{ nutty muesli }

My favorite nutty Muesli recipe is from Yvonne Lemmers (her books were the first I ever purchased on the low carb lifestyle), totally fits into Paleo, Caveman, Low Carb etc. lifestyle.

I made it this week at my mom’s house, just brought all the ingredients and made a batch for her and me in 30 minutes it is literally that easy and can add such a great touch to your quark, yoghurt, fruit or ice cream.

You will need the following ingredients:

• Assorted unsalted nuts
• Coconut oil
• Cinnamon or mixed (cookie) spices
• The original recipe also adds split flaxseed (2 teaspoons) and stevia but I prefer to add these seperately as I like to use 1 teaspoon per serving.
• You will also need a good all purpose slicer, I have a fissler multi chopper finecut and it chops through nuts like crazy. (for the dutchies you can buy it here and INTL you can find it here)

100 grams nuts, 2 teaspoon of spice, 1 tablespoon of coconut oil. This is the basic recipe, I just double, triple etc. to make the amount that matches the weight of nuts I have.

Preheat your oven to 150 degrees celsius.

Start chopping up the nuts, don’t throw everything in just a bit at a time and chop until they are a size you would like as a topping. I don’t like big chuncks so I make it quite fine in size although it is hard to get them all exactly the same size as you can see.

After chopping add the spice and stir wel so all the nuts are all nice and brown from the spice.
Melt the coconut au bain marie (I usually put the coconut oil in a sturdy glass, and let it meld in a bowl with boiled water. No need for a the stove as it melts this way in a blink).
Add the melted coconut oil to the nuts and mix it through the nuts with a spoon so all the nuts are all oiled up.

Place some  greaseproof paper on an ovensheet and evenly put the nut mixture on there.
I made a total on 500 grams and put it on one sheet.

In the oven for 15-20 minutes and it will start to smell like cookies … it is literally that easy and so yummy ! Let it cool, place in a (preferably glass) container and start adding it to anything you would like.

Enjoy and please let me know how you liked it in the comments.

{ banana egg pancakes }

My favorite breakfast is known amongst my friends, I eat it quite a bit and if you follow me on instagram you know I do.

I have been asked many a time how I make them, how I get them so cute and round  and what goes into them so here’s my recipe, I didn’t invent this recipe but this is how I like them.

If you work out, there’s a variation you can make to this recipe by adding a scoop of (no flavor, unsweetend) protein powder. It makes them firm and you get you’re scoop of protein in there so win win.

Ingredients:
1 ripe banana
1 egg
1 scoop unflavored unsweetend protein powder (optional for bodybuilders)
1 full dessert spoon (really full) of cinnamon or 1 drop of Young Living Cinnamon Bark Essential oil
coconut oil
immersion blender
honey
Forest fruit; I like blue berries & strawberries

Blend the banana, add the cinnamon, add the optional protein powder, add the egg & blend again.

I was fortunate enough to find this cute pancake pan in a dutch store one day, never seen it again but if I do I will buy them all !! It is my precious, me being a little ocd and my pancakes need to me cute and this helps me with that.

I add coconut to every little circle, about a full teaspoon each.

Add the mix and let it slowly simmer, do NOT flip them over until the top is solid and they can be wiggled from their space or you will have a gooey pancake that tastes the same but just does not look pwetty. I’m all about pwetty, have you sensed that ?!

Add your honey and forest fruit, make your plate pretty with the pancakes and fruit (it makes eating it so much more fun trust me), get some herbal tea and bon apetit !

Any questions ? Let me know or better yet share or tag me and let me know how they tasted. You’ll be hooked I promise !

 

Dinner recipe #2

Meatballs with tomato rice and spinach

Main course, 4 persons, 30 minutes, recipe from allerhande,
per 1p. portion 570 kilocalories, 21 gr. protein, 26 grams fat and 64 grams carbohydrates

2 cloves of garlic
300 grams of minced meat
1 can of tomatopieces
300 gr. rice
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 bag of fresh spinach of about 300 grams (we got ours from the turkish supermarket and it was goooood)
50 grams black olives sliced up (fresh or from a pot either is fine we got fresh ones from our turkish supermarket)

1. mash up 1 clove of garlic and cut the other ones in slices.
Combine the minced meat with de mashed garlic, season with salt & pepper as per your taste and make 12 balls.
Put the tomatopieces in a sieve above a bowl and pour 100 ml water in the can, shake and pour this over the tomatopieces. Save the liquid.

2. Cook the rice as per the instructions on the box. Heat the olive oil in a deep & big saucepan and make sure to roast the meatballs till they are nice and brown allover. Add the tomato liquid and spice it up with salt & pepper and let it simmer for 10 minutes on a middlehigh fire.
Add the tomatopieces to the rice and warm for 2 minutes.

3. Turn up the fire, add the spinach in parts to the meatballs and season as per your taste with salt & pepper. Let is simmer until the spinach has softened and its all done.

We served the rice on a huge platter, poured the meatballs and sauce on the rice and sprinkled the olives over the dish.

Review : it was yummy according to the grownups that made it and the guests, great combo although we will be adding more spices to the meatballs next time as we thought they were a bit bland.

For dessert we had Eton Mess (Nigella Lawson), a favorite recipe I will share soon.

Dinner Recipe # 1

Want to share some recipe’s I’ve found here or there that I’ve been trying with my blog readers. DH and I tried this recipe, our guests loved it, we had some things we’d like to try differently next time (a little less mustard in the saus & the chicken needed more seasoning). Would love to hear what you think of it !

Easy French Bistro Menu (courtesy of Stephanie)

Menu: Chicken with creamy Dijon sauce, Roasted Potatoes, Sauteed Garden Vegetables + Butter Lettuce Salad

To make the dinner first prepare the roasted potatoes…toss cubed red potatoes with olive oil until well-coated; add sea salt & freshly ground pepper to taste. Roast the potatoes in an oven preheated to 425 degrees and cook for 30-45 minutes. The cooking time depends on the size of your potatoes (the smaller the cube, the shorter the cooking time). If you have any herbs on hand, toss those in the mix as well. Herbs like thyme, rosemary or chives work best.

Once you have the potatoes in the oven, rinse and crisp the lettuce in a salad spinner . Place in refrigerator.

Now chop spring onions (you may substitute shallots), zucchini, crimini mushrooms and perhaps yellow squash. Set aside.

Heat a cast iron pan (or frying pan) over medium heat. Throw in a 1-2 tablespoons of butter. Season 4 trimmed chicken breasts with s + p and cook about 8 minutes each side. Once cooked throughout, set aside on a platter. Using the same pan (and the chicken drippings), make a cream sauce to pour over the chicken. Add about 8 ounces of creme fraiche* and about 3 tablespoons of Dijon mustard (I prefer the Maille label) to the pan. Simmer on medium heat until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes.

Quickly saute your pre-cut vegetables in a wok with a little olive oil and dried Italian herb seasoning and you’re good to go! You’ll want to saute the veggies on medium high heat.

Retrieve the salad spinner from the fridge and drain the water before giving it a good spin. Serve with a simple, homemade shallot vinaigrette–found here.

Bon Appetit !

food

Amazing when you can eat everything you never bother to read the food labels isn’t it ?

Now I know that when the boys had their milkallergy I only had to mind a few things as a docter was able to help them with their allergies and all was good so that was easy. Then there’s my friend Mandy has a little boy that is allergic to a lot of stuff and she has to read every single label like a detective. I know from her how hard it is to find things or recipe’s for him that he is able to eat.

But now I have to watch out & read every label for food I come across and boy it takes a lot of work, shopping takes twice, no thrice (LOL) as much time as it does normally.

Let me tell you a little story, you see I’m someone that has had a bad resilience with her health for the last 20 years, always catching the flu or other stuff that germs seem determined to give me, but before that was never ill, i mean almost never as I’ve had like one typical childhood ilness. And this year I’ve decided (for a lot of things in my life but this is step 1 since i couldn’t get it right last year) that enough is enough, I want to survive Fall and winter on my terms and not those of the germs.
So a war has been launched and with the help of a special docter, a very good docter, same one as my boys have seen and various people I have recommended him to or I meet quite by accident that know about him; Dr. Soema.

Dr. Soema figured out quite a bit about my energy levels, intestins and liver that were not good, stuff living there, thriving of food that not only I love. So i’m on a very strict diet for 30 days, lot’s of natural herbs to make the intestins and liver stronger and cleaner and antibiotics.

So I’m off sugar, milk, cheese, cacoa, yeast, glucosepaste, tomato’s, pig, veal and cows meat, pepper, goatsmilk or cheese, mushrooms and let me tell you once you start looking out for these ingredients it’s everywhere … yes also in cupcakes 😦 so I ordered myself the babycakes vegan cookbook so I can make some nice cupcakes as dessert for a dinnerdate at the end of this month. And try thinking up a nice dinner besides the standerd meat, potatoes & veggies ? Only thing I can come up with is a healthy version of nasi goreng and fajitas (but no sour creme or tomato saus to go with it but a cheesy soy spread) with corn chips. If anyone has any recipes plse let me know, I’m craving changes in the menu !!

An upside, well the first week I didn’t think there was one because i was in detox (kicking a sugar habit is not the easiest) but there is one is I’m loosing weight, finally 2 years after the knee-accident I’m losing weight. 2 down, at least 5 to go ….. And I should have buckets of energy at the end of this, this is what keeps me going, more energy, less feeling blah, less catching the flu and overall a better healthier me !

Something to consider, cutting out certain products I “though” were healthy from my lifestyle after the 30 days.