Old German Banana Bread Recipe

Recently, Brandon was in the field for a couple weeks. In laymen’s terms, field work entails ‘camping out’ and performing tasks that simulate or train for deployment. Usually a service member doesn’t get to come home during this time as their focus is on training. It’s often difficult for me when Brandon is in the field since the girls are getting older. It’s not because I’m doing meals, bathing, story-time, and housework alone, it’s because I have to smile like everything is fine when I’m up to my ears in exhaustion. And I have to wear my brave face when the tough questions get asked.

One evening while he was away, the girls and I were sitting down to dinner. Whitney piped up, Mommy, are you going to get a new husband since daddy is gone? By that time he had been away for only a week and a half. But this question made me realize how aware she is of our family dynamics. Of course, I explained to her that he loves and misses she and her sister very much, and that he’d be back home soon. I wasn’t getting a new husband, or her a new daddy.

Those times break my heart a little because it’s a swift slap across the face of the reality we live in as a military family. Currently, our typical day-to-day life looks very much like any other household; cooking, cleaning, dual parenting, and planning what to do as a family for the weekend. And then field training pops up on the calendar and the world suddenly reminds me of the sacrifices we must endure. Our typical civilian-style day-to-day life suddenly shifts into the military-style day-to-day life.




I try very hard to keep the girls preoccupied while he’s gone. During this particular field training, we decided to bake Old German Banana Bread. You become immediately aware of my German heritage by hearing my maiden name, Fasnacht (pronounced faws – not), which literally translates to doughnut. We talked about how the three of us are part German as we baked our bread, although I don’t think they cared much for my crappy history lesson - they just wanted to dump and stir.

Instead of giving us a hand, Kennedy had it in the raisins.

Mama and baby bear loaves ready for the oven.

The finished product.

And the girls' loaf? Well, it came out as cute as a button.

Click Here for the Printable Recipe.

Erin Bettis