 Hi, this is Michelle Getzinger here with my cooking show called The Frustrated Foodie. The whole point of my cooking show is you come learn how to cook with me because I'm still learning myself and we're learning how to make either vegan options, plant-based options and just basically healthy food in general. And today with me I have my daughter Kylie and her fiancee Harrison and we're going to do banana bread and fried plantains. So the first thing we have to do is get the bananas to mash them. I have them in two separate bowls just because it's helpful for measuring and mixing. This one right here is the egg replacement. So since we're making banana bread you can use bananas as an egg replacement instead of getting your vegan egg replacement mixer because that cuts out an extra step plus the bananas just add more banana flavor so it doesn't hurt. For this I used three bananas that are a bit mushy and brown. Those ones are the best and that is your egg replacement. But if you wanted to do this with eggs you would use three eggs. And then right here we have about four and a half medium bananas and that's going to be the actual, the rest of the part of the banana bread. So first we will mash these up, smash, smash the banana, smash them up. This is a lot like that white potato. You don't want to over emulsify or over mix it because it will become gummy. So you literally just want to have it mashed enough that we're able to mix it up. And having a few chunks in the final product of the banana bread isn't bad because it adds an extra texture to it. It's pretty good. This banana bread is completely vegan and it is also gluten free. So there's no dairy in it, no eggs and no gluten. We're doing a half a cup of coconut oil. You can also use the solid version but if you get this liquid version it makes it a little bit easier to measure it all out. And then with this one I do want to talk about it. So this is coconut palm sugar. I thought that coconut sugar, all organic coconut sugar was the same until I used regular coconut sugar. I don't know what the difference with palm is in it but it packs a lot better. It's like brown sugar but if you get regular coconut sugar it's really grainy and it's actually kind of gross in certain things. So make sure you get the palm sugar in that it packs well. So we're going to do a cup of coconut palm sugar in this cup. In this bowl we're going to put the coconut sugar and the oil in it and mix that well. And so we just mix that first so that we get it all coated with the oil in here because if you add the bananas it'll make it take a lot longer. And in this bowl we'll just take the egg replacement bananas that you have and mix it in here. It's not completely necessary to separate them but it does make it easier on yourself if you do it one at a time because if you have a lot of bananas all at once it's hard to stir. Two and one-fourth cups of gluten-free all-purpose baking mix. It's really important that you get the all-purpose baking mix and not this. This brand is great but don't get just all-purpose flour because the baking mix actually has other stuff in it so if you use all-purpose flour you'll have to use like baking soda and stuff like that. And really this is about shortcuts and learning how to do these things so you can cook every day. We're not trying to prepare gourmet meals, we're trying to prepare family meals and it's much quicker so definitely cash in on things that make your life easier such as the baking mix or make your own baking mix. You have to watch this brand has a buttermilk version and it's really easy to buy the buttermilk version and it has buttermilk in it so it wouldn't fit the vegan you know completely plant-based recipe. Yeah because a lot of things that are gluten-free aren't also vegan and a lot of things that are vegan have gluten in them so it's hard to find both. Again, we're doing two and one-fourth cups but I'm just mixing it a little bit before we add the final cup too. So you think it's easier to beat it by hand than to try and beat it with a mixer right? Um yeah and if you beat it with a mixer it might become gummy yeah it's not super hard especially if you get the ripe mushy bananas it's a pretty easy thing to mix and again if you don't mash them like super well that's okay because it turns out well anyway. Now you can add other things to this banana bread recipe if you wanted to put chocolate chips in it there's vegan chocolate chips you could put toasted nuts walnuts all depending on what your diet allows. So for extra flavor we are going to add some nutmeg and cinnamon and I'm just going to put a dash of it in you can add to taste and then a little bit of nutmeg in here. And then one of our favorite ingredients vanilla paste I prefer vanilla paste over vanilla extract it has a little bit more of an intense flavor and you can also see the little pieces of the vanilla bean inside of it which it makes a huge difference than the like chemically made vanilla flavor this tastes so much better and you only need a little bit because it goes a long way. Yeah I can literally smell it from over here it smells so good. Mix that in and then I'm going to add this. It's pretty amazing if you think about it what's in this recipe and how simple it is and how good the bread turns out and it's a great way to recycle those old bananas that are just getting a little bit too ripe. If you get them these bananas they're too ripe and you're not ready to make banana bread throw them in the freezer until you're ready and you can just take out four or five bananas from the freezer. And then you just mix it up until it gets that nice brown color all around. This is the egg replacement that I often use in recipes I agree with Kylie in this case the banana works the best but this is the the brand Namaste I got it on Amazon it's pretty easy to come across you can find it in Whole Foods as well. So next I'm just going to oil this pan that we're going to bake it in you can use a regular bread pan or anything like this I'm just going to get some coconut oil and rub it along the sides you don't need too much but it just helps for when you're pulling it out. I came up with this recipe when my mom wanted something sweet and freshly baked because there's not a lot of cookie recipes or bread or dessert recipes that are both vegan and gluten free like we were saying earlier and this original recipe came with the gluten free all purpose baking mix. Their website had a recipe for banana bread but it wasn't vegan. So I took that recipe and I made it vegan and I used coconut oil and bananas instead of eggs and things like that so that's where this came from. After we oil the pan we're just going to put the mix into it and this is different than making regular baked goods I'm not very good at baking normally and this won't rise as much as normal dough will so don't be alarmed that it fills up the pan. And then I like to put some of the coconut sugar on top and when you bake it it just kind of crisps up nicely and it gives you a nice look to it whenever you pull it out. Yeah so and there we go. There we go. Voila. I'm going to go ahead and put it in the oven. How long? With degrees? 350 and you'll want to put it in there originally for 45 minutes and then check on it and see if after 45 minutes this on top is starting to burn you can put a piece of tinfoil on it to stop it. We usually like to leave it because we like the top to be crispy but if you don't then you can put some tinfoil over it and cook it for 25 more minutes to get everything on the inside fully cooked. So was the total cook time? 45 plus 25. Sounds good. So let's set the alarm and we'll check on it in a little bit. In the meantime next are fried plantains. So you've probably seen these in the grocery store and been like what are they? They're funky looking bananas. They're usually close close to the bananas but not right next to the bananas. They're over by the sweet potatoes and they are very starchy. It's called a plantain. If you take this home and try to eat it like a banana you will gag and throw up. It is not sweet like a banana it is very different but we're going to go ahead and fry some today because this is another sweet treat that you can have that is very good to eat. So Harrison's going to go ahead and peel them and you'll see once he starts trying to peel them they're not like a banana. You literally have to fight and wrestle with it. Yeah this is a super super simple recipe. So this past summer we went to Belize. We stayed in the rainforest in like basically a tree house. Harrison Kiley, my other daughter Avery, Marty and I and we ate a lot of plantains. Plantains are a very big staple in Central America, South America and it's a great food. You often see them fried and eaten with almost every meal like with the rice and beans as well. Which someday we're going to do a show on how to make gaiopinto which is rice and beans. Yes, it's not as glamorous as a banana, huh? You can see the color inside is a much creamier yellow color than the banana. It's just like when I was doing the watch cutting into yourself. We don't want to lose a finger. So what was your favorite way of having plantains when we were in Belize? So personally a lot of people like things that are sweet but I tend to have more of a savory too. So it goes the same with sweet potatoes. I would prefer them to have like a season's salt on them, salt and pepper or something like that. In Belize they fry them and sometimes put like cayenne pepper and stuff like that. And I prefer them that way. So a little bit of spice, a little bit more of a savory flavor, however it's also really good with things like honey or coconut oil, stuff like that. So we're going to do them two different ways today. We're going to deal them the way that Harrison's is, we're going to put this one aside. We'll try again with the plantain number two, right in there. Usually these plantains are just like bananas in the aspect of when they get a little bit darker and riper they're a little easier to peel but they're still a real pain. So we're going to do a savory version with some cayenne pepper, salt, pepper and we're going to fry them in coconut oil and then we're going to do a sweet version where I'm just going to fry them with some honey and a little bit of that vanilla paste because that's how I like them. These suckers are tough. Man, I have to say this is the hardest plantain I've ever peeled. Yes, just for you, just so you could keep your expectations in check. So I like everything to have a nice presentation as best that we can and I like to cut plantains on an angle, kind of makes them look cooler when you fry them. So the nice thing about these kind of recipes is you're learning with us how to cook. You got to make it up as you go, honestly. I know that people really don't want to hear that. They want a recipe. They want to know exactly how to do things but if you're learning how to cook you need to learn how to do this stuff on the fly and what you have in your cupboard. So we didn't have just straight up cayenne pepper. We were able to find chili powder and red curry powder. So it depends on which direction you want to go. We're probably going to go ahead and do the, which one did you want to do, the curry? I mean I think they would actually be good together. So we're going to do a little mixture of these two together with salt and pepper and then we're going to go ahead and fry our first one that's going to be the savory version. So what Harrison's going to do is he's going to cut them on an angle and they're going to be chip thickness. Brown like what a banana chip would be. Now plantains are very starchy. Very similar to kind of like a sweet potato consistency. They don't have a ton of flavor. They can be baked, deep fat fried, just regular, you know, sauteed. So a lot you can do with them but they look a lot like a banana. In fact it's kind of funny when you look at their, well I'll pull one out so you can see it. They look like little sad faces, don't they? Some of them have like little eyeballs where they look sad. Like look this guy looks so sad too. Little sad plantains because we're going to eat you. So we're going to go ahead and throw them in there. We're going to get some of this, we're just going to use this liquid coconut oil. Okay we're going to drizzle a little bit of coconut oil over top. Again like one or two tablespoons, just enough to get them coated because we need something to help the spices stick to them. And we're going to get, just I wouldn't put a lot because it's going to be hot. Just kind of show everyone and if you want to sprinkle it instead of putting it in. Okay. So we're going to just dust them lightly and depending on your heat tolerance what you want and what you like will depend on how much you put on. Oh that's going to be hot. Go ahead and give her some salt and pepper. So we'll get you a spoon and you can kind of toss them. In real life at home I'm sure you just use your fingers but we're going to try and be somewhat proper on TV. And you just want them to have a nice even coat over top of all of them. Next step is we're going to move over to the frying pan and we're going to get it heated up. You can tell when the pan is ready to go, when that oil starts to separate the way that it is. So I think we're good to go to start putting them in there. Now I don't recommend that you just dump the whole thing and you've got to put them in kind of like Harrison's doing a little bit at a time and keep an eye on them because they can burn pretty quickly and you might not be able to fit the whole plantain in there at one shot. Just feel free to generously keep it nice and lubricated in there. What are some of the other things you like to cook? So I like stir frying anything really. So I do a lot of veggies being in a family that can't really eat. We don't eat gluten and we don't eat dairy so when I'm cooking dinner for the whole family I have to do things with veggies mostly and meat. So I'll usually stir fry something. We're not vegan obviously since we're doing meat so I use eggs a lot. Things like pad thai, things like that, peppers, onions, garlic, anything like that is always good. Lots of cabbage. So nothing really in specific. I tend to go into it with an open mind similar to this where whatever is in the fridge or available I'm going to try to make a meal out of it. And I think that that is the most valuable skill in cooking is learning how to one, improvise and number two, use what you have at your hands at your disposable disposal. Harrison's mom has a similar autoimmune problem. Her diet's a little bit different than mine but he's been learning how to deal with those things as well. And luckily his grandma, Nona, she makes fresh pickle lily and fresh sour crout on the countertop and I've had it and it's absolutely amazing. So Harrison's had a lot of experience being around a family that does cook a lot and loves cooking, right? I mean, it's one of your favorite things to do with you and Kylie too. Which is nice. Kind of looking for this sort of color on them. A nice brown. Nice golden brown. Almost a little bit of a, you can get a little bit of a crunch from one too. Yep, yep. Especially since we cut them into chip sizes they're going to probably cook through like that. So just like always we've got to sample things and taste them as you go. Harrison's given this one a try. It's kind of hard to tell when they're done. They'll get a little bit soft in the middle when they're finished or crispy on the outside. Is it spicy? No, it actually might need a little bit more of salt. Okay, go for it. And that's why you've got to sample it. And remember, when you're doing a savory version of something you want to make sure you're a little bit heavier on the salt than you normally be. Just to bring all that flavor out. And plantains are like a white potato. They're kind of open to a lot of different spices. And because of that they're kind of bland on their own. Garlic powder or onion powder would also work very well with this. And Cajun seasoning is also very good. Down in Belize they actually consider themselves to be a form of Cajun. They say that they're, what was it, they're Creole. So they use very similar seasonings to the French and the Spaniards and things like that. So, exactly. So they have a very diverse diet down there and because of that the seasoning on things like plantains is very good. I think we're good. So I like the sweet version of it. So I'm going to do, use the same ingredients that Kylie used. I'm going to go ahead and use the vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. And my sweetener is going to be sour wood honey. I've turned them to be a little bit of a honey snob by accident. In North Carolina they have the sour wood tree where they're getting the honey from. And it has some anti-inflammatory properties to it. And I've totally been loving the taste more than the anti-inflammatory that goes along with it. So I've been using this for everything. So we went ahead and we cut up our plantains, same way as we did the other ones. I'm going to go ahead and get my oil, get it ready in there. Just lightly cover it. Really you don't even need a full tablespoon, honey goes a long way. And this is, if you have the frying pan too high, it'll burn it. So you're going to have to keep an eye on that. Put just a tiny little bit of vanilla paste in here. And this is going to make it the sweet version. And this is what I'm going to feed my husband for lunch. He's going to get some of these sweet plantains. He's not allowed to have any pepper right now, so he can't have the savory ones. And again, if you don't like nutmeg, don't put nutmeg in. If you like pumpkin spice, put pumpkin spice in. It's so versatile. Go ahead and stir it up. But one thing that you're not going to believe that you should do, anytime you're cooking with these sweet things, is you need to put a little bit of salt. It helps bring out the flavor of the sweetness and makes it more well-rounded on your palate. Just give it a little toss here. And we're just going to go ahead and stir it on up. And then I'm going to direct this back to Harrison so he can fry these ones up for me. There you go, sir. I'm back. He's back. This smell really good. Yeah. Now when you go to take these out, when they're finished, you do not want to put these on paper towels. They'll be way too sticky and stick to it and be gross. So this you just want to put on a regular plate. Now this is one of those things that you want to just make sure you have your undivided attention when you're cooking them. As soon as you walk away, they will turn black and burn and they'll be ruined. Trust me, I've done it almost every time I've cooked them. So don't leave your station when you're cooking plantains. Just pay attention, be patient, wait until they're done before you move on to your next project. Also, when adding sweet and sugar, they're going to burn a little bit faster because of the starch, the added starch. So definitely if you do like a sweet flavoring, for sure they'll cook a little bit faster than savory. You can kind of see if you get up here close. They're already cooking differently with what you're cooking. Because of the sugar. Yeah. You can probably turn it down a little bit. And it's such a nice easy snack too, or a side to any meal that doesn't take much effort. Plantains, they stay good for a long time. Just leave them sit out. Do not put them in the refrigerator, let them sit out on your counter. So again, the importance of constantly tasting and along the process. We've discovered there's not enough sweetness on our sweet ones, so we're going to just drizzle a little bit of honey. Whereas my daughter Avery would say when she was little, he nut on the top. And then the savory ones definitely don't need anything. And then next, we're going to pull out the banana bread. So with the magic of TV, we've already made one that's ready for you because the other one's going to be another half an hour. So this is the banana bread, and we're going to go ahead and take it out and plate it up so you can see what it looks like. Look how beautiful that is. Comes out in a beautiful loaf. Okay, now we're going to cut that baby up. And again, you could put chocolate chips in here, you could put walnuts, pecans, whatever you want to add to it. We like banana bread, just straight up banana bread. Go ahead and cut it. We're going to cut it with a meat cleaver, because that's how we roll. So this is our show on bananas and plantains and what you can do with them. I can smell, smell so good. You can see that nice crust that Kylie was talking about on the top, how moist it is on the inside. Okay, we're going to go ahead and plate it, and we're going to try each one of these. If you want something a little bit sweeter, and if it's not sweet enough for you, you can drizzle some maple syrup on top, some agave syrup. You could also do honey, and what was the other suggestion? Serve it up with tea, coffee, it's just a nice little snack. You can also put whipped cream on it if you want. Okay guys, you want to try this with me? I'm going to take this one. That's really good. You can taste the coconut oil, and the top is really crispy. It's really good. Nice and spongy too. That's pretty amazing. For just being bananas, and flour, and just some seasoning, it's really not much at all. Very good. Alright. I'm going to try the, keep it with the sweet, I'm going to try the sweet one next. These are very good too. They're nice and crispy. I like them crispy like that. Yup. They're so good for you too. And then the last one we're going to try is the savory, which out of the plantains I think is my favorite. I've never had them savory before, so it's really good. And the curry is just right. Here's the actual bread that we made after it was in the oven for a little bit. We're going to put it back in to brown it a little bit more, but just so you can see what we were working on. Thanks again for watching our banana and plantains episode on the Fresherated Foodie. And thanks again for learning how to cook with us and being with us through this process. We appreciate it. If you have any likes or comments, please just put them down below. And thanks again for your support and see you next time.