Week 22 Dish 1: Vegan banana oat cake

These days we seem to have many bananas that become overripe. I think it's because we have so many other fruits and snacks in the house that they have just been forgotten. But I can't let them go to waste so I've been making muffins or bread to use them up (which probably hasn't helped us eat the remaining bananas...vicious cycle). This time I decided to try and find a new recipe. It was difficult because I've already made banana bars, muffins/ bread and 2 types of cookies (here and here). So I thought I would go for cake or scones, and I happened to find a yummy cake recipe first so I went for that!

This cake is a bit dense because its made with oats and oat flour, and has banana pieces in it rather than just mashed banana, but boy is it delicious!

I topped my slice with left over vegan tofu frosting - tasted yummy! If you want to cover the top of the cake with it you will probably only need about a third of what I made for that recipe.
Serves 8-10
Ingredients
2 cups oats, processed into flour
1/2 cup oats (not processed)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil (coconut or other)
2 medium very ripe bananas, mashed
1/23 cup applesauce
1/4 cup soya milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 ripe banana cut into chunks
Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and line an 8 inch cake tin with grease proof paper.
2. In a large bowl, mix the oat flour, oats, sugar, spices, baking powder and salt.
3. In another bowl, combine the mashed banana, oil, applesauce, soya milk and vanilla until smooth. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and incorporate until just combined. Finally, fold in the banana chunks and chopped walnuts.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for at least 15-20 minutes before removing from the tin and allowing to cool completely.

Original recipe: Rustic chocolate chip banana oat cake

Week 12 Dish 2: Vegan banana walnut muffins

As I mentioned before, I started experimenting with vegan dishes because my dad recently decided to become vegan. He actually make this choice early this year, but I was so busy with 5th year and looming exams (nightmare!) I never really baked anything vegan until July after my exams were finally over. What really inspired me to begin were 3 extremely overripe bananas; usually used to make banana bread but the recipe was not vegan. So I thought, it can't be that hard to find a vegan recipe can it? And it wasn't hard at all! I found so many, chose the simplest one with ingredients that most people would have, and voila! Vegan banana bread! Soon this became a standard treat I would bake if the bananas became too mushy (and thanks to the gorgeous summer we've had, this has been pretty common). I've since experimented with bars and cookies, but nothing beats a moist muffin! So here is the recipe, which can be made as a bread, muffins or cake.

Makes 12 muffins/ one bread loaf/ one 8 inch cake
Ingredients
225 g plain flour
3 heaped tsp baking powder
100 g brown sugar (I've been reducing this to 75 g)
3 tsp ground cinnamon or mixed spice or a combination of the two (I've been using 5 tsp and would recommend it to anyone who loves cinnamon)
3 large mushy bananas, mashed
75 g vegetable or sunflower oil (weight)
50 g walnuts (or other nuts or dried fruits)
Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and get the muffin cases ready.
2. Add the mashed bananas, sugar and oil to a large mixing bowl and mix well.
3. Add the sieved flour, baking powder and cinnamon/ mixed spice and mix until combined.
4. Stir in the nuts/ dried fruit and spoon into the muffin cases.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean.
6. To make as a bread, bake in a greased and lined loaf tin at 180°C for 20 minutes, then check. If the loaf is browning, cover with foil and bake for another 40 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean. Remove from the tin after cooling for 10-15 minutes. Allow to cool completely before slicing.
7. To make as a cake, bake in a greased 8 inch cake tin at 180°C for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick come out clean. Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes before removing from the to and cooling completely on a wire rack.

Original recipe: Vegan banana bread
Like I said, a very simple recipe with scrumptious results! Because vegan muffins are usually made with oil, they are often more moist and soft than their non-vegan counterparts - try them and see for yourself!!

Vegan strawberry banana milkshake/ smoothie

As promised, here is the strawberry banana smoothie recipe. I decided not to make it with oats this time because I wanted something that wasn't so filling (but feel free to add them if you would like for a yummy filling breakfast smoothies). It's a very flexible recipe, you can add whatever fruit you want. I would recommend having at least one banana because it gives the smoothie a nice creamy taste. You can also change the amount of milk to make it as thick as you want - enjoy!

Serves 4
Ingredients
1 large ripe banana
3-4 cups strawberries
3 cups soya milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2-3 tbsp maple syrup/ agave nectar/ honey
Method

1. I don't think this needs explaining really but here goes...Put everything in the blender and pulse until smooth. Drink!! 

Week 9 Dish 2: Vegan strawberry banana coconut cookies

Seems like it's a cookie week for me! Cookies are just so easy to make and perfect to snack on. I still had 3 more very ripe bananas to use (I don't like wasting good food) and managed to buy some more strawberries, which were also starting to go bad. So I found a recipe which used both. I still had more bananas and strawberries than the recipe needed so I decided to make a strawberry banana milkshake too (recipe coming soon). Safe to say my family loved both the recipes, I mean, you can't go wrong with strawberries can you?!

Makes 18-24 cookies

Ingredients

2 cups oats (make this recipe gluten free by using gluten free oats!)

1/4 cup oat flour (or process some oats into a fine powder)

1 cup desiccated coconute/ coconut flates

2 tbsp ground flaxseeds/ linseeds

1/2 cup almonds, roughly chopped

1/4 tsp salt

2 medium bananas, mashed

2 tbsp maple syrup/ agave nectar/ honey

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

1 cup roughly chopped strawberries

1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Line two baking trays with grease proof paper.
2. In a large bowl, mix the oats, oat flour, desiccated coconut, flaxseeds/linseeds, almonds and salt.
3. Stir in the bananas, maple syrup, coconut oil, strawberries and vanilla until well combined.
4. Form 2 1/2 inch balls with your hands, place onto the trays and flatten gently. You don't need to leave a lot of space between then, they don't spread at all.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on the trays for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Original recipe: Strawberry coconut breakfast cookies

Week 9 Dish 1: Vegan banana nut cookies

Ahh my days are getting busier and busier. Netball season has started again and with 2 matches and one training session a week, free time is getting harder and harder to come by! But baking is pretty high on my priority list (can't give up all the yummy goodies) so I hope I can keep up with my two recipes per week.... I'm quite excited about some future bakes I have planned for Halloween and Diwali, which are both coming up. I managed to buy some very fun muffin and cake moulds, hope you're all excited too!

This week I once again had overripe bananas that needed to be used. I thought about making the bars from week 7 again because they we so quick and easy and yummy to boot, but then I found this recipe. It's pretty much the same as the bars but since it's cookies I think it's fair to use it as a whole new recipe (bit of a cheat I guess, cheeky me :p). As with the bars, this recipe contains absolutely NO ADDED SUGAR - it is sweetened with mushy bananas, making it as healthy as it is yummy :D.

Makes 24
Ingredients
2 cups oats (make this recipe gluten free by using gluten free oats!)
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 3 large ones)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
Method

1. Combine the first 5 ingredients in a large bowl and stir well.
2. Mix the banana, oil and vanilla extract in a separate bowl and add to the dry mixture. Combine well and let stand for 15 minutes. 
3. While you wait, preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and line two baking trays with grease proof paper.
4. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls of dough on to the baking trays and bake for 15 minutes or until lightly golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Original recipe: Banana-nut cookies

These are just so yummy, they will be gone before you know it! In my opinion this is definitely a recipe you don't want to miss - let me know if you agree when you've tried them :D

Week 7 Dish 1: Vegan banana oat bars

Happy world vegetarian day! I didn't actually know that such a day existed until a friend of mine pointed it out to me today. It is on October 1st every year, was established in 1977 by the North American Vegetarian Society and is followed by Vegetarian Awareness Month. This ends on November 1st with World Vegan Day. Yep, you learn something new every day!

This week I started my surgery placement, which as I said before is not something I'm very interested in. But, it hasn't been too bad so far, and the consultant really makes it worthwhile by teaching us a lot. So I'm pretty happy! We also had a charity cake sale in the hospital today, and I thought I need to bake something myself! So, here is my (probably) most healthy baked recipe to date, with absolutely no sugar and only a tiny bit of oil in it - vegan banana bars. Did I mention it's also a ridiculously quick and easy to make?

Makes 12 squares
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups mashed overripe bananas - about 3 large bananas (I only had 1 1/4 cups worth of bananas so I topped it up with unsweetened apple sauce. This makes it a bit less sweet so you can add a bit of honey/ agave nectar/ maple syrup to taste)
1/4 cup ground flaxseed/ linseed
1/4 cup canola oil/ rapeseed oil (you can even substitute this with water like in the original recipe to make it even healthier, just will be a little less moist)
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground mixed spice
3 cups oats (make this recipe gluten free by using gluten free oats!)
1/2 cup walnuts (or any other nuts)
1/2 cup raisins
Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Line a 9x9 inch baking dish with grease proof paper.
2. Combine the mashed banana, ground flaxseed/ linseed, water, oil, salt, cinnamon and mixed spice in a big bowl and stir well.
3. Add the oats, walnuts and raisins and combine well. Spoon into the baking dish and press well. 
4. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes then cut into squares, place upside down on another tray (lined with grease proof paper) and bake for a further 15 minutes. Turn over and bake finally for 5 minutes.
5. Let them cool completely and store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Original recipe: Banana walnut oat bars

Week 1 Dish 1: Baked banana and nectarine with soya yoghurt (vegan)

A very simple and pretty healthy recipe for my first dish. The inspiration for this was really ripe bananas that would otherwise go to waste and a box of 26 nectarines for £3.99.

Looks yummy right?? Well here's the recipe:

Serves 4: 1/2 banana and 1/2 nectarine each
Ingredients
2 nectarines, pitted and cut into 8ths
2 ripe bananas, cut into chunks
4 tsps honey (agave nectar [available from health food shops like Hollan and Barret] if you're a strict vegan)
Cinnamon to taste
As much soya yogurt as you want
Method

1. Preheat oven to 200°C.
2. Put the nectarines in the middle of a large square of foil, drizzle with 2 tsps honey and fold the foil over to create a packet.
3. Repeat with the bananas, adding cinnamon as well as honey. 
4. Place on a baking dish (preferably not a flat one in case of juice leakage) and bake for 15 minutes until soft (the nectarines may require longer). 
5. Remove from the packets, plate up with soya yogurt, and enjoy the gooey goodness!

Original recipes: baked bananas and baked nectarines

Read all about it
The high potassium content of bananas provide protection to the cardiovascular system - helps guard against high blood pressure, atherosclerosis and stroke[1]
Nectarines contain vitamin C, anti-oxidants and other good stuff[2]