Tag: banana

  • 1-minute vegan banana chocolate ice cream

    1-minute vegan banana chocolate ice cream

    Here’s a cool trick: slice a banana and freeze. When you feel like having ice cream, put the banana slices in a blender with a spoonful of cacao powder, a couple of dates and a small gulp of thick cream like coconut cream or (vegan) cooking cream. Pulse a couple of times et voila..: this is simply delicious!!

    All-real ice cream, no added anything. You should try this, really, it’s great.

  • Carrot ginger oat sweetbread

    Carrot ginger oat sweetbread

    This one started with a quick experiment that turned out exceptionally well :). Since then, I’ve been adding and subtracting ingredients to tweak it to near perfection. Next time, I’ll use yeast instead of baking powder, as that is more natural.

    Recipe for carrot ginger oat sweetbread

    • 1 cup of oats, ground into flour
    • 1 half cup of whole grain wheat
    • 24 grams of vanilla sugar (3 typical 8 grams sachets)
    • 1 sachet of baking powder (or enough for the amount of flour, check label)
    • 1 half big carrot
    • 1 thumb sized piece of ginger
    • 2 eggs, beaten
    • 1 half banana in small pieces (or use figs, I haven’t yet but imagine they’d work even better with the carrot!)
    • 1 handful of crunched nuts & raisins mixture

    Thinly grate or finely chop the carrot and ginger. I use the herb chopper of my immersion blender (staafmixer).

    Combine the flours, vanilla sugar and baking powder. Add the eggs, half a cup of water (careful! You can always add more), carrot and ginger and mix. The mixture should be thick and slightly running. Spoon in banana pieces, crunched nuts and raisins to taste and put in the oven at 180 degrees for 30 minutes.

    Serve topped with honey and cinnamon (don’t forget, it really boosts the flavors!)

    Lovely, right?

  • Blueberry banana overnight oats

    Blueberry banana overnight oats

    A new craze: overnight oats with topping. Dear friend Eva (check her out here: evennaareva.com) served it last week when we had breakfast together.

    The basics: soak oats overnight in water or some ‘milk’ (almond, rice, coconut). When using water, you may find that adding a bit of honey and salt or vanilla sugar may improve the taste. I like to add dried coconut and chia seeds as well and leave that in the fridge overnight.

    Good to know: oats contain phytic acid (fytinezuur), which inhibits the uptake of nutrients in your body. So phytic acid is not something we want. Actually, the whole idea of overnight oats is to pre-digest them, making them more beneficial for the body. Adding acids such as fresh fruits, a squeeze of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar to your oats before soaking overnight will aid this pre-digestion and hence help you benefit more from the other foods you eat! Many overnight oat recipes skip this, but it is actually pretty essential to the whole thing ;).

    Next morning, add toppings to your liking. My favorites from this recipe: apple, banana, blueberries, nuts, raisins, flaxseed and pumpkin seeds. Super nice bonus: thick coconut milk. But I keep that one for extra special mornings :).

    Recipe for blueberry banana overnight oats:

    In the evening, mix together:

    • Oats
    • Chia seeds
    • Coconut
    • Water or veggie ‘milk’
    • Optional: salt/honey/vanilla/sugar/some syrup/cinnamon
    • Something acidic (I use lemon juice)

    Next morning, add:

    • Freshly cut fruits (apple, banana, blueberries)
    • Raisins
    • Seeds and nuts
    • Cinnamon
    • Cacao

    There are no measurements here as I truly don’t measure often. Just play around and you’ll be fine!

    When in doubt about the amount of fluid, here’s a hint: you can always add but it’s hard to discard (well and just a pity).

    Hmmmm ?

  • The amazing green breakfast bowl – by Simone

    The amazing green breakfast bowl – by Simone

    I don’t mean to be all frantic about green smoothies, but this one actually changed my days. The simple concept of creating a breakfast (or in my case: lunch) bowl out of a smoothie is now a part of my daily routine. My friend Simone van Putten (a yoga teacher, mother of Jara, and generally shiny beautiful creative being) introduced it to me.

    I had just returned from Brazil, where people love eating ‘acai’: a not too sweet ice cream made from the famous superfood berries, topped with banana, granola and (for those who want) condensed milk.

    Simone pulled two big green bowls from her fridge, looked at them and laughed: “well, this is actually like green acai!”

    It was amazing: the looks of the dish really did remind me of acai (except, well, deep green in stead of purple red) and it just tasted so nice!

    It’s the perfect combo between a green smoothie and a acai: a breakfast bowl made of fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, dates… topped with banana and granola, or cacao nibs, or anything else you might fancy to kickstart your morning.

    Simone, thank you for inspiring my morning routine in this way <3.

    The pictures in this article’s image are taken from a Simone’s beautifully crafted, handmade recipe book.

  • Banana Cake with Cranberries and Sunflower Seeds

    Banana Cake with Cranberries and Sunflower Seeds

    First time I blended together bananas and eggs was in Thailand, last year. It turned out to be an excellent, nutricious, cheap and easy combo, however I never posted a thing about it and kind of forgot about banana & eggs until today.

    Because today, Aleydis shared with me her slice of banana cake and its recipe (which in turn contributed to this one). I got inspired and decided to make one. It became a cake made of gifts. 

    A few days ago, Maartje donated an interesting German bag of grains with matcha (powdered green tea leaves).

    And a week or two ago, Danielle forgot to take her kilobag of dried cranberries back home and so I took the liberty of considering those a gift as well ;D.

    The cranberries and sunflower seeds happened to be what I found in the kitchen drawer. This banana cake would also be really nice with dates and walnuts, or figs and pecans, or peach and cashews, or chocolate and hazelnuts, just to name a few ideas.

    Also, I used the peculiar Frühstücksbrei mit Amaranth (German) donated by Maartje, which contains oat, spelt, amaranth, almond and matcha. Just plain oat or even wheat flour would work just as well.

    This banana cake can be made using an oven. I used a frying pan with a lid (hapjespan, in Dutch). Worked perfectly! Here’s the very easy banana cake recipe:

    Banana Cake with Cranberries and Sunflower Seeds

    Blend up 2 large bananas with 3 eggs and 2 heaping tablespoons of oat/oatmeal (or whatever you are using). Blend until smooth.

    Then stir in a 3rd tablespoon of oatmeal, 1 handful of dried cranberries and 1 handful of sunflower seeds. Save soms fruits & nuts for later. At this point, you could also add some cinnamon or vanilla, for example. I didn’t because I didn’t have any and it still worked out great!

    Grease a frying pan with lid, put it on the lowest heat possible. In the oven, 160 degrees Celsius would probably be good. Pour in the mixture (which is about as thick as medium to full fat yoghurt) and grind a bit of salt over it. Use a fork to lightly blend the salt in, but not too much! I like experiencing saltier and less salty bites, combined with the sweetness of the fruits.

    In about 30-40 minutes it should be ready to be turned, but keep checking in the meantime. You’ll know when it’s time because the top of the cake will be all dry. Then turn the cake, put back on the heat or in the oven and within another 5-10 minutes it’s ready. Let cool for a few minutes, dress up with the spare filling and possibly some honey (if you have a sweeter tooth).

    I was surprised by how nicely this combination of banana, cranberry and sunflower seeds turned out! And I’ll definitely be making this cake more often. The base of bananas, eggs and oat is rather cheap as well so this would be a perfect cake recipe for parties and potlucks, as well as a nice solution for using up bananas or eggs while they’re fresh.

  • Chai Banana Smoothie

    Chai Banana Smoothie

    This new smoothie is deliciously creamy because of the banana, and the spices remind me of India and of cozy Christmas times at home.

    Cozy and cold Christmas
    Where i was born, Christmas is often cold. If we’re lucky, it even gets snowy! And so i cherish many memories of being inside a warm home while outside the wind is blowing and the streets are icy white. We would share heartwarming moments and food with family, while listening to Radio 2 playing the Top 2000 songs of all time… Hmmm. Beautiful.

    Missing loved ones
    Drinking this smoothie brings those memories right back to me. Maybe it’s my way to join you guys in cold and wintery Europe (and the rest of the northern hemisphere) in your holiday season. Of course i’ll especially miss my mum and sisters and their lovers and my little niece who will celebrate her first Christmas ever.

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    Tea in Thailand: hot or cold?

    Nice to know: when ordering a tea here on the island, it’s custom to say in your order whether you like your tea hot or cold.

    At home, tea is always hot unless you specifically call it ice tea. Here, it’s different. Hot ginger tea has now become my standard order.

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    Warming spices…
    Why it reminds me of autumn and winter? Probably because of the dried orange and cloves, a classic combination and a scent that i really love. And because in the typical autumn tea blends, there’s cloves and cinnamon like in this recipe.

    …for all types of weather
    Still, i should say… of course you can really drink this year round. Heck, in parts of India it’s always summer and it’s not like they ever stop drinking chai tea, which is made of ‘winter’ spices ;).
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    Try it cold or even frozen
    If a cold and spicy banana drink is what you fancy, try refrigerating some coconut cream overnight and blend the coconut ice cubes through the banana shake the next day. I’m sure this would also make for an awesome icecream!

    Recipe for Chai Banana Smoothie

    Buy or make your favorite chai spice mixture, but leave out the tea and add dried orange. A delicious ‘herbal’ blend that i found here in Thailand contains dried orange, clove, cinnamon, black pepper, cardamom and ginger.

    Make a strong herbal tea from this blend.´The end result will be about 50-50 banana and tea. Adjust to your preference, of course.

    Slice about one very ripe banana per two servings and put in the blender. Slowly add the tea so that the banana will be smooth, with no chunks.

    That’s it?
    That’s it! Just banana and herbal tea, couldn’t be easier right?

    Add honey/dates or lime, some coconut cream and maybe even a tiny grain of salt if you like to play around some more.[/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]