Let them eat cake... or in this case bread!

I LOVE bread! Honestly, I love bread in almost any form possible.  Wheat bread, yum! Baguettes, yum! Rolls, yum! Bagels, yum! You get the hint.  Take bread, add more yummy ingredients, and remove some of the processed stuff and I'm drooling!

Today's adventure in the kitchen was making a banana raspberry bread without so much sugar.  While I will ALWAYS eat chocolate, because seriously who could give that up, I want to limit my refined sugar intake.  I have to stay, it smells and tastes delicious.  It's not a light and airy as those boxed quick breads but I think it's much better for you.

I started with three very ripe bananas and 1 1/2 cups of frozen raspberries.  You can use fresh raspberries, I just prefer how the frozen ones mash.  While mashing those I put just under 3 cups of old-fashioned oats in my blender and turned it on
low for several minutes.  I also subbed honey for the brown sugar and unsweetened applesauce for the eggs.  After adding all the ingredients to one bowl, I mixed them up and added them to the bread pan.  Baked it at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes and now have a bread I wish I didn't have to share.

Chocolate Raspberry Banana Oatmeal Bread

Ingredients

3 cups of old-fashioned oats

3 very ripe bananas

1 1/2 cups raspberries

1 1/2 teaspoons baking power

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 cup apple sauce

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x5 loaf pan.  

Make oat flour but placing 3 cups of oats in blender and blending until it resembles flour.  While the oats are blending mash the bananas and raspberries in a medium to large mixing bowl.  

To the banana and raspberry mash add 2 cups of the oat flour (there will be a little extra which you can put aside for another use) and all other ingredients.  Mix well and add to the loaf pan.  Does anyone really want to mix all the wet ingredients in one bowl, all the dry ingredients in another, and blend slowly if they don't have to?  Plus, who wants more than 1 dirty bowl to wash?

Bake for 35-40 minutes and done! Now let it cool.  Seriously, this step sucks but is a must if you don't want it to get stuck to the bottom of the pan, burn your fingers, or burn your mouth.

Eat, Drink, and be Merry!

The ten days we spent in England and France were simply amazing! There were so many things to see, do, and of course taste.  My favorite thing was probably the food. Between the street vendors, the bakeries, picnicking, and the amazing restaurants my taste buds were rejoicing! There were dishes that with a single bite hugged you and made you feel at home as well as some that the blend of flavors danced across your tongue with every bite.  Every dining experience was different and most were amazing.

Enjoying his first
 cask beer

When we landed in London we didn't have anything planned besides what train we were catching to head to Paris, to have lunch in London, and dinner in Paris.  We got of the tube, explored a bit, and stopped into a cute little pub for a pint of cask beer and some fish and chips.  While it was okay it wasn't great.That evening after settling into our flat we walked around Montmartre, Paris and walked into a restaurant when we started to get hungry.  Again, the food wasn't awful, it just wasn't good.  The service was rushed and cold and it wasn't at all what I was expecting.  I thought the dining experience in France was supposed to be slow paced, enjoying your food, wine, and company of those with you not fast paced and pushing you out the door before you even swallowed the last sip of wine.  This was when we decided no more just walking into restaurants in touristy areas.  We would do a little homework if you will before picking out the next restaurant.

Bakery breakfast at
Jardin des Halles

That night we found a little bakery with rave reviews to try out the next morning, it was Boulangerie Julien a Paris.  The croissants and quiche were divine.   The croissant melted in your mouth and had such a light, airy, and buttery taste.  It didn't need anything with it, it tasted wonderful.  The quiche was just as tasty with each of it's ingredients blending perfectly.  We ordered our croissants and quiche and walked a couple blocks to Jardin des Halles and enjoyed our breakfast. Even the baguette was delicious all on it's own. They had sandwiches that were also wonderful! We enjoyed a couple of those during our time in Paris too.


Almost as good as the bakeries were the street vendors that sell crepes.  Mmm, my favorite were the banana and Nutella crepes.  Just watching them spread out the batter, then spread on the Nutella, and slice the banana made my mouth water.  The Nutella was always so warm and melted and the banana was never cold but also not hot.  They have it down to a science.  I enjoyed the first one so much that I "forgot" to share it until there was only one or two bites left, oops!

While our first day was off to a shaky start dining wise the rest of our time was filled with wonderful foods! I highly recommend doing a little research to find some great bakeries but also enjoy a little spontaneity. We popped into a couple other small bakeries and were never disappointed but the baguettes at Boulangerie Julien a Paris were my favorite.  We randomly selected where to stop for crepes and while they weren't all the same they were all good but some made me feel warm and at home.