Banana bread recipe

Got 3 ripe bananas in the fridge and decided to make banana cake this morning. I have modified the traditional banana cake recipe to make it healthier but it is every bit as tasty. You can make this recipe as organic as you like.

Here's what I used:

1/3 cup of grape seed oil

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1.5 cups of all purpose flour

1/2 cup of organic brown sugar

1 large organic egg

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

3 ripe organic bananas

a pinch of sea salt

Steps:

1. Set the oven to 350F
2. Mash the 3 bananas in a large mixing bowl
3. Add all the remaining ingredients and mix them until you get a smooth batter
4. Pour the batter into a 4x8 inches loaf pan and bake around 55 minutes to an hour

This takes 10 minutes to make. It's one of the tastiest and easiest dessert/snack you can make.

Tips:

- You can substitute the oil with yogurt to make it even healthier but I find the bread doesn't rise as high and it's a bit more dense

- Try not to use non-stick bakeware as it contains teflon, which causes cancer. Use a glass or aluminum pan

Where to shop for organic food?

In the winter:

I do at least part of my weekly shopping usually at Whole food, as they have the freshest and largest selection of organic products. If I am short of time, I know I can do all my shopping in one trip

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/

Their organic products are a bit more expensive than other places but the quality is always top notch. They have a butcher on site so you can get the exact cut of meat you want. And you get bargains once in a while when they have items on sale. I seldom buy any conventional products there as they are much more expensive than other shops. I also shop at Famous food and Choices which are smaller local organic shops. The quality of the meat, veggies, and fruits aren't always consistent but they are generally a bit cheaper and I look for bargains at these shops when they have organic products on sale.

Some of the other conventional grocery stores now always carry a limited selection of organic products. Save-on-foods and Market Place IGA are two of the ones with better selections. There are usually some organic items on sale every week which can be half the price than getting them from Whole food at regular price.

In the summer:

In addition to the grocery stores, I also shop at the local farmers market. Nothing beats the local produce straight from the farmers' field. It is also more environmental friendly as there's less transportation. It's not necessarily cheaper but definitely fresh.

The reasons for going organic

Everyone I know that is into organic food, healthy living has their own reasons of doing it. For me, it started with the number of cancers in my family, four aunts from my Dad's side and one uncle from my Mom's side. Seeing my aunt going from a healthy woman to losing her battle with cancer within a year really struck me hard. The pain I see her suffered through her treatment coupled with a history of cancer in the family, plus my not so great health since childhood got me researching the causes of cancer. Especially now that I found Mr Organic, I want to live a long and healthy life together with him.

Not surprisingly, I found out that the growth hormones, chemicals used in conventional meat, fruits and vegetables as well as chemicals in everyday products are part of the reasons why people are getting cancer at a much younger age these days. Large drug companies come up with new drugs to treat cancer, but they are just treating the symptoms and not the cause. Why would they as preventing cancer would mean a lost of their revenue? To me, the answer lies in changing the life style - switching to healthy, chemical free food and regular exercise.

I started slowly switching to more natural products slowly over the years. It takes some getting used to. The grocery bill more than double what I pay for conventional products and I need to shop at specialty natural food stores. But since we pack our own lunches and don't eat out that often, we still end up spending less money than the people that buy their lunches.