That’s a mouth full. A delicious one. No seriously, it’s super delicious.
So I know my blog is pretty lighthearted and I usually make a joke about everything, but I need to talk about something close to my heart today.
I am part of the CrossFit community. A community that is filled with some of the most amazing people I have ever met. The most caring, the most hard working, and the most loving people out there. After seeing my first CrossFit competition and watching the camaraderie of athletes as well as spectators, I knew I wanted to be part of it. After competing for less than a year, I met a man named Kevin Ogar. An incredibly strong, fast, and kind athlete and coach of CrossFit Unbroken. He was always extremely sweet to me and every other athlete that he met. This past Sunday, while Kevin Ogar was competing, in a freak accident he suffered a separated T11-T12 and severed his spinal cord. At this moment, he has no voluntary movement below the waist and has gone into surgery.
I wanted to share this information not only because I know what an amazing human being Kevin is, but because of what happened after the information was released: an outpouring of affection for this man. Every CrossFit website I came across, every post I saw on Facebook, was all for Kevin Ogar. Sharing their prayers and love for him, and creating a donation fund to help fund his surgery and recovery. The donation page can be found here. In 24 hours, around $80,000 was raised for this man. $80,000 because the CrossFit community cares so much about their people. People may call this community a cult, but all I have seen is people who love one and other and have tremendous respect for each other. I’m not one to put this sort of stuff on my blog, but I think people should know about this amazing community and Kevin’s story. Be grateful for what you have today. And give back to those who deserve it.
Thanks to everyone who is thinking of Kevin and supporting him during his struggle. It’s truly amazing to see how good people really can be.
Dark Chocolate Raspberry Chia Banana Bread
- Yield: 12 1x
Ingredients
- 1 cup mashed bananas (2–3 bananas)
- 1 cup nut butter (almond butter, sunflower seed butter, etc.)
- 1/4 cup raw honey (or less depending on sweetness preference)
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds
- 1/2 cup raspberries
- 1/2 cup Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips
For the toppings
- 1/2 cup rapsberries
- 1 tablespoon raw honey
- 1/2 cup Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips
- 1 tablespoon almond or coconut milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Place bananas, nut butter, honey and eggs in a food processor or high speed blender and puree until smooth.
- Then add cocoa powder, coconut flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt to the food processor and puree until well combined.
- Add mixture to a large bowl and fold in chia seeds, raspberries and chocolate chips.
- Pour mixture into a greased loaf pan (9×5) and bake for 55-60 minutes.*
- Once bread is cooked through, let cool on a cooling rack.
- In a saucepan or in the microwave, mix together raspberries and honey until raspberries break apart.
- In a double boiler or in the microwave, mix together chocolate chips and almond milk until melted.
- Add both the raspberry mixture and melted chocolate on top of the banana bread in any design you would like! Cut and enjoy!
Notes
I baked my banana bread in two 6×4 small bread pans for 60 minutes, so time may range depending on the size of the bread pan.
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I did some work for CrossFit Media last year and Kevin Ogar was one of the people that I had the pleasure of interviewing. I have also been so impressed with the amount of love shown for Kevin throughout the CrossFit community. Such an incredible community. Wishing him the best.
Been looking for a good banana bread recipe for my hubby. Gonna try this thanks! I assume this recipe will work without the raspberries and chocolate? (not that it doesn’t look AMAZING)
Also, my heart goes out to Kevin. It is a tough road but having people to support you makes an amazing amount of difference.
The photo alone makes me want to make this recipe. Looks gorgeous + I love me some banana bread. and its paleo? #win
Kevin is my friend’s brother and I know they would appreciate you posting this on your blog. All thoughts are with him and his family.
saw you post this on instagram and had to come over!! looks like the perfect
Bread looks amazing… Thank you for sharing his story! How terrible 🙁
Here’s the new website set up by Barbells for Boobs where 100% of the donations go directly to Kevin:
http://kevinogar.com
thanks Kate! i’ll put that in my post now
Any thoughts on what to sub out for coconut flour? No matter how hard I try I absolutely hate the taste of coconuts and can taste it everytime (yeah sucks to be paleo with that level of hate do flavor lol) so when I bake paleo I use almond meal and arrowroot etc. but didn’t know if you had come across a direct substitute for coconut flour?
Thanks again for bringin more press to Kevin’s situation, great way to use your paleoomg platform!
you could probably add almond flour, but i honestly don’t know how much. it would be a lot more than the coconut flour amount
That’s such a sad story that it totally distracted me from your recipe 🙁 Best wishes for him and his friends and family.
Wow, this sounds (and looks) amazing!
I’ve never used chia seeds before.. but that should change!