cooking ala mel

Whole Wheat Banana Nut Yeast Bread

March 14, 2013

So.. banana nut bread. Delicious, right? But what about if we made it into an actual yeast bread instead of a quick bread? Fluffy, soft, and perfect to eat as toast. Sounds great, right?! I had some overly ripe bananas, and I didn’t really want to make a regular old banana bread, so I decided to give this a try. It turned out soo well. It’ll definitely be in heavy rotation in this kitchen – although we don’t often get super ripe bananas, since I eat them fairly quickly. I usually have to buy extras with the intent of freezing them for smoothies/using for banana bread.

This bread is subtly banana flavored, with a nutty walnut crunch just like in the quick bread. I loved this toasted and slathered with coconut oil and honey for a sweet snack in the afternoon. It’s also great spread with nut butter for breakfast. I can imagine it’d make great french toast as well.. oh man.
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Moisturizing Coconut-Vanilla Body Scrub

March 11, 2013

Is it just me, or does your skin get all rough and cracked during the winter months, too? The amount of lotion I go through is kind of ridiculous, and I still haven’t found one I’m really happy with. I’ve tried straight up Aquaphor, but it’s too greasy, so I have to wear gloves and wear it strictly to bed. Neutrogena’s Swiss formula is alright, but it’s also a bit greasy feeling (I hate that). General moisturizing lotions are alright, but the super smelly ones especially hurt my cracked skin, and I don’t really like the neutral scents (there is totally no such thing as unscented). I’ve seen tons of recipes for homemade kitchen scrubs and the like out there, but I thought they might be too drying. Then, I got to try out Natural Vitality’s Natural Calm Sports Bath – a combination of magnesium and Redmond mineral sea salt – and I figured I might as well give a scrub a try with the extra calming factor from the magnesium. Um, guys.. I can’t believe I never gave scrubs a try before.

While the salt burned a little bit on my cracked hands, the lushness of my skin afterwards was absolutely amazing. If you let your hands get super dry like I do (since I kind of really hate greasy lotions), be aware that it will burn at first, but not too badly. I recommend not letting your skin get to that point, ha. The scrub is pretty basic, to keep things as natural as possible: coarse vanilla sugar, Natural Calm Sports Bath, and coconut oil. The sugar helps to exfoliate, the Natural Calm Sports Bath pulls toxins out, exfoliates, and allows for minerals to be absorbed through the skin (for a stress relieving experience), and the coconut oil moisturizes and soothes dry skin.

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Raw Chocolate Cheesecake

March 9, 2013

Woo! I am officially on spring break. This means that yesterday, I totally overhauled and reorganized our kitchen cabinets that were really starting to drive me mad, and I also went on a big shopping trip to restock. Nothing starts out a break better than a clean kitchen and a fully stocked fridge and pantry. And then Alex took me to the liquor store to stock up on more wine.. we are set for a while, I’d say.

One thing I got yesterday while out shopping was lots and lots of zucchini. Why? That’s what the cheesecake part of this raw chocolate cheesecake is made of. And oooh, is it good. I was a bit nervous originally about the zucchini, but it creates such a smooth texture, and no zucchini taste is apparent (not that zucchini itself has that much flavor). Add in the nutty, slightly salty crust, and you’ve got yourself the perfect chocolate dessert – one that is much, much better for you than, say, cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory (but just as tasty).
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