Good Eats: Fall Banana Skillet

I can't remember where I first encountered this recipe (somewhere on the Internet) but it was probably around 4 years ago and I have to admit, I was skeptical. Besides banana bread, I'd never eaten hot bananas. (Since then, I've taken to putting 1/2 a banana and a scoop of peanut butter into my plain oatmeal. So good.) But, I had some leftover cooked sweet potatoes that needed to be eaten so I gave the recipe a try.

I told my great aunt Dorothy about this recipe and she, too, thought it sounded a little odd. So did my mom. I couldn't make believers out of them, seeing as how they must've shared some recessive anti-hot-banana gene, but I just cooked  this recipe for the second time for breakfast so at least I convinced myself. I didn't have the recipe in front if me but its such an easy concept even I could wing it. 

This dish is a quick, tasty, belly-warming breakfast when you have geriatric bananas on your counter and cooked orange fall vegetables. It's a good alternative for when I get tired of eating oatmeal every day. It might also be good stirred into oatmeal, other cooked grains, creamy polenta, or grits. I've used baked sweet potatoes and baked butternut squash leftovers, but pumpkin or another winter squash would probably work well, too.

Fall Banana Skillet

1. Make your pan non-sticky. Teflon, cooking spray, oil, butter--whatever you choose will work. I use a small skillet because I just make one serving. 

2. Heat up the pan to around medium while you peel your banana and slice it in half and lengthwise. 

3. Arrange banana and cooked sweet potato/orange squash in pan. I put the banana around the edges and fill the middle with sweet potato/squash. 

4. Let it cook, about two minutes per side. 

5. Season with anything from the pumpkin pie spice family, if you want. I don't think I used any spice last time but this time I used cinnamon and ginger because that's what's in my spice drawer. 

6. Eat. I like mine with some hot black tea, spiked with a scoop of Russian Tea mix. My mom makes us our Russian Tea mix, but it's basically instant lemon flavored sweet tea, Tang, sugar and some spices.