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Note:  I wrote, last time, that this site would be down for an overhaul. Alas, it appears as though I have lied.  Haha…
This post comes from the vegan husband and while I have been working on both a new look for this site and a community project, he has been busy keeping his commitment to writing an article once a month.  Enjoy!

POSTED BY THE VEGAN HUSBAND

I’m looking at a banana on my desk and thinking: Is there a less forgiving fruit than bananas?

I’ll grant you that bananas are not as tricky as oranges or peaches, which can look and feel great from the outside, but can be dry or off tasting on the inside. Watermelon is pretty consistent, but I once bought a whole one where the insides disintegrated when I cut into it. It turned to red juice and a pile of seeds. How does that happen?

No, with a banana, you know what you’re getting.  Occasionally there is an unexpected bruise upon peeling, but this is one book that you can judge by its cover.  If a banana were a book, it better be a novella, because the shelf life is maddeningly short.

Back in the pre-vegan days, we purchased six bananas on our weekly shopping trip so that we could each eat one a day for three days.  And then we would go four banana-free days. We didn’t do that because we got sick of bananas after three days, or because we only had a budget for six bananas.  We did it because, after three days, we couldn’t stand to look at the bananas let alone eat them.

For the occasional banana that snuck past the three-day limit, I invented the “banana surprise” to eat for breakfast.  I’m somewhat embarrassed to say this consisted of a banana smothered in peanut butter and topped off with m&m’s, whipped cream, and a drizzle of maple syrup.  You could smell an old banana from one or two rooms away, and say, “That’s going to have to be a banana surprise.”

Growing up, I never ran into these kind of problems.  My parents bought bananas for the sole purpose of putting on cereal.  You would slice up half a banana for a bowl of cereal, and then stick the other half into a glass for the next day.  I thought that’s how everyone ate bananas. Only monkeys peeled and ate the entire thing all at once.

Now that we are veganish, we can’t handle a four-day banana drought.   Our bodies would rebel or simply shut down. So, on the second day, or maybe the third, we purchase bananas again.  Depending on ripeness, we may buy another six or maybe only four. We may even make a third trip to the store. No matter how you slice it (sorry), we’re eating bananas every day.

And this can be a struggle.

Where three bananas a week was too few, maybe seven is too many. Although I do occasionally slice up a banana for my cereal, I usually bring mine to work. I can eat it as soon as I get to work (to recover from my morning workout) or at my mid-morning coffee break.  I can even eat it as part of my lunch with some other fruits.

If I was going to eat some kind of fruit every day, I don’t know that it would be a banana.  I’d like something with a little more staying power. Blueberries can last two weeks or more and require even less preparation than bananas.  If it’s fall in New England, you could have apples last for a month. And, where a banana is a banana is a banana, you could have a different kind of apple every day for a week.  But apples lose some of their luster in the off-season.

Cantaloupe, especially cut up into cubes, can last a while, but they are often hit or miss with regard to quality.  The vegan spouse gets super excited by pineapples, but she said only about 10% are awesome.

So it appears I’m stuck with a daily banana.  It’s not the worst thing in the world. I just wish we didn’t have to buy them so green that they taste like styrofoam on the first day, perfection on the second, and ready for banana bread on day three. The one on my desk is turning browner by the minute.

Anyone for banana surprise?

What is your go to fruit?  Please leave a message…