my friend Ruth showed Nhi and I a photo of chocolate covered banana bites on Instagram. The photo was posted up by Fitspiration_24 and they looked super delicious. I think these are such a simple and guilt-free sweet treat. I was so impressed with these that I had to make my own vegan version. I pulled up a recipe for raw vegan chocolate from the website The Veggie Nook and used their Raw Chocolate Recipe #2. It is vegan, raw, gluten-free, and refined sugar-free! These banana bites are a perfect treat to hit those sugar cravings on the head. Just remember that all things should be in moderation and even though these are a healthy option, don't over do it.
Vegan Chocolate and Nut Covered Banana Bites
Makes 10 Ingredients For the vegan chocolate (from The Veggie Nook):
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
2/3 cocoa powder
4 tablespoons maple syrup or agave nectar
Roasted nuts (you can used any you like, or you could coat them in unsweetened dessicated coconut)
Bananas cut into bite sized pieces (I used two small bananas)
Directions
Roast nuts in the oven or on a pan. Make sure you keep watch so that they don't burn. Once they have browned, then spread nuts out on a plate to let cool.
Combine all of the ingredients for the vegan chocolate in a bowl and mix.
Once the nuts have cooled, grind them using a mortar and pestle or in the food processor.
Using about a tablespoon of the chocolate, cover each banana piece and roll into a smooth ball in the palms of your hand (yes your hands will get messy, but these are super yummy so it's worth it)
Roll the ball into the ground nuts and place on a tray lined with baking paper.
Place tray into the refrigerator until the balls have hardened (at least 20 minutes).
I ground up almonds, pecans, hazelnuts and cashews separately and rolled the banana bites in each. I then put the respective nut on top of the banana bite so I could tell them apart :P
I have lost count of how many hot chocolate recipes I had made, but tonight I add another one to that list of goodness knows how many. This hot chocolate was definitely needed. I've had a busy week and today was my unwind day. Nothing better to wind down with on a winters night than a nice hot cup of cocoa. There were two separate recipes on the website Knitted Bliss for Banana Hot Chocolate and Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate, but I decided to combine the two flavours into one. I really love the banana-peanut butter flavour combination so this was great. I've made a chocolate banana and peanut butter smoothie before, but I've never tried it as a hot drink. Tastes good both hot or cold if you ask me. On a side note, my brother and I were watching some episodes of the TV show Friends today, and we watched the episode "The One With All The Resolutions". In this episode, Ross made a New Year's resolution to do something new each day. For the first time ever, I felt like my life was like a tv show because I'm doing something new just like Ross. One of Ross' new things was to wear a pair of leather pants. He got too hot wearing them and took them off in the bathroom of the girl he was on a date with. When he tried to get them back on, they wouldn't go up because either they shrunk or his "legs expanded" from the heat. It's a funny episode, as is every other episode of Friends.
Maybe my something new one day can be to wear a pair of leather pants. At least because it's winter, I won't get too sweaty in them :) Vegan Banana and Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate Serves 1
Ingredients
1 cup soy milk (I used vanilla soy milk)
1 tablespoon dutch processed cocoa powder
1/2 ripe banana
1 tablespoon peanut butter (crunch or smooth, and add more if you prefer)
Note: if you're using unsweetened soy (or other non-dairy) milk, then add 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence and 2 teaspoons of any sweetener. Directions
Blend the peanut butter and banana together with about 1/4 of the milk in a food processor.
Heat the remaining milk and the cocoa in a saucepan until hot.
Add the peanut butter and banana mixture and stir well to combine.
Pour into mug.
I suggest using a big mug just in case the hot chocolate is too thick for you. That way you can just add extra milk and not get any over flow. We must not waste any of the hot chocolate!!
I love fruit. I can't think of any fruit off the top of my head that I don't like. Of course there are days where I don't feel like eating a particular fruit, but there are those select few that I will always be in the mood for. Bananas for example are right up there on my list of favourites along with mango. I love that bananas are natures energy source and that they are so versatile. Even banana leaves are useful in cooking!! The banana tree is just all full of goodness from top to bottom. My mum loves bananas too and she came home yesterday with a nice big bunch of them. I was struggling to find something new to do today and I didn't have much time but I still opened up one of the vegan cookbooks I borrowed from the library called Now Vegan! by Lynda Stoner. I found a recipe for Banana, Sunflower and Pistachio Bread. I made a few changes to it so that it would be a sugar-free recipe and I didn't have a bread tin so I just made it into a square cake. The cake turned out nice and fluffy which I wasn't expecting because I used spelt flour which usually makes cakes more dense than normal flour. But I'm not complaining. This is a perfect little fruity sweet treat for breakfast, morning tea or dessert. Definitely pair it with a nice cup of whatever it is you enjoy be it tea, coffee or some other hot beverage. Vegan Banana, Apple, Pineapple, Sunflower and Pistachio Cake Ingredients
2 cups self raising flour (I used white spelt flour)
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/4 cup mixed spice
Directions
Preheat oven to moderate, 180 degrees C (350F)
Grease and line base of cake tin
Combine bananas, apple, pineapple and raisins in food processor and blend (you can leave your raisins whole if you like. I used raisins as a substitute for sugar which the original recipe called for)
Add margarine and and egg replacer and blend until combined.
Transfer to a mixing bowl and stir in the nuts and seeds.
Sift flour and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl. Add mixed spice and fold into the banana mixture.
Spoon into cake tin and bake for 1 hour or until skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool in tin for 15 minutes before turning onto wire rack to cool completely.
