Sugar Free Food - Healthy Moist Banana Bread with Oats and Almond Flour

I started practicing yoga in 2020 and interestingly my food habits and attitude towards food has changed over the years. From an all night long video gaming & netflix binge watching with Mcdonalds burgers for food type of lifestyle – today I am motivating myself and people around me to live a Sugar free, Processed Food free, Meat Free and Whole Plant Based food lifestyle as much as possible. I don’t believe in fanaticism and am a big believer in the 20/80 principle i.e. by making 20% efforts and changes in your current lifestyle you can have 80% of the benefits. No need to compare yourself to me or anyone – rather look at yourself and your lifestyle and see where you will be 6 months down the line.

Once every few months I do a Sugar Free Diet for 30 Days where I avoid all processed sugar (white sugar/brown sugar/honey/jaggery), juices of all types, white rice and fine flour. Currently it is going on and we have more than 20 people from the Hub of Yoga Community who are doing this with me and Karolina. Catch is I allow myself to have as much fruits and vegetables as I want. Instead of white rice I switch to buckwheat/brown rice/red rice and from fine flour to oats flour/almond flour/millet flour. The first time I did this was very challenging as I have a bit of a sweet tooth – since those days my sugar addiction is totally over and now I rarely eat outside as I enjoy my own cooking way too much. These challenges have become so much easier now!

"If you can control your stomach you can control your mind"

During my sugar free diet – I eat a lot of food and a LOT of sweets – just not from processed sugars. Today I am going to share one of my favorite foods that I eat during the challenge and otherwise as well. I present to you Sugar Free and super easy to make Healthy Banana bread from oats and almond flour.

What you need

1 Egg or use a ripe banana for the Vegan version

¼ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoon chia seeds

1 cup yogurt (sugar free) or use a ripe banana for the Vegan version

Half cup coconut/olive oil

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

4 to 5 ripe bananas

175 g oats (grind to oat flour)

50 grams almond flour

2 to 3 teaspoons cinnamon powder (grind fresh if possible)

2 to 3 teaspoons cacao powder

½ teaspoon sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)

Lets Get Started

Take an egg a pinch of salt and mix them nicely. Alternatively for the Vegan version that I have perfected – just use an over riper banana (completely black on the skin and mushy inside)
Add in a couple of Tablespoons of Chia.
Add a cup of sugar free curd or yogurt (use another overripe banana for vegan version), half a cup of coconut/olive oil, a teaspoon of vanilla essence and mix nicely.
Add in 4 to 5 ripe bananas (the more the better) and grind/mash the bananas in. These are your wet ingredients
Now use your grinder to crush about 175 grams of oats and then mix in a few teaspoons of cinnamon, half a teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate, 50 grams of almonds flour and mix the dry ingredients nicely.
Add the Dry into wet ingredients and add a couple of handfuls of broken walnuts/roasted almonds/seeds of any kind you have.
Mix nicely
Preheat the oven to ~ 180 degrees Celsius.
While the oven is getting warm pour your mixture into a baking tin. I usually cover the tin with baking paper and pour my ingredients in.
Dress the top surface with almond flakes or oats and cinnamon powder.
Bake for about 55 to 60 minutes at ~ 180 degrees Celsius.
Once baked let it cool down to room temperature.
Slice it and eat it directly or with some fruits on top

Happy Baking and happy eating. If you feel the need to make it more sweet you can add in a handful of additional dates or dried figs/raisins to the bananas in the wet ingredients. The recipe is not very strict – feel free to experiment and adjust with your own ingredients.

Oh and do drop into my next yoga class or check availability for private classes which we offer in person in Taipei or Online! My wife Karolina runs private yoga classes for women and I offer private yoga classes for working professionals.