sweet miscellany

seasonal plant-based recipes

winter

Banana Bread

By 1 Comment

Pumpkin bread has always been my favorite of the quick bread varieties and I’m sure you can guess why. I can remember my mom making several mini loaves at a time with the intention to freeze some, but few would actually make it that far. I’ve said it here, and I’ll say it again, I LOVE pumpkin. Period. But, enough about pumpkin because I want to show some love to bananas. I have found that people either love bananas or don’t particularly care for them. I’ve met many banana haters and banana lovers. I’ve met people that couldn’t even stand the smell of bananas and those that preferred waiting until they were black and shriveled before they ate them (I might have made some of you gag right there, sorry!).  It’s quite the dichotomous world we live in when it comes to this fruit.

I don’t get to bake banana bread as often as I want to because it requires the forethought of buying bananas and letting them basically shrivel up, all the while having my apartment smell like ripening bananas. Sure, I could roast the bananas beforehand to help them soften and release their sugars, but that requires an extra step and more time with my hot oven on. I decided this past weekend it was time to bake some banana bread. I realized I have not been baking much for myself or anything other than the farmers market the past several months (mostly because it’s summer and turning my oven on is a pain) so I designated Sunday as a baking day. Dare I say it was actually sort of fall-ish weather as it was cloudy all morning and only in the 70s. Perfect banana bread baking weather, or at least as perfect as it will get in Texas at the beginning of September.

I’m going to give you the basic recipe for banana bread below and leave the add-ins up to you. This go-around I did a combination of pecans and chai spices but I encourage you to go with whatever suits your fancy. This isn’t a very sweet bread so please taste the batter and adjust it to your liking. Do be mindful though if you add too much more liquid to the batter that you might have to adjust with a bit more flour. I chose to bake 3 mini loaves, but you can also bake the bread in a regular loaf pan as long as you adjust the baking time.  I’d say about 45 to 50 minutes would do the trick.  Also, in case you haven’t realized by now, I bake in weights as it’s more accurate with gluten free baking so please don’t try to convert it into volume.  You might have a banana catastrophe.

…

Read More »

Simple Thai Red Vegetable Curry

By Leave a Comment

I’ve made it a point this year to eat vegan as much as possible.  This is really easy for me to do at home, but not so easy when I eat out, particularly because I have to eat gluten free as well.  Since I can completely control what I eat at home, I’ve been coming up with some easy and tasty meals that are both gluten free and vegan.  As long as my pantry is pretty well stocked and I have plenty of fresh vegetables, the options are almost infinite.

A couple of weeks ago I began playing around with some store-bought Thai curry paste.  I would love to be able to make my own, but considering how hard it is to get things like galangal and kaffir lime leaves, this is one ingredient I don’t mind buying pre-made.  Since most of the flavor is in the paste, you can simmer it with coconut milk to get a really nice curry base.  Add a few things like coconut sugar, tamari, and fresh vegetables and you’ve got yourself a delicious curry!

This curry is super simple, easily customizable based on what you have, and of course, really delicious.  Plus, it’s ready in about 20 or so minutes.  All of this earns it a permanent spot on my dinner rotation.

…

Read More »