During quarantine, my family and I experimented with the myriad of recipes that we’ve always wanted to make. Although we started out baking banana bread, I encountered a newfound realization of the versatility of bananas. Here, I have listed a few convenient ways you can incorporate bananas into your daily life.
Simply eating a banana: Renowned as the most classic way to consume a banana, it’s incredibly convenient to buy a bunch of bananas and store them for whenever you need. Personally, I like my bananas sweeter, so I tend to leave them out, but if you notice that they’re starting to ripen too quickly, simply peel them and pop them in the freezer until you’re ready to use them.
Banana bread: My family oftentimes goes bananas (literally) when I follow Allrecipe’s instructions on its “Banana banana bread” recipe. Usually, I’ll whip up the banana bread batter and bake it over the weekend so that I can snack on it during the week when our schedules are more full.
Smoothies/smoothie bowls: Smoothies naturally contain many fruits, so why not add in a few banana slices for flavor? Usually, when I have study hall at home, I want to snack on something quick so that I can start working on my homework. Bananas, being a fruit that doesn’t need much cutting/slicing, make smoothies quick and easy to prepare.
Banana pancakes: Many people, most notably the Holton Swim and Dive team, know that I LOVE pancakes. After one of our Holiday practices, for example, our team went to The Original Pancake House, and I ordered a stack there to enjoy. However, I was really hungry (we had a two-hour practice!!), and I ate another teammate’s side of pancakes as well (sorry, Sophia- I can pay you back :)). Additionally, after our WMPSSDL swim meet, our team went to IHOP for dinner, and you can guess what I ordered there...pancakes. At home, I make pancakes quite often, but sometimes I find the original batter a bit mundane. Adding mashed bananas and maybe even a bit of cocoa powder to your pancake mix can vary the flavor of your flapjacks for you to enjoy.
Although I listed a few ways to consume bananas, there are a myriad of other ways to enjoy this simple but underappreciated fruit. For now, I’d like to draw your attention to the fun facts below:
A single banana is called a “finger,” whereas a group of fingers make up a “hand” of bananas, and multiple hands that grow together are called a “bunch” (https://kids.sandiegozoo.org/stories/go-bananas).
According to Vocabulary.com, the phrase “top banana” means the most powerful or important person around. Let’s all harness our #bananapower and strive to be top bananas in what we do. :)
I have to admit... I’m not the biggest fan of bananas like Joyce is because I don't really enjoy the “squishy” texture of the fruit, BUT I do have my own little fruit obsession. Especially during the colder months, my family is extremely big on oranges. The reason being, most other fruits are either extremely expensive or not as fresh as in the summer (aka squishy). Anyway, the level of obsession in my house started with just me but has gradually spread to my entire family. I kid you not, it has become slightly an issue. Let me expound… Here’s how you know you have a slight addiction to eating oranges.
According to MayoClinic the recommended daily consumption of Vitamin C is from 65 to 90 mg, with the upper limit being 2000 mg. An average small orange, about two to three in. in diameter, contains around 50 mg of Vitamin C. One cup of orange juice contains about 100 mg of Vitamin C. I would say that on average I eat about six to eight oranges a day and drink
three to four cups of orange juice. Doing some quick math here…that’s about 750mg of Vitamin C per day! Although of course this amount is under the daily limit, it is almost ten times the recommended daily amount for Vitamin C.
For those of you who do not enjoy math or prefer to avoid doing math during your free time, let me put this simply. My family can finish three bags of 15 clementines in two days and a carton of 1.5 L Tropicana Orange Juices in less than four days.
And a small fun fact to end my short piece: Due to its high resistance to disease, more oranges are killed by lightning than by plant diseases.
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