Banana Bread and Vegetable Soup

It was a cold, cold night, down to about 5 degrees. After breakfast I decided to add to the heating efforts of the woodstove by cooking something for lunch.

I looked around the kitchen and found:
two over-ripe bananas in the fruit basket

In the refrigerator:

some wilting celery
ditto some grape tomatoes
1/2 of a cabbage
1/2 a jar of canned tomatoes
1/2 a big can of hominy
a round steak that needed to be used
some onion in a baggie, already cut up
rosemary and thyme picked from the garden yesterday, just to smell

It was evident that I needed to make banana bread and vegetable soup.

In the photo above, you can see the condition of my banana bread recipe. Now it's neatly re-typed in my computer, so I don't have to worry about trying to read the old recipe. I made muffins instead of a loaf because they're easier to carry in my lunch.

For the soup I used all the things listed above (except the bananas!) and added:

2 beef boullion cubes
Worchester sauce
some ground 3-color pepper and some crushed red pepper
salt
a few potatoes and carrots, cut up
a clove of garlic
some water

I used the celery tops and cut the rest into sticks, freshened in water.

The soup reminded me of my mother's soup-making. She did exactly the same thing, using whatever was in the refrigerator and coming up with some amazing combinations that worked well. Her mantra in the kitchen was "waste not, want not." A good rule to follow, and a good way to make some soup that's just right for a very cold day.

The pot I made this morning will provide lunches for Larry and I for most of the week, so I've saved time as well as money.

Here's the banana bread recipe:

Banana Bread

1 cup mashed bananas
2½ cups flour (all-purpose)
1 cup sugar
3½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 TBSP canola oil
¾ cup milk
1 egg
nuts (optional)

Measure all ingredients into a mixing bowl.

Beat with a fork until well-blended.

Pour into a greased loaf pan or muffin pans.

Bake loaf for 1 hour at 350 degrees. or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Bake muffins for about 25 minutes; use the toothpick test.
Makes 1 loaf or 12 muffins.