Valentine’s day is almost here, so I thought I’d give you a nice and easy recipe to make for you and your lover! ..or for the people you love and you want to share them with. Because that is what Valentine’s Day is for me, a day to celebrate love! Celebrate the love between you and you partner, you and your family, you and your friends or you and your guinea pig.. it’s all alright. I don’t like the commercial side of Valentine’s Day. The glittery hearts, sugary sweets and the teddy bears you have no idea what to do with. I rather make the people I love something nice, and put all my love in there. I’ll give them cards to express what I feel for them. Not that the 14th of February is the only day I’ll do that, but why not celebrate a day of love? This world needs all the love you can spread! Now make these easy no-bake chocolate hearts. They’re delicious.. and healthy!
SOULMATES
Serves: 12-15 pieces
filling
1/3 cup walnuts
1/2 cup soft dates (pitted)
1/4 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 tbs chia seed
2 tbs coconut oil.
1/2 tbs cocoa powder
pinch of cinnamon
pinch of salt.
sprinkles
1 tbs shredded coconut
a drop of beetroot juice
chocolate sauce
1/4 cup coconut oil (melted)
1 tbs agave nectar
1/2 tsp vanille extract
1/4 cup cacao
pinch of salt
-Put all the filling ingredients in a food processor until it’s sticky.
-Make little heart shapes using your hands or use a heart-shaped cookie cutter.
-Put them in the fridge for 30 min and in the meantime make the sprinkles and chocolate sauce.
-Mix 1 tbs of shredded coconut with 1/2 tsp of beetroot juice. Then carefully mix it with the left over coconut.
-Mix all the ingredients of the chocolate sauce together until smooth.
-Dip the hearts into the chocolate and make sure they’re all covered. Then use a fork to lift them out and place the chocolate covered hearts on a try with baking paper.
-Sprinkle the pink/white coconut over the heart before the chocolate is dry.
-Put them in the fridge overnight or for about an hour.
Even if you’re not into Valentine’s Day, I’m sure you’ll enjoy these yummy bites.. and so will your lover or whoever you want to share them with! Please let me know when you’ve tried them. You can do this in a comment below.. or you can tag me or use #PlanetManel on Instagram. Thank you! X
Like I said in my 
took a little longer, as I think my order was given to somebody else by accident. I really didn’t mind because the staff was so friendly and they apologised. In the meantime I ordered a cupcake for dessert and an apple juice. It was all very delicious. I was so hungry (I didn’t really have breakfast) that I ate all the fries and the whole burger until the last crumb. Then I was so full, that it was impossible to eat the cupcake too. So I had that take away to enjoy later. The fries were definitely one of the best fries I’ve ever had and the sauce that came with it was ahhhh-mazing! The burger itself was a bit like a falafel burger and the bun it came on was lovely and fresh. I so enjoyed this meal. Dophert is not only a restaurant where you can eat, they also do catering and you can order cakes. You can go to their 
and the bagels are delicious. In the same street I found something so nice, called ‘The Tea Bar’. A store all about tea!! I’m a sucker for tea and I love the idea of a tea bar. They have more than 100 unique flavours and also lots of nice gift ideas. Next time I’m in Amsterdam I’d love to go here, but I was just too full at that time to even have one sip of tea. So I walked towards the Prinsengracht and then I just got so lucky with the weather. The clouds were dark grey on one side and the sun was fully shining on the beautiful autumn coloured trees from the other side. It gave such an amazing contrast that I was able to make some lovely pictures. Then a little bit later it started raining and I was blessed with a rainbow. Rain, sun, rainbow, autumn, Amsterdam, canals, boats.. it really was my lucky day! I loved the rain on my skin as I walked past the canal.
‘Bolhoed’ and I really liked that I accidentally found it. I heard about this restaurant a lot and it must be really good. Next time I think I’m going to have a meal over here. It’s a shame I couldn’t stay in the evening, otherwise I could have had my dinner here. A little bit further I found this lovely shop called ‘Varsana’. A shop with everything you could possibly need for yoga or pilates. I really loved this shop and I think anybody who is into yoga will love it too. The last thing I found on the Prinsengracht is the ‘Tulip Museum’. For only €5 you can learn within 20-30 minutes all about tulips. You can also buy a lot of tulip things, including tulips itself. I love tulips and because it’s not that long I think it could be a nice thing to do.
I walked via the Westermarkt and Raadhuistraat to the Kalverstraat. The Kalverstraat starts at Dam Square (most famous square in Amsterdam) and is the biggest shopping street in Amsterdam. You can find all the well known shops like H&M, Blokker, TheBodyShop, Forever 21, Lush and River Island in this street. If you keep walking straight, you will end up on Rembrandtplein. This is a square with a statue of Rembrandt, surrounded with a lot of bars and cafes. I walked back via Rokin where you then come back on Dam Square again. From there, via Damrak, it’s only a 5 minute walk back to the station. At the station I discovered a little cafe called ‘Yoghurt Barn’, where you can get yoghurt with the most amazing toppings (think ‘mango, brownie and walnut’). You can choose any yogurt you want and it turned out they have 2 (!) vegan options: Soy and Coconut. They also have coffee, tea, smoothies and juices. It looks great! Next to Yoghurt Barn you can go downstairs and the first shop on your left is ‘WAAR’. I did post about this amazing shop before, because there is also one in Groningen. I love this shop. It has such lovely gifts (what most probably ends up in keeping it yourself) and they sell (and I bought) the ‘Tony’s Chocolonely’ chocolate. Theeeee best!
In the next train we directly opened the Lifebars and shared it so we could all try every flavour. Omg, they are so nice! My favourite was the ‘Brazil Guarana’ and my mum agreed with me, but my sister liked the chocolate one the best. It didn’t take long before we arrived at Rotterdam-Blaak and when you get out of this station there is a lovely architectural surprise waiting for you. The ‘Cube Houses’. It’s an amazing piece of architecture by the architect ‘Piet Blom’. When I was studying Interior Design I’ve been inside one of them and it was such a cool experience. If you like to go inside yourself, you can, because there is one open for the public. The real reason we came to this station was because here is the ‘Markthal’, what literally means ‘Market hall’. 
It’s an amazing building and inside there is a market, some restaurants and there are flats where people are actually living. It opened on the 1st of October 2014, so it’s quite a new concept. I love the building and then especially what they did with the inside. If you look up they decorated the ceiling with massive flowers, fruits and vegetables. Lovely! In the end I was slightly disappointed with the lack of vegan options though, especially because my hopes were up high walking inside and vegan treats was the first thing I saw. Silly me forgot to remember the name of the company that sells them, but if you use the entrance closest to the station, it’s right in front of you. I did like the big range of tropical and rare fruits and I got myself some red bananas which were delicious. Also there is a juice bar and a ‘Jamie’s Italian’, but overall it wasn’t what I expected. On a cheerier note, behind the Markthal is burger restaurant ‘Burgertrut’, where they sell yummy yummy vegan burgers. They’re not 100% vegan, not even vegetarian.. but they have amazing vegan options!
In the meantime it was lunchtime and we were all so hungry. I wanted to have lunch at ‘Spirit’ as I heard so many good things about this restaurant. It’s about a 5 minute walk from the Markthal and on the way we also bumped into ‘Poké Bowl’, what is a little restaurant with Hawaiian food. It’s actually a fish restaurant, but you can fill your own bowl and the options include tofu, rice and lots of veggies. A lot of people are crazy about this, so I’ll try it one day. Restaurant Spirit is part of a little shopping mall called ‘De Groene Passage’ and there 
is also a health supermarket called ‘Gimsel’ and a shop what is called ‘the Wereldwinkel’, where they sell all fair trade stuff from all around the world. But first lunch.. omg, they were right, Spirit is amazing! It’s a vegetarian buffet, but almost everything is vegan too. I was being so greedy and I wanted to try it all and I ended up with a very big plate of food and it’s not very cheap. I had to pay €20, what was a bit of a shock, but I also didn’t really care as it was my holiday and I really wanted to try all these things. I forgot all about that 
price too when I tasted it, because it was soooo good! I really want to go again, haha! Big pieces of seitan, things with seaweed, tempeh, corn cakes, fried veggies, chunky guacamole.. I’m seriously getting hungry writing this all down. My mum and my sis really liked the food too, but they both got the same drink which they didn’t like at all. It was a ‘matcha latte’ and I agree the matcha was wayyy too strong. Only after a while the matcha sunk to the bottom and though the taste was still quite strong, I actually liked it. It was just not possible to drink the last few sips. I can’t imagine that anyone will like this, so maybe a little less matcha powder is an idea?!
After our tummies couldn’t even stand the thought of another bite we went to Gimsel. It was a good tactic, because walking inside I knew straight away that walking around here with an empty stomach was a bad idea for my bank account. It was a lovely supermarket with lots of great products. You could taste oat yogurt, what my mum and my sis hated, but I absolutely loved (I had to taste it twice.. hehe..). In the end I did buy 3 things. A ‘wooden toothbrush’, what was on my shopping list since forever, ‘dried grasswort’ which you can use as a salt substitute and what do you think they had there too? Lifebars! I was hoping for the ‘Brazil 
Guarana’, but they didn’t have it. They did have ‘coconut’ (hallelujah), so that was that, easy decision. I loved it btw.. this flavour was very tasty too. I didn’t see them in London yet, but I’ll keep an eye on it. We also did have a little wander around the Wereldwinkel, because it’s a lovely shop and my mum and sis bought some Tony’s Chocolonely chocolate. Can’t blame them. On our way back to the station we passed ‘Foodelicious’ and that looked so nice and bright that we had to go inside. You can get so many nice things here. They have a big range of lovely oils, vinegar, tea, beautiful bowls and dishes, books and so much more.. and a lot of very nice gift ideas too.
Back at the station we decided to go to the centre of Rotterdam and that is not even 5 minutes by train. Rotterdam central station is such a cool station. It’s really one of the reasons I love Rotterdam, it has amazing architecture. Rotterdam has a very nice centre for shopping. It actually has 3 shopping streets/areas: Lijnbaan, Coolsingel and Koopgoot. Walking from the station first ‘Lijnbaan’ will appear and then you can via ‘Coolsingel’ go to ‘Koopgoot’, but before we got there we had a little break at ‘Green Delight’. My mum and sis ordered chocolate milk and I ordered the tastiest Chai latte (+ an energy bomb) I’ve ever had. What a lovely place! It’s so different from other cafe’s. We sat in a very comfy sofa and it felt like we were sitting in a living room. On the table there were lots of nice magazines, like the Happinez for example and the atmosphere was just so relaxed. In order 
to go into the cafe you have to go through a very nice shop with amazing goodies, gifts and cactus plants(!). This is a very nice concept, but unfortunately it’s a pop up, so go before it’s too late! After we walked to the ‘Koopgoot’, what is very close from there. I think I like ‘Koopgoot’ the best, because they made it look so cool and there is a Lush. My sis got some new tooth tabs as she nearly run out and I got a new pair of comfy jeans at C&A. Then it was really time to go home, because it’s about 3 hours by train and my dad was picking us up. We didn’t want to make it too late. But before we got to the station we past this really nice restaurants called ‘Freshii’. They just closed it, but I looked them up and I think they’re pretty good. They do burritos, salads, wraps, soups and more.. all fresh and they try to make a lot of sustainable choices. They’re not 100% vegan though, but there are a lot of veggie choices and you can even custom make your own lunch.. so do I need to say more? Great for a next visit!
For this recipe I was inspired by a Dutch cake, called ‘Arretjescake’. It’s actually with eggs and a lot of butter. It’s a very unhealthy cake, but super delicious. The recipe I made is not only vegan and super delicious, it’s also healthy. Or actually there is an option to make it all healthy. There are biscuits used in this cake. If you decide to make healthy biscuits before making this recipe, the whole cake would be healthy. The cake is very filling, that’s why it’s quite small. In case you have to treat a lot of people, you can always easily double the recipe. Use a little cake tin or any small dish, but if you double it, you can easily use a standard cake tin.
ChOCO DREAM
-Mix the sugar, coconut oil, yogurt, flaxseed mixture and the cocoa powder with an electric mixer until smooth.
Very very very close to me there was this cafe called ‘Zest’. The funny thing is that you kind of ‘forget’ about the cafe’s which are very close to home. It feels like normal or I think ‘I can review whenever I want to’. But then it never happens. So it took a while until I went to Zest. I always saw these very nice salads when I walked past them. So one afternoon I decided to have lunch there so I can tell you guys about it. Then the owner had some AMAZING news. From the beginning of August they were gonna go 100% vegan!! I was jumping up and down (in my head), this was really good news. Very bad news for my bank account though.. haha! 
I decided not to review Zest and wait until it was all vegan. I had lunch anyway, which was very tasty. Luckily they were going to keep a lot of the lovely salads they already had.
put in my mouth I was happier knowing this was so so so close to me. How lucky am I?! I really still cant believe it.
Please let me know if you already went here or if you’re planning to go after reading this! You can let me know in the comments below or show me on Instagram by tagging me or using #PlanetManel. Thank you! X
Scream for cookies.. yes! You will scream for it like a toddler after you had some of the amazing creations from this bakery! I came across this bakery via Instagram and as soon as the words ‘vegan bakery’ appeared I was hooked. I mean.. who wouldn’t right? And if you take a look at what they make, boy!, it’s heaven on earth for sure. And if you think there is a lot of gluten and bad sugar going on here, you’re wrong. Because ‘Cookies and Scream’ are not only fully vegan, but everything is also gluten-free, low in fat, low in cholesterol and free from refined sugars. Did I mention the word ‘heaven’ yet? Oh yes I did, it just keeps popping up whilst writing this.
They have over 15 different kind of cookies and 5 different kind of brownies and this on top of a whole range of pies and donuts. To just name a few: Hot Mexican Cookies, Double Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chillin’ Coconut Cabanas, Gosh! Peanut Butter Brownies, Tofoofoo pie, Chocola donuts and so much more. These names are just mouth-watering by itself. Next to all their baked goodies, they also have a range of shakes. Does a ‘Salted Caramel’ shake sound good to you? Or what about a ‘The Gosh Brownie’ shake, where they actually mix in a brownie? I get it when you’re overly excited by now and want to go right this minute.
In that case, ‘Cookies and Scream’ are in a lovely location in Camden Town. Walking from the tube station, you walk towards the canal, cross it and turn left. You’ll see a ‘Cookies and Scream’ sign what brings you straight to the bakery. This also means it’ll be perfect for a little break whilst discovering the lovely Camden Town. They’re open 7 days a week from 10:00-18:00. But if you want to have a bit more choice, I recommend you to go on time and not last-minute as they often sell out or you can only choose between a ‘Salted Caramel Donut’ and a ‘Gosh! Peanut Butter Brownie’. Which in that case you just get them both, haha!
If you know me a little bit, you know I love Portobello Road. And on Portobello Road, just a bit further down from the Westway there is a little take away place called ‘The Grain Shop’. The sign says vegetarian food, but more than half of it is vegan.
I’d recommend the potatoes and the lentils. But what I really love at The Grain Shop is their yummy selection of vegan cakes. They really have quite some options and out of that the brownie is my favourite. It’s not really a classic brownie, because it’s more like chocolate cake. But it’s huge, it has walnuts, it has chocolate icing, it’s chocolatey, it’s soft and it’s sticky when you take a bite. (I’m eating one whilst writing this.. Oops!) They also sell drinks. Coconut water, juices and they have quite a selection of the ‘Whole Earth’ soft drinks. I’m not crazy about soft drinks myself, but for everyone who is, this brand is all natural and much better for you than the extreme sugary ones. Oh and it’s organic, yay!
You can choose your food yourself. There are 2 container sizes you can choose from(+ an eating in and eating out price) and the only thing you have to do is tell them what you’d like to have in there. Later in the day there is less to choose form though. Which is a shame maybe, but I like it as it means there will be less waste.
Do you know The Grain Shop and did you try their food before? Are you going to try the brownie after reading this? Please let me know or show me by using #PlanetManel on Instagram. Thank you! X
Maybe you know the cookbooks ‘Deliciously Ella’. Written by the blogger Ella Mills. A lovely girl who, when diagnosed with a rare illness, got her life back by changing her diet. She and her husband Matthew now opened a deli not long ago. ‘Mae Deli’ is 5 minutes walk from Marble Arch, an amazing location. You could go for breakfast before a big day of shopping in Oxford Street, have a lunch/dinner after all the shopping or just have a nice break, getting a take away and sit in Hyde Park to enjoy the sunshine.
It was less busy and me and my friend could order straight away. We decided to share a plate and we chose 5 things. And while we were ordering, a staff member offered us 2 seats at the window. That was easy. The food was simple, but good with my personal favourite: the sweet potato. That one is an absolute winner. We had a glass of water with it and found out we were lucky as we saw the queue growing.
Overall this experience was a lot better and was actually very enjoyable. Make sure to check out Ella’s blog 
Ok.. I just created the best brownies everrrrr.. You can thank me later! Brownies made with Vego chocolate! And for the people who don’t know Vego chocolate (shame on you, hehe..), it’s the best vegan chocolate of the world! Unfortunately they don’t sell them everywhere. You can easily get hold of them in London, but I know it’s not like that everywhere. So if you really can’t buy one, then you can replace the Vego chocolate with dark vegan chocolate instead. No worries, it’ll still be delicious!
serves: 10-12
Are you a big brownie fan? Please let me know if you tried this recipe! Or even better.. show me using #PlanetManel on Instagram. Thank you! X
INSTRUCTIONS:
Are you going to give this very tasty recipe a go? Please let me know! And I’d love to see some beautiful pictures. Please share them with me on Instagram using #PlanetManel ! Thank you!
Planet Manel 