Ever since I got discharged last Wednesday, I have had to watch my diet. Doctor’s instructions.
Top of it was: cut the oily food.
See, removing the gallbladder would solve all future possible pain associated with the gallstones. But it also meant that I wouldn’t have anything to hold bile to help with the digestion of food, which meant that my stomach would not like it if I ate too much oily food and it would result in loose stools, ie. lao sai. Well, at least for a few weeks (duration unknown), whilst my liver worked things out.
Yeah, our bodies are cool that way. Missing one organ? Pffpt, another organ will make up for it. Heh.
So, cut the oily food, amp up on the water, fruits and vegetables. Gotcha.
I decided to meal plan for the weeks ahead, seeing how I might be out of action for a bit post surgery and I also cannot trust the husband’s grocery shopping skills. Why so? Lemme digress a bit and recount a little incident that occurred back in 2008/2009.
Then boyfriend had offered to do grocery shopping on behalf. His instruction to me was to be as precise as possible, as in 100g of mince beef, a can of diced tomatoes, a bunch of 3 bananas. That kinda thing. I was going to make a watermelon granita so I asked for half a watermelon.
He came back with NO watermelon. How could it be?? Surely the supermarkets could not be out of watermelons!
But ohhhh, they had watermelons alright. They had watermelons cut in quarters. They had whole watermelons. But because my instructions were half a watermelon, and they did not have half a watermelon, so he came back with none. You would have thought 2 quarters make half right?? but noooooooo, Urgh. Men.
Anyhoos. So yes, meal planning again, and I came across this recipe for a really healthy looking cake/bread. And surprisingly, it tasted really yummy! There was no butter involved at all and the recipe used bananas and apples to sweeten and moisten the bread!
Yum! It smelt heavenly and even the kids loved it. Waah..happiness. The bread also freezes well, which means we can bake in bulk and slowly enjoy it. To be honest, it was a breeze to bake it, cos there was minimal preparation and also minimal washing. So really really simple to bake it.
So here’s the recipe to try out!
One-bowl Banana Bread – BBC Australian GoodFood, November 2011
2 cups (300g) plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 cup (75g) brown sugar
3/4 cup (105g) pecans, chopped
3/4 cup (185ml) low-fat milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup (2 large) mashed bananas
1 large apple, peeled, grated
1 tbsp natural seed mix (I used pine nuts & sunflower seeds
– Preheat oven to 190C or 170C fan. Grease and line a 14cm x 24cm loaf pan.
– Sift flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda & cinnamon into a bowl. Stir in sugar & pecans. Make a well in centre. Add milk, egg, banana & apple. Stir gently until combined.
– Pour batter into pan & smooth surface. Sprinkle over seed mix, if you like. Bake for 50-60 mins or until a skewer inserted into centre comes out clean. Stand for 10 mins in pan, then lift out onto a wire rack to cool.
– Slice & enjoy!
Note: To freeze: slice & wrap pieces in plastic wrap. Place into an airtight container or resealable plastic bag and freeze for up to six months.