Cinnamon Chip-Banana Swirly Bread

Having a cold and being stuck at home is terribly boring.

Now that I'm starting to feel better and am awake for more than 5 hours a day,
I've been spending time thinking about baking.
Okay...I've been thinking, reading, and dreaming about baking.
I miss it when I don't feel well.
Is that weird?
Maybe for others, but it seems totally normal for me.

While scrolling through Pinterest,
I found a recipe for banana cinnamon bread...
AND I remembered that I had a bag of Hershey's Cinnamon Chips.
It seemed like a match made in cinnamon Heaven.









Cinnamon Chip-Banana Swirly Bread

Recipe and directions 

slightly adapted from Lovin' From The Oven

Ingredients

For the bread:
• 2-3 over-ripe bananas, smashed up
• 1/3 cup oil
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups flour 
• 1/2 cup cinnamon chips
For the swirl:
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 Tbs cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x5 loaf pan with parchment paper.
2. Mix bananas, butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla together. sprinkle baking soda and salt around on top of the banana mixture. Then gently stir in flour and add in the cinnamon chips. Remember not to over-mix.

3. In a small dish, mix together the 1/3 cup sugar and 1 Tbs cinnamon.

4. Add 1/2 of the batter to the loaf pan and then sprinkle half, or a little more than half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture all over the batter in the pan. Add the rest of the batter, and then sprinkle the leftover cinnamon-sugar on top.

5. Bake for 50-60 minutes, but start checking the oven at 50 minutes since ovens vary.

Apple Pie Bread-Vegan

In my family, there is nothing better than my Mom's apple pie.

She has this magical way of transforming simple ingredients

 into the most delicious thing you've ever tasted.

It's a beautiful mix of tart apples, cinnamon, and sugar,

that makes even those that don't like apple pie, 

re-think everything that they've ever though about pie.

Yes, it's that good.

It's so certifiably good,

that people (me) 

dream about the beautiful thing that is a classic apple pie.

I knew that if I was to ever call myself a baker, 

I too would have to master the gorgeous, simple beauty of my mom's pie.

It's taken a few years, 

but I feel that I can now say that I have it down...well, almost.

Somehow, her pie still tastes like Heaven on Earth to me. 

So I thought...

and I had a little time to think while sick this past week...

What if I made a bread that tasted like a little slice of pie?

Wouldn't that be fun and delicious?

Well, heck yeah it'd be fun!

But you be the judge,

does this taste like apple pie to you?

Apple Pie Bread (Vegan)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 egg equivalent with Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer
1 cup sugar
2 tbls vegan butter or shortening
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup oil
2 granny smith apples, sliced
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Icing Glaze Ingredients:
1 cup powdered sugar
water to dissolve and make glaze

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1. Slice apples and sprinkle with 1/4 tsp cinnamon
2. Sift to combine flour, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
3. Use a mixer to blend together the egg-replacer, sugar, vegan butter, vanilla, and lemon juice in a medium bowl.
4. Pour wet ingredient into the dry ingredients and blend until smooth.
5. Add oil and mix well.
6. Layer 2/3 of the sliced apples in the parchment paper lined 9x5-inch loaf pan.

7. Pour batter on top of the apples.
8. Place the remaining apple slices on top of the batter. Optional: Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar (Not really optional in my world)

9. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick stuck into center of the bread comes out clean.
10. Let the bread cool completely before adding the glaze. Or opt out of adding a glaze...I did. It smelled too good to wait to glaze it.

Let the glaze set up before slicing. Or not.  :)
Either way, enjoy!

I'm a Grump.

Most people think that cold and flu season is in the middle of Winter.
And that may be true for some,
but not for me.
My cold season always hits in either April or May.
It happens right when the weather starts getting nicer and changes from icy cold to rainy cold.
I'm not sure which I prefer...
All I really know is that I hate being sick.
I don't do well with a sniffling, runny nose, cough, or fever.
I know, who does?
I get grumpy.



I really don't like to be grumpy.
Grumpy was not the dwarf that I related to while watching Snow White.
I preferred to be Happy...or even Dopey...but never Grumpy.

So to break myself out of the torment that is my Annual Grumpy Cold,
I turn to my Grandma's remedies...
She didn't get to be 103 years old by just luck.
The woman knows a few tricks to keeping her body healthy.
So if you're feeling the cold grump taking over your body too,
I suggest that you take a lesson from Mother Mary's Remedy Book.




1.  Drink...and a lot of it.  Water, orange juice, cranberry juice, 7-up, sparkling water...just avoid milk products.  Milk will increase mucus production and you definitely don't want MORE mucus.

2. Garlic-put it on everything and eat it...a lot of it. Actually, this is her remedy for EVERYTHING, from a torn toenail to curing cancer.  EVERY-THING.

3. Sleep-  I've definitely done my fair-share of sleeping over the last few days.  I feel like a cat, sleeping 19 hours and then awake for 5.  If it works for the kitties, it will work for me.

4. Bronchial Soothe- All natural cough syrup...and it actually works! I felt my cough suppress right away and was able to finally achieve my catlike sleep cycle that is necessary to heal.

5. Mentholatum- Slather it on...no seriously slather it!  Now, here's the trick that will change your life...again...seriously, it will change your life.  Take a glob and spread a layer on the bottom of your feet.  Be generous.  This is not the time to get stingy!  Then, take a pair of wool socks (or your warmest socks) and put them on your feet.  Do this right before you  go to bed.  This will pull the virus, toxins, whatever the illness is, down to your feet and out of your body.  I know that this may sound weird, but it works.  It really works.  With a cold like mine, I've had to do this for several nights, but I can tell a difference in my breathing each morning.  It gets significantly better each day. 

Okay, now you're ready for any cold that comes your way.
Though I really hope that you will not get sick at all.
But if you do, just remember...drink, garlic, sleep, soothe, and slather.
Grandma says so. 
And if you don't, the Grump will find you too.