The Perfect Banana Bread - Vegan, Fat-Free, Wheat-Free, Nut-Free

As the days are getting colder, it's a perfect time to get baking! I've been experimenting with making banana bread several times before posting this recipe to make sure the proportions are perfect. Also, the challenge was to make my banana bread as healthy and as guilt-free as possible as opposed to so many recipes out there overloaded with fat or made of wheat flour. But now with each bite of a flavorsome, fluffy, perfectly moist slice of this banana bread, I get more and more proud that I finally nailed it! I decided to make it fruity and added nectarines, also because I love them a lot! But you can also take peaches or small apples of your choice instead.

For those who never tried or not familiar with banana bread, this is not strictly a bread that you have with soup or to make a sandwich. :) Banana bread is rather a moist pie/cake to go with your morning coffee or tea. You can spread peanut butter or blend of few strawberries and quark (fat-free cottage cheese) on top of it, or just have it on its own. Best served, chilled.

INGREDIENTS:
(makes a loaf approx. 22.5cm long and 10cm wide)
♥ 270g wholemeal buckwheat flour
♥ 300g mashed overripe bananas (peeled weight)
♥ 3 nectarines (or medium size apples)
♥ 1 teaspoon baking powder
♥ 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
♥ 1/2 teaspoon salt
♥ 1 teaspoon cinnamon, plus some for dusting
♥ 4 tablespoons of filtered water

METHOD:
1.  Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
2.  Mash peeled bananas with a fork or puree in a blender. Add water before doing so.
3.  In a separate bowl, mix buckwheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
4.  Finely (or not so finely:)) dice 2 nectarines and put them into a bowl with dry ingredients.
5.  Add pureed bananas to dry ingredients with diced nectarines and combine everything well.
6.  Make 15-17 slices of nectarines.
7.  Pour your mixture into a silicone loaf mould . Top it with nectarine slices and sprinkle ground cinnamon as much as your want.
8.  Turn the temperature down to 180 degrees Celsius and put the banana bread inside the oven.
9.  Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 60 - 65 minutes.
10.  Let cool for 15 minutes before taking the bread out of the loaf mould.
11.  Before slicing and serving, let the bread cool completely for a couple of hours.

Enjoy! xx

High-Protein and Gluten-free Buckwheat Pancakes Recipe ❤

A perfect breakfast solution for those who are either watching weight, are gluten intolerant but still looking to maintain adequate fibre intake or are following high-protein diet for many different health reasons. These delicious pancakes have a smooth nutty taste and are quite easy to make too! If you never tried buckwheat before, I personally strongly recommend you give it a taste and chances are you fall in love with it! It goes very well with most vegetables (both raw or cooked) and even berries. It also is very weight-loss friendly and a healthy cocktail of fibre, magnesium, zinc, phosphorus, vitamin B6, niacin and folate.

INGREDIENTS:
♥ 80g of cooked buckwheat (preferably organic)
♥ 2 organic free range eggs
♥ Sprinkle of cinnamon
♥ Optional: 1/4 tsp of salt
♥ Optional: 2 tbsp of organic plain low-fat yogurt. If you don't eat dairy use oat cream like this one - http://tidd.ly/39dcb167
♥ 1 tsp of organic virgin olive oil

DIRECTIONS:
1. Combine all ingredients either in a food processor or in a chopper. Alternatively, in a bowl beat eggs with a fork and then combine with all remaining ingredients. Mix well.
2. Pre-heat a non-stick pan on a low heat. Add a teaspoon of olive oil and using a spatula spread it quickly over the pan
3. Now it's time to transfer mixture onto a pan! I use a tablespoon to form small pancakes, usually 1 tablespoon gives 1 pancake.
4. When the top of a pancake start to lose moisture (usually around after 4 minutes as we are frying on a very low heat), lift and quickly flip a pancake over. Leave for approximately another 2 minutes.
5. Serve with berries defrosted overnight.

Bon Appétit and have a wonderful day ahead!
Natalia

♥

Delicious Low-Fat Cheese Cake [wheat-free and refined sugar-free!]

This light baked cheesecake has won a golden medal in my family! Being low fat yet nutritious and filling, not too sweet and not too sour, having soft texture and delicious flavors - all of that makes it a perfect breakfast idea. It is a safe dessert alternative for those who watch their weight, follow a low-sodium diet, healing a stomach from gastritis, have irritated stomach lining or other abdominal distress. And kids love this cake too!

I am happy to say straight away that preparation is very easy and no advanced or even intermediate baking skills are required!

INGREDIENTS:
♥ 500g of low fat cottage cheese or quark
♥ 4-5 large ripe bananas (4 for a thinner filling as on the second picture above)
♥ 130g of rolled oats
♥ Optional: 2-3 tablespoons of sugar-free low-salt peanut butter or cashew nut butter
♥ Optional: 1/2 tablespoon of vanilla powder
♥ Coconut butter to smear a baking tin

METHOD:

♥ Preheat an oven to 180C degrees.
♥ Very lightly smear the inside of your pie tin with a thin coating of organic butter or coconut butter (no margarine)

Cake base:
♥ Take a standard coffee mug of steel-cut or rolled oats (not 'easy-cook' or instant oats)
♥ 2 large ripe bananas
♥ Optional: If you don't suffer from nut allergies and if you are not prone to migraines - 2-3 tablespoons of organic sugar-free low-salt peanut butter. If you add peanut butter, you can safely reduce the amount of butter or coconut butter you smeared your pie tin with

♥ Process the base mixture in a chopper or anything else that does the same job - chopping and blending everything well together :) Any food processor will do! Here's a picture of the one that I use and it came within a hand blender set. By the way, it's better to process ingredients in parts if they don't all fit into your food processor's container at one time.

Hello, I'm a chopper! :)

♥ Now line the bottom of a pie tin with the base mixture ans smooth it out with the back side of a tablespoon. Bake it for 12 minutes.

♥ Clean the chopper or food processor's container as you'll need it again to make the filling.

♥ After 12 minutes have passed, take the cake base out from the oven and let it cool down a little. It need not be too soft of too crusty, just somewhere in between is perfect!

Cake filling:

♥ Take approx. 500 g of low fat organic cottage cheese

♥ 3 large ripe bananas (or 2 for a thinner filling, see 2nd picture from the top)

♥ Optional: 1/2 tablespoon of vanilla powder (if you can get it organic - that's great!)

♥ Blend it all together in a food processor. I just use my good old chopper you now are introduced with. :) In the UK cottage cheese usually comes a bit watery and grainy, so if you are using a dry/drained cottage cheese, you might want to add some water (about 7 tablespoons) or organic plain yoghurt or kefir, so that a consistency or your mixture resembles a pudding.

Raw mixture before cooking: 

♥ Pour the mixture over your base and bake for 30 - 35 minutes at 180C degrees.

♥ Take it out, let it cool until room temperature and then unclip the sides of your pie tin to serve.

You can also do a layered version with blueberries.❤

1. Bake your oats & banana cake base (instructions as above) for 10 minutes.
2. In a food processor or chopper process 140g of frozen or fresh blueberries with 80g of cashew nuts. The consistency should not be too watery, but should look rather like a thick yogurt. Pour the mixture over the base and bake it for another 20 minutes.
3. Follow the instructions above on how to make a cake filling and pour it over the blueberry layer. Bake for another 30-35 minutes. Let cool and enjoy! 

 Bon Appétit!

Easy breakfast or snack for kids (or for yourself) in 5 minutes - Warm Fruit Sandwiches

If your kids love fruit or if you feel like heaving a light breakfast, and you are short of time - this option is for you!

BENEFITS:

♥ Plenty of dietary fibre and complex carbohydrates that

• help feel full longer
• increase physical stamina
• promote mental alertness
• help with weight control*
• keep gastrointestinal tract clean.

♥ Potassium for vitality, optimal water balance and functioning of organs and muscles. Speeds up all processes in the body.

♥ Magnesium for formation of bones, teeth and proper functioning of nervous and muscular systems. It promotes good mood and healthy metabolism.

♥ Calcium and Phosphorus for healthy growth in children, strong teeth and bones, proper muscle contraction and nerve signals transmission, optimal fat metabolism and healthy weight control.

♥ Manganese for formation of bones, skin (collagen formation), healthy metabolism and immunity.

♥ Chromium for healthy sugar level control in blood.

♥ Vitamin B6  for good mood (helps produce serotonin), immunity and healthy metabolism and healthy heart.

♥ Vitamin C for healthy growth, tissue repair, stamina and it fights again free-radicals and infections.

♥ Easy and quick to prepare

    ♥ Delicious - your kids WILL love it!

PREPARATION:

    ♥ Wholegrain bread (preferably with bran) from integral/wholemeal flour) something like this:

If you can get organic bread - fantastic!
Sprouted bread is particularly beneficial (e.g. Essene/Ezekiel bread).

     

     ♥ Slice organic apple and banana
     ♥ Put sandwich on top (not inside) of toaster to serve warm sandwiches :)
     ♥ Sprinkle cinnamon on top of apples for a delicious flavour!

  

SERVE WITH:

♥ Glass of warm organic semi-skimmed milk for kids to maintain healthy growth
♥ Warm almond drink or oat drink if your kid is lactose intolerant (preferably unsweetened)
♥ Small pot of organic low-fat plain yogurt 
♥ Vegan option: Spoonful of organic sugar-free low-salt peanut butter or almond butter
♥ You can also alternate between wholemeal bread and organic wholegrain oatcakes (wheat-free).

*Skip the banana if you are trying to lose weight. Bananas are OK though in moderate quantities if you are maintaining your weight.

Enjoy!
Love,
Natalia xx 

Simple Vegan Banana & Oat Cookies [High-Fibre, Low-Fat, Wheat-Free, Refined Sugar-Free]

Great as a morning nibble for you and your little angels (i.e. your kids! :))) )

INGREDIENTS: 
♥ 2 medium ripe bananas
♥ 1 mug of oats
♥ Dried fruit and seeds to taste
♥ Organic ground cinnamon or ground vanilla powder 
♥ Organic coconut butter to brush the pan you'll be cooking with

DIRECTIONS:
STEP 1: Preheat the oven to 190C.
STEP 2: Puree bananas with a hand blender or chopper. Add dried fruit of your choice and blend lightly. Chopping dried fruit with a knife works just as well!
STEP 3: Stir in oats, seeds and either ground cinnamon or vanilla powder and mix everything well.
STEP 4: Grease your baking tray with coconut butter. Then using a tablespoon and your clean hands, form little flat cookies and put them one by one onto the baking tray.  Turn down the oven temperature to 180C and bake for 12 minutes.
STEP 5: Let them cool down on a plate and ENJOY!

And here's a picture of my favorite version made of dried figs and desiccated coconut:

With love,
Natalia xx