Pit Paste and Not as Good as Amanda’s Banana Muffins

It’s Tasty Tuesday and it’s a good thing I’m a runner. Otherwise I might need therapy 😉
It’s been a rough week and I feel like I’m living the lyrics of two Bob Dylan songs. A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall and The Times They are A Changin’. Thankfully I’m recovering and my life is moving in the A Changin’ direction 😉

Through the craziness came a hilarious voice mail from my friend Christina who lives in Phoenix: “I’m making the Mexican Mountain off the blog, and I didn’t have nutritional yeast so I was just going to use rapid rise bread yeast, but I decided that maybe that wasn’t a good idea and left it out all together” Blah ha ha! (I did call her, and told her that yes, bread yeast in the recipe wouldn’t have been terribly tasty). Happy Birthday on Sunday Christina!!! Love your guts!

Another good one is that after emailing out the awesomest Scott Jurek article ever from Runner’s World, Eat Vegan and Run to my brother Curtis, I get a text this morning: “Toying w/ plant based diet. What is your opinion on nutritional yeast? Do you use TVP? “ I never thought I would grin ear to ear so much over the words TVP and Nutritional Yeast. Okay so really it was the “plant-based diet” words that made me grin, but they always do….Speaking of plant-based diet,  I’m participating in an awesome Virtual Vegan Potluck on Saturday. Come join me?

Here are some other things that have made me grin: making my own deodorant. Yup, you heard me, but I’m not joining the stinky club, thank you very much, in fact, my husband says the deodorant smells like cake frosting. Thanks to the ladies and mysisterspantry.wordpress.com and Annie at anunrefinedvegan.com for inspiring me to finally ditch Secret (the antiperspirant) and the possibility of aluminum neurotoxicity. Did I mention that when I shaved my under-arms this week, it was the first time I can remember not having to battle with the leftover waxy residue? Radical. This is adapted from these recipes here and here. Use quality therapeutic grade essential oils. You don’t want to use the ‘aromatic only’ grade on your body.

Somer’s Pit Paste

6 T. Arrowroot or Cornstarch

2 T. Baking Soda

2-3 T. Melted Coconut Oil, I used virgin coconut oil, hence the cake frosting smell

10 drops rose hip oil (optional, but very nice and healing to freshly shaved pits)

10 drops melaleuca essential oil (antibacterial, antiseptic)

10 drops eucalyptus (antibacterial)

10 drops lavender essential oil (anti-fungal, antimicrobial, calming)

5 drops wild orange essential oil (antiseptic, plus it just smells delicious)

 1 drop peppermint oil (antibacterial and antiseptic)

Method: Gently melt coconut oil on stove-top in small sauce pan. How much you will want to use depends on how solid you want your deodorant. Remove from heat. Add arrowroot and baking soda, then add essential oils and rose hip oil. I put mine in a little glass mason jar, but my husband wanted his in his old deodorant container, so of course I obliged. Put it in the fridge to firm it up before use. Now we both smell like cake frosting. Mmmm.

Update: This does not store well in a deodorant container when your house temperature is above 72 degrees. It will get all melty, so probably best to keep it in a glass jar. You could also attempt to up the arrowroot and baking soda, let me know if you have success with that if you try it.

Things that make me grin part 2: Amanda and I having parallel lives. Now I have to promise Amanda that I really don’t have a hidden camera at her house and that I’m not stalking her, despite our both making deodorant on the same day, reading Scott Jurek articles on the same day (her’s was in Outside Magazine) and making Banana Muffins on the same day. I don’t make these often because we eat all the bananas all up before they get nice and spotty despite how many bunches I purchase. 6 bunches and warmer weather this week did the trick.  I am sure Amanda’s are much tastier with the double chocolate thing and all, but you may find these noteworthy too…

Somer’s  Oil Free Vegan Banana Muffins

4-5 ripe bananas

2 T. ground flax-seed

1.5 C. unsweetened almond or soy milk

3 T. lemon juice

1 C. Raw Sugar (you can reduce this by half if you are really trying to bust sugar in your house)

1 T. vanilla extract

3 C. white whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour

2 t. baking soda

1 t. kosher salt

Method: Combine Bananas, almond milk, lemon, vanilla and raw sugar in the blender until smooth. Mix remaining dry ingredients in a bowl with a wire whisk. Stir in liquid banana goodness until just combined. Measure out by 1/4 C. into cupcake tin lined with paper baking cups. We add chocolate chips to some, dried cranberries to others and leave the rest plain to suit all our family preferences. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes. Makes 24 muffins.

 More Grins: Carolyn coming over today bringing me some sunshine and goodies from Chef AJ’s Unprocessed Cookbook. Oh man on man, Banana Strawberry Mousse Tart (Raw) and Disappearing Lasagna. Yes, Carolyn I polished them both ALL OFF after you left and did not share any with my children. They can have the Not as Good as Amanda’s Banana Muffins! She also brought me an amazing fancy Cookbook Binder thingy in which to store all my new plant-based recipes. How did she know that’s exactly what I needed?!?!?

 

Even More Grins: Winning 1st place in the Church Salsa Contest on Cinco De Mayo with the In a Minute Blender Salsa, yes, it really is that easy, and shhh, they really were canned tomatoes.

And Last but Not Least Grins: Another big thank you to the ladies at mysisterspantry for nominating the blog for a Sunshine Award. I’m not even sure what the heck that means, and should probably put some effort into figuring it out, but it made my day and thanks are seriously belated!