Kitchen Magic – Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

I have always enjoyed banana bread, but I could never find any that didn’t include walnuts. I’m not a big fan of nuts, go figure, and I always ended up picking out each nut. Yes, I despise them that much. Anyways, last week I went a little overboard and bought around 2kg of bananas. My partner and I definitely couldn’t eat that many bananas before they went bad, so I made some banana bread without nuts and cinnamon to accommodate my and my partner’s preferences.

You will need:

• 3 overripe bananas
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 milk cup (Any milk will work, but I used low fat milk)
• Semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used 1 cup, but 1/2- 2/3 is probably more reasonable)
• 2 cups flour of your choice
• 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (Omit or use half depending on your preferences)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (I prefer pink Himalayan salt)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

Add the vinegar to the milk and set aside for a few minutes. Place the bananas in a bowl and mash them. You can leave it chunky or mash them until smooth. Mix in the vanilla, salt, sugar, milk and coconut oil into the bananas and mix until everything is combined well. It took me about 2 minutes of mixing. Add the flour and baking soda and mix until it is just combined. Now add you chocolate chips. Pour into a greased pan, I used a 9×9 cake pan, and bake on 190ºC for 35 minutes or until set in the middle.

Kitchen magic doesn’t have to be elaborate or take up a lot of your time. It’s about nourishing your body, feeding your soul and adding a magical touch to something that may seem mundane. I like to think about what each ingredient means and how they will work together.

• Bananas – Luck, love
• Sugar – Sweetness, love
• Milk – Nourishment
• Choclate – Love, prosperity
• Coconut oil – Feminine energies
• Vanilla extract – Joy, love, luck
• Salt – Purification
• Baking soda – Rising energy
• Apple cider vinegar – Healing
• Flour – Consistency. I also see it as bringing everything together and combining the energy of each ingredient.

For this recipe I found that each ingredient was well balanced, even with the overload of chocolate chips because I needed that sweetness during my moon cycle and the goddess knew. It also brought more of a feeling of home to our apartment. The lingering scent of baked bread in the air made us feel cozy and warm long into the evening. It was a subtle reminder of how simple foods can change our emotions for the better.