The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
b-side
Thursday, December 6, 2018 — 3B

The sweet tooth: society’s 
colloquial term to describe 
our sudden craving for sweets. 
Yet, the term almost comes 
with a hint of shame, as the 
sweet tooth tends to hit us 

hardest when we’re feeling a 
little stressed, a little down or 
maybe even just a little bored. 
Especially as students, we all 
relate to the sudden cravings 
that come with long study 
periods and academic/work 
stress.
So what better solutions 
do we have to this epidemic 
desire for the processed and 
carb-loaded? 
Here 
enters 
GoNanas, 
the 
brainchild 
of 
School 
of 
Information 
senior Annie Slabotski and 
LSA senior Morgan Lerner. 
GoNanas produces a variety of 
banana breads, all gluten-free 
(many vegan friendly as well) 
that replace all the negative 
ingredients 
associated 
with 
baked desserts with the kind 

of stuff that packs a much more 
nutritious punch, all detailed 
by Slabotski in an interview 
with The Daily.
“All of our breads are made 
from the exact same base. 
Instead of using refined wheat 
flour we use whole grain 
gluten-free oat flour, which is 
packed with fiber and a bunch 

of nutrients that are wonderful 
for you; and then instead of 
butter or canola oil we use 
coconut oil; instead of sour 
cream we use coconut milk,” 
Slabotski explained. “So every 
quote-unquote bad ingredient 
that you find within an average 
banana bread we substitute for 
something that is the better 
version for you.”
But GoNanas hasn’t always 
been supplying places like 
Fred’s, Replenish and Literati 
with their delicious breads. 
Like 
all 
small 
businesses, 
Slabotski and Lerner started 
out as freshman with a simple 
goal in mind: “We’re really 
driven by our mission in this 
idea that we can bring healthy, 
accessible food to busy college 
kids that are on the go and 
want to have a dessert but 
don’t want to grab a donut or 
a refined sugar-filled muffin. 
So we want to give this treat — 
especially to those people who 
are vegan or gluten-free or 
nut-free or dairy-free, we are 
all allergen-free — and being 

able to provide this healthy, 
nutritious 
dessert 
is 
what 
inspires us,” Slabotski said.
Slabotski and Lerner met 
as freshman year neighbors 
in their dorm, and sharing 
a common interest in food, 
Slabotski asked her neighbor 
if she wanted to go back 
to 
her 
parents’ 
house 
to 
do some baking. And upon 
mentioning that her family has 
urged her to sell her banana 
bread, 
Lerner 
responded 
enthusiastically, and the rest 
is history: “We went home, and 
we took a mixture of the recipe 
I knew from my mom and 
some healthy recipes that we 
found online and just started 
experimenting. 
We 
pretty 
much just threw something 

together in a mixing bowl, 
stuck it in the oven and burnt 
the whole thing. I mean it was 
charred. And we were like why 
don’t we just cut off the top? 
It’ll be super dry, but we can 
try it. And it was so good, and 
we thought, ‘If we can burn the 
crap out of this thing and it still 
tastes amazing, we really have 

something.’ So we spent the 
summer perfecting the recipe, 
talking to people, making sure 
they liked it, getting feedback 
and then we had some help 
developing the website and 
were open for business the 
next school year.”
What 
is 
most 
appealing 
about GoNanas is not only the 
nutritional value of their work, 
but also the variety they bring 
to an otherwise standard treat, 
with current flavors including 
pumpkin and chocolate chip 
— and with this variety brings 
a sustainable edge to their 
company. GoNanas works with 
the seasons provide fresh new 
flavors 
to 
their 
customers 
while keeping in mind how 
they can make a positive 
environmental 
impact 
with 
their food.
“When 
we’re 
exploring 
to find new flavors, we get 
inspired by the season. So 
right now we have pumpkin 
because it’s fall, but we’re 
transitioning into an apple-
cinnamon 
because 
apples 

are really well harvested in 
the winter, and a lot of our 

mission goes into food waste,” 
Slabotski explained. “We get a 

DOMINIC POLSINELLI
Senior Arts Editor

GoNanas: A new, health-
positive, innovative way 
to satisfy a sweet craving

ARTIST
PROFILE

IN

SINGLE REVIEW: ‘MODEL HOMES’

I’ve been anxiously 
awaiting the unlikely return 
of David Bazan-helmed Pedro 
The Lion since my youth 
pastor played “Diamond Ring” 
as the introduction to a lesson 
at our fall kick-off retreat 
my sophomore year of high 
school.
For those unfamiliar with 
Bazan’s work, as Pedro or 
otherwise, the publication 
Christ and Pop Culture might 
have put it best when they 
labeled him the “Patron Saint 
of Skeptics and Doubters.” 
Early in his career as Pedro, 
Bazan found a serious 
fan base among religious 
communities, who presumably 
just appreciated he was 
talking about God at all. As 
the albums kept coming (five 
LPs in total between 1998 and 
2004, with the addition of 
Phoenix coming in January 
of next year) Bazan’s lyrics 
became more and more 

cynical. Around that time, he 
also expressed in interviews 
that he had begun considering 
himself agnostic and, as a 
direct result, became a sort of 
black sheep among those in 

the Christian community who 
were aware of his work.
Now, although Bazan 
appears to be making a 
conscious turn away from 
explicitly religious themes, 
he can’t quite seem to make a 
clean break. “Model Homes,” 
the second single from the 
upcoming Phoenix, finds him 
still hinting at the stifling 
quality of the church. The 
song opens with Bazan, as a 
child, leaving church with his 
parents, an image followed by 

the reflection that “Sunday 
afternoon felt like a tomb.”
Largely, though, “Model 
Homes” expresses a wish for 
newness. Over melancholy, 
sun-soaked guitars, Bazan 
blurs the line between past 
and present, juxtaposing 
images of “Shuffling our shoes 
on brand new carpet / Freeze 
tag with static electricity,” 
with a desire to “Live with 
someone else / Give them my 
whole self.” What begins in 
childhood makes a startling 
jump to the present day, 
while Bazan half-shouts, “I 
wanna not be lonely,” in his 
characteristically syrupy vocal 
style. “When will the wait be 
over?” he repeats twice at the 
end of the song. For fans of 
Pedro, the wait will be over 
sooner than we know.

— Sean Lang, Daily Arts 
Writer

REPUBLIC RECORDS

“Model Homes”

Pedro the Lion

Polyvinyl

COURTESY OF GONANAS

COURTESY OF GONANAS

COURTESY OF GONANAS

COURTESY OF GONANAS

lot of bananas from stores like 
Replenish or small grocers who 
have over ripe bananas that 
they can’t sell. We’re hopeful 
to do that with this potential 
new flavor because a lot of 
apples get bruised and then 
are not able to be sold. Trying 
to reduce that food waste as 
well is something we try to 
incorporate into our breads.”
With an eye on health and 
sustainability, 
GoNanas 
is 
the perfect one-two punch 
of 
a 
delicious, 
sustainable 
snack without all the negative 
effects of typical, dessert-like 
foods. Starting with a family 
recipe, Slabotski and Lerner 
are pioneering what it means 
to satisfy a sweet tooth in a 
fast-paced, 
health-conscious 
society — especially one in a 
huge college town. With an eye 
at expanding their clientele 
in the future, Slabotski also 
reflected on the unique quality 
of their bread.

“I think it’s just a really 
unique product. I’ve never 
seen an on-the-go treat like 
that, and I think that we get 
a call maybe once every two 
weeks, once a month, from 
someone 
thanking 
us 
for 
bringing a gluten-free treat, 
or a vegan-treat, that’s not so 
expensive, that’s healthy and 
tastes good. So I think that 
it’s super rewarding to do 
something that you believe in. 
And I think that’s why we’ve 
done it for so long, and why we 
want to continue doing it.”
Next time you’re in a mild 
state of panic reviewing your 
organic chemistry notes or 
slamming out a paper on 
the role of carriages in Jane 
Austen, think about grabbing a 
slice of GoNanas bread before 
running to Walgreens for a 
candy bar — your body and 
mind will definitely thank you 
for it.

Yet, the term 
almost comes 
with a hint of 
shame, as the 
sweet tooth tends 
to hit us hardest 
when we’re 
feeling a little 
stressed, a little 
down or maybe 
even a little bored.

“...Being able 
to provide this 
healthy, nutritious 
dessert is what 
inspires us... ”

“So I think 
that it’s super 
rewarding to do 
something that 
you believe in. 
And I think that’s 
why we’ve done it 
for so long, and we 
want to contiue 
doing it.”