What is your dream life?
Is it a life in urban or suburban surroundings? Or maybe in the wilderness?
Below is the story of three women, who seem to have found their perfect life.
The first lady is Jonna Jinton. You can watch her story here. Jonna changed her life eight years ago, when she moved from the city to the north of Sweden. Nature taught Jonna many lessons, among which that “… you can never feel the wonderful, comfort feeling of warmth if you have not yet been cold.”
Stephanie Jarvis, the creator of The Chateau Diaries, lives in a 16th century French chateau. Her weekly vlogs are addictive. The episodes are a mixture of renovations, decorations, cooking, travel, and hosting. As an added bonus, Stephanie is the most charming lady with a great sense of humor.
The third lady, Jenny Mustard, has had a YouTube channel on fashion, lifestyle and wellbeing forever. Despite of being Swedish, Jenny has lived in many urban locations in Europe. Recently she moved from Berlin to London.
All three women seem to be working on the things they like and enjoy. They also love to share their happiness and knowledge.
I hope that you will enjoy the three stories. Do they align with your dreams?
Recently, I published my high-fiber chocolate cake recipe.
Today, I share a similar recipe but without any caffeine. Although cocoa powder and chocolate chips do not have too much caffeine, if you do not like the taste of chocolate, why not modify the recipe to pure vanilla aroma?
As I mentioned before, this cake recipe is super-healthy: there is lots of fiber. The added sugar in the recipe comes only from the 4 Tbsp of low-sugar jam, and the jam is optional. The sweet taste is mostly due to the natural sugar in the bananas and raisins. The recipe calls for total of seven to eight bananas, applesauce, walnuts and whole wheat flour! This is lots of fiber. Even the almond butter has fiber.
Since the cake is high in fiber, the sugar spike in the blood is moderated. Soluble fiber slows down the absorption of sugar. According to some calculations, ripe bananas contain 3 g fiber/120 g, mostly in the form of soluble fiber.
High-fiber cake (up to 16 portions)
Ingredients:
4 ripe bananas (mashed)
4 oz (113 g) of unsweetened applesauce
2 tsp vanilla
3 eggs (lightly beaten)
1 cup whole-wheat flour
½ cup flaxseed
2 tsp baking soda
1 packed cup raisins
1 to 1.5 cup walnuts (cut into small pieces)
Frosting ingredients:
1 cup almond butter and/or peanut butter
4 Tbsp low sugar strawberry jam (optional)
3 – 4 ripe bananas (mashed)
2 Tbsp chia seeds (optional)
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray with oil a 9-inch springform cake pan (or spread some coconut oil). You can use any other type of cake pan. I have also used a square cake pan (8" x 8").
Wash the raisins with water, drain and soak them with the vanilla extract (leave in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes). Mix together the dry ingredients (flour, flaxseed, and baking soda). Combine the mashed bananas, apple sauce, and lightly beaten eggs. Gradually incorporate the dry ingredients into the banana-egg mixture. Stir in the raisins and walnuts. Transfer the batter to the pan and bake for 40 minutes. Cool before frosting.
The frosting is prepared by mixing the mashed bananas and the almond (and/or peanut) butter. If you have some chia seeds, add 2 Tbsp. Either way, the frosting is delicious and healthy.
To finish the cake, spread a thin layer of low sugar jam on the top of the cake. Then cover with the frosting on top and the side of the cake.
If you would like to decorate the cake, use fresh fruit, edible flowers, chopped nuts and/or coconut shavings.
Notes:
1. I use only frozen bananas for this recipe. The thawed frozen bananas are easier to mash/incorporate in the dough and frosting.
2. All springform cake pans leak. I put the pan on a baking sheet in the oven. However, this may increase the baking time to approximately 45 minutes or more.
Using Recipe Nutrition Calculator, if you serve 12 generous pieces of this cake, you consume for 316 calories per serving. Each piece of cake has 7.1 g of fiber and 20.1 g of sugar! This is twice the fiber in a smaller apple and more or less the amount of sugar you would get from a medium apple. Don't you feel good about eating this cake now?
