Gluten-Free Banana Bread

You know a girl is pregnant when all she posts about is food... Alright, maybe I do that all the time no matter what :D I'm happy to say that today, I found a new favorite gluten-free baked good! It definitely hit the spot for me! I had to hide it from my son and I, so that my husband would be able to have some...

I thought that banana bread sounded really good, so I went searching for not only a gluten-free bread but one that didn't have any sweeteners used. My husband asked me to join him for a "Primal 30 Day Challenge" that started on Monday, with his goal of getting back on track with his eating. As time goes on, it's easy to slip into old habits of eating more and more food that doesn't promote health.

I was really excited when I found this recipe on the Civilized Caveman site & it had excellent reviews! Because let's be entirely honest, there are a lot of nasty gluten-free recipes out there. Trust me, I've tried many. George also listed some cool variations for this recipe as well. If you like banana bread, this is a must-try!

Gluten-Free Banana Bread

Ingredients
4 ripe, yellow bananas, (2 1/2 cups mashed)
4 eggs
1/2 cup almond butter (or coconut, sunflower seed, macadamia nut, etc butter)
4 tablespoons grass-fed butter, melted (can substitute coconut oil)
1/2 cup coconut flour (or almond flour, macadamia nut meal, etc)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of sea salt

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit
2. Combine bananas, eggs, nut butter, and grass-fed butter in a blender, food processor, or mixing bowl and mix well (if using a mixing bowl you need a good hand-mixer)
3. Once all ingredients are well blended, add in coconut flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla, sea salt and mix well
4. Grease a 9x5 glass loaf pan with a fat of your choice. If you use a metal pan, it will probably bake in 35-40 minutes so start checking at 35 minutes to ensure the middle stays moist
5. Pour batter and spread it evenly throughout the pan
6. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean
7. Remove from oven and flip your bread out onto a cooling rack
8. Slice and serve

Variations

• Cranberry Orange - Only use 3 tablespoons of butter. Add zest of one whole orange diced, juice of one whole orange, and1 cup dried cranberries or fresh if you want
• Chocolate Blueberry - Add 1 cup of fresh blueberries and 1/2 cup of cocoa powder
• Pumpkin Pecan - Reduce the almond butter to 1/4 cup and add 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree and 1 cup of roughly chopped pecan pieces

If you want to make these into muffins, use the same recipe. For mini muffins, bake approximately 25 mins and normal size muffins 30-35 minutes.

Only one more day of the affirmations challenge! I hope you're finding it beneficial. If you're not (or if you haven't been consistent), keep going for another week! :)