Eating healthy can be tough when one of your favorite fall activities is curling with a hot pumpkin-spiced latte while something yummy bakes in the oven. But after watching the eye-opening film Fed Up (if you haven’t seen it yet, it’s a must-watch), we’re making a concerted effort to cut down on sugar, forgo processed foods and make smarter tweaks to our favorite recipes.

Like this one I found for banana bread — it seems like we’ve always got a few over-ripe bananas that need to be used. They add natural sweetness, and using coconut flour in baked goods is an excellent lower-carb, high-fiber and gluten-free alternative to wheat flour.

The best part, though? Due to the higher fiber content, coconut flour doesn’t spike your blood sugar as quickly as grain-based flours — i.e. you won’t have that inevitable crash that comes post-sugar high. So you can have your cake…er, banana bread…and eat it (guilt-free), too!

Paleo-Friendly Banana Bread

(Recipe adapted from CivilizedCavemanCooking.com)

Ingredients: 

• 4 bananas
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 4 tbsp butter
• 1/2 c coconut flour
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp agave syrup
• pinch sea salt

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit
2. Combine bananas, eggs, nut butter and butter in a mixing bowl
3. Once wet ingredients are blended, add in coconut flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, agave syrup and sea salt and mix well
4. Grease or line a 9×5 loaf pan with parchment paper before pouring in batter
5. Bake for about 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean
6. Remove from oven and flip bread out onto a cooling rack
7. Slice and serve!

This was my first time experimenting with coconut flour, and I’ve gotta say, I’m impressed. The texture and consistency seem similar to whole-wheat flour, which will make your baked goods slightly more dense.

Not so dense, though, that you lose the cake-like quality of a good banana bread. And surprisingly enough, we didn’t even need butter; it was perfectly delicious and moist enough to munch on straight out of the oven!

How do you feel about making over your favorite recipes with healthier ingredients?