Tag: coconut

‘Made Over’ Banana Bread with Coconut and Walnuts

This is the first recipe I tweaked to make healthier, and I’ve been making it that way ever since!  It caught my eye in Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook because of the coconut, but I gasped in horror at the 2 2/3 C oil for just two loaves!  I incorporated my healthiest switch techniques and am more than happy with the results.

Holly’s “made-over” Martha Stewart Banana Bread with Coconut

1.5 C all-purpose flour

1.5 C whole-wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

¾ tsp salt

2 large eggs

3/4 C sugar

2/3 C vegetable oil

2/3 C plain yogurt or unsweetened applesauce

1.5 C mashed banana (about 3)

3/4 C unsweetened shredded coconut

3/4 C walnuts, toasted

½ C lowfat buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 and spray two 8×4 loaf pans with cooking spray.   Whisk flours, baking soda and salt together in a bowl and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer using the paddle attachment, mix the eggs, sugar, vegetable oil and applesauce (or yogurt).  Add the flour mixture slowly, mixing until just combined. Add the vanilla, banana, coconut, walnuts and buttermilk and mix lightly by hand.

Divide batter between prepared pans and sprinkle the tops with sugar.  Bake, rotating pans halfway through, for 45-50 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the centers comes out clean.  Cool on wire rack for 5 minutes, then remove from loaf pans to continue cooling.

Makes 2 loaves

24 servings = 200 calories

Half recipe = 12 muffins = 200 calories

*bake 15 minutes, then turn muffin tins and switch racks, bake another 10 minutes

*10 muffins = 240 calories

A little bit of the tropics in a freezing house…

This is what my thermostat said this morning:

  I was freezing!  It didn’t help that Hadrian had OD’d on water last night and had me up at 4 AND 6 a.m. to pee.

  Because it’s Thursday and that’s the day I don’t go to gym until 9:45 for yoga, I could actually sleep past 6 a.m.  But no, not with Hadrian’s bladder.

  Anyway, I had a very ripe mango on the counter, so I’d been planning on making a smoothie in the morning for a light breakfast.  Not this morning!  I wanted to get warmer, not colder!

  So, I pulled a Kath and made oatmeal.

  I still wanted to use the mango, so I came up with a “tropical” theme of sorts.  I used rolled oats, a splash of OJ, milk, lowfat cottage cheese (for protein), half a banana, about a third of the mango, flax seeds and a little honey.  I threw in a bit of Jamaican Allspice as well.  I topped with just a bit of sweetened, shredded coconut.

  Yum!  It was a bit sweet and weird (there is a reason mango isn’t a favorite topping for oatmeal), but not bad at all.  It was a bit watery as well…maybe less milk next time?  It definitely kept me full until I had lunch around 12:30.

Thankfully, we have a break from the rain today AND tons of sunshine, so I’m planning on taking the pup for a nice long walk.  Other things on the agenda:

-a complete closet clean-out!  (my jeans are too big–yay!  scored FIVE pairs of size 8 pants at Goodwill today, and with the move coming up, I just want to PURGE all the old, worn-out stuff I’ve been hanging on to)

-errands: grocery store, Auto Zone (Andrew has to change my brake pads while he’s home this weekend), and the Fairborn city  offices to get our garage sale permit

-Bible study (I’m in two different ones, so I do Esther in the morning with coffee, and the other one with tea whenever I can fit it in!)

-the neighbor kids will be mowing/weed whacking our yard–thank goodness we have a break from the rain–it’s a jungle out there!