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‘Breakfast’ Category

  1. Banana Bread

    February 22, 2012 by Tali

    Happy Banana Bread Day!

    This is most definitely an American thing. I’ve never before heard of banana bread day… but I’m all for embracing the festivities!

    I decided to make mine primal. That means no wheat flour or sugar.

    6 months to go until my wedding, and I need to get myself sorted! I’ve kinda set myself the challenge of keeping 100% primal for a whole month. I’ll see how that goes, with the intention of extending it out to the next 6 months and beyond.

    Superficially, I want to look good great in my wedding dress but, ultimately, I want to live a healthier lifestyle. This includes eating right and getting the correct exercise.

    I know from personal experience that if I try jumping straight into anything that forces a massive lifestyle change too abruptly, I fail. So I’m not going to force myself to get into an exercise regime right away.

    I’ve been eating the majority of my meals primal for quite some time now, although not being 100% strict. Indulging in too many cheat meals… which turn into cheat days by just giving in to temptations around the house. It’s one of my downfalls and I am determined to resist! Still living at home with the folks and not being able to control what’s in the kitchen cupboards can be frustrating and often difficult, but I have no excuses anymore. It’s all about willpower and a genuine desire to do this right!

    So my plan for the next 4 weeks (I started Monday) is to get my diet in order. Get myself into good eating habits, eating clean, and slowly working-in Mark Sisson’s recommended exercise.

    A whole day of shopping counts as low level aerobic activity… right?!

    Enough about me – more about the food!

    I looked through a number of paleo and primal friendly banana bread recipes. I decided after much deliberation, that the recipe I liked the sound of best, was the one posted on Mark’s Daily Apple.

    [This also could have had something to do with me having all the ingredients to hand…]

    It’s a simple recipe, with a small list of ingredients. I love the idea of using few ingredients. To me it makes the food less complicated and for some reason makes me think it’s healthier. The simpler the better right?

    I found the recipe here.

    Primal Banana Bread

    Makes: 1 Loaf    Time: 40mins

    Ingredients:
    2 cups almond flour
    1 tsp baking powder
    1 pinch sea salt
    1 cup chopped walnuts
    1/2 cup butter – melted
    2 eggs
    2 well ripened bananas (the riper they are the sweeter they are)

    • Preheat oven to 180 C or 350F
    • combine the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Almond flour, baking powder, sea salt and chopped walnuts
    • break eggs into another bowl, and lightly whisk until the eggs are completely broken up.
    • mash the bananas
    • add the bananas and melted butter to the egg mix
    • pour the egg mix into the dry ingredients, and gently fold until the mix evenly comes together
    • transfer into a lightly buttered loaf tin
    • bake for around 30mins (check after 25mins)

    For come reason my dad thought it would be a great idea to buy a huge amount of walnuts the other day… so I threw in a whole cup of chopped walnuts, instead of the 3/4 cups suggested in the original recipe.

    I think it made for a more textured and wholesome bread.

    Now, I made this loaf last night… and the temptation to immediately devour it was incredibly difficult to resist. However I had to wait – because photographing this baby cannot be done at night. And so it wasn’t until this morning that I was able to slice into it.

    It was well worth the wait!

    It’s been a while since I’ve eaten banana bread of any sort but – if I remember correctly – this tastes practically  identical to your ‘normal‘ banana bread. Pretty cool when this is loaded with healthy nuts, fruit and good fat, instead of being laden with gluten, sugar and other nasty stuff.

    Make yours, let it cool for a while, and then cut yourself a slab slice, spread some butter (or a primal friendly nut butter)onto the warm tasty banana bread, and enjoy – with a cup of tea or coffee. Maybe have it as part of a meal… perfect with some scrambled eggs.

    Mo enjoyed his slice with melted chocolate (90% cocoa solids) poured over the top. Made me regret not throwing chocolate chips into the mix, or maybe a dash of cinnamon… Damn!

    This banana bread is YUM! It’s also quite filling – and I like this fact. Especially as I found however tempted I was to cut myself a second slice, that I just didn’t have the room for it!

    Now that I’m trying to keep things 100% primal, I’m quite keen on having healthful treats around, just in case I feel the need for something sweet or indulgent. But obviously not too many because any treats, healthy or not, should not be over-eaten.


  2. Paleo Granola

    January 26, 2012 by Tali

    This is my recipe for Paleo/Primal/Gluten-free/wheat-free/dairy-free… trying to think of more…can’t…..Tasty Granola!

    I have started trying to eat a more primal diet. Staying away from processed foods as well as wheat, grains, pulses, and trying to limit my intake of high sugar foods.

    Primal diets largely consist of meat, poultry, fish, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds. It is these nuts and seeds play a big part in this post! Just think what caveman would have available to him, add in some modern cooking methods and some imagination – and that is what we’re looking at!

    Breakfast on a primal diet can sometimes be tricky, especially when you need something fast and easy. ‘Regular’ people would grab a bowl of cereal pour on some milk, and off they go! But this isn’t so easy. Cereals contain grains, and are more often then not HIGHLY processed. completely ridding all of the ‘nutrition’ from the food product… cereal companies tend to add vitamins and nutrients back into the product artificially. Not sound so good to me!

    But… give up cereal!? Now you’re thinking ‘So, I’m going to have to change my entire morning schedule because I shouldn’t eat cereal!?’ Well… not necessarily!

    You can make your own!

    I tend to make a batch once a week or once every two weeks. It depends how much people nibble on it throughout the day, and how often I eat it for breakfast!

    Its pretty easy – you can use wherever nuts and seeds you would like. If you don’t like certain nuts, are allergic to them or can’t get hold of any leave them out! Use something else!

    I apologise in advance that this isn’t a ‘real’ recipe. It takes a little guess work and is subject to personal taste.

    This time I used:

    Paleo Granola

    150g shelled pistachio nuts
    200g slivered almonds
    150g cashew nuts
    100g sesame seeds
    50g sunflower seeds
    50g pumpkin seeds
    50g pine kernals/nuts
    100g unsweetened dessicated coconut
    25g pecan nuts (these were just lying around so I threw them in)

    1 1/2 Tblsp coconut oil
    honey/agave nectar

    Heat oven to 140-150 C.

    • Place all of your nuts and seeds into a big bowl. Warm your coconut oil and about 45g honey/agave nectar until it is runny. Pour coconut oil and honey/agave over the nuts and seeds, mix well.
    • Once it is all coated, pour mixture onto two lined baking trays. Spread out into even layers. Place in the oven.
    • After 10-15mins, check and gently move the parts that are starting to colour around the edges. Place back in the oven, swapping the trays for another 10-15mins. You will want to keep checking it from this point, it may need a little longer.
    • When the trays are a nice golden colours, take them out the oven, and leave on cooling racks to cool down.
    • Once cool break the pieces up and store in an airtight container.

     

    Before baking...

    ... after baking!

    Serve with yogurt (if your diet allows) & fruit. Maybe in a  bowl with milk?

    Great as a snack as it is! – My mom likes to do this… its the main reason I find myself wondering what happened to all that granola I just made!?

    But its fine, its healthy! So indulge!

    This is quite filling because of all the nuts and seeds, so bear that in mind when considering portion sizes!