What a weekend! I cannot believe that it went from mostly all snow melting to 1 foot of snow and all covered up!
Ryan spent enough time this morning shoveling snow in order for him to get to school on time and I spent an hour finishing the other part. I found out my gym was closed today due to the weather so I thought, what a better way to exercise? Wow, the snow was light but it was packed in! A foot of snow looks so different from a far, but all I can say that it is done!
My voice came back in time this past weekend in order for me sing with the Holland Chorale. It was a fantastic performance! I was working in increments, or at least my voice was, since I finally got my high notes back the day of performance. It is incredible the amount of warming up the voice needs after being sick and on vocal rest after 2 weeks.
I am just happy that I was finally able to sing. I learned so much about myself in the last week and a half. I love singing and I cannot do without it. I was told that I was not going to be able to sing or that I should not sing for the performance since I was dealing with a bit of laryngitis but it was pretty much cleared by.Saturday. Thank God! I was drinking ginger teas and lotd of warm beverages and slightly warming up my voice. All in all, I was super thankful to be able to contribute to the performance.
We finally arrived home after a couple of day and truly had a restful Sunday. Sometimes it is hard to realize that Sunday IS a day of rest so we actually rested. I prepared a bit for the week and decided to bake. There is nothing like baking after a week off. I have been mostly cooking lately and resting from all the baking but I noticed some dark bananas that called my name. I really had a hard time trying to think of something different to make with them.
I finally came around to a site called Omnomicon featuring Banana Split Blondies. They looked very intriguing and easy to veganize. While I decided to change the recipe around I made sure I read the comments to see if anyone had anything to say about the results. There were several people that let the author know that her recipe did not really come out like blondies. I was not dissuaded. I still wanted to see how they came out.
The result of my veganized and adapted version came out to be more like a cake, bar, and blondie,all in one, What is a person supposed to name a recipe that is a bit like the three? I asked some people on my Facebook page and got some funny responses. Cablondie? Blake? Cacophony bars? It was realy humorous.
I finally decided to go with Ryan’s suggestion, calling it a Banana Jazz Bar. It is a bar and it is jazzed up with crushed peanuts, lots of bananas, and my favorite, dark chocolate chips! These bars came out very moist and made the house smell delicious. Ryan said he loved the smell of baked goods with bananas. You will really need to try this! It is a keeper and different than your all-around banana bread. Enjoy!
Banana Jazz Bars
print recipe
makes 12 bars
½ cup Earth Balance margarine (1 stick), softened
⅔ cup palm sugar
⅓ cup maple syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 very ripe bananas, mashed
1 flax “egg” (1 Tbsp flax seed meal + 3 Tbsp water)
2 cups Bob’s Red Mill whole wheat white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ cup Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips
½ cup chopped peanuts
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a mixer, cream margarine and sugars, then add vanilla, mashed bananas and flax “egg”.
In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking powder. Add to the banana mix and stir until well combined.
Stir in chocolate chips and peanuts.
Spread into well-greased 9×13 glass pan. Bake 35 minutes, and allow to cool completely before cutting. Cut into 12 squares and enjoy with a glass of almond or coconut milk!
