Cheers to a Full Freezer of Banana Bread

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It has been many many moons since I posted a recipe.* However, times change.

The juggle of the school bus, after school activities, and my inner push to not feed by children denatured oatmeal in the form of cereal for breakfast or cheesy bread/pasta every night means that I have had to focus time and energy on weekend feasts that turn into leftovers (frozen or otherwise) during the week.**

One of my favorite breakfasts, snacks, and or desserts is banana bread. It took me a while to land on a recipe that is both sugar free and gluten free - but this one really works. Shoutout to the humble date and banana for the sweetness and whomever first thought it would be fun to grind the bark of a cinnamon tree. I am very grateful.

First of all, grind your own oats and rice to make oat and rice flour. Most importantly you are not paying for someone else to do it. Also, it feels really badass.

This is the recipe for one batch - I always treble it so it makes 6 small loaves. Eat one the day of - slice the others, freeze them, then bring out slices as needed from the freezer, toast them, add olive oil and a sprinkle of salt - voila!

  • 1 cup oat flour

  • 1 cup rice flour

  • 1/2 cup tapioca flour

  • 2-3 bananas (half of them to go into the blender, half of them mashed)

  • 2 dates (take out the pits) and chop finely before you put into the blender

  • 1 1/4 tsp baking soda

  • 1 tsp cinnamon

  • 1/4 tsp salt

  • 2 eggs

  • 1/4 coconut oil

  • 1 tsp vanilla

  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans/walnuts

  • a spoonful of cocoa, a spoonful of chia seeds, a dash of nutmeg

Set the oven to 325 on convection bake.

Put the coconut oil in a glass jar in the oven to melt as the oven warms.

Cut up the nuts put them on a pan to toast in the oven. Turn the timer on for 5 minutes so they are not in there for too long and burn (have done this).

While the oil is melting and the nuts are toasting, put all of your dry ingredients in a big bowl except the chia seeds.

Put all of your wet ingredients into your blender. Except for the bananas that you mash so they are not totally liquid.

Take out the coconut oil and the nuts from the oven.

Use some of the coconut oil to oil your bread pans after you have divvied out what you will need for your recipe.

Turn the blender on low and let it run while you pour the coconut oil into the moving liquid.

Pour the wet ingredients from the blender into the big bowl (including the mashed bananas).

Mix well. (honestly if you have a mixer, this is a great time to have the machine do the work of mixing)

Add chia seeds and a cocoa once the dough is well mixed. Don’t forget to add the nuts!

Pour into the bread pans. Cook for 25 minutes until the bread pulls away from the sides and a toothpick comes out clean.

Voila!

Now you have breakfast, dessert, snack, and all good things. Bon appetite!

* The last one was in 2011 when I wrote about my parsley dressing for Annarbor.com. It is fun to reread that recipe and see how it has evolved over the years. Now it is:

1 bunch parsley, big spoonful of tahini, a jar of anchovies, 2-3 cloves of garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and a bit of water till the desired consistency is met.

** Apologies to the Ayurveda principal of leftovers being verboten - life is all about compromises. And yes, I can feel the snarkiness in that sentence.