Tag Archives: banana

guitar and nice banana-datebars…..

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Long time I didn’t write for the blog, of course it is getting boring but I was too busy. I was sick for one week, I am spending a lot of time in the garden, seeding seeds, harvesting, planning some special days in the garden and get rid of the weed. Organizing some little parties.

But for 3 weeks now I am learning guitar from out a book and it really enjoys and relaxes me. I started with a classical book and now I am going to learn some blues (because a friend of my is learning blues with the bass guitar), of course I am far from a good guitar player but I really like it, and I am making time for it and a lot of progress. This year I want to take singing lessons also. I think singing is a good way of expressing yourself, get rid of stress and so on. Will I be relaxt more?
I really was relaxt about the date bars I made (I read the backside of a supermarket bar and made it my own), I don’t have a food-dehydrator so I finished them by oven. But if you have one it’s raw! It’s a great way of eating some nice stuff when you don’t have a lot of time, you can keep them a long time in the fridge, today our friends liked the taste.

for approx.30 banana date bars
Ingredients
225 gram of dried dates
140 gram of banana
125 gram of oat flakes
50 grams of walnuts
40 gram of raisins
20 grams of pear juice
2 teaspoons of cinnamon powder (maybe you like more?)
5 teaspoons of hemp seeds

Kitchentools
a food processor
an oven or food dehydrator
an oven dish
baking paper
a wooden spoon to spread the dough in the oven dish

How to make the bars!
Get the food processor and mix all the ingredients together till it’s like a dough (if you like you can make it more crunchy, don’t mix it too long then!)
Get a squared oven dish and put in a layer of baking paper. Get the wooden spoon and the mixture, poor the mixture into the oven dish and spread it out ( like 1 cm thick) Of course you can make the decision how thick you like.
Put the oven dish into the oven, I baked it for 40 minutes on the lowest temperature, just look if the bars are more compact after the 40 minutes otherwise you put them longer in the oven. You think they are ready cut them in the sizes you like. Be creative and also experiment with other ingredients like cashews or chia seeds, berries and so on!

enjoy the quick snack very healthy and delicious.

ok ok the last one for now……fresh summer smoothie

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Yes I a addicted to every day a green smoothie, after trying one week, I am convienced! I love it and my children get a lot of vitamins in their body just by drinking a nice smoothie.
So yesterday I tried a new one, I just used my creativity, This is a fresh summer smoothie, everybody liked it! Also our French couchsurfers, who are lucky I am addicted so they get also some vitamin shot!Good for their ‘world’trip.I loved their adventure, they are going hitch-hiking through Europe, I want to join toooo 😉

The recipe for the fresh summer smoothie (4-6 persons)
2 little mangos or 1 big one
2 bananas
1 cucumber
2 glasses of water

Kitchentools
a blender/magimix with smoothie kit

Yeah….
So just get all the ingredients, wash the cucumber, peel the mango and blend it all together in the blender till it’s smooth. At last I poor in the glasses of water. Get the glasses and taste the fresh summer smoothie especially in the sun at your garden….AAH

enjoy

the most beautiful garden…..celery/kiwi smoothie

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Today I went together with a photographer across the neighbourhood, a jury has selected the 9 most beautiful gardens of this neigbourhood in the North of Amsterdam. We had to make photos of the garden with the people who live there, what a great stories we hear and what a friendly people. I had a great day, the children enjoyed themselves by carrying the poles with a sign (you are nominated for the most beautiful garden).On the 14th of september, the most beautiful will be selected, at the green day here at the zonneplein.
Anyway we are finished now, just as I finished the smoothie week. Here you will get the last recipe!

Ingredients for the celery/kiwi smoothie (2-4 persons)
A recipe I picked up somewehere from the internet I don’t know the source anymore, sorry)
3 stocks of celery
1 banana
4 kiwis
2 cups of water

Kitchentools
a blender/Magimix with smoothiekit

Let’s start….
Wash the celery, peel the kiwi and banana. get the blender/Magimix. Make them smooth by using the foodprocessor/blender at last pour in the water. Enjoy this one, if you don’t like celery don’t make it 😉

enjoy

celebrating……papaya/miner’s lettuce smoothie

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Today we celebrate Kaya Moon his thirth b-day! Made some cupcakes, some rice rolls, cubed papaya and a nut seeds mixture. Really tasteful. Kaya have had a great electric train from Duplo, and he played all day with it.
I liked the kitchen very much today, I made for the dinner some spring rolls, together with some rice and vegetables. And also I made, of course, the 6th green smoothie and this one I create with some help from the internet, my creative brains and a touch of greens from my own garden.

So here is the recipe for the papaya/miner’s lettuce smoothie (2-4 persons)
ingredients
1/2 papaya
1 lemon juice
2 cups of miner’s lettuce
1 1/2 cup of water
1 banana
3 twigs of mint leaves

kitchentools
a blender/Magimix with smoothie kit

Let’s mix it…..
Cut all the ingredients and wash, so you can put it in the blender/Magimix.
Blend it till it’s smooth, I put the water and lemon juice at last. Get the glasses, get your victims and enjoy your smoothie!

Enjoy

do you remember me….cucumber/parsley smoothie

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Yesterday I went to a concert at the Paradiso, here in Amsterdam, it was nice! Not so crowded at all, the music was strange but great and heavy and weird 🙂
But at the end I wanted to go to the entrance and then a guy came to me, I knew him and he me. Unfortunately I really don’t remember from where, I know his face very well…do I have a hole in my memory….? Especially the smile…a day after I still don’t know where I know him from, I have no name, the only thing he is now living in Hilversum and is a programmer in woerden…So I need more food for my brains, another smoothie in my one week green smoothie week. Let’s get back my memory….!

Green smoothie number three (2-4 persons)
(recipe from: Parsley Passion Smoothie by Sergei Boutenko)
Ingredients
1 cucumber
1 banana
1 bunch of fresh parsley (with stems also)
1 red/yellow apple (Fuji)
2 cups of water

Kitchentools
Yes again the blender or Magimix with smoothiekit

Here we go again…..
I would say wash all the ingredients that needs to be washed. Cut them in pieces so you can blend it. I put the water at last in the blender, after I blend the fruits/vegetables.
Maybe it need to be stirred with a spoon so it’s a good mixture for a smoothie

I like this one it is fresh, and if you don’t like cucumber don’t make this…

Enjoy

 

Noorderparkkamer………hot banana-chocolate

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Waiting for the summer, yesterday I had a little summer feeling! We went to a little party here in the north of Amsterdam (noorderparkkamer, Dutch). There was music, making your own hat (for the children) food, beer and a lot of great people, but the weather must become better it’s still too cold. There was some sun, but the temperature was 17 degrees Celsius. So today I really wanted hot chocolate…and I thought maybe I have to try some hot chocolate with banana look if it’s great of taste. …and yes I liked it especially with the coconut whipped cream!

Make two cups of hot banana chocolate….
ingredients
2 cups of rice milk
3 teaspoon of Dutch processed cacao
1 teaspoon of rice syrup
1 little banana
some whipped cream see other blog
some roasted almonds crunched in a mortar to sprinkle on top of the whipped cream (optional)

Kitchentools
1 saucepan
2 mugs
a frying pan
a mortar

Let’s begin
puree the banana till it’s liquid, in the meanwhile you can heat up the milk in the saucepan. Roast the almonds in the frying pan without oil. When the milk starts to boil, take the saucepan of the heater.
Mix in the cacao, rice syrup and banana. Ready to poor in the cups, on top you put some whipped cream (I did a little orange juice in the whipped cream, 2 teaspoons). On top you sprinkle the almonds (what you crunched in the mortar)
Also nice is hot chocolate with rum…yammie

I would say enjoy the summer with hot chocolate 😉

Yvi-fox becomes 1…..and a coco-banana-mintha smoothie

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A year goes so fast, my youngest son Yvi-fox becomes 1. Making pies in the evening and some nice breads for tomorrow when the party will start.
No sugar, a new raw pie and some leftovers from the coconuts I broke, (precisely the coconut juice of the young coconut). I was surprised the meat is so nices and the juice even more
Last I drunk a coconut/banana juice from dr martins, wow I was amazed how delicious, but the price for the juice was too expensive but now I have the leftovers and I tried to make it may own and yes it worked out, yammie I want more.

So here are the ingredients for 2 royal glasses
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups of young coconut juice (1 or 2 coconuts)
1 medium banana
a handful of mint leaves
(nice with a handful of rapini also)

Kitchentools
a blender
2 glasses

So lets start….
So easy just put all the ingredients into the blender and mix until smooth.
Take it out poor in some nice glasses and decorate with some twig of mint and a slice of banana.
Nice to drink it cool.
You think it is too much banana or too thick poor in some more coconut juice!
Maybe next time I try to put in some red pepper, for the spiciness 😉

enjoy

babyshower…and an apple-pie without sugar

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A baby-shower, great! My friend is getting a baby and now we have a big party. What to make, she is not allowed to eat sugar and some other stuff. So after searching on the internet I found a vegan apple-pie recipe, I was following the recipe and I discovered it was a crappy one. So the bottom was ruined. So I was experimenting with ingredients to make the pie perfect.  Love to try this, so I started baking, I thought after getting the pie out it was totally failure but….yes I must say it was/is a nice tasting apple-pie! Now I will hope she likes it also, because pregnant ladies…….;)

Ingredients for a whole apple-pie without sugar (24 cm)
the bottom
2 bananas
160 gram of sifted flour
160 gram of spelt flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
180 gram of coconut-oil
1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar
some flour to roll the dough on

the filling
4 big sweet apples (something like 1 kilogram ) cut in tiny pieces
200 gram of raisins soaked in water for 20 minutes (maybe if you don’t like raisins poor in some dried apricots didn’t try yet but I think it taste perfect)
14 dates from Iran (these are soft as chocolate and sweet) cut in tiny pieces
4-5 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
juice of 1 lemon
150 gram of mixed nuts (like almond, hazelnut, walnuts) crunched in tiny pieces (not like sand)

The kitchentools
a spring, with a diameter of 24 centimetres
a bowl
an oven
a little bowl
a fork

Let’s begin…
bottom…
First it is useful to make the bottom, so melt the cocnut-oil au bain marie, in the meanwhile you can mix the dry ingredients together in the bowl (the cinnamon, flour, baking powder)
Mash the 2 bananas in the little bowl with a fork, till it’s something like yellow mud 😉
The coconut-oil will be soft by now, so poor in while stirring, the coconut-oil (not direct out the bowl because you will burn your hands), apple vinegar and the bananas. Mix this well till its a ball.
Time to roll out the 2/3 of the dough, the mine was too soft so I couldn’t really roll out the dough (maybe you can?) So I just immediately, spread it out, in pieces, in the spring/baking pan, like clay, I made the bottom on this way.  Maybe a little jigsaw game.
Make also the sides ( +/-5 cm high), because the filling must be poor in this dough.

Prepare the filling.
Cut everything what must be cut (the dates), soak the raisins and crunch the nuts. Mix this altogether in a  big bowl. Over the mixture you poor the lemon juice, the apples won’t get brown and get a fresh taste. At last you mix the cinnamon into the mixture, everything must be totally chaos.
So the filling is ready to be put on to the dough.
Get the spring again with the already prepared bottom of dough. Fill the bottom, and sometimes you have to push a little bit  so it will fit in the bowl of dough you made.
Yes everything is fitting? otherwise you can taste some mixture before the pie is ready 🙂

On top you will put the 1/3 of the dough( you put aside).
Again I was claying a top, I made 3 stripes diagonal and three stripes horizontal, so you get a nice square-effect.

In to the oven now, (175 degrees Celsius) bake the pie in 40-45 minutes golden brown, you will smell the nice pie when it comes out of the oven.
Cool it down, and cut in pieces so you can share this addicting pie. Great with whipped cream and tea

Eet smakelijk/enjoy

tired, tea…and some ordinary cookies

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Busy days, I am really tired and just want to relax. But I really have the feeling now that I am really doing what belongs to me, gardening, reading, learning, cooking and hugging the family. Just search the internet for nice courses and places where I can help with cooking, just like joe’s garage a squat in Amsterdam (http://www.joesgarage.nl/) where I helped last week, preparing a vegan meal (nice to eat there anyway!). Like yesterday where I went to a reading about raw food in a community centre. About two weeks there will be a reading about permaculture, looking forward to be there 😉 But now time for tea with a cookie and some good chilling music on the background.

The recipe for ordinary cookies for by the tea
Ingredients
300 gram of wheat flour, sifted (try spelt flour also once)
1/2 teaspoon of Himalayan salt (any other salt will do also)
1 tablespoon of Dutch cookie spice/speculaaskruiden*
100 gram of coconut oil melted au bain marie
1 ripe banana mashed
150 grams of syrup (I used date-syrup)
some dried grated coconut

Kitchentools
a magimix or other food processor will do
an oven
some nice shaped cutters
some baking paper
a bowl
a rolling pin

Easy…just follow the next instructions
First mix all the dry ingredients together except the dried coconut (flour,salt, Dutch cookie spice/speculaaskruiden) and mix in an other bowl the wet ingredients together. Get the food processor and mix both mixtures slowly together till it’s a great a smooth dough.
Now set aside in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Yes it’s ready to roll, make a big pancake from it with the thickness of 1 centimetre at highest (when it sticks to the table sprinkle some flour on the table).In the meanwhile preheat the oven on 175 degrees Celsius. Get the cutters and cut out the most beautiful shapes. Put them on the baking paper and on top sprinkle some grated coconut, or decorate it with some raisins or chocolate sprinkles (your choice :))
Ooohlala now they are ready for the oven, leave them in the oven for something like 15 minutes. Get them out and let them cool down.
Make the tea and get started with dipping the cookies.
Enjoy
.*30 gram of cinnamon
10 grams of nutmeg
5 grams of anise seed
10 grams of clove powder
5 grams of white pepper
5 grams of coriander seeds

Mix this altogether till it’s a powder

oeh lalala sticky banana bread!

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This is so great and sweet and delicious…you want to eat it all when you made it! Yes I am talking about banana bread! This was really what I wanted to try before the high tea, because I think it fits well for an high tea, the sweetness comes from the banana so no added sugar or something else poisoning ;). Only some date-syrup.

This is what I want to give to my children, I feed them (at least I try to) almost sugarless..Because if you won’t get used to the refined sugar you appreciate the taste of the ingredients more, I must say at least I did when I  became a  almost sugarless eater.
Just try for one week to eat no sugar, find out how hard it is, almost in everything will be added some refined sugar (especially in the take away, ready for dinner, sauces and microwave food). But this is of course your own choice.
Anyway to finish my story the banana bread wasn’t good enough for the high tea, but now I made it for the x-mas and I ate almost the whole bread on my own ( 😉 ).

The ingredients for one whole banana bread ( in a cake tin)
3 ripe bananas
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
1/2 cup of date syrup
1 3/4 cup of spelt flour
3/4 teaspoon of baking soda
3/4 teaspoon of baking powder
1/3 cup of crunched walnuts
1/3 cup of crunched hazelnuts
1/3 cup of soaked raisins (soaked for 20 minutes)
some crunched walnut for garnish

Kitchentools
a food processor
a dough hook for the food processor
a metal bread pan like 30 cm
an oven
a bowl
some hunger for sweetness

so the beginning….
Mix all the dry ingredients (spelt flour, baking powder and soda, crunched wal- and hazelnuts, raisins) together in a bowl. Set aside and now mash the bananas very well till they are smooth (you can do in the food processor, I did) some lumps are not a disaster.
Now mix all the residual ingredients together with the bananas (the coconut oil,lemon juice and date syrup).
Now you can mix it together with the dry ingredients in a food processor with dough hook. The dough must be a little soft and sticky.
Yes it’s ready, pour the dough into the bread pan, I used some baking paper to put the dough in so it won’t stick on the metal. But without baking paper, if you have a good pan, it won’t stick , just put a little oil on the metal. (my bread pan is to old and destroyed)
And for garnish put on top some crunched walnuts

preheat the oven on 190 degrees Celsius, and then put in the bread for about 45 minutes. Check on the end if the bread is harden and is having a tan, then it’s ready for eating.

Enjoy this delicious sweet bread, no spread needed!