Gluten/Dairy Free banana hemp bread

A couple of trips ago to Costco I bought some raw shelled hemp seeds. I was almost out of the hemp protein powder that I normally use in my smoothies and thought I'd try the hemp seed instead. The following morning I made a smoothy and while the seeds mixed really well and had a wonderful consistency, I wasn't to fond of the flavor. It wasn't bad but it really drowned out the flavor of the cup of berry mix I love to taste. So here I am with a big bag of hemp seeds and not sure what to do with them. 

Fast forward a few weeks. I'm in the kitchen and really have a hankering, yes I said hankering, for something bread like.  My husband, and I have been trying to watch our carbs. He is out of town on business for the day and not here to keep me on track by the way. I'm on day three of no honey in my tea, no gluten free cinnamon toast with my eggs, and no bananas in my smoothy. Speaking of bananas, I look over at the bananas hanging on the banana basket, so ripe the tops are about to break from the weight of them when it hits me, I'm gonna make the kids some banana bread.  Grabbing my phone, I pull up a standard banana bread recipe online and do some major tweaking to make it gluten free and dairy free and with as little amount of carbs as possible with the ingredients I have on hand. The original recipe called for a cup of sugar and I figured if I was substituting a cup of dry ingredients with a tiny teaspoon of liquid stevia I would need something dry to balance it out. This is where the hemp seeds come in. Finally I found another use for them!

 I tested the finished product out on my kids because as many of you know, kids are natural born food critics. They raved and forced me to try a slice...or two:) Sorry husband! So here is my creation. Feel free to comment if you get a chance to make them, I would love the feedback. 

2 cups gluten free flour mix (I use namaste foods perfect flour blend)

1/4 cup raw shelled hemp seeds

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder 

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup coconut oil 

1/2 tsp gluten free vanilla xtract 

3 eggs or equivalent substitute

1 tsp alcohol free liquid stevia ( or 1 cup sugar if you prefer)

3-4 medium overripe bananas smooshed or 1 1/3 cup.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Grease baking dish

Mix all dry ingredients in large bowl

Mix all wet ingredients in small bowl

Combine wet and dry ingredients and mix. 

Form loaf in baking dish ( I used a 8x 6 x 2 glass Pyrex dish) It helps to put cooking oil on your hands.

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until knife comes out clean.

Note: If using another dish to bake like a loaf pan or muffin tin you may need to adjust cooking time. 

Also a handful of chopped walnuts would be tasty to throw in If you have some on hand.

New begginings & Sweet Potato Tacos

I know I keep making promises that I will be blogging and sharing recipes more often, and have not.  I apologize for not keeping those promises. Life has thrown our family several curveballs the last 8 months all of which we have managed to successfully swing our way through. My husband got a promotion which we needed to relocate for. We spent a couple of months and lots of elbow grease getting our house ready to sell. Unfortunately we bought our house right before the big bubble pop of 2008 and were unable to sell, forcing us to find renters and Stat! Five days after posting an add on craigslist we found awesome, creditworthy, dependable renters. Phew... We also had to say goodbye to our family Dog of 14 Years, lost a dear childhood friend and my husbands grandfather all within the same week. So that's were I've been.

We moved from a fairly small town to the city or Redmond, Washington. I've got to say despite moving from a 1250sq ft three bedroom house on a quarter of an acre, to a 904 square foot apartment I don't miss the space. There is so much for the kids and I to do here within minutes of our front door. Now instead of spending my spare time mowing the lawn and tending to the house needs, we explore. Also, moving into a smaller space that doesn't have a 2 car garage/storage unit has forced us to get rid of about half of our stuff, which feels great. Less stuff=Less to clean up=more time to spend with the family and my interests. We also have an awesome gym that we don't have to pay a monthly membership for and a pool we can use anytime we want. Oh and did I mention that I don't have to mow the lawn:) That's right someone mows it for us weekly and we get to play on it. It really works for our family.

I have lots of posts planned so stayed tuned, but today I wanted to share a link to one of my favorite blogs called Two Blue Lemons. She has many awesome recipes but my favorite one is a sweet potato taco recipe which I always get special requests for, except from my husband that is, and only because there was a time when I made it sometimes twice a week and suffice to say he got tired of them. I could still eat it twice a week or more though if it were only up to me:) I like to use feta cheese instead and sometimes add tomatoes. Also if you are in a pinch and don't want to make the refried beans yourself, I have found Amy's Organic refried black beans to be comparable in flavor to the homemade version. Not as good, but my kids couldn't tell the difference. Be sure to click on the link above if you want to try these tasty tacos.

So enjoy & here is to new beginnings!