I Won!! And Gluten-Free, Vegan Banana Muffins

 I found out on Saturday that I won this beautiful print from Heather at the Audrey Eclectic Blog!  It's just in time for Pascha :)  It's the first time I've won something from a blog.  I'm really looking forward to having it up on my wall the whole Orthodox Pascha (Easter) season which goes until June 12th this year!

And keeping up with the theme of the weekend, we won more art yesterday!  At the Fundraising Luncheon put on by our parish youth we won this lovely painting of a peaceful fishing scene!  It was painted by a young girl in church.  She's quite talented!

Today we are leaving to spend a couple of days in Montreal with some friends.  Andrey is attending a clergy conference there.  One of our friends eats gluten-free so, last night I made gluten-free, vegan banana muffins.  I used my usual Lenten Banana Bread recipe but replacing the flour with Trader Joe's Gluten Free Flour.  They turned out fabulously!  Here is the exact way I did the recipe:

Gluten-Free Vegan (Lenten) Banana Muffins
1 3/4 cups all purpose gluten free flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder  
1/2 teaspoon baking soda  
3/4 teaspoon salt  
1/3 cup oil (I used canola, but wished I used coconut)  
2/3 cup sugar 1/4 cup coconut milk (from a can)
3 mashed bananas
nearly 1 cup chopped walnuts
 
Preheat oven to 350°.  Mix dry ingredients.  Add sugar, coconut milk, and banana and mix well.  Stir in nuts.  Pour into a lined muffin tin and bake for 35 minutes or until done.  Cool in pan for 15 minutes.  Yields 15 muffins.  The icing is powdered sugar, coconut milk, and a touch of vanilla.

This morning I had one of the extra ones that wouldn't fit in the box with a cup of Banana Cinnamon Spice Tea.  It was a great combination!  I got the box of tea half price last week since it's Christmasy.  By the way, the cup I had it in is a mason jar with a Cuppow lid.  The cozy was made by my sister Martha for another project (a candle holder) but works perfectly for protecting my hands against the hot cup!

We had a really busy weekend with lots of church services and lots of visiting with friends (and the bishop).  Liza was so well behaved.  She can fall asleep anywhere!  She slept in church at times, at friends house (even though the conversation was sometimes loud), and during the meal with the bishop.  She was on Andrey's lap at the head table when she fell asleep during the meal.  It was so cute!  I didn't get a photo though.  Here is a photo from last Tuesday though when she fell asleep at the reception after a friends baby's baptism.  So sweet!  When she's awake she has so much energy and is so wiggly in our arms (my arms ache from holding her in church this weekend!), so it is always a nice break when she decides to snooze!