Hola mi amigas y amigos!

Buenos dias.   Como estas?

Okay, that’s about the extent of my knowledge of Spanish.

I’m back from my trip to El Salvador with Habitat for Humanity.  Did you miss me??

How was the trip, you ask?  Good!  I was a bit sad to leave the warm weather, all the great people I met, and the house we were not able to complete.  Despite our efforts, you can’t build a house in 5 days, at least not all by hand anyway.  I will write more about the trip after I’ve had some more time to process it.

For now, I am happy to be back.

Back to my dear hubby, who I missed dearly.

Back to a beautiful bouquet of roses.

Back to my own home, kept nice and clean by my darling (my apologies for the mush). 😉

And back to some very ripe bananas, which a certain someone did not eat.

It isn’t because he doesn’t like fruit, much.

No, that’s not it.  😉

How sweet of him to leave these bananas for my return?

How did he know I missed fruit and baking?

But really, what a better way to get back into the swing of things than to bake a banana zucchini raisin nut loaf? Yes, that’s a mouthful.

A deliciously, yet healthy (no oil or butter), moist, slightly sweet, nutty and cinnamony mouthful to be exact.

It’s been a wonderful home-coming.

Adios for now! 

Hasta luego! 

(Please note the bananas shown above are only stand-ins.  The ones used were much more brown, spotty and unattractive).

Recipe (adapted from Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice):

•  2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup honey*
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup cake/pastry flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 cups zucchini (1 medium), shredded
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
• 1/2 cup toasted pecan, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350°F; lightly grease a standard sized loaf pan.
2. In a large mixing bowl beat eggs, banana, honey, sugar, and vanilla until smooth.
3. In a separate bowl whisk the flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together.
4. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet mixture, then stir in the zucchini, raisins and nuts.
5. Pour batter into pan. Bake for 55-60 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean from center.
6. Cool pan on wire rack for 20 minutes then turn out from pan and cool completely on wire rack.

*I only had 1/8 cup honey, so I made up the rest of the volume with 1/8 cup maple syrup plus 20 ml granulated white sugar.

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