Aerial yoga, flour-free pizza, shopping and the itchy Berliners at gym.....

Hi guys!

Hope you had a lovely weekend! Mine started with going crazy at Lush buying lots and lots of different kinds of bath melts, bath bombs and bubble bars...we have a  bathtub now you see. I have to say that the people working at Lush are always super nice! They know a lot about all the products and they are very helpful. In the evening I watched Gravity with Ben. I wasn't too impressed. I think it would have been much better in 3D.

On Saturday Ben headed to his grandparents place to meet his relatives so I began my "single weekend". I tried Aerial yoga which was super fun! If you live in Berlin, you can try it out at Kulturbrauerei at Jangada for 15 €. It's worth every penny! After this I headed to Ku'ddam (shopping area) to look for a spring coat. If you have checked out my Fashiolista profile lately, you'll know what kind of coat I'm hunting for. Didn't find a coat, but I got few shirts and socks ;D. The hunt will continue... In the evening I wanted to try to cook a flour-free pizza base. The base was made out of cauliflower and even though it doesn't taste like a classic pizza it was very good and great alternative for the real thing :). See the recipe in English here and in Finnish here.

Aerial yoga looks something like this...stole the pic from here, sorry about that :p

This is the kind of Spring coat I'm hunting...These are from By Malene Birger, Topshop, Ganni

The yummy flour-free, vegan, organic pizza ;)

On Sunday I treated myself with a massive breakfast before I headed to gym to complete one fourth of my 10000 kettlebell swings. Feelin like a supawomääääään! Now, today (again) I witnessed some strange behavior at the gym at the ladies sauna. Why are some women there so itchy!? There's women scratching their private parts like there's no tomorrow. Excuse me. Note that I am slightly exaggerating, but still. There's other weird behavior happening as well but I'll save you from that and won't go into details. Sorry for sharing this info with you guys but I'm just slightly annoyed 'cause there I am, drinking my water in the sauna and I get told off because of that...When I ask: "Why I cannot drink here?" the answer is: "Because you're not allowed to". Scratching yourself in public shouldn't be allowed to! Peace.

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10K

Hi guys!

The topic of this post doesn't refer to 10 kilos I've lost or 10 000 € pay rise I've received (unfortunately). It refers to a challenge that I'm doing at the moment. I've took a couple of hours with a personal trainer at my gym and as a result for the next five weeks I'm going to gym 4 times a week, doing 500 reps of swings each time with a kettlebell to finally achieve my goal of 10 000 reps. Now, you might ask why... To strengthen my core and to lose few centimeters along the way...hopefully. I'm 1000 reps down now. 9000 to go. Damn. Anybody out there who has done the same challenge?

This is how a swing should look like. In the last picture the woman looks happy, but don't be fooled - it's probably not her 500th swing...

Swings aren't the only thing I've done lately (YET). I was sick but at least I learned how to make origami hearts. I also attempted doing a dinosaur but that just didn't work out. Must be the fever. We also moved! I love it here, we have now much more space. I'll film a video later on ;). I've been also cooking and baking much more since we now have enough space for it. The stuff I bake doesn't fully support my healthy new years resolutions but to keep it all in balance me and Siri did our very first carafe of green juice! I was also supporting Finland in the Olympics ice hockey (we won bronze!).

The pasta pic below...you have to try the recipe! It's with zucchini-garlic-chili-parmesan sauce. Super easy and super tasty! The recipe is here. 

"Found from the phone -pics"

In case you wanna try to make your own origami Tyrannosaurus Rex ;).....

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More veggie food inspiration

Hey guys!

My "meatless October" is soon half way through! I've been exchanging some recipes with my friends and I think it's time to share few of the easiest & quickest and best ones with you too :).

Feta-veggie filling for baked (sweet)potatoes... cooking doesn't get any easier than this..

2 dl of sour cream
2 dl cottage cheese
300 grams soft feta
1 clove of garlic
10 cherry tomatoes
1/2 cucumber
1 green pepper
1 dl green olives
pepper

Quite simply, smash feta into sour cream and add cottage cheese. Add chopped veggies and mix... Enjoy with baked potato or sweet potato. I ate it with rucola salad.

Broccoli pasta...check out the video here
(Thanks for the recipe Maria! I loved it!)

4 dl broccoli florets
4 cloves of garlic (sliced)
1 veggie stock
salt and pepper
400 grams of pasta
1 tbsp of olive oil
1 tbsp of butter
1/3 dl of parmesan cheese
pinch of hot pepper flakes

Boil the pasta in salted boiling water. Save 1 dl of cooking water.

Fry garlic in oil in medium heat (in a big skillet with high sides). Add broccoli and 1/2 dl of cooking water from the pasta + a veggie stock. Cook 7-8 minutes until the broccoli is tender. Add salt & pepper & hot pepper flakes

Smash up some of the broccoli with a wooden spoon. Add drained pasta, butter and parmesan cheese. Stir everything up and cook for 1 minute in high heat. Add the rest of the pasta cooking water if you like.

Enjoy!

Naughty Sunday treat...

(For one)

1 bread
Goat cheese
Basil
Olive oil
Pepper
2 cherry tomatoes

Salad:
1 avocado
rucola
Basil
Pine nuts
Cherry tomatoes
olive oil
Green olives

Spread some olive oil on your two halves of the bread. Add goat cheese (as much s you like, it's your Sunday treat after all ;) ), the sliced cherry tomatoes and some basil. Sprinkle some pepper on. Put in the oven (150 degrees) until the cheese has melted a bit. Prepare the salad while the breads are in the oven... you know, chopchopchop and mix ;). Enjoy with your favourite magazine :P

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Happy Cinnamon roll day!

Hi guys!

I wish I could capture the lovely smell in our flat and share with you guys. Or do you know anything better than the smell of freshly baked cinnamon rolls? I learned today that 4th of October is apparently celebrated as "kanelbullens dag", cinnamon roll day. Luckily enough I had some ready buns in my freezer from IKEA plus I had a great spinach-quinoa risotto recipe in mind containing cinnamon.

The risotto was tasty and so good in so many ways for a vegetarian diet that I have to share the recipe with you! The recipe contains cashew nuts and coconut milk which are great source of good fat. From quinoa you'll get protein and from spinach iron. The original recipe in Finnish is here.

Here's what you'll need:

3 dl (dry) quinoa
1 table spoon apple vinegar
3 dl Cashew nuts (soak them 4-8 hours in water before using)
0,5 dl coconut milk
3 dl + 3 dl water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon garlic spice
150 grams (frozen) spinach
2 onions

Rinse the quinoa well and boil in 3 dl of water with the apple vinegar for about 10 min until it's ready.

Put 3 dl of water, cashew nuts, coconut milk, cinnamon, garlic spice and salt in a blender and blend.

Chop onions and fry them in a dry pan until they get a bit brown. Add spinach and fry until they melt. Add quinoa and cashew-coconut cream and mix. Add salt if needed.

Ready!

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Preparing for my fully vegetarian October: recipes!

Hi guys!

Next month I'm gonna take part to Docventure's "Lihaton lokakuu" (erm, "meatless" October). I barely eat any meat anyways although I've eaten some fish and seafood every now and then. However, next month is gonna be completely vegetarian diet for me. I have cut the meat from my diet because of ethical reasons. I challenged few of my friends to take part as well and promised to share some ideas about what to cook. Here are some very simple recipes that I tried this week to give you some inspiration. I think all of us can cut the meat consumption at least a bit, even though you wouldn't give it up completely.

I am not so familiar with the "cooking vocabulary" so sorry for the interesting choices of words ;)

Marjaana's healthier version of famous avocado pasta

Avocado pasta is my favourite dish. It was all over the cooking blogs a year ago, although I learned about it from my friend, Heini. I like to make it so often that I actually developed a bit healthier version of it, without ruining the tastiness ;). It's very delicious and so easy to prepare. I used organic ingredients, but that's up to you.

You'll need (for 4):

1 clove of garlic

1/2 chili

1 lime

2 avocados

1/3 deciliter olive oil

Handful of basilica

Handful of parsley

A big handful of rucola

2 tomatoes

1/2 deciliter of shred pecorino cheese

1/2 deciliter of shred parmesan cheese

salt

pepper

(if you want: pine nuts or other nuts or seeds to add some protein)

500 grams of pasta (I used gluten-free)

Note: You don't need to fry or boil anything else than the pasta ;)

Chop garlic, chili, herbs & rucola and put them straightaway to a serving bowl. Chop tomatoes and avocados into cubes & add them in the bowl. Add juice from the lime. Add pepper, salt, olive oil & the two shred cheese. Add nuts or seeds if you want. Mix.

Boil the pasta. Take 1 deciliter of the boiling water and mix it with the "avocado sauce" in the serving bowl. Add the pasta in the bowl as well. Mix.

Ready!

Dinner served for one :)

I also prepared two different kinds of soups this week. I think it's so nice to eat soup now in the autumn when the weather has gotten quite chilly. They are also very easy to make and healthy :).

Delicious sweet potato-carrot soup

I was looking for ideas for this soup from internet and then I finally made my own version of all of the recipes I found. It turned out very well and it was so easy to make I could cry! This is perfect for chilly autumn nights!

You'll need (for 2):

2 sweet potatoes

3 carrots

1 onion

1 clove of garlic

1 vegetable bouillon cube

2 deciliter of Creme Fraiche

salt

pepper

herbs for decoration ;)

Peel sweet potatoes & chop them, carrots, garlic and onion. Boil them with the vegetable bouillon cube until they are soft. Add salt & pepper. 

Pour the boiling water from the kettle to a separate bowl.

Mash the veggies with a hand blender. Add creme fraiche. Add as much of the boiling water as you want and let it shortly boil again.

Ready!

Damn proud of my soup :p

My super duper healthy messy mix soup...that looks weird

I tend to make this soup on Sunday and then I eat it at work for a lunch during the whole next week :D. A soup just doesn't get much healthier than this one. This soup is different each time so feel free to experiment with different veggies etc. 

You'll need (for...hmm, 4...?)

1 deciliter of red lentils

1 deciliter of quinoa

1/2 broccoli

1 red paprika

1 zucchini

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 chili

herbs (like parsley)

salt

pepper

250 grams of Turkish or Greek yogurt (don't use low-fat, it doesn't blend in smoothly! I made this mistake....)

Chop broccoli, paprika, zucchini, garlic & chili. Boil them until they are soft. Add also herbs, salt & pepper.

 Boil lentils and quinoa in low heat in a separate kettle for 15 min. Take the water out.

Take the excess water out from the veggie kettle and add lentils and quinoa there too. Now smash everything with a hand blender. WRUUUUUMMMMMM. good.

Add turkish or greek yougurt in, mix and let it shortly boil again.

The IKEA herbs I've grown

It looks...errmmm, interesting. But its healthy!! :D Next time I'll take more excess water out...

There you go, I hope you got some inspiration to cook vegetarian food. I can post more recipes if I do something really good ;).

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