I am not going to lie, January is always my least favorite month of the year. This year has been particularly challenging. It has been dry and cold in Colorado, we've been sick for weeks on end and I am seriously sleep deprived. So I daydream of the beach. Warm sand. Sunshine. Cocktails on ice. Ahh.
To soften my January blues, I tend to bake and read (see below)!
These muffins are really for my kids. Child 1 doesn't eat much. Child 2 eats everything. So I sneak in bananas, apple sauce and almond flour to give them a nutritional boost.
Hope you enjoy!
Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups Pamelas Baking and Pancake Mix flour blend
1 large egg
1/4 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup sugar or coconut sugar
1 ripe banana, mashed
1/8 cup applesauce or other fruit puree
1/8 cup almond flour
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup chocolate chipsDirections:
Mix all ingredients together and spoon into greased muffin tins or lined muffin tins (fill about 2/3 full). Bake for 18-20 minutes.
Makes about 6-7 muffins.
Also on the menu:
Soba Noodle Stir Fry from the NYTimes. In order to make this celiac/gluten free friendly, I am using coconut aminos or tamari and using 100% buckwheat noodles. This will ensure a safe gluten free meal!
And if you need a book to read while eating your delicious gluten-free muffins, pick up The Light We Lost, by Jill Santopolo. I could not step away and found so much to relate to in the book. It's a heartbreaking love story about Gabe and Lucy who meet on Sept. 11, 2001. Their lives go in different directions for 13 years but the love in their hearts never fades.
From Penguin Books
"Lucy is faced with a life-altering choice. But before she can make her decision, she must start her story—their story—at the very beginning.
Lucy and Gabe meet as seniors at Columbia University on a day that changes both of their lives forever. Together, they decide they want their lives to mean something, to matter. When they meet again a year later, it seems fated—perhaps they’ll find life’s meaning in each other. But then Gabe becomes a photojournalist assigned to the Middle East and Lucy pursues a career in New York. What follows is a thirteen-year journey of dreams, desires, jealousies, betrayals, and, ultimately, of love. Was it fate that brought them together? Is it choice that has kept them away? Their journey takes Lucy and Gabe continents apart, but never out of each other’s hearts."
Okay...back to cooking and not book reviewing :) and a big CHEERS to the last day of January!
