Banana Bread

I love to bake.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a kitchen at school, so I can’t bake for nine long months out of the year.  When I got home this summer I started baking about every three days, and it was awesome!  Then I started working more hours and I haven’t had the time or energy to keep up the baking spree.  That being said I have been dying to bake something and I finally had some time today, so I whipped up some Banana Bread.  This was my third attempt with this recipe, which I found online, and I think I may have gotten it totally right this time. I had already modified it to make it vegan, and I also changed the 1/2 cup of oil to only two tablespoons.  Who needs a whole half a cup of oil in their banana bread?!  Definitely not me or anyone else.  Also, the newest addition to the recipe is chocolate chips!  So delicious, plus I took out all the calories from the oil so I felt like I could splurge a little.

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp oil (I used canola)
• 1 cup raw sugar
• 2 Tbsp flax meal
• 6 Tbsp water
• 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup soy milk
• 2 1/2 small bananas
• 3/4 cup vegan chocolate chips (I got mine from Trader Joe’s)

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350°F.  Stir together the flax meal and water, and set aside for a minute or two.  Mix together the sugar, oil, flour, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon.  It will not look like quick bread batter, more like cookie dough.  Then add the flax meal and water.  In a separate bowl mix the baking soda with the soymilk, then add to the batter.  Finally, mash up the bananas and add those, along with the chocolate chips.  I also sifted some cinnamon sugar over the top of mine before I popped it in the oven.  Bake for 50 minutes, then check if a toothpick (or whatever you use) comes out clean.  If it isn’t quite baked yet, go by 5 minute increments.  Mine came out after 55 minutes.  Then let it cool, and eat it!  We didn’t wait long enough, so the chocolate chips were all melty still…and we had to eat it with spoons!

Here is what it ended up looking like:

Happy baking!

xo

Emma

Tags: baking, banana bread, vegan

Four Café

First, hi and welcome to my blog!

So I was in Eagle Rock on Wednesday, and besides being a nightmare to drive around in, I really like it!  I had taken my cousin to visit Occidental College and meet up with my friend Dylan who is working there over the summer.  After we walked (or rather hiked uphill) alllllllll around the campus, I was starving.  So Dylan recommended we head to Four Café.  I was super excited to find different vegan and vegetarian options on their menu, and they were really friendly and even offered to veganize dishes for me.  The decor is really cute as well.  I had the jerk tempeh sandwich, which was absolutely amazing (cashew cheese and avacado?!? mmmmm) and their house made strawberry limeade (with agave…not sugar!).  It was just what I needed after  hiking and sweating all around the hills.  Their website gives a really good feel for the ambiance of the actual cafe, so check it out: www.fourcafe.net.

xo

Emma

P.s. I am not employed by the Café.

Tags: four café, restaurants, southern california, vegan