The most versatile banana "bread" ever

I have been making this bread for years now, as evidenced by the ratty old copy of the recipe. I pretty much know it by heart and have adapted it to suit my needs. I have recently been making it just about once a week as muffins to eat at breakfast. Breakfast for me is usually eaten on the run while I'm feeding kids, getting kids dressed, packed for school, driven to school. You get the picture. I'm lucky if the coffee in my cup is still warm when I finally get to it. This bread also freezes extremely well. And I've never given it as a gift and had someone not say they loved it.

I say it's versatile because as I was making it with my daughter this morning I realized that it is gluten, soy, and dairy free. You could very easily make it egg free too. This is also easy to make with frozen bananas. When your bananas start looking gnarly throw them in the freezer and then defrost them on the counter for a couple hours when you want bread. It does change the color and flavor a bit, but still good. Also, the base recipe is great on it's own, but it's even better if you add chocolate chips. Or, in the fall I like to add cinnamon and apples. I've also done it with a crumble topping. Won't do that again any time soon, it was too good and our house ate it in one day!

So here's the base recipe:

3 bananas (I usually use 2, but if you use frozen bananas use 3)
1 cup sugar (you can use 1/2 cup agave here too)
1 egg, or egg substitute
1 1/2 cup flour (I use Gluten Free Pantry all-purpose)
1/4 cup applesauce
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

You can also add:
1 cup mini chocolate chips (I use Enjoy Life) OR
1/2 tbsp cinnamon and 1 apple chopped

Mix it all together until moist. If your bananas are frozen you can just use a spoon, otherwise you'll want an electric mixer. Pour into a greased bread pan or muffins tins. For muffins bake at 350 for 20 minutes. For bread, 350 for 50-60 minutes.

Two soy free product raves.

Being newly soy free has taken a little getting used to. But it has had it's benefits. I have been struggling to get back down to "fighting weight" since Kitten was born. I eliminated soy and the weight seems to be rolling off. Imagine that. The most difficult challenge has been finding chocolate without soy. I am a chocoholic of the purest sense. My day doesn't feel complete without a little taste. But alas, most chocolate has soy lecithin in it as an emulsifier rather than cocoa butter because cocoa butter is expensive. Even so called organic chocolate has soy in it. Surprised? I was too. But I found two products that have changed all that.

The first is Theo chocolate bars. I found them at Whole Foods, but you can also buy in bulk from Amazon or their own website. They're a really cool company according to their website. And they are the only chocolate bar on the market (that I've found anyway) that uses cocoa butter. And you can taste the difference, in a good way.

The second discovery was Enjoy Life chocolate chips. I do a lot of home baking because of our gluten allergies and make banana chip muffins weekly as a quick breakfast. But all chocolate chips have soy. Except for Enjoy Life. These are actually gluten, dairy, soy, nut free. And still taste great because there are no fillers. I also found these at Whole Foods, but you can also get them in bulk from Amazon.

I'm thinking about doing more shopping for our allergen free products from Amazon for a little bit of savings and convenience, but right now we don't have the storage for it all. Maybe in our new house.

More?! Or less as the case may be.

I went back to the allergist after a two year hiatus and found that I'm now also allergic to: soy, almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts, and tomatoes. At first I was optimistic. After all, I've been down this road before. My suspicion over the nut allergy is what triggered the visit in the first place. But soy? I had recently switched to soy milk because of some dairy intolerance, and I liked it. Soy is in everything! And so are tomatoes!

I've done some research and discovered that the tomato thing is probably related to oral allergy syndrome and that I can probably tolerate them cooked. I will hold off on testing that theory until my symptoms clear up. I also went to Whole Foods and got some soy free chocolate. I have a chocolate problem. But at least now I don't have a chocolate has soy problem.