"Tropical" / piña colada smoothie

Another rather simple but rich and filling recipe for a busy morning:

Blend:
1/2 pineapple
2 bananas
1 cup frozen mango
Shredded coconut or coconut butter (not oil, use butter like nut butter!) to taste
Lemon juice (optional)

It'll send you straight away to your tropical dream holiday ;)

Also it makes a yummy vegan cocktail. So for a party you could even add alcohol to this as it tastes a bit like piña colada! Be careful though as the fruit sugar will increase the impact of alcohol!

Enjoy.

The "Orange is the new vegetable soup" juice

Whenever I feel like a cold is coming on I like to make a big pot of vegetable soup. It always makes me feel better, delivers a bunch of great nutrients to help my body fight the cold and it's good to have something healthy on hand to eat if the cold really kicks in.
Though it's nice to have the soup several times a day (yes, it's that good!), I still enjoy my morning juice. So whenever I feel a cold coming I make this bright orange juice. Also it's my favourite and my son loves it too so we actually make it all the time! ;)

Juice:
2 apples
6-8 carrots
1 lemon
1 orange
1-2" of ginger (optional, but definitely a must have if you are having a caugh)

Enjoy!

The "Back to the roots" juice

For this juice you need a bunch of root vegetables. As the recipe makes a smaller serving (300ml) I suggest doubling it up or blending a banana and 1/3 of an avocado in to make it a meal:

Juice:
1 medium apple
3-4 carrots
1 beetroot (peeled for a milder taste / unpeeled for an earthier flavour)
1" piece of ginger
1 lemon

I just added this recipe to favourites recently as I didn't try beetroot before. I'm sure there'll come more beetroot recipes in the future!

The juice is not as sweet as others and has an earthy taste to it. I prefer it on mornings that I'm craving something heartier and like to eat some veggies and fresh sprouts along with it.

Enjoy!

"Banana-Mango-Tango" smoothie

It takes two to tango or so they say and two ingredients is all you need for this recipe. This one's a quicky!
It's very filling so it definitely makes a meal and I like it when I overslept and need to get going!

Blend:
2-4 Bananas with
1-2 cups of mango  (I like using frozen mango for this recipe)
Add water for the desired consistency

A squeeze of lemon juice would round it up, but it's great on it's own already!

Enjoy!

Beginner's Guide to juicing / blending

As you might know from previous blog posts I love having fresh smoothies for breakfast. Usually I like to add juices to my smoothies but since I'm not a big fan of the packaged stuff (also they don't give you as many nutrients as freshly homemade juices and you are quite limited on the combinations of fruits and vegetables) I bought a juicer a few months ago.

I found quite a few recipes that I love and so I usually make more juices than smoothies for breakfast now. For the most part I make a juice and blend in a bit of fruit like a banana or 1/4-1/3 of an avocado. I either have that on it's own or eat some nuts/nut butters, dried fruit (dates or cherrys) or some veggies, sprouts and fresh hummus with it. I usually drink this on it's own though as I don't have time to sit down for longer in the mornings (seriously, I'm  a single mom of a busy toddler ;) ) also they usually fill me up until lunch. (I have 750ml- 1250ml for a meal)

My favourite ingredients for juices are:
root vegetables (carrots, beets, ginger), citrus (lemons, oranges), other fruits (apples, pears, pineapple), cucumber (peeled)

My favourite ingredients for smoothies are:
Berries (all sorts you could possibly think of), stone fruits (cherrys, peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots) bananas, mango, avocado, baby spinach, baby kale, lamb's lettuce

Any combination of these will create a rather sweet drink.
I'm not a fan of broccoli or other stronger veggies from the kale family for eating raw. I love all these vegetables in my cooked meals though!
Personally I don't like celery at all in any meal or combination. If you like it, you  should try juicing it though since many people seem to like it and it's certainly a healthy option on the food market!

My rule of thumb for juicing vs blending is: juice harder fruit & veg and bigger leafy greens as well as citrus (because of the white skins) and blend softer fruit and young / baby leafy greens.

Use a good balance of fruits and vegetables to avoid ending up with a too sweet drink. Root vegetables add a lot of sweetness themselves!
If your drink doesn't taste as good as you've hoped for, try adding lemon or ginger. They usually do the trick!

I'll post some recipes in the future, so make sure to check back for those ;)

Our Bento Boxes // follow me in Instagram // vegan lunch

Since my Son became pretty good at eating regular food, I started packing lunch boxes for us 3 times a week for when he goes to a nursery and I'm in classes or studying.

If you're interested in what we (a 8.5 months old and his mommy) eat on a regular basis, please follow me on Instagram to see photos of our bento boxes / packed lunches. Make sure to ask for the recipe if you see something you might want to try!

As always: 100 % vegan und 100% yummy! :)

fast food part 7 - garlic bread

Another easy-peasy quick snack, which is even a good party food!

You need:

• a baguette
• vegan butter (I use Alsan)
• garlic
• salt
• parsley and any other herbs you like (e.g. basil) (you can use frozen herbs!)

Instructions:

• cut the baguette in quarters lengthwise and heightwise
• make the garlic butter
• have your butter at room temperature and stir it until it's smooth
• stir in the herbs, then the garlic and salt
• spread the garlic butter on the baguette
• bake everything for 8-10 minutes at 180-200°C 

You can make a big batch of the butter at once and freeze it in small portions which makes the whole thing even quicker and easier!

So get cooking and enjoy this very easy yummy junk food ;)

Julia

xoxo

fast food part 6 - burritos

For this recipe you need:

• some leftovers of my Chili-stir-fry
• burrito wraps
• sweet corn
• leftover cooked rice
• lettuce
• tomatoes

and any other veg you'd like to add, like cucumber, baby spinach, avocado or you can even throw some thinly sliced carrots, zucchini or green beans into the stir-fry. Like always with my "throw-togethers": get creative! Use leftovers, empty out your fridge! You can even sprinkle some vegan cheese on before you roll your wraps!

So what you simply do is heat up the stir-fry with the rice and sweetcorn, cut up some lettuce, tomatoes and whichever other veg you're using.

Heat up the burrito wraps for about 30 seconds in a pan or your microwave.

Spread the filling onto the wraps and roll them in. - Make sure they're not too full and that you rolled in the bottom! (If you're a first-time burrito-maker: there are usually instructions on the package)

Btw. I'm sure you can fill those hard corn tortilla things (what are they called again?! Sorry, my brain cells are in pregnancy-mode already and seem to stop working randomly from time to time :D )

Now it's time for the first bite of this uber-delicious burrito which nourishes not only your body but your soul as well! It's awesome after a cold long day out, when you haven't eaten all day because you were too busy.

So get cooking and then get cozy on the couch and Eat up! :)

Julia

xoxo

organic food delivery (post-delivery opinion / first impression)

So I got my first organic fruit 'n' veg order yesterday! Yay! :)

I have to say it's even better than I expected! The quality is perfect - even better than at my local organic shop! And it is SO convenient to have food delivered :) Also for me it's like a present, because from the day I ordered to the day it is delivered I will most likely forget what I ordered these days :D

So I started cooking right after I got everything and made two lovely dishes:
roasted veg and also swiss chard with potatoes. It was so delicious! There seems to be a whole world between locally organic grown veg and the veg you get at the supermarket. In taste I mean! I barely used any seasonings and the dishes were so full of flavour.

So in conclusion I will obviously keep using the service in the future!
For next week I ordered several veg, apples (I'm usually not a big apple-eater but the ones I got this week are so delicious, I want some next week as well!) and a variety of  4 different breads.
My service offers a mix of 3 different sliced spelt-breads in small portions as well as a small portion of slice six-seed-bread. They're yeast-free as well. Although I don't particularly avoid yeast I seem to prefer sourdough-bread digestion-wise, so that is another plus for me personally!

I can only recommend to anyone who is too busy or doesn't have the option to go to a local farmers market to try out a local organic delivery service!

Also if you use a service, make sure to at least think of a couple of meals you'll make with your order. This way you won't overbuy and won't throw your food away and save money in the long-run.

Julia
xoxo

p.s. Since I only tried half of the swiss chard so far I'll post two recipes for it soon-ish!
Also, at least the first one was pretty quick 'n' easy, so it'll be another one of my fast-food recipes! So stay tuned :)

fast food part 5 - smoothies

You can make a ton of different smoothie-recipes, so I just want to share my favourites:

#1

bananas

frozen raspberries

orange juice

#2

bananas

frozen raspberries

frozen blueberries

dates (make sure to pit and soak them for a while)

cold water

#3

bananas

walnuts

orange juice

mix everything well in a blender and enjoy :)