The healthy chef's Banana Bread

Hello Everyone :) I know this blog is a bit slow and I apologise to all my dedicated fans that follow this. By dedicated fans I mean two fans, and by two fans I mean two friends - Emily and Carly. Check out their blogs. Much more productive than mine.

Anyways, today I attempted to cook a gluten free, healthy banana bread. Usually healthy and banana bread go together, but I think I can safely say that this version is much better alternative than your regular cafe version. 

This is a Teresa Cutter recipe from her website thehealthychef.com. This website was reccommended to me by a fabulous friend named Lotte and I really do like some of her recipes.

Looking at the recipe, I was a little worried that it wouldn't turn out. Me and new ingredients don't work well together. Also, almond meal (which Teresa often uses in her recipes) is pretty expensive so I probably won't be making this all the time... I'll have to find somewhere that sells it in bulk.

Here we go:

300 g mashed ripe banana (I used about 2 bananas)

3 eggs

2 tablespoons honey 

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon (I love cinnamon so I added more)

1/2  teaspoon of baking soda + 1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 cups of almond meal

1/4 cup of ground flax seed (linseed)

1. Turn the oven to 160 degrees - don't forget - I always forget. 
Mash the banana. Then combine with the honey, oil, cinnamon, vanilla essence, bicarb soda and lemon.

2. I forgot to add the eggs. Please do add the eggs in step 1!

3. Add the almond meal and the flax seed. Mix it well.

4. Pour the batter into a rectangle baking tin and bake for about 45mins - 1 hour...or until the skewer is clean!

I added some dark chocolate choc chips on top just to spice things up a bit.

5. ENJOY! So yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Health check - Tandoori chicken

I'm leaving for Europe in 79 days. To prepare for my overindulence in various European foods, I decided it's time to learn some healthy meals for my pre-travel detox.

My wonderful friend Kristina has been doing some clean eating and sent me one of her healthy recipes. I cannot explain how EASY and DELICIOUS this recipe was. I probably use the words 'easy' and 'delicious' way too much. But seriously, it was. I was actually impressed with myself with how good it tasted and surprised how healthy it was!

So here it goes...(this serves about 2 people)

1 medium onion

200g chicken breast (cut into small pieces)

1 tablespoon tandoori paste

200g cans canned tomatoes (I used crushed tomatos - whatever you want really) 

1/4 cup liquid vegetable stock

80g canned lentils, drained

1/4 cup light cream

1) Chop up the onion and the chicken.

I hate chopping up onion. I wore my sunglasses the whole time...doesn't really work that well....for a few tips to stop the onion cry and a bit of info about this pesky veggie, I look to Dr Karl - he's the man.

2) Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium-low heat. Add the onion and cook until soft - stirring often (about 5 mins). Increase the heat to medium-high and add the chicken (cook for for 3-4 mins).

      

3) Add the curry paste. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until fragrant. Next, add the tomatoes, stock and lentils and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes or until the lentils are soft and the sauce thickens. 

If after about 25 minutes the sauce isnt the thickness you want, add a teaspoon of cornflour - works a treat. However, once the sauce has sat off the heat, it does continue to thicken. 

4) After 30 minutes, stir in the cream and cook for 1 minute or until heated through.

5) Let it cool and enjoy with rice, papadums, whatever you want really! I had a bit by itself with a teaspoon of Natural Greek Yoghurt - Delish.

I've had this for lunch 3 days in a row.....

Munch Time: Mars Bar Slice

Definition
Munch time: [muhnch tahym] noun : A phrase made up by my good friend Brendan. Also the name of a new group of blog posts detailing easy treats to take to parties, bbqs etc etc.

This is the first of (hopefully) many munch time posts. So on the weekend I had a Greek BBQ which involved many a souvlaki. A family friend insisted I make mars bar slice and with great pleasure I agreed.

I'm going to be honest, mars bar slice isn't healthy nor can you stop at one piece. HOWEVER, it is absolutely delicious and so amazingly easy that even I can't fail it.

This is the original recipe and doesn't make as much as the pictures show (I roughly doubled the recipe)

Mars Bar Slice

Approx 220 gm of Mars Bars

80 g butter (50gm to melt with the mars bars, 30 gm for the chocolate)

Approx 3 cups of rice bubbles (feel free to add more, just see how you go with the amount of mars bar mixture you have)

200g milk cooking chocolate

Firstly, roughly chop the mars bars. 

   

Then place it in a pot (on low) with the butter and stir until you get a smooth mixture.

Mix the melted mars bar mixture with the rice bubbles and then flatten it out in a square baking tin.

Let it set in the fridge for about 10-15 minutes.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a pot and once smooth, spread over the rice bubbles.

Let it set in the fridge again and then cut whatever size slices to serve.

Eat and don't feel guilty about a thing. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm