Please Don't Kill Me, Banana

So for the last year or so I've been pretty convinced I'm allergic to bananas. Last spring, I started noticing that my throat would seize up and start hurting after eating a raw banana, and my lungs would feel like I was having an asthma attack. For science, I decided to experiment on myself. I would go a few more days, try another banana, and then when it happened again I'd give the rest of the banana to my roommate and go cry in the corner because bananas were one of my favorite fruits.

To be fair, I've never actually gotten professionally tested for a latex or banana allergy (they're related) so it could all be in my head, but ever since then I've avoided raw bananas. Lucky for me, something about the way bananas are on a chemical level means that when they are cooked, the allergen breaks down and doesn't cause an adverse reaction. Thank goodness I can still eat banana bread!

You may be wondering what this exposition on my crazy body has to do with the picture of funny-looking cookies. Obviously what I'm really leading up to are baked goods with banana in them. Since I can only have banana in a fully cooked form without wanting to tear out my lungs and throw them out the window, I find ways to slip bananas into my baking as often as I can. My husband gets scared whenever I eat any form of banana, but so far so good!

The other half of this story is the 3.5 ounces of ground cardamom I ordered off of Amazon. After deciding that the prices at the grocery store for cardamom were ridiculous, my husband looked up other alternatives, and Amazon delivered. I now have a rather large jar full of cardamom in my spice cupboard, and not enough chai-flavored recipes. I'm making chai cupcakes this weekend for a picnic, but today I decided to make these bizarre little treats...

These hilarious-looking cookies are amazingly tasty. They are surprisingly healthy, too! I got them from another blog, a healthy food blog (how unlike mine...) called burpees in the kitchen. You can find the recipe here. Seriously, go try them. They are all full of chai and banana and chocolate and awesome.

(Goodness, and here I thought I would never get around to having a post that warranted a "healthy" tag. What have I done!)

Mini "Piña Colada" Cheesecakes

My husband was craving cheesecake last weekend, so I decided to do something about that. But, this is me. I couldn't make a normal cheesecake. It had to be mini cheesecakes.

Cake Pops!

This last weekend, I made cake pops for a Lolita meetup. Since we were still celebrating Valentine's Day at the meet, I decorated them with pink chocolate and red, white, and pink ribbons. Isis is intrigued by the ribbons...

Andes Mint Chip Cookies

Hello there, white whole wheat cookies with Andes Mint chips. You sure look tasty. (And you are--I had one for quality control.)

Applesauce Muffins

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming for muffins.

The beginning of the quarter is always so busy, I never have time for much. I did manage to make some cupcakes (lemon with blackberry whipped cream) for a big Lolita picnic a week ago, but I was in such a hurry making them that I didn't have a chance to take pictures, and they were devoured so quickly I didn't get one at the meetup, either.

My poor roommate is having an even worse time right now than me--on top of classes, she's in so many musical groups she doesn't have a spare moment on weekends. Normally, she makes these tasty, quick muffins herself, but today I decided to make them for her. Continue for the recipe...