Today's lunch was brought to you by the letters A & B

Today's lunch for baby was avocado and banana. She ate it up!

Guess the secret for now is raw food so mama doesn't have to cook :)

 The happy camper! (She's learned to pose for the camera)

And then Mom made lunch with the leftovers! Fresh spring rolls with avocado, cabbage, carrot and lettuce (from the garden). Just roll it all up in rice paper rolls and dip in some soy sauce. Like a salad all rolled up. Dessert was banana!

Banana muffins (sanity-saving baked goods)

So as I was saying, making food can be oddly calming and sanity-saving. This week, it was banana muffins that eased my mind and reminded me there was at least one area of my life I can control. The recipe, I realized today, I have already posted here. This time around, I used two bananas and no chocolate though. It's an easy recipe which goes great for breakfast, breaks at work or when you want to earn brownie points with anyone.

Here are the results, which were gobbled up at work faster than I could say "there's banana muffins in the break room."

Baking for the mind and soul

Everything kept going wrong last night. Nothing horrible but just enough crap to get under my skin and annoy me. So what did I do? After a nice healthy glass of pinot grigio I set to baking. That's right. Baking. It soothes me. It makes me calmer. I get to take little nothings like four, sugar and eggs and make them into something worthwhile. This time, the something was banana muffins. I'll post the pictures and recipe soon. But for now, I can revel in feeling like I've meditated, and feeling like I've created something good. And those are pretty good feelings.

Mmm muffins

Though convenience food is tempting there is something terribly satisfying about making food yourself from scratch. The conflict of craving is always better resolved when the filling comes from your own work. Boxes and take outs are never as good, or good for you, as a homemade treat.

So when I wanted a muffin the other night I thought to my favorite muffin recipe and wondered what I had in the house to make it. I used Amy Rosen's base recipe for Smooshed Banana-Chocolate Muffins. But since I didn't have much chocolate (I know, a sad day) I subbed in some walnuts and toffee chips. I got my muffin and some more that did us for the rest of the week!

Here's the recipe, and I suggest experimenting with your own filling substitutions:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 tsb baking powder
pinch salt
1 very ripe banana, mashed
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 tbs milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F
In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar baking powder and salt. Add mashed banana, egg, butter, milk and vanilla. Stir until just blended. Toss in chocolate chips and give another quick stir.

Spray muffin tin or line with paper liners. Divide batter between cups (about 3/4 ways up) and bang the tin on the counter to release any air bubbles. Bake for 20-25 minutes until tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into centre of the centre muffin comes out clean.

To quote Rosen's Cook This: Recipe's for the Goodtime Girl, "muffins are the perfect snack for people on the go."

These are super quick to make, really take substitutions well, and you can control what goes into them (instead of those monster fat muffins you get at the store). Want more fiber? Add whole wheat flour or some ground flax. Want more vitamins? Add berries! Less fat? Substitute applesauce for some of the butter. Easy peasy.

I've used this recipe before and doubled it, and added more chocolate, to make cupcakes for a friend's birthday. And they really do wonders at the office!

Banana bread yumminess

Last night's dinner took a long time to cook (chicken in the oven for about 20 minutes) so I started thumbing through my recipe drawer and found an old Chatelaine recipe mini-book that came with a magazine a while ago. In it was a recipe for the "word's best banana bread" and I thought...wait, I have bananas! So in the time it took me to wait for my chicken to cook I whipped up a nice loaf of banana bread. It was perhaps the easiest recipe and tastiest banana bread I've had.



Here's the recipe to try:

3 very ripe large bananas, mushed with a fork (should be no more than 1 1/2 cups)
1 3/4 all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened desiccated coconut
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp each baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla


Substitution note 1: the recipe calls for coconut but I didn't have any so I added about 1/4 cup grated carrot. It worked to keep the loaf moist and, as an extra bonus, add some fiber and carrot-goodness.

Substitution note 2: This recipe is pretty close to being dairy-free (vegan) so if you want to go all the way you can substitute the 2 eggs for

• 1 heaping tbs baking powder, 1 tbs oil
  plus 1 tbs warm water
• 1 heaping tbs baking powder, 1 tbs apple cider vinegar plus 1 tbs warm water

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Lightly oil/spray 9x5in. loaf pan.
In a large bowl, sift together with a whisk flour, coconut (or carrot), sugar, baking powder and soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. In a small bowl, whisk eggs. Whisk in oil and vanilla. Pour egg mixture into center of dry mixture. Using a wooden spoon, stir until batter is just moist. Stir in bananas and be careful to not overmix. Scrape batter into prepared loaf pan. Smooth top.
Bake in center of oven until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into center of loaf comes out clean, about 50-60 minutes.

Cool loaf in pan 10 minutes. Run a knife around inside of pan to loosen loaf. Turn out loaf onto cooling rack to cool completely.

Between my boyfriend, friends and co-workers, this loaf is already eaten and long gone in just a few hours. If you can manage to keep some, it will apparently last up to 3 days at room temperature, a week in the fridge or you can freeze it for up to 2 months.

I'll make this one again for sure...and maybe add some raisins or walnuts. Based on the success and ease of this banana bread recipe, I am excited to try other recipes from this mini-recipe book from Chatelaine. I'll blog about them when I do!