Banana Chocolate Bread

I really enjoy reading the book BakeWise by Shirley O. Corriher and there are tons of recipes that I want to try out. Most of the ones that I have tried out so far have been incredible so I was exited to try the banana bread recipe. As always I used coconut sugar instead of white sugar and I added 1 cup of chocolate chips because. The original recipe uses baking powder as well as baking soda, so I substituted the baking powder with more baking soda (not one to one as baking soda is 4 times more powerful).

1 3/4 cups of flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups coconut sugar
1/2 cups canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
4 mashed very ripe bananas (about 2 cups)
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup whipping cream
Mix together flour, baking soda, salt and sugar.
In a second bowl, mix together canola oil, vanilla extract, eggs, buttermilk and bananas until well combined. Then add chocolate chips and roasted nuts.
Make a mold in the dry ingredients and add the banana mix.
In a third bowl whip the whipping cream until soft peaks form. Then fold the cream into the batter.
Bake in a 8 x 4.5 x 2.5 inch (20 x 11 x 6 cm) loaf pan at 375F / 190C for about 35 minutes until the center springs back when touched and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

As I didn't have a loaf pan I used an 8 x 8 inches square baking pan. The result was disastrous. After 35 minutes the batter was still very liquid and after another 30 hour the outside began to burn while a knife inserted in the center still came out smeared with uncooked batter.
So I took it out of the oven, cut it in half and tried saving it by frying it on the stove. The result looked very sad.
On the plus side it did taste quite good and was happily received as a sweet breakfast addition on our camping trip.

Next time I would still use my square baking pan but only make half of the batter. I don't know how all this batter can fit in a loaf pan and not overflow when it rises during baking!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Oatmeal Smoothie

This is my recent favorite breakfast smoothie: Peanut Butter Chocolate Oatmeal... in a smoothie! Yum!
I substitute half of the milk for either almond milk or rice milk. But I don't want to substitute all of it because it gives the smoothie a creaminess that the milk alternatives don't.

This is what I use:
2 bananas
1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp maca powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 handful of nuts (cashews)
1/4 cup (about 1 1/2 pack) of instant oatmeal

curcuma smoothie

The original curcuma smoothie recipe calls for mango and ginger. I didn't have either. But as I finally found out that turmeric and curcuma are practically the same thing, I had finally found where I could buy it and was itching to try it out in my smoothies.

Banana-Orange-Turmeric Smoothie
1 banana
1 orange
1-2 cup of buttermilk
1 tsp turmeric
some lemon or lime juice
honey or maple syrup for sweetness.
Blend well and enjoy. It has a pleasantly fresh and slightly Indian taste.

Peanut Butter, Banana, Cholate Smoothie

I like Reese's and was delighted to find recipes with the same idea (peanut butter and chocolate) for smoothies.

This one also calls for flax seed and Greek yogurt (which I substituted with a tablespoon of sour cream and nuts ;) ! mmh!) and gets my full recommendation!

Kale Smoothie

And the best way to eat kale?
In a smoothie!!

This one is my new favorite smoothie. I wake up and want it. I can't get enough of it. And it's unbelievable how much kale ends up in one glass! It's yummy AND healthy :)

Kale Smoothie:
A bunch of kale (yum!)
1 banana
1/4 cup pecans
1-2 tbsp maple syrup
1 top flax seed
1/2 cup rice milk or water
Blend well. Enjoy!

The maple syrup and banana give this smoothie a nice sweetness and the nuts and flax seed give it an interesting twist.

Banana Chocolate Smoothie

I tried something new with the Banana Chocolate Smoothies and I really like the result: I added nuts, maple syrup and a few pieces from a chocolate bar (70%). I've also been adding almond coconut milk to those smoothies and it tastes fantastic!

Banana Chocolate Smoothie:
2 bananas
1/3 - 1/5 cup of nuts (e.g. cashews, pecans)
1tbsp cocoa powder
1tbsp maple syrup
1tsp vanilla extract
4 pieces from a 70% chocolate bar
1/2 cup of almond coconut milk (or just almond milk, or rice milk)
Blend well. Add more almond coconut milk to get the desired consistency.

A surprisingly sweet Banana-Pear-Almond-Milk-Smoothie!

For my (almost) daily smoothie I tried out the following

Smoothie recipe:
1 banana
1 pear
1 cup almond milk
4 tbsp cranberry juice
Blend banana and pear (will make about 2 cups of banana-pear-mush), add almond milk and cranberry juice. Enjoy!

Surprisingly the smoothie tasted a lot like apple, which I'm not against, but I just expected something different. Also, I realized that the almond milk I bought was sweetened (don't know how I missed that before). Now I know that the sweetness of my last smoothies wasn't all thanks to those ripe bananas!

Smoothie (banana, chocolate, almond milk)

Today was a busy day full of Christmas activities and friends. So I only had time to prepare a quick smoothie in the morning:

Banana-Chocolate-Almond-Milk Smoothie
1 1/2 banans
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups almond milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Blend all the ingredients. The banana makes it sufficiently sweet so no sugar is needed. Nomnom!

Smoothie (banana, berries, mint, almond milk)

Since I got an immersion blender (last week), I have been making smoothies as often as I could.

Yesterday a special person showed me a recipe and I was keen on trying it out today. As I didn't have all the ingredients I changed it up a little bit and it turned into a fresh minty smoothie. Perfect to start my late morning after sleeping in :)

Banana-Berry-Mind-Almond Smoothie
1/2 banana
1 cup frozen blue berry and raspberry mix
1/2 avocado
leaves of 3-4 stems of fresh mint
1 cup  almond milk
1 tbsp coconut sugar
Blend all the ingredients. Sweeten to taste.