Banana Coconut Bread (with a twist of lime) - "Tropical Coffee Cake" (Vegan)

I made a last minute banana bread on Friday, but I didn't have much sifted flour left on hand, and I had a LOT of mushy bananas (note to self: stop buying too many bananas!).

I also had a lot of limes. Our lime tree has been giving us SO many limes!

(But the lemon tree. Don't ask me about the lemon tree! It's got about 3 lemons on it. What a stingy lemon tree - the lime tree is way more generous.)

So, I decided it would be banana with coconut and lime. And I am a fan. The kids seemed to like it, too - they pretty much polished off this cake without leaving any for me.

Here's what I did:

Banana Coconut Bread, with a twist of lime

3-4 overripe bananas, mashed well
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. oil
1 T. chia seeds
2/3 c. water

juice of 1 lime
1 cup flour
1.5  c. shredded coconut                                                                       
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
 

First combine all the wet ingredients, and then mix in the dry ingredients.

Pour into a loaf pan and bake at 180 C for about 1 hr.

You can make muffins instead if you like, use a greased muffin tin or paper liners, and bake for about 30 minutes.

This is a pretty dense loaf, though! So - keep that in mind.

It went well with my coffee! I'll call it my "Tropical Coffee Cake"!

Enjoy!

Pesach Banana Cake (pareve, non-gebrokts)

This year, I gave up eating wheat when I realized I was having a mild allergic reaction to it. So while I'll still bake my kids their favorite Pesach treats (like mandel bread and pesach rolls), I needed to come up with something I could snack on too!
{So I stood in my kitchen and spotted a bunch of ripe bananas}
And I decided to try to change up my banana cake recipe!
Here's what happened:






4 large bananas, mashed
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1.5 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
1.5 cups ground coconut
1.5 cups potato starch
1/4 tsp salt
1.5 tsp baking powder

Mix bananas, sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract, if using and make sure they are combined well
Add dry ingredients. Mix well.
Divide batter between 2 loaf pans and bake at 185 C (about 370 F) for 45 minutes or until done.

This was so easy and really came out delish. It's perfect and I'm going to make it all year long!

Banana Coconut Cake or Muffins (vegan)

I promised I'd write up my banana coconut cake! It really is yummy, if you like banana and coconut (I do).

4 overripe bananas, mashed well
1/2 - 2/3 c. sugar (I've been going with 1/2 to cut back on the sugar...)
1/3 c. oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 T. ground flaxseed
1.5 - 2 c. water + 1 tsp apple cider vinegar (or you can use half water/half orange juice to give it an interesting extra flavor)
combine well.

Add:
3.5 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 c. shredded coconut
                                                                                    1/2 tsp salt
                                                                                    1.5 tsp baking powder
                                                                                    Mix well 
Optional - 6 oz chocolate chips, folded in (last step)

Bake in a loaf pan if you like, or you can make 12 generous muffins out of this, or you can bake in your favorite cake pan. It's a really versatile recipe. (Bake at 350 F/175  C for 25-30 min for muffins, or about an hour for loaf or cake)
Optional: sprinkle more shredded coconut over the top before you bake it.

Enjoy! Let me know if you try them!

Shabbat Parashat Eikev, Aug. 19-20

I am back in the business of cooking for my family! The oven is here, and is ready to use.

Here's our Shabbat menu (sorry, I ran out of time to write up recipes!):

Gezpacho
Some sort of Baked or Roasted Chicken
Roasted Potatoes
Roasted Vegetables (I had onions, green peppers, mushrooms, and tomatoes for this)
Corn Bread
Rice
Fresh Fruit
Chocolate Cake

I also made chocolate chip banana bread, for a Shabbat treat.

What's on your menu?

Pesach Food

The first thing I made in my newly pesach-dik kitchen this year was banana cake. Yes, that sounds strange, but it was a big hit.

Here's how I made it:

Cream together 3 mashed, overripe bananas, 1/2 c. oil, 2/3 c. sugar, and 1 egg. Add 1 c. matzah "cake" meal, 1 c. potato starch, and 1 t. baking soda. Combine well, pour into a greased cake pan, and bake for about 45 min (or until done) at 350 F.

My kids loved it!

Someone out there was looking for a kosher for passover carrot kugel recipe, and I think you could adapt this recipe to make one quite easily. Just substitute 1 c. pureed cooked carrots for the bananas, and you have a simple Pesach carrot kugel recipe!

What interesting foods have you made this Pesach?