Friday, March 28, 2014

Gluten-Free Banana Bread!

I really need to post a dinner recipe soon, but forgive me for not being able to wait to share this! I have been craving banana bread for MONTHS. It is one of my all-time favorite sweet treats. This recipe happens to be gluten-free, and while I have no dietary restrictions against gluten, I can appreciate the dramatic caloric deficit that cutting out gluten products can provide.In general, eating gluten-free can be a hold easier on your body than most people realize. So for me, whenever I can cut out gluten, I do :)

That being said, I have been researching an alternative to homestyle, "fattening" banana bread. Traditional recipes are filled with a whole mess of flour, butter, and sugar that I want nowhere near this body of mine. I finally found a recipe that seemed to have everything I was looking for! I mixed it up a little bit to make it my own, and here it is!

What you'll need:

  • 2 cups of almond meal* or almond flour*
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1/4 cup of coconut oil 
  • 3/4 cup of coconut sugar (you can also use brown sugar)
  • 3 medium-sized extra ripe bananas (mashed)
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup walnuts





* The only difference between almond meal and almond flour is the consistency of each. Almond meal has larger flakes of shaved almonds, whereas almond flour is a very fine powder.

** The recipe I used called for regular oil, but I used coconut oil because I thought the sweeter taste would complement this recipe well. Using coconut oil also saves some of those pesky calories ;)

The whole time this was baking, the rich aroma of cinnamon and vanilla wafted through my entire house. I almost couldn't let it finish baking, it smelled soooo good!

This recipe is so simple and I'm thrilled with how it turned out :) Enjoy!!!

Friday, March 7, 2014

Oh, where to begin...

It has been so long since I last posted! I have been so overwhelmed with, well- life! I moved into my own apartment and got an awesome new job, so I am there about 6 days a week. I've also been working out a lot, trying to get into the best shape of my life. Also, this may come as a huge surprise to most people (including myself!), but I am actually RUNNING my first ever HALF-MARATHON in only 2 days!!! This comes as a surprise because I've never been huge into running. I've always said that if you see me running, you should too because something is definitely chasing me ;) All jokes aside, I am so excited to finish strong and bask in the glory of running 13.1 miles! Wish me luck!

I'm still in San Diego, and very happy down here. I've lived here just over a year and it has finally begun to feel like home. I feel so blessed in my everyday life. I've missed writing though! I think of this creative outlet of mine very often, about what I want to post about next and share with all my lovely readers. How crazy is it that this silly little blog has been viewed almost 2,400 times?! And all over America as well as Europe and even Asia. I just really wanted to send a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has supported me in this passion of mine. It means so much that people actually care what I think. I do it all for you all, in hopes that you'll be able to enjoy your life and diet to its fullest potential. That being said: I'm back! Thanks again for the support and let's get some yummy recipe ideas posted, shall we?!

xx.

-Heaven