buckets strawberries and bananas in goodbad treats

I've been craving buckets of fruit to counteract the chilly winter this year. Last week I defrosted some strawberries and pureed them into my pancake mix (of which I use the Artisanal Gluten Free Cooking's recipe)

 I usually add chocolate to my pancakes but had the strawberry idea after a tasty batch of strawberry whoopie pies.

 They were sooo pretty in our new blue pan.

 I'm not sure why but in my mind strawberry pancakes scream out for a bit of coconut- which may get added to the batter in the next batch. These were wonderful and provided a great start to my ski day that also featured 10" of fluffy light snow.

A few days later life as we know it has become bananas- it's been building for a long while but has hit hard this week. It's a challenging time and I'm not ready to go into details but let's just say that my need for chocolate, comfort foods and stressful snacking have hit in full force.

I've also come to realize that when things go bad I have a need to plan and I need action. I can't sit around and dwell as it drives me crazy and I easily get sucked into the land of immobilization.
At this point the only thing I can control is the kitchen and playtime with the pups. My bucket of "things I can't control" is pretty enormous so I'm trying to focus on the other buckets- like the fruity ones...

So I'm trying to make my snacks "good-bad" as my friend Carol would say. A good snack that is a bit bad as well and really hits the spot. I hit both extremes during stress- I forget to eat or I binge. At least these two treats provide some much needed good things in addition to fulfilling my bad cravings.  

Plus Chaos and Mayhem are happy that these treats aren't energy zappers so we can get our much needed walks in during this stressful phase- I've even managed to sneak in a bit more playtime as I need the time outside more then them these days. 

Chocolate covered bananas

Chocolate Covered Bananas
Slice desired amount of bananas into desired pieces. I did 3 whole, peeled bananas into 3 even sections.
Freeze and forget until chilled
Melt one cup Chocolate chips in a small dish- be sure that your sizing allows for good banana dipping. That's why I like small banana sections.
Quickly coat chilly bananas in chocolate, one at a time and shake off excess chocolate. Dress as needed with candy or coconut. The chilly bananas will set the chocolate very quickly
If desired melt 1 cup white chocolate chips and re-dip bananas
Let the bananas chill again then wrap, store in freezer. Enjoy as needed.

banana bread

Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips redone from my 2009 version- so much better

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix Dry stuff in one bowl

2 cups GF Artisan flour blend this blend is enjoyed best by both me and my gluten-eating friends

1 tsp baking soda

.25 tsp salt

1 tsp xantham gum

In mixer (or by hand in second bowl)

1/2 Cup Butter or Earth's Balance (wait- don't throw wrapper away)

3/4 cup brown sugar

Blend together

Add

2 Eggs

3 over ripe bananas- I like mine to blend into the mix versus large chunks

Blend well

Add dry stuff and stir enough to mix and moisten dry with wet in small batches

Use butter wrapper to grease 9x5 loaf pan 8x8 Pyrex dish 

(this works best for me at 9,000 feet above sea level)

bake for 60 minutes until toothpick comes out clean

Cool in pan and slice and serve as needed

You can also stir in chocolate chips for a bit of flair

I also realized during this late night post that dinner had been forgotten so I snacked on a chocolate covered banana to carry me through the night.