Banana Bread

Look at me! I'm blogging again! I was taking a break from a design project and went into the kitchen to find two bananas that had about seen their day. So I quickly found a banana bread recipe and whipped it up while eating lunch!

In my rendition of this recipe, I decided to spice things up with some cinnamon and semi-sweet chocolate chips. You can't go wrong with either, and it's so nice outside, I was feeling domestic and bakerly (yes, that's an adjective!) and wanted to be fancy with my ingredients!

INGREDIENTS
2 C all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 C butter
3/4 C brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/3 C mashed overripe bananas
1 tsp cinnamon (optional)
Semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture until just combined. You can add the cinnamon and/or chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Mini Canoli Cups

Holy Canoli! (Get it??) I can NOT get over these! Maybe I'm part Italian, I don't know, but wow! These aren't traditional Canolis, they are baked instead of fried, so it's a little bit healthier (or at least less clogged artery inducing). I'll openly admit that I'm still obsessed, a probably always will be, with Pinterest. Of course, I found the recipe on there.

HEALTHY Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pie

My friend Sarah posted this delicious gluten-free vegan recipe and I just HAD to try it!

So, the new thing these days is to go gluten-free. I've been trying it, because lately I've had some health problems, and I'm trial-and-erroring what makes me feel better and worse. Not eating a lot of gluten really does make me feel better. Not eating a lot of sugar or grease has also helped.

Sarah uploaded this pie, and the secret ingredient is something we all know somehow. Whether it be hummus, garbanzo beans, or chick peas; we all know about it. I was skeptical while I was making this, because I could totally smell the bean smell. But when it came out of the oven, I mean WOW!