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
Serves: 8-10
Dry Ingredients:
1,5 cup flour
2 tbs custard powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1,5 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
Wet ingredients:
1 cup medjool dates
3 ripe bananas
1/2 cup yogurt
1/2 cup oat milk
1/4 cup coconut oil
2 tbs maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbs ground flaxseed
Extra:
1/3 cup rolled oats
2 tbs pumpkin seeds
2 tbs sunflower seeds
1/2 cup pecans
1/3 cup raisins
1 small banana (finely chopped)
1/3 cup chocolate (chopped, optional)
1 banana (cut in length, optional)
-Preheat the oven at 180C.
-Mix all the dry ingredients.
-Mix all the wet ingredients and slowly mix this into the dry ingredients.
-Mix in all the extra things, except the banana you’ve cut in length.
-Grease a baking tin and divide the banana bread mixture in the tin.
-Put the cut banana on top and press it lightly into the mixture.
-Put it in the oven for 55-65 min.
-Let it cool down before slicing it up.
Do you love banana bread? It’s a great thing to make and to share! Please show me your creation. You can do this by tagging e or by using #planetmanel. Thank you! X
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
The best snack to stop that hungry feeling.. this! Filled dates are one of my favourite snacks. They are so tasty, super filling and a great snack for when you work out. They provide you with energy (I always eat 2-3 dates before I hit the gym and I notice a huge difference), protein and healthy fats. They also just look super nice and make a nice party food. I can hardly call this a recipe as it’s so easy, but promise me that you will make these? And let me know if you liked them. Will you make them with peanut butter or almond butter? I find it hard to choose which one I like best. You can also use both of course.
DATE ME 
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 was in London to go to an event that I was invited to, but that was for some mysterious reason cancelled last minute. I did decide to stay in London that night as I drove for hours and I didn’t feel like driving all the way back to the country side. That afternoon on my way to my beloved Portobello Road I drove passed the cafe ‘Wild Leaf’ and I remembered that a few people told me to visit this cafe. So I decided to go there in the morning. It’s located super close to the Ladbroke Grove tube station (basically the opposite of the road). It looks super pretty from the outside and I really like the whole outlook. It looks so inviting, that it makes you want to walk inside. And when you do, you will see that it’s even prettier. I love the way it is all done. Very natural, using lots of natural materials and (light) colours. On the wall behind the counter there is a very nice painted wall decoration. This was made by the talented artist Sophie Glover. It’s a great eye catcher, but at the same time it’s not ‘in your face’. I like that.
The owner of the cafe was lovely and really took the time to tell me all about the cafe. She is an interior designer (like me! ..hence why the place looks so incredible) and used to do projects with her husband who is an architect, but now she is focusing on the cafe. She is vegan herself and her goal for the cafe is to be all vegan too. For now they do have 2 things on the menu that has egg and they serve cow’s milk in beverages. I hope they make the switch quickly, even though at first it might feel scary to do so. Let’s all show them our support and order a latte! Because talking about lattes (they do matcha, charcoal, turmeric & red velvet), they do an ah-mazing matcha latte. It was the best I’ve had. Great taste! The balance is just right, between the bitterness of the matcha and the creaminess of the oat milk (Oatly Barista!). And if you have time, please order some food, because the food is so good. She ordered me the pancakes and I could have a taste of the Mushroom Toast as well. It was good I had the pancakes first, 
becuase otherwise her breakfast would have been all gone too. It was hard not to eat it all! Definitely go for this option when you feel like a savoury dish. The mushrooms are cooked perfectly and the bread full of seeds (which btw you can buy as a loaf to take home!), with the cream ‘cheese’ and the rocket make a taste explosion in your mouth. Highly recommended! Next time I’m definitely ordering that for myself. Oh en about the pancakes.. they don’t only look incredible, they are incredible! I felt like the portion is exactly right and the cream, the flowers, fresh fruit and the crispiness of the buckwheat all work well together. Every bite was a true treat.
Oh and when you do not have a lot of time, don’t worry, because they do a great grab&go that they are expanding at the moment. They do chia pots and overnight oats already, but they are also going to make grab&go salads. Great news! Because in the weekdays they don’t work with a menu, but they offer a salad bar instead (also take away). I definitely have to try this too, because the veggies come from a sustainable non spray company (uhh yay!). If this isn’t enough, they specialise in juices and smoothies, that are all organic. They also do freshly made kale crisps (made with cashew, sunflower seeds and nutritional yeast) and they have a big range of all vegan cakes and treats. I tried the raspberry cake and it was divine!
I think by now you understand that I’m a big fan of this cafe! But if you aren’t convinced yet, let me tell you this. They are aiming to be zero waste and plastic free! There are some things in (recyclable) plastic now, but it will soon all go into glass jars that will be reusable (the juices are already in reusable glass jars). They use organic wherever they can. This doesn’t mean that just a handful of things are organic, but about 90% of everything they offer is organic! They are all refined sugar free, but instead are making use of coconut sugar and date syrup etc. The food comes on the prettiest bespoke plates and bowls. She designed these herself and are made by Linda Bloomfield (@lindathepotter). So pretty! I really appreciate these kind of details, because it means that there is a lot of passion and creativity involved and this really shows throughout the whole cafe. They do catering, so if you have an event and need great food, I think they are a very good an original choice. And last but definitely not least.. Something that really makes them stand out is that they are all gluten free(!!). So if you have coeliac disease, are intolerant to gluten or you want to eat less gluten, then this is your place to go, because you can order everything they offer.
Now the last thing I didn’t talk about yet, but wanted to write in a separate paragraph is: coffee! Now many of you know that I don’t drink coffee myself, but I know a lot of you do. Another special thing about Leaf Wild is that they serve coffee beans from the brand ‘BrewCoffeePlus’. The owner of this brand actually works in the cafe and has some mad barista skills (I’m sure this is one of the reasons my latte was so amazing) that he’s teaching to the rest of the staff. You can choose between 2 options: ‘PB Handege’ (Forest Fruit, Blackcurrant, Rose Water, Flora and Elderflower) from Kenya and the ‘San Pascual Natural’ (Vanilla, Strawberry Cream, Cherry, Blueberry) from Colombia. As you can see, they are both coffees with fruit notes, so if you are into that, please go an try it out.
This is one of my most satisfying recipes. Pesto is something you can use in so many dishes, fresh herbs are super healthy and you can adapt the recipe the way you want it. You can add a little bit more garlic, lemon juice or oil.. whatever you prefer or you can just leave it the way it is. I like it the best like this, it’s the right balance for me. I love to make pasta pesto with it, add it on a pizza, a sandwich, mix it into some mayonnaise or use it as a dip. You can toast the pine nuts and the walnuts for some extra flavour, but you can also just use them straight from the packet. After making it you can keep it in the fridge for a few days.
GREENERY 
After last week’s brownies, we need something healthy. It’s all about balance! This is probably one of my fave recipes. It’s healthy, full of omega’s and multifunctional! You can eat this for breakfast, lunch or snack. It will taste nice with jam, cheese, houmous, butter, avocado and I think basically everything. It’s very filling and a great way to add some good fats to your diet. It’s not hard to make (it’s actually super super easy!), but it does require some time though. The good thing is that, afterwards, you can easily keep it in the freezer. Make sure you slice it up first and then freeze. This way you can take out the slices you want at any time. I’m very curious what you think of it and who will make this. Definitely a must make!
NUTS FOR SEED 
So normally I’d write a different blog post about each hotspot I find. I did this since I started my blog. I did this as I lived in London and I had the opportunity to visit 1-2 places every week. When I’m on holiday, I write a whole big article and give you hotspot list in the end. Most of you know that I moved out of London and at my new place there aren’t many vegan places (to be precise.. there are none!). This is why I visit London once in a while and try to visit as many places as I can. It really takes some planning, becuase I only have one stomach and even though I’d love to visit 10 places a day, I simply can’t eat it all, haha! Before I plan a weekend, I make a list and I plan my days ahead. So a place for breakfast, lunch and dinner and sometimes a little thing in between. In these days I’m always super full and the sugar levels are up up up! Haha! But I love to show you new places and I really hope that I can pursue you to go and visit. I went to London last weekend and here are all the places I’ve been to. I will write a little bit about each place and I will give you the whole list in the end of the post. Here we go..
MOTHER
THE SPREAD EAGLE
LEON
BUBBLEWRAP
HEMA
KALIFORNIA KITCHEN
VEGAN CROSSTOWN
PARADISE PLANTBASED
DUTCH POFFERTJES
HEMP & WILLIAMS
UNITY DINER
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 
YES!! Finally it’s spring. I’m already looking forward to this day since Autumn. Haha! If it was up to me, we skip winter all together. I’m just not made for the cold. On the other hand.. the feeling of the first sun rays will only make me feel extra euphoric after the horrible cold. So let’s try to see the positive though. Luckily we only had snow once and I thought that most of the time the winter was doable this year. Still.. I can’t wait to chase the sun forever with my van! To celebrate the start of spring I created a super colourful recipe. It’s a simple recipe, but it does require some technique and some patience and gentleness. The more often you do it, the better they look! And don’t you feel happy just looking at these? You can use different dips or you can simply dip them in some soy sauce. I chose to mix up a simple peanut sauce, because I love peanut butter with a hint of spiciness. I hope you will enjoy them, because I personally thought they were yum!
SPRING ‘N’ ROLL
Planet Manel 