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Tuesday 29 April 2014

Lots of dining out!

Hey Guys!

As you may have noticed, I have not been posting a lot - OOPS! Sorry.. the reason? Mainly because I was working, booking my Holiday and had a lot of lunch and dinner dates with friends and family. Also because I forgot a lot of times to take photo's of my creations.. haha yeah not that smart when you want to post about it ;-) 

Lunch at "Concerthuis" Groningen
One of my friends is a great singer at "Housedieren" she was performing on Queens night- and day so we met up just before so I could help her shopping a bit and we could chat and catch up again. We went to "Concerthuis" a great place for foods & drinks. It's one of my most favourite places the last few weeks. We ordered a roasted butternut squash a "salad" of smoked mackerel, beetroot, fennel and cucumber and a buckwheat salad with roasted eggplant. Lots of food, really, really yummy!! 
Tapas with my friend Sanny (model @de Boekers) 

And look at this yummy food!! That was amazing Spanish tapas, again in Groningen. I haven't seen Sanny in months so we went out for drinks in the sun whole day and finished eating these amazing bites in the evening. We ordered a cheese fondue, patatas braves, chicken in plum sauce, spinach with raisins and pine nuts, lots of red wine haha, orange and avocado salad, beef and I don't know what.. haha lots of food, really yummy!! 



On Sunday I had to work, for lunch we got a three course buffet meal.. damn look at the desserts! How can you resist? 


And then last but not least, a visit to Bagel & Beans. I love their new menu, they have spelt and oat bagels now which I both tried. The oath bagel was a big soggy the spelt was yummy though! I also tried the chicken, avocado salad. DAMN tasty! And of course their juice, unfortunately they didn't had veggie juices today so I took the "all-in fruit juice". It was pure banana, strawberries, orange, banana, pineapple and raspberry. Really delicious! 

Tomorrow another dinner feast! My boyfriend is getting his master degree tomorrow, so proud! That means we have to celebrate well right? So with the entire family we are having a big Indonesian meal feast. Looking forward already ;-) 

Saturday 26 April 2014

Easy Peasy Snack

Sometimes it's really hard to think what to eat between meals. The other day I was out for dinner with my boyfriend and I knew it would be a HUGE dinner haha. In that case, you don't want to over eat the rest of the day ;-)
But of course, I got my usual 16 O'Clock snack time hunger so I wanted to whip up a quick snack that's easy, healthy and tasty. I often eat fruit, nuts, rice cakes with peanut butter in between meals but something like this I should do more often. You increase your veggie intake, which is always a good idea!


All I did is wrap some organic chicken breast around some pickles, sliced up a carrot, cucumber and bell pepper and serve with a good dollop of hummus (I also love tzatziki or cottage cheese mixed with 1 tbsp of peanut butter as a dip)

Happy Snacking!

Tuesday 22 April 2014

Updated Heavenly Scones


Remember these yummy treats? I sure do! I made them again for the second day of Easter a perfect brunch dish to add to the table. I tweaked the recipe a bit, not completely lactose free anymore because I added "kwark" (for the Dutchies) also known as "Fromage Blanc". Maybe you can substitute it with soy yogurt as well, I haven't tried that one out yet. But because I added "kwark" I didn't had to use ANY fat. So that safes some calories and adds up the protein intake!

Ingredients

250g whole wheat spelt flour
150g oats
25g palm sugar
10g stevia sugar
16g baking powder
1 egg slightly beaten
2 tbsp apple sauce
100g kwark/Fromage Blanc.
50ml soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla aroma
pinch of salt


Preheat an oven on 200 degrees Celsius. Than mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl and all the wet ingredients in the other. Than it's time to mix the dry and wet ingredients and form a big bowl of the batter. If it's to wet and sticky, add a bit of flower but these amounts should give you exactly the perfect batter and it should be a bit sticky! Divide the batter into 8 balls and bake them for 20 minutes in the oven. Make sure they are done, you can cut one in half and feel it should be completely dry. If it's wet pop them back in to the oven for an extra 5 minutes.

Note: Feel free to add currants, raspberries, chocolate or whatever you like! 

Serve with a dollop ricotta cheese, cottage cheese and (strawberry) jam.. hmmm.. bon appetit!

Monday 21 April 2014

The Ultimate Healthier Chocolate Cake

Wooooohpp wooop!  I'm really excited about this recipe. BUT I have to admit 2 things straight away before I start off with the recipe...
1: I like chocolate now for about half a year, before absolutely hated it.
2: I have never ever ever had a chocolate cake/pie in my entire life (due to the fact I have always hated chocolate).

I'm still not a fan of milky sugary chocolate, so you can give me as much as Easter eggs you like, I won't eat them.. just not my thing.. BUT this cake? Yeah, that was definitely my thing.

To celebrate Easter I went to my boyfriends parents place for the first day where we had a typical "gourmet" night. That means having a grill plate on the table to grill our mini hamburgers, beef, chicken skewers, prawns and salmon. With lots of salads, potato salads, bread dips and sides. When you know you will have too much food, you want a light and fluffy pie right? Well that's why I came up with this recipe, not too much sugar, and guess what... NO flour! Yup, no almond flour, spelt flour and a million nuts.. nothing! And yes it will turn out amazing with just 175 calories a serving!


The great part of this pie, is that it contains healthy ingredients only. The cacao in the dark chocolate is rich in iron, copper, magnesium and cacao has been scientifically linked to a reduced risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. The eggs are obviously high in protein and even the butter is a good provider. It contains good amounts of fatty acids, which support immune function, boost metabolism! So I will just say, try out this recipe and enjoy your piece of chocolate pie without all the guilt.

Ingredients

200g good quality dark chocolate (I used half a 85% and half 70% cacao)
90g proper butter (grass half fat butter)
6 organic eggs 
50g palm sugar
10g stevia sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp sea salt

Preheat the oven on 140 degrees. Use a 20cm spring form and spray it with oil or butter so the pie will be easy to get out after baking. Melt the dark chocolate and the butter au bain marie (that means in a bowl with boiling water underneath without the bowl reaching the water). Stir the chocolate and butter well until it's 1 mixture. In the meanwhile your chocolate is melting mix the egg whites only until really, really fluffy. Add the egg yolks, with the sugar, salt and vanilla aroma with the chocolate until it's all combined. Then "fold" the egg white in to the chocolate mixture, reaaaallly gentle. This may take a while but you don't want to beat out all of the air. When everything is well combined you can pour the mixture in to the spring form and bake the cake for about 45-55 minutes in your oven. Check if your cake is cracked on top and when you press down on it with a finger, it should push back just a bit. Then your cake is set, for me it took 50 minutes. Let the cake completely cool down before removing it from the tin. Serve as it is, or sprinkle with cacao and raspberries like I did. 

Notes: 
- Really important to make fluffy egg whites and keep the fluffy texture
- To make it decadent, serve with a cream cheese frosting or serve it with a dollop if ice cream, cream or mascarpone and smashed berries.
- If you adore sweet sweet pies, add a bit more sugar. This cake will turn out sweet, but not super duper sweet as you will have when you buy a chocolate cake at the bakery. I would suggest to use 75 g of palm sugar or 100g of palm sugar and no stevia. But I would try out the cake like it is, it's yummy =) 




Friday 18 April 2014

My Healthy Lifestyle

Today I want to write a blog about "being healthy". For me being healthy is really important, but what exactly is being healthy? For the last few weeks I have been snacking a lot, in a bad way, lots of  of processed and sugary stuff and felt and noticed it on my body straight away. My skin got bad, I got tired all day long, lots of belly pain and then I got an infection and had to be on antibiotics. I have no idea if this wouldn't have happened If I kept on my lifestyle diet completely.. But it made me wonder if it would. I was completely healthy before so there has to be a connection right? For me this was the ultimate reason to start all over again, no more sugar-free, sugary candy, chips, ice creams and everything else. I cleaned up my habits again and immediately felt better. After a few days I'm less bloated, not so tired anymore and I can tell the difference to my skin and body. Why the hell do we eat junk food anyway?


For me it has always been quite easy to eat clean and healthy, as soon as I'm eating things like pizza's, white bread, pork, pastry's.. I get sick straight away. But candy? Nope, nothing happens. And the thing is with sugar, you get addicted and just want more. So it's like a never ending circle, you put the bad stuff in your mouth to be satisfied but the thing is, you won't. You will be craving more and more and more..

But what about all the good looking stuff on your blog? People ask me. Well, to start with, all the food on my blog is healthy.. If you keep the portion sizes as they should be (thats one of my biggest issues, I just love food and it seems like I'm never stuffed haha) there is nothing wrong with oats, yogurts, nuts, fruits for example. Sure you will gain weight if you eat 6 of them, 5 boxes of nuts, 3 avocado's and 10 tortilla wraps. But it's all about balancing the right stuff! What I love to do when I'm in the kitchen, is mixing healthy (in simple portion sizes) and turning them in to a feast meal. But without adding all the calories, fats and sugars.

loaded shrimp home made salad
For example, this Easter I'm going to prepare little healthy chocolate cakes, no added sugars and bad fats. You shouldn't be eating 7 chocolate cakes, because they are "healthy". No, you can eat 1 without ruining your diet, without gaining weight and without feeling guilty. That's what it's all about for me, enjoying food. And yes, of course I will share my recipe with you if the cakes are successful ;-)

But a lot of people forget it's not all about your eating habits, abs are made in the kitchen they say. But you will have to fire up those abs in the gym if you would like me to see them ;-) haha. So besides my healthy lifestyle, I work out, as much as I can, about 5 times a week. And no, this doesn't mean I'm sweating like a pig 5 times a week doing 2 hour workouts. This means from running half an hour in the morning, to 1 1/2 hour strength and cardio in the gym, to 45-60min cardio in the gym to workouts at home. Just how I feel like. I don't like being in the gym all day every day, so that's why I love running outside or jumping in my living room at home. Or well, most likely this means jumping in hotel rooms for me.
When I'm on the road for a job, nothing makes me feel better than breaking a sweat, it gives me some piece of rest and in the same time lots of extra energy. I loooooove to work out. So when I'm not in the gym, but on the road a lot, I can and will do a workout. Even if it's just 20 or 30 minutes a day.  



Therefore I was really excited when I booked a job for Model Workout end of last year. I met Jeroen Krak, the one that created Model Workout; a special fitness and health program for models. Especially young models have no idea what to eat, how to work out and lots of models are even afraid to work out. They all think they will become body builders. Well, woman in generally won't bulk up as much as guys do but yes when you do strength straining there always is a chance you will add extra centimers because you gain muscle. So how should you workout then?
Well that's the thing I have learned from Jeroen, his training is all about using your own body weight. You don't need any special equipment so you can basically do it wherever you want. Model Workout created an on line program with cardio and strength workouts and nutritional feedback as well. So if you would like to have some more information about that, just check their website www.modelworkout.nl and for information about their memberships click!.


To end this blog, I just want to say: Listen to your own body and do what makes YOU feel happy. Try to do what feels good for you, my body is not yours and the other way around. And give it some time to find out what's the best for yours. 

xoxo

Thursday 17 April 2014

Almost Easter Time!

Hey there!

It's almost Easter, that mean's time for a wonderful food party ;-)
Hereby some tips for your morning Easter Brunch


Try out the gluten free crackers for a wonderful bite snack, the pear & pecan treat and Carrot Cake Oats as a sweet side (make a big tray of both so everyone can spoon in) have a lovely healthy side salad so you won't be over eating the "bad" stuff. And for Easter it means it has to have some chocolate, so why not the healthy bounty's as a wonderful dessert?

Serve with, tea, fresh juices and/or my homemade Chocolate smoothie in small glasses for everyone!


Have a lovely Easter
 xoxo



Wednesday 16 April 2014

Easy shrimp quasadilla


Hmmm this is a wonderful tasty quick lunch, comfort food to the max. It's incredibly easy, quick and nutritious. Good carbs from the tortilla, healthy fats of the avocado, protein because of the shrimps, veggies and the cheese is just a delicious good to add ;-)

Ingredients
Hand full of shrimps (cooked)
half an avocado (ripe)
half a bell pepper
grated cheese
salt and pepper
sweet chili sauce
gluten free or whole wheat wraps

This dish is incredibly easy, simply heat a pan and warm up one side of the tortilla (no oil needed), than the other side and set aside. Grab another tortilla and only heat up one side. Grab that tortilla and layer it with all the ingredients and a drizzle of chili sauce. Top it with the other tortilla and bake in the pan until everything is warmed up and the cheese is melted. (You can use a lit if you prefer everything to be really hot and gooey).

Sunday 13 April 2014

Lately - Food on the go

One of the best parts of my job is to able to travel, a lot. I was lucky to be all over the place again the last period, Bremen, Antwerp, Zurich, Amsterdam, Knokke.. Lots of fun, lots of good food to share with you!

Love the outfit. Pastel for summer 2014 it is!
Love SLA, One of my favourite places in Amsterdam 








I love Belgium, they always take care of the models with great food on set (well almost always). Fresh strawberries, whole wheat pasta salad with tomatoes, basil and mozzarella, smoked ham with cheese and rocket, roasted goat cheese fennel with pine nuts, goat cheese dip.. okay I will stop here.. Just a LOT of delicious food!






Beautiful Zurich!


In Zurich I had to walk a runway show, the client gave me an amazing hotel "Boutique Hotel". In the middle of the city centre, around the corner of the train station, just perfect! It's not cheap, but hey Zurich isn't in general, but a definitely must visit when you want to visit Zurich.
I was surprised about the beauty of this city and the wonderful people. The women explained to me she had fresh croissants and yogurts for breakfast, when I told her my food intolerance she whipped up a special breakfast for me the next morning: bircher soy muesli, boiled eggs, gluten free toasts, fresh fruit, fresh juices. Amazing !!





The other day I was working in the north of Germany, after work I passed by a lovely little restaurant.  What an amazing place I found, felt so lucky! It's always hard to find good places in cities you don't know. That's what is great about modellist-id.com ! Have you heard about it? Well if you're a model and/or travel a lot check it out. There are a lot of tips about all kinds of cities. Anyway in this restaurant I ordered the fish of the day, some kind of white fish (not recognisable because it was a German name ;-)) with mojo sauce, asparagus citrus salad, foam of champagne and some puree of a vegetable I don't remember as well, served with a side of really tasty roasted potatoes. And that's hard because I'm not a big fan of potatoes but these were finger licking good, well the entire dish was! 

So far my post about my food on the go, hope you liked! =)








Saturday 12 April 2014

A Pear & Pecan Breakfast Treat

Good morning all,

I finally start to feel better again, yay! I just took my last antibiotic pill so I hope everything is back to normal again now. I was still really nauseous and tired the last few days, but it was probably from the antibiotics the doctor told me. Ah I certainly hope so!
But since I woke up feeling really energetic I can't wait to finally hit the gym again. Especially after having a perfect pre-workout delicious breakfast this morning, ooohhhh my that was finger licking good, I scraped out the entire jar haha. Anyyyyyway guess what kind of recipe I'm posting about today ;-) Hmm.. where I was I? Ah yeah gym.

After the gym I'm going to get me some Probiotics, I always do after having a week of antibiotics. I hate any kind of medications, in particular antibiotics because yeah it makes you better and kills all  the bad bacteria, but it also kills all the good ones that are so important for having a healthy well-functioning body.

I don't have special weekend plans, though. We are cleaning up the house. I live here now for about a year and it's time everything is ready now, you know there are always things you say you will do but you never do. Recognizable? The balcony was one of those things. So yesterday we cleaned up our 2 balconies, so much work but amazing to see the difference, summer I'm ready for you haha! After cleaning all day we had a big Indonesian treat. I get take aways as well and that's kind of difficult with me not eating white pasta, pizza, bread and all. So Indonesian is something we often turn to, it's a lot of work to make your self and it's all authentic and not incredibly unhealthy. Although, the deep-snacks with the meal were not that healthy haha. But hey, I believe in the 80/20 % rule, for me that means I'm trying to eat completely clean and healthy 80% of the time and enjoying a bit too much cheese, wine, nuts or other treats for the rest of the time. That makes it much easier to live 80% of the time completely healthy as well.

SO back to my breakfast. The reason why I'm writing this blog for you. I woke up early and thought of what to make. I have been eating my Sugar free granola (link) for days in a row now, just to good. But it was time to eat something else. I looked in to the fruit basket and noticed a pear that had to be eaten, like now.

So I whipped up a little healthy treat for my boyfriend and I, a perfect Saturday breakfast treat under 300 calories and that takes just 10 minutes for prepping and about 20 minutes for baking while you can hit the shower ;-)


Ingredients
For 1 person

30 gram oats 
125 ml almond milk (unsweetened)
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of see salt
a big pinch of cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg white
1 tbsp raisins
1/2 a ripe pear
a few pieces of pecan nuts
1,5 tbsp maple syrup
coconut/oil/butter for greasing 

Preheat an oven on 180 degrees Celsius. Lightly grease a small ovenproof bowl. Get a small bowl and combine the oats, milk, baking powder, spices, egg whites and 1 tbsp of maple syrup and combine until you have a very well combined mixture (this is very important otherwise your egg white can separate from the mixture and you are left out with baked egg white ;-)). Now add the pear, chopped in pieces, and the raisins and mix again. Sprinkle some pecans on top and bake this yummy breakfast treat for about 20 minutes.

Nutritional information: 245 calories.
Difficult: Not at all, takes about 30 minutes.  


Thursday 10 April 2014

Glutenfree Granola

I wanted to make a variation on my other recipe Most important meal of the day part II (click for the link!), and I guess I have a new addiction. Oefff I invented a serious problem, this granola is so insanely good that you A. won't stop eating it, B. will never ever wanna buy the supermarket versions anymore so you have to make this again and again!!!

With this recipe you will create a huge pot of home made granola/cruesli, about 800 grams so you will have some portions after a bit of baking;-)

The recipe is full of healthy products, gluten free buckwheat, nuts and seeds, coconut oil and a sugar alternative that is low GI. It's 100% pure, 100% good for you and100% delicious. What more do you want?

Oh and time wise, it doesn't take that long. You need about 15 minutes for preparing the granola/cruesli, just about the time your oven is heating up. Than it needs 30 minutes of baking, while you are sitting down :P

Ingredients
300 gram flakes  (I chose 200g buckwheat flakes, 50g quinoa pops, 50g kasha (but you can make it with oat flakes, spelt flakes, only buckwheat or what you like)
100 gram (raw) mixed nuts, roughly chopped
100 gram sunflower/pumpkin seeds
70 ml coconut oil (liquid)
80ml maple syrup or honey
3 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla powder
2 tsp cinnamon

handful of mulberries and goji berries or any kind of dried fruit you wish

Preheat an oven on 180 degrees. Mix all the dry ingredients in a big bowl and add the coconut oil, vanilla, syrup and make sure everything is combined. Now add the 3 egg whites (just raw, you don't have to do anything with it) and stir again until everything is coated. Take a baking tray and spread the mixture evenly out on a baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, gently stir so the other side will bake as well for another 15 minutes. Let is completely cool down so it will be mega crunchy and you should have big chunks.

Serve with fresh fruit and (soy) yogurt. Also delicious as a topping on your smoothie, or just as a wonderful snack!

Nutritional information: each 40g portion is approximately 160 calories.



Monday 7 April 2014

Sunny Spinach Side Salad

Gooodevening all!! 

Tonight I felt horrible, yup still sick. After being to the doctor now for the 4th time, they finally find out I have an inflammation.. Something wrong with my kidney so I am getting a full check on Wednesday and antibiotics for now. Yeah you hear that right, antibiotics.. something I reallllly hate to take. Well, I hate to take any kind of medications, even painkillers, but it also made me determined to start getting back on track. No more snacking and cheating, but eating healthy and only healthy until my body is back to normal. Yes I do eat healthy about 60% of the time, but the last few weeks I indulged way too much ;-) Anyway.. this evening I whipped up an amazing dinner, from all fresh ingredients I bought on the farmers market. I roasted a turkey thigh in the oven.. amaaaaazing! I'm so sorry my boyfriend butchered the turkey before I was able to make the picture hahha he loved it! With the turkey I served roasted sweet potato and this loaded superfood salad.


Ingredients

Spinach leaves (washed)
a box of cherry tomatoes
1/2 box of raspberries (fresh)
1 zucchini
old goat cheese (hard)
2 tbsp of pine nuts
half a red onion, chopped
some sun dried tomatoes
raspberry vinaigrette
hazelnut or walnut oil

Get a grill pan on high heat and sprinkle the zucchini with olive oil, salt, pepper and then grill until they have a beautiful brown stripe and are caramelised. Get a big bowl and start with shredding your spinach a bit, so the leaves are not huge. That doesn't eat very pleasant ;-) Now add the tomatoes, you can slice them up however you like. Roast the pine nuts in a dry pan and in the  meanwhile add all the other ingredients in the bowl. Finish with pine nuts and grated goat cheese and serve with the vinaigrette and oil. Amazingly delicious!! 

Friday 4 April 2014

Berry stuffed fluffy oats

Gooooooodmorning!

I already mentioned I love oats and that they are full of health benefits.. (check out my overnight oats post as well). And I love breakfast, huuuuge breakfasts because I always wake up hungry.
So when I want to give myself a treat, it's all grey and rainy outside, I make myself this comfort bowl: A huge bowl of fluffy oats. It's huge, be prepared, but you will happy to see it doesn't contain that much calories. Isn't that a win-win situation? You get protein-good crabs-fruit, all round perfect combination.


Ingredients

30g old fashioned oats
1 egg white
1/2 cup frozen berries
5 fresh strawberries
handful of blueberries
1 tsp agave
1 tsp cinnamon
150ml unsweetened almond milk

Nut sprinkle on top
1 tbsp sliced almond, a few pecan nuts roughly broken, a teaspoon of hemp seeds (or your favourite combination)

Slice your fruit and set it to the side. Bake your nuts mixture in a clean pan until browned a bit (don't add oil). Then it's time to cook your oats in a bit of water until they are a bit softened, then add the almond milk and cook until done. In the meanwhile whip up the egg white in a clean bowl until amazingly fluffy (you can whip the bowl upside down without any of the egg white falling out). Now mix the frozen berries with the oats, sweeten it a bit with stevia if you like and add the cinnamon. Mix until the berries are not frozen anymore and then add the egg white, mix it well and let it cook for about 1 minute so the egg white is not raw anymore. Serve the oats in a big bowl and serve with the fresh fruit and nuts sprinkled on. Bon appetit!

Nutritional information: approximate 345 calories.


Thursday 3 April 2014

My Modelproof Candy Bonbons

Hey guys!

I am so sorry for not posting for a while.. I have been working a lot and being very sick.. No idea what's wrong but I'm just feeling bad!

I did cook a lot and have a lot of food to share with you! I made this perfect model proof candy, easy to take with you on the road, for a snack with your cappuccino, tea or latte.. or just.. wheneeeeever you want!

It's made out of fresh dates (not the hard, dry ones), almonds, cacao and coconut.. oh and a bit of goji berries.. so basically really delicious and healthy ingredients. The nuts will keep you full, the dates will satisfy your sweet tooth and the raw cacao and coconut is full of health benefits as well. Enough said.. just try it! ;-)

Ingredients
For about 12 balls
12 fresh dates (or medjoul dates), pitted
80g dry roasted almonds
1 tbsp water
1 tsp cinnamon

for on top 
1 tbsp goji berries
2 tbsp cacao
4 tbsp shredded coconut (unsweetened)

Mix all the ingredients for the balls in a food processor for about 1 minute. Place the mixture in the fridge for about 10 minutes so it all cools down after processing, this helps forming good balls. Then wet your hands a bit so your easily able to make small balls. Roll the balls in cacao powder, coconut, goji berries or a combination and place them back in the fridge. Get them out before serving, about 10 minutes!

Enjoy your healthy bonbons ;-)