I hope everyone had a great Monday. I didn't sleep well Sunday night, so I didn't have the usual "pep in my step". Oh well, I got through the day! While watching tv on Sunday evening, I baked an AWESOME banana bread ( not to toot my own horn, but BEEP BEEP!). My mom has been baking this banana bread for years, and she has tweaked the recipe to make it a little more nutritious! I had some friends over, and it was a crowd pleaser (especially served hot out of the oven!). Even my friend who doesn't like banana enjoyed it.
Ingredients
Mixing!
That's right, it is a banana chocolate slice of heaven!
Done!
The beauty of this banana bread is that it's easy and delicious, nutritious, and it freezes wonderfully! In order to cut the butter in the recipe, my mom adds a combo of greek yogurt and applesauce. She also uses part whole wheat pastry flour and part regular flour. If you want to up the nutritional content even more, you can add some flaxseed meal to the batter. This recipe in no way tastes as though there have been substitutions to make it "healthier" . In my opinion, the consistency and flavor are better than that of a traditional nanner bread! Genius!
Marbled Chocolate Banana Bread
Adapted from Epicurious.com
2 cups all-purpose flour (I use 1-cup all-purpose flour and 1-cup organic
whole-wheat pastry flour)
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1-cup sugar
4 Tablespoons butter, softened to room temperature
½ cup unsweetened applesauce (sweetened works fine)
1-½ cups mashed ripe banana (about 3-4 bananas)
½ cup egg substitute or two large eggs
⅓ cup plain low-fat yogurt
½ cup semisweet chocolate chips (I use 60% cacao chips but semi-sweet
works too)
½ cup toasted walnuts pieces (optional)
Cooking spray
Preheat oven to 350°. Coat a loaf pan with cooking spray.
Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk. Place sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Add mashed banana, eggs, yogurt and applesauce; beat until blended. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until moist.
Place chocolate chips in a medium microwave-safe bowl, and microwave in 30-second intervals until almost melted, remove and stir until smooth. Cool slightly. Add 1-cup plain batter to chocolate, stirring until well combined. (At this point I stir some walnuts into the remaining plain batter). Spoon chocolate batter alternately with plain batter into an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Swirl batters together using a knife. Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean (190 degrees internal temp). (Mine took less time to cook. That’s why I always bake/cook using a trusty instant read thermometer.) Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.
I have added a Chobani conversion chart from the brand's website that I think you will all love.
Great, right?
This was yesterday's breakfast. Sliced nectarine and almonds with half a sprouted grain english muffin that I topped with cottage cheese. I am obsessed with these english muffins. They are denser and have more flavor than a regular english muffin ( that is why I only ate half). As I was slicing up the nectarine, I started thinking about how delicious "in season" produce is. I was someone who before this summer ate 3 apples (I know... crazy) a day no matter what time of year it was. I. LOVE. APPLES. I never really took into consideration that apples are only available a few months a year and that the rest of the time they are stored and coated with wax to keep them in stores all year round. This kind of grosses me out to be honest. I am certainly not taking a vow to abstain from apples until September, but I did make a goal this summer to incorporate more in season produce. I'm glad I did! I was already a fruit lover, but I had gotten into an apple rut. :) Switching things up has been great for my taste buds and for my wallet as in season fruit is so much cheaper! Score!
These are the sprouted grain muffins I buy.
When I returned from work yesterday, my plan was to hit up a yoga class at the gym. I ended up doing a web-based yoga class because the 3 minute walk to the gym just seemed too taxing! WAH. There are so many great things about web-based yoga classes including the convenience, price, and variety of classes offered. The site I use is www.yogatoday.com . Yoga Today was recommended to me over a year ago by a friend who also happens to be a yoga instructor. I had been wanting to practice yoga more frequently, but I found it difficult due to limited classes offered near my apartment and the high price of joining a yoga studio. This site solved all of those problems. There are three instructors featured on this site, and their instruction and class flow is superior to that of many live yoga classes I have taken in the past. The classes are filmed in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which as you can imagine , provides a gorgeous backdrop for the practice! The site features a variety of yoga styles (Ashtanga, Vinyasa, Anusara) and levels (novice, yogi,guru). There are three instructors; my favorites are Adi Amar and Sarah Kline. They lead most of the Vinyasa/Ashtanga based classes which are the styles I tend to gravitate to. I also like their teaching methods and class flow. For anyone out there looking to start a yoga practice, I would HIGHLY recommend this site.
Something to think about
Last Monday I actually made it to a live yoga class. The instructor said something that has stuck with me over the past week: " Do your best to take whatever comes at you head on. If you try to avoid whatever is difficult or challenging, you are just going to encounter the obstacle up ahead." I am definitely guilty of procrastinating the small and inconvenient tasks that I don't want to deal with. I typically find them frustrating and would rather pretend they don't exist! Guess what, almost NEVER do those responsibilities disappear. Instead, I walk around with a feeling of anxiety because of uncompleted tasks. I am striving this week to be cognizant of tasks that I may want to dodge, and instead do my best to tackle them head on. I'll let you know how it goes! :)
Ok, time to go! I will be back tomorrow with some details on last night's dinner!
xo
Sarah
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