20k hike in Berlin

Hi guys!

I haven't posted for a while! Mostly because my laptop is so slow and yet I haven't bought a new one... I'd also like to write about my and my sisters' trip to New York, but there are SO many pictures that I need more time to sort them out ;)

Today I went hiking here in Berlin. Berlin is flat like a pancake so it wasn't a challenging one, but so, so, sooo pretty! I hiked in Grünewald -forest and by the lakes. It was a 20k hike and I did it in 3,5 hours including four small breaks...I'm a fast walker :D! I walked from Nikolassee S bahn to Grünewald S Bahn, you can see the route here. It is the hike number three.

When I came home I rewarded myself with a hot bath and by cooking sweet potatoes with turkish yogurt and chopped paprika ;). I have to remember to stretch while watching Eurovision song contest ;) Go Finland!

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Nothing beats good food with good company

Hi guys!

My computer hasn't been working for a while but now it's ok again (as long as I don't shut it down...) so here's an update what's been happening. Based on the pics it seems that my life has been very much about food lately. You cannot blame me, I do have an excellent kitchen for cooking.

Siri and I had a little movie night for which we prepared chicken wings, cucumbers & carrots with tzatziki and sweet potato chips. The making of sweet potato chips is a form of art itself. If you try them out, make sure not to do the following mistakes we did:

- Do not put anything else in the oven than the chips

- Do not pile them on the tray. They shouldn't touch each other

- Do not use baking paper. Its too "greasy"

- Do not think you can make them without checking out a recipe first ;D

After fixing all our errors they turned out to be good though ;)

I tried the same zucchini-garlic-parmesan cheese topping for the sweet potatoes as I did a while back for pasta. I wrote about it here. I also made guacamole...twice. And ate it with every meal from breakfast to my evening snack... For my guacamole I use:

- 2 avocados

- 1 onion

- 2 garlic cloves

- 1/2 chili

- 1 tomato
- the juice of 1/2 lemon

- some fresh coriander and basil

- few drops of Tabasco (for me more cause I've gained spiciness resistance lately...)

And GOSH it's good!

Taija, Sanna and me also organised "chocolate-making get-together". We wanted to try to make healthy raw chocolate. It was super easy!

Here's how we did it:

- Melt 2 dl of coconut oil on a plate over a boiling water (just see what Sanna and Taija are doing in the pic below :D)

- Add 2 dl of 100% cocoa powder. Let it melt as well.

- Add 3 tablespoons of agave syrup and 1 spoon of honey to sweeten. (This is up to you... do as sweet or non-sweet as you want!)

- Mix and pour on a tray, add nuts or dried fruits and pop it in the freezer for half an hour

- YummYummMumsMumsOmmommmOmmmmmm

....We did some salad as well!!

 

My 10k challenge is going goooood! I can see some results already. I'm down to 6000 swings, 4000 more to go! Tomorrow we have our housewarming party. I try to take pics, but let's be honest here; i'll probably forget :P.

Have a great weekend!

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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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