Chocolate Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

A thing that happens when you buy a lot of bananas for your toddler is that he suddenly decides he doesn't like bananas, and then they all get old and brown and way too gross to eat. So then you make banana bread!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Recipe Adapted from Isa's.

1/2 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c Earth Balance at room temperature
3 very ripe mashed bananas
1/4 c almond milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c flour
2/3 c cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 c chocolate chips

Preheat to 350. Place a piece of parchment at the bottom of a loaf pan, and spray all around with cooking spray.

Cream the Earth Balance and the sugar together. Mix together the milk & vinegar and let curdle; add the bananas, milk mixture, and vanilla to the sugar/butter combo and mix well.


Sift in the dry ingredients and stir well, adding the chocolate chips right before you think it is mixed enough. Then dump it into the loaf pan and bake for an hour - an hour and ten minutes. Remove from oven, allow to cool in pan for a few minutes and then turn onto a rack and allow to cool the rest of the way. Enjoy!

Note: it's pretty tender and may not cut superbly at first. Make sure you let it cool all the way down; I am also planning on trying to see if I can make it hold together by using more flour; the original recipe calls for 2c, some of which I replaced with cocoa powder.

Meal Planning on a Wednesday

Yup. Halfway crapping out. Whatever. Don't judge me. I've had a sick kid to deal with. A sick kid who ate nothing but home made mini donuts for two days. At least his taste buds weren't broken; that's pretty much the only thing that wasn't.

Garlic roasted chickpeas with lemon dill dressing, quinoa & spinach - yeah it was on last week's list, but fortunately nothing in it is perishable because we didn't get to it. So it's here again. (I forgot to buy the spinach last week, so you know it wasn't meant to be anyway.)

Zucchini boats, grilled portobellos, Italian rice & beans

Broccoli cheddar soup, garlic bread, caesar salad

(We had tacos Monday and Jerk Tofu, mashed ginger coconut sweet potatoes, and roasted cauliflower Tuesday, BTW)

Some Stuff

I got new bowls! New to me, that is. We were wandering around an antique market and a few of the vendors were selling old pyrex and corningware.

I scored these two bowls. I like the birds. And I have used the larger one a bunch of times already! Well worth the 15ish bucks I made Ian spend.

I decided last week that I wanted to make vegan mini donuts. Why, you ask? I just like baked goods is all. They were a teeny bit of a fail in the donut-ness, such that they didn't actually have proper holes that went all the way through, and the ones I hand formed looked like cookies, but they were tasty, and I have hopefully remedied the problem by purchasing another mini donut pan instead of relying on the one to get me through a recipe.

I got the recipe from Oh She Glows.


Mini Donuts

Here's what they looked like out of the oven

Duffins. Not quite a donut, not quite a muffin.

However, you almost can't tell that they're a little different once they got glazed. Or that may just be my wishful thinking.

I now have 200 donut flavour ideas floating around in my head. Okay, 200 is a lot. But I do have a bunch. As well as a plan to veganize friands in the near future. We'll see how that goes. I am cautiously optimistic.

Meal Planning Monday - Week 6

Back on the wagon!

Delicious looking Garlic Roasted Chickpeas, quinoa, garlic sauteed spinach
Roasted Red Pepper and Goat Cheese Penne, caesar salad
Jerk tofu, ginger mashed sweet potatoes, bbq'd zucchini, beet salad
Lentil sloppy joes, mashed potatoes, carrots, green salad
Black bean chipotle soup, bruschetta, kale salad

Delicious Unconventional Thai

I don't think Thai food usually incorporates broccoli or carrots; thankfully red curry paste and coconut milk make everything delicious.

Mish Mash Thai Red Curry

olive oil
1 onion, sliced
1 red pepper, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tbsp fresh ginger, minced or sliced or however you prefer to prepare it
1 head of broccoli, chopped into florets
1 large handful of baby carrots, sliced in half
2 - 3 tbsp red curry paste
1 can coconut milk (I used full fat; I'm sure it would be fine with lite)
1 c veg broth
1 heaping tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp tamari
juice of 1 lime
2 tsp agave

Heat a tbsp or 2 of olive oil over medium. Throw in the onion and red pepper, sauteeing until soft and maybe brown in a few spots. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for a minuteish. Add the broccoli and carrots, salt well, and a splash of water (maybe up to a 1/4 c, depending on whether you need to deglaze the pan) and cover and cook for 7ish minutes, or until the broccoli is tender. Clear a spot in the middle of the pan and melt 2 tablespoons of the coconut milk and add the curry paste. Once the curry paste is mixed with the milk, add the rest of the coconut milk and the tamari, and stir into the veggies. Mix the cornstarch with the broth until dissolved, then add to the pan, stirring to incorporate. Let it come to a simmer and cook until thickened nicely. Add the lime juice and agave, stir well, taste for seasoning, and turn off the heat. Done! Serve with rice.

Meal Planning

It's not Monday and I've missed a week, but anyhow...

Vegnews Macaroni and Cheese (best mac n cheese EVER) and green salad
Marinated grilled mushrooms, greek salad (with vegetarian ricotta salata), lemon bbq'd potatos, tzatziki, pitas
Beet and basil salad, broccoli, mashed sweet potato, jerk tofu
Something thai. I bought some red curry paste and some ginger and some kaffir lime leaves. With jasmine rice.

Extra treat: I want to make vegan current friands. Not sure how that's going to work.