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!!!