Going bananas...

Yesterday was a bit manic.
Friday is, technically, my 'day off', but it's probably one of the busiest days of the week. It starts with getting the kids up, Big Man takes Little Man off to school. Little Lady and I then run around getting ready for the day. We do some drawing, a bit of reading and then she pleads, pitifully, to watch 'the telly'.
This time I gave in, she loves Cbeebies, but she is usually consigned to watching anything that appeals to her older brother, otherwise known as King of the Remote Control (adults outrank him, does that make us Dictators, Emperors or Gods?)
Then I scrubbed, polished and hoovered the downstairs of the house, while Little Lady's eyes became a little square. Eventually the lure of the 'telly' wore off, and I ended up with a little helper so we made this:

We always have a few blackening bananas in the house so this recipes comes in handy once a week. It makes a lightish, moist, delicious banana bread, and it's really quick. It's very loosely based on a bread in 'Making Fresh Bread' by Paragon.

Banana Bread
Line a 2lb loaf tin (I have those non-stick liners, so I don't grease the tin).
Preheat the oven to 180C.
215g self raising flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
125g demerara sugar
2 mashed bananas
55g mixed peel
50g raisins or sultanas or mixture of both
5-6 tbsp orange or apple juice
2 eggs
150ml vegetable oil
1. Put, or sift, the flour and baking powder into a bowl. Add the sugar, bananas, mixed peel and raisins and stir in.
2. Whisk the fruit juice, oil and eggs together, with a fork, in a jug.
3. Pour into the flour and bananas and mix with a wooden spoon, until you have a smoothish batter.
4. Pour the mixture into the tin, and put it in the oven. Cook for 1 hour.

While this was cooking, I got a phone call from a desperate friend asking if I could pick her two Little Things up from school - she was stuck in traffic. I took four children to Little Man's swimming lesson... After two hours trying to get home, my friend was really grateful for a slice of banana bread and a cup of tea.
This morning the banana bread is no more, and after the four children enjoyed themselves, the house needs scrubbing, hoovering...