Friday 24 February 2017

Vegan Banana bread

So the other night I was feeling particularly down for a couple of reasons so I went online and found this recipe, I had all the ingredients in and it seemed relatively easy so I made it. MY GOD!! It is so delicious and between Darren and I we ate the whole thing within a matter of hours and then the next day I made another one haha.
During the cooking process your kitchen smells so tasty!!







The main flavours that stood out to me where of course bananas and the nutmeg. Before going vegan I used to really enjoy egg custards and the level of nutmeg you can taste on the egg custard is the same as on this banana bread.

You don't need any fancy equipment just some basic cooking cutlery, a loaf tin and 2 mixing bowls.

I did do a freeze test on a thin slice (I was not willing to waste a thick slice if it didn't work out :p ). It took about 30 minutes to defrost it so if it was a thicker slice you would probably need to give yourself an hour to be on the safe side. The 30 minutes it took for my thin slice meant it was no longer frozen but it was still quite cold so bare that in mind if you are giving it to friends.

Freezing your banana bread is ideal if there is only a couple of you who would be eating it and you don't want to eat the whole thing, believe me it really is so easy to do. If you where going to take a piece to work with you it would be defrosted by lunch time or even a summer picnic.

The finished product is very moist and soft and like I said I got 12 decent slices out of it. It does not contain any refined sugar. Here is the recipe ;

It's very simple so I will list the ingredients and the instructions at the same time <3

Pre-heat the oven to 170 C or 338 F and Grease your loaf tin with a very small amount of melted coconut oil.


firstly if you don't have apple sauce in your cupboard then you need to make it, this is how I made mine. I used one small to medium apple, any will do. I peeled and cored the apple and cut each apple slice into 4 so they where small. I then put the apple pieces in a pan with a small amount of boiling water and allowed the water to simmer and the apple will start to soften. I used a potato masher to mash mine and if you feel you need more water then go for it but you only need a very small amount of this apple sauce so don't go too mad with the amount. (If you have little ones you could always double the apple sauce and give it to them on some porridge for breakfast)

4 spotted bananas
     1/2 cup coconut sugar
1/4 cup of apple sauce
1/4 cup coconut oil
1tsp of vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt

In your bowl you want to mash up the bananas, I used a potato masher. Do not worry if there are larger chunks of banana just keep mashing until you are happy, next add in your coconut sugar and use the masher to combine the two ingredients together. Then go ahead and add in the rest of the listed ingredients and mix well.

In your second bowl add

1 1/2 cups of plain white flour (feel free to use wholemeal)
2 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda/ baking soda

and mix really well, I used a whisk to ensure it was well combined. Then add all the ingredients together and when your happy its all combined, pour into your already greased loaf tin and put it in the oven for 40-45 mins.

Please note that every oven is different so you may just need to check on your bread to see how its getting on. If you use a cake tester, it may not come out clean because of the bananas and apple sauce and it will look under cooked if you cut it straight away but it will firm up as it cools. It is delicious warm and would be lovely with ice cream. This is not my recipe. I found it online and I will try and link them.

Darren and I went through our second cake quite quickly but we gave 2 slices to his folks to try and those four in cling film are currently in the freezer. The rest we ate the same day, it really is terrible but once you have made it you will understand just how delicious it really is. The only expensive items in the recipe would probably be the coconut oil and the coconut sugar. You can of course use castor sugar or even brown sugar. I luckily had all of the ingredients in already so no cost to me. Please give this recipe a go. It does not taste like it has no eggs or dairy in it and I guarantee everyone will enjoy it and will be rather impressed too. Thank you for visiting. Feel free to comment and tell me if you liked It as much as I do xx
  Side note- I have since made this banana bread and I only realised part way through mashing bananas that I had no apples to make the apple sauce so I took a risk and just added another small ripe banana and it turned out just fine. Much nicer with the apple sauce but it is still very tasty without  :D xxx




Thursday 23 February 2017

Slimming world review

One of the most Viewed posts on the blog is Slimming world updates. I Just wanted to clarify to my lovely readers that I no longer do slimming world (which Is probably obvious).

I did however want to say that I loved doing it and as you can see I did lose a lot of weight. I highly recommend it as it's not restrictive at all and if you put the work in, you really do lose the weight.

One main reason I don't follow it anymore is because my main goal at the time of doing it was to lose weight to qualify for IVF and I did it. When I was pregnant I barley ate especially in the beginning because of feeling so sick, and also I became vegan a few weeks before the IVF. As far as I'm aware Slimming world don't do a plan for plant based eaters, please correct me if I am wrong. And seeing as I would have to do all the meal planning and researching about syns with sweet and savoury vegan foods such as cheese and chocolate, I didn't think it was worth the money. But if they did do one in the future then I would really consider going back on plan. 

I did speak to a rep about it in October and she said that a lot of people are turning plant based. I asked if they had any recipe books or plans for a plant based diet yet and she said no but the more people ask about it and enquire to Slimming world the more likely that it will happen, so fingers crossed and if your interested then get asking :).

When I was on the plan I found a great deal of support, information and inspiration on Facebook groups. Just do some searching and add yourself. I also googled the syns of specific treats if they weren't in my book.

Good luck to any of you that are doing the Slimming world plan :) Wish you all the success that you so desire <3 xx 


Meet Harlow

Hello, 

I have already told you that my beautiful daughter Harlow was born on sept 27th 2016 but I have not yet shared any photos of my little angel.

She is such a cutie and I just adore her so much, I was unsure of whether I wanted to post any photos of her on my blog but the ones I have chosen she will be with me so none of her alone.

She is such a happy baby and she laughed for the first time a few weeks back and it was magical!

Here she is ...







I know I am biased but isn't she just so cute xxx





  

Tuesday 14 February 2017

R.I.P Our beautiful Doggy

I have some terribly sad news to share :(, our beautiful furbaby Jack passed away on October 21st 2016 peacefully in our arms.



Life truly will never be the same and our home is so empty without our little boy. I had jack for 6 years almost to the day and Darren shared our fury friend for nearly 6 years. Just as i described him on his shared page with pippa, he was a loving and very loyal dog and we are so sad to no longer have him in our lives and at our sides. 

He became very sick in his last two weeks, it was so sudden and the vets predict it was most likely due to a brain tumour. Like i said it was so sudden and he had such a terrible time that the kindest thing for him was to let him go. I still can't talk too much about it, it's still too soon. He wasn't alone as i said both Darren and i where with him to the very end. Jack was my first Dog and he will forever be so special to me. 

It has been a few months without him and it's been a difficult time. I just hope he knew how much i loved him, all those days i didn't kiss or cuddle him or just look into his beautiful kind brown eyes i will always regret, but you can't spend all your days doing that as you also have your life to live and i understand that but when you lose someone close to you, you always wish you could go back one last time or you wish you would have appreciated them more. The problem is you won't know you'll feel that way until they are gone and i have learned so much since his passing.

We still have pippa and she hasn't been the same since he's been gone. The first few days where the hardest, we just wanted to be able to sit her down and explain what had happened but obviously that wasn't possible and it made his passing even harder with her missing him. We have a little mat in our kitchen and jack used to sit on it but especially in his last weeks and pippa would just sit there and wait and even now to think of that it really upsets me.
 Since then she has been a little bit better, we have since washed that mat and everything jack was in to try and make it a little easier for her but like humans she will mourn for him. 

We had all of this to contend with whilst seeing to our newborn baby, she has been my best distraction through it all. when you have a newborn or a baby or child in general, you have no time to sit around and mope because they need feeding or changing or just need you and i have found myself on random days at different times, just crying because i miss him so much and i am always so busy and when i catch up with myself, it hits me all over again and it really is the hardest thing.

So this post was mean't as a final goodbye to my jack, so all my readers know and to anyone else out there who has ever loved and lost a pet no matter how big or small, i know how you feel and i am so sorry for your loss.

One thing that gets to me is that Harlow will never grow up with jack and i was never able to get a photo of them together and when we feared we may lose him, he was that sick it wasn't even possible for that to happen and it didn't look like jack anymore. 

To my jack, you where my first proper pet and i fell in love with you big time, you where my best friend through really hard times and i loved how you wouldn't leave my side if i was sad or crying, you where such a loving, loyal and beautiful companion and i will miss you with all my heart. I am so sorry you where sick and that Darren and i couldn't make you better. You bought both of us so much happiness and we hope you had a good life, we will always miss you and you will never be forgotten. Thank you for loving me the way you did and i will never forget the way you looked into my eyes.
love you always- my matey jack <3 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  

 21/10/2016 I lost my best friend x