Best Banana Bread

This Banana Bread smells SOOO good coming out of the oven.

 I had three people walk in my house while it was baking. They paused. Inhaled slowly and nostalgically and confirmed, "Banana bread?"

This was a simple recipe to make and great for those super ripe bananas. And mine were...almost not yellow anymore. Hint: if you can't make banana bread and you have left over bananas, peel them, stick them in a baggy, and freeze for smoothies!

Credit for the recipe goes to: http://www.breadtopia.com/moist-whole-wheat-banana-bread/




Ingredients: 
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter (I used salted because I didn't have unsalted, and it turned out great. I just put in less salt with the dry ingredients.)
½ cup packed light or dark brown sugar (or use raw honey!)
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (overflowing. balances flavor if you use honey instead of sugar.)
1 ½ cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 medium to large browning bananas)
¼ cup honey or grade B maple syrup
 2 large eggs
1 1/2 - 2 cups whole wheat flour, traditional or white whole wheat (sub almond butter for GAPS)
 ½ cups chopped walnuts 

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Lightly grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.
Beat together the butter, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla in a medium bowl until smooth. Add the banana, honey and eggs, beating until smooth. Add the flour and nuts, stirring until smooth. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and let it rest at room temperature, uncovered for 10 minutes.
Bake the bread for 50 minutes. Lay a piece of foil gently across the top and bake until a cake tester (like a toothpick) inserted into the center comes out clean, 10 to 15 minutes more. Remove the bread from the oven and allow it to cool for 10 minutes before turning it out of the pan onto a rack to cool completely.

 Mine came out super dark because of the brown bananas and wheat flour. SO good.
 

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins--Made with Almond Flour

Almond Flour Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins.

No sugar, no flour!

These muffins are delectable! I love the texture--the almond flour makes it slightly grainy but it blends well with the poppy seeds. So in short, the texture is perfect.

The lemon and sweet work together to make a crunchy-top, moist-centered muffin. Breakfast just got ten times better.

Follow the recipe below, and make changes for any special diet or allergy concerns. Trust me, you'll want to triple this recipe. I got this recipe from comfybelly but made my own modifications. Check out her website. She has some great stuff.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins (using almond flour)

http://comfybelly.com/2011/05/lemon-poppy-seed-muffins-using-almond-flour/#.UcIUPILvb-Q

Ingredients (makes about 8 regular-size muffins)

•    2 eggs, separated. 

•    1/4 cup of oil (I use butter. Coconut oil works too. You can always do 1/2 butter, 1/2 oil.)

•    1/2 cup of honey (Or other sweetener. I do half honey, half maple syrup. Grade B has less sugar.)

•    1 tablespoon of vanilla (overflowing.)

•    1 tablespoon of lemon juice

•    2 1/2 cups of blanched almond flour

•    1/2 teaspoon of sea salt

•    1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

•    1 tablespoon of lemon zest (about one medium-size organic lemon; I do a little extra. It, along with the vanilla, balances out the honey flavor.)

•    1 tablespoon of poppy seeds

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degree F.

2. Place muffin liners (cupcake liners) in a muffin/cupcake baking pan.

3. Separate the egg yolks and whites.

4. Whip the egg whites until you form stiff peaks. *(This step is super important. Make those white SUPER stiff. This will give the muffins great texture and help the middle not sink in.)

5. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk together the yolks, honey, oil, vanilla, and lemon juice.

6. Whisk all the dry ingredients into the batter.

7. Fold the egg whites into the batter and blend well.

8. Add the poppy seeds and lemon zest to the batter and blend well.

9. Fill each muffin liner about 2/3 of the way with batter and bake for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick placed in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

10.           Cool and enjoy! Store for several days in a sealed container. Or... just on the counter covered with a light napkin.

No Bake Cookies--and 20 Ways to Spice 'em up!

The traditional recipe is delicious and sugar loaded--so if you're going to make them, just know there's really no healthy substitutions for these. But, it's fun to make a small batch and experiment with new ways to present and decorate them.

Source: My mom. : )

Ingredients:
1/2 c butter
2 c sugar
1 tsp salt
3 tbs cocoa
1/2 c milk
1 tbs corn syrup
1 tsp mexican vanilla
1/4 c Nutella (my mom does peanut butter. You can substitute any nut butter. There. There's your healthy way out.)
4 c. old fashioned oats (quick oats will work fine, but I prefer the bigger old fashioned kind.)



Method:
Butter sides of pan and let melt.
Add sugar, salt, cocoa, milk, syrup, and Nutella.
Bring to a boil.
Boil only one minute.
Take off heat.
Add vanilla; stir well.
Add oats; stir until coated.
Drop by spoonfuls on waxed paper.
Let cool.
Devour.

20 Fun Variations!:
1. Try more nuts and less oats. (Roasted hazelnuts would go great w/ the Nutella choice. I use 1/2 less of oats and substitute it with he cashews)

2. Pecans are great in these.

3. Try coconut and macadamia nuts.

4. Substitute Peanut Butter instead of Nutella (but I promise--Nutella is better) and add peanuts.

5. Try Maple Syrup instead of honey or corn syrup. Some like Agave nectar; it's not my favorite.

6. Add Nutter Butters crushed up, with peanuts. 

7. Add oreos and white chocolate chips.               

8. Try adding marshmallows and crushed graham crackers at the end. S'mores style!

9. Sprinkles! A great way to for the holidays is to add your favorite colored and shaped sprinkles! 

10. Dried fruit? I guess if you want, you could. Try dried banana chips with coconut, or dried mangoes with cinnamon.

11. Candy canes! A great holiday twist on these cookies. Choose any color of candy cane.  

 

12. Nut butters. Try almond butter or cashew butter instead of peanut butter. 

 

13. Chopped up candy bars. Add some pieces of Butterfingers or snickers. yum!  

14. Caramel. Add bits of caramel or drizzle salted caramel on top. (What if you added Rollos?!)

15. Bacon. I know this sounds weird, but just trust me. Bacon and chocolate go way back. 

16. White chocolate drizzle. You can dye the chocolate any color and do pastels for Easter, red and blue for Independence Day, and red and green for Christmas. 

17. Chips. Butterscotch chips, mint chips, etc. Any you can find in a bag at the grocery store. 

18. Use the cookies as a crust! Add some cream cheese spread and place fruit on top. Fruit pie!

19. "Truffles." Roll into tiny balls and dip in chocolate. Decorate and enjoy.

20. Cookies on a stick. Everything is being put on a stick these days. No bakes on a stick decorated with m&m's or oreos...delightful.

Tip: Use muffin cups. Instead of always "dropping them by spoonfuls onto wax paper," I use muffin tins. The small muffin ones are best, but the big ones work too.

Ice Cream Sandwiches

This recipe is super easy to make. It's one of those cake box recipes.

Ingredients:
 Favorite Ice Cream (For chocolate cookies I suggest vanilla or mint chocolate chunk)
Devil's Food Cake Mix
1 egg
1/2 cup melted butter

Directions:
Mix butter and egg well. Add cake mix and combine well--don't overmix.
Form dough into balls and bake 8-9 minutes or more depending on your oven.
Let cookies cool.
Scoop ice cream onto one cookie and put another cookie on top. Serve and enjoy.  

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls

These are delicious and healthier for you than most cinnamon rolls. They're not the puffy white covered in frosting type cinnamon rolls. Rather, they're earthy and nutty with the perfect amount of cinnamon and a drizzle of icing.

Source: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/the-best-of/honey-wheat-bread-recipe/index.html
And my imagination

Ingredients: 
For dough:
2 1/2 cups warm water
1 package dry yeast
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 stick softened butter
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups wheat flour
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
4 cups bread machine flour

For filling:
2 TB sugar, white or brown
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup chopped pecans

For Icing:
1 cup confectioner's sugar
2 tb melted butter
1 tb heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
[For this recipe, have fun. Use a maple or orange extract. Whatever you're feeling like having.]

Method:
I use the same recipe for the dough as my honey oat wheat bread. Follow the instructions until the second rising time:

Combine all ingredients, knead for about seven minutes or until dough is no longer wet but smooth. Let bread rise until doubled in size, punch down and roll out the dough.

Roll out the dough on a flat surface. I coat the surface with melted butter and then add cinnamon and sugar. I coat to my liking. Then I add chopped pecans.


Roll the dough until it has spiraled plenty. Then I simply cut from one end to the other, as thick as I want the rolls to be. I place them in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes. You can cover the tops with tin foil so they don't burn. If you use the tooth pick method, it's okay if it doesn't come out clean, as long as the residue is not super sticky.

Once the rolls have cooled on the pan for a few minutes, whip up the icing and pour over rolls as desired. There's really no rhyme or reason to the icing. Make as you please. 

You can prepare these on a baking sheet or even a round cake pan. Serve hot if desired and no need to keep them in the fridge. They'll probably be gone before you need to worry about storing them.

Honey Oat Wheat Bread

This wheat bread is so delicious. I've experimented with it many times and it's very versatile. I like to grind my own wheat and add that to the dough. I actually prefer more wheat flour than white with this one. It's a perfect recipe for breakfast toast and honey.

Source:  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/the-best-of/honey-wheat-bread-recipe/index.html

Honey Oat Wheat Bread

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups warm water
1 package dry yeast
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 stick softened butter
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups wheat flour
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
4 cups bread machine flour

Method:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Combine all ingredients, knead for about seven minutes or until dough is no longer wet but smooth. Let bread rise until doubled in size, punch down and shape into loaves.

Let bread double in size again. Bake at 375 until crusty and brown on top. Usually 30 minutes.

Serve with soup, as breakfast toast, french toast, sandwich bread, and more.

Chocolate Drizzled Strawberries and Mint

Chocolate Strawberries and Mint

Ingredients:
Fresh mint
Fresh strawberries
Dark-Semisweet chocolate bar

Method:
Wash strawberries and hull.

Wrap paper towel around each and get completely dry.

Wash mint and cover with paper towel to pat completely dry as well.

Halve the strawberries and dab each one cut side down on a paper towel to rid extra moisture.

Place on a baking sheet covered with wax paper.
Tear mint leaves off one at a time and place one on each strawberry.

Melt chocolate on medium low heat until a few chunks are left. Take off heat and stir until all chocolate is melted.

Let cool. (Can be done before you wash berries.)

Once chocolate is cooled, pour into a baggy and cut off a very small corner.

Squeeze out the chocolate and run over strawberries in straight lines or zig zag on each berry.

If mint leaves move or fall off, use a toothpick to secure the leaf until the chocolate is on and set.

Let set until chocolate becomes firm. Do not place in fridge--a discoloration of the chocolate will usually take place, especially for untempered chocolate.

Once chocolate is set, arrange how you want, serve, and enjoy!