Frozen bananas with cinnamon dark chocolate

These frozen bananas are delicious, simple, and topping combinations are almost endless. Perfect for those hot, hazy, and lazy summers! This recipe is adapted from Katerina and Oishii Treats.

Ingredients:
3 large bananas, cut in half cross-section, each skewered with one take-out chopstick
Freeze for at least 1 hour.

100g (about 1/2 cup) roughly chopped dark chocolate
50 g (about 1/4 cup) milk chocolate
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Toppings: chopped walnuts, peanuts, coconut flakes, pecans, pistachios, dried cherries, broken candy cane bits, caramel, marshmallows, brownie chunks, sesame seeds, anything else you would like to coat your chocolate covered frozen banana!

Melt chocolate over a double boiler, mix in cinnamon. Cool at room temperature and coat frozen banana. Cover with your chosen topping and freeze for at least another hour. Enjoy!!

Variation (photo): peppermint extract, dark chocolate, ground almonds

lemon, lime, olive oil and flaxseed cookies

The following recipe was adapted from Manu's olive oil and lemon recipe, made for a good friend's milestone birthday. Ground flax seeds were incorporated into the dough for nuttier flavour and texture.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup wheat flour
1 tbsp ground flax seeds
1/2 cup sugar
zest of 1 lemon and 1 lime
1/2 tsp salt

4 egg yolks
1/2 cup olive oil

Whisk together yolks while drizzling in olive oil until smooth and custard-like. Whisk with an electric mixer for faster results (whisking by hand might take a good 20 minutes). In a separate bowl, combine flour, ground flax seeds, sugar, zest and salt. Combine flour mixture into yolk/olive oil mixture and mix until dough is homogeneous. Dough will appear shiny from the oil.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Shape dough into cookie size rounds and bake for 10 - 15 mins or until browned. Once cooled, you should be able to enjoy the nice crunch!