Healthy banana bread

I am always in search of good snack food that is delicious but not full of sugar so I made this adapted banana bread recipe which is a great way of using up overripe bananas and fills that criteria perfectly.

It doesn't have much sugar because the banana adds sweetness and I use half and half sugar and honey. I also use half coconut oil and half butter but if you wanted an extremely virtuous version you could use 100% honey and 100% coconut oil.

Sliced banana bread

Ingredients

Half cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1 egg
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
2 big ripe bananas (or 3 smaller ones)
20g melted butter, 20g melted coconut oil (or whatever ratio suits you)
Pinch salt
Half cup porridge oats or oatmeal
One cup flour (I used white but you could use wholemeal)
1 teaspoon baking powder
Optional: 50g roasted hazelnuts or pecans roughly chopped. You could also add dark chocolate chips for a great version.

Method

1. Mash the banana in a big bowl and beat in the sugar, honey, egg, melted butter/oil, salt and cinnamon.
2. Use a metal spoon to stir in the oats, flour and baking powder gently. Stir in the nuts/chocolate chips if you are using them.
3. Line a small loaf tin with baking paper and spoon in the mixture
4. Bake at a low temperature (175 degrees centigrade) for about an hour but check after 50mins by inserting a skewer into the centre to see if it comes out clean.

Leave to cool slightly before slicing so it doesn't fall apart.

Serving suggestion - almond butter and fresh banana

This is great on its own but I love it topped with almond butter and fresh banana for a filling snack.

Amateur upholstery

I recently moved into an unfurnished flat in Hackney, London and as a consequence ended up begging, borrowing and scavenging for bits of furniture.
My grandparents generously donated a couple of kitchen chairs which I love, but were a bit worse for wear with sagging seats and faded upholstery.

I had wanted to recover them for a while when I discovered a draper's shop nearby and some lovely patterned fabric. I bought half a metre and borrowed a staple gun from a friend and was good to go!

Finished seat

What you need

Upholstery fabric (it needs to be robust fabric to take the staples)

Extra stuffing (if like me your seats are sagging)

Staple gun and staples

You could use vintage or second hand fabric as you only need a relatively small amount.

Instructions

Remove the seat from the chair and check the state of the current padding. You may not need to restuff it at all. If you do, use some extra stuffing from an old cushion to pad it up. The chairs may have straps to keep the stuffing in so make sure they are stapled in place firmly. If the whole lot is worse for wear then I would recommend buying some new ones.

Underside of seat with extra stuffing

• Once your seat is stuffed, measure out your fabric, making sure that you have enough to fold over the sides of the seat. Cut the fabric to the approximate size. It's better to have a slight surplus than not enough. 
• Place your fabric best side down and position the seat face down on top, making sure there is an even excess of fabric for each side. If you have pattered fabric make sure the pattern is aligned / facing the right way. 
• Use a staple gun to fix one side down. If you use sturdy staples you will need 3 or 4 per side.
• Move to the corner and carefully cut a slit in your fabric in line with side you have just fixed until about 1 inch from the corner to help give a neat fold.
• Fold the second side down making sure that the fabric is tight over the seat and that the corner is neatly folded.
• Staple as before and then continue to the next two sides, taking care with the corners as before. Make sure that the fabric is pulled  tight and that there are no wrinkles.

And that's it! It doesn't give the tidiest finish on the underside of the seat but if you are worried about that just measure the fabric very accurately and fold the edge over before you staple.

I would definitely do this again to update my chairs and it was very satisfying.

Finished chair