Bitten by the Baking Bug

After deciding to give up meat one of the first questions I asked myself was what foods I could eat to get the protein and nutrients found in chicken and meat. Because as excited as I was to give up meat, almost every single dinner (and lunch) in my entire life before that point contained some form of beef or chicken. Blogs were a wonderful resource as they showed me vegetarian meals can be delicious and nutritious and filling. Probably my favorite blog for that purpose is Peas and Thank You. Every recipe is inventive, visually stunning, and most importantly, yummy. When I found out “Mama Pea” was releasing a cookbook, I pre-ordered straightaway.

What is so helpful about this book is that it has recipes for tacos and burgers and fajitas (all things I LOVE) but without the meat. You can get the same great taste, oftentimes with half the sodium and saturated fat. While almost every dinner recipe is dogeared (this is a well-loved book)  and on my to-do list it is the baking section that I immediately started pulling out the bowls and pans for.

There is something so comforting about the smell of bread baking or cookies cooling on the counter.  I’m learning to cook because I need to, I bake because I love to.

An instant favorite from the book was the chocolate chip banana bread recipe. If you don’t have the book she has an awesome recipe on her website for it here. My dad is big on banana bread, so much so that he ran to the store amidst flood warnings to get me bananas and chocolate chips to bake this. Now that’s the love of a father! (Or symptoms of a fellow baked goods addict. It runs in the family.)

I’ve found this recipe to be versatile in that you can add in (or sub) ingredients and it doesn’t ruin the recipe. Peas and Thank You is a vegan-focused blog, and while I totally support that, I love my dairy. I also love fruit, so for an extra serving of fruit I normally add some strawberries. They bring a little extra sweetness and a hint of tartness to the bread that plays off the bananas and chocolate so well. Unfortunately strawberries are going out of season and not tasting their best right now so I opted to leave them out of this bread.

As soon as the refrigerator door opens I have visitors. Meet Andy, a three-year-old cockapoo who loves long walks, chasing bunnies, and being held like a baby. Because he is one, seriously.

Where Andy is more of a quiet food investigator, he might nudge you for some food or rest his head in your lap and give you big puppy eyes while you eat, Bailey is a full-on beggar. Also a cockapoo, she’s four-years-old and loves food, attention, and lots and lots of belly-rubs.

For their efforts (and total cuteness) I gave them each a little piece of banana. They then proceeded to follow me around watching the floor hoping I dropped something.

Unfortunately for them the dry ingredients all made it into a bowl, and the wet ingredients into the blender. How cool is this KitchenAid? Diane (my step-mom) got it from her mom who got it as a wedding present in the 50’s. And it still runs like new! I love it and can’t wait to have my own!

After mixing the dry and wet ingredients together it was chocolate chip time! The recipe calls for 1/3 a cup, I do a 1/2 cup and consider this the perfect amount. You can never have too much chocolate!

Mmm. My favorite step, batter-tasting time! 😀 No eggs in the recipe= hakuna matata! And this is by far the tastiest batter I have ever eaten. Its so tempting to ditch the bread pan and whip out a spoon at this point.

All ready for the oven!

Proud of my self-control while prepping the ingredients for the bread, I use the time while the bread is baking to treat myself to the leftover batter. Yum!

Thirty-five minutes later the bread is done and the entire house smells like warm bananas and melted chocolate chips.

After it finished cooling I set it on a plate for my family to enjoy. Safely out of reach of puppy paws I packed up half for my weekend trip to Josh’s (my boyfriend). Two days later our half is gone, and judging by my dad’s excitement while this was baking I don’t think there will be much (if any) left when I head home tomorrow.

That’s all the encouragement I need to get baking again! 🙂