First cooking class

Ecuador has many fascinating fruits & vegetables.  Many that I haven't begun to taste/explore.  Breakfast & dinner are light meals; lunch is the main meal.  Every meal I have eaten has been all fresh food--no frozen, no canned, no microwaved lunches!  The traditional lunch includes soup (yesterday was cream of spinich, today was vegetable beef & yucca), a meat, rice (& sometimes potatoes) + bread (fresh each day from the local bakery--sometimes cooked in a wooden stove).  In the small restaurants, this meal can be purchased for as little as $1.50; if you add fruit & dessert, it may cost as much as $3.00.  The fruit is plentiful & delicious.  The papaya is to die for.  

Today the Spanish School provided a cooking class.  About a dozen of us went to a local home where the woman of the house cooked el verde bananas.  The green bananas are large, cut into pieces & boiled.  She had cooked those before we arrived.  The following picture is one of the students mashing the green bananas:  

After the bananas were mashed, butter was added. 

The additional ingredient was fresh cheese which was mashed.  

The banana/butter mixture was rolled into a ball with a small amount of cheese in the middle.

Walaa!  Bola El Verde Banana right out of the oven, served with a fresh tomato sauce.

Our bolas were served with fresh ingredients for a green salad, home-made salad dressing and fresh payaya juice.  A healthy, tasty, light, inexpensive dinner.