Traveling with high maintenance eating

I recently got back from a 2 week vacation to Maui. The adjustment has been a little rough. We drove to the airport in 85 degree weather and landed at SeaTac in 45 degree clouds. Ugh.

To console myself, I spend an inordinant amount of time scrolling through the pictures on my phone, remembering the sights, sounds, and smells of Maui. Aaaaah. What better way to hang onto a piece of the vacation? Well, maybe to share some tips in case you, too, want to go there. It’s going to be a long post so go get your cup of coffee now. Ready? OK, here we got.

The biggest challenge to traveling on GAPS is, of course, food.* This was a major stressor for me in the month leading up to our trip.  How on earth can you go on vacation and eat clean for 2 weeks? Well, it takes a lot of planning. And since I’m not that good at planning, I had my daughter help me. 

Tip #1 – Menu Plan for the entire trip, including breakfast, lunch, dinner, and travel snacks.

I kept a master notebook with pages for what to pack from the bathroom, the kitchen, and the bedroom, as well as extra odd things. In that same notebook, I wrote out a menu plan for the whole trip. Each day had 4 lines – breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. Next to the day, I would also write what plans were for the day. The activities dictated what I would fix. If we needed to get out the door quickly (to get to the 7 am farmer’s market, for example), I’d do fried eggs. If there was more time, I planned smoothies or pancakes (recipe at the end of the post).

Now the important thing about the notebook was that it was flexible. It was not holy writ. Things could be shuffled from one day to another, depending on the weather, our energy level, and what we felt like.

As I menu planned, I kept running lists going on three separate notebook pages. They were shopping lists for Costco, Whole Foods, and the health Food store. Then I kept another page for the “Must buy or make before we go” items.

Tip #2 – Make Shopping lists for as soon as you leave the airport

Just outside the airport on Maui is a Costco. Must have items from Costco:

            Coconut oil

            Salad greens (organic)

            Sea Salt

            Bananas (they had local apple bananas there!)

            Wine (if you’re into it. Most other places don’t have a brisk turnover of stock and it’s not reliably good. Plus Costco’s prices are good.)

            Frozen fish

            2 pack of frozen organic chickens

            Frozen organic chicken breasts

            Cheese ( we got Dubliner and Gouda. Yes, we ate it all. Don’t judge.)

            Chicken Sausages (http://www.aidells.com/products)

            Onion

            Garlic

            Lemons

            Limes

            Avocadoes

           

(dragon fruit)

Whole Foods:

            Almond butter

            Organic Valley Pastured Butter

            Fresh veggies

            Organic canned Salsa

            Eggs

            Olive Oil

            Organic Apple Cider vinegar

            Tomatoes

Health Food Store:

            Coconut milk (the only place that carried coconut milk without guar gum. Be forewarned, it’s $3.86 a can)

            Additional fresh fruits and veggies

            Kombucha. At about $5 a bottle, this was a huge splurge

Farmer’s Market:

            Farm eggs (they cost $6/dozen. Get over it. That’s still a cheap protein source. )

            Raw Honey

            Coconut water kefir

            Local fruits and veggies

Things we packed:

            Wild, troll caught tuna from Costco. The Costco in Hawaii doesn’t carry it. Worth taking as it makes a great quick lunch or a snack.

            Frozen grass-fed beef in our checked-through luggage, double bagged in Ziploc bags

            Spices in zip bags, labeled. I included spice blends for specific recipes.

            Gelatin. WARNING – Place into a different container, like a jar with a lid. The change in air pressure made our tube of gelatin sneeze all over everything inside the suitcase, which made for several sticky messes)

            Epic bars. Greatest travel meal replacements ever. 

            2 lb bag of soaked, dried walnuts

            Dried apple slices

            Beef jerky (made from flank steak and beef heart – fabulous to sneak in organ meats.)

            Tea bags

            Fermented cod liver oil, nestled next to the frozen meat
            Coconut flakes (for This recipe. It’s tremendous)

            Coconut flour

            Raw Cocoa powder

            Water filter pitcher

            Coffee French press

Our condo was fairly well stocked, but unfortunately, all of the pans were non-stick. Boo! We even went to the thrift store to see if we could score a cast-iron skillet, but were out of luck there. All they had was non-stick cookware that was no longer non-stick and would shed large chunks of Teflon into your scrambled eggs. Double boo.

Other than that, we ate like kings! We feasted on lots of salads, quick meals like hamburger patties, tuna salad (over salad), chicken salad, and lots of grilled meat.

Even on the go, we ate well. I put together Paleo Packs in sandwich size plastic bags. The mix should be protein, fats, and carbs, so I put in jerky, nuts, coconut flakes, and dried fruit.

A couple of times I wanted DESSERT! So I made it. Cocoa powder, coconut oil, shredded unsweetened coconut, and a bit of honey. Awesome.

One of the favorite breakfasts for my family was a recipe that I cobbled together, adapting an online recipe with what I had on hand. We served it with sausage and it made for happy days with full tummies and even blood sugar levels.

Almond Butter Pancakes

(makes 12-16 4” pancakes, using about an 1/8 cup batter per pancake)

3 large eggs
1/4 cup coconut milk
1 tsp honey
2 Tbsp coconut flour

1/2 cup almond butter
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

1 overly ripe banana, medium sized, mushed
1 Tbsp gelatin

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Let sit for 10 minutes. The batter will thicken a bit as it sits. While the batter is resting, heat a large skillet (not non-stick!) over medium heat. Use coconut oil to grease the pan and scoop the batter into the heated pan. Let the pancakes cook till bubbles have formed throughout and then turn, cooking briefly on the other side.

Serve the pancakes with plenty of good butter. You can top with unsweetened applesauce, if you need a bit of sweetener on it.

*Technically, we weren’t on GAPS for the vacation. We couldn’t pack bone broth. But we did eat as clean as possible. And the rest we shrugged and said, “It’s vacation!”

A Piece of Advice

I'm considering a career change. Sure, being a homeschooling mother and part time lazy blogger is glamorous, but the pay stinks and the hours are horrible. I was thinking about becoming a relationship counselor instead. This would combine two of my favorite things - telling people what to do and listening to other people's problems so that my own problems seem not nearly so bad by comparison.

As a relationship counselor, I could hang out my shingle and people would pay me to listen to them complain about their girlfriend/boyfriend/parent/child/teacher/co-worker/or whoever. This is pretty much what I already do for free. I'm good at it, too. People who paid for my services would get top quality head nodding, concerned and sympathetic smiles, and lots of "tell me more."

Then, when the relationship has been thoroughly examined, the problem extrapolated, and the dynamic explained, I would swing into action and give extraordinary advice. Some people feel that you need letters behind your name before you're qualified to give advice. I disagree. I've got an Mrs. in front of my name and an MOM after it, so I feel supremely qualified to wade into the murky waters of troubled relationships. Plus, I watched a soap opera back in college, so I know exactly what NOT to say.

The easiest clients would involve work relationships. Employee making you nuts? Fire them. Boss making you crazy? Put a laxative in his or her coffee and get a new job. Co-worker driving you round the bend? Watch a few episodes of The Office. I'm sure you'll get some ideas.

I think I might have to go into practice with a partner. Then I would pass off all the parent/child/teacher problems to that person. It's not the I'm not qualified. More like overqualified. I've been there, done that, and have the wrinkles to prove it.

I think my favorite group of clients would be the love-lorn. So easy.

* How do I get a girlfriend (or boyfriend)?
~ You don't. Go make friends, both with boys and girls. Hang out with people whose company you enjoy. Talk to them. Listen to them. Have fun together. Maybe something will come from it. Maybe not. But at least you'll have friends that you can hang out with.

* My boyfriend (or girlfriend) doesn't call me every day. If they really loved me, wouldn't they call every day?
~ Maybe. But more likely not. Unless you're on your honeymoon, you can't expect that other person's thoughts to be on you 24/7. If it's a healthy relationship, that other person has other things going on besides waiting by the phone to talk to you. If they are waiting 24/7, taking the phone in the potty so they don't miss your call (not just to play Angry Birds like normal people do), that's obsessive, unhealthy, and they should get a hobby.

* Where can I find the love of my life?
~ See the first question. When you find a really good friend, you might have found the love of your life. Potentially. So, make friends. Who knows what could come of that great conversation you had on Tumblr when you found out that you weren't the only one who thought a cross-over between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Anne of Green Gables would be the best thing ever? But if you go to a bar looking for the love of your life, you're guaranteed to come home smelling like cigarette smoke and most likely without the love of your life. Unless you've always wanted to be hitched to a drunk.

* My girlfriend (or boyfriend) is super whiny. How do I change her (or him)?
~ You don't. You upgrade to the non-whiny version.

* I want to break up with my boyfriend (or girlfriend). How do I do it without hurting their feelings?
~ Go with the classics. The tried and true "let's just be friends" has stood the test of time. And if you say it nicely enough, it might take him (or her) till you get a new boyfriend (or girlfriend) to figure out that he (or she) has been dumped.

That's just a sampling of the superior advice you'd get when you come to Cookie Baker Counseling services. Interested? Call or email to make an appointment.

Not convinced? Here's a freebie - a solid piece of advice is to try these shakes. They are like everything a GAPS girl or guy wants in a mate: rich, sweet, and satisfying.

Dairy-Free Chocolate Milkshakes
 - adapted from Eat Like A Dinosaur
 serves 4

(Because this recipe calls for chilled and frozen ingredients, you need to plan ahead)

2 dried dates
1 14 oz can full-fat coconut milk, chilled (to be GAPS legal, it can't have added thickeners)
1 cup ice
1 avocado, peeled and pitted
1 ripe banana, frozen
1/4 cup cocoa powder (preferably raw)

1- Place dates in a small bowl and cover with boiling water. Let them sit for 15 minutes.

2- Remove the dates from the water and pat them dry. Remove the pit and place them in a blender.

3- Add the rest of the ingredients to the blender. Purée until smooth.

4- Serve in small glasses with straws.

Of Spiders And Muffins

It's a well known fact in my family that I hate/fear/loathe spiders. I hate their legs, their webs, and the way they scuttle around, jump at you, or drop unexpectedly on your neck or head. (Excuse me a minute while I slap repeatedly at my head and neck because that creepy feeling I got just now might have been a spider.) I know they have their place in the grand design of the universe, but my place in that same design happens to be standing over them with a heavy shoe poised for the kill. But that's only if no one else is in the house. If my husband is home, then he's the one to gallantly spring to action when he hears my piteous shrieks of terror. He'll calmly take a piece of tissue and squish the spider (with his bare hands!) and toss it into the toilet, which I hurriedly flush, just in case that spider's planning a comeback.

It would surprise my family to know I have an uneasy relationship with a spider in my laundry room. This is not the kind of relationship where I name the spider an endearing name, become attached to it, and it weaves messages to me in it's web. No, we have an agreement. The agreement goes something like this: I promise to not hunt him down in his hidey hole next to the washing machine as long as he traps and consumes the other bugs that lurk in there, keeps the webbing to a minimum, and does not show his creepy legs during daylight hours.

When I stretch the terms of the agreement and go into the laundry room at 5:00 am, it is his responsibility to scuttle out of sight and it's my part of the bargain to pretend I don't see him. If he chooses to linger, a quick, squashy death brought about by my shoe or the nearest heavy, hurlable object is in his immediate future.

This might sound harsh, but I don't waste time being sentimental with spiders. I either shriek, throw, or stomp, all the while hyperventilating. I figure I'm showing great restraint in not asking my husband to introduce Mr. Spider to Death By ShopVac.

Oh, crud - I just named him! What's next? Allowing his webs to stay up, festooning the laundry room with cobwebs filled with dryer lint? Looking for cryptic messages in those webs? Opening the window to purposefully allow flies to come in so he won't starve? Spending my time in the laundry room talking to him??

No, this must stop right now. I'm going to march down there and put an end to this weird, permissively symbiotic relationship. With a shoe. Which is in my closet. Which I can't get to without waking up my husband. Hmmmm.

Mr. Spider is looking pretty big these days, approaching the size of a Smart car. Maybe I'll just wait for my husband to wake up and let him deal with Mr. Spider.

And while I'm waiting, I'll bake up a batch of attaboy treats. Muffins. A terrific way to start the day! Plus, since they're grain-free and contain no sugars, they won't spike your blood sugar and leave you feeling lethargic and groggy, which you absolutely shouldn't be if you're going to do battle with spiders!

Banana Blueberry Muffins
- adapted from The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook

3 cups almond meal
1/4 tsp sea salt
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 large eggs
2 cups (4-5) mashed very ripe bananas
1 cup frozen blueberries

1- Preheat oven to 350 deg. F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. (Don't omit the paper liners. It makes a HUGE difference at clean up time.)

2-In a large bowl, combine the almond meal, salt, and baking soda.

3- In a medium bowl, whisk together the olive oil and eggs. Stir the wet ingredients into the almond meal mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the bananas, then fold in the blueberries. Using a large spoon or scoop, divide the dough between the muffin cups.

4- Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean.

5- Set the muffin tin on a wire cooling rack and let the muffins cool in the pan for 30 minutes, then serve. Preferably with lots of good butter!

Back to School Blues

I've been desperately ignoring it, doing my very best ostrich impression, hiding my head in the sand, but it's come anyway. Yes, school is upon us. I know for most mothers, back to school is a time of "ah, the kids go away all day and life is quiet again." For homeschoolers, though, it's a time of "oh no, my other job is starting up again!"

For some reason this year has been particularly bad. I was in such deep denial about the coming school year that I didn't even put in my school book order until two weeks before we were scheduled to start. Perhaps that was my subconscious ploy to delay - if the books aren't here, we can't do school, right? But I was foiled by my most excellent curriculum provider. They had the books on my doorstep the day we started. Grrr.

You see, I was not ready to let go of summer. It seemed like we'd barely had a summer and I wanted to continue our ambitious agenda of lazing around, going to the pool, hanging out with friends, reading trashy novels, and baking just for fun. But life intrudes and pretending to be a grown up takes precedence over play time.

So, to console myself, I made cookies. Since I'm trying to drastically cut down on sugar (see my last post), I thought I'd try these cookies. Sweetened only with fruit, they seemed to be the answer to my post-breakup prayers. But I have to be honest with you. They're a make-do cookie. You know, the kind you eat when you're desperate for something sweet and there's nothing else in the house. It's not that they're bad, but they're not amazing. If you had your choice of these cookies and the ones in the previous post, you'd pick the latter. Every time.

In fact, I even ended up chucking a few of these cookies. They'd gone moldy. My family probably figured out that if they just held firm, the sugar embargo wouldn't last and I'd come up with something more tempting. (They were right. You should see what's sitting on my counter now!) Or maybe it was because of the coconut. My family has issues with coconut.

But if you're committed to not feeding your family sugar, or if your kids have never had sugary treats, you will probably really enjoy these cookies. They are moist, the banana-chocolate combination is always a winner, and they have the added bonus of making you feel virtuous while eating a cookie. But if you're one of the parents who packs a lunch for your child to take to school, be aware that they might try to trade these away for a Twinkie. (Euww!)

No Sugar Banana Cookies
adapted from 101 Cookbooks

3 large, ripe bananas, well mashed (about 1-1/2 cups)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup coconut oil
2 cups rolled oats (not quick or instant)
2/3 cup almond meal
1 Tbsp coconut flour
1/3 cup coconut, finely shredded & unsweetened
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup chocolate chips

1- Preheat oven to 350 deg. F with a rack in the top third of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or Silpat.

2- If your coconut oil is solid, warm it up to liquid. You can use either a saucepan or just set the measuring cup into a cup of hot water. You want the oil liquid, but not hot.

3- In a large bowl combine the bananas, vanilla extract, and coconut oil. Set aside. In another bowl whisk together the oats, almond meal, coconut flour, shredded coconut, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder.

4- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips. Let the dough sit for 10 minutes to firm up a bit.

5- Drop the dough in dollops about 2 tsp each onto the prepared baking sheet, about an inch apart. Bake for about 12 minutes, until the tops are just browning. Leave on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes before removing to a cooing rack.

Rethinking Banana Bread

It's easy to see how people get locked into their habits. What starts out as "this is the way I do it" becomes "this is the right way to do it" which ossifies into "this is the only way to do it."

When I was the new mother of an infant, a lot of the advice that my mother and mother-in-law gave me drove me nuts. They thought they knew the best way to parent because they'd been parents. But what did they know about the best way to put the baby in the car seat? They didn't even have car seats when they were new mothers. Or seat belts!

Why would I need advice on how to heat a bottle at night? Or that helpful tip about putting bourbon in the bottle to help the baby sleep at night? Well, since I was nursing, the bottle question didn't apply. And putting bourbon in the mommy would help mommy sleep, but feeding it to a baby? Really???

While babies and their needs stay the same, ideas, technology, and invention change the way some things are done. It wasn't until after my second child was out of the car seat that someone saw that babies fall asleep in the car and invented a car seat that could easily come out of the car, letting the baby stay asleep. Genius!

I try to keep this paradigm of change in mind as I watch my daughter parent. And she is doing things differently than I did. Bucking the standard "wisdom" that you should start a baby on rice cereal at 6 months (you shouldn't), she's doing baby-led weaning. She puts her daughter (now 10 months old) in the Bumpo chair (another brilliant invention) at the dinner table, puts on her eating apron, and sets a variety of food on the tray in front of her. Real food. Stalks of cooked asparagus, sauteed onions, and strawberries are some of her favorites. This method is perfect for someone as strong-willed as my granddaughter. She's in control of what she eats and she gets to pick from a healthy array of choices. She's much happier than if someone tried to shovel pureed ick into her mouth with a spoon.

I know that I get in ruts in the kitchen of doing things the same way because that's the way I've always done it, baking things with the same recipe because that's what I'm familiar and comfortable with. But it's good to try new things because life does change.

Recently King Arthur Flour featured this banana bread recipe on their website, touting it as a customer favorite. I have a banana bread recipe that I love. I've used it about as long as I've been baking. So why try something new? Because you never know what you might be missing. And if you passed on this banana bread, you would be missing indeed. It's got whole grains, but it's so moist you don't feel like you're eating a healthy brick. My son was sad when the last piece was gone and requested it again almost immediately. That's change I can live with!

Heavenly Healthy Banana Bread
- adapted from King Arthur Flour

1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) butter
1/2 cup brown sugar, light or dark, firmly packed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon banana flavor, optional
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 medium to large bananas, cut into chunks
1/4 cup honey
2 large eggs
1 -7/8 cups King Arthur 100% white whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp flax meal
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1 - Preheat your oven to 350°F with a rack in the center of the oven. Lightly grease an 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" or 9" x 5" loaf pan. The larger pan will give a somewhat flatter loaf.

2 - In a small bowl, mash the bananas.

3 - In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth. Add the vanilla, baking soda, salt, and mashed bananas, beating until well combined.

4 - Beat in the honey and eggs.

5 - Add the flour and flax meal, then the walnuts, stirring until smooth.

6 - Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top. Let it rest at room temperature for 10 minutes. Don't skip the rest period!

7 - Bake the bread for 50 minutes, then gently lay a piece of aluminum foil across the top, to prevent over-browning. Bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes, then remove the bread from the oven; a long toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center should come out clean.

8 - Allow the loaf to cool for 10 minutes; then remove it from the pan, and set it on a rack to cool completely.

Four More Years, Four More Years

Happy Blogday to me,
Happy Blogday to me,
I can't believe it's been 4 years,
Happy Blogday to me!

Yes, four years ago I timidly entered the world of food blogging. I was not ( and am still not) ambitious, thinking that blogging would launch me into a career as a cookbook author or celebrechef. But in a way, a quiet, unspectacular way, it has done that. Not that any publishing house is knocking on my door, contract in hand, but I've created an online cookbook right here. It's a reference for me and my family to locate favorite recipes. You're welcome to use it, too, free of charge.

As to celebrechefdom (isn't that a great word I just made up?), no, you won't be seeing me filling a time slot of the Food Network. I barely have time to get my laundry done and make my bed. Doing a TV show? I don't need that kind of pressure in my life. Besides, when I'm nervous, my voice gets high and squeaky, like Minnie Mouse on helium. Not a good TV presence. But I do occasionally get a jolt of surprise when meeting a friend of my daughter's or a co-worker of my husband's who says, "I love your blog! I just make your brownies. They were soooooo good!" It always surprises me to learn that someone I don't know reads my blog.



Have I made any money from this venture? No. I'm definitely in the red here. But I have gotten some free stuff and I've gotten the confidence to enter a contest which I won (more free stuff!). And more importantly, there are the intangibles of blogging. I now know wonderful people from around the country and around the world who I would never have met without blogging. And I know that even if I never posted another cookie, we'd still be buddies.

The other interesting thing about blogging is how my skills and confidence in the kitchen have increased. I'm willing to take on new challenges and they're not as daunting as they used to be. Also, as I've become more aware of food possibilities, I've branched out from Rice Krispie treats and chocolate chip cookies. It's been fun to have the blog as my playground, where I could experiment with food, mixing flavors, trying new techniques, and giving free reign to my playful side. My family is very familiar with the phrase, "It's for the blog." And they're OK with that.



One of my most popular posts is my Fluffernutter cake , a tribute to Elvis. It was fun to make and killer delicious. I've been toying with the idea of revisiting the fluffernutter theme, and this time I did it as a Whoopie Pie. Yes, all the fabulous deliciousness of the Fluffernutter cake that you can hold in your hand.

Print out the recipe, make up a batch, and let me know what you think. Your comments are my paycheck. They don't spend well at Costco, but they give me motivation to keep posting.

Fluffernutter Whoopie Pies
- adapted from King Arthur Flour

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (3 medium to large) mashed bananas
2 large eggs
2 cups King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour, white wheat or traditional
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups mini chocolate chips

Filling:

2/3 stick (~11 Tbsp) butter, softened
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
1-1/3 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp milk
1 cup marshmallow fluff

1- Preheat the oven to 350 deg. F with racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2- In a large bowl cream together the butter, sugars, and salt until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and the bananas. The mixture will look curdled; that's OK.

3- Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

4- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and mix until evenly combined. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and mix for 1 minute more.

5- Stir in the mini chocolate chips.

6- Scoop the dough by Tablespoons onto the prepared cookie sheets. (If you want larger pies, you can use a quarter cup measure, but allow plenty of space for them to spread out.)

7- Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, until the edges are very lightly browned and the tops spring back when lightly touched. (If you're making the larger size, bake for 12 to 14 minutes). Let the cookies rest on the sheets for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

8- For the filling, cream together the butter and peanut butter. Add the powdered sugar and beat till smooth, adding milk, if necessary to achieve a smooth, frosting consistency.

9- With a rubber spatula, fold in the marshmallow fluff till there are no streaks of marshmallow remaining.

10- To assemble the whoopie pies, spread about 2 Tbsp of the filling on the bottom of one of the cooled cookies. Gently press another one on top.

Store the cookies in the refrigerator in a tightly closed container.

(Notes on the filling - I specified natural peanut butter as I'm trying to cut all hydrogenated fats out of my kitchen. I wanted to see if natural would work here. It was fine, but will need refrigeration to keep it from separating. Also, although you'd think I'd know better by know, I read 2/3 next to the butter and added 2/3 cup, not 2/3 stick. It makes a difference. So if you were one of the recipients of these, know that making it as directed won't give you the same taste you had before.)

My Favorite Whine

The weather's getting me down. I think I'm not alone here. Although the Pacific Northwest isn't being hit by the epic amounts of frozen global warming that the East and Central areas are (including Texas, freaking hot Texas almost couldn't host the Super Bowl because of drifts of the stuff!), we are under a cloud. Actually, lots of them. We're in that bleakest month of the year, February, where the predominant color theme is grey.

Vitamin D deficient, we stumble down the street clutching our coffee, hoping to find a lifeline in a paper cup of caffeine. It gets us through the day, but just barely. What we need is sunshine. Beautiful, warm, light sunshine.

What I want is a beach. A warm sandy beach where the sand is so soft it's like stepping on pillows. And, although the temperature is in the 80's (F), it never feels too hot because of the soft breezes that waft the elusive scent of plumeria over you. When the gentle warmth has seeped all the way into your bones, you can get up and take a few steps to the edge of the water, wade in, and cool off. The water is just the right temperature, cool enough to be refreshing, but warm enough that it doesn't take your breath away.



You see, what I really want is to pack my bags and go to Hawaii. What I did instead was make muffins. Tropical muffins. I threw together the flavors of the tropic - bananas, pineapples, would-have-been-coconut-but-I-couldn't-find-any-in-my-cupboard, and macadamia nuts. Then I could drape a lei over my neck, put Tiny Bubbles on my iPod, crank up the house heat, light a floral candle, and hula my way around the house, eating the taste of the tropics. My husband draws the line at importing a beach, though. The sand is a booger to get out of the carpet.

(I also put quite a bit of bran in the muffins. Hopefully that will help me live long enough to actually get to Hawaii! Or at least to outlive winter.)

Tropical Branana Mini Muffins
- adapted from The Complete Muffin Cookbook
makes about 36 mini muffins, or 12 regular ones

1 cup unbleached white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup chopped dried pineapple
1/4 cup dried coconut
1/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts
3 ripe bananas, mashed (1-1/2 cups)
3/4 cup water
1 large egg
1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp grated lemon peel OR 1/4 tsp lemon extract OR 1/8 tsp lemon oil


1- Preheat the oven to 375 deg. Lightly grease the insides of a mini muffin tin.

2- Into a large bowl sieve together the flours, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir in the wheat bran, pineapple, coconut, and macadamia nuts.

3- In a medium bowl whisk together the bananas, water, egg, vanilla, and lemon flavoring.

4- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry mixture. Stir just until mixed. Do not overstir!

5- Spoon the batter (I used a small cookie scoop) into the prepared tin. Fill each cup to the the top.

6- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool muffins in the pan for 8 to 10 minutes before removing from the tin. (At this point I had to wash out my tin and regrease it for the second batch. If you've got more than one tin, lucky you!)

Easing Back Into Life

Having a baking blog is tricky in January. For my readers, all of the baking, partying, and indulging that went on in December suddenly catches up in January and it's a month of lean deprivation, trying to atone for past dietary sins with trips to the gym, nasty weight-loss shakes, and dinners of clear soup and a plateful of kale. The last thing needed is the temptation of luscious brownies, cupcakes, and cookies, so common sense says to just stay away from baking blogs.

But as the month wears on and the resolutions wear down, instead of giving up totally and letting the pounds settle where they may, might I suggest a gentler solution? Give in, just a little bit, once in a while, in a way that's better for you. Instead of caving in to temptation at the grocery store checkout line and buying a candy bar, how about baking some bars? Whole grains, bananas, nuts. Have I got your attention yet? And, of course, chocolate, because we all know that chocolate is necessary for good health and mental well-being.

So splurge just a tiny bit. You'll enjoy the reprieve from diet purgatory, plus with a whole pan full, you'll have plenty to share with your gym buddies! And because they've got bananas in them, they just keep getting moister and better as they sit, so you don't feel like you have to gobble them all the day they're made.

Live a little! Life's too short to drink your meals from a can. Besides, have you ever read the ingredients list on those? Ugh. Read these ingredients and I think you'll agree that it's not such a bad thing after all.



Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Banana Squares
- adapted from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking

3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1-1/4 cups packed light or dark brown sugar
3 very ripe medium bananas (about 1 cup), mashed
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
r2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1 large egg
1-3/4 cups whole spelt flour
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts*

1- Preheat oven to 350 deg. F with a rack in the center of the oven. Lightly grease a 9 x 13-inch pan.

2- In a medium mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar till smooth. Beat in the bananas, lemon juice, vanilla, baking powder, salt, and spices, scraping the bowl as needed. Add the egg. Beat till smooth, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl again.

3- Sir in the flour, mixing thoroughly. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Let the batter sit for 15 minutes; the batter will thicken as it rests.

4- Sprinkle the chocolate chips and nuts on top of the batter.

5- Bake until the center is no longer liquid, but still moist, about 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool on a rack. For best texture, cover the cooled pan and let the bars rest overnight before cutting and serving.

*Note - if the slightly bitter taste of walnuts bothers you, try soaking them for about 4 hours in salted water. Drain, rinse, and dry in a food dehydrator or oven set on it's lowest setting till they are crisp (10 hours, or so). This also makes them more digestible, so they don't leave a heavy feeling in your tummy.

Banana Without A Bunch

The high school that I attended had a specialized form of torture - the stomp. No, no, it did not involve hobnailed boots. It involved dancing. Whenever our football team had a home game, there was a dance, a "stomp" following the game. It wasn't a formal dance, no dates or long dresses, just show up and dance. I loathed it.

There were clumps of friends clustered around the dance floor, like bunches of grapes draped decoratively around a banquet platter. Occasionally a brave boy grape would detach himself from his cluster and head over to a girl cluster to ask a girl to dance. The etiquette was that it was (almost) always a boy who asked, and the girl was (almost) never allowed to turn him down.

My torment was twofold. The cute guys I liked never asked me to dance. They would ask my friends. And then when my friends were all out dancing, I had to try to look cool hanging out all by myself, radiating something like, "Oh, I prefer to be here alone. It's so annoying to have to dance with cute guys."



Then, the Jaws theme would start playing in my mind as I spied Him, the short boy with the greasy hair and sweaty palms, threading through the crowds, inexorably drawing closer, inevitably to ask me to dance. And I couldn't say no. I had to dance with him. I didn't yet know the excellent line from Romy And Michele's High School Reunion - "Would you excuse me? I cut my foot before and my shoe is filling up with blood. "

Strangely, it took me almost two years to figure out that it was better to stay home alone on Friday nights and read a book than to subject myself to this torment. Being alone has such a bad rap, but sometimes, one is not the loneliest number, sometimes it's the happiest number.



Like one lone banana browning on the countertop. Not enough for banana bread, banana cake, or banana muffins. Is it destined to die a sad and lonely death in the compost bin? No, not since I've discovered the goodness of banana, walnuts, and chocolate in cookie form.

These cookies are amazing. Seriously moist, sweet without being cloying, with pockets of crunch and bursts of chocolate. They're fabulous the day they're made, and stay wonderful in the cookie jar for up to 2 days (like they'll last that long).

If you have a solo banana turning brown, play matchmaker and set it up with nuts and chocolates for this Friday night!

Banana-Walnut Chocolate-Chunk Cookies
- adapted from Martha Stewart's Cookies

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1-1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (about 1 large)
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
8 oz. milk chocolate, coarsely chopped into 1/4-inch chunks
1/2 cup walnuts (about 2 oz)

1- Preheat oven to 350 deg. F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Assemble all your ingredients.

2- When oven is preheated, place the walnuts in a thin layer on a baking sheet and toast for about 10 minutes, till fragrant. Remove the nuts and turn the oven heat up to 375 deg. F. Coarsely chop the nuts and set aside.

3- In a small bowl whisk together the flours, salt, and baking soda.

4- In the bold of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the butter and sugars on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Add egg and vanilla; mix until combined. Mix in the banana. Add the flour mixture; mix until just combined. Stir in oats, chocolate chunks, and walnuts.

5- Using a 1-1/2 inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto prepared baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart (the cookies will flatten and spread as they bake).

6- Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until golden brown and just set, 12 to 13 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks; let cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.

I Resolve To Eat Chocolate

It's tough recovering from the holidays. My husband had almost two weeks off and we filled it with a lot of nothing. The good kind of nothing - sleeping in, staying home, scrounging meals from leftovers, and wrapping up in blankets on the couch to watch TV or read books. For my kids the holidays were all about wearing pajamas all day, no school, and eating stuff like candy canes and gingerbread men.

Now we're back to reality with stuff like getting up on time, work, school, and genuine menu planning. I get all inspired for healthy living in my post-holiday menu planning and grocery shopping. I load up the cart with fresh produce and when I get it home I get to watch it go bad as my children desperately search between the couch cushions for one last nugget of Christmas stocking candy.



Of course with bananas it's easy to rescue them from the compost pile. There are tons of banana bread recipes, but I wanted something a little more special, something a little more alluring. OK, I'll admit it, I'm going through chocolate withdrawal, too, and I wanted something a little more chocolate.

I turned to a new cookbook that a baking buddy had given me, Baking Kids Love. It's the latest from Sur La Table, and it's terrific. It's packed with kid-friendly recipes, and the directions are so easy and clear that even I can follow them. The recipe for Gone Bananas Chocolate Chip Cake sounded like the perfect way to indulge my chocolate craving and pretend that it's healthy. Bananas = healthy, right?

Gone Bananas Chocolate Chip Cake
- adapted from Baking Kids Love

3 large, very ripe bananas
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
4 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1- Preheat the oven to 350 deg. F with a rack in the center of the oven. Lightly butter a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.

2- Peel the bananas and mush them in a medium bowl with a fork or potato masher. It's OK to leave a few small lumps. This should yield about 1-1/2 cups banana pulp.

3-In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

4- Add the eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla to the banana mush and whisk to blend well. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the banana mixture into the well. Whisk until the batter is smooth and you don't see any more patches of flour. Gently stir in the chocolate chips.

5- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 65 to 75 minutes, until deep golden brown, firm to the touch in the center, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and let the cake cool completely.

6- When the cake is cool, remove it from the pan onto a serving plate.

7- Put the chopped chocolate into a medium bowl. In a small saucepan over medium heat, warm the cream until it just begins to boil. Immediately pour the cream over the chocolate. Let the mixture sit for 2 minutes, then gently whisk until it's blended and smooth. Let it cool for 5 to 10 minutes to thicken, until the icing runs off the tip of a teaspoon like warm honey.

8- Using the teaspoon, spoon the icing evenly over the top, letting some of it drip down the sides. Let the icing set for 20 minutes, then slice the cake with a serrated knife.

In Which I Get Creative and Learn About Pans

When I received my copy of You Made That Dessert? I went through and put in sticky notes to mark all the stuff I wanted to make. Then my husband did the same thing. And my daughter. The poor book looks like it got ambushed in a Post-it note war!

When I had a pile of bananas going south on my counter I remembered the promising recipe in there for Peanut Butter Banana bread. Except I didn't want to make bread. I wanted to make muffins. I love how muffins are just hand-sized; perfect for grabbing on the way out the door, sitting by a mug of tea at breakfast time, or as a snack for a child who's knife skills don't extend to non-massacre of a loaf.

As I understand it, basically any quick bread loaf can be converted to muffins. I was unsure, though, about how many muffins the recipe would yield and how long cooking time should be. I greased up my trusty standard muffin tin that my mother-in-law gave me years and years ago and filled the wells two-thirds full. It yielded 17 muffins. Odd number. Which got me to thinking. I've made muffins before and the numbers didn't quite match up. So I went to the source - Martha. According to Cupcakes, a standard-sized muffin tin should hold 4 oz. of batter. Assuming this meant 4 fluid oz (which is the stupidest unit of measure EVER) I poured 1/2 a cup of water into my tin. Well, I tried. My tin would only hold about 2/3 to 3/4 of that amount. What???

Apparently at some time in the last 20 years, the size of standard muffins, not unlike the size of standard Americans, has been revised upward. I've been baking with insufficient muffin tins! That would explain why some muffin recipes work and some come out dry and overbaked, or spill over the tin. Rats. Now I need a new tin to bake new recipes, but I also have to hold onto my old tins for my old recipes? And remember which is which? Way too much brain space to devote to muffins, people.

But some muffins are worth it. Like the ones that I made with the bananas. Banana bread with peanut butter stirred in. With chocolate chips. And nuts. Incredibly moist, amazingly delicious. I promise these will be a new favorite, whatever size you make them.

Peanut Butter Banana Muffins
- adapted from You Made That Dessert?

1-1/4 cups (5.35 oz) all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (not "natural")
2/3 cup sugar
3 large ripe bananas, mashed
2 large eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (I used regular chips and chopped them up a bit)

1- Preheat the oven to 350 deg. F. Spray the wells of a muffin tin with cooking spray.

2- In a small bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

3- In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-low speed, beat together the peanut butter and sugar together until well blended, about 2 minutes. Add the mashed bananas and eggs and mix well. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

4- Stir in the flour mixture with a spoon, mixing just until combined. Stir in the chopped nuts and the chocolate chips.

5- Divide the batter between the muffin tin wells, filling the wells 2/3 full. Depending on the size of your tins, you will get between 12 and 17 muffins.

6- Bake for 17 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean.

7- Let the muffins cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then remove them to a cooling rack to finish cooling. Once cooled, the muffins can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days. You can also tightly wrap the individual muffins in plastic wrap and store in the freezer for up to 1 month.