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 14 Dish 2: Vegan cranberry walnut oat cookies

I finished my renal placement, it went so fast (probably because it was only a week long) but was pretty useful! I talked to a lot of patients with kidney transplants, on dialysis, and with lots of other signs. There was a patient with aortic regurgitation with a diastolic murmur and a collapsing pulse, which I have only seen once before. Definitely useful! Now I'm on to my ENT week, let's see how that goes....

To continue the sweet and sour theme (mostly so that I can finish the cranberries in the freezer) I decided to make cookies with cranberries as my second recipe this week. The original recipe said dried cranberries but the frozen ones work just as well, hope you enjoy them :D

Makes ~20 (depending on size)
Ingredients
2 cups oats
2 cups wholemeal flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup agave/ honey
3 tbsp golden syrup (optional, depends how sweet you want the cookies. I used 3 and next would probably use 1-2)
1 cup water
3 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chopped cranberries (fresh, frozen or dried unsweetened)
1/2 cup walnuts
Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and line two baking trays with grease proof paper.
2. Mix together the oats, flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg. Then add the remaining ingredients other than the cranberries and walnuts.
3. Stir until almost combined, then add the cranberries and walnuts and finish mixing.
4. Scoop heaped tablespoons of the batter onto the baking trays. They do spread a bit so leave about 1.5 inch gap between them. I made 21 cookies but they were quite big so you can probably get about 30 if you want smaller ones.
5. Bake for 10 minutes (maybe less if they are smaller), allow to cool for a couple of minutes on the tray before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely. Sweet and sour goodness!

Original recipe: Vegan cranberry and walnut oatmeal 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