I just got back from Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod… so nice, so beautiful, peaceful and New Englandy… I loved it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I ate like crap.  I might have had ice cream every day/night I was there.  Oops.  It’s time to get back to clean eating!  Starting tomorrow.  🙂

We had a great time with friends eating and drinking and being merry celebrating the 4th of July.  I had my first Dirty Banana…  don’t know what that is?  Well, you have to go Nancy’s in the vineyard and go to the stand outside of Nancy’s and have the legendary guy make you one.  You’ll know who I’m talking about.  The line will be long.  And the wait will be well worth it.

<———- THAT is not a Dirty Banana. And NOT vegan. That is a Somerset homemade waffle cone of Blackberry Chocolate Chip Frozen Yogurt.  Life. Changing.

My boyfriend’s parents and sister came back to Nashville with us, and since I was traveling with them and couldn’t make them a welcome to Nashville surprise, I decided to just do it tonight and deliver it tomorrow.  I found a great little vegan recipe on Huffington Post and made a few adjustments.  From their site, I saw this recipe was originally found on the blog Peaceful Dumpling.

I hope his fam likes it as much as I did!!  The original recipe said to use white flour and that was the key, but I really wanted to make it gluten free, so I adjusted it a bit.  However, I can tell you – the white flour would ROCK in this recipe if you don’t mind having a little gluten in your life.  So, if you want to indulge – go for it!!!  The original picture looked AH-MAZE and I think I’ll have to try it out myself.

Enjoy this yummy little healthy recipe!  And make sure to check out a few more pictures below of the Vineyard and Cape Cod!

INGREDIENTS 

• 1 cup of almond meal and 1 cup of Trader Joe’s GF white flour or 2 cups of all purpose white flour
• 1/3 cup sugar – I used a combo of coconut sugar and turbinado sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• dash salt (optional)
• 3 medium very ripe bananas
• dash of vanilla extract
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1 cup vegan chocolate chips/chunks

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. In a big bowl, combine all dry ingredients and sift well with a fork or a whisk. In a medium bowl mash the bananas leaving some small chunky bits. Add the oil and lemon juice to the bananas, and combine well.

3. Add the wet ingredients and the chocolate chips to the big bowl with the dry ingredients, and combine well until just mixed. (Don’t overmix-when in doubt, just stop, since it’s better that two chocolate chips are touching than that your loaf is tough).

4. Pour the batter into a loaf pan or 2 mini loaf pans. Bake for 45-50 minutes (big loaf) or 25 minutes (small loaf). Since heat varies by the oven, you should check the loaves using the toothpick method. When it’s golden on top and toothpick comes out clean, it’s done. Enjoy!