Vegan Triple Chocolate Banana Bread

Banana bread. Who doesn't love it? It's the perfect thing for using up bananas a little past the fresh eating stage, and it's perfectly satisfactory for dessert or breakfast. 

I wanted to spin it up a little so I added chocolate, chocolate milk and chocolate chips. It turned out perfect: fluffy-yet-fudgy, and oh, so delicious. 

Have a slice with a cup of almond milk and your eyes will roll in your head. Yum.

Vegan Triple Chocolate Banana bread

2 tbs ground flax seed
¼ cup plus 2 tbs cold water

½ cup Earth Balance, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 medium)
¼ cup Silk Pure Almond Dark chocolate milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup baking cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
¼ cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

In a small bowl, combine the ground flax and water. Mix - I use my immersion blender - until it’s all gooey. If you don't have an immersion blender, you'll want to let this mixture sit for a few minutes before you start mixing.

In a large bowl, cream Earth Balance and sugar. Add the flax mixture, bananas, milk and vanilla.

In a smaller bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; add to the banana mixture and mix just until combined. Add the chocolate chips and stir them through.

Transfer to a greased 9-in. x 5-in. loaf pan.

Bake for 60-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean of batter. It will probably have melted chocolate on it, but that’s to be expected. Cool for 10 minutes in pan before cooling on a wire rack. Makes one loaf.

I want to believe

I'm a fan of the X-Files from way back when it was airing. 

I want to believe that if people know the truth, they'll respond in the only way a compassionate person could. I want to believe that the horror that goes on in the lives of the animals only does so because people don't know.

But people work for these places, don't they? People see the hens in battery cages slowly dehydrating to death, people see the cows forcibly impregnated only to have their young taken from them, people see the calves chained to become veal. People see the sows confined to an area so small they can't turn around, and people see the agony of the slaughterhouses.

Granted, those workers are perhaps not in a position to refuse to do the work, but there is a massive industry out there assuming that people are not compassionate, that they can do whatever they want regardless of torture as long as they keep prices down and production high. 

Are they right?

Is the flavor of an egg on your tongue worth even one hen's brutal, agonizing death?

Is the shot of cream in your coffee worth ripping a mother apart from her child?

Is the taste of bacon worth confining even one living being to a space so small she cannot turn around?

All of these things are easily replaceable using plants, and there is no longer any need for us to use animals the way we do except for entrenched habit. I want to believe that people are better than that, that their compassion can easily overcome their habits. 

I want to believe that we live in the future, where torture is not an integral part of people's daily lives.

I want to believe.