this flower and I think it is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen.

Another iris. Beautiful.

Can you guess what this flower is? If you said "chive"--you'd be correct!

 My chia-chives are covered in their "dress blues" (as I like to call them) and are too pretty to shear off. Plus, this flower is quite edible and tasty!

Somewhere between last week and today, I lost a bit of my way. How, might that be? Every year about this time, I begin to have waves of memories surface--memories of my mother. (I really miss her.) And though it isn't even Mother's Day, I still feel this unbearable weight of all things "mom". So I try to dither around and mostly distract myself with silly little things like: getting my hair cut--in a short pixie! (Was this a mistake? Gee--I don't know yet, because I've gone through this bit at least once a year for the past thirteen years now--let it grow, cut it off.) I may have more mom moments in the coming days--for what it's worth, I may even blog some more on the topic. It's my blog, I can write about my mom if I want to. What else is new you ask?

Oh, then there was the three days I spent trying to correct the color left behind because we all know that the "real" blonde you find under some blonde does not always look the way nature intended. (And before you are off making some snide remark, I will state for the record, I was and am a natural blonde! Dammit! So what if my other natural color began to seep into my life when I was merely twenty something.) BTW, there is no such thing as a natural blonde after said point in time. Though most of us were blessed with toe-head hair to begin with.

Off to Sally's I went. Well, let me back up--I am not a fan of "beauty salons". I have a dear, dear friend that is a hair stylist. I love her to pieces. She is good at her job. I place my total trust in her. I only have her cut, I do the coloring--godforbid should I spend another second longer in the chair than necessary! She has been a good teacher and guided me the best she could via urgent phone calls with things flying out of my mouth like: green. . . pink. . . yellow chicken head! Stuff like that. So I called last Friday for what I fondly refer to as: Scissor Therapy. She was to just cut and do whatever felt right (given my state and all). And me saying, You know, I don't think I'd mind a pixie again. Ugh. Nothing is worse than being forced to watch yourself in a mirror for what amounts to be a total destruction of your head (nine times out of ten), then also watch a room full of other fools, fiegning some semblance of acceptance that they too seem to have wandered in without proper preparedness only to find themselves in tears in their cars afterwards. Oh, the horror of it all! I blame only me for my impulsive jump to the pixie. But truth be told, I can and do wear a pixie well. Just not until after about a week, when the hair follicles start to succomb and all is right again with the world. Vanity, vanity and more vanity. For some brief moment in between the trips to Sally's to purchase damage control products, I really wished for a complete head shave. I swear I did. *And you best not start in on me about the whole "coloring of hair" lecture, I am in no mood and you will likely see me out you in this blog if you do--I am almost fifty, I can do what I want! And especially if you are not a blonde!

Okay, so then I had a craving for banana bread. I had had this craving since January. It was about time I put the bananas in the bowl already! Oh come on--how hard can this recipe be? It's not. (Plus this would be a really great gift for any mom!) And what I did to make my banana love last a bit longer was to turn my banana mixture into mini loaves! (I got my mini loaves pan at Micheal's when I was trying to make something else.) Here's my biggest gripe about the art of the banana bread--sometimes it can be a bit dry. But in Martha Stewart's Cookbook (my mother's) she uses a bit of sour cream. Well, so did I, but the vegan kind. She calls for unbleached all-purpose flour and I opted for the whole wheat pastry flour instead. I also added a tad of applesauce, and a pinch of cinnamon. (Barely detectable and you could omit if you'd like.) No eggs--used my old Ener-G Egg Replacer. You could certainly substitute this and use 1/4 cup silken tofu. No nuts in this either, but optional. This bread worked really well and was dreamy banana. I have eaten a loaf every day! (I love saying that!)

Moist Vegan Banana Bread

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

3 ripe bananas (should have some serious brown spots)

1 cup Florida Crystals (or you could use regular sugar, but I like my FC)

1/2 cup vegetable margerine (unsalted)

1/4 cup tofu sour cream

3 teaspoons Ener-G Egg Replacer mixed with 4 tablespoons of warm water

1 tablespoon unsweetened applesauce

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

pinch of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly spray the pan you are using. You could certainly pour this all into one 9 x 5" loaf pan, but I really did enjoy my minis. I always say this in my recipes--always prep the egg replacer first--then set aside. In a large bowl, cream the margerine, tofu sour cream, apple sauce, Ener-G mixture and vanilla extract. In another small bowl, mash the bananas, then gently fold them into the creamed mixture--you want to see some banana still in there. In a medium bowl, whisk all the dry ingredients together. Carefully add the dry mixture to the wet and gently mix with a spoon. There will be lumps and this is okay. Just make sure all the dry stuff is at least wet. Pour into your "loaf" pan/pans of choice. Bake for about 30 minutes for mini loaves (but check on them with a toothpick for doneness)--or about an hour for a full loaf. The banana bread(s) stored beautifully in a tight container in the fridge and are still good after four days! You could freeze these little ones, too. I find that is not necessary with most pastry I make!