Monday, October 15, 2007

Nutella Banana Bread and Blog Action Day

Nupur has a lot to do with this post, read on for details.

Lawns and Water - Blog Action Day

My first awareness of what a simple almost routine activity like taking care of the lawn could do to the environment came when I read about portions of the Chesapeake Bay becoming dead and the bay losing its ability to heal itself. Dangers posed by too much Nitrogen.

Can we do something about it?
During the spring and summers months , entering into suburbia a common sight is numerous water sprinklers sprinkling millions of gallons of water into the ground. This sprinkling method which is by far the most common method makes certain that a few gallons evaporate beore they even touch the ground.

The fertilizer and pesticides applied to the lawn to make them look healthy and ofcourse the envy of the neighborhood gets washed off by too much water and in the process hurting the fragile ecosystem.

How many times have we heard the real estate agent say an attractive lawn adds at least a few thousands to the value of the house and this fact is hard to ignore.

The runoffs from watering and chemicals mixed with it, enters the streams and rivers and thereby polluting everything in sight.

From the unscientific survey done in my neighborhood, the lawns of neighbors who regularly water their lawn and have a lawn maintenance company apply pesticides and fertilizers looks almost the same as my lawn which is not watered and fertilized regularly, most times it depends on nature to do the trick, as for fertilizer, a small amount of lawn clippings is left on the grass itself to nourish. No amount of watering and fertilizing can do what mother nature in the form of rain can do.

This summer it was really easy to see the contrast, due to the lack of rains, most lawns look brown, the lawns which were watered regularly looked no different from the lawns which did not see even a sprinkle of water. Two days of rains in August and the lawns all magically turned green.

We stopped applying fertilizers and pesticides because the kids play in the lawn and I was not too comfortable with them playing in so much chemicals. Yes we do have a few weeds but from my reading having clover keeps the grubs out and when the lawn is mowed the green of the weeds is hard to differentiate from the green of the grass itself :)

Read about the alternatives to taking care in the Washington Post Turf

Easy and Healthy for the wallet too:
In the North East US this year, we have had an unusually dry summer, though mandatory water restrictions is not here yet, taking care while watering the lawns and even controlling the pressure in the faucets we use everyday can save quiet a bit of water. The cost of sewage treatment is much more than the water itself so every bit saved from hitting the drain is money saved.

By the way,
Congratulations! Vice President Gore, Winner Nobel Prize, Global Warming Activism.




I have to thank Nupur twice once for the delicious Banana Bread and the second time for reminding to write for Blog Action Day. Checked out the lovely Peanut Butter Banana Bread on her blog and even for a non baker like me it was simply irresistible. Did a few substitutions, I am not too fond of Peanut Butter and the alternate suggested by Nupur - Nutella seemed perfect and creamy. Sweet.


Here are the ingredients as I made them.
Nutella Banana Bread


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Ingredients
1. 1 1/2 cup of Whole Wheat Pasty flour
2. 1 tsp baking soda
3. 1 tbsp Raw Cane Sugar
4. a pinch of salt

5. 2 medium sized bananas (about 3/4 cup of mashed bananas)
6. 1/3 cup Nutella
7. 1 Egg
8. 1 tbsp butter
9. 1/4 cup yogurt
10. 4 tbsp molasses

Method
1. Mix the ingredients 5-10, once mixed add the flour, soda, sugar and salt.
2. Spray a loaf pan
3. Pour the batter and bake at 350F for about 1hr.



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Lovely Nutella Banana bread ready, smear a little bit of Nutella on it, tastes . Family is happy and all thanks to Nupur.

20 comments:

  1. I'm so thrilled that the banana-nutella bread worked! :) You made my day! I *love* your focus for blog action day...when I see lush lawns around the neighborhood at the peak of summer, with sprinklers on for hours on end (sprinkling the sidewalk as well), it really is a sad sight. Thank you for bringing attention to this, and for suggesting pretty alternatives.

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  2. I'm so thrilled that the banana-nutella bread worked! :) You made my day! I *love* your focus for blog action day...when I see lush lawns around the neighborhood at the peak of summer, with sprinklers on for hours on end (sprinkling the sidewalk as well), it really is a sad sight. Thank you for bringing attention to this, and for suggesting pretty alternatives.

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  3. i agree 100% about lawns being non eco-friendly, especially in the desert where we live. it makes zero sense. thanks for the post. the bread looks yummy.

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  4. I love Nutella...will try out your recipe. it looks soooo good! :)

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  5. Looks yummy yummy good. I've never tasted nutella. But I've seen it in food network Nice recipe and pic.

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  6. The bread looks great... must've been nice with the nutella!
    I so agree with you on your cause... In our old neighborhood, the neighbors used to frown upon a dry loan, even though we had regulations on the sprinkler usage...

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  7. The bread looks very yummy... and I agree abt the disadvantages you pointed abt abt the lawns and the gallons of water wasted!!! It was a very informative post! Thanks!

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  8. I bake banana bread almost every week, but I've never tried it with nutella! Does it add a butterscotch flavor or change the texture?

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  9. hey you really made something unique today by raising that awareness, in UK atleast we don't have that kind of sprinklers everywhere so we definitely TRY to do our bit as our southern counties faced drought couple of years back.It was simply amazing, the way to wrote, thank you!!
    and nutella banana bread, what a coincidence, we also made a very different one last week!!

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  10. The bread is yummy. Viji

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  11. Hey i love any thing with banana. ur recipe looks yum. will give it a try soon.

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  12. 35% of our lake is dried up and we have sever water restrictions.For get about Lawn now!No sign of rain yet!
    Nutella bread looks great:))

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  13. I don't like banana bread, but with nutella combo should see how it tastes.

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  14. nutella is the best, usually have it with crepes but sounds great in bread.

    Agree on watering the lawn, we live in seattle and we never water the lawn! We wait for the rains and let it dry up in the summer.

    Thanks for sharing!

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  15. The bread is yummy and lovely post. I really admire your conscious efforts you know.

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  16. Nupur, yes the banana-nutella bread vanished in just a couple of days. True in some cases the sidewalk gets more water than the lawn itself :(

    Bee, yes ofcourse and in the desert.

    Tee, it tastes even better :) do give it a try.

    Kribha, if you like choclate you would love nutella.

    Sig, yes tastes great with nutella, I love choclate, this was one more way to enjoy some :) Some HOAs are weird but they do have to change with the times.

    cinnamon, thank you. the water wastage borders on criminal.

    Kaykat, I have never tried banana bread by itself, the texture of e was granular but mostly because of the Whole Wheat flour.

    Padmaja, Europeans in my opinion are a little bit more conservative in that regard and give the environment a lot more respect than we do here in the US.

    Viji, thanks and do give it a try.

    Swaroopa, glad you stopped by, if you love banana you'd definitely like this.

    Asha I am with you.

    Rina, there is a slight taste of banana but it does not overpower so you might like it.

    Archana, yup they taste great with crepes or bread or just by itself :)
    Yup that is the way it should be, even if we don't get as much rain as Seattle.

    Sandeepa, thank you. I try :)

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  17. A lovely bread, really! I think chocolate and banana is very nice combo!

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  18. A great reminder about trickle-down ecology (no pun intended). Like you, I didn't want a ChemLawn for my kids to play in -- few weeds don't bother me one way or another. I call it crabgrass, and it's as green as any other ;) Banana bread looks so darkly rich and appealing, ISG!

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  19. Thank you for your comments about eliminating pesticides and fertilizers from your lawn.

    I sell lakeshore property in Minnesota, so I am sensitive to the issue of lake water quality.

    Kudos to you for participating in blog action day.

    I did not participate. However, I wrote a belated post of my own about an environmental issue that might strike a cord with some of your readers.

    Brazilian Teak Floors, Slave Labor, and the Destruction of the Rain Forest.

    You can find it at:
    http://www.realestatetwincities.net/blog/

    Anything that you can do to help promote awareness of this issue will be greatly appreciated. Normally, I don't ask for this kind of help, but the issue is that important to me.

    Thank you!

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  20. Indo, just read this post..

    I totally agree with the post and grass and water usage and fertilizers and pesticides...

    What do you do if you LOVE the feel of grass under your feet when you walk and the look of a luscious lawn but don't want all the crap...

    One word - moss! The most green thing..and it requires no watering too..and very velvety on the feet. luscious on the eyes..

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