I was famous for my banana bread and then how I learned to make it to accommodate my family’s food issues.

I am famous for my Banana Chocolate Chip muffins. Well famous in a small part of the world, like my kids’ elementary school where I used to make them in miniature form for every classroom party. As the years went on there was a push to have less sugar at these school parties, which I pretty much agreed with. But I just couldn’t stop bringing the muffins because everyone expected them. My kids have been out of elementary school for years and I’m sure the parties are probably all fresh fruit and vegetables now.

My 18-year-old son, who was diagnosed with Celiac last year, has 2 muffins and some fruit and calls it breakfast every morning. It’s convenient because if he’s running late, they are portable and he can just eat them in the car.

The muffins I had perfected during the elementary school days had to be altered over the years due to dietary issues. Originally it was dairy free because of my younger son’s dairy allergy but it still had gluten and eggs. And sugar. I have tried over the years to sneak in healthier things like flax seeds, whole wheat flour, and oats. I replaced the eggs when my son couldn’t eat eggs for while, and I think I even made them without sugar at one point. Needless to say, none of these versions went over too well and the favored classic remained.

But then last year I had no choice but to begin making them gluten free because Jonah could no longer eat gluten, but still wanted muffins for breakfast.

Let’s backtrack a little, I am no stranger to special diets. Even though Lowell can now eat gluten, he had many allergies when he was younger and we tried several different diets over the years to address his Crohn’s. One year he didn’t eat dairy, gluten, eggs, soy, or nuts. For the whole year. It took a lot of planning and cooking and searching the internet for recipes. That was 5 years ago and it is a lot easier today. Alternative products are available everywhere these days. There are whole restaurants and bakeries that don’t have gluten, dairy or eggs. Our current favorite LA restaurant that is vegan and gluten accommodating is Gracias Madre. Our favorite gluten free and vegan bakeries are Rising Hearts for great gf breads, bagels, and pizza crusts and Erin Mckennas Bakery for the best donuts, cookies and cupcakes. Life is so much easier now for people with food restrictions or people who just don’t want to eat certain things. Look out for a future post about real food allergies (I’m talking anaphylactic) and people with Celiac versus people who just say they are allergic to stuff because they don’t like it.

Anyway, back to me being famous for muffins. I still make them at home and for family and friends but mostly for Jonah’s breakfast. Here is the recipe. If you remember in my last recipe post, I talked about my recipes being open to changes and alterations by the cook, so feel free to experiment. I don’t add nuts, only chocolate chips, but you could add nuts, coconut, or any other yummy addition!

Jonah’s Breakfast Banana Bread

2 cups of Gluten Free Flour (I use either Bob’s Red Mill All purpose Gluten Free Flour Mix or the Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Gluten Free Flour. If you us the All Purpose you need to also add 1sp of xanthan gum but the 1 to 1 already has it in the mix. Lately I have been using Authentic Foods Brand Multi Blend GF flour)

1 ½ tsp Baking Powder

½ tsp Baking Soda

½ tsp salt

2 eggs

½ cup oil (canola or grape seed)

¾ cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp orange juice or lemon juice

2–3 large very rip bananas mashed

½–1 cup chocolate chips to your tastes

Preheat oven to 350

Line muffin pan with paper cupcake liners

You can also make mini muffins or one large loaf. In which case grease a loaf pan

Whisk dry ingredients together

Beat eggs then add sugar, oil, juice and vanilla

Mash bananas well and add to wet ingredients and mix well.

Add dry ingredients to wet and mix

Fold in desired amount of chocolate chips.

Pour into prepared pan.

Bake Muffins for 15–18 minutes, rotating pan halfway through and checking for doneness. Bake loaf for 45–50 minutes, rotating pan half way through. My oven does not always cook things evenly so that is why I rotate

I make a batch of muffins almost every week and I freeze them once they are cooled down and then Jonah defrosts in the morning.

Jonah is going to college in September and I imagine myself shipping him the muffins once in while mostly because I will miss making them for him. I imagine he won’t mind these care packages.