Date and Banana Slice -- Mother's Day Special

So it is Mother's Day this weekend. It is always difficult isn't it? To think of something special for someone equally as special. I cheated this year though and asked dear mother herself exactly what she wanted :P After running through her list I realised there was only one option for me. Since winning lotto, buying a trip to Europe, and funding a new and entire wardrobe for her (by the way, these were just some of the things she listed as presents) were out of my league it had to be cooking.
Cooking something sweet and special is an easy task you might say ... but not when the person you are cooking for is trying to lose weight and demands it to be a) filled with nutrients b) has lots of fiber, c) is also sweet and delectable, d) is an original recipe and of my own making.
So off I went to brainstorm and experiment, and came up with a Banana and Date Slice:




My mother absolutely loves a date and banana loaf, so the challange here was to make her favourite food with a new, healthier recipe! It took a couple of tries to make. I had to wait till dear mother was out of the house to do my experiments, but I finally got there. And, to me, it fits the criteria fine enough: is healthy with wholemeal flour; has lots of fiber in the dates and banana; is sweetened with the fruits and a little honey; and is of my own making. Good enough for me :D



Since I am working on Mother's Day, I decided to make and give it to her today. She was very happy and, as we sat down to have a slice with our cups of tea, rambled on about how "great it was to have a daughter getting into cooking." I smiled under her praise ... but yelled "What are you doing?!" when I saw her reaching for the butter. "Well, it is healthy isn't it? That means I can afford to be a bit naughty and add a little extra to it ..."
Well, she does love her butter ... and after all, Mothers are meant to know what's best for us, right?




Ingredients:

Dry Ingredients

1 cup of wholemeal flour
1 cup of cornmeal (cornflour)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt

Wet Ingredients

3/4 cup low-fat vanilla yogurt
2/3 cup of skim milk
2 eggs
1 tablespoon prune juice
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons of honey**


Fruits

1 cup of dried dates, chopped
2 bananas, chopped

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 210 degrees. In a bowl, combine dry ingredients; whisk well
2. Combine, in another bowl, the wet ingredients; whisk well
3. Add the fruits to wet ingredients; stir well
4. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients
5. Spray or brush a loaf tin with a little bit of oil or butter. Pour the mixture into the tin
6. Bake for 40 mins, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out relatively clean

**You can add more honey to the mixture once the dry and wet ingredients have been added together; it just depends on how sweet you want the end product to be!

Sending this to Mother's Day Special Event by Easy2cook recipes :)