FULL MOON BANANA BREAD
i love moon day mornings because there’s plenty of time to play around the kitchen in my pajamas! this is my first try at chocolatey banana bread. it turned out to be a pretty dense bread that tastes great fresh out of the oven or reheated in the toaster oven and spread with a little Earth Balance... or some nut butter... or maybe covered with a scoop of Coconut Bliss ice cream :)
5 ripe little local organic bananas (probably doesn’t matter how many)
1 cup organic raw cane sugar
1 teaspoon organic vanilla extract
2 tablespoons organic coconut oil
1/2 cup coconut water
2 cups whole grain barley flour
1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons organic raw cacao powder
1 teaspoon organic ground cinnamon
(i think next time i’ll try adding some vegan choc chips)
mash bananas then mix together bananas, vanilla, sugar, coconut oil and coconut water until smooth. sift together dry ingredients, then stir dry into wet. (don’t overmix!) put it in a baking dish (i used glass) greased with coconut oil and bake at 350F for 1 hour. ENJOY!
ADZUKI DAAL
i’ve been craving indian food and excited to try out my new pressure cooker. wanted to make a simple yelllow daal, but all the health food stores here on the island have been out of split mung beans for months! finally decided to throw together what i had in the house and see what happens...
organic adzuki beans (i soaked them a few hours before cooking)
water
organic ground ginger
organic ground turmeric
organic ground cumin
organic ground cayenne
organic red pepper flakes
(definitely would replace the cayenne and pepper flakes with fresh chilis if possible, but i didn’t have any in the house)
lots of sea salt
fresh grated garlic
fresh chopped onion
fresh chopped tomato
coconut oil
mustard seeds
cumin seeds
fresh cilantro
fresh squeezed lemon
sorry no measurements here but i tend to just throw stuff in while i’m cooking! also this was my first time using the pressure cooker so the whole thing was an experiment. i started with about 2 cups of beans and 8 cups of water (1 part beans to 4 parts water). i ended up adding more water halfway through, so it probably ended up being about 1 part beans to 5 parts water. for the spices i’d guess i used about 2-3 teaspoons of each, and probably 2-3 tablespoons of sea salt. just taste it as you go and adjust whatever you like. the daal ended up pretty thick and super delicious!!!
1. put the first 8 ingredients in the pressure cooker and seal it. cook on high heat until it starts venting serious steam then turn down to medium. simmer about 30 minutes.
(at this point, i took it off the heat, vented all steam, and opened it to see what was going on in there. needed more water, more salt, and more time to cook.)
2. add the garlic, onion and tomato, more water and salt, and close it up again. back on the stove, bring the heat up, and cook for another 15-20 minutes or so, then vent the steam, open it up and see what you’ve got.
3. in a separate pan quickly saute some mustard seeds and cumin seeds in coconut oil. stir that into the daal along with loads of fresh cilantro and some freshly squeezed lemon juice, serve it with some organic brown basmati rice, and enjoy healthy indian food heaven :)
(and by the way... indian food tastes best if you eat it with your fingers!!!)
