Gluten-Free Banana Bread

This post is for my friend Jennifer, who is in denial about her gluten allergy. To be honest, I love baked goods and bread. Love the stuff. And, if I thought I had a gluten allergy, I would probably try and endure the discomfort also, just to be able to continue to enjoy my favorite things. But, hopefully my friends that love me would try and get me to come to my senses and do what is right for my body. (Ahem ahem.)

The gluten allergy has always been really fascinating to me because it is so prevalent, and there are probably folks that have the allergy that aren't even aware of it. A friend of mine at work thought that she had a "weak stomach" until she was in her 40s before she discovered this allergy. Changing her diet literally changed her life.

I am not allergic, but I am a nerd. So, I was intrigued at the grocery store with Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour, and thought I would give it a whirl. This gluten-free flour substitute is made from garbanzo beans, as many flour substitutes are, which is just cool.

I had some bananas on hand, so I thought I would try out the banana bread recipe on the back of the flour bag, with a few modifications. The result was delicious! This banana bread is really, really good, and I honestly would not have thought that it was anything less than the "real thing", whatever that means.

I also used coconut oil in this bread, which is a newfound love of mine. Coconut oil is incredibly good for you and can be used as a butter and/or oil substitute in many cooking and baking applications. On top of that, if you run out of conditioner or lotion, you can just melt some coconut oil and lather up!

Anyone out there deal with this and have any favorite gluten-free recipes they want to share?

Jennifer - your friends, we care about you, and we don't want you to live life in misery and upset stomach-ness. I made this bread for you. And I tried really, really hard to save you some. I promise, I did. But it just tasted so good, you see. Which should be encouraging to you. I really have done you a favor here by showing you how good the other side can be. You are welcome.

Gluten-Free Banana Bread

Adapted from Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods

Ingredients

1/3 cup coconut oil

2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 3/4 cups gluten free flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspooon salt

1 1/2 cups mashed bananas

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a 9x5 inch pan. Cream together oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl with an electric mixer. Mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl and add to oil mixture, alternating with mashed bananas. Blend until just smooth. Transfer to pan and bake for 1 hour.

Community Supported Agriculture

I don't know about you, but I am one of those people that really, really wants to eat healthy, local, fresh, organic food. This sounds amazing, and I support it for both health and ethical reasons. But there are these things called Digiorno Rising Crust frozen pizzas that are so delicious, so cheap, and so easy to make, that it can thwart any "eat health, local, fresh, and organic" plan in its path.

My point is that sometimes major lifestyle changes seem so difficult, and so overwhelming, that it prevents you from making any changes at all. But, a little over a year ago, we visited our friends Jeremy and Michelle in beautiful Palo Alto, California, and we were introduced to Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs). CSAs provide everyday folks like you and me with the opportunity to get healthy, local, fresh, and organic produce every week, with very minimal time or effort.

The concept is like this: you buy a membership to a local farm. In exchange for your membership fee, you receive a box of the farm's yield every week. It sounds simple, but this concept is literally changing the face of agriculture in our country and making local, sustainable produce possible.

We recently renewed our CSA with Johnson's Backyard Garden, an organic farm in East Austin. For $30 per week, we receive enough produce to feed a family of four for an entire week. Since there are two of us, we share with another couple and split the cost. And, the pick up location is actually closer than the grocery store where I shop. (Most CSAs recruit members to use their homes as distribution points to ensure that there are convenient pick-up spots throughout the city.)

I cannot tell you how excited we are to get to participate in something like this. We are blessed to live in a city where enough people care about organic produce that we have access to it. For more information on JBG and the state of agriculture in Texas, see this article from Sunday's Austin American Statesman.

To give you a little taste of the magic, I thought I would give you a tour of our CSA box from this week.


Lots of treasures to be found inside.


First up, collard greens. Not going to lie here, I thought it was bok choy. I was wrong.

Green onions.

Fresh spinach. Used this method at Simply Recipes to make this, and it was incredible.


Ummmmm. What the what? I think, I think that these are a different variety of collard greens. Jury is still out on this one.

This is where my mind was blown. This strange little guy is called a kolhrabi, and the flavor is similar to broccoli stems. Simply Recipes has an entire page dedicated to kolhrabi recipes here.

Lettuce.


Fresh broccoli. Still haven't made it, but am excited to.

Ok, this just got awesome.


To top it off, oranges, grapefruit, and avocado. These are actually not grown in the area, but JBG partners with other farms to be able to offer more variety.

I hope this inspires you to find a CSA near you.

Easy Apple Crisp

We went to a fantastic new restaurant (Perla's on South Congress) recently on the basis of having a gift card. We normally wouldn't gravitate toward a seafood restaurant, but really enjoyed what we ate. Travis courageously ordered a baked whole fish, and I got an amazing white fish (I think it was halibut) in a tomato-based broth. We started with tuna tartare in the spirit of ordering things at a restaurant that we don't know how to cook at home(or, not cook, I guess).

Anyway, at the end of the meal, the waiter brought the dessert menu. Looking at a dessert menu normally involves finding the option that has the most synonyms for "chocolate" in the title. Travis like all kinds of desserts, but I typically abide by a strict chocolate-only policy. But, this time, for a reason that I still cannot explain, the thing that looked best to me was a blueberry tart. Travis, still skeptical, decided to go along with my temporary chocolate lapse and order the thing. I think it was what he wanted anyway.

This thing was incredible. I seriously could eat it every day of my life. It was a blueberry tart a la mode with perfect crust, topped with slivered almonds and powdered sugar. In that moment, I became determined to make it at home.

Which resulted in this.


Not quite what I was going for.

This easy (emphasis on easy) apple crisp was my solution to reassembling the shattered pieces of my cooking self esteem from the blueberry tart incident. It is easy, delicious, and crowd pleasing, and I actually like it! I kid you not, this is the first apple dessert I have ever liked. I think that blueberry tart (the Perla's version) changed me for good.


And speaking of being a changed person, go ahead and try the Pioneer Woman's easy caramel sauce as a topping. Homegirl knows what she is doing when it comes to things that involve half and half and sugar.



Easy Apple Crisp
Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook, 14th Edition

I served with this caramel sauce from The Pioneer Woman Cooks. And I had to use all of my self control to not drink the sauce by itself.

Ingredients
5 cups sliced apples (approximately 5 medium apples)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Peel and slice apples and coat with granulated sugar. Place apples in a layer no more than two or three deep in a baking dish. (I split mine into two smaller dishes, but a larger 9x13 inch dish would also work.)

To make the topping, combine the oats, brown sugar, flour, and spices in a medium bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter (or your fingers) until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle topping evenly over the apples.

Bake for 35 minutes or until fruit is tender and topping is golden. Serve with caramel sauce, whipped cream, or ice cream.