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! 

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!

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.

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 ;-)

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 ;-) 

Salad on the go!

Yesterday I had a fun and lovely shoot in the Netherlands. We made a cool editorial with all black and white elements with golden jewelry.

I knew the team and wanted to make something delicious for on set, something healthy ;-) I love salads, a lot of people think it's boring but I really don't understand how a salad can be boring. You can add whatever you like and make a million versions! I chose to make a rocket salad with some healthy ingredients like sweet potato which are high in vitamin B6, vitamin C and D, contain iron (proper immune functioning and white blood cell production) and are a good source of magnesium, which is the relaxation and anti-stress mineral. Further you need the best grain in the world quinoa, some goat cheese (use a good quality of feta cheese if you don't like goats cheese) and some vegetables and nuts. Further it just needs a bit of time and love to make this healthy, delicious salad.

Salad on the Go!

Ingredients

Quinoa
goat cheese
1 big sweet potato
raisins
rocket
cherry tomato's
cucumber
handful of mixed nuts
drizzle of olive oil
salt & pepper
cinnamon
vegetable stock

Boil water in a kettle. Grab a handful of raisins and add them to a cup with some of the boiled water, let it soak up the water for about 5 minutes. In the meanwhile slice the sweet potato in cubes (just wash, leave the skin on it's full of vitamins!) and cook them about 8 minutes until soft. In the same time you can cook your quinoa with some vegetable stock and a pinch of cinnamon. Cook until fluffy and let it cool down. Grab your Tupperware and start layering up. First the rocket, than the cherry tomatoes (in fours), the cucumber (in fours) and the cooled down quinoa and sweet potato. Sprinkle the chopped nuts, raisins and olive oil on top and serve with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper!

Some sneaky backstage unedited shots from the shoot

Easy Sundays

It's Sunday again! Time for another easy recipe..  Sometimes it's really to much effort to prepare a homemade salad for lunch, or roast some vegetables and you just want to have a bite, a crunch but maintain your healthy lifestyle. I have that, especially after a morning workout. I come home tired, hungry and want food - now - an hour ago. So this is a protein rich, healthy solution ;-)

Easy Lunch

Ingredients

3 rice/spelt cakes

tomato

cucumber

chicken fillet

bio vegetable sandwich spread

cottage cheese

jam (without added sugar)

old cheese

boiled egg

lettuce

Boil your egg, slice your cheese grab a plate and your cakes and start layering up your favourite combination! Mine is 1 with sandwich spread, chicken fillet, lettuce and sliced cucumber & tomato, 1 with cottage cheese and jam, 1 with old cheese, sliced cucumber and a soft boiled egg. Yummy, healthy, easy and delicious ;-)