Making Banana Bread Healthy

How many of you have heard of the Weston A. Price Foundation?  They have a lot of great research that shows the benefits of healthy fat in the diet (as opposed to the low-fat stuff you can get at the grocer).  There are studies that talk about how butter fat and cream, when coming from grass-fed animals (cows, sheep, goats--I suppose buffalo as well, if you're into that) has high levels of vitamins that the brain needs to prevent things such as ADHD and depression.  This is a big deal to our family, due to my having Tourette's Syndrome, and my son having been diagnosed as well.  Tourette's is a dopamine receptor problem, where the body exhibits the lack (or what it perceives to be a lack) of dopamine with twitches rather than depression.  If the twitches get bad enough, the treatment is actually anti-depressants.  My son is only 8, so his symptoms are mild.  However, we've been told by the neurologist that in males, hitting puberty really messes with the dopamine receptors anyway, and so having Tourette's makes it a VERY good idea for us to watch for any signs of depression as he starts to change and grow.

That aside, I think many American's would benefit from a little knowledge of how fat really works, rather than seeing it as the evil cause of obesity.  It doesn't have to be.  Over-eating is.  As is excess consumption of processed junk.  People who eat REAL fat (and not vegetable oil, either) along with fresh vegetables and whole grains tend to be quite lean.

Anyhow, since we've been cutting processed dairy from our diets, but don't want to join the local raw milk group in our area (we're only going to be here three more months, it makes no sense to buy in for the annual rate!), we've been adding coconut milk and almond milk (whole, not fat free of either) to make sure our family gets some good fats into our system. 

Here is a wonderful recipe for Banana Bread that our family enjoys! (Makes 2 LARGE loaves)

Cream together:  (I like to throw it in the blender)
1 C coconut oil, melted
4 eggs
2 C of a pure sweetener like raw sugar, sucanat, or rapadura.  These are just dehydrated sugar cane, ground.  NOT brown sugar, which is processed and the molasses is added back in.  This sugar has the fiber and minerals that come from pure sugar cane, as it wasn't stripped.
4 bananas
a dash of vanilla extract (optional, but yummy)

In another bowl, whisk together:
3.5 C of whole wheat flour (fresh is best!  So many great vitamins.*)
2 tsp. baking soda
1 pinch of salt

Pour liquid mixture into dry, whisk together.  Pour into two large baking pans.

I'm going out on a limb here and saying bake until done.  For awhile at 350, but if it's getting too dark, lower the heat.  Reason being that my oven does weird things and I'm not really sure how long things take in it anymore.  Sometimes they take longer than the recipe states, sometimes they are done quickly, and burn if I'm not watching.  Eh.



*All commercially made grain flours have had the germ removed. This is the part of the grain that contains healthy nutritious oils. They remove it to extend the shelf life of the grain other wise with it left in the flour would go rancid in a day or so unless it was frozen which is expensive and not something most supermarkets would be willing to do. So by removing the germ it can sit on the shelf for months or even years and still be edible. However, just because it is edible doesn’t mean it is good. Grain flours even those with the bran remove deteriorate quickly and loose a lot of vitamins and minerals. So, those flours you buy in the store while still better for you than white flour aren’t all that they could be and should be.
Taken from: http://www.breadmachinedigest.com/tips/milling-your-own-flour-the-hows-and-whys.php