Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Best Healthy Banana Bread

I've been on the search for the best banana bread for a long time. I finally found one I loved, and then I started eating healthier so banana bread became a once every 6 months type treat. I didn't have a use for my old bananas anymore. I personally don't love bananas in the first place, so banana bread was the only time I was really eating banana bread before.

Time to do what I do best, healthifying a recipe! Yes, I just made that word up.

This project took awhile, not as long as it took to find a good recipe in the first place, but still. I'm very perticular about my banana bread. I needed it to be good enough that I didn't feel the need to add butter. I obviously wanted it to be moist, NO ONE wants dry banana bread. It needed to taste like banana bread (one version I tried, my husband came home and had a slice, and asked what kind of bread it was. oops!)

Here's a few trick I was given and learned along the way.

1) Use the nastiest bananas you can find. WAYYYY past the point of where you'd eat them. The batch I made today I used completely black bananas. This helps the bread taste sweet, and have a more potent (but not over powering) banana flavor.

2) Don't skip the applesauce!

3) Don't be lazy, prep before you start mixing. whisk the eggs, smash the bananas, mix the dry ingredients, etc.


4) Don't over mix, fold in the dry ingredients.

5) Always enjoy a warm slice :)

Try it out, send me a picture, let me know what you think!

Banana Bread
2 cups flour (I like Bob Red Mill's organic, unbleached all purpose flour)
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 unsweetened apple sauce
3/4 cup raw honey
3 eggs beaten
2 1/3 cups mashed bananas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9x5 loaf pan with a little coconut oil. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. In a seperate bowl, cream unmelted coconut oil, applesauce and honey. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended.


Fold banana mixture into flour mixture, careful not to over mix.


Pour batter into loaf pan. Bake for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Let cool for 5-10 minutes, then remove from pan by flipping the pan upside down, and let cool on a wire rack.

Serving size is one slice. Each slice is one yellow, 1/2 a purple, and 1 teaspoon.

Monday, February 8, 2016

Mondays

I've been neglecting my blog! I have been so busy with my kids, coaching, trips, the holidays, our kitchen remodel. I put the blog on the back burner, but it's good to know that I'm still getting people looking at recipes and such.

If you've read any of my past posts, Mondays are hard for me. I lost my brother to suicide on a Monday. In fact, it will be a year exactly tomorrow. I really don't want to make this a sad post, so I'll leave it at that. Mondays can be hard for everyone, though. You get all weekend to relax OR do a bunch of house work and chores. Then Monday comes and you have to get back to work. Or maybe you're a stay at home mom, and you get help from your husband all weekend, and then he has to go back to work Monday. Whatever the situation, Mondays aren't the greatest.

A few months ago, I realized that Mondays are actually just another day. I have the choice to make Mondays hard, or make it the best day I can. It's the first day of the week, and I get a fresh start. No matter what I'm working on that week, getting my workouts in each day, keeping my house clean, working on a project, being a kinder person, Monday is the first day to get to work. Monday sets the tone for the rest of the week, so if you miss Monday, are you going to give it your all the rest of the week? Probably not. I hear a lot of people say, "Well I missed Monday and then this happened Tuesday, so I'll just start next Monday." There are a few things I can start any day and get real excited about it and have enough drive to do from there on out, but most things I do best when I start on Monday.

This week, I am really focusing on balance. I can balance my business, my kids, my house, and my relationships better. Time management is my weakness, I know I can do better on that, and balance is the key. I want to work on gratitude. I also want to work on variety in my nutrition. I get used to the same old stuff, which I'm totally happy to do, but I know variety could help me do better and keep me from getting bored. In every aspect of my life, I could use more balance. So I start today. I know I'll do great because I will give it my all on day 1.


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