Since I feel I was successful in my baking endeavors this week, I thought I would post the recipe I used to make my muffins. I know this recipe comes from a cookbook, but I don't know what cookbook because the recipe I have is just a copy from the book. Perhaps my honey will tell me what book it came from if I ask him.
Banana Bread
2 Cups of Brown Rice Flour or any combination of gluten free flours
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg (all-spice works well here too if you don't have nutmeg)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 beaten eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 5 medium or 3 large)
1 cup coconut sugar
1/2 cooking oil (I used olive oil, but any vegetable based oil would work with the exception of peanut)
1/4 cup chopped nuts (I used shredded coconut, but any nut would work)
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom and 1/2 inch up the sides of one 9x5x3 inch or two 7 1/2x3 1/2x2 inch loaf pans, or two muffin tins with 12 muffin cups apiece (if you do muffins, just use the paper muffin cups - saves time and grease). In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Make a well in center of flour mixture; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl combine eggs, bananas, sugar, and oil. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (Batter should be lumpy). Fold in nuts. Spoon batter into prepared pan(s).
3. For the larger loaf pan: bake in a 350 degree oven for 55 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted.
For the two loaf pans: bake in a 350 degree oven for 40 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Muffins: Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until tooth pick comes out clean.
Showing posts with label banana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label banana. Show all posts
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 30, 2011
A Baking Success
I am not very good at baking. I do fine with the cooking part but baking things like cake, cookies, bread, or anything else like that - I fail miserably! I do okay with the boxed mixes, and I make good chocolate chip cookies, but anything beyond that I cannot do.
So, I was given a challenge this week. My boyfriend texted me the other day and told me he had some bananas that were no longer fit for eating, but were perfect for banana bread. The last time I made banana bread the bread crumbled and was not done in the middle. He said he was going to bring me the bananas along with the recipe. So, I took it as a challenge to be successful in this baking endeavor.
Instead of using the gluten all-purpose flour I opted to use brown rice flour. I then had to come up with something in place of the sugar. I have been doing a lot of research on natural sweeteners and whatnot and the other day I came across one I hadn't heard of - coconut sugar. Apparently coconut sugar is made from the nectar of the coconut blossoms that bloom before the coconut grows in its place on the tree. I am able to have coconut, so I figured its sugar counterpart was fine. Just like refined sugar, though, it has as many calories and needs to be eaten in moderation. The plus side is that it has a very low glycemic index score, which means that it won't make your blood sugar spike as quickly as regular sugar does and it is easier for the body to digest. So needless to say, I went and bought some coconut sugar.
Now I was ready to make this banana bread. I whipped up the batter according to the instructions and then put the batter in the fridge. This morning I got up a little earlier than usual and pulled out the muffin pans. I put in muffin papers and proceeded to fill twenty four muffin cups with banana bread batter made with rice flour and coconut sugar. I then put in the muffin pans into the oven and while the muffins were baking, I went and got ready for work. After I was done getting ready for work, the muffins were done.
They turned out really well and they are tasty too! I am happy to say that this baking challenge was a success! People at work liked the muffins and so did my honey! And I have a lot left for tomorrow too! Yay!
I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year! See you all "next year!"
So, I was given a challenge this week. My boyfriend texted me the other day and told me he had some bananas that were no longer fit for eating, but were perfect for banana bread. The last time I made banana bread the bread crumbled and was not done in the middle. He said he was going to bring me the bananas along with the recipe. So, I took it as a challenge to be successful in this baking endeavor.
Instead of using the gluten all-purpose flour I opted to use brown rice flour. I then had to come up with something in place of the sugar. I have been doing a lot of research on natural sweeteners and whatnot and the other day I came across one I hadn't heard of - coconut sugar. Apparently coconut sugar is made from the nectar of the coconut blossoms that bloom before the coconut grows in its place on the tree. I am able to have coconut, so I figured its sugar counterpart was fine. Just like refined sugar, though, it has as many calories and needs to be eaten in moderation. The plus side is that it has a very low glycemic index score, which means that it won't make your blood sugar spike as quickly as regular sugar does and it is easier for the body to digest. So needless to say, I went and bought some coconut sugar.
Now I was ready to make this banana bread. I whipped up the batter according to the instructions and then put the batter in the fridge. This morning I got up a little earlier than usual and pulled out the muffin pans. I put in muffin papers and proceeded to fill twenty four muffin cups with banana bread batter made with rice flour and coconut sugar. I then put in the muffin pans into the oven and while the muffins were baking, I went and got ready for work. After I was done getting ready for work, the muffins were done.
They turned out really well and they are tasty too! I am happy to say that this baking challenge was a success! People at work liked the muffins and so did my honey! And I have a lot left for tomorrow too! Yay!
I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year! See you all "next year!"
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Day 15: I Can See The Light At The End Of The Tunnel!
In many ways I am very glad I started this diet right before the holiday season! Why, you ask? Because the less money I spend on take-out and other eating establishments means I have more money to spoil people for Christmas! :-)
But really I am glad I am working on this diet during the holidays because this time of year is always accompanied with good food and a lot of it! Cookies, cake, ham, turkey, and all those other yummy things we all love to eat during this time of year! I am thankful to be on this diet because I am learning how to enjoy different foods and not feel deprived. I can honestly say that I have not felt deprived on this diet. I thought I would feel deprived but in all honesty I have not. I get chocolate every day which is very important and with my almond milk and my frozen bananas, I can make fabulous smoothies that are almost as good as my beloved oreo shakes!
This diet has also allowed me to develop my cooking skills even further. I have been getting creative as of late with my meals too! So if anyone needs healthy yet delicious ideas for meals, let me know. I have had some real winners as of late such as roast chicken and carrots, stuffed peppers, and mashed sweet potatoes.
I will admit, though, that I am so glad the light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer, because I am looking forward to having a few more things back in my diet. What I am mainly hoping for is to have dairy and eggs back in my diet and pork too. The gluten I honestly won't miss as there are other things out there to replace that and I am also hoping to be able to have rice back in my diet too. I love rice and hope I can eat it again as well as tomatoes. How I have missed my salsa and ketchup!
Overall, I am not feeling any sicker or worse than I was before. I don't necessarily feel any better, but I don't feel worse and I am thankful for that.
Today I have another appointment with the doc and we will see if anything is going to be changing. We may even discuss my custom diet plan a little today. I am hoping so, because I plan to eat something fantastic after this diet is over, but I also will not eat anything that could screw up all of the work I have done either. But if he says I can have dairy, I am so celebrating with some sugar free frozen yogurt!
But really I am glad I am working on this diet during the holidays because this time of year is always accompanied with good food and a lot of it! Cookies, cake, ham, turkey, and all those other yummy things we all love to eat during this time of year! I am thankful to be on this diet because I am learning how to enjoy different foods and not feel deprived. I can honestly say that I have not felt deprived on this diet. I thought I would feel deprived but in all honesty I have not. I get chocolate every day which is very important and with my almond milk and my frozen bananas, I can make fabulous smoothies that are almost as good as my beloved oreo shakes!
This diet has also allowed me to develop my cooking skills even further. I have been getting creative as of late with my meals too! So if anyone needs healthy yet delicious ideas for meals, let me know. I have had some real winners as of late such as roast chicken and carrots, stuffed peppers, and mashed sweet potatoes.
I will admit, though, that I am so glad the light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer, because I am looking forward to having a few more things back in my diet. What I am mainly hoping for is to have dairy and eggs back in my diet and pork too. The gluten I honestly won't miss as there are other things out there to replace that and I am also hoping to be able to have rice back in my diet too. I love rice and hope I can eat it again as well as tomatoes. How I have missed my salsa and ketchup!
Overall, I am not feeling any sicker or worse than I was before. I don't necessarily feel any better, but I don't feel worse and I am thankful for that.
Today I have another appointment with the doc and we will see if anything is going to be changing. We may even discuss my custom diet plan a little today. I am hoping so, because I plan to eat something fantastic after this diet is over, but I also will not eat anything that could screw up all of the work I have done either. But if he says I can have dairy, I am so celebrating with some sugar free frozen yogurt!
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Day 6 & 7: The Weekend
I made it to the weekend! This has been a typical weekend full of activities and all sorts of fun! And like always these activities include good food. Since I am on this diet, I have had to be very choosy about what I eat. On Friday, my boyfriend and I went to the movie with some friends and we went to dinner before. We did go to a soup and salad place that has a fabulous salad bar, so I was able to get a green salad with lots of yummy veggies and chicken and nuts on it! Saturday my friend and I went to another movie and after the movie we went to lunch. Fortunately, we went to a place that has a huge a menu so I was able to order a veggie burger and I left all the condiments off and just got lettuce and onions on it. The other veggie they put on their burgers is tomatoes and I can't have those so it was a very boring burger by even my standard and I don't like a lot on my burgers to begin with. For dinner, though, I made white chicken chili in the slow cooker. My co-worker found the recipe for me and it was fabulous! I will have to post the recipe when I remember to.
Today (Sunday) has been a little easier and that is only because I typically don't eat out on Sundays and since I live alone I am able to control what I eat more than most. For breakfast I sliced up a sweet potato and put in a skillet with some olive oil and salt and pepper and cooked the potato until it started to get crispy. I then added some sweet Italian turkey sausage to the potato and finished cooking the potatoes with the sausage. I was a little worried it wouldn't taste good because of the natural sweetness of the potato, but it actually turned out really well and I loved it! I loved it so much I cooked another batch this afternoon and portioned it out into containers so I have breakfast all ready to go this week. For lunch I just had some of the leftover chili I made last night. I then put the rest of the chili into some containers and froze it. I will have some yummy lunches this week. For dinner I cooked my first quinoa. I made stuffed peppers which were stuffed with quinoa, ground turkey, carrots, and some various spices. I then baked the peppers in the oven. They turned out great! I had stuffed peppers leftover, so I will be taking some to work tomorrow for lunch for both the boyfriend and myself. I have made stuffed peppers before and those stuffed peppers re-heated well, so I am confident these will as well.
I then whipped up a batch of my banana almond milk smoothies. Instead of making them one at a time, I decided to make a large batch that will last about a day. I want to have some with breakfast and since I would rather sleep than get up and prepare breakfast I took advantage of my free afternoon to get ahead in my food preparation. That is the biggest thing that has changed. I have had to take time to prepare almost every meal I have eaten at home or at work. In the past, I could just grab one of my tv dinners or something from the fridge\freezer for easy lunch, but now I have to take time to prepare. During the week I don't have much time to do advanced meal prep, so I was glad I had today to do some. I am set til Wednesday in terms of breakfast and lunch. Dinner doesn't need to be prepared beforehand as I tend to make that up on the spot anyways.
Tomorrow I will have been on the diet for one week and I must say I am feeling pretty good about reaching my goals. Thanksgiving is this week and I have already found some great recipes to do, so I will not be deprived of any of my favorites.
Have a great week everyone and I will be back with more diet updates!
Today (Sunday) has been a little easier and that is only because I typically don't eat out on Sundays and since I live alone I am able to control what I eat more than most. For breakfast I sliced up a sweet potato and put in a skillet with some olive oil and salt and pepper and cooked the potato until it started to get crispy. I then added some sweet Italian turkey sausage to the potato and finished cooking the potatoes with the sausage. I was a little worried it wouldn't taste good because of the natural sweetness of the potato, but it actually turned out really well and I loved it! I loved it so much I cooked another batch this afternoon and portioned it out into containers so I have breakfast all ready to go this week. For lunch I just had some of the leftover chili I made last night. I then put the rest of the chili into some containers and froze it. I will have some yummy lunches this week. For dinner I cooked my first quinoa. I made stuffed peppers which were stuffed with quinoa, ground turkey, carrots, and some various spices. I then baked the peppers in the oven. They turned out great! I had stuffed peppers leftover, so I will be taking some to work tomorrow for lunch for both the boyfriend and myself. I have made stuffed peppers before and those stuffed peppers re-heated well, so I am confident these will as well.
I then whipped up a batch of my banana almond milk smoothies. Instead of making them one at a time, I decided to make a large batch that will last about a day. I want to have some with breakfast and since I would rather sleep than get up and prepare breakfast I took advantage of my free afternoon to get ahead in my food preparation. That is the biggest thing that has changed. I have had to take time to prepare almost every meal I have eaten at home or at work. In the past, I could just grab one of my tv dinners or something from the fridge\freezer for easy lunch, but now I have to take time to prepare. During the week I don't have much time to do advanced meal prep, so I was glad I had today to do some. I am set til Wednesday in terms of breakfast and lunch. Dinner doesn't need to be prepared beforehand as I tend to make that up on the spot anyways.
Tomorrow I will have been on the diet for one week and I must say I am feeling pretty good about reaching my goals. Thanksgiving is this week and I have already found some great recipes to do, so I will not be deprived of any of my favorites.
Have a great week everyone and I will be back with more diet updates!
Friday, November 18, 2011
Day 5: A Little Better
I am doing much better this morning than I did yesterday. The doc warned me there would be days when I would crave lots of bad for me things and yesterday was definitely one of those days. I made it through though.
Yesterday I ate my first sweet potato! It was quite tasty and since I can't have butter or anything like that, I nuked the thing in the microwave and then sprinkled some of my "candied" pecans on top. It was quite delicious. I am glad I liked the sweet potato because now I know that I will be able to have mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving.
In preparation for the most difficult Thanksgiving ever eating wise I started looking on the internet for recipes. I have never ventured much into the vegan free, gluten free, or dairy free world and so I was quite astonished as to the amount of recipes and blogs out there with recipes! I have a co-worker who is vegan so she gave me some resources too! And some of the recipes I stumbled upon looked absolutely delicious! I am thankful that there are people out there who eat this way either because of personal beliefs or for health reasons who have done the leg work for me. I don't think I could be this restrictive in my diet forever - I enjoy food too much! But I am glad I have this opportunity for a little while to understand that I can still eat well!
Here are some of the blog\recipe sites I found that I really liked:
- For the Love of Food Blog: A food enthusiast's journey to find community, health, and joy through eating.
- My Real Food Life
These two sites have a lot of resources on them, especially the second one. It has gluten free, vegan friendly, dairy free, and even soy free recipes on them.
Today will be better! I got more bananas, so I was able to have my new favorite thing with breakfast - my banana almond milk smoothies! I had that with the rest of my chicken sausage. Today I start having my "protein" shake twice day - once before breakfast and once before dinner. I am kind of glad I get to have it more right now cause it is the only sweet chocolatey thing I get all day! I will take my chocolate fix any way I can get it! By Monday I will be having this shake three times day with each meal.
I can't believe I almost through my last week. I have started to see some results, but right now I am still working through the caffeine and sugar withdrawals. Hopefully by Monday those will be more manageable. Here is to the next week!
Yesterday I ate my first sweet potato! It was quite tasty and since I can't have butter or anything like that, I nuked the thing in the microwave and then sprinkled some of my "candied" pecans on top. It was quite delicious. I am glad I liked the sweet potato because now I know that I will be able to have mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving.
In preparation for the most difficult Thanksgiving ever eating wise I started looking on the internet for recipes. I have never ventured much into the vegan free, gluten free, or dairy free world and so I was quite astonished as to the amount of recipes and blogs out there with recipes! I have a co-worker who is vegan so she gave me some resources too! And some of the recipes I stumbled upon looked absolutely delicious! I am thankful that there are people out there who eat this way either because of personal beliefs or for health reasons who have done the leg work for me. I don't think I could be this restrictive in my diet forever - I enjoy food too much! But I am glad I have this opportunity for a little while to understand that I can still eat well!
Here are some of the blog\recipe sites I found that I really liked:
- For the Love of Food Blog: A food enthusiast's journey to find community, health, and joy through eating.
- My Real Food Life
These two sites have a lot of resources on them, especially the second one. It has gluten free, vegan friendly, dairy free, and even soy free recipes on them.
Today will be better! I got more bananas, so I was able to have my new favorite thing with breakfast - my banana almond milk smoothies! I had that with the rest of my chicken sausage. Today I start having my "protein" shake twice day - once before breakfast and once before dinner. I am kind of glad I get to have it more right now cause it is the only sweet chocolatey thing I get all day! I will take my chocolate fix any way I can get it! By Monday I will be having this shake three times day with each meal.
I can't believe I almost through my last week. I have started to see some results, but right now I am still working through the caffeine and sugar withdrawals. Hopefully by Monday those will be more manageable. Here is to the next week!
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Day 2: Lunch and Dinner
Lunch today was anti-climactic as it consisted of my leftover chicken and carrots from dinner last night, a bag of grapes, and some cashews for my afternoon snack.
Dinner tonight, however was fantastic! One of my favorite dishes is tacos! I love tacos A LOT! And I especially love hard tacos! Today as I was driving home contemplating what in the blazes I was going to make for dinner, a thought came to my mind, "What about turkey tacos?" Of course, though, this meant I had to get creative as I couldn't have taco shells, tortillas, salsa, cheese, sour cream, or even tomatoes!
In low carb diets, it is very common for people to substitute lettuce leaves in place of the bun or tortilla or whatever. So, I decided to borrow from this. I turned some iceberg lettuce leaves into taco shells. And I had ground turkey (which personally I have always liked in tacos) and some taco seasoning. The taco seasoning must be purchased from a health food store so you can ensure you are getting natural herbs and spices with no artificial crap. I shop at Sunflower Market where I live and they have some taco seasoning that I just love! It is the Simply Organic Spicy Taco seasoning! This stuff packs a punch but it is so good! So I cooked my turkey with my seasoning.
Cheese is a wonderful thing on tacos, but I can't have cheese, so I had to come up with something else. I also wanted a lettuce substitute as I was using the lettuce for my shells. I also felt like I needed tomatoes, but I can't have tomatoes, so I thought on this while I cooked my meat. For my cheese I shredded some carrots, so it even looked like cheese. It used to be common practice to use carrots for the orange coloring in cheese, so it works. For my lettuce I used red cabbage. It has a similar flavor and shreds nicely. For my tomatoes I settled on black beans. After the meat was done, I pulled out a lettuce leaf, put some meat on it, and then I topped it with my cheese, lettuce, and tomato substitutes. I rolled lettuce up like a burrito and took a bite and it was so delicious! I didn't think it would be, but it was quite good. The taco seasoning is so spicy you really don't need hot sauce or salsa or anything else like that unless you absolutely want it. The lettuce and carrots help keep my mouth cool, but it was still on fire when I got done eating!
Because my mouth was on fire I knew I needed something more than a glass of water to cool my mouth off, so I decided to make a banana smoothie for my dessert. I am addicted to these banana almond milk smoothies! I think they are my new favorite thing! And I freeze the bananas so the frozen banana in the milk makes it taste ice creamy! So, I whipped up a smoothie and to make it a little more fun I added some of the "candied" pecans I made last night for dessert! I put in a fun glass and then put in a bendy straw! Banana heaven it was!
Overall, I am feeling better about this diet today than I was yesterday! I will be taking my taco stuff from tonight and will be turning it into a taco salad for lunch tomorrow! I could eat tacos forever and never get bored so lunch tomorrow will definitely be awesome!
Turkey Taco Meat:
Taco Toppings And "Shells":
Banana Almond Milk Smoothie With "Candied" Pecans:
Dinner tonight, however was fantastic! One of my favorite dishes is tacos! I love tacos A LOT! And I especially love hard tacos! Today as I was driving home contemplating what in the blazes I was going to make for dinner, a thought came to my mind, "What about turkey tacos?" Of course, though, this meant I had to get creative as I couldn't have taco shells, tortillas, salsa, cheese, sour cream, or even tomatoes!
In low carb diets, it is very common for people to substitute lettuce leaves in place of the bun or tortilla or whatever. So, I decided to borrow from this. I turned some iceberg lettuce leaves into taco shells. And I had ground turkey (which personally I have always liked in tacos) and some taco seasoning. The taco seasoning must be purchased from a health food store so you can ensure you are getting natural herbs and spices with no artificial crap. I shop at Sunflower Market where I live and they have some taco seasoning that I just love! It is the Simply Organic Spicy Taco seasoning! This stuff packs a punch but it is so good! So I cooked my turkey with my seasoning.
Cheese is a wonderful thing on tacos, but I can't have cheese, so I had to come up with something else. I also wanted a lettuce substitute as I was using the lettuce for my shells. I also felt like I needed tomatoes, but I can't have tomatoes, so I thought on this while I cooked my meat. For my cheese I shredded some carrots, so it even looked like cheese. It used to be common practice to use carrots for the orange coloring in cheese, so it works. For my lettuce I used red cabbage. It has a similar flavor and shreds nicely. For my tomatoes I settled on black beans. After the meat was done, I pulled out a lettuce leaf, put some meat on it, and then I topped it with my cheese, lettuce, and tomato substitutes. I rolled lettuce up like a burrito and took a bite and it was so delicious! I didn't think it would be, but it was quite good. The taco seasoning is so spicy you really don't need hot sauce or salsa or anything else like that unless you absolutely want it. The lettuce and carrots help keep my mouth cool, but it was still on fire when I got done eating!
Because my mouth was on fire I knew I needed something more than a glass of water to cool my mouth off, so I decided to make a banana smoothie for my dessert. I am addicted to these banana almond milk smoothies! I think they are my new favorite thing! And I freeze the bananas so the frozen banana in the milk makes it taste ice creamy! So, I whipped up a smoothie and to make it a little more fun I added some of the "candied" pecans I made last night for dessert! I put in a fun glass and then put in a bendy straw! Banana heaven it was!
Overall, I am feeling better about this diet today than I was yesterday! I will be taking my taco stuff from tonight and will be turning it into a taco salad for lunch tomorrow! I could eat tacos forever and never get bored so lunch tomorrow will definitely be awesome!
Turkey Taco Meat:
Taco Toppings And "Shells":
Completed Taco Before Rolling:
Banana Almond Milk Smoothie With "Candied" Pecans:
Day 2: Breakfast
For breakfast this morning, I decided to have the last half of my chicken sausage and an orange. I love oranges this time of year! I swear the stores sell us crappy oranges all year but then at Thanksgiving and Christmas, they bring out the best of the best!
I learned how to cook buckwheat yesterday and considering what I learned, I didn't do half bad. I should have toasted the buckwheat though before boiling. I will know this for next time.
For my morning snack I have another banana almond milk smoothie and for lunch I am having leftovers from dinner last night! I had my little protein shake thingy this morning as well. In a few days I will be having this drink twice a day and then three times a day and then I will work back down to once a day. Out of all of the protein shakes or similar I have had this has probably been the best one I have ever had. Most of them I can taste the protein powder and it grosses me out. This one has balanced things out nicely and is very chocolatey, which is my favorite part - chocolate in the morning!
Today is also my first day without any caffeine. I hope I can survive the withdrawals that are sure to follow!
I learned how to cook buckwheat yesterday and considering what I learned, I didn't do half bad. I should have toasted the buckwheat though before boiling. I will know this for next time.
For my morning snack I have another banana almond milk smoothie and for lunch I am having leftovers from dinner last night! I had my little protein shake thingy this morning as well. In a few days I will be having this drink twice a day and then three times a day and then I will work back down to once a day. Out of all of the protein shakes or similar I have had this has probably been the best one I have ever had. Most of them I can taste the protein powder and it grosses me out. This one has balanced things out nicely and is very chocolatey, which is my favorite part - chocolate in the morning!
Today is also my first day without any caffeine. I hope I can survive the withdrawals that are sure to follow!
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