Banana & Coconut Loaf

First up, apologies for the shoddy quality of these pictures - they were taken in a hurry on my phone, but trust me, look past the graininess and run with me on this one; it's possibly the best cup of tea accompaniment in the world.

It's clean, comforting and sweet enough to satisfy your cravings, making it an ideal snack and pick me up for winter's arrival. 

To make 10 slices, you'll need;

• 2 free range eggs
• 2 ripe, mashed bananas
• 50g raisins 
• 20g dates (about 4 dates)
• 50g cashew nuts
• 20g Meridian 100% peanut butter
• 55g ground almonds
• 30g oats
• 1 tablespoon organic coconut oil
• Desiccated coconut to sprinkle on top

You could easily swap out the cashews for pecans / almonds / a nut of your choice, and the raisins for other dried fruit - I was just using what I had in the cupboard.

Pre-heat the oven to 180.

Crush your cashew nuts (or lightly chop them, depending on how chunky you want your pieces), and mix with chopped raisins and dates. 

In a mixing bowl, add this mixture to your bananas, eggs, ground almonds, oats, coconut oil and peanut butter. Mix the batter until everything is blended.

Line a baking tin with coconut oil, and pour your mixture in. Sprinkle your coconut (lavishly) on top. 

Cook in the oven for 20 minutes. The outside should be crisp and golden, the inside moist and cakey. 

It's the nicest alternative to cake I've tried so far!

PS - this recipe is really similar to the oat and peanut butter bars I made last week - it's the ground almonds in this that give it its cake texture.

Clean Oat & Peanut Butter Bake Bar

Two of my nearest and dearest, Anna & Hannah, are keen oat / quinoa / breakfast-bar bake queens, and on Sunday I fancied making a batch myself for snacking on throughout the week, or as a quick-fix breakfast to take to work with me.

They turned out preetty d-lish, especially for a first go when I wasn't paying too much attention to quantities...

I used;

• 2 x handful cashew nuts
• 1 x handful pitted dates
• 2 x handful raisins 
• 2 x tablespoons peanut butter (I use Meridian 100%) 
• 50g oats (or there abouts...)
• 1 banana (mashed)
• 2 x tea spoons raw coconut oil (I use Biona) 
• 2 x eggs 

1. Chop up your cashew nuts, dates and raisins, as finely as you can be bothered to (you could use a blender but I wanted mine quite chunky). 

2. In a mixing bowl, combine the chopped cashew, dates and raisins with coconut oil and 'massage' with your hands. 

3. Then add your eggs, oats, PB and mashed banana.

4. Spread the mixture into a baking tin and put in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes until crisp and golden brown.

It tasted really nice warm (I couldn't wait until it had cooled down), but it was also lush with a cup of tea in work this afternoon. When you get a mouthful of unexpected peanut butter it's literally like heaven...

Now the rest of them are just waiting for me in the fridge.. it's torture!

What's your favourite oat bake? 

Fit Feast: baked egg & avocado

I saw this article on Buzzfeed the other day and was drawn to the avocado and egg combo. So, today I thought  I'd try it out to see what all the hype is about.

It's the perfect post-gym snack: eggs are packed with protein and avocado is full of good fats, vitamin K and fibre.

To make it just the right size for one person, you'll need just two things (pretty self explanatory really):

• 1 egg


• An avocado

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.

Chop your avocado in half and scoop out the pip. Take a teaspoon and carve out a little more to make room for all that yolk.



Place your avocado half (or halves, depending on how many you're making) on a baking tray - don't try and crack your egg into them before hand.. moving runny raw egg from chopping board to baking tray is tricky, sticky and poses too much danger potential!

Crack your egg and let the yolk fall where the pip once was.



Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the white has set.

Enjoy!





It's really nice, perfect if you fancy something quick, easy and healthy to eat. The avocado was still a little bit hard on mine so you might want to leave yours in a little more towards the 20 minute mark - but this'll depend on how big your 'cado is.