NEW WEBSITE!

Hey Guys!!

Thank you so much for reading my blog, I decided to give my website a whole new look so from now on you will find my blog on

www.hungryforhealthyfood.com

Hope to see you there!

xoxo
Claudia

Protein Pancakes Baby

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This recipe is kinda weird, created it when I came home from the gym. I was exhausted and hungry and knew I was going to have so much muscle pain so I wanted to fill up my body whit as much as protein as possible. Eggs are always a good option, but I was in a sweet-tooth mood so eggs weren't really an option. Maybe just a protein smoothie? Nehh.. but what if I combined the two? Yep! Great idea, so I invented the protein pancake! 

Ingredients
1 egg
2 egg whites
1 scoop protein powder
Some water

Simply make a pancake batter with the eggs, first whip them up and then add the protein powder. Add water until you have a nice consistency (the same as a regular pancake batter) and then heat up some oil in a pan and bake your pancake. You can make 2 regular ones or 1 huge one ;-) Dust it off with cinnamon and some fresh fruit like banana, strawberries or some home made chocolate spread!

Bon appetit!!

Mouthwatering Coconut, Chocolate & Raspberry mini tartlets

You may have seen these beauty's on my Instagram or Facebook page.. Well today I am finally sharing my delicious recipe with you! 

I had a BBQ with my family last weekend and it always involves lots of meat. I'm not a big meat eater but I do love chicken. So we made a batch of healthy burgers, grilled chicken legs, chicken sate, some sausages for the guys and lots more. I always whip up at least 2 different kinds of salads, some veggies, some bread with dips and homemade herbed butter. Because desserts are always unhealthy at my parents place, but everybody loves them I decided it would be nice if I would created something delicious and healthier to the table. Also, because my little niece loooooves cakes. 

Ingredients

for the coconut macaroon tart crust

2 2/3 cups unsweetened coconut

3 egg whites (normal or 2 when you have large eggs)

2 tbsp stevia sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

for the raspberry bottom

1 bag of deep frozen raspberries

for the chocolate layer (homemade nutella)

1 cup blanched hazelnuts

1/2 cup coconut milk

1/4 cup palm sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened (raw) cacao powder

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons coconut oil

pinch of sea salt

Now I would suggest to make the homemade nutella first, store it in a jar it always comes in handy ;-) (If your lazy you can substitute for a store bought nutella or chocolate mousse but it will be less healthy). 

Step 1: Preheat the oven on 180 degrees and roast the hazelnuts in the oven for 10 minutes (you can also ask your organic nut store to dry roast them so you can skip this step).  If your hazelnuts still have skin, remove them (easy to do when they come out of the oven with a damp cloth and rub the nuts with it).  Add the hazelnuts to the bowl of a food processor and cut up the hazelnuts until it becomes a puree, it will take a few minutes until creamy and you may have to scrape down the sides of the bowl a couple of times. Add the coconut milk, coconut palm sugar, cocoa, vanilla and coconut oil and salt until it's all well mixed and becomes a good paste. Store the homemade nutella in the refrigerator. 

Step 2: For the crust: Preheat an oven on 180 degrees Celsius, in a food processor combine the coconut with the egg whites, vanilla and the stevia with the coconut until it's well combined. Lightly coat a muffin or cake pan with some oil and press down the coconut mixture until it makes a well shape as a tart crust. Bake until the coconut turns golden around the edges and is set in the centre, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven and invert the tins immediately on a rack. 

Step 3: Let the raspberries thaw a bit and then smash them up in a bowl with a fork. This will be your first layer for the crusts. 

Coconut crusts with the smashed raspberries layer

 Step 4: Get your (homemade) Nutella out of the fridge and serve a big tablespoon of the chocolate cream in to the tarts. Garnish with some raspberries and there you go. Amazing delicious, healthier, homemade mini tartlets!

My little niece loving my tartlets, cuuuuute!!!!

Nutritional information: Approximately 140 calories a tart. 

Easy Summer Salad

This is one of my favourite meals, I love to eat this for lunch or dinner on a wonderful sunny summer day. It contains marinated chicken, avocado, mango and fresh veggies. What else do you want? ;-)

Ingredients
seasoned or marinated chicken breast
5 cherry tomatoes
2 table spoons corn
piece of cucumber
1/3 avocado
few pieces fresh mango
lettuce
walnut/hazelnut or olive oil
salt and pepper
squeeze of fresh lemon juice

Fried the chicken in the pan in some coconut oil until browned and done, let it cool down a bit while you cut your veggies. Grab a plate arrange all your ingredients on it and serve with a swirl of oil, squeeze of lemon and some salt and pepper on top. Easy does it! ;-)

ps. A great tip is to fried some extra chicken and store it in your fridge. It's perfect for making another salad or a for a throw in with a ready-to-go soup when you are in a hurry!

Running around in Hamburg

As a model, you have to do a lot of castings and go sees. Remember America's and every other country's top model TV shows? (Can't believe I'm going to compare the real model life with that TV show, but anyway :P) but it's kinda like that. You run around, don't know the city and you go from appointment to appointment to introduce yourself to the photographer, production company or fashion editor to get more jobs booked. Well that's the reason why I'm in Hamburg now, I just got signed to MGM Models so I'm here now for a few days to run around!

You never ever ever know where and what time your appointments are for the day before the same morning that day. So every morning you wake up and your day will be one big surprise! Around 10:30am you just get an email saying: Hi Claudia, here are your appointments for today (...) And during the day you get some text messages with new additional ones. That means you have no idea when or even IF you have time to sit down and eat something. For me it's important that I fill up my by bag with healthy bites before I ran off in the morning. I always stock up on a bottle of water, fresh fruit, nuts and/or a fruit-nut bar. This will keep you going throughout the day or until you have some free time to sit down and relax and have a normal lunch.

Me eating a raw cacao fruit/nut bar in between castings

The next tip I would like to give you as a model is; find something in the city you are in, that will get your mind off modelling and give you a piece of mind. For me this is working out, so that's why I always bring my running shoes with me wherever I go. I mean you can go for a run wherever you are in the world! And if I'm in a city where there is Bikram Yoga, I'm in!! I love Bikram, addicted to this typical kind of workout since my stay in Capetown. As soon as I know I will be on-stay in a city I check the web if there is a Bikram Yoga studio near by. Bikram yoga is a 90 minute class doing 26 yoga postures in a heated room of 40 degrees. Yeah you will sweat like hell, but it just gives me such a great feeling. I calm down, relax and enjoy it so much! 

How my Bikram class looks like before we hit it off

And now, obviously we have to talk about food. When you are on-stay as a model in Hamburg, or just travelling or just visiting Hamburg hereby some tips. I always stock up on fruits, crackers, honey, oats, eggs, fresh vegetables, ready-to-eat-soups and some protein like chicken breast. This way I can whip up some healthy meals in seconds. Perfect when you walked around all day for castings (I once measured, I walk about 10km a day). So when you come home, you just want to have food on the table in seconds rather than minutes. So for example, this time I bought a carrot-ginger-coconut soup and some shrimps. Throw it together heat up, give it a stir and there you go. Or whip up a salad with your fresh vegetables, fried chicken (fried a complete packet and store it in the fridge, saves time for the next time) and some avocado. A recipe for one of those salads will be online soon!

Now, let's talk about restaurants. Where do you need to go in Hamburg when you are looking for a healthy bite? I already mentioned one of my favourite restaurants Dean & David. They have amazing salads, wraps and they are all delicious and healthy. Plus, I'm addicted to their coconut-sate dressing...  I want a jar of that please!! Oh and do eat some bread when you visit Dean & David. Germans are just so incredibly good and baking the best breads ever.

Salad at Dean & David

Then another great salad bar, a bit similar to Dean & David is Feld's Salat. Pick and choose your own salads or choose one of their extremely delicious curry's or soups.

I also love to take a salad from the salad bar at Edeka supermarket, you can just fill a bowl and pay for your weight. Perfect when you don't have time to sit down but need something on the go.

Then there is the Asian vegetarian restaurant Loving Hut. Amazing fresh and healthy food!

Oh and for the Sushi Lovers, go and visit Sushi Lô. They have the most amazing fresh sushi and if you order before 18 they have a special price!

xoxo

From Hamburg

Rollende Keukens Amsterdam

Last Saturday I went for a day trip to Amsterdam with my sweet friend Linda (Linda Visser @Max Models). Obvioulsy there was some shopping to do, Amsterdam is well known and great for shopping, but first we head to pay a visit to the "Rollende Keukens". A small festival with all trucks selling there food at the Westerpark. It was sunny, such a beautiful day so perfect to walk around in the sun sitting in the grass and enjoying great food and drinks, plus we were hungry!!

Festival area

The Festival is free, the food is a bit expensive but affordable and their range is wide, from crepes, smoothies, sandwiches to fresh lobster, sushi, burgers, veggie burgers, BBQ, burrito's.. yup kinda everything!! So everyone will find something they will like.

Fresh Coconut

We started off with some fresh coconut, but damn all the food is yelling: "Pick me, pick me". You shouldn't eat for a week and then stuff yourself over there hahaha. There was some great BBQ-ed Chicken, some delicious Burrito's, fresh lobster.. tooooo much!! And then I saw the truck of the The Dutch Weedburger (click!)...

No more need to look around, we digged into it! This was something I wanted to try for aaaages but just never came across it when hungry. So choices were all of a sudden really easy! And we went for this baby, a delicious patty made from soy and see weed. The bread is enriched with chlorella and it's served with a delicious creamy sauce. It's all 100% natural, 100% healthy and very important no bullshit added. So, if you see one of these baby's on the menu list when you are on-the-go in Holland, they serve it at Haje Restaurants and on festivals as well please give it a try!

And after all the food porn we went walking it off and did some serious shopping ;-) We found some great vintage stuff, a few key items at Cos and a bikini for the upcoming job-trip to Madeira (lucky, lucky) and for my Holiday in Marrakech end of August of course.

Such a great day! 

Detox Thai Soup

As I already told you in my latest post, I went allll the way with my juicing cleanse. An incredible experience, which I am seriously proud off. Created it myself and didn't cheat! But your body is still getting rid of all the toxins in your body the 3 days after your cleanse.  So especially these 3 days are really important to eat as clean as possible. No dairy, meat, coffee, alcohol etc. The key is light food, you do not want to stress your organs and your digestion by eating heavy foods right away. Keep drinking lots of water and keep taking your pro-biotics and vitamins. What can you eat? Fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts, quinoa, buckwheat, salads, soups, almond milk, coconut milk. For example:

Breakfast

• fruit salad (with some nuts and almond milk)
• porridge (oat or quinoa) like my Pear & Pecan Treat
• smoothies (no milk except almond milk)
• banana pancakes 

Lunch

• salads
• eggs (scrambled, omelet)
• fresh soups like My Yummy Creamy Soup, but swap the soy milk for almond and leave the cheese and fish out. You can add some fried tofu instead.
• quinoa, buckwheat, brown rice as an addition to your salads and soups

Dinner

• steamed, grilled, roasted vegetables
• eggs
• tofu, falafel
• quinoa, brown rice as an addition

So off with a recipe to get you going!!

SUPERFOOD THAI SOUP

Ingredients

For the paste
2 small onions
4 cloves garlic
1 small piece of fresh ginger
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 red chili (If you don't like spicy get the seeds out)
1 tsp coconut sugar
juice of 1 lemon
splash of coconut milk
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp sereh

for the soup
fresh vegetables! I chose 1 zucchini, some mushrooms and carrots
1 can coconut milk
1/2 litter vegetable stock
thai basil, parsley or coriander for garnish
pumpkin seeds for garnish

Start with your paste, process all the ingredients for the curry paste in a blender or food processor. Mix until it forms a well mixed paste, adding more coconut milk as necessary. Set aside, and start slicing the vegetables.

Add the paste, remaining coconut milk, vegetable stock to a big pot and bring to a boil, add your vegetables and cook the soup (under a lit) for about 30 minutes.

Serve with your fresh herbs and pumpkin seeds and enjoy your comfort bowl!

A Moroccan feast meal - Eggplant Glory

My first vegetarian meal after the cleanse. 

Damn, what should I prepare? I actually really craved some roasted chicken but that wasn't an option, obviously.. because I need to eat vegan for at least 2 days. And then I noticed these organic sweet potato, chickpea falafel in my grocery store. No added junk, just sweet potato, chickpeas and spices!  Hmmm but what could I create with these yummy balls? I decided to make a Moroccan feast meal, I roasted some eggplants and served it with the most yummy tahini dressing ever and pomegranate. My boyfriend had it served with some wholewheat couscous and feta cheese over the eggplant (cheese I miss you!! <3). 

Doesn't really looks awful to eat right? Detox dinners don't have to be boring ;-)

Ingredients
For 2 persons

1 package sweet potato falafel
2 eggplants
pomegrenate
handful of rocket/lettuce
olive oil
salt & pepper
(optional feta and quinoa/couscous)

for the dressing
3 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp hot water
2 tbsp lemon
pinch of salt and pepper
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cumin
2 garlic cloves, minced

If you want to make this recipe and not doing any detox or lose weight, I would recommand serving it with quinoa or couscous and some crumbled feta on top of the eggplant ;-)

Heat the oven on 200 degrees Celsius with rack in middle. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut the eggplant in halves, flesh-side up and with the tip of a sharp knife, score the flesh. Season the eggplant with salt and pepper and drizzle with oil. Roast the eggplant until soft and browned, about 35-40 minutes.

While the eggplant is roasting prepare the dressing, simply mix all the ingredients until a smooth sauce.

The last 7 minutes add the falafel on the baking sheet next to the eggplant.

Remove eggplant from oven and sprinkle with some salt flakes. Transfer to serving plates, layer the eggplant on a bed of lettuce, drizzle the most delicious yummy tahini dressing on top, the pomegranate and maybe some feta and serve it with the falafel (and maybe your couscous or quinoa).

Incredibly yummy!!!

xoxo


ps. Save the left over tahini dressing in a jar, a wonderful dressing for lots of salads!

Doing A Detox Cleanse

The first time I heard about juicing was years ago. I'm reading about it all the time, it's all over; in several, books, magazines on the web - and it all sounded to good to be true. Drinking freshly squeezed fruit and veggie juices that will detoxify your body, give you a glowing skin and boost your immune system. But since everybody is talking about it and it's supposed to help with digestion problems, bloating as well I want to give it a try. I mean, what's 3 days in your life right? Will I feel light, better, have a glowing skin? No idea, let's wait and see.

A detox is ment to detoxify your body. You will only drink loads of vegetables and fruits that are high in Vitamins and minerals. You need to prepare 3 days before your detox and slowly start to build up after. Try to eliminate caffeine, meat, cow milk, sugar in advance and the 3 days after the cleanse. There are many ways to do a detox, I chose to do it this way: "the smuices way", meaning I'm drinking smoothies and juices,  5 a day. No eating, no chewing.. all to give my tummy some rest because that's the main reason I'm doing it. I will drink a green thick smoothie in the morning, then a vegetable/fruit juices, then another smoothies followed by a vegetable/fruit juice and a high protein nut milk smoothie in the evening. A detox is supposed to give you more energy, a light feeling and a glowing skin. It's also important to do a post-cleanse, still take some juices take small portions during the day and after 3 days you can go back to a regular, healthy diet.

Too much food shopping

Get prepared though, you need to stock a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables if you want to juice on your own. I didn't feel the urge to spend 200 euro's on a cleanse while I know a lot about food as well plus I think that freshly squeezed juices and smoothies are better. A juice will loose his vitamins and minerals already after 2 hours. So I created my own cleanse and oh my, the fridge has never been so full! The next step was not planning ANYTHING, no gym, no exercise except some walking and cycling. Also, you may get a headache, get nauseous, tired, sleepy and a bit grumpy ;-)

The ingredients I have chosen are beets, avocado, celery, apples, lemons, almonds, cashews, pineapple, carrots, banana's, ginger, pear, raspberries, spinach and parsley. Why? Because of their health benefits:

• Beets - cleanses the liver, purifies the blood, is anti-inflammatory and a source of iron
• Avocado - helps lower blood pressure, lubricate joints, is anti-inflammatory, has loads of healthy fats and is high in fibre
• Celery - acts as a mild diuretic, promotes feeling of fullness, is rich in Vitamin B and fibre
• Lemon - antibacterial properties, aids digestion, is high in Vitamin C, detoxifies and alkalises
• Apple - helps balance blood sugar levels, helps lower cholesterol and aids digestion
• Almonds - lower cholesterol, containsVitamin E, healthy fats, is alkalising, lowers the rise in blood sugar and insulin after meals
• Cashew nuts - contains lots of healthy fats, magnesium, helps lower risk of cardiovascular and coronary heart diseases, promotes weight loss and helps lower blood pressure
• Carrots - rich in Vitamin A, helps improves vision, gives you a glowing skin,  is Anti-Aging because of the high level of beta-carotene, helps to prevent infection plus Vitamin A assists the liver in flushing out the toxins from the body
• Pineapple - rich in Vitamin A, C, calcium, potassium, high in fibre, anti-inflammatory and improves digestion
• Banana - makes all the smoothies creamy, is high in Vitamin C and B-6, potassium, magnesium, rich in fibre and helps feeling full longer
• Ginger - a detox isn't a detox without ginger, a natural anti-inflammatory food, improves digestion and promote detoxification by speeding the movement of food trough the intestines
• Pear - anti-oxidant rich, helps prevent high blood pressure, helps lower cholesterol, high in fibre, anti-inflammatory, high level of boron which helps the body to retain calcium.
• Raspberries - adds sweetness, helps promote weight loss, blood sugar level stabiliser and contains lots of fibre 
• Spinach - high in fibre, aids in digestion, maintains low blood sugar, full of flavonoids (which is anticancer properties), is an natural anti-inflammatory, is full of Vitamin A, C, E, beta-carotene, manganese, zinc and selenium.
• Parsley - high in Vitamin C, helps increase urine flow, can help increase eliminating excess fluid that cause belatedness and is high in anti-oxidants and free radicals

Starting the detox
Every morning I start with a glass of water with half a squeezed lemon. It has a cleansing effect, and it improves digestion. After half an hour I started with my first smoothie. Between the juices I gave it about 2 hours so the juices were spread out during the day. When I was hungry I took my juice a bit earlier and when not I waited a bit so I could wait with my "dinner" so I was full longer at night.

These were my juices during day 1

1. The Energiser: Blend 3 big handful of spinach, 1/2 avocado, 1/4 fresh pineapple, 1 banana, 1 1/2 tbsp flax seeds, 1 knob ginger, half a squeezed lemon, water
2. Miss Red: Juice 2 carrots, 1/2 beetroot, 1 huge red apple, piece of ginger
3. Berry Beet: Blend 1 beetroot, cup of frozen raspberries
4. Cleanse: 1 pear, 2 hands of spinach, 1/4 cucumber, 1 bundle of parsley
5. Cashew Chai milk: 3 dates, 1/4 cup soaked cashew nuts for at least 4 hours. 1 cup of filtered water, vanilla powder, 1 tsp vanilla protein powder, a dash of cardamom, cinnamon and ginger powder

Day 2

1. Same as Yesterday; The Energiser
2. Green Machine: 1/2 fennel, 1/2 cucumber, 2 celery, 3 hands of spinach, 1 green apple
3. Jungle Juice: Blend 2 big carrots, 1 beetroot, piece of ginger, 1 orange, half a cup of frozen raspberries and 1 tsp agave syrup.
4. Fresh Green: 1/2 lemon, peeled, 2 granny smith apples, 1 piece ginger
5. Almond dream: handful of almonds, 1 cup almond milk, 1 tbsp vanilla protein powder, dash of cardamom, cinnamon and ginger powder

Day 3

1. Green glory: 1 cup water, 1 tbsp flax seed, 1/4 pineapple, 1 banana, 1/4 cup spinach,  a big hand of lettuce, piece of ginger, 1 tbsp peanut butter
2. Green Detox: 1 pear, 2 hands of spinach, 1/4 cucumber, 1 bundle of parsley
3. Berry Beet: Blend 1 beetroot, cup of frozen raspberries
4. Jungle Juice: 3 big carrots, 2 celery, 1 red apple, ginger, 1 orange, 1/2 lemon, optional: pinch of cayenne pepper
5. Same as day 1, the Cashew Chai milk, but used a tbsp vanilla protein powder and added a few pecans as well.

How did it go?
The first day went incredibly well, because I stopped drinking coffee 2 weeks ago I didn't had aaaaany headache at all. Didn't feel dizzy, sick or hungry. I'm such a foodie and never thought I could make the 3 days without cheating, but I did! The second day was really, really hard for me. I spend the day at my parents place and everybody was eating pie and drinking wine and I was sipping my spinach, fennel and pear juice haha. Especially during the evening, I was feeling really, really hungry that's why I increased the Cashew Chai Milk with a tablespoon of vanilla protein powder in stead of a teaspoon. I think it was just a bit too little. But wile day 2 was horrible, the last day went amazing. I woke up and felt refreshed and rejuvenate. I slept like a baby and was actually really looking forward to drink my green smoothie. My skin was glowing, I felt light and lean and my cleanse was almost over.. now I felt I could do this forever! haha just 24 hours left..

But damn, I missed properly eating and have never enjoyed eating breakfast so much after my cleanse. That's the only thing that was really hard for me. But I loved drinking the juices, so I will definitely continue drinking juices and give it a place in my healthy lifestyle diet. And as I already mentioned, the next 3 post-cleanse days I will eat vegetarian light meals and after that I will continue eating "normal" and healthy.

Conclusion of the detox: My tummy feels amazing, i'm not bloated at all, feel rejuvenated full of energy and my skin is glowing. I would definitely try it again, and will probably do 1 day of juicing more often. Also a very good solution after a bit too much food or alcohol ;-)

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Food Diary London Part 2

Wellll if I mention a story has a part 1, obviously there will be a part 2! So here it is.. the second half of my trip in London.

Paul had to work a bit so during the days we obviously went shopping, a bit of sight seeing and filled the days with good food, too many drinks on Monday, and nice company.

On Monday I went to Whole foods, food heaven. Seriously one of my most favourite shops ever. I was so hungry after walking all day (15.5km on that day in total!!) that I almost ran to the salad bar and filled up the box with goodies. Seriously, why don't we have a organic food shop like that?

What's in the box? Well.. what isn't? Haha 2 different kinds of quinoa salad, grilled vegetables, peas, lettuce, crumbled feta cheese, all-the-colour-of-the-rainbow-tomatoes and probably some more! ;-)

Lunch at Whole Foods 

Then Dinner.. Our roommate was taking us out for dinner, we went to this amazing restaurant called Choco Matte! A very trendy restaurant with 2 floors, downstairs a cocktailbar and a terrace, upstairs a chique restaurant with a complete open kitchen. How cool is that? Their delicious cuisine is brining the best of Japanese and Peruvian culture together. Besides that they serve colorful and yummy cocktails. Down side? It's a bit pricy, but the food and drinks are really worth it. 

We started off with some edamame and Bellini's. Never heard of a Bellini? No, me neither it's an amazing champagne drink which is mixed with fresh peach juice. After that? Well, we ate a lot and frankly I don't remember all. We had spicy tuna salad (look at the beauty) lobster and sea bass ceviche, black miso cod (favourite!!!), miso soup, tempura eel sushi, sashimi platter, peruvian pumpkin and zucchini, spicy corn with avocado fritters, more Bellini's and some more wine.. haha yup a very giggly and fun night out! 

Spicy Tuna Maki at Choco Matte

Paul and me enjoying all the food

Lobster ceviche (love)

Me at Carnaby Street

Then for my last day in London we went to this another amazing place for lunch, Villandry. We chose the bread with guacamole, baba ganoush and hummus with some extra carrots because I can't eat the white bread. Then we shared a tuna tartar and I had the fish cake as a main with a side of grilled asparagus and broccolini. An smoked haddock and salmon fish cake served with Salmorejo and spinach, really yummy I have to try to make this dish at home!! Just stupid, told the waiter I couldn't eat white bread and guess what was in the Salmorejo and the fishcake? So yay, got sick during the night..  So will try to make this recipe Claudia-Proof!

Bread, carrots and dips

Tuna tartar with avocado

My yummy smoked Haddock and Salmon fishcake

Time to wave London goodbye, while sipping on a delicious juice from Joe & The Juice! Damn.. I wish we had more foodshops like this at home!! 

Hope you enjoyed reading 

xoxo

Food Diary London part 1

As you already read in my previous post, I was in London. Had so much fun and already feel sad to leave my dear friend behind!

The First night I arrived me and Paul went to this wonderful restaurant called Yalla Yalla, Lebanese street food. Recommended by one of my Bookers and I would definitely recommend it to you when you're in London! The menu was huge and everything looked delicious, but it was already really late and wasn't that hungry any more (was around 21/22 O'clock). So we ordered a glass of red wine and took some bites from the tapas sharing menu. One of the best falafel with tahini drizzled all over, damn delicious, we had some pita bread with baba ganoush, an amazing avocado pomegranate salad, marinated BBQ chicken liver (first chicken liver ever in my entire life). But there were many articles written about this famous dish, so obviously had to try! And it was really yummy!

Falafel

Some of the food at Yalla Yalla

The next morning we went for a run in Regent Park. Finally time to use my new trainers, love them! 

 Paul is so lucky she lives like 10 minute walk from the park, 10 minute walk from Oxford street (the massive shopping street of London) and with 2 tube stations around the block it's quite the perfect spot to live!

And we were really lucky with the weather, it was about 28 degrees Celsius! Can you believe it? Actually good weather in London? haha it's always rainy weather when I'm there and now it was high summer!

After our run we created a breakfast we enjoyed all week. A carrot - ginger - apple - orange - celery juice and some yogurt with fresh fruit and healthy granola.

Regent Park

 My favourite breakfast which I enjoyed in London every single day

 After breakfast we went walking to Camden Market. A wonderful area full of shops, markets, paintings, art, jewelry and.. food.. haha! We were craving some street food so we digged into a wonderful wrap with caramelised onion and roasted duck. Incredibly delicious!!

Duck wrap in Camden Town

For dinner we made a yummy salad, something I make quite often and wanted Paul to taste it as well.

Ingredients

For 2 persons

Spinach, watercress, rocket salad mix (or any other)

1/2 avocado

1/2 butternut

1 eggplant

goat cheese

chickpeas

a few cherry tomatoes

fresh olives

balsamic reduction

salt and pepper

cinnamon

Cut the eggplant and butternut in cubes and cook the butternut until quite soft, but not completely done! In the meanwhile stir fry the eggplant until slightly browned, then add the butternut, cinnamon, salt and pepper and stir fry until everything is a bit caramelised. Get a plate and arrange some salad on, then a few tablespoons of chickpeas, the tomatoes in halves, the vegetables, avocado, olives in halves and goat cheese. Serve with the balsamic reduction and you're done!

London calling

Sorrrrrrry guys 

Im so busy I just havent found the time to blog. Im in london at the moment, flying back this evening and working in amsterdam tomorrow.. I will definitely write some blogs this weekend so you will have a lot of reading to do the next couple of days!;)

But some sneek peaks of londons food heaven I will already give you!;)

Yummy fishcake

Tuna tartar with avocado

Lobster ceviche

And a wonderful bresaola salad with grilled vegetables!!

Big kiss xoxo

Eggy Breakfast Wrap

Happpppppy Birthday to my boyfriend. A guy needs a good breakfast right? And because it was his birthday I promised to make him something good. Fresh orange juice, sliced banana, cup of tea, coffee and a yummy eggy breakfast wrap with avocado. Heaven on a plate!

Ingredients

gluten free or whole wheat wraps
avocado in wedges
3 eggs
fresh sliced fruit
salt and pepper
oil
cheese (I use hard old goat cheese)

The most important thing about this breakfast, are the eggs. I love scrambled eggs, I always use 1 egg and 2 whites a dash of soy milk, a bit of grated cheese salt and pepper. Always. But what does a scrambled egg make a good scrambled egg? Well, the thing is with scrambled eggs that you need a specific trick to make them fluffy, gooey, and yummy. For me this means whisking the eggs together with a fork, adding my cheese and spices, than the milk and just whisk until combined. Don't over mix. Than heat up a pan until incredibly hot, add your coconut or olive oil and pour in the eggs. Immediately turn the heat down on low, wait a bit, like half a minute and then gently stir 3 times until it's "scrambled" turn of the heat, remove the pan and let it sit. The egg will cook trough because of the heat of the pan until just cooked trough. This way you get the perfect eggs!!
In a different pan you heat up your tortilla and then you add the avocado and a bit of the eggs, wrap it up and serve with some fresh fruit.

Happy Mornings!

xoxo

Creamy Delicious Soup

Celeriac soup just doesn't sound sexy, but believe me.. this is an incredibly delicious soup. It serves about 4 persons for lunch or light supper. Except you have a boyfriend like me than it serves 2 ;-)

For the Dutchies, reading my blog, this is the famous vegetable: Knolselderij ;-) 

Ingredients

300g celeriac (about half of the vegetable)

a small sweet potato 

1 big white onion

1 liter vegetable stock

150 ml soy milk

smoked salmon

cream cheese (I used a typical Dutch version: "Heksenkaas")

A couple tablespoons of olive oil

Preheat the oven on 220 degrees Celsius. Chop the celeriac (without skin) in cubes, the white onion in big chunks, drizzle with olive oil a bit salt and pepper and roast in the oven for about 10 minutes. In the meanwhile chop the small sweet potato in cubes (also without the skin). Then heat a big pot on the stove, add a tablespoon of olive oil and add the sweet potato, then the celeriac and onion and stir for a bit until slightly browned. Add the vegetable stock and let the soup cook for about 20 minutes. Get a blender or food processor and blend the soup until done. Add the milk and give it a stir and add some salt and pepper to taste. Then it's almost time to eat! 

Grab a plate and place a handful of slices smoked salmon and a big dot of the cream cheese in the centre, pour in your soup and spoon in! 

Tip: serve with some toasted spelt bread and the remaining cream cheese, delicious!! 

A hectic week as a model!

Heey Guys!

I'm incredibly sorry, I have been sooooo busy there was like zero time for blogging.. I went for a trip to Hamburg where I met my new agency MGM models check my Portfolio. And after my meetings I had a date with one of my friends, gorgeous sweetheart Sanny (Bartlema).

Me and Gorgeous Sanny

The first day in Hamburg I did some serious meal prepping at home (very important if your on the road all day long), I made a simply salad to go (quinoa, smoked chicken, cucumber, avocado and cherry tomato). Healthy, easy to eat on the road and very delicious. Because I had meetings all day I knew there wouldn't be time for a quiet sit-down lunch. And since I'm always hungry.. yep I NEED food prepping ;-) hahaha of course I also had some snacks in my bag as always: some fresh fruit, nuts and this time I also took the NAKED bar with me. It's all natural, has a great taste and it's easy to take with you wherever you go! So some tips you can maybe use when you are planning a trip anytime soon!

After all that was done me and Sanny went food shopping in rainy Germany, definitely time for some comfort food! We bought a bottle of Italian wine (Nero d'Avola, my favourite) and had tapas for dinner! We chose a variation of cheeses, spelt bread, salad, grilled eggplant, olives, corn salad, fresh grapes, fig jam and some nuts. And as a dessert we had my healthy home made brownies (recipe coming soon). Heaven on a little side table!

Fooooood and wine!

The next day we went on a very healthy detox after all the cheeses, nuts and wine and had a lot of fresh fruits and veggies. We went to the cinema, "the other woman" with Cameron Diaz and amazing model Kate Upton (still don't understand the hype about her, but yeah she is gorgeous). A really good woman movie, so I would say check it out!
After the cinema we went out for some shopping and bought some amazing sale items in town, scoreeee! After are big shopping succes we ended up having dinner in Dean & David, you may remember the name? I told you about them in one of my older posts Click! We had an amaaaaaaazing carrot, ginger and coconut soup. One of the best soups I ever had.. really.. we thought about it the entire evening haha and shard a huge chicken salad with coconut-satay dressing. Please if you are ever, ever, ever in Germany try out Dean & David.. the smoothies, juices, wraps, panini's, salads and soups.. it's ALL good! =)

The Carrot-Ginger-Coconut Soup

After the food we went home and rented some more movies, a very chilling movie day it was! The day after it was time to go home, I needed to continue healthy eating and work out.. seriously.. because I booked an amazing job.. The cover of Men's Health!!!

So excited to book the job, that would be on Tuesday. 2 days left, to be in my very best shape I needed some prepping. For me that means eating healthy 100% of the time: lots of fresh fruit, vegetables, chicken and fish. Not food that will blow you up, but things like beetroot, celery, ginger are very good. And also it's very important do drink a lot of water and green tea, to get rid of all toxics and it cleanses your body well.

The photoshoot was amazing, wonderful people, a great photographer, good looking male models ;-), amazing make up by such a sweet make up artist. Really the entire day was having such a good vibe!! And yes, we also had very nice food! We could choose our own salad or bread, of course all the models took salads since we weren't wearing that much clothes ;-) I chose a chicken salad with avocado, pine nuts and parmesan cheese. But most important, I had soooooo much fun! These are the kind of jobs that make me so happy and feel blessed I'm able to do this work for a living!

Backstage at Men's Health

Well so far the start of my week and I promise I will tell you all about the rest soon and upload some recipes!

xoxo

Overnight Summer Breakfast Goodness

Goooodmorning!!

Remember I have a big addiction to oats? Well I told you all about the benefits of oats in my post Overnight oats with a twist. This is kind of a similar breakfast recipe, but great in summer. It's my ideal to-go-to breakfast options, because you simply prepare at night just before you go to bed and then you wake up and all you have to do is get this yummy treat out of the fridge, top it off.. get a spoon in.. and enjoy waking up!

Ingredients

for the oats

30 gram oats

1 tbsp lineseeds

nuts (I used 3 almonds, 3 hazelnuts)

a few cranberries or raisins

handful of mixed fresh or frozen berries (I used raspberries and blueberries)

pinch of cinnamon

125ml soy milk

100ml soy yogurt

optional toppings

more nuts, seeds, goji berries, more fruit, beepollen, mulberries take your pick! 

All you have to do is grab a bowl and mix in all the ingredients for the oats, chop the nuts roughly and stir until well combined and then cover the bowl and set a side in the fridge. The berries make the yogurt taste amazing and it creates a great pink colour to your breakfast, a perfect combination! 

The Next morning you add your toppings and off you go!