The best thing you’ll ever eat – Thanks to local honey bees

I have a neighbor who raises honeybees. I was intrigued by the whole process, since bees are such important pollinators, so he gave me a tour of his hives. When he gave me a jar of fresh honey from his hives, I went online to find a recipe to make something yummy with the golden nectar.

I chose a recipe for banana bread on allrecipes.com that looked pretty healthy, and I made a few modifications of my own. I love the recipe so much that I always have a loaf in the house. It is a perfect bedtime snack.

But last night, I discovered something that turned my satisfying snack into a scrumptious, luscious, heavenly treat: I added some Häagen-Dazs® Butter Pecan Ice Cream.

So if you want to discover the Best Thing You’ll Ever Eat, follow these steps:

1.  Locate and buy some local honey (see sources below) 
2.  Make Honey Wheat Banana Nut Bread (recipe below) 
3.  Cut a thin slice of banana bread and warm in toaster oven 
4.  Put toasted slice of banana nut bread in a bowl 
5.  Add scoop of Häagen-Dazs Butter Pecan ice cream 
6.  Dig in!

While you are enjoying your scrumptious snack, learn about the plight of the honey bee, the Häagen-Dazs loves Honey Bees™ campaign, and how you can make a difference at helpthehoneybees.com
 

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Honey Wheat Banana Nut Bread Recipe

This is a very moist and very healthy banana bread. It is not REAL sweet (which I like) but sometimes I sprinkle the top with cinnamon sugar or dribble extra honey on the top before baking to give it a little added sweetness. Since it is so moist, I usually toast slices in the toaster oven before I eat them. Yummy! I got the original recipe from allrecipes.com and made some modifications.

(My modifications are in parenthesis. Some of them were suggested by other users from the site allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS:
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
½ cup honey (or ¼ cup honey and ¼ cup brown sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 1/4 cup mashed bananas
1 ¾ cup white whole wheat flour
¼ cup hot water
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup chopped walnuts (I use pecans and also add about ¼ cup raisins)
Extra chopped nuts and cinnamon sugar for topping

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
2. In large bowl, mix applesauce, honey, brown sugar, and eggs. Stir in bananas and vanilla. Add flour. Add baking soda TO HOT WATER. Stir to mix, and then add to batter. Add nuts and raisins. Spread batter in greased 8x5 inch loaf pan. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar and extra chopped nuts on top before baking.
3. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for ½ hour before slicing

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Where to buy local honey: The Honey Locator; Or enter your zipcode in Local Harvest's Honey search