I had lots of ripe bananas and I was craving something baked. The logic thing to do would be to bake a banana bread and that is exactly what I did! I didn’t plan it, so I created a recipe with things that I had. As soon as you collected all your ingredients it’s actually a very easy recipe. Anyone can make it! I already have a banana bread recipe on my blog (Bananananana), but having 2 is not going to hurt anyone. This one is made with nuts and a secret ingredient: almond flour! It honestly is the best banana bread that I’ve ever made. Banana bread and nuts are just such a good combination. I ate it with greek style yogurt from Oatly (hugely recommend this!!), some organic maple syrup and toasted coconut and it was sooo good! I hope you will enjoy it as well!
NUTTY BANANA
Makes: 8 slices.
Dry ingredients:
1,5 cup flour
1/3 cup (rolled) oats
1/3 cup almond flour
1/2 cup of (coconut) sugar
1/3 cup chocolate drops (optional)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tbs cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup flakes almond
1 cup nuts* (chopped)
Wet ingredients:
4 (very ripe) medium bananas (mashed)
flax egg**
1/3 cup plant based milk
1/3 cup melted coconut oil/butter
1/2 tbs vanilla extract
Extra:
butter/oil for greasing
1 ripe banana (sliced)
cream/greek style yogurt (optional)
maple syrup (optional)
toasted coconut (optional)
*tip: walnuts/pecans!
**mix 2 tbs flaxseed + 3 tbs plant based milk and set aside
for about 5 min.
Tip: Use a stroke of baking paper (with the width of the baking tin you are using) underneath the banana bread, so you can lift it out of the baking tin easily when it’s ready.
-Preheat the oven at 180C.
-Mix all the dry ingredients together.
-Mix all the wet ingredients together.
-Mix the dry and the wet ingredients together.
-Grease a baking tin and pour the batter in the tin.
-Place the sliced banana on the top and press it lightly into the batter.
-Place in the middle of the oven for about 50-55 min.
-Let it cool down, before slicing.
-Eat with cream/greek style yogurt, maple syrup and toasted coconut.
Are you going to make this banana bread? It’s a great thing to make and to share! Please show me your creation by tagging me on Instagram with @freedomevermore. Thank you! X
I always joke that this cake taste like a Lush bathbomb. Haha! I think we always associate the scent of lavender with beauty products. Lavender is so amazing and is often used in creams, lotions and shower gels. Lavender is also very flowery, but once you let go of the bathbomb thing, it is actually amazing to cook and bake with as well. The trick is to not overdo it. You do not want to have the idea that a bathbomb was actually one of the ingredients. It is very nice when you taste a subtle taste of lavender though. I love it! And it looks and smells amazing! If you never tried cooking/baking with lavender I recommend using only 1 tbs of lavender to start with. Once you’re more use to it and your brain now understand that lavender is not only used in beauty products, you can use 1,5 tbs. Just experiment a little and appreciate the taste
LAVENDER & CO
I love love love French toast! It always makes me think of my grandma. That is why I have a very popular recipe called, 
LUSCIOUS LOAF
I almost didn’t want to do anything for Halloween, because I’m not the biggest fan. But than I made a 2 layered pumpkin birthday cake for my lovely pig Oliver (it was his 2nd birthday!) and it was so delicious, that I had to make it into a recipe. Around this time of the year pumpkins are everywhere! Go into any supermarket and you will see big boxes with huge pumpkins everywhere and because I love pumpkins so much, I’m always tempted to buy one (or 2..), every time I step into a supermarket. Most people buy them to carve them and make them into pieces of art. Sometimes they don’t even realise what tasty things you can make with them and how delicious they are. So that is why I thought I will buy 1 of those pumpkins and I will show you 3 recipes you can make out of that 1 pumpkin. If you want to carve your pumpkin, you can still make 2 out of 3 recipes. As I said before, there will be the pumpkin cake (and only this recipe is worth buying a pumpkin), but I will also tell you how to roast the pumpkin seeds (sooo addictive) and how to make a big batch of the creamiest pumpkin soup ever (unless you carve your pumpkin, then you won’t have enough for soup). You can also follow my pumpkin soup recipe 
PUMPKIN CAKE 
ROASTED PUMPKIN SEEDS
PUMPKIN SOUP 
Out of all the baking, I think I make banana bread most often. It’s a great thing to make when you have ripe bananas (which I always have), it’s easy and everyone loves it. This is why it is so so weird that there isn’t a single banana bread recipe on my blog yet! How is this even possible?? That needed to change. So I made my favourite ever banana bread, to share it with you. I think it’s a great autumn recipe too, with lots of delicious cinnamon. I do not always feel like it, but you can also add 1/2 a tsp of ginger powder or all spice, to get the taste of autumn a little bit more. It’s up to you! This banana bread recipe is free from refined sugar and made with coconut oil. I don’t think I will ever call it healthy, but let’s say that it is not that bad for you. Unless you eat it with (plant based.. duhh!) vanilla ice cream, like I often do (sooo good!). Just an extra tip.. after it is all cooled down, slice it up and freeze them separately. This way you can have a fresh slice of banana bread for snack whenever you want to.
BANANANANANA
I love berries! Doesn’t matter what kind of berries, I love them all. As it’s blackberry season at the moment and there are huge huge bushes all around my van, I decided to make a cake with them. It’s to celebrate that my van is all finished now (I will dedicate a special post about my van soon)! Yay! Finally! I already live in it for over a year, but there were still a lot of things that needed to be done. All done now! Woohoooo! The first time I only used blackberries, but I thought it would be even nicer to use different types of berries. So I added some blueberries and one of my all time favourite, raspberries. I played a little bit with the ingredients and the result was mind blowing. I think this might be the best cake recipe I’ve ever created. It is a must try! Especially with the yogurt-cinnamon topping. It’s such a good combination.. the moist, soft cake, the sweet and sour berries and the fresh creamy yogurt on top. Gosh!
BERRYLICIOUS
Now you can basically go into any cafe (in London at least) and they will have some sort of vegan cake option. A few years back this wasn’t the case and 
MUFFIN STUFF 
I can’t believe it, but it is my VANniversary today!! A year ago I was so excited to sleep in my van for the first time and today that is already a year go! It’s crazy how fast time goes. Some people were concerned and thought I might not like it as much, but I knew I would and I was right. I love it! I love my van and I love living in it. I even survived the winter. It only took about 248578 layers of clothing and my little heater to keep me warm (or as warm as possible). Anyway.. I thought it was a reason for cake! Am I right? So ‘cheese’cake it is! My sister lovesss cheesecake, but to be really honest with you, I never had proper cheesecake myself. By the time they got more and more popular I was 
already vegan. I did have some raw types and some I liked, but most vegan cheesecakes I didn’t like. That is why I never bothered making one. But lately I see some nice vegan cheesecake pictures and then and I got inspired by ‘Wat Eet Je Dan Wel’ (Dutch blogger) who used vegan yogurt. So I looked up a few (vegan and non vegan) recipes, I did some experimenting and after a few tries and fails I created this one and it’s so good! I tried to keep this one classic, but I might do some more experimenting later to make some varieties. Salted caramel, toffee, chocolate or biscoff sounds like a good idea.. for now, it’s vanilla strawberry!
NO CHEESECAKE 
I like healthy recipes, but I definitely also like naughty recipes. Even though these delicious brownies are made with a whole can of black beans, it’s also made with a cup of sugar, white flour and oil. So the black beans will definitely give you some goodness, but under no circumstance will I call this a healthy recipe. They are delicious though. They are super fudgy from the inside and not crazy sweet, but it will definitely hit the spot. Also, as long as you have a kitchen machine, they are fairly easy to make. If you like you can add some pecans (chopped up into the mixture or use 8 whole ones on top). I left them out for now, but I do love pecans and chocolate though. It’s a good combination and it looks nice.
CHOCO BEANS 
It is true.. I’m 30 now! I still can’t believe it. It’s not like I can’t handle it, it’s more that I just can’t believe that I’m on this earth for 30 years already. Time flies. It makes me feel grateful to have reached this beautiful age, but I’m also living in a midlife crisis for the past 10 years already, haha! I always start overthinking it all and start panicking about everything I didn’t do yet in my life. I’ve got so many plans and there is just so little time. Now and again I just need a reality check though and I do realise I’ve done so much to be grateful for: I saved a pig (very important), started a blog a few years ago, converted a van (+ living in it) and I’m almost finished my nutritionist course. These are 3 things that I really really wanted to do in my life and were all on my bucket list. I can only imagine that, because I’ve done these things, life can only get better. Anyway, I thought it definitely deserved a cake and so I made a double cake for my 30th, with a nice filling in the middle. It’s an easy recipe, but all together it takes bit of time though, because of the cooling dow process. I hope you will love it though, just as much as I do (I’m actually having a piece whilst typing this.. YUM!).
THIRTY
buttercream
Planet Manel 