Gluten Free Banana Bread

When people think of eating healthy, they probably don't envision themselves biting into a warm sweet slice of banana bread with their morning cup of coffee.  In fact it's something people can only dream of while trying to eat clean. For most people, eating clean means having to kiss goodbye all things delicious.  But this Banana Bread makes a pretty strong case against that belief.

This recipe is made with simple and wholesome ingredients without compromising taste.  All you need is: Coconut flour, salt, baking powder, eggs, bananas, honey, vanilla, walnuts, and dark chocolate chips  (optional).  When you find a store bought or coffee shop banana bread with pronounceable ingredients like this recipe, please let me know because I have yet to find one.

The texture is a little different than normal breads, but it's a good different.  The moist, yet crumbly texture comes from the Coconut Flour. Baking with coconut flour (or any gluten free flour for that matter) is much different than baking with wheat flours.  This recipe believe it or not only used 1/3 of a cup of coconut flour.  It's quite deceiving because Coconut flour is extremely absorbent due to it's high fiber content. When you bake with Gluten Free flours, don't worry if you have a huge bowl of wet ingredients and a tiny bowl of dry. That means you're doing it right!

I got my inspiration for the bread from Living Healthy With Chocolate which had a banana muffin recipe.  Here's how I made mine:

1.  In a small bowl mix 1/3 c of coconut flour, 1/4 tsp of baking powder, and a 1/2 tsp of salt. That's it for the dry.

2. In a medium bowl mash two bananas.  The mix in 3 beaten eggs, 2 tbsp of honey, and 3 tbsp of melted coconut oil, and a tsp of vanilla.

3.  At this point, you're probably thinking that you batter will turn out more like pudding than bread batter but don't be deceived by the wet to dry ingredient ratio. Slowly add in the dry mixture to the medium bowl. It will absorb tons of the moisture and you'll be left with the perfect bread dough.

4. Now, add mix-ins of your choice! I added 60% cacao dark chocolate chips and coarsely chopped walnuts.  Some other things I would suggest are shredded coconut, or macadamia nuts.  Now that your dough is complete, you're gonna wanna have a taste. Resist the urge and just take my word for it that the dough taste great... 

5. Get smallest loaf pan you can find, spray it with cooking spray, and evenly spread the batter in it.  Pop it in a 375 oven for about 25 minutes, or until it's golden brown. As you can see, my bread came out a little short since it doesn't rise very much. If you prefer a thicker loaf, I suggest doubling the recipe (don't forget to increase the baking time if you do so).  Otherwise, you could use this same recipe and scoop the batter into a muffin pan and it would make about 6 muffins (don't forget to decrease the baking time).

There you have it folks, a healthy, hearty banana bread! Share it with family and friends and make sure to brag about the fact that there are no refined flours or sugars.  They always find that amusing... Enjoy!

March 9th Food Prep

Like I said before, I'm going to do a little less food prep than I previously have.  This week I prepped a bunch of fruits and veggies for creating easy meals. I have strawberries, blueberries, lettuce, cucumbers, and sweet mini peppers.  Since this weeks nutrition challenge is to go gluten free I have sprouted grain tortillas for making lunch wraps or burritos, and I baked some scrumptious Banana Bread made with coconut flour and no refined sugars.  It is so good and I'll post the recipe soon. Lastly I stocked up on some of my favorite essentials: Chobani greek yogurt (obviously coconut is my favorite), and some organic firm tofu.  So far, these guys have coming in handy when hunger strikes!

Summer Countdown Series: Week 1

Today was the start of my Summer Countdown Series! As promised, here are this weeks challenges and rewards:

HEALTHY BALANCE DIET:
I'll be posting today's food prep on a separate post.  It will feature fruits and veggies, plus some of my pantry staples. Check that out here: http://thesweetpeabri.blogspot.com/2014/03/march-9th-food-prep.html

5 DAYS OF EXERCISE:
I plan on doing easy to moderate exercise this week. It's a bad time of the month for me right now... Need I say more? I'll have to be creative to get in the 5 days of exercise since I'm not feeling up to my usual strength level.  Hopefully I can post a workout that I come up with later on in the week.

NUTRITION CHALLENGE:
This weeks nutrition challenge is something that I've been slacking on a lot lately... No processed wheat flours!!! Enriched, bleached, whole wheat, I don't care what kind it is but it needs to go for the week. That means no bread, pretzels, processed snacks, pancakes. Pretty much going for a gluten free week. I will replace all of those empty calories with more natural starches like brown rice or potatoes (in moderation of course). I also have some Gluten Free sprouted grain tortillas for making healthy wraps.  You can also check those out on my food prep page.

REWARD:
If you really knew me you'd know that I take FOREVER to get ready.  Especially when I haven't gone clothes shopping for a while and feel like I have "nothing to wear." Weather in Tucson is still chilly in the mornings, but the days are heating up quick. It's time to put away the sweaters and jeans a get ready for Summer! (There's no "spring" here. It just gets hot haha).  That's why my reward for this week is a new romper.  I love rompers because like I said, I take FOREVER to get ready. Rompers solve this problem for me. They are so simple and casual, but they can also be dressy if worn with a cute cardigan or glamorous accessories.  I posted a picture of a romper from Urban Outfitter which I think is adorable! Can't wait to earn this weeks reward!

Summer Countdown Series 2014

So far 2014 has been an awesome year for me.  I've been really motivated, working out 5 days a week, eating clean, and accomplishing some of the goals I set out to achieve in just a few weeks. All was going well until about three weeks ago... I've been going through some really personal challenges in my life over the past few weeks, both physically and emotionally.  In the past three weeks I've worked out only 3 times and ate pretty much whatever the heck I wanted. But I'm finally getting through these challenges and I'm ready to get back on track! Life is tough man. Remember, it's okay if you hit bumps along the road and have to stop every now and then... as long as you don't give up.  

Now that I'm back and able to commit myself to my goals, I'm gonna try something a little different. I'm calling it the "Summer Countdown Series."  Summer Break is 9 weeks away (more or less depending on where you go to school) which is quite terrifying to me. In 9 short weeks I'll be on a plane headed home to Hawai'i... That means I'll be spending 99% of my time in bikinis and short shorts! Can you see why I'm worried haha. Don't get me wrong, I love myself and who I am.  I don't workout to lose inches, pounds, or sizes. And I most certainly don't "do it for the thigh gap." That's just silly. I workout because I believe that my outside should reflect who I am on the inside... and if you ask me, I think I'm pretty darn awesome!

Haha anyways, each week up until Summer break, I am going to do something to improve myself.  Here are the rules that will serve as the foundation for each episode of the series:

A HEALTHY AND BALANCED DIET
I’m still going to do some food prepping each week but it will mostly consist of preparing fruits & veggies and making sure I have the basic essentials.  I want to direct my time & focus on eating balanced all the time. That means no more “cheat day.” I want to make health conscious choices 7 days of the week, instead of obsessing over every detail of what goes in my mouth for only 5 days of the week.

5 DAYS OF EXERCISE

I don’t plan on power-lifting, boxing, or running 5 miles every time I workout.  What I mean by 5 days of exercise is 5 days of activity.  Just get up and do something… a quick hike, jog for 30 minutes, an at-home Insanity workout. Heck, yesterday I did a workout on on the playground while I watched the kids at the park haha. I spent 20 minutes jumping up and down the stairs, swinging around on the monkey bars, doing pushups, and lunges, just anything I could think of while the boys played basketball.  It didn’t seem all that challenging in the moment but let me tell you, I am FEELING it today. Seems pathetic, I know, but I can guarantee playing at the playground for 5 days a week is better than doing an intense workout at the gym for only one.

A WEEKLY NUTRITION CHALLENGE

This is where the fun comes in… Each week of my Summer Countdown will feature a Nutrition Challenge.  The challenge will be something that targets a common nutrition weaknesses.  Since I’m not going to meticulously food prep as I have before, I want to be able challenge myself somehow. Afterall, if it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.

and now, for the best part...

A WEEKLY REWARD

Yes, you read that right.  If I successfully complete the week, Sunday morning all the way through Saturday night, I will reward myself with an item that I chose at the start of the week.  The reward will be something that has to do with summer like a new beach bag or bikini.  As I challenge myself physically more and more each week, I plan to make the rewards increasingly valuable.  This will keep me determined on my countdown to summer.  And remember guys, don’t reward yourself with food, you’re not a dog.


So there it is! There Summer Countdown Series. Stay tuned for the first week's nutrition challenge and reward. And feel free to join in! When May comes around you don't want to be wishing you started in March...

Tumamoc Hill

At the start of the year I made it a goal to try some new forms of exercise.  Growing up in Hawai'i, I'm used to being surrounded by the most beautiful mountains, and beaches. Hiking, kayaking, surfing, and trail running are all things I got to do on a regular basis.  After all, being on an island, there were  multiple hikes and beaches less than 15 minutes away from my house. In Tucson however, things are quite different....

I've been wanting to hike but these mountains are foreign to me.  There are snakes, and coyotes, and all kinds of scary creatures! It's dry and hot and I have yet to find a hike in Tucson that leads to a breathtaking view of a white sandy beach and with miles of blue ocean. Not as inviting as what I'm used to BUT it's still no excuse.

Every place is beautiful in it's own way. You just need to get off you butt in order to appreciate it! So that's what we set out to do.  We recently went on a hike called Tumamoc Hill, located on the west side of Tucson. It's a pretty intense incline but only 3.1 miles round trip (I did some running back and forth and was able to get my mileage up to 4 by the time we were all back to the car). Perfect for the whole family. We all went at our own pace and I didn't have to worry about the kids since it's a paved road the whole way up. And as for the view at the top, well... it ain't Hawai'i, but it's a lot more interesting than the view out my living room window.

SMUDGIES!!!

At least that's what I think they're called... But a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Haha please excuse me while I revisited freshmen year English. Main point is, who cares what you call these dang things... THEY'RE DELICIOUS! Not to mention, super easy to make. Here's how:

1.  In a medium bowl, mash together 2 small (or one gigantic) bananas, a couple spoonfuls of peanut butter, a spoonful of Greek Yogurt (optional), a small scoop of vanilla or chocolate whey protein (also optional), spoonful of Nutella (only if you're feeling dangerous).... can you see where this is going?

I was never very really good with recipes. Let's just say mash together whatever the heck you want. Just make sure you have bananas and peanut butter. And don't go too crazy, people. Remember it's supposed to be HEALTHY haha. I forget that sometimes too.

2. Then, take a nice heaping spoonful of the magical mix you've created and plop it between two graham crackers.

3. Stick these babies in the freezer for maybe 45 minutes and VOILA; a sweet frozen treat for those late night cravings. Don't forget them in the freezer for too long or they'll get solid. And they don't keep very well over night because the crackers get stale and crumbly so share 'em with a friend. Or share them with someone who isn't you're friend and she'll probably be your best bud after.

ENJOY!

Food Prep #4

Here are my essentials which I'll throw together for various meals throughout the week.

Protein this week is coming from chicken and steak which are marinating in the fridge.  I'll cook em up right before meal time so they're hot and juicy!