Bananas Foster Pancakes

One of my favorite things to do on Saturdays is make breakfast with and for my husband. These days, he spends time with Josh on Saturday morning and I get busy in the kitchen cooking up something more special than just the usual cereal and pop tarts. This past weekend we had bananas and pancake mix on hand so I decided to be creative and "dress up" our pancakes a bit. They turned out super yummy and SO easy!

What you need (serves 2)

- 2 bananas, sliced diagonally
- 2 T butter
- 2 T brown sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon (or more!)
- GF pancakes

Directions

- Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat 

- Add sliced bananas and brown sugar

- Cook until golden and syrupy (about 5 minutes) stirring well

- Add the cinnamon and stir.

- Turn off the heat and spoon over the top of your pancakes

- We added a bit more syrup to ours (splurge!) but powdered sugar would be delicious also!

A fast and easy breakfast that looks difficult and gourmet...sign me up!!

Zucchini Banana Muffins

Still no baby. So I'm still baking! The other day I thought I would try out zucchini bread and it turned out pretty yummy! I decided to make these as muffins to make them last longer (or at least theoretically last longer) but you could make this as one loaf also. They aren't super sweet and I liked that the recipe didn't call for refined sugar and only uses one kind of GF flour. Slap some schmear on these babies in the morning for a delicious breakfast, or serve warm with butter and a cup of tea (for me these days it's raspberry leaf tea all day long). The next time you have zucchini on hand whip up a batch of these and enjoy any time of day!


What you need (adapted from inspired-housewife.com) 
(Makes 1 loaf or 18 muffins)

- 2 C sorghum flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 2 bananas, mashed
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 C melted butter
- 1/2 C honey
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 C grated zucchini






Directions

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees

- Line your muffin pan or grease your loaf pan and set aside

- In a small bowl, combine the dry ingredients and stir well (flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt)

- In a medium bowl, combine the wet ingredients except for the zucchini (bananas, eggs, butter, honey and vanilla) and stir well (I used an electric mixer to break up the banana)

- In 1/4 C increments, add the dry mix to the wet ingredients, mixing after each addition. Be careful not to over-mix or your bread will turn out tough

- Gently fold in the grated zucchini and stir

- Pour batter into loaf pan or evenly separate into muffin tin.

- Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour (loaf) or 18-20 minutes (muffins)

- Serve and enjoy!

To die for muffins

A while back I experimented a bit with banana bread muffins. I took my original recipe for banana bread and tweaked it a bit, then added a brown sugar crumb topping. Oh my goodness. These are without a doubt my favorite muffins and now I set some bananas aside to get over-ripe just so I can make these. The husband loves them and says he could eat them all day. I also got rave reviews from gluten eaters that said these didn't taste gluten free at all (yay!!) Hope you all enjoy them!

What you need (makes about 40 mini muffins)

- 1/2 C brown rice flour
- 1/4 C potato starch
- 1/4 C sorghum flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp xanthan gum
- 1/2 C coconut oil
- 3/4 C sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 mashed bananas
- 1/4 C almond milk


Directions


- Preheat oven to 350 degrees

- Combine the first 8 ingredients in a medium bowl (through the xanthan gum)

- In a separate larger bowl, beat the oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla until smooth

*Note: If you're using coconut oil, make sure it's in liquid form before you add it. Also, make sure the eggs are room temperature. I added the oil a little bit at a time to keep it from solidifying. If it gets too cold it won't mix in and will turn back to a solid.

- In a small bowl, mash the bananas with the almond milk

- Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the mashed bananas/milk to the sugar and egg mixture. Start and end with the dry. (I did dry, banana, dry, banana, dry)

- To make the topping: Combine 2/3 C brown sugar, 4 T brown rice flour, and 1/4 tsp cinnamon.

- Cut in 2 T of cold butter until the mixture resembles the picture below

- Pour the batter into a greased muffin tin and top with the brown sugar topping if using

- Bake at 350 degrees for 18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean

- I like making the mini size but you could make regular size too if you prefer. These are best eaten while still warm, but are good the next day as well. Just make sure you store them in an airtight container so you don't lose the moisture. Enjoy and happy Monday friends!

Banana Pecan Oatmeal Bread

Hi friends! So I've had almost rotting bananas on my kitchen counter for a week now just sitting there staring at me and occasionally screaming "make me into something yummy!" I finally caved today and made banana bread. I have to admit, gluten free baking still scares me. I'm sure I'll eventually get to the place where it doesn't phase me to substitute flours without a recipe, but for right now I purposefully avoid baking if I can help it. This blog is helping me overcome that...and so did the rotting bananas! I am extremely pleased with how my first attempt of this recipe came out. I'll probably end up tweaking it a little next time but it really is delicious and I can't even tell the difference. Honestly. On the other hand since my tastebuds haven't had the pleasure of bread or a pastry in 3 months I could just be so darn happy to eat a bread-like substance that doesn't resemble cardboard that I don't notice a difference. Make it for yourself and you decide.

Banana Pecan Oatmeal Bread (adapted from the GlutenFreeHomemaker.com)


What you need

- 1/2 C brown rice flour

- 1/4 C sorghum flour

- 1/4 C potato starch

- 1 C rolled oats (g. free)

- 1 tsp baking soda

- 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp kosher salt

- 1 tsp ground cinnamon

- 1 tsp xanthan gum

- 1 /2 C coconut oil (or oil of choice)

- 3/4 C sugar

- 2 eggs

- 1 tsp vanilla

- 1 1/2 C mashed bananas (about 3)

- 1/4 C almond milk 

- 1/2 C chopped pecans

Directions

- Preheat your oven to 350

- In a small bowl combine the first 9 ingredients (through the xanthan gum)

- In a large bowl mix together the oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla until smooth

- Mash your bananas in a small bowl. Add the milk and mix gently

- Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the banana mixture to the oil mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, and stir until smooth. (dry, bananas, dry, bananas, dry is what I did)

- Here is what the batter should look like

- Chop up some pecans

- And stir them in gently

- Pour batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean

- Ta-Da!

- Allow the bread to cool before slicing

- Enjoy!