I’ve fallen in love with a woman named Sally!

Yes its true, I’ve fallen in love! Her name is Sally and my husband is pretty happy about it. I just can’t stop telling everyone how brilliant she is.

It all started a few months ago when I purchased 30kgs of bananas and I knew it was time to find a new amazing banana bread recipe. So I stumbled across a blog called Sally’s Baking Addiction and I have not looked back. I am slowly working my way through her recipes and I have to say, every single recipe has been simple, well explained and so so so delicious!! Seriously check her out, you wont regret it http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/. I won’t write out the recipes as her blog includes it all. The only changes I made for dietary requirements were:

• No egg (any banana recipes i simply left them out or otherwise used the Orgran Egg Replacer)
• Used plain Gluten Free flour instead of suggested flour
• Used almond milk instead of suggested regular milk
• Used Original Nuttelex instead of butter
• Dairy Free Choc chips instead

Best Ever Banana Bread (recipe here)

Honestly it is completely worth the 60 minute bake time, this is the best banana bread I have ever eaten… (okay maybe excluding some café ones which would be packed full of excess sugar and other processed nasties). I haven’t bothered with the frosting because frankly it just doesn’t need it. Yes okay I hear myself – clearly I’m crazy because frosting is always amazing but I just haven’t bothered. It lasts a good week in a container and also freezes very well (defrost in the fridge).

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread (recipe here)

So I have made this twice now, the second time was for my husbands birthday (at his request)- that is how much he loves it! Something about the crunch of the cinnamon swirl on the edges? He consumed it in about two days so of course I then made him the Banana Cinnamon Choc Chip Scroll Cake.

Banana Choc Chip Cinnamon Roll Cake (recipe here)

I personally didn’t try it as .. well it wasn’t my birthday. However he consumed it for breakfast, morning tea and afternoon tea over a very short time frame. Need I say more? The only note I have is I didn’t have the recommended 9 inch tin so I went with a 8 inch which didn’t allow for the dough to expand… next time I’ll try with my 10 inch. Also the icing was a little runnier than I’d normally like so will cut back on the milk next time.

Peanut Butter Banana Choc Chip Muffins (recipe here)

The mixture was a little bit denser compared to the other muffins, also not quite as sweet. I did use a natural Peanut Butter (100% peanuts only) which I think is the reason so next time I will use a generic PB. They are great for baking in advance and freezing for later!

Nutella Stuffed Cinnamon Sugar Muffins (recipe here)

Husband was out on a trail run for a few hours so I surprised him with these little beauties when he got home, wow he was so happy – possibly a top 3 finalist! We didn’t have any nutella so I put some dairy free choc chips in the center and they worked a treat. I was very impressed to see the dipping cinnamon butter mix was the perfect amount to cover all of the muffins – usually there’s an excess with these things. They smelt amazing – just like donuts!

Gingerbread Muffins (recipe here)

These were very simple to make, fortunately I had all the ingredients already in the cupboard as I love to make gingerbread at Christmas! Mixture made exactly 12 perfectly sized muffins, as per the recipe they don’t rise a great deal so fill the cups up. The lemon glaze oh yummy, i’m not sure if my lemon was just super juicy but I really didn’t need to add the milk at all. Again hubby was so very very happy and is currently gobbling them up!

Flat Bread (recipe here)

Yes hello I branched out and made savory, well we do love a good homemade pizza! I just used the flatbread portion of the recipe and we did our own margarita toppings. I actually used my mixer with the dough attachment which made it ridiculously easy to make and used Gluten Free flour. The texture is just so delicious, it is spongy inside and firm/ crisp outside. Do make sure you roll it out pretty thin before adding your toppings. If you’re a big fatty like us, you will need to double the recipe so you get two very decent sized pizzas. One quantity of the recipe is fine if you’re civilized or have sides like garlic bread, personally on its own it left us both wanting more. I didn’t take a photo as i was too busy eating it 🙂

Are you hungry yet? Go check out http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/ she also uploads little videos to instagram (@sallysbakeblog) of her baking … Be sure to let me know what you make 🙂

30kg of bananas.. what was i thinking?

Yes it’s true, two days ago i purchased 30kg’s of bananas for $17.55. My hairdresser looks at me dumb founded and says “What are you going to do with that many bananas?”. I continued to tell her, look they are selling at coles for $2.50per kg, woolies is $1.50per kg .. all the local fruit shops i called were telling me $1.99per kg (which funnily enough a couple told me they weren’t allowed to give prices over the phone due to competition – who would’ve thought the fruit veg market was so cut throat). When i need a box of bananas i try to get under $1kg. So i eventually admitted defeat and went into the lowest priced fruit shop who quoted me $1.29 per kg. I parked the car, walked up and there it was…. 66c per kg for cavendish bananas….HELLO! I asked the man if i can have 2 boxes of the 66c bananas. Yes, it happened, i bought two boxes. It wasn’t the plan but i knew at that price i would kick myself for only getting one box… i mean that’s only 15 kilos….. right..

So my lovely hairdressers again says “okay yes, they were cheap i get it. … but you still haven’t told me … what are you going to do with THAT many bananas???” At that moment i realised …. ah crap. My husband loves bananas, he makes a PB nicecream for breakfast everyday that uses probably 5-6, then i’ll have one. So that leaves us with 25kgs, naturally I search the internet for new healthy recipes to bake with bananas.

Chewy Banana “Granola” bars – care of Flannery’s

I have made these a few times now and adjust the ingredients with whatever i have in the cupboard, it is so easy, healthy and delicious! Original recipe can be found here.

1. mash 2-3 bananas, mix in 3tbsps peanut butter and 1/4 cup chia seeds.
2. Add 1.5cups rice puffs, 3/4cup of an assortment of nuts and seeds (i use Almonds, cashews, walnuts, pepita seeds, sunflowers seeds all mixed in a bag then crushed a little with a rolling pin) and, 1tsp cinnamon and 1/4 cup coconut. (Add some choc chips if you’re feeling cheeky or even dried fruit)
3. Mix it all together. It should be sticky enough to just hold all the ingredients together.
4. Spread out on a baking tray lined with baking paper and put in a 180 deg c preheated oven for 15 mins or until slightly golden/ firm to touch.
5. Allow to cool then cut into pieces using a pizza cutter. Store in a container at room temp.

*note my measurements are approximate.

Healthy Banana Choc Chip Muffins – care of little spice jar

I came across this recipe in my googling yesterday, fortunately had most of the ingredients in the cupboard and whipped up a batch. Oh my word, this went straight into my kitchen recipe book to be used many more times -so delicious and hubby gave them his stamp of approval! Original recipe found here.

1. In a large bowl sift & mix – 2cups GF flour, 1tsp baking powder, 1tsp baking soda, 1/4tsp salt, 1/2tsp ground cinnamon.
2. In a separate medium bowl – mash 1.5 cups of banana (apx 5-6) and mix in 3/4cup packed brown sugar, 1/2cup greek yoghurt, 2tsp vanilla and 1/3cup melted coconut oil.
3. Slowly add wet mixture into dry mixture and fold together. Add choc chips (as many as you want – i probably used less than 1/4 cup) and be careful not to over mix.
4. Grease muffin pans with an oil spray and fill 3/4 full with mixture and bake at 180 deg  c in preheated oven. Mixture made 12 regular size muffins (baked for 18mins) plus 18 mini size (baked for 15mins). Will be done when lightly golden and spring back to touch.
5. Allow to cool on wire rack and store in container at room temp. Ok to freeze if they last that long 🙂

Next week i plan on trying a new banana bread recipe, banana oat cookies and maybe some banana berry muffins as well. Enjoy xx