banana-chocolate cake

The smell of a cake baking in the oven is so comforting! Here is one of my personal favorite: banana-chocolate cake. What's even better? Well, you can have it, guilt-free! In this recipe, I substituted all of the oil for unsweetened applesauce, and as you can see, I got a delicious result!

I use unsweetened applesauce to substitute the fat in almost all my baked goods recipes, especially muffins and cakes. This allow to lower the fat content while keeping a moist and chewy texture. Try the recipe below and you'll see for yourself! It's a piece of cake to make! (sorry, I just HAD to use this expression! lol ;)

Banana-chocolate cake

12 servings

.
1 cup smashed bananas

2 eggs

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole-wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2/3 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Mix the bananas, eggs, applesauce, vanilla, and sugar in a bowl.
3. In another bowl, combine the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and chocolate chips.
4. Add the banana mixture to the dry ingredients and blend until moisten.
5. Pour in a cake pan.
6. Bake for 50 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Nutritional facts for 1 serving

(1/12 recipe)

175 calories, 4 g fat, 2 g saturated,

34 g carbs, 2.2 g fibers, 3.4 g protein

.

Compared to the original recipe, which used 1/2 cup oil

instead of the same quantity of unsweetened applesauce,

you save 75 calories and 8 g fat!!!

Enjoy! Mmmm!

PB&J sandwich

Is this picture bringing back memories from your childhood? In my opinion, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with slices of banana will definitely always have a place in my top 5 comfort food! However, my recipe has changed a little along the years. I now used whole grain bread to boost the fiber content. Also, I use natural peanut butter (PB). I confess that the first time I tasted it, I didn't like it much, but now I would never switch back to regular PB. After trying it a couple of times, I realized that natural PB is the one that really tastes like peanut. Actually, peanut is the one and only ingredient used to make it, unlike regular PB that also contains oil (often hydrogenated and loaded with trans fat as a result), sugar, and salt.... Why try to hide the delicious real taste of peanut under all these additives? If you feel like giving a try to natural PB, start with that beloved PB&J sandwich. Warning: you could soon become addicted to it...!

Nutrition Facts for 1 sandwich (2 slices WW bread, 2 tbsp natural PB, ½ banana, and ½ tbsp strawberry jam): 428 kcal, 18.5 g fat (3.1 g saturated fat), 52.2 g carbs, 7.5 g fibers, 14.1 g protein, 2.4 mg iron. My comment: This is perfect for breakfast or as lunch, or make half a sandwich for a satiating snack. Don't be afraid of the high fat content, since most of the fat is monounsaturated good-for-you fat from peanut butter. Moreover, it contains enough fiber and protein to fill you up for a couple of hours.