I never quite know whether to believe a lot of the stuff that’s put out the Internet as truth. It can be a bit like listening to the opinions of the guys in the bar after a few drinks.
The humble egg is either much maligned or praised beyond recognition. They either give you food poisoning or make you fat and give you high cholesterol. Or, they are the food of fitness fanatics and body builders.
I feel that probably they are somewhere in between, leaning towards the fitness brigade.
Bananas are one of the healthiest foods around. I read some years back in the Readers Digest, that if the malnourished children of the world were fed bananas malnutrition could be eliminated.
Nobody listens though.
It’s not easy to think of a way to serve bananas as part of meal as a dessert or at breakfast. Picture a soft white banana lying between two big red strawberries or purple plums. Not an attractive sight. Normally we’d just cut them up and have them with ice cream or custard. I also use them as the basis to any smoothie I make.
I first saw this way to serve bananas in a woman’s magazine years ago, before anyone had heard of probiotics and Active 8 cultures. Yoghurt though has been a staple food in the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern diet for centuries.
This relatively simple to prepare dish is ideal for a healthy breakfast and it makes a healthy dessert.
Baked Banana with Yoghurt.
What you need;
Fresh good quality banana or bananas, depending on how many you need.
Yoghurt, low or fat free plain yoghurt preferably with probiotic “Active8” cultures.
Honey, optional.
What to do;
You don’t need to use your big kitchen oven, the kitchen top small oven grill is fine to use.
Set the oven to about 350F degrees around 160C.
This temperature works fine for my small oven, different ovens may vary.
It’s best not to try and have the oven too hot, the banana will split and you’ll lose all the nice banana juices.
I line my oven tray with kitchen foil, shiny side down, to help stop the direct heat onto the bananas and to catch any juices that leak out. You can pour them onto your banana if they haven’t burnt.
When the oven has reached the working temperature place your bananas on the grill rack and bake for about 15 minutes. The skin will turn a browny black colour. Test by gently squeezing with your finger and thumb (trying not to burn yourself), you want the banana to feel quite soft before the skin splits. Once they are ready, they go too soft very quickly. It’ll take a few tries to get them how you like them. A little trial and error may be needed.
When they are ready split lengthways with point of a sharp knife, open them up and serve with a few dollops of yoghurt and a little honey if you like.
This idea for baking bananas can also be served as an after dinner dessert.
Why the baked banana recipe?
The South Beach diet website had an article about foods to avoid that can raise your cholesterol count. They weren’t very complimentary about the humble egg. Us Brits were told to “go to work on an egg”, in the 1960’s, until we all died off in the 80’s with salmonella poisoning. But some of us survived.
I think Doctor Who came along in the Tardis and turned the clock back and we were all okay.
In 1988 we were told eggs would give you “salmonella food poisoning”. A government minister, Edwina Currie lost her job over the comment.
It was a shame she messed up over the egg controversy. She was, as far as politicians go, quite good.
According the American Heart Association our daily intake of Cholesterol should not exceed 300mg. If we have a high cholesterol count we should stay below 200mg. The article said there is 213mg of cholesterol hiding inside the egg. It doesn’t say how big an egg or how it’s cooked.
South Beach diet suggests having whole grain cereal and fruit instead.
I have Shredded wheat (the Original health food breakfast before food faddies came along) with banana or strawberries when in season as a starter. Before my healthy full English breakfast, poached or fried egg (in olive oil), grilled English bacon (Canadian here is the USA), Heinz baked beans, grilled or sautéed (posh for frying, using olive oil) mushrooms and a grilled tomato with a couple of slices of whole-wheat toast with olive oil spread.
Tiffin or Scotch Eggs
Don’t get me wrong, the South Beach diet website is excellent, full of information and recipes. I just wish these health websites would not contradict themselves a few days later.
Phase one of the South Beach diet, is quite a drastic change in your eating lifestyle, well it was for me. But they do advocate having an egg of some description 11 out of the 14 days for breakfast.
A few days after the warning about eggs and high cholesterol there was an article telling us the Seven (7) reasons to eat eggs, 3 or 4 days a week. The mighty egg is packed with all the good stuff we need, a good source of low calorie protein, minerals and vitamin A and B.
Just be careful how you have your egg.
There’s one breakfast restaurant I go to that boasts the omelettes are made with 6 yes six eggs, crazy. I never have an omelette there. When I make an omelette at home I use one large egg and egg white from a carton.
Then there’s the cheese, bacon, ham or what ever else you may like. So I can see how an egg can get a bad press. But the humble egg has so much going for it, I feel it isn’t something we should leave out of our eating plan. When I fry an egg or make an omelette I use olive oil, it makes the omelette taste better and if you’re frying an egg you need some oil.
Happy Eating
© John A Bromley. www.myworldandyourewelcome.blogspot.com
