Banana Bread

Last week I decided to use up some super ripe bananas in some banana bread.  But I'm also trying to give my body a break from gluten as it seems I instantly bloat and puff to the point of looking pregnant whenever I eat wheat.  So I made this with gluten free flour but you could easily make this with equal parts wheat flour.


Ingredients;

2 tablespoons organic butter
2 cups gluten free flour
1/2 cup organic apple sauce
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon Celtic sea salt
3 medium organic banana mashed
2 tablespoons organic local honey (local in season honey is great in reducing allergy reactions according to homeopathy).
2 organic eggs
1 organic chocolate bar chopped up or 1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 cup crushed organic walnuts

preheat oven to 350 degrees f.  Mix ingredients together. Bake for 50 minutes until cooked through, test with toothpick to be sure, allow to cool before slicing.

D.I.Y. Whipped Body Butter

Took some much needed time for self care and literally whipped up this body butter!  I love the texture of body butter, even though husband says it's greasy, I think it's the best feeling slathering up after a bath and before bed.  My skin feels ultra hydrated and with the perfect blend of essential oils, a totally relaxing experience.  Here's how I make my body butter...

You'll Need:

1 cup Cocoa Butter {I get wafers because they melt faster but these organic ones are good too.}

Handful of Bees Wax Pastilles 

1 cup Organic Shea Butter

1/2 cup Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil

1/4 Cup fractionated Coconut Oil 

and a few drops of essential oils. 

FOR SUNSCREEN: I add Non Nano Zinc Oxide (I add until thick paste) and Frankincense and Helichrysum essentail oils  for cellular support.

{I'm very picky about the brands of oils I use on my skin, if you want to know why or which brands I use contact me here}.

Start by heading hard ingredients in a metal bowl over boiling water, a d.i.y. double broiler, or if you actually have a double broiler use that.

Fractionated Coconut Oil is the fraction or portion of coconut oil that is liquid at cool and room temperature.

Once everything has heated though, {just waiting on the bees wax above}, remove from heat and allow to cool for several hours.  YES COOL FOR SEVERAL HOURS. I usually make mine at night and let it cool overnight.  Then, in the morning when I'm ready to actually watch it whip, I set into the freezer for about 10-15 minutes, don't let it freeze through just until you see it sort of harden over on the top, then place in freestanding mixer and start whipping, start slow then gradually increase speed. 

After several minutes, the mixture should start thickening and lightening up, after several more minutes soft peaks should begin to form.  That's when  you're done. when it looks like whipped cream.  If you aren't getting any thickness or whipped effect it could be that the butter is not cold enough or you might need to add more bees wax. if that's the case you'll need to melt the wax, add it and then allow to cool again and put back in freezer.  It's a little bit of a learning curve but just keep playing with it until you get the thickness and texture of whipped butter you like.  Good Luck!

This batch makes a lot so make sure to have about a dozen small jars or a few bigger ones to store your body butter, you can add essential oils to the small jars or as you use the body butter.

Happy  Whipping!

How to use 10 pounds of fresh peaches in a week {recipes and links}

After going peach picking last week, we had close to 10 pounds of peaches, we ate most of them the same day, binging at the farm and on the drive home, but after a couple of days, we were over it.  But I wasn't about to let my peaches go to waste so we started getting creative.

Just a small amount of the peaches we needed to use.

So with the help of our backyard eggs, I had husband make some waffles.

I prepped about 4 or 5 peaches while he started the batter.

He used this recipe.

and Sonja helped as we added the fruit {I threw in some blueberries at the last minute}

The batter was fluffy but heavy, there was so much butter! 

The girls enjoyed their peaches with syrup!

And then the next morning I made crescent rolls with brie and peaches, I also used some of the sugar free peach jam from Schnepf Farms {the peaches were sweet enough, I didn't need extra sugar!}

This is one of my go to entertaining recipes, and I modify it slightly with whatever we have in stock at the house.

They turned out delicious, because, duh, they had melted brie in them!  You could totally add walnuts to the mix if you wanted something crunchy in there as well.

They didn't last 5 minutes. I might have eaten like 5 of them.

Once we had a decent breakfast I thought I'd start on some peach bourbon for our Memorial Day BBQ, So I wiped out a cast iron skillet, set it on a low heat and coated the peached in agave {could have used honey, but we were out, sad face} I also threw in a few vanilla pods to give it a fully body of sweet flavor.

Once the peaches have seared for a couple of seconds, maybe minutes, I added the mixture to a ball jar.

You can see the gooey goodness of that agave! yum.

Then, I added a bottle of bourbon to let sit for several hours {better if overnight} perfect in lemonade or even straight up. 

How do you use peaches in your home?  I'd love a collection of even more recipes.  Post all the links!

COALATREE Organic Men's Clothing

You may have noticed this amazing Koala to the left on my toolbar.  Just wanted to take a quick second to introduce a new favorite clothing company of mine.  Coalatree is an awesome men's clothing company which also promotes respect for the earth and society.  I found them through a friend and am addicted to their instagram.  They recently sent me some awesome stickers for myself and readers! So, the first 5 people to follow them on instagram (and leave a comment here telling me they did and leaving a contact email), will get a sticker they sent me.  You can also find them on twitter and facebook.

Can't wait to get Husband some new clothes for our soon to be more frequent camping trips!

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