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.

My Superfood Frozen Yogurt

Frozen yogurt, who doesn't love it? And it's healthy.. right?

Welllll.... not that healthy as you would think. Unfortunately company's add a lot of sugar in their frozen yogurts. While most frozen yogurt is nonfat or very low fat, the calories still ad up. A large cup of frozen yogurt is an average 380 calories and has 76g of sugar, without any toppings added.

Well, let me introduce you the real deal.. really, yummy, delicious, mouth watering Superfood Frozen yogurt

Ingredients

100g of frozen mixed berries

100g of 0% fat Greek Yogurt

a dash of almond milk

a teaspoon of cinnamon

a teaspoon of macs (optional)

Mix all the ingredients in a blender, mix, mix, mix... done! Yep, that easy.. add milk until the right consistency (depends on your berries) but it shouldn't need that much! 

Than pour the mixture in a bowl and add your toppings! Mine: cacao nibs, coconut and sliced dry roasted almonds.. daaaaaamn delicious! 

Nutritional information without extra added toppings approx. 110 calories. 

Home made Pesto

Who knew that making delicious pesto is that easy? I mean there is soooo many junk in a simple jar, fresh pesto stays good for about 1 week in your fridge, yeah you can imagine, the jar you buy is not cooled so they have to add a lot to keep it good.
Well if you do have some time left, and you have a food processor, you will have an amazing red pesto in 5 minutes with just a few ingredients.

Ingredients

A handful of fresh basil leaves
40 gram Parmesan cheese
30 gram dry roasted cashew nuts
2 small garlic cloves
75g sundried tomatoes
75g tomato pasta
extra vergine olive oil

Put all the ingredients into a food processor or blender and blend until everything is pureed. You can add a bit of the oil of the sundried tomatoes and then add as much as olive oil needed until you've reached the right consistency. Now add some salt and pepper for your taste!

You can use this pesto for your salad, whip it up with some yogurt as an amazing dressing. Use a big spoon as a sauce for your pasta of "zugghetti", or on a piece of bread/wrap with some roasted veggies (damn delicious) the exact recipe will follow this week on the blog!

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.

My 5 Minutes Chocolate Bomb

Oh....My.....Gosh... I am tooooo excited about this tasty wonderful snack, dessert, chocolate bomb! It takes seriously 5 minutes and what you get is a warm, gooey, sweet, fluffy, chocolate rich, yummy treat.

Yesterday I had an important meeting about my accounting as a model and it stressed me out big time! I'm not that organised, so we soon found out I made some errors.. not a world problem but now I know how to do it better! After that long day with numbers I needed something comforting, a wonderful dinner was on the menu, recipe will follow soon, but a dessert was needed most. I whipped up this amazing dish and you would be crazy NOT to try it out. There is no fat, no sugar, no lactose and no grains or any kind of gluten. So suitable for everyone!

Ingredients

2 heaping tbsp almond meal

2 tbsp cacao

1 tbsp maple syrup

2 egg whites

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp apple sauce (or you can use a tbsp coconut oil)

pinch of sea salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

4 tbsp almond milk

Now mix up all the ingredients, first the almond meal with the cacao, baking powder, extract, salt and mix to combine, than add the milk, apple sauce and egg whites and give it a good mixture. Place the mixture in a bowl that's deep enough, because this baby will rise like crazy! Place it on full power, 3 minutes in your microwave and done. 

Serve like it is, or with crushed pecan nuts, maple syrup and shredded coconut.

Nutritional Information: the entire recipe is about 260 kcal, if you have a bigger dessert appetite ;-) I divided it in 2 when used for a dessert.

Tip: I ate the same for breakfast again, 1/2 the recipe and added yogurt, banana, berries and shredded coconut with some Kasha. A yummy try out as well ;-) 

Just an ordinary day, including 2 recipes!

This week I visited my sister with her new little little baby and my adorable 2 year old niece. She is just toooo cute and my little nephew is definitely one of the prettiest baby boy's I've ever seen. We went to a little farm with a big playing field so we could cuddle some animals and play around while drinking organic juices in the sun. Not that bad right? 

My sister told me she finds it really hard to eat healthy walking around with a baby boy and a 2 year old girl that is demanding a lot of attention (and then I mean a loooooooot). So I'm trying to give her as much tips as possible to be and stay healthy. Thats why I'm going to make her "a week schedule in food" so she has some inspiration and something to hold on to. To show her how easy it can be I whipped up a delicious salad for the two of us and a wonderful treat for my niece. 

Ingredients

for 2 persons

4 hands of lettuce

1/2 avocado

chickpeas

almonds, roughly chopped

goat cheese, soft

cucumber

cherry tomatoes

cooked beetroot

dressing: olive oil, balsamic vinegar, honey, salt & pepper

Simply chop up all the ingredients, arrange on a plate and drizzle with the dressing. Yup that easy ;-) 

And than, my little niece was begging me to bake pancakes for her, so of course I couldn't resist (and pssst look at her cute knife ;-))

Now you are probably thinking, pancakes? That's not healthy! Well these are. 

Ingredients (prepare for the long list)

1 banana

cinnamon

1 egg

a swirl of milk of choice

Yup, that's it. Incredibly healthy, easy and damn delicious! Just mash 1 banana, add a teaspoon of cinnamon a swirl of milk and 1 egg. Mix it all up until you have a kind of batter and fried in a pan with a bit of olive oil. Serve like it is, with extra cinnamon, yogurt, jam or whatever you are craving! 

Oh and can you believe it? My niece was eating 1 of the 2 pancakes and wanted to eat our salad as well.. haha amazing right! Well she eats everything, this is a picture of her eating home made sushi the other day.. I mean.. home made sushi, for a 2 year old!!! (Not with raw fish for her though, not good for kids that young)

Matcha Latte - my newest addiction

Hey guys!

Today I'm writing you about one of my newest addictions: matcha latte. It's a kind of green Japanese tea, mixed with whipped hot soy milk (and some stevia).

Matcha is an ultimate energy booster, in one study, researchers has thought this was from the caffeine in matcha, but they found that it was actually the combination of matches natural properties.
Its an enormous calorie burner. Matcha is a great addition to lose weight because it boosts metabolism and burns fat. But the great thing is it doesn't raise blood pressure or heart rate, making it a safe alternative to questionable quick fixes of today's pharmaceuticals ridden with side effects.
Its a detox deluxe, a green healthy colour. Matcha helps to safely cleanse and purge the body. Chlorophyll is the element that gives green tea and other plants their colour and is also a powerful detoxifier.


And Matcha has many more benefits, like it's
* packed with antioxidants including the powerful EGCg
* calms and relaxes
* enhances mood and aids in concentration
* provides vitamin C, selenium, chromium, zinc and magnesium
* fight against viruses and bacteria
*rich in fibre
*lowers chloseteral and blood sugar

So why not and try it out and sip this delicious treat with my favourite combination: some dried fruits and nuts! <3

Recipe Matcha Latte
For making a latte you need 1/2 tsp of good quality matcha, stir in 50ml of boiling water, add 200ml of whipped soy milk serve with some stevia or honey for a delicious warming treat, Nomnomnom!

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!!!!

Easy Sunday time: Who needs chips anyway? ;-)

Are you a sucker for chips? Crispy, salty, yeah I know the feeling.. but I have to see my biggest cravings are nuts. And cheese. Yup, looooooooots of cheese and nuts. Although nuts are healthy, =- don't take the roasted, salted ones- I love the roasted and salted ones haha. So as soon as you give me a bowl, I won't and can't stop snacking. This recipe is a perfect substitute for your salty cravings and when you are more of a sweet tooth I will give you a sweety twist on the recipe as well! 

And it's an easy Sunday because it's not a lot effort, not a lot of ingredients and getting ready while you are sitting on the couch ;-)

Ingredients

One can chickpeas, white beans or a mix (thoroughly drained, rinsed and dried a bit)

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp pepper powder

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp sea salt

Now turn on the oven on 180 degrees Celsius. Toss the ingredients in a bowl with the beans and chickpeas and make sure everything is well coated, now arrange them on a rack in the middle and of the oven on a baking sheet and bake until crisp, about 35-40 minutes.

and if your the sweet tooth, roast them with cinnamon, vanilla powder, olive oil and a big swirl of agave syrup. 

Happy Sunday Everyone!!