Banana Bread / Muffins

These are AMAZING. I'm not a huge fan of banana, so that's a lot coming from me. This recipe is adapted from the one I came across in the book Paleo Comfort Foods by Julie and Charles Mayfield. This book is filled with some amazing recipes, many that I've adapted for my own personal tastes.

Ingredients

• 3 cups almont flour
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 4 large eggs, room temperature (I prefer brown eggs, but any will do)
• 2 very ripe bananas, mashed (I know a little boy who's GREAT at mashing bananas!)
• 3 tsp. vanilla
• 3 tsp. cinnamon
• *optional walnuts, about 1/4 cup or so to your liking

How to Do It

First, preheat your oven to 350`. While it's heating up, start mixing your dry ingredients. Combine the almond flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.

Then, in a separate bowl, combine the eggs and coconut oil and stir. *If your coconut oil gets a few flecks of hardened oil, just let it sit and stir again. Not a big deal if you have pieces that aren't completely melted in the end. Mix the oil and eggs with the flour combination and stir until well blended. Finally, add in the mashed bananas, vanilla and cinnamon.

*You can also add walnuts if you like, about 1/2 cup is the most you should add without changing the consistency.

Here's where personal preference kicks in. If you want a loaf of bread, pour the batter into a loaf pan that has been rubbed with a little coconut oil and bake for 25-30 minutes.

I like to make mini muffins, greasing a mini muffin pan with a little coconut oil and using a teaspoon to fill each muffin cup about 2/3 full. Keep and eye on these guys as they only take 8-10 minutes and can over cook easily. Check with a toothpick and use the toothpick to lightly loosen the edges so they fall out.

Make sure to refrigerate anything you don't consume the first 5 minutes of pulling them from the oven (ok...not really, but you know you won't be able to keep from eating them when they're still hot enough burn your mouth), Refrigerate when they've cooled and you've eaten enough for the day. In the fridge, these stay good for about a week. Left out, they spoil in about 3 days.

Variations

Should you decide you don't want to use banana, it's simple enough to change it up. For chocolate chip muffins, just add about 2 tsp. of honey and about a 1/4 cup unsweetened natural applesauce and some chocolate chips. Want blueberry? Add 2 tsp. of honey and 1/4 cup unsweetened natural applesauce, and some blueberries. See a pattern/ ;-) If you want to make them with banana and something else, you won't need the honey and applesauce. These give the batter the wet and sugar that the bananas provide. Stewed apples work nicely as well.

Hope you enjoy!

Noodle-less Eggplant Lasagna

Before you make that face...yeah, that one...give it a shot. Most people haven't actually tried eggplant. They just think it's a weird purple Dr. Seuss veggie that probably tastes like ladybugs or something. I can assure that it's not only tasty, but you won't really notice it much in the recipe the way it's done. And if you do like it, then feel free to add as much as you like. Oh, and it's not a typo...there are no noodles in this recipe. That's what the eggplant is for. **Also, you can add or replace any veggies in this recipe as well. Zucchini makes a great replacement for the eggplant if you don't enjoy it, adding shredded or diced chicken works well, and anything else you love in your lasagna.

Ingredients

• 2 or 3 eggplants (2 if you're new, 3 if you like)
• Olive Oil
• large container of mushrooms, sliced (any kind or none at all)
• Fresh spinach (about 3 big handfuls, or 1 bag)
• 3-4 cups Sauce of choice, with or without meat (I make mine homemade with ground meat)
• Ricotta cheese, 1 container
• 2 Eggs
• 2+ cups Shredded Mozzarella (optional)

How to Do It

First, slice the eggplant lengthwise, thin, about 1/8th inch. You'll need olive oil to coat them, place flat on cookie sheets and bake at 375 for 10 minutes on each side. They should get a little golden, but not too dark around the edges. Make sure to coat them with the oil so they don't stick to the pans.

Slice the mushrooms if not already. Saute in butter until just softened. These can be added to your sauce to keep it simple.

Mix ricotta and eggs in a bowl. Spoon this mix into a plastic sandwich bag for easier distribution to the dish.

When all the eggplant is cooked, lower the oven temperature to 350`. Place a layer of eggplant in the bottom of a baking dish as you would noodles.

Add a layer of sauce and mushrooms, and a layer of spinach and mozzarella.

Cut the bottom corner the sandwich bag that contains the ricotta cheese. This way you can squeeze it from the bag much like an icing bag, making rows of cheese that will spread out with heat and other layers.

Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used. If you run out of eggplant, don't worry. The spinach does a nice job of acting in its place. Top the final bit with some cheese and pop it in the oven for about 45 minutes. Some recipes say to cover lasagna, some don't. I don't cover mine, but if you choose to, make sure to bake it with the foil off 10 minutes to the end to brown the cheese.

Let it sit for at least 10 minutes out of the oven to kind of set up. When making it with veggies, it tends to be more wet.

Enjoy!