Crispy Sweet Potato Fries

Morning loves! Hope everyone is doing really well! As it is almost weekend I decided to share a snack I make almost every Sunday afternoon: crispy sweet potato fries! They are extremely easy to make and you can enjoy them within 30 minutes, which is the reason why they are such a hit in our family!

Health Benefits Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes are extremely good for you as they are full of wonderful vitamins, iron and magnesium:
- Sweet potatoes are high in vitamin B6. This vitamin helps reduce chemicals in our bodies. Homocysteine chemicals have been linked with degenerative diseases, including prevention of heart attacks!
- Sweet potatoes are a good source of vitamin C. While most people know that vitamin C is important to help ward off cold and flu viruses, few people are aware that this crucial vitamin plays an important role in bone and tooth formation, digestion, and blood cell formation. It helps accelerate wound healing, produces collagen which helps maintain skin’s youthful elasticity, and is essen­tial to helping us cope with stress. It even appears to help protect our body against toxins that may be linked to cancer.
- Sweet potatoes contain Vitamin D which is critical for immune system and overall health at this time of year.  Both a vitamin and a hormone, vitamin D is primarily made in our bodies as a result of getting adequate sunlight. You may have heard about seasonal affective disorder (or SAD, as it is also called), which is linked to inadequate sunlight and therefore a vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D plays an important role in our energy levels, moods, and helps to build healthy bones, heart, nerves, skin, and teeth..
- Sweet potatoes contain iron. Most people are aware that we need the mineral iron to have adequate energy, but iron plays other important roles in our body, including red and white blood cell production, resistance to stress, proper im­mune functioning, and the metabolizing of protein, among other things.
- Sweet potatoes are a good source of mag­nesium, which is the relaxation and anti-stress mineral. Magnesium is necessary for healthy artery, blood, bone, heart, muscle, and nerve function, yet experts estimate that approximately 80 percent of the popula­tion in North America may be deficient in this important mineral.

Crispy Sweet Potato Fries
Ingredients
4 medium sweet potatoes

2 tablespoons of coconut oil

1 tablespoon red pepper powder

1/2 tablespoon chili powder

Sea salt

 

Directions

Soak your sweet potatoes in a bowl for 2 hours (cold water!). After the two hours, rinse and dry them with a towel - this step is not necessary but will make your fries very crispy and yummy! 

Preheat your oven to 420 degrees.
peel and cut the potatoes into this slices. In a bowl, mix the coconut oil and the spices. Add the fries and mix till they are all covered. Take a baking tray, covered with baking paper, lay the fries on the tray and make sure they are separated - otherwise they won't become crispy!
Bake the fries for 30 minutes, flipping them every 10 minutes.
ENJOY!! 

Love,
Sanne

 

Banana pancakes with coyo

Hi sweethearts!

I have got another really delicious recipe for to post today! Since a lot of you asked for my banana pancake recipe I have spent the last week perfecting the recipe so I can finally update this on my blog! So weird, the whole time Ive been working on my blog, I haven't posted a simple banana recipe. Shame on me!

A bit over a week ago it was Eastern and I was lucky enough to celebrate this holiday with my boyfriend in Paris. We had the most wonderful time but this meant we missed out on all the holiday festivities with our family and friends. To make up I made these banana pancakes (pretty festive huh?!). I loved the topping of bananas, blueberries and raspberries. We picked them up on boulevard Raspail the day before. Anyone ever been there? It is seriously the most beautiful organic market I have ever seen! I will post some pics to give you guys an impression!




















Banana-coconut pancakes
Ingredients
4 flax eggs
2 bananas
1 cup of old fashioned oats
2 tbsp coyo (coconut yoghurt)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon

Directions
Mix all the ingredients in your blender or food processor until smooth and bake like for about 2 minutes on each side! Top with your favorite fruits and enjoy with your loved ones!

Love,
Sanne

Why I love (!!) monomeals

What exactly is a monomeal?
A 'mono meal' is simply when you eat only one type of food and you don't combine any food.
Examples of monomeals are:
- eating nothing but bananas for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
- eating nothing but mangoes for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
- eating nothing but watermelon for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

I understand that, for people who are used to eating meals that involve a lot of ingredients and love fancy food preparations, the idea of eating nothing but pineapple might seem boring and bland, but to me the idea of eating all the pineapple I want (without limitations) is pure heaven! Plus eating a meal that mother nature spent a lot of time and energy creating for you is so fulfilling!




















Eating monomeals has a lot of benefits for your health;
- first of all it is the most simple way to eat, if you don't have any time to prepare a huge lunch just grab a watermelon or a bunch of bananas!
- Monomeals are the easiest meals to digest.
- You can find out very easily which foods work for you and which doesn't. Your body reacts to certain foods. When you only eat juicy oranges and you feel healthy, energized and happy you know these really work for you!
- Your body will tell you when you've had enough. You wont overeat. Since you are paying attention to the taste and the texture of what you are eating. This means that your body will let you know whenever you have had enough. This will do so by causing your taste buds to shift in a way that will cause the delicious food you're eating to become tasteless and unappealing, making it impossible to overeat (awesome!!) 

I really love monomeals, for the previous reasons mentioned, but too because I often can't choose which of my favorite fruits to eat during the day. Now I don't have to choose and it really makes life so simple. In the morning I eat 4 bananas, as a snack 1 pineapple or watermelon, for lunch I often grab a few mangoes and again as a snack 2 avocados.

Hope I made you guys a bit curious and you're gonna try eating a monomeal in the near furture!   

Love,
Sanne

Sweetest, darkest, strawberry-chocolate cake EVER!

When people think of preparing vegan recipes, most of them assume a few things: It's going to be difficult buying substitutes for animal products, it's going to be time-consuming to prepare, and it won't be very satisfying to eat. With my birthday coming up real quick I want to take away a lot of these misconceptions about vegan food. Starting with this mindblowing chocolate cake.  I love the challenge of adapting recipes for people's favorite foods so when my friends and family told me they all loved chocolate cake (who doesn’t?) I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to surprise them all with this sweetest, darkest strawberry-chocolate cake ever!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sweetest, darkest strawberry-chocolate cake EVER
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups speltflour
1 cup coconut flower sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/3 cup coconut oil

1 cup warm water
1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Handful of strawberries

Handful of chopped walnuts

2 tbsp lemon juice

Directions

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees. In your foodprocessor, mix together the speltflour, the coconut flower sugar and the baking soda. When blended together, add the water, vanilla, coconut oil and the apple cider and pulse again until you have a smooth consistency.

Add the berries together with the lemon juice into a saucepan. Simmer over medium heat until the fruit softens and begins to break downs. Remove from the heat.

Pour the cacaomixture into a baking tin and blend in the strawberry jam as well as the chopped walnuts.

Place into your oven for 30 minutes, until your knife comes out clean.

Let the cake cool off completely (approx. 2 hours) before serving.

ENJOY loves!!

Sanne

 

 

Homemade Vegan Walnut Brownies

Morning loves!! I hope you've all had the most amazing weekend! We are experiencing the most pleasant weather here in Amsterdam so I have spent my days mostly outside. Still it gets chilly in the evening which for me was the perfect time for some baking. I was thinking about some new treats when it hit me.. I have NEVER made vegan brownies! Which is insane, thinking brownies were my favorite for a long long time - before I turned to a vegan diet.

Brownies can be easily made vegan, payaya, black beans, tofu and sweet potato are known for being an excellent base. I went for sweet potatoes because I returned from the farmers market with 2 big bags (I eat them everyday).

Vegan Walnut Brownies
Ingredients
2 large sweet potatoes
1 very ripe, small banana
1 cup of ground walnuts
1/2 cup of ground almonds
20 dates (soaked overnight)
3/4 cup of almond flour
5 tbsp raw cacao powder (carob powder will do fine too)
4 tbsp agave syrup
pinch of cinnamon

Directions
Start by preheating your oven to 180 degrees celcius. Place your two potatoes into your microwave (3 minutes for every 200 gram on 750 watt) until they are really soft and beginning to fall apart. Peel the skin of your potatoes and add them, together with the banana, dates and the agave syrup, to your food processor. Pulse until you have a smooth and creamy consistency. Add the almond flour and pulse again till its completely absorbed. Add the almonds, walnuts, cacao powder and your cinnamon.

Scoop the mixture into a (lined) baking dish and place into your preheated oven for about 20 minutes until the brownie is dry from the inside (pierce the brownie with a fork). Place the brownie on a baking tray and allow it to cool of for at least 20 minutes.

Enjoy with some homemade almond milk!

Love,
Sanne