Drum roll please ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… behold, my first recipe post. Okay, so that was maybe a little dramatic but this is a bit of a surreal moment. I NEVER in my life thought that I would be creating recipes, let alone sharing them with anyone.
Flash back to ten years ago. I hated cooking. I don’t mean that it just wasn’t for me, I mean I actively loathed it… and for good reason too. I was terrible at it. I could ruin literally anything, including ramen. (I’m really selling you on trying my recipe, aren’t I?) On top of that, I hit the husband jackpot. Not only is he amazing at everything he does, but he’s also a chef. When I met him, almost 11 years ago now!, I stopped trying to cook and started enjoying his amazing meals. Resultantly, when it came to cooking, I think arrested development was definitely the right term to describe me.
If that all wasn’t enough, and since there’s nothing like a little TMI for a recipe post, let’s just say that four or five years ago I started experiencing some major GI issues. In retrospect, those issues were just a minor part of an ever-expanding symptom list caused by the Lyme disease. None-the-less, I was in pain almost every time I ate, having major blood sugar swings, brain fog, bloating, “bathroom irregularities” etc., etc. I also started experiencing weird reactions to seemingly random foods. One time, my throat and lips swelled bad enough to land me in the ER. It was pretty scary to say the least. Thus began my years of fearing food, literally – which was not great since I had dealt with the emotional side of fearing food in my past with some major disordered eating. These new experiences with food though, developed into something of a phobia. I was so afraid that I would have a reaction to something that I almost completely stopped eating when I was alone, and dreaded trying new foods altogether. (And yes, I had an EpiPen, but that did very little to comfort me.)
To figure out what the hell was going on (this was still pre-Lyme diagnosis mind you) I did eliminations diets, allergy testing, saw GI specialists and began cutting out oh so many delicious foods. (Tear drop) To say it felt torturous would be an understatement. I never realized how important eating was until that point – to think, I wasted so many years of freedom to eat whatever I wanted on that stupid eating disorder. If I had only known that one day I physically wouldn’t be able to… alas. I also felt pretty isolated from social activities. Anything involving having to eat new foods or go off my “special” diet left me afraid of what reactions I might have. My friends and family tied so hard to always accommodate my “weird” eating requests but I don’t think any of them knew just how terrified of food I had become… and in my defense, somewhat rightfully so. I can’t tell you how many times I left events or dinners feeling like I had knives trying to cut their way out of my stomach. TMI over. Let’s just say it wasn’t a favorite part of my life.
So after all of that, how did I end up here? Which by the way, is not only in a place where I try new foods all the time but also in a place where I LOVE cooking and baking with them too! Ultimately, it’s the Lyme disease I have to thank for that. (I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, battling this illness has given me way more than it has ever taken. Truly.) Really, I started cooking out of necessity. Trying to follow a gluten-free, mostly grain-free, soy-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, and mostly processed-free diet (to heal my gut/stop the reactions) could only work by cooking at home. At first, I hated it. It was time-consuming, hard, and felt super limiting. I was so frustrated. I remember crying many tears over it, as silly as that sounds now. I guess it was really emotional since I felt like I had given up so much already. In any case, I was also REALLY sick at the time. Beyond the debilitating intermittent paralysis and long list of other Lyme treatment symptoms, the GI symptoms I had been experiencing prior to treatment skyrocketed. It was miserable. I felt nauseous almost all the time. I had this raw, churning feeling in my stomach both day and night. I would feel like I was going to throw up (or actually throw up) if I ate more than a handful at a time. I was in constant pain. Worse, absolutely nothing sounded good. For the first time in my life, I actually didn’t want to eat. And then there were days when physically all I could do was crawl to the refrigerator (yes, on all fours) and pull out whatever I could reach. I definitely wasn’t cooking on those days. For that, I need to say a huge thank you to my amazing husband, parents, and friends. They really carried me through that period.
As I began to get better though, I started cooking more and more. My husband, the amazing chef that he is, was so busy at work trying to pay for our (my) countless medical bills (bless him – he is one incredible partner) that it was the least I could do… actually, many days it was the most. Nonetheless, I did it. And then I actually started to enjoy it. My paradigm began to shift and cooking was slowly becoming one of my favorite pass-times. Ok, it was really one of the ONLY things that I could physically do but hey, I took victories when they came. Before long, recipes started turning out and I was really getting the hang of things. I even started doing some baking, roasting legs of lamb, and firing up the grill. It turns out, I had inadvertently picked up quite a few more cooking skills than I thought from watching my husband over the years.
Flash forward even more to about a year ago. It’s a looong story (one for another time), but my husband and I decided to open a coffee shop …although, it’s actually evolved into more of a coffee shop/roastery/restaurant/bakery. This evolution was a direct result of us wanting to have complete quality control, or as much as possible. To do so, we decided to make just about everything we could from scratch. This includes roasting our own beans, baking our own pastries/sandwich bread in-house, making our own syrups and chai, etc. As excited as I was about this, I also felt very passionately about providing options to people with special dietary concerns …myself included. That’s when my passion for baking really took off. Although I tend to do a bit more just gluten-free baking for the shop, Paleo, Vegan, and other dietary challenges are definitely where my passion lies when it comes to this blog. So if you have any requests, please let me know. Happy Baking
PS Thank you for reading that long, drawn-out, and sort of ramble-y post!
A quick note about this recipe:
This banana bread muffin recipe is fluffy, moist, chocolaty, and delicious! It’s also nut-free and can be made vegan. These little gems can be easily frozen and defrosted in less than a minute in the microwave (ya know, if you’re like me and want to have them around for special weekend breakfasts). They’d also be wonderful as a “cupcake base,” topped with a Paleo Banana Caramel Marshmallow Frosting (let me know if you’d be interested in a recipe for that). They may have a bit more sugar that I would normally consume on a daily basis but are perfect for a treat. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
A quick note about Green Banana Flour:
The “flour” I use for this recipe is green banana flour. Despite its name, it tastes very little like banana. Actually, it has more of a whole grain type flavor. Green banana flour is made from, well, green bananas (extremely under-ripe bananas). Because of that, it’s also a great resistant starch. And although it does lose some of its resistant starch powers when it’s baked, it’s still super amazing for texture. To retain all of its resistant starch properties though, try adding it to yogurts, smoothies, shakes, etc. (Read more about green banana flour here.)
Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins (gf, df option, paleo)
Yield
6 oversized muffins
Time
15 min active, 50 min total
Ingredients
3 Medium Overripe Bananas (mashed but still chunky)
¼ cup Coconut Nectar
¼ cup Coconut Sugar (substitute: other granular sugar)
2 Large Eggs
1 Tbsp. Apple Cider Vinegar
1 tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract
¼ tsp. Salt
1/8 tsp. Ground Clove
1 tsp. Ginger Powder
1 ½ tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. Baking Soda
¼ cup Golden Flax Seed, Ground
5 Tbsp. Grass-Fed Butter, Melted (substitute: ghee or coconut oil)
1 cup Green Banana Flour – I use this brand
½ cup Mini Chocolate Chips – I use this brand (substitute: nuts, seeds, etc.)
Process
- Preheat oven to 350ºF*.
- Line one oversized muffin pan with desired liners. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, thoroughly stir together all ingredients except for the banana flour and chocolate chips.
- Fold in the banana flour until well combined.
- Fold in the chocolate chips or other desired mix-ins.
- Distribute the batter evenly between prepared muffin liners and sprinkle tops with a little coconut sugar and cinnamon if desired. (I highly recommend this!)
- Bake for 30-35** minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and middle is set (the batter will appear dark but don’t worry, this is normal).
- Immediately transfer the muffins to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before putting away.
- Enjoy as is, or warmed slightly with a little butter/nut butter.
*Oven temperatures may vary (and I am also baking at high-altitude)
**If using a regular-sized muffin pan, reduce cooking time and watch closely.
Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins (gf, df option, paleo)
Yield
6 oversized muffins
Time
15 min active, 50 min total
Ingredients
3 Medium Overripe Bananas (mashed but still chunky)
¼ cup Coconut Nectar
¼ cup Coconut Sugar (substitute: other granular sugar)
2 Large Eggs
1 Tbsp. Apple Cider Vinegar
1 tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract
¼ tsp. Salt
1/8 tsp. Ground Clove
1 tsp. Ginger Powder
1 ½ tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. Baking Soda
¼ cup Golden Flax Seed, Ground
5 Tbsp. Grass-Fed Butter, Melted (substitute: ghee or coconut oil)
1 cup Green Banana Flour – I use this brand
½ cup Mini Chocolate Chips – I use this brand (substitute: nuts, seeds, etc.)
Process
- Preheat oven to 350ºF*.
- Line one oversized muffin pan with desired liners. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, thoroughly stir together all ingredients except for the banana flour and chocolate chips.
- Fold in the banana flour until well combined.
- Fold in the chocolate chips or other desired mix-ins.
- Distribute the batter evenly between prepared muffin liners and sprinkle tops with a little coconut sugar and cinnamon if desired. (I highly recommend this!)
- Bake for 30-35** minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and middle is set (the batter will appear dark but don’t worry, this is normal).
- Immediately transfer the muffins to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before putting away.
- Enjoy as is, or warmed slightly with a little butter/nut butter.