Chocolate and Honey Banana Bread Coffee Cake Muffins

Chocolate and Honey Banana Bread Coffee Cake Muffins
Ingredients
-3 Large Brown Bananas
-1/4 Cup Grade B Maple Syrup
-1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
-3 Eggs (Pastured is ideal, free-range is okay too)
-1/2 Cup Almond Butter
-1/4 Cup Coconut Flour
-1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
-1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
-1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
-1/2 Teaspoon Nutmeg
-Pinch of Salt

Topping Ingredients
-4 Tbsp (1/4 cup) grass fed butter, ideally slighly warm, but it's not a neccesity
-2 Tbsp Coconut Sugar
-2 Tbsp Almond Flour
-1 Tbsp Organic Raw Honey
-1 Bar 100% Cacao Baking Chocolate (sub some Life's Good GF/DF chocolate if you want to keep this recipe GF)
-1 Tsp Cinnamon

-1/4 Cup Pecans/Almonds/Walnuts, whatever you have around works

Instructions:
1. I start by mashing up some bananas in a large bowl. Then add the maple syrup, vanilla extract, eggs, and almond butter and mix it all up well.
2. Add the coconut flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt to the mix and again mix everything up well.

Batter and topping all set and ready to go. Chocolate on the side for chunkyness.

3. Pour the batter into your muffin tins, leaving some room on top for each muffin to expand. They will expand. I learned this the hard way ;).

Some of these tins are probably a bit over-filled. It worked out.

4. Once you have your batter in the tins mix up the topping. Just get everything in a bowl, wash your hands, and go to town. I like to mix everything up and squeeze it together over and over to get all the goodies evenly distributed. You could add the chocolate in tiny pieces here or leave it in chunks and place them in the center of each muffin.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes. Keep an eye on them and do the fork test, if the fork comes out clean after sticking it in a muffin, they're done =).

Keep an eye on them. Do some yoga while you wait =).

Done. Yay =).

6. Don't eat 7 of them. Or at least try not to. If you do (like I did), don't do it again, and forgive yourself. Give them away to friends/family or freeze 'em/put 'em in the fridge for enjoyment in moderation.

Perry, The Simple Paleo Cook

Thanks for reading =). Comments? Questions? Suggestions? I want to hear from you!
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Dehydrator Apple Chips, Nut Soaking, and a Spaghetti Squash

I'm beyond excited...my brand new food dehydrator came from Amazon today. It cost a whopping $38.72 with tax. Love it (link to the dehydrator on Amazon). I'm so excited to see how this thing changes the way I eat. I feel like I just got a new sword in some RPG and I really want to go out and smash some goblins with it. Although in this case its something more along the lines of I really want to make jerky, fruit leathers, healthier nuts, kale chips...the list goes on. Tonight I'm starting small, simple, and sweet. Some Apple Chips with Cinnamon.

Apple Chips with Cinnamon (Dehydrator)

Ingredients:

-Organic Apples (I used two because that's what I had in my fridge.)

-Cinnamon (Optional -- I love cinnamon and it pairs beautifully with apples.)

You will be Apple Chips soon! Yes, yes you will! =).

Instructions:

1. Slice your apples into approx. 1/8in slices. Envision the apple chips =).

Slice 'em up.

2. Dust with some cinnamon. I feel a bit too fancy saying "dust". I gave the cinnamon shaker a soft tap with my free hand while moving it around the apples.

Cinnamon!

3. Load up your (in my case brand new, freshly washed) dehydrator.

First ever thing in my food dehydrator. Let's do this! Sooooo excited!

4. Turn it on (I would give you a specific temperature...but mine has two settings: On or off. Live simple.)

5. I'm letting mine run overnight. Approximately 5 hours. Probably not quite long enough but I *really* wanted to get something going in my new (health inducing, awesome) toy!

I'll update this post with the results asap.

Soaked and Dehydrated Almonds

Why?? Why would you put your delicious almonds in a jar filled with water and soak them? I've been doing some homework on my nuts and seeds. As it turns out, in a nut-shell... ;), nuts can be not-that-great for you. Certain types more than others. They have high levels of phytic acid and high levels of polyunsaturated fats. Both of these things can be really nasty. 

According to PaleoLeap.com, "Phytic acid is a strategy employed to prevent the nut or seed from sprouting before the ideal conditions are present. Phytic acid on our digestive system has the property of binding to minerals like calcium, iron and magnesium and preventing them from being absorbed. This also means that you won’t necessarily get high amounts of a mineral even if you eat a nut high in that mineral."

Soaking your nuts can help! Moderation helps as well. I'm just not quite ready to totally give up on nuts, and I want to use my new food dehydrator more =).

Just add some salt (about 1 tablespoon) to a jar filled with almonds and let it soak for 8-24 hours. Then dry it somehow. Oven on super low, door cracked; Food dehydrator; Sun. I'm going to use my food dehydrator for 12-24 hours of drying. I might even add some honey =). For now, I just got 'em soaking.

1 Tablespoon of Salt

Soaking some Almonds.

I did promise a Spaghetti Squash. It didn't fit in my crock pot. Doh! I'm trying anyway...it *almost* fits. Here goes nothing.

Go go Spaghetti Squash!

Comments? Questions? Suggestions? I want to hear from you!

-Perry (The Simple Paleo Cook)