Experimental Baking Part Deux

This morning I did NOT want to get up!! Corey is out of town until Saturday afternoon, so that means two nights alone! I was the wife who when we first got married, had trouble sharing a bed, because he snores and because I just wasn't a good bed buddy! But now, I can't sleep without him! We go through periods of him being gone because of work, but he has been home since October/November. I'm not ready for him to leave.

So I couldn't sleep, and I waited and waited to fall asleep, and it just didn't happen. When I finally got to sleep the alarm went off! Or at least it felt that way. So I hit the alarm to turn it off and just laid there. And I thought, I have to sweat because Holly (my beachbody coach) had a homework assignment for our workout today. She wanted a picture of us in all our sweaty glory! I knew that there was no other time for me to workout today, so I just got up and did it any way. It gave me so much more energy through the day! 55 minutes of Turbo Fire kicked my ass! So here are my sweaty pictures!

This is a picture of my headband because it is covered in sweat! You can see the top where the only part is light, and it didn't get sweated on!

This is my sweat covered face! Isn't it lovely?

Tonight my mom and I planned to having a baking extravaganza. After the success with the cookies, I was prepared for some more awesomeness!

Well I picked brownies, and my mom picked pineapple upside down cake. Her pineapple upside down cake turned out really good! She did two versions, one with honey for a meeting she is going to tomorrow. And one with stevia for me.

Yum!!

I my frist batch of brownies was with a sweet potato base, and it would have been better with the honey it called for.

First Batch

There was something wrong with it though. It was the texture I guess. I was so disappointed that they didn't turn out right, so I decided to look up another recipe because mom was still cooking. So I tried another recipe that looked good, no sweet potato... 

Second Batch

And the second batch? Bleh! It was too dry. The first was too moist and not brownie like at all, the second was more brownie like, but dry dry dry. And it smelled so wonderful, but it was a shame that it didn't taste the way it smelled.

What I take from this whole brownie fiasco? Is that I don't like brownies nearly as much as I thought, and also, I don't like stevia. I replaced the sugar with stevia, and it makes it gross. I like splenda, but I don't like stevia. I guess I am going to try Truvia next, but I'm not holding out much hope that it's going to be good.

I'm not sharing these brownie recipes because they turned out icky. But I will share the pineapple upside down cake! 

Almost Sugar Free Pineapple Banana Upside Down Cake

Ingredients (serves 4 big pieces or 6 avg size):
For Caramelizing Pineapple:
- 2 slices of pineapple (about 1 inch thick)
- 1 tsp coconut oil
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
For Cake:
- I used a rectangular small baking dish (see pic at bottom), which fit the 2 slices of pineapple perfectly.
- 2 Tbsp coconut oil
- 4 Tbsp coconut milk
- 1/2 Cup coconut flour
- 2 Tbsp raw honey
- 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp aluminum free baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 whole mashed bananas (very ripe)

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350
2. Start with caramelizing pineapple slices – In a non-stick skillet, heat 1 tsp of coconut oil.  Add the pineapple and let it fry for about 2 minutes – until it’s golden brown.  Pour the vanilla extract on top while frying.  Flip pineapple and fry the other side.  Remove and put pineapple at the bottom of your baking pan.
3. In a bowl, mix together coconut flour, salt, baking powder, coconut milk, vanilla extract, bananas and eggs
4. Melt the coconut oil and honey and then slowly add it to the mix.
5. Mix together thoroughly and pour into baking pan overtop of pineapples
6. Bake for about 45 minutes – check after 30 minutes because you might have a better oven.  You want to be able to stick a fork into the middle and have it come out dry.
7. Remove from oven and let it cool for a few minutes
8. Put a plate overtop of the baking pan and turn it upside down so that the baking pan is now upside down over the plate.
9. Remove baking pan so that pineapple slices are the centerpiece of the cake.
10. Try not to eat the whole thing.