Christmas Eve Eve

Extra bananas, walnuts and hazelnuts. Banana bread of course!

Pumpkin-Banana Bread with Spelt Flour

I’m going to get real with you for a second. I’ve been craving a delicious pumpkin bread since August. Something about warm, cinnamon-y, pumpkin bread sounded real comforting! I wanted to make it more healthy as well, since I’m trying to do that with most of my recipes I make now. How can you make a baked good more healthy but still taste good? It is simple, don’t sacrifice flavor and quality. Bananas work perfectly when making a recipe more healthy. Thank goodness for September.. let all the pumpkin eating begin!

This particular recipe I found was good but I wasn’t sure if it would work exactly, you know how that can go sometimes. I took my time and decided to make some adjustments. What worked, turned out to be a really fantastic pumpkin bread. I used my huge bread loaf pan to make one big pumpkin bread. What I thought was hilarious is I came home from work one day and it looked like someone had a lunch time party at my place. My boyfriend likes to get some of his army buds over at lunch time to play with the Xbox and eat some pizza. Well..my pumpkin bread was nearly gone. I asked Mike who ate it and he said, “I just put it out and they started eating it. They liked it.” So if the guys in the Army approve.. then I think you should try it out for yourself. ;) If you truly want vegan pumpkin bread, this one is easy, just swap out the eggs and use 3 flax eggs instead!

Pumpkin-Banana Bread
By Fallon

Ingredients:
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 large egg
2 large egg whites
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups spelt flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 1/3 cups stevia in the raw
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 11 x 2.5 x 5.2 inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large bowl mash the banana till smooth but a little chunky. Add in the pumpkin puree, oil, eggs and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed. In a medium-sized bowl, place flour, stevia, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; stir with a whisk till combined. Add flour mixture to banana/pumpkin mix and beat until just moist.

Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 45-55 minutes or until toothpick placed in center comes out clean.

Let cool COMPLETELY in loaf pan, then flip onto a cutting board and slice 20 servings for thinner slices and 16 for large slices.

If you go the 20 slices route check out these stats: 146 calories per slice, 4 grams of protein and fiber. Not going to lie.. I enjoyed my pumpkin bread with a vanilla protein shake. Oh yeah!

I’m off to Atlanta this weekend! Mike’s birthday is on Tuesday and I’m treating him to an Atlanta Braves game tonight and Six Flags tomorrow. I’m kind of scared of Six Flags.. but I better suck it up because it was my idea.. OH BOY! haha ;)

HAPPY LABOR DAY WEEKEND!

Love,
Fallon

Cranberry, Nut and Seed Spread

I wanted something really festive for the Cookie Swap party. Bread and spread always go really well with crowds. I came across this spread on Aggie’s Kitchen. She used it on bagels and I was really hoping I could find some whole wheat mini bagels. That plan failed and I ended up with this delicious seeded baguette. The spread was colorful, delicious and festive!

I loved the contrast of sweet and tart. The crunch from the sunflower seeds, the buttery walnuts, tart dried cranberries, zesty orange zest and sweet honey. All mixed into cream cheese and spread onto bread was the perfect compliment to our tangerine and peach prosecco drinks! Make this for your next holiday party!

Cranberry, Nut and Seed Spread From Aggie’s Kitchen

Ingredients

8 oz cream cheese, room temperature

1/4 cup clover honey

3/4 cup dried cranberries, chopped

1/2 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

1/4 cup toasted sunflower seeds

1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest

Combine cream cheese and honey in a medium mixing bowl. Use a mixer or wooden spoon to combine until smooth, then stir in cranberries, walnuts, sunflower seeds and orange zest. Best served at room temperature.

Enjoy,

Fallon  

Vegan Skillet Cornbread

I can’t tell you how long I’ve been wanting to make cornbread. I just want it to be simple and quick. Lazy me didn’t want to go into the garage to fetch some eggs from the other fridge, so this became a vegan recipe. I subbed in 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseed mixed with 6 tablespoons of water. I had inspiration from several cookbooks and ended up adding my own mixture/amounts of ingredients instead. I didn’t want it too greasy and I didn’t want it to be too heavy. Light and fluffy is what I wanted. This is best served warm with jam and/or a buttery spread!

Vegan Skillet Cornbread By Fallon
Serves 14 Approx. 100 calories per serving
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups organic yellow cornmeal
3/4 cups organic spelt flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp stevia (agave or molasses could be substituted)
Dash of sea salt
2 tbsp ground flaxseed mixed with 6 tbsp water
1 1/2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
1 cup almond milk
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. If you want a crispier crust, put your pre-seasoned 10 inch skillet into the oven coated with coconut oil. Otherwise just coat with coconut oil and set aside.

Next take your flaxseed and mix with water. Let sit while you put together the other ingredients.
In a large bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Then add in the flaxseeds, coconut oil and almond milk.


Mix until everything is incorporated but still lumpy. Pour into your prepared 10 inch skillet. Cover with tin foil and bake for 20 minutes or until done.
You can easily add in other ingredients like frozen corn, jalapeno peppers or sun-dried tomatoes. I would add in some cheese like cheddar or goat cheese but then it wouldn’t be vegan.
After I let it rest for a few minutes I covered my slices with seedless blackberry jam. HOLY YUM! If 1 tbsp of sweetener is not enough, add more. I knew I’d be adding jam to my cornbread, so I didn’t want it so sweet. The bread is moist, airy, light and everything else I’d want my cornbread to be. Next time I would add almost 1 tsp of salt since it was rather bland but still good regardless.

 
What goes good with cornbread? How about bean and barley soup?

Stay tune, recipe coming soon!
Enjoy,
Fallon

ALSO check out this great giveaway going on at Run, Eat, Repeat. It involves Lululemon! 

Banana Bread Cockaigne

I'm telling you I'm behind. I wish I could be more on top of posts when certain holidays come around so I am able to share with you what I'm doing for that occasion, instead of posting it weeks later. Like Father's Day. Already happened a few weeks ago and I'm just now able to share a recipe with you. This is something I must work on! With most holidays I find it best to just bake something. Especially for my father. He is a simple man and not hard to please. He really doesn't care much of holidays, and if we just go out for a family dinner he is happy with that! I find baking something is always a fun way to celebrate. My dad loves banana bread, and I noticed I had way too many frozen bananas in my freezer. Father's Day came just in time because I was due to make a banana bread. I don't have a go to recipe for banana bread. I always like to try something new and different. That is where the Joy of Cooking cookbook comes in handy, Banana Bread Cockaigne.

First of all, I had to Google what cockaigne was all about, and this is what I found. Fancy huh? This was a very very delicious banana bread. It was light on the butter, and just enough sugar to not be over the top. It was very moist. The addition of the lemon zest really brought the bread to life. I added the dried apricots and no nuts (he has an allergy to them). All the flavors really went well together. This bread is sophisticated and definitely meant for a maturer palate.

Banana Bread Cockaigne (From Joy of Cooking)  
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup sugar
6 tbsp or 3/4 stick unsalted butter, softened OR 1/3 cup vegetable shortening
3/4 tsp grated lemon zest
1-2 large eggs, beaten
1 to 1 1/4 cups mashed ripe banana (2-3)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
1/4 cup finely chopped dried apricots (optional)

Have all ingredients at room temperature. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan (I used 3 mini loaf pans). Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat in a large bowl at medium speed until creamy sugar, butter, and lemon zest. Beat in eggs and mashed banana. Add the dry ingredients in about 3 parts, beating until smooth after each addition. Fold in nuts and/or dried apricots. Scrape the batter into the greased pan(s). Bake the bread about 1 hour, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool slightly, then unmold. Cool completely before slicing.

Gorgeous apricot specks.

Enjoy!
Fallon

PS: Head on over to FANNETastic Food for an awesome Barney Butter giveaway!