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!

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!

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! =)

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!! 

Easy Sunday great dinner idea

I love to wander around on the market, buying my fresh fruits, vegetables, protein and nuts. Today it's easy Sunday, but it's weekend as well. So I will give you a wonderful idea to have an amazing dinner without making to much of an effort! Sounds great right? ;-)

You Need:

For 2 persons

2 fish fillets

400g peas

2 big sweet potatoes

olive oil

salt, pepper

fresh basil

1tbsp creme fraîche

1 fresh lemon

I bought an amazing delicious fillet on the market, but you can use whatever fish you like.  Season your fish with salt pepper and some fresh lemon juice and set it to the side. First thing you should do is bake the potatoes.  

For the roasted sweet potatoes, cut them in slices, cubes or whatever form you like, sprinkle with olive oil, pepper and a bit of salt and bake in the oven on 225 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.

Pan fried the fish with the skin side down in olive oil for 4 minutes. Get the fish out of the pan and turn it in to the oven on 200 degrees for another 6 minutes. But mine was quite thick so if you have a thinner fish, make sure you don't overcook it. When you have a normal fillet, without skin, just fried it in the pan on both sides until done (even easier).

In the meanwhile, for your amazing delicious sweet pea mash, cook the peas until done but still crunchy. I always buy some peas from the freezer and cook it for about 4 minutes. Then, when done, get rid of the boiling water, but not all!! You need a bit for the puree as well as a tablespoon of creme fraîche, salt, pepper and a few leaves of fresh basil. Puree with a blender or any other equipment until you have a gorgeous looking green sweet puree. Get everything on your plate and enjoy.

Happy Sunday xoxo

My version on a healthy Kofta

Kofta is a worldwide meat dish, there are variations in Turkey, Middle-East, Greece and I will introduce you my style of Kofta. Kofta literally means meatball, and that doesn't sound that sexy right?

Although I don't eat meat a lot, not because I don't want to, I just don't like it that much. I love fish, every kind of fish and I do eat chicken at least once a week. But my boyfriend looooves meat, so we make compromises, I eat red meat once a week and he eats vegetarian once a week ;-) I do believe it's the most healthiest way as well. Vegetarian meals, 2 times fish (from which one is a fat fish like salmon or mackerel), chicken (most likely twice a week as well) and once a week some red meat.

I already introduced you to the real deal burger, well if you did enjoy that recipe you will definitely like this dish!

Ingredients
For about 4 persons

For the beef mixture
350g organic minced beef
1tbsp almond meal
1 organic egg
1 small tin tomato puree
1tbsp maple syrup
1tbsp cinnamon
1tbsp oregano
1tbsp sweet pepper powder
100g feta cheese (the real feta cheese, not the cheap disgusting cow's milk variation haha)
salt & pepper

The sauce
1 red onion
2 courgettes, diced
2 red bell peppers, diced
2 garlic gloves
1tbsp cinnamon
1tbsp oregano
400g tomatoes diced (tin)
half of the tin of the tomatoes filled with water
salt & pepper

Mix all the ingredients for the beef in a bowl and make small little meat balls, heat some oil in a pan and fried the meatballs until browned. They don't have to be cooked all the way, they will later on in the sauce. When the meatballs have the right colour, get them out of the pan and set aside. In the same pan you will make the sauce. Start frying the onion, than add the garlic, spiced and stir for 2 minutes. Now add the vegetables and fried until everything is browned, now add the tomatoes and the water, salt and pepper and add the vegetables. Cover the pan with a lit and let it simmer away for about 15 minutes. Serve with a fresh cucumber salad with yogurt dressing and cooked quinoa.

Nutritional information approx. 550 calories a person.

Vegetarian Gado-Gado with homemade peanut sauce

Looking for a delicious treat that's healthy, full of vitamins and one of  my favourite products: PEANUT BUTTER <3. It's just a lot of love in a jar, don't you agree? ;-) Today I give you the recipe of one of my favourite comfort meals.

The great thing about Gado Gado is that you can just add whatever you like, or whatever is left in your fridge.

According my opinion you seriously need:
- Chinese Sprouts (taugé)
- Sambal Badjak
- Cucumber
- whole wheat rice (love to add t tsp curcuma with the rice when boiling, a great hero with a lot of nutritional benefits! For example it helps with your digestion and is an active anti-inflammatory product)
- boiled egg
- pan fried Tofu
- lettuce

I added green beans, snap peas and tomatoes as well this time! And some leftover tempeh from my last Indonesian meal.

Ingredients
For my finger licking sauce

Chunky peanut butter
1 tbsp Ketjap manis
1 tsp palm sugar
squeeze of lemon
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 garlic gloves, crushed and finely chopped
1 1/2 tsp laos
1 tsp ginger powder
1 tsp Curcuma/Tumeric
1 tsp sambal oelek
boiling water

Arrange all the ingredients on you cutting board and have some boiling water on the side. Now add a bit of coconut oil in a small sauce pan and add the onions. Fried until translucent, then add the garlic and all the herbs. Stir a bit, add the sambal oelek and 4 big table spoons of your peanut butter. Let it fried a bit and then add about a glass of boiling water. Stir fast until the sauce thickens, than add more water, stir stir stir (that's the most important thing!) keep adding bits of water until it seems the right consistence. Now add the ketjap manis and the sugar and stir again, taste and see if the desired consistency is there. I like mine quit spicy so love to add more ginger, laos and sambal but this is the basic recipe.

Enjoy!

Psssst: The picture above is before adding the sauce, the one underneath is with my home made peanut sauce, shredded coconut and a few dry roasted peanuts on top.

The Real Deal Burger with a wonderful side salad

Yup this baby is the real deal, but waaaaaaay healthier. I mean you can make it even more healthy using lean turkey mince or chicken mince or make a veggie patty. But if you want something that aaaactually tastes like a damn good burger without all the fat and calories, here you go ;-)
Mine is all made from scratch and I can't give you real nutritional information because it depends what kind of beef you use. And I grilled my burger so that will trim off a loooot of fat as well, no added oil, so less calories than the package will be. Of course you don't have to make your own burger buns, but damn these are tasty, healthy and you know exactly what's in there. But probably they sell something similar in your local organic shop as well so if your lazy, just buy one ;-)

Ingredients
For the bun (7 buns)
400g spelt flour
5g yeast
few drops stevia
2 tbsp olive oil
240ml warm water
big pinch of sea salt
sesame seeds for sprinkling on top

for the burger (2 servings)
300g lean organic minced beef
1 tbsp Worcester sauce
1 tsp pepper spicy powder
1 tsp palm sugar
1 tsp cayenne
1 tsp garlic powder
good pinch of sea salt

Mix all the dry ingredients for the buns and the wet ingredients in a different bowl and combine with a mixer or your hands until you have a firm dough. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let it rest for at least 15 minutes. Now you can pre heat the oven on 180 degrees Celsius. Combine all the ingredients for the burgers and shape them until you have 2 patties (tip wet your hands a bit this makes it way easier to handle the meat). Form little balls of the dough and place them on a sheet of baking paper on the rack in the middle of the oven and sprinkle with the sesame seeds. Bake them for about 20 minutes until done and slightly browned. Grill your burger in your burger medium, rare or well done (I like it well done, it's better to digest when the beef is done all the way). Serve your burger on your bun with whatever you like. For my burger I used: Bun, organic ketchup, caramelised onions, burger, goat cheese crumbled on top, lettuce, cucumber tomato, alfalfa and the other half of the bun and served it with some greens and a wonderful celeriac salad from one of my favourite new cookbooks: Le Pain Quotidien.

Celeriac? You probably think now, yes this ugly looking vegetable you probably have seen in your local shop is actually really yummy and healthy.

EXTRA RECIPE: For the salad you simply mix 2 tbsp mayonnaise (I use a reduced fat one) with 2 tbsp of Greek 0% yogurt, salt, pepper, agave syrup and 1 tsp turmeric. Combine until you have a nice dressing and then it's time to add half of the celeriac, shredded. Add a big hand of goji berries or dried cranberries and mix until everything is well combined, let it sit for at least 15 minutes so the celeriac and berries will soke up the dressing.

Enjooooy!!!!

Couscous salad

This is a wonderful way to use leftovers, but of course you can make it just now for your lunch or dinner as well ;-) I had this for lunch the other day because I had leftover peas and grilled zucchini so figured something out to enjoy them again. It's really easy, really healthy and really really tasteful!!

Ingredients

Hand of whole wheat couscous

2 tbsp chickpeas

1/2 avocado

few tbsp cottage cheese

1/2 zucchini

handful of rocket

handful of cooked peas

1 tsp home made pesto (or simply pesto genovese)

Now this is really easy. Prepare the couscous in your bowl, simply take a big hand of couscous and add some spices like cinnamon, salt and sweet pepper powder and pour in cooking water until the couscous is underneath the water. Put a plate on top of the bowl and let it stand for at leaf 5 minutes. Now heat up a grill pan, cut the zucchini in fours and grill with some olive oil salt and pepper until the zucchini is done and caramelised. Now throw everything in the couscous bowl and serve with the avocado, cottage cheese and pesto on top! Bon appetit!

Tip: not a fan of couscous or can't eat gluten? Give it a go with quinoa, just as delicious just takes a bit longer to prepare ;-)

Dinner party

Salads, always great and look at this beauty!

My brother came for dinner this week, he lives in a student house with a very filthy kitchen. So that means he almost never cooks, eating take aways and pre packed food in the grocery stores is his way of life. I'm trying to let him make healthier options, but he is just not so much in to clean food as well I guess. Well he does love salads, so I made this big beauty for him. Filled up with protein from the smoked chicken, healthy fats of the avocado, of course lots of veggies for vitamins and some beans for extra carbs and protein.

Ingredients
serves 4

450 gram smoked chicken
2 courgettes
2 bell peppers
alfalfa
200g cherry tomato's
a few big hands fresh spinach
1 cucumber
one jar white beans or chickpeas
1,5 avocado
cottage cheese

for the dressing
pomegranate vinegar
olive oil
salt and pepper

Simple heat up a grill pan and cut your courgette and bell peppers roughly. Give them a swirl of olive oil, salt and pepper and grill until browned and done. In the meanwhile roughly chop up your spinach and divide in a huge bowl. Cut the cucumber in fours, just like the cherry tomatoes and divide over the spinach. Next up drain the beans, rinse with water and divide on top. Now it's time for your grilled veggies, chicken in stripes, avocado around for a great look and just some dots of cottage cheese here and there. A bit of alfalfa around and drizzle with the salad dressing. Ready in 20 minutes and tastes amazing.

Serving suggestion: I served the salad with some sliced of spelt bread, my home made spelt crackers and some light herbed cream cheese.

Nutritional information: with salad dressing included approx. 400 calories, 31 gram of protein, 25g of carbohydrates and 20g of fat.

My Day In Food

Because a lot of people kept asking me, but what do you eat on a day? I decided to write this blog and give you a sneek peak in how one of my days looks like.

Yesterday (Thursday) my alarm went at 5 o’clock in the morning, yup that early. I quickly ran in to the shower and my boyfriend was sweet enough to bring me to the train station (thank god for finally having  a car). My train departed at 5.36 and because I was still way to sleepy I tried to catch some more sleep. Between 6.30-7.30 I had my breakfast, a wonderful super food packed smoothie I prepared the night before, transported in an empty water bottle (easy, because I can just throw it away after finishing my breakfast).

This was my smoothie, while reading the newest Glamour magazine. This delicious goody was made with fresh pineapple, frozen raspberries, a big bunch of fresh kale, soy yogurt a splash of water, maca powder and hempseed protein powder. After blending I added a small handful of seeds and dried fruits to give it all a chewy bite. 

After a 2 ½ hour train drive I ended up being at Amsterdam Airport, today I’m flying to Berlin, working and in the evening going to Frankfurt by plane to work there and from there I will fly back to Adam late in the evening. Yup, heavy stuff! Anyway I passed security quickly, nobody checked my passport (I couldn’t find it yesterday and was searching for over an hour being stressed as hell) and found this not so amusing haha. Anyway after that I could use a big mug of steaming caffeine so I decided it was time for a special treat at the Starbucks in the airport. 

I ordered  a sugar free caramel soy latte and a piece of my homemade apricot nut spelt cracker (will be posting the recipe this week). And than my phone died on me, again, so I decided I needed a new one fast and was busy ordering a new phone while enjoying my Starbucks and then I checked the time, SHITTTTT! Running my way over to the gate I was juuuuust in time to board – I’m seriously not having a good week - is overrated. Up in the air and there we go, thanks to my frequent flyer I was able to move to the emergency exit chairs with extra leg space, hallelujah saved from the guy in front of me that made me want to do the split not to hurt my knees and legs! The flight was nice and easy. 

I arrived and Berlin and searched my way over to the city centre, bus – metro – I’m there. 2,5 hours more hour before my call-time I decided to find a restaurant, eat something and try to rescue my phone. It’s charging now, let’s hope it will work until I’m home and have a sparkling new Iphone 5S gold.

I was lucky, damn lucky! Because I found a cute place cold Dean & David just around the corner of the subway.  They were supposed to  serve 100% healthy and 200% tasty food, according their headlines. I took the salad the women suggested me, Indian summer salad with stir fried mushrooms, feta cheese (the real one), tomato’s, cucumber lots of salad leaves and some sunflower seeds with a french herb dressing. I enjoyed it with a hot ginger tea and one more of my crackers, so left the bread that they served the salad with out. The salad was really nice, just way too much dressing.

After that my laptop was dying so I went over the Kürfurstendamm and found another Starbucks, ordered a tea and charged my laptop while chatting with my boyfriend and some friends on Facebook.

Than went over to Bogner, a clothing brand. Got in hair and make up and had to do 2 shows, one at 16 O'Clock and one at 18 O'clock. The team was lovely and the other models really nice, so we had a lot of fun and joy. One of the models I actually new from my first time in Madrid, she was my house mate in the last week. So it was nice to see her again!

In our little break I went walking over the Kürfurstendamm with a couple of the models. 1 girl just wanted to go somewhere with wifi (why are we so internet addicted??) and the others decided it was a good idea to take a bit of a walk since the weather was so nice. Because we wouldn't be able to have a proper dinner, after the show we had to take a cab to the airport, we decided to pick up food at, yup Dean & David again! haha. 

So backstage I enjoyed my salad, this time with shrimps, artichoke, bell pepper and lettuce with a honey mustard dressing on the side (learned a lesson). We drink some champaign and on the way out we all took a choco pop. Jumping into the taxi we made our way over to the airport.

I was soooo lucky, just 2 of us had a business ticket, YAAY! Business class. So I had magazines to read, red wine,  and a full meal. I was not hungry at all anymore so I tasted the veal and veggies ate a bit of the cherry crumble dessert and took the bonbons.

That's it, hope you enjoyed reading a day in my food life =)

"Spaghetti di Salme"

This dish makes a wonderful dinner, packed with nutrition, less on the calories! It contains 3 very healthy ingredients that can contribute to your health and is amazing for when you are watching your diet. 

First up: Spinach. A plant with remarkable abilities to restore energy, increase vitality and improve the quality of blood. Why? Primarily the fact that it is rich in iron, iron plays a central role in the function of red blood cells. Further it contains heaps of vitamins, like vitamin K, A, C and magnesium and vitamin B2. 

Next up: Zucchini. One cup of zucchini only has 36 calories and 10% of the RDA of dietary fibre, which aids in digestion, prevents constipation, maintains low blood sugar and curbs overeating. 

Number 3: Salmon. Of course the salmon contributes to the dish, an excellent source of high-quality protein, vitamin and minerals (like potassium, selenium and vitamin B12) but their content of omega-3 fatty acids is what we would like to receive the most.  

Just scroll down and see how to make this vitamin, mineral and omega-3 packed healthy but most importantly damn delicious dish!

Ingredients

1 salmon fillet with skin
a big handful of fresh spinach
1 small zucchini
fresh lemon
1 tablespoon genovese or home made Pesto (20g)

Optional home made pesto
small handful of roasted pine nuts
olive oil
bunch of basil
1 garlic clove
piece of Parmesan
salt and pepper

When you have a spiralizer, make "spaghetti" of your courgette. If not grab your (cheese) peeler to make a nice spaghetti/tagliatelle kind of shape. In the meanwhile heat some olive oil in a frying pan and bake the salmon with some salt and pepper, skin side down for about 7 minutes on medium high heat. Now when you want to make your home made pesto, blitz everything together in your blender. Basicly add as much olive oil as it needs to become runny enough (and the good part is that the left overs can be stored in a jar in your fridge). If you don't want to make your own one, just put the home bought pesto on your cutting board ;-). Now it's time to check your salmon, bake the other side for as long as it needs, depending on the thickness of your fish. It's best when it's still pink in the middle and it will cook trough a bit when you remove it out of the pan. Pack your salmon in some foil, so it stays warm and than it's time to add your zucchini to the same pan, add the pesto, a big handful of spinach and just swirl the pan around for a about a minute. Just until the zucchini is starting to melt a bit with the pesto and it all gets gooey and warm. Transfer to a plate and arrange the salmon on top, serve with a slice of lemon.

Seriously, damn tasty!

Easy Sunday Fritatta

Hey guys, It's Sunday again. That asks for a healthy, easy recipe as I always promise you on Sundays. This time it's not a snack, dessert, breakfast but a wonderful Fritatta for lunch or dinner. It's perfect when you have any vegetables left, in this case roasted vegetables are great. I like to roast a big plate full of vegetables during the week so I have some veggies in my fridge whenever I need it. One of my favourite flavour combination is butternut, sweet potato, red onion and corn. But basically I've done this as well with green peas, broccoli and green beans. Don't have any leftover vegetables? Cook or roast some ;-) But if I can give you a tip, just cook/roast a bit more for dinner than you actually need. You can turn leftovers in the most amazing dishes! 

But for now, back to my Easy Sunday Fritatta

Ingredients

A bowl of leftover roasted vegetables

3 whole eggs

3 egg whites

fresh basil

soft goat cheese

Now what? Pre heat an oven on 180 degrees. Mix the eggs until combined and season with salt and pepper. Pour some oil in a stir fry pan (that's suitable for the oven) and fry the vegetables for just a bit, than add the eggs and on top the goat cheese, crumbled feta is also a great substitute when your not a fan off goat cheese). Let it cook for about 5 minutes on medium heat so the bottom of the fritatta is getting browned. Than the oven is going to do the rest of the work for you, again about 5-8 minutes just keep an eye on it! In this time, I suggest you to make a lovely easy side salad. For example some rocket, cucumber, tomatoes and radish and drizzle with balsamic. Serve the fritatta with a slice of bread and the salad. 

You can't get it any easier ;-)

Healthy Falafel Wraps

This is a great dinner recipe, the flavors are amazing and the only thing is you need a food processor, it mainly does all the work for you. I love falafel, but it's often deep fried and full of fats and ingredients I have never heard off before. (Go to your local supermarket and flip the package around, the one I checked had around 46% chickpeas If I remember correctly and the rest was mainly junk..) Well this recipe is seriously really easy!

In this recipe I used homemade fresh falafel, obviously and also made a fresh spicy tomato salsa and a sweet and creamy sauce. All together it are all fresh ingredients, low calorie and it makes a delicious meal. If you don't have  a boyfriend that eats for 3, you will have some leftovers and the falafel and sides will remain fresh for a few days in your fridge so you can eat it again! The recipe is 

Ingredients 

For the falafel
400g drained chickpeas (2 cans and you have a bit leftover)
1 chili pepper
1 lemon (only the zest)
1 tsp cumin
1 tbsp chickpea flour (you can substitute with any kind of flour)
1 bunch fresh coriander (If your not a big fan you can use a big tsp dried)
2 cloves of garlic

Tomato salsa
4 big tomatoes
half a chili pepper
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 or a small clove of garlic

for the sauce
200g cottage cheese
1-2 tbsp chili sauce

Veggies
1 courgette
1 eggplant

Extra
Lettuce
4 whole wheat wraps

You start off with your vegetables. Cut them in rounds and lay them in an oven on 250 degrees, sprinkle with oil, salt and pepper and roast them until brown, flip. This takes about 20 minutes (10 minutes each side) preparing the falafel, prepare your food processor and put the drained chickpeas in. Finely grate the lemon zest, add a pinch of salt, the chili, spices, flour and blitz until you have a smooth paste. Scrape down the sides a bit and shape it into small patties/balls. (Wet your hands a bit, this way it's really easy to shape the falafel). Put a good amount of olive oil into the frying pan and add the falafel, turning when golden and crispy. 

Clean the food processor a bit, add all the ingredients for the tomato salsa, and a bit salt and give it a good swirl and blitz until you have a chunky tomato salsa. Make sure not to over blitz it! 

Mix the cottage cheese with the chili sauce and don't forget taking your vegetables out of the oven

Heat up the wraps in the microwave or in a frying pan without added oil. Now get a wrap and arrange the falafel, sauce, salsa, lettuce and vegetables and fold it up. Eat, enjoy ;-)

pssst: I forgot the veggies on top for the picture ;-) 

Fake Rice

How can rice be fake? That's what you are probably thinking right? Well.. This one is a cheat. Maybe some of you even have heard about this kind of recipes: it's cauliflower rice. Yes after my pizza recipe I now come up with another cauliflower recipe! It's healthy, low calorie, gluten free and versatile.

If you are preparing a high calorie dish you can easily swap the rice for the cauliflower rice for bringing the amount of calories down. This way you get more vitamins in too your body without adding a lot of calories. And it does really taste like rice, not like cauliflower. Give it a try!

You need

A food processor/mixer

onion

cauliflower

oil

Seriously that's all, well OK you need a bit salt as well ;-) You start with a food processor, add the cauliflower (only the top) and pulse until it looks like couscous/rice. Now it's time to put a large frying pan on medium heat. Add a tablespoon of olive oil and cook the onion until translucent, add the cauliflower and fried about 10 minutes. Add a bit of salt and optional a dash of coconut milk. 

Hot Goatcheese Salad

It's sunday.. That means time for a blog that's all about easy. Today a salad you can make in minutes, without making too much effort. You don't need to order, don't need a take away but just try this easy recipe!;)

"Error"

Ingredients

big handful of lettuce

half a cucumber in fours

1 large tomato, sliced

1 grilled bell pepper (pot)

a bit of red onion in half rings

seeds

goat cheese

good quality bread 

Olive oil, balsamic vinegar with salt and pepper for the dressing

Preheat an oven on 200 degrees Celsius. Than grab a plate and arrange the salad and vegetables on. Take a heat proof plate and pop the goat cheese in the oven until browned and a bit gooey. In the meanwhile make the dressing and roast the seeds in a pan on medium heat without any added oil, keep an eye on them because they can get a bit black when you don't;) combine everything and there you go, and easy delicious Sunday lunch or dinner.

Stuffed Sweet Potato

I looooove sweet potato's and I wanted to try something out like this for ages.. well.. I'm happy I did! I guess this is one of my best ideas ever to avoid a boring lunch haha

Ingredients

2 big sweet potatoes

for the stuffing

1 tiny tin of white beans

1 onion

1 tiny tin corn

2 fresh tomato's

2 heaping spoons of cottage cheese

left over shrimps - chicken (optional)

cheese for grating on top

salt 

1 tsp sweet pepper powder

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Bake the sweet potato in the oven on 200 degrees for about 45-60 minutes, until completely soft. While the sweet potatoes are baking, place a skillet over medium-high heat with some oil. Fried the onion until translucent and add the beans, tomato's and spices bake until slightly browned and taste if it's seasoned well enough than add the cottage cheese, stir and turn off the heat. Remove the sweet potato from the oven and let it cool down for 5 minutes. Cut the sweet potato's in halves and scrape some of the flesh out of the potatoes. Mix it with your stuffing and than put the stuffing back in the potato. If you have left over chicken or shrimps, lay it on top and sprinkle with cheese. Turn back in the oven until the cheese is melted. 

Serve with a green salad an the remaining stuffing, enjoy!! 

Vegetarian Monday

For me it's really important to eat at least one day completely vegetarian, no meat, no fish. My boyfriend is not all to happy with that, but since I start making wonderful dinners and not mention in advance it's going to be vegetarian he is always happy with my created meals;) So this dish is perfect for those who want to eat vegetarian, without the feeling to miss out on meat.

Meat free Monday's Dinner

Ingredients
for the salad
a bag of lettuce
1 avocado
half a cucumber
2 Roma tomato's
goat cheese
seed mix (pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds)
1 eggplant in slices
a hand of diced butternut

add: vegetarian burger, my favourite when I don't want to make my own: the Provencal carré. A mix of zucchini, eggplant, goat cheese and herbs.

for the dressing
Pomegranate or raspberry vinegar
good quality olive oil
salt & pepper


Preheat the grill or oven on 225 degrees. Arrange the butternut on a peace of baking paper, slice the eggplant in rounds and place next to the butternut on a baking sheet.  Sprinkle the vegetables with olive oil, salt and pepper and let the eggplants grill for 10 minutes, turn and let them grill for another 5. The butternut needs about 20 minutes. When you get the eggplant oat, replace the space for the burgers. They need about 8 minutes. Make sure to turn them as well. In the time your vegetables are roasting it's time to prepare the rest of the salad. Grab a big salad bowl and mix the vinegar, olive oil salt and pepper in it. On top you can add the lettuce, the avocado in pieces, the cucumber in fours, the tomato in slices and after the vegetables are browned and cooled down a bit you can add the butternut and eggplant as well to the bowl, now it's time to mix it all up. Making your salad this way prevents the salad to get soggy because it combines with the dressing just before serving. Finally, crumble the goat cheese on top, get a big amount on your plate and serve with the vegetarian burger.

Bon Appetit!

Roasted Parsnip Soup

I Love Soup! 

Soups are really easy to make plus they are filling, nutritiousness and tasteful. So yes I love to make soups. During winter time I'm addicted to butternut squash, parsnips and carrots. So no wonder I came up with the recipe for this lovely soup. It's really easy, your soup is preparing while you are watching your favourite soap and then the blender does the rest of the work for you ;-) 

Ingredients

600 gram parsnips + 1 extra

400 gram carrots

2 big white onions

2 garlic cloves

oil

cumin

rosemary

salt & pepper

250 ml coconut milk

1 litter vegetable stock

Preheat an oven on 225 degrees Celsius. Prepare a baking tray with baking sheet and cut the parsnips, carrots and onions in big chunks and divide with the garlic gloves over the tray. Sprinkle with the herbs and olive oil and let it roast in the oven for about 30 minutes. Get the roasted vegetables out when browned and soft and transfer them to a big pot. In the meanwhile turn down the heat to 190 degrees Celsius. Now add the stock and the coconut milk to the soup and bring to a boil, if the soup is to thick don't hesitate to add more boiling water. 

Prepare your leftover parsnip in thin pieces and sprinkle with coconut oil and sea salt, roast them in the oven for about 20 minutes until crispy and golden. Grab your blender and blend the soup, taste and add some salt or pepper if desired. Now it's time for your soup too cool down, so the chips are getting crispy in the meanwhile don't taste them! You will finish them before they make it until they can reach the soup hahhaa. Transfer the soup to a bowl or plate and sprinkle the chips on top!