When I say fat replacers, you probably know by now that I’m not talking about taking fat out and replacing it with a filler. No, I happen to like fat; real, healthy fat. Such as the kind that comes from coconut oils, grassfed cows, pastured pork and chickens, olive oil and nuts.
I find I no longer identify fat by types, but rather, by source. As a result, I rarely think of saturated, monounsaturated and other long terms I learned in school. Instead, I think natural, healthy fat from an animal or plant, or processed, crap fat (or fat substitute) from a laboratory.
So when it comes to replacing fat, I’m usually replacing one fat for another. In some cases, the new recipe may even have more fat in it than the original. Either way, it all comes down to playing with my food and my recipes. Something that I love to do!
Last week I found myself faced with a variety of ingredients that desperately needed to be used up before they far exceeded their prime.
On the list? Bananas, Greek yogurt and coconut milk.
I first decided on banana chocolate chip bread, and then I decided to replace the butter with yogurt. Then I thought, what the heck, why not add a little coconut milk instead of cow’s milk to the mix.
What resulted was an incredibly thick batter. I didn’t have high hopes that this creation would even be edible.
But guess what! I ended up with some the best quick bread to come out of my kitchen. It baked up and browned nicely. The inside was tender with a slightly chewy crust. The banana, small amount of sugar and yogurt contributed to a slight sweetness that worked pleasantly with the slight bitterness of the dark chocolate
.
The only downfall is that this bread takes some serious baking and careful watching to make sure it is cooked through. But once it is done, you’ll be ready to make it all over again!
Banana Chocolate Chip Bread
1/3 cup demerara sugar
2 eggs
½ cup honey Greek yogurt
1 banana, mashed
¾ cup coconut milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 ½ cup white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
½ cup dark chocolate chips (I used 60%)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a standard loaf pan.
In a mixing bowl whisk together the sugar and eggs . Stir in the yogurt, banana, coconut milk and vanilla.
Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet batter just until everything is combined.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, de-pan and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. Makes 1 loaf, about 12 slices.
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In case you hadn’t noticed, I wanted to draw your attention to the two new badges on my right sidebar. One of my favorite bloggers and health professionals, Michelle at
Find Your Balance Health is offering two new web-based workshops at the end of the month. I gladly agreed to help her promote the classes.
Healthy, Happy Family is a teleseminar for busy, overwhelmed moms, and Building a Baby Ready Body is for hope-to-be or soon-to-be moms.
Michelle’s workshops focus on real food and achieving health and wellness naturally through the foods we eat and the way we live. If you are interested in the workshops, you can click on the badges to find out more.
Check out these little food carts called SmartKarts. They were several places around the city boasting healthy choices of 100% beef hotdogs and one cart had empanadas and tacos. They were so cute when they closed up to drive around the city. They looked like a mini panel truck.
