CINNAMON STREUSEL BANANA BREAD: Body Healthy

CINNAMON STREUSEL BANANA BREAD

Moist, yummy and healthy!

I have been away from the blog for a bit....due to real life.  After a month of essentially being away from home due to birth (Welcome our new Granddaughter) and death (The sad loss of my Mother) I am trying to find some sense of normalcy (Whatever that is???) by cooking and cleaning.  While away to my  Daughter's house helping for several weeks with the new baby and at my Father's farm with my family dealing with our loss, I found myself doing what I always do:  feeding those I love while eating unhealthily myself. I baked and cooked all kinds of things delicious but unhealthy in an attempt to show my love.  I always think, why do I do this?  Why is it so hard to cook and bake in a healthy way for others?  I convince myself that they NEED and DESIRE all of that fat and sugar to know I care.  Surely, our health and the health of others should mean so much more to us to preserve, especially in the circumstances of a death looming over us as a reminder to take care of ourselves.  No one I love NEEDS extra sugar and fat! They need to take care of themselves and be taken care of so they are around longer to enjoy and be enjoyed. Right?  Right!!  So today, I dug out a few of my tried and true "being healthy" recipes and made myself a vow to be better at being uncompromising.  Just because it's company...or family...or a special occasion (sad or happy) doesn't mean it can't be healthy!

The creamy buckwheat cereal combined with the nuts and coconut sugar give this recipe that yummy sweet crunch on top that we all love.

 



Ingredients

• BANANA BREAD:
• 3/4 cup coconut sugar
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt
• 1/3 cup coconut milk
• 2 large eggs
• 4 medium ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups coconut flour (or any flour blend you like)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• CINNAMON STREUSEL:
• 1/3 cup tapioca or coconut flour
• 1/3 cup coconut sugar
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup creamy buckwheat cereal
• 1/4-1/2 cup chopped nuts
• 1/4 cup coconut oil

Instructions

1. Make the bread: Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease two 9-in loaf pans. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, beat sugar, oil, yogurt, milk, eggs, banana, and vanilla until smooth. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Gently fold flour mixture until batter is just combined. Scrape batter into prepared pans and set aside for a moment.
3. Make the streusel: In a medium bowl, combine all streusel ingredients until crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over two banana bread batters, gently pressing crumbs into batter to adhere.
4. Bake banana bread at 350F 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool bread completely in pans on a wire cooling rack. I baked mine for less as I used larger pans instead of loaf pans.