Bananas and Their Many Uses

• In Eastern Africa you can buy banana beer. This beer is brewed from bananas.

• The word ‘banan’ is Arabic for finger.

• There are more than 500 varieties of banana in the world.

• If you rub a mosquito bite with the inside of a banana skin, it reduces swelling and irritation.

• According to “The New England Journal of Medicine” eating bananas as part of a regular diet can help reduce the risk of death by stroke by as much as 40%.

• Bananas can help sufferers of Seasonal Affective Disorder because they contain the natural mood enhancer, tryptophan.

• Many cultures see bananas as a “cooling” fruit that can lower emotional and physical temperature of expectant mothers. In Thailand, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure their babies are born with a cool temperature.

Nutrition:

Bananas are low in calories, fat, sodium, and soluble fiber, which is the type of fiber that can help lower cholesterol. Bananas also contain 452 milligrams of potassium, 33 milligrams of magnesium, and one-third of the recommended daily allowance of vitamin B6.

Banana Curried Chicken

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 onions-chopped

• 50 milliliters cooking oil

• ¼ cup cake flour

• 1 cup chicken stock

• 1 cup raisins

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 2 pounds cooked, boned chicken—(cooked with seasoning)

• 5 sliced bananas

• 2 grated apples

• 2 tablespoons grated lemon rind

• 1 tablespoon sugar

• 1 and ½ tablespoons curry powder

• 1 bay leaf

• 4 peppercorns

• 1 cup cream

Fry onions in oil until light brown. Add flour and mix well. Add chicken stock gradually while stirring. Add the rest of the ingredients, except cream, cover saucepan and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove bay leaf. Mix in cream just before serving. Serve on a bed of rice. Decorate with pineapples if preferred.

Banana Sunset

INGREDIENTS:

• 8 very ripe bananas

• 2 tablespoons rum

• 2 tablespoons honey

• ½ pound butter

• 3 ounces raisins

• 2 ounces cherries

• 4 eggs

• ½ cup sugar

• ½ pound flour

• ¾ pint milk

• ½ tablespoon lime juice

• 1 ounce mixed nuts

• ½ teaspoon vanilla

• ½ cup grated coconut

Cream bananas and sugar, add eggs beaten well. Add milk, vanilla, lime juice, and flour. Mix well. Add raisins, cherries, and nuts, blend slightly. Turn out mixture in 9 inch baking dish. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Allow to cool. Cover top with whipped cream and coconut. Decorate with six carambola slices.

Some Quit Smoking Tips

One of the hardest things any of us have ever had to do, is overcoming an addiction. When you are addicted to anything you feel almost helpless at even the thought of quitting your habit. There is however help out there, than can definitely help you overcome the addiction, and kick the habit. I am referring to cigarettes, but this can be any addiction.

One great thing to do is get in a group of people that are all attempting to achieve the same goal. For example we have narcotics anonymous or alcoholics anonymous. In our case, I don't know of any actual groups that get together to assist us with quitting smoking, but you can always create your own. One thing I do not recommend is relying on pills, patches, injections and things like that. They are very costly, and you may not be able to quit by using those products.

Another quit smoking tip is to start a hobby, i.e. scrap booking, or photography. Hobbies make a great alternative to smoking, when you get a craving just take a picture, or scrap book a page or two. Another great "hobby" is exercise, not only is it a great hobby, but it will also benefit your health as well. A lot of us tend to eat more when we are quitting this habit, so the exercise will counter act that as well.

Quitting smoking doesn't have to be this awful time in your life, where you seem to be grumpy, agitated and "testy" all the time. If you are willing to accept help, then it is there. Another great quit smoking tip is too eat healthy snacks. When you get a craving for a cigarette grab a banana, or chex mix, something to that effect.

You can overcome this addiction without spending the hundreds or thousands of dollars some places want you to spend to kick the habit. Just read up on it, check out some other articles, and research the side effects smoking has on your body, and how quickly your body starts repairing itself after you quit smoking. In fact, your heart rate drops about twenty minutes after your last cigarette. About half a day later, the carbon monoxide level in your blood would return to normal. Your sense of smell returns to normal within 3 months, and your blood pressure will start to return to normal.

These are only a few of the benefits of quitting smoking. Please keep in mind that this will not be easy, and you may fail a time or two, but the important thing to do is to keep it up, keep coming back and trying again. Once you have a game plan down you will definitely be able to quit. Thanks for reading and good luck.

banana cookies

Fruit: ovaries contained in the first (female) flowers grow rapidly developing parthenocarpically (without pollination) in clusters of fruits, called hands. The number of hands varies with the type and variety. Fruit (Technically a berry) turns from deep green to yellow or red and may range from 2-1/2 to 12 inches long and 3 / 4 to 2 inches in width. Meat, ivory-white to yellow or salmon-yellow can be firm, astringent, even with gooey latex when unripe, turning tender and slippery, or soft and mellow or rather dry and starch or when ripe shtitonosna . In flavor can be mild and sweet or subacid apple with a distinct signal. The total cultivated species seeds are usually only vestiges of ovules visible as specks Brown. And sometimes cross-pollination with wild species will lead to a number of seeds in the normal seed variety.

Location: Bananas require as much warmth as can be given them. Additional warmth can be given by planting next to a building. Planting next to cement or asphalt walks or driveways also helps. Wind protection is advisable, not for leaf protection as much as for protection of the plant after the banana stalk has appeared. During these last few months propping should be done to keep the plant from tipping or being blown over. Soil: Bananas will grow in most soils, but to thrive, they should be planted in a rich, well-drained soil. The best possible location would be above an abandoned compost heap. They prefer an acid soil with a pH between 5.5 and 6.5. The banana is not tolerant of salty soils. Irrigation: The large leaves of bananas use a great deal of water. Regular deep watering is an absolute necessity during warm weather. Do not let plants dry out, but do not overwater. Standing water, especially in cool weather, will cause root rot. Plants grown in dry summer areas such as Southern California need periodic deep waterings to help leach the soil of salts. Spread a thick layer of mulch on the soil to help conserve moisture and protect the shallow roots. Container grown plants should be closely watched to see that they do not dry out. An occasional deep watering to leach the soil is also helpful. Fertilization: Their rapid growth rate make bananas heavy feeders. During warm weather, apply a balanced fertilizer once a month - a 8:10:8 NPK fertilizer appears to be adequate. A mature plant may require as much as 1-1/2 to 2 pounds of the above fertilizer each month. Young plants need a quarter to a third as much. Spread the fertilizer evenly around the plant in a circle extending 4 - 8 feet from the trunk. Do not allow the fertilizer to come in contact with the trunk. Feed container container plants on the same monthly schedule using about half the rate for outside plants. Frost Protection: Bananas flourish best under uniformly warm conditions but can survive 28 ° F for short periods. If the temperature does not fall below 22 ° F and the cold period is short, the underground rhizome will usually survive. To keep the plants that are above ground producing, protection against low temperatures is very important. Wrap trunk or cover with blanket if the plants are small and low temperatures are predicted. Pruning Only one primary stem of each rhizome should be allowed to fruit. All excess shoots should be removed as soon as they are noticed. This helps channel all of of the plant's energy into fruit production. Once the main stalk is 6 - 8 months old, permit one sucker to develop as a replacement stalk for the following season. When the fruit is harvested, cut the fruiting stalk back to 30 inches above the ground. Remove the stub several weeks later. The stalk can be cut into small pieces and used as mulch. Propagation: Propagation of bananas is done with rhizomes called suckers or pups. Very small pups are called buttons. Large suckers are the preferred planting material. These are removed from vigorous clumps with a spade wh