feeding ourselves as we would feed others

Much has changed since my last published post on this blog.  I got a new job and so did my husband. We got married, traveled Spain and Portugal on our honeymoon ridiculously free and happy.  We worked our butts off at said new jobs.  I got pregnant and successfully grew and sustained life inside me (still wowed by this one.) And I have since now kept the little one alive, solely from my body, for 4 months.  His name is Max and I'd love to avoid the cliches but honestly, he's our world.  Who knew having a baby could actually be as amazing as they say it is?  Spain and Portugal were pretty amazing too...

So much has changed since my last blog post that it's almost worth not considering this the same blog.  But, it's still me, and I still love to eat and cook and most of the items we cook with still have 'just a little dirt' on them so I think I'll keep it and continue on.

The big difference these days is that I'm eating for two, still.  I know, I know, it's a term that gets thrown around a lot and typically we think it signifies that someone is justified in eating twice as much as they usually would.  I'm not here to tell anyone to eat more or less, that's a personal decision and I've most definitely indulged in twice the amount of ice cream any human should during my pregnancy...but really, eating for two means that anytime I choose something to put in my body I'm also choosing it for my son.  Its a lot of responsibility and it's especially challenging for someone who is hungry all...the...time.  Seriously, always.  Breastfeeding burns more calories than almost any workout I've ever done and on top of that I'm working full time, raising and enjoying Max, cooking, keeping some semblance of a "clean" house and trying to enjoy a little time in between.  What this means is that eating often has to be quick, nutritious and hearty and, because I hate to waste a meal, delicious.

And for those in between times, there's healthy(ish) banana bread.

Healthy-ish banana bread
(But quite honestly the most delicious I've ever had...)

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold*
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup spelt whole wheat flour**
• 4 ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
• 1/4 whole fat plain greek yogurt 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons honey
• 2 eggs
• handful of toasted pecans or walnuts

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease a 9x5" bread pan with butter (old rusted pans from grandparents are the best if you can find them).  Beat butter, honey and sugar together until blended but not emulsified in a large bowl, add eggs and blend again.  Add mashed bananas, yogurt and vanilla and mix well.  In another bowl combine all dry ingredients and add to wet ingredients with a few combining strokes.  Mix in nuts, either chopped or whole.  Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 55 minutes or until a knife comes out almost clean.  

*Cold butter is key to making delicious sweet breads.  All recipes call for room temperature butter that emulsifies beautifully into your batter.  But guess what?  If you use cold butter it will slowly melt while it cooks, caramelize, and create pockets of buttery goodness in your finished bread, much like pie crust.  It tastes like you have triple the amount of butter you actually have!

**There's no reason to use any flour other than white unless you want to make the bread healthy-ish and you have spelt or whole wheat flour on hand.  Your discretion, it won't affect the recipe one way or the other.