Yes, monkey, this is seriously good banana bread!

When it comes to food, as a diabetic, I have often felt frustrated by my bodies inability to play nice with most grains and starchy foods. The first few years after my diagnosis, I just chose to ignore the consequences and pretty much ate what I want when I wanted it. Getting pregnant forced me to behave like the adult I am and take my health more seriously, and now that the kidlet has fully entrenched herself in the guest room and I have examples to be setting, I find myself embracing whole foods. We are trying to embrace a 'traditional' way of eating here. Think of how your great-grandparents ate and you get the idea. Eggs from free chickens, RAW dairy from happy cows (haven't found that in Norway due to it being illegal), fresh local produce when possible, soaking grains, bone broths, ect. Fun pioneer stuff like that. On top of that mission, the dysfunctioning pancreas makes it necessary to try and find low glycemic alternatives to starchy carbs. Enter coconut flour! My experimentation with coconut flour continues and I think this may be my favorite recipe yet. Who doesn't love a good banana bread? This one set up great and came out moist and delicious. As a bonus, it's gluten free, grain free and sugar free. What's not to love? Start with some over ripe bananas:

Mash them with a fork and too the bananas add FOUR (4) eggs and 1/4 cup melted butter or organic virgin coconut oil. Look at those gorgeous orange yolks:

Then add your sweetner:
I use erythryitol. It's derived from melons, pears and other fruits and is essentially a sugar alcohol, but I haven't had any trouble downstairs because of it! Seems safe, but your mileage my vary.
In a separate bowl combine 3/4 cup of coconut flour with 1/2 a teaspoon of salt, baking powder and baking soda and then dump it in your sweet, eggy banana mixture:

Coconut flour has a lovely mellow coconutty smell. Not overwhelming and pina colada-y. It also is super absorbant and you only need a fraction of it compared to regular flour.
I know it's not really a traditional ingredient of banana bread, but I had these gorgeous dried ranier and bing cherries, so I tossed them in:

And of course the nuts! The glorious wlanuts:

Mix it all together and pour it into a greased baking dish. I felt more comfortable using a dish rather than a bread pan, but you can try what you want. Put it in a 350 (180 c) oven and cook until a knife inserted comes out cleanly. Hopefully, you will have an end result that looks something like this:
Shockingly, some of the BEST banana bread I have ever had. I cannot tell the difference between the coconut flour and the regular flour. Try it! You'll LOVE it!!

Cupcakes for the princess

It was my girl's first birthday, so what's the mommy to an only child supposed to do? Why, spend hours individually decorating 24 cupcakes, of course!
I always use the Magnolia Bakery cupcake recipe. It's easy and always turns out well. For these cupcakes, I used my new Wilton cake decorating color kit. The vibrancy of the colors was just astounding! These were technicolor cupcakes. Cupcakes on crack. It was awesome mixing colors, not knowing what I was going to come up with, it felt a little Willy Wonka-ish.

I had a great time up until cupcake number 18, by then I just wished I had done normal, plain frosting, but I felt guilty leaving the remaining 6 naked. So, I pressed on. The husband said they didn't look real and that all of my Norwegian guests would be afraid to eat them because they were so pretty. I don't care how pretty they are, NEVER pass up the opportunity for a cupcake. In the end, he was right. There was a lot of oohing and ahhing and asking 'Er det ekte??' Which is 'Are they real??', but there was NO hesitation in eating them. In the end, we gobbled them all up, every last sugary, colorful bite. Enjoy!