Real men eat bananas

 I have lots of things to teach you now, in case we ever meet, concerning the message that was transmitted to me under a pine tree in North Carolina on a cold winter moonlit night. It said that Nothing Ever Happened, so don't worry. It's all like a dream. Everything is ecstasy, inside. We just don't know it because of our thinking-minds. But in our true blissful essence of mind is known that everything is alright forever and forever and forever. Close your eyes, let your hands and nerve-ends drop, stop breathing for 3 seconds, listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world, and you will remember the lesson you forgot, which was taught in immense milky way soft cloud innumerable worlds long ago and not even at all. It is all one vast awakened thing. I call it the golden eternity. It is perfect. We were never really born, we will never really die. It has nothing to do with the imaginary idea of a personal self, other selves, many selves everywhere: Self is only an idea, a mortal idea. That which passes into everything is one thing. It's a dream already ended. There's nothing to be afraid of and nothing to be glad about. I know this from staring at mountains months on end. They never show any expression, they are like empty space. Do you think the emptiness of space will ever crumble away? Mountains will crumble, but the emptiness of space, which is the one universal essence of mind, the vast awakenerhood, empty and awake, will never crumble away because it was never born.  

Jack Kerouac, Selected Letters 1957-1969 

I adapted this recipe from the Orange Date Bread from Anja's Food 4 Thought. When I tried this recipe, I had just dabbled into gluten-free baking and was a bit frustrated by the results and feared that I was going to miss out all my life. Her recipe reassured me a great deal in believing that delicous gluten-free food is possible!

Banana bread
(vegan, gluten-free)
adapted from this recipe

35 g dates
200 mL almond milk
5 g baking soda
2 ripe bananas


103 g buckwheat flour
53 g unblanched almond meal
5 g baking powder
pinch of salt
1 flax egg
5 g vanilla extract
10 mL olive oil

pumpkin seeds

Put the dates, almond milk and baking soda in a saucepan and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes. Blend this date-milk mixture along with the two bananas in a blender until smooth. 

In a bowl, sift the flours, baking powder and salt, fold in the banana-date mixture and the remaining ingredients. Mix well. Pour batter into a buttered and floured loaf tin and sprinkle with pumpkin seeds. Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cake à la banane (Banana bread)

(végétalien et sans gluten)

35 g dattes

200 mL lait d'amande

5 g bicarbonate de soude

2 bananes très mûres

103 g farine de sarrasin

53 g poudre d'amandes non blanchies

5 g levure chimique

pincée de sel

1 flax egg

5 g extrait de vanille

10 mL huile d'olive

graines de courge

Dans une casserole, faire chauffer à feu moyen pendant 5 minutes les dattes, le lait d'amande et le bicarbonate de soude. Mixer ce mélanger avec les deux bananes dans un blender jusqu'à ce que le mélange soit crémeux.

Dans un bol, tamiser les deux farines, le bicarbonate de soude et le sel. Incorporer le mélange dattes-bananes et les ingrédients restants. Bien mélanger. Verser la pâte dans un moule à cake beurré et fariné puis  "saupoudrer" de graines de courge. Cuire au four pendant 30-35 minutes ou jusqu'à ce qu'un couteau inséré au centre ressorte propre.