The Ultimate Lunch Wrap

I haven't got much time to spend writing today so I'm going to cut straight to the point - I've created the most delicious wrap ever and had to come share the recipe before it disappears from my head.

It's been a sunny week in Krakow and the summery weather makes me seek colorful and light foods over heavy cuisine. The secret of this lunch wrap lies in the combination of flavors and the tenderly cooked zucchini that has been soaking flavor from chili and garlic - it's just delicious that's all!

The Ultimate Lunch Wrap

serves 3-4, time 30 min

1 package of marinated tofu (I had paprika & herbs)

1 small zucchini

1/3 red (mildish) chili

1 garlic nail

olive oil

hummus

rucola pesto cream cheese (I used Apetina)

salad & other veggies/greens

medium size tortillas/wraps

Wash the zucchini and cut to semi thin strips (full length). Chop garlic nail and chili (remove seeds). Add oil to frying pan and throw in garlic and chili, after a moment add in the zucchini and let soften up for a few minutes. The point is to cook the zucchini to al dente, not make mash out of it. Cut the tofu to slices. Remove zucchini with most garlic and chili to a separate plate. Add oil if needed to the same pan and fry the tofu until it has golden brown color. 

Spread cream cheese and hummus generously to the mid section of the tortilla. If you add other greens put them on next. Add a few zucchini strips in and then the tofus on top. Fold into a wrap and enjoy!

Have a great day and happy munching! 

Relax like Ninni :)

Happy Friday to all! I'm not going to hide it, I had a nasty week, not too good in any aspect if you don't count in the chocolate truffles and birthday card received from colleagues and a little surprise parcel from my mom. Other than that it was blah blah blah. But, that is not what I want to write about, I wanted to tell you how to relax like Ninni (my nickname if someone didn't know :)) as that's what I really need right now. So here you go!

1. Put your shades on (might look weird if it rains so lets agree this is a sunny day relaxation post!), turn the volume up on the stereos of your car (or iPod). Let your thoughts wander with the beat of the music. Allow yourself to dream. Feel all the stressful thoughts of the day drift away. Ignore the crowds and traffic, you're not in a hurry. Smile :)

2. Hit the groceries and make it easy, don't over think it, try to manage this part quickly so you get home sooner. Important is that you don't miss out this bit (unless you have a full fridge ;)) as part of Friday's relaxation is cooking something lovely. Also, you want to have ingredients for a beautiful breakfast (my favorite meal yey!) for the next day. Part of Friday's relaxing mood is knowing the next day you have a wonderful slow breakfast ahead of you with no hurry.

3. Put your sweatpants on and go walk the dog. If you don't have a dog, go for a little stroll and don't forget your relaxing music. Have a good stretch afterwards, no matter how great you think your posture is, if you work in an office your body will need this. Use a gym ball or whatever you have at hand to do a full body stretching. Remember to breathe deep, calm breaths - this is YOUR time, remember you're not in a hurry.

4. Have a cup of tea and a little treat if you like. If you've been good all week, you can allow yourself something sweet but remember, this is only for the taste, not for the main course. Put your chillax remix on your Spotify and enjoy, lift your legs on the table and continue daydreaming. Think of all the things you are thankful for, go through all the nice things that have happened this past week, don't allow negative thoughts to rise.

5. Now would be the time for the candles and to pour yourself a glass of some of the good stuff. I like an occasional wine or some good quality smoky whiskey. I don't enjoy getting drunk that much as I don't like wasting my days off to laying on sofa feeling horrible. If I decide to lay on the sofa all day, I like to do it while feeling well. I've limited the amount of alcohol I consume significantly over the past 1,5 years but could not live without my rosé in the summer or my glass of red on an autumn evening. Little luxuries and everything in moderation is just fine :)

6. Prepare your delicious dinner (unless it's cooked for you or you're ordering take out), enjoy every bite, continue dreaming, breathe, enjoy the moment, give a kiss to your partner and cuddle :)

Have a great Friday! <3

And a little dreamy chill out music for the evening:

Comfort Food Tuesday with a Healthy Twist

I've had one of those starts to a week when everything seems to go wrong and nothing works out. Instead of one inflamed eye I now have two and look horrible, Mr Patu decided to bite me at the veterinary yesterday, I overslept my nap yesterday and missed physiotherapy and woke up to bad neck pain this morning, next year's plans are wide open and I need to decide on some big things this week. I feel homesick and have a million things on my to do list this week. This would be a perfect time for some comfort food, pasta perhaps?

I had nothing in my fridge and had to head to grocery right after work. Not a good idea when you're hungry, angry and tired. But against all odds I managed to just buy healthy eats and avoid my usual "I know I'm on a diet but one little chocolate doesn't count" or "I've deserved a little garlic bread after what I've been through" yep, emotional eater's favorite phrases... Instead I came home with these:

Three bags of healthy foods! Even if I eat healthy most of the time, I have two weak points: carbs and sugar. Both of those I eat for emotions, mostly stress. Even if most of my carbs are healthy carbs, too much is too much. As I have rheumatism, an autoimmune disease, I have an inflammation in my body most of the time. Sugar and white flour are known for their effects on increasing inflammation values in our bodies so for someone like myself, it's really not a good thing to rely on these when stressed, which is pretty much all the time.

I decided to try to limit my carb and sugar intake gradually. A strict "no" right away doesn't work with me as after a little harder set back I'll just eat twice as much bread or goodies. I found a great replacement for pasta in my grocery store today, soybean pasta. This is fast to make, only takes 5min to boil and tastes great! I made a delicious chicken/cabbage wok to go with and have to say - yummy!

Easy Chicken Wok with Soybean Pasta

Serves 4, time 25min

2 chicken breasts

1 yellow bell pepper

1/2 a small cabbage (whatever type you like)

4 leafs of kale (according to taste)

1 bag of Santa Maria Chicken Thai Wok spice mix

1 bag of black soybean spaghetti

salt

Slice all ingredients for the wok and bring water to boil in a pasta kettle. Heat up a little oil on a wok pan and add chicken in. When lightly golden, add cabbage in, throw in the spices and mix up. Add bell pepper and kale and a little water. Boil the pasta according to the instructions on the package. Enjoy!

Time to go catch up on some ZzzzZ, lets hope for a more cheerful day tomorrow! 

Good night!

Happy Friday and Dreamy Date Night's Asparagus Toasts

Goor morning! :) I have to say after a week like this I am more than happy to wake up to a Friday. I have a pretty busy day ahead at work but I'm keeping my eyes on the relaxing evening when I get home from physiotherapy, had that last little walk with Patu and can just lift my legs on the living room table and watch a movie and not worry about what time I go to bed! I'll probably fall asleep on the sofa by 10pm anyways but who cares, it's a happy moment anyway :) I don't even care that my yearly allergy symptoms are full on and my other eye is red and painful, it doesn't matter, the weekend is almost here! :)

Thank God for IG filters so you can't tell my other eye looks like I had been drinking for days :)

This weekend I don't have my fiancé at home anymore. I had to have my long goodbye and good luck (read= kick some ass!) talk last Tuesday and it's just me and Monsieur PatPat around the house now for quite some time. Unlike the six springs before this one, I'm heading over to see some games when the world championships start! I am so excited and will for sure take a billion pictures of absolutely everything when I get to Prague 30th April! If I manage to post something while there, be prepared for some hockey mania ;)

Even if my hubby to be is not around, I won't be alone this weekend as I have a girls dinner planned for Saturday evening. We try to regularly have brunch gatherings but this time it's a dinner time date as it's my birthday on Sunday! Last year of 20s starting up, crazy how time flies but who cares when you're having fun right? :)

As the weekend's coming up, I wanted to share one of the recipes my fiancé loves that originally comes from my mother. This is an old recipe back from the late 70's from the first dinner parties she and my dad hosted for their friends. How cool :) Ever since, every now and again we've prepared these delicious hot asparagus toasts for a Saturday evening snack to be enjoyed after a good sauna accompanied with a glass of crisp white wine and a good conversation. I love those evenings so much and I love these toasts as well. So if you're planning a date night for this weekend or a get together with friends, these asparagus toasts are a great thing to serve and super easy to make!

Dreamy Date Night's Asparagus Toasts

serves 2-4, time 30 min

4 pieces of toast

400 g asparagus (preserved, can) green or white

1,5 dl mayonnaise

1 garlic nail

2 table spoons of fine parsley

2 egg whites

4 table spoons of grated cheese (Gruyere)

butter

Heat up oven to 250C. Lay the breads on a paper covered oven pan. Spread a tiny amount of butter on each toast. Drain the asparagus and spread evenly on the toasts. I usually cut the long asparagus to half so it makes a tidier outcome. 

On one bowl mix mayonnaise with smashed garlic nail and parsley. Whip the egg whites to a firm foam on a separate bowl (make sure you have a dry and clean bowl or this won't work!). Gently mix the mayonnaise with the eggs without braking the foamy texture and spread evenly on the toasts. 

Add the grated cheese on top and cook these beauties in the oven for about 10 minutes until they have a light golden color to them. Enjoy with fresh greens that have a little vinaigrette sprinkled on top and a glass of your favorite white!

PS. I made a simple salad from mixed greens and roasted nuts. If you make this I'd recommend to start with roasting the nuts first so they have time to cool down before serving. Simply add a little oil on a non stick pan, throw in a bunch of your favorite nuts and seeds (walnuts, cashews, pumpkin seeds etc), let roast for a little while, add spices in (paprika, lemon pepper, salt etc) and at the end a little sprinkle of honey. Let roast for a minute and spread on a plate and let cool down. These are also a great party snack! For bigger quantities I'd recommend oven roasting.

Happy Friday!!

PS. If you do have a date night or are just looking for some good Friday vibes, listen to this amazing track from Jessie Ware, how dreamy is this! It has just the right amount of 80's drama mixed with modern elements <3

Happy Hippie's Green Smoothie

A perfect snack for a busy day! I've been running from one thing to another this week and haven't had any time for a proper grocery :( Luckily I normally always have some kale, banana and other fruit around for a yummy smoothie.

I love green smoothies and different variations of green juice. One of my favorite spots in Krakow for a leisurely drink and snack is Frankie's, they do the best fresh juices in town. At home I don't have a juicer so I settle for smoothies. The good thing about these is, they fill you up quite nicely while you also get your daily doze of vitamins :)

Happy Hippie's Green Smoothie

serves 1, time 5-10min

2-3 dl washed kale leafs

1 small banana

1 small pear

1/2 avocado

0,5dl pineapple juice 

fresh mint

Put all ingredients to blender and mix until smooth. You can add the amount of liquid to get thinner smoothie if that's what you prefer. For a breakfast version add 1dl of quark or yoghurt in. 

Enjoy!

Active Girl's Guilt-free Pancakes and My Lifestyle Change

Woah! The spring has certainly hit Krakow this weekend! Friday and Saturday were ah-mazing, sunshine, almost +20C and the riverbanks were full of joggers, couples and friends on walks and everyone seemed as if they had woken up from their winter sleep full of energy and happiness.

Saturday's fresh lunch and make up free look.

 I've also been running and walking this week not only to enjoy the springlike weather but because I want to tone up before July and the wedding. I used to be able to shed a few kilos without any problems but as I've gotten older and since I finished studying and took on a full time job, losing that extra fluff has proven to be harder than ever.

From Saturday's powerwalk in the beautiful sunny Krakow.

I started a lifestyle change gradually in 2013 after looking at some holiday pictures and realizing that I had sneakily gotten chubby. I've always even at my skinnier days been still relatively normal but now I had stepped on the other side, where my body was no longer normal but just chubby. I think unconsciously I knew I wasn't in the best shape of my life but since the cents had piled up evenly it was hard to understand the scope of the whole thing. I visited Finland in October 2013 and going back to your childhood home you look at yourself in the same mirrors as back when still living in Finland and you realize how big the difference really is. Shocking.

In Portugal 2013.

Summer 2013 in Portugal.

Now there could've been two ways to approach this dilemma A) go in full speed and lose the extra (read, muscle mass and a little fat most likely) with fast pace B) take your time, no permanent solutions are fixed over night. I went with B and I think the first seven months I did the work without even thinking I was doing anything by looking at what I was putting on my plate.

After gym session in hotel, March UK 2015.

In January 2014 I faced the facts that I needed help with exercising as unlike before, I couldn't get excited about moving anymore on my own. I felt like I had let my old active self down, I was ashamed of myself and I needed to humble down and face the facts: I was out of shape, felt bad about it, I need to do this right this time around.

The gym in my building had closed down in the summer 2013 because of financial troubles. It didn't help my case at all. I told my fiancé I wanted a personal trainer to get back on track again and he called a place called FitNow that's a personal training gym in my neighborhood. He got me an appointment for first meeting and I was signed up with my own trainer the next week.

At first I was ashamed, I was in horrible shape, sweating like a pig after first 15 minutes of the one hour session and thinking I'd not survive. I again had two choices A) accept the situation and put your work to it B) pretend you don't have that big of a problem and stay on your comfort zone. I chose A and I have never regretted it. Sure I was red faced, one hell of a sweaty Finnish chick who cursed a lot but I did the job - for myself. I hated the way my belly fluff were bouncing when I had to do skipping and saw myself in the mirror but that also helped to get a little bit of pride back - instead of being home eating crisps on the sofa and drinking beer on a Friday night, I was there getting myself back.

January 2015.

I changed trainers in the spring and got to train with this wonderfully funny guy whom I learned so much from. Training sessions were hard, I changed my training from fat burning circuits to free weighs and heavier weighs which was a whole new area for me. In September/October 2014 I quit the personal training and moved to train on my own, I had learned to love moving again and to some level accept my body as it is, a work in progress.

Fluff slowly turning to muscle, I'll get there. October 2014.

I've realized a lot of things these past two years. Short term solutions do not work and although long term work is the difficult choice, it is the one you should go for. You see results quickly in the beginning but things slow down after that. In the meanwhile all you can do is trust the process. No quick fixes exist.

At my bestie's gym in Stockholm, November 2014.

I have experience from starving myself, eating less than 800kcal a day, walking every day and feeling horrible even if I was at my skinniest. I have also experience of completely letting myself go, eating too little but the wrong things, things that a stressed mind shouldn't eat as the body hangs on to fat and sugar like a drowning man to his lifejacket, you ending up piling kg's on your hips and belly. As boring as it sounds "everything in moderation" is the way to go and you need to move especially if you do a 9-10h sit on your ass by a computer thing like I do.

Post run excitement this week :)

The learning I've gotten from all this is, that you must be true to yourself, face the situation in its full mightiness (whatever it may be: too skinny or too chubby, or just unhappy) and most importantly be kind to yourself. Don't put yourself down in front of a mirror. Don't call yourself with names.

Forgive yourself for the wrongs you've done in the past and enjoy the present, dream of things for tomorrow. 

Once you learn to love to move and eat well the results will follow. But you must enjoy the ride because it's a lifelong one. I still eat pizza, enjoy a beer and take popcorn in the movies but I don't do it everyday. I try to listen to my body telling me what it likes and I've banned deep fried foods from my diet a very long time ago as I simply feel nauseous if I eat them. I fight my sugar tooth on a weekly, sometimes daily basis but I've gotten better. No more everyday Snickers or Coca-Cola.

Enjoy the little steps on the road, the little successes, they are what makes this journey so great. When you go for a run and without pushing it go 5km longer than before, cherish that win! Most importantly, never ever compare yourself to others out there. This is your life, your success story, your competition against yourself. So what if the chick next to lifts 20kg more than you or the girl on the next locker has a six pack - so what!? Someone else's success is not away from you, the same way yours is not away from them. We all have different challenges and when we manage to beat them, we should enjoy that and not think that someone else did twice better - that person might struggle with something completely different that in your universe is no problem at all.

So don't waste the head space by comparing yourself to others, keep track of your weaknesses and moments when you've conquered them. The only thing you need to compare yourself to is you - and you are pretty awesome!

Active Girl's Guilt-free Pancakes

makes 5-6 small pancakes, time 15min

1 banana

2 eggs

handful of sugar free instant oats

pinch of salt

(half scoop natural protein powder)

Mix all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Heat the frying pan to mid high temperature and put a little bit of coconut oil on the pan (or other). Put a little amount of pancake mix to pan and once the color turns from shiny to dim, flip the pancake over. You'll learn with practice how to make these the best and cooking time depends on the stove your using. I'd recommend lower temperature and a little longer cooking time to avoid black pancakes. 

Serve with fresh or defrost berries and sprinkle walnuts on top. Add honey if you need a little sweetness. 

A Day With Me

A little different post this time with the theme "a day with me". Not the most typical day as I am still on sick leave due to my back (returning to office tomorrow) but this could easily be a description of a Sunday as well (yes, even with the wake up time). Nothing special going on, but that's how life often is no matter what the day :)

5.25 

Fiancé's alarm goes off. 

5.30 

My alarm goes off, fiancé gets up and goes to finish his packing for national team.

6.10 

Fiancé tells me to get up. It's time to go wish him a safe travel to Riga for the first rehearsal game with the French national team. He'll be back on Saturday for two days so I save my emotional speech for next Monday, when he'll be leaving for a month's period.

6.20

Fiancé's out. We stare at each other with the dog for a bit and decide to go back to bed. My neck is hurting after last night's physiotherapy and I slept badly. I decide to give myself a break and fall back asleep.

8.36

I wake up. Head feels foggy and I feel there is a risk of getting "hangry" if I don't get up soon. I answer the text I had received from fiancé, I wish him safe flight and ask to send me a text after each flight. He's got a connecting flight in Warsaw. 

9.00 

Quick shower and a glance at the mirror. I'm not happy with the tired puffy eyes that look back at me. I go take a look at the weather through the living room windows. Looks grey and the weather forecast tells there's a risk for rain. I decide to skip the longer walk with the dog and curl my hair a little to look more human.

A completely unnecessary face shot.

9.20 

Walk with the dog. He is pulling like crazy again which is hurting my back. I'm thinking what tonight's physiotherapy will be like and if after each session I'll be more in pain. I decide pain can be good. Keeping it positive can help. I pass the shop downstairs and can smell the freshly baked buns and bread in the air. I curse myself for not taking my wallet with me but then soon thank myself for the same reason. Time to go back to oatmeal after being a complete pig this Easter weekend. 

9.50

The wind is nasty and I hope my friend Monsieur PatPat will finish his toilet business quickly so I can get to my breakfast. He's laying on the ground. A familiar elderly man from the neighborhood approaches with his little mixed breed dog. Patu and mixed breed fellow sniff each other's butts and we say our hello's. I don't need to explain to this guy anymore that my Polish sucks, he's aware. I smile and nod and we head our ways. I see a white van and it makes me smile, my best friend and made of honor has told me to watch out for white vans as they might come collect me at any time. I run different scenarios in my head and wonder what kind of crazy stuff they've come up with for my bachelorette party, her and my sister. I sigh and think how I miss my family and friends. Patu decides to make his business right in front of our building. Great. Time to collect the jackpot.

The fifty shades of oatmeal. 

10.15

Oatmeal is getting ready. In the meanwhile I'm collecting a few t-shirts and random items fiancé left around after un packing and packing. I get grumpy by the mess I've made myself too. Why can't we just be super tidy people? I want a maid. 

And another one. I love breakfast, I love oatmeal.

10.30

I take an unnecessary amount of pictures of my breakfast, the Easter tulips that still look great and a stupid face capture of myself. I wonder if it's healthy to take so many pictures of everything. I decide to go with positive thinking again. I like to capture things with camera, and that's ok. 

11.15 

I try to log onto my Blogger account and Google asks me to create a Google+ profile. I am confused but go for it. My blog has disappeared, Google tells me I have no existing blogs. I get angry and curse quietly. What have I done now?! After a while I realize it helps if you log in with the correct email address, the one linked to your blog. I feel stupid. 

12.10

I get a text, fiancé's boarding his next plane. I start thinking about traveling and where I'd like to go to next. I can't help but think it would be a place somewhere warm, with nice tracks for running, a pool, seaside, fresh lemonade, the perfume of summer flowers lingering in the hot air, exotic birds singing on the background... I remember the forecast promised +19 for Friday. Spring is here, my favorite season.

12.40 

There is a random show on the French channel. Earlier there was one talking about producing cheese, now there's an old document about love, people talking about love. Only French would make this type of a document, I think to myself. It's horribly made but I leave it on anyway. I wonder when we'll go to France the next time. My thoughts wander from Paris to Bordeaux and somehow from there to work. My sick leave finishes tomorrow and I decide to open up my laptop and prepare a todo list for tomorrow. It'll help as the workload is likely to be high after being gone for two weeks. I should go buy an exercise ball to sit on at the office, my chair is not great for a crooked back. I try to remember to go get one later this week.

Monsieur PatPat doing what he does best, sleeping.

13.26 

I feel drowsy. The dog is napping. I get a text, fiancé's landed to Riga. I decide to take a little rest myself before having something for late lunch. 

Leftover lunch.

14.15

I receive a call from Medicover explaining my physiotherapy for the day has been cancelled as the physiotherapist has fallen ill. I decide to eat the leftovers of the kale/ spinach pasta I made earlier in the week and think of a plan for the rest of the day. My head is plank. I make a cup of coffee and do the dishes to get my thinking going. I eat a couple raw chocolate covered cashews. I decide to wait a bit, take the dog for another walk and see if I have the power to go for a little jog after the lunch settles in.

17.15

Finished an hour long walk with Patu, somehow the plan of a small walk and run got switched to long walk together instead. That made the fluffy buddy happy. Time to hang the laundry to dry and fix some dinner (and tomorrow's lunch). Feeling bummed about the cancelled physiotherapy, neck is feeling stiff. I decide to make a massage after dinner. 

19.00

Eating dinner. I look for movies in iTunes but nothing's really tempting me. I decide to opt for How I Met Your Mother instead. I make a massage for my back and take a pain killer. 

19.45

Patu needs a final little walk outside before we head to bed. I don't want to go outside as I feel perfectly comfy indoors. I suck it up and sneak my furry friend to the back yard. Hurry up I hear myself thinking.

20.00

 We get back inside and I feel really tired. I decide to hop on to my pajamas and allow myself to fall asleep while HIMYM plays on the background. I set my alarm for 5am, tomorrow there's no going back to sleep after the first ring and no fiancé to tell me to get up. I do a little meditation exercise to relax all the muscles on my body and I'm good to go catch up some ZzzZ.

Good night!

My Southern Style Shrimp Stew

I think it's fair to say this weekend has been spent mainly in the kitchen, on walks with my boys or sleeping. Things that charge the batteries best. I haven't been spared from back pain either, last night I woke up again at four am to massage my back and take pain killers. Not quite as rosy as I thought the other day, but I'll get there.

Last night's warming tasty shrimp stew.

My fiancé's team won the championships on Thursday and I got him home for a good couple days now before the French national team steals him away for training camp. The world championships take place every year in ice hockey and I've gotten used to the one to one and half month break in seeing each other each spring. Knowing this break will start next week, we've tried to make the most of our time together. We both love good food and I've wanted to spoil him with tasty homemade dinners before he heads out to train for the world championships; one last big tournament before summer holidays. This has also meant stepping slightly outside the strict diet but we've had walks to cover up the calorie intake.

I made this dreamy shrimp stew last night, and have to say it suits perfectly well to the chilly weather we have in Krakow at the moment. The union of garlic, tomato, orange peel and pastis is unbeatable and by the time you combine it with the aioli, it has taken over your heart for good! Enjoy in good company :)

My Southern Style Shrimp Stew

serves 2-3, time 30 min

400 g large shrimps 

1 leek

1 fennel

3 tomatoes

3 garlic nails

olive oil

2 table spoons anis licquor (Pernod)

cayenne pepper

juice of 1/2 orange

peel of 1 orange

hint of ground cloves

3 dl fish stock 

salt & pepper

Easy Aioli

1 dl mayo (Hellman's)

1 garlic nail

lemon juice (optional)

cayenne pepper (optional)

Coriander for decoration

Split leek to two (you only need the light green and white bits for this) and wash so there's no dirt between the layers. Remove the bottom from the fennel and split to pieces. Chop tomatoes, leek, fennel and garlic nails. Drizzle olive oil to kettle and add tomatoes, leek, fennel and garlic in. Let cook until the leek and fennel get a little softer (do not fry), around 5-10 minutes. 

Add anis licquor and spices in and mix. Add orange peel, orange juice and fish stock in and let cook 10-15 minutes and color is less "see through". Check taste and add spices if needed.

Add shrimps in and let cook for 5 minutes if you use uncooked (grey) or 1-2 minutes if you use cooked (pink) shrimps. I used cooked big shrimps with tails on and they worked well. If you can find these without tail in your grocery store's freezer, even better. The Easter weekend also meant the shop was out of fresh fennels so I used fennel seeds for the flavor which worked well but obviously meant there was less to eat here. I also used piment d'espelette instead of cayenne pepper as I had run out and no harm was done, the end result was really tasty.

Serve the stew with aioli and baguette or rustique bread. 

Beach Babe's Easter Cake

Happy Easter Bunnies!

Happy Quasimodo after managing first full body workout in almost two weeks!

I have been on my feet all day, walked the dog, did a training with rubber band, baked an oat bread, made delicious soup for lunch and created a marvelous tasting raw "cheese" cake (the first one I've ever made!). Most importantly my back has for the first day this week felt good enough for me not to take any painkillers for it. Still can't move my head all the way but hey, baby steps!

For someone used to heavy weights (I can lift my 90kg fiancé up ;)) I was doubtful about the effectiveness of  using a rubber band but it's surprisingly tough!

I've had some back problems for quite a while now and this has made normal living difficult. Waking up in the middle of the night to the feeling like someone is stabbing your back and neck, not being able to drive the car normally after a day at the office etc. I'm familiar with bad back pain as I have been diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis but never before had problems with the upper back/neck area. Next week I start an intensive period of physiotherapy which together with regular movement and not sitting for too long at one go, should get me back on track.

Today's delicious soup with leek, potato, coconut milk, fennel seeds, cumin, basil and thyme.

With my tricky back and our wedding coming up this summer I've not only had to change the way I workout but also change the way I eat. Everyone in my family knows that I can smell sugar from 10km distance and no stash is well enough hidden for this cookie monster! When I was a kid I always found my parents exotic hidden chocolates they brought from travels or the leftover candy from birthday parties. I wasn't allowed to eat candy more than once a week but I had my ways (also always got caught - darn!) :). I think I'll always struggle with sugar and emotional eating but during the past 1,5 years I've learned to find a balance and mainly eat foods that make me feel good for longer that it takes to destroy a Snickers bar. 

I have at least one cup of coffee a day and tend to calm that moment and really enjoy the taste.

If you managed to read this far, congratulations - it's time to live up to the headline and reveal what the cake's about! That's why you came to read this isn't it? This time I made something a little more healthy. This cake has all natural ingredients, it's gluten and lactose free and has 0% white sugar in it but 100% yummy taste. So much healthier than its' New York sister but don't be fooled by the sweet healthy looks of it, you won't look like a beach babe by eating the whole cake, one slice is satisfying enough, even to a sweet tooth like myself :)

Beach Babe's Easter Cake

serves 8-10, time 40 min 

Base:

1,5 dl pecan nuts, walnuts or other

1 dl dates (if not really moist, let rest in water for 30min)

hint of good quality salt (sea salt, Camargue)

Filling:

3 dl Cashew nuts (soak in water overnight)

juice of 2 lemons

1 tea spoon vanilla extract (non alcohol)

1 dl melted coconut oil

1 dl honey

2-3 dl strawberries

1-2 table spoons of raw chocolate powder

Mix the ingredients of the base in a blender on highest volume. When you have a smooth mixture, spread evenly on a cake plate (preferably one of those where you can separate the bottom from sides). 

If you have a wide cake plate (more than 20cm) I'd recommend to make double portion of filling. I didn't and ended up having quite a thin cake although it still tasted great :). 

Melt coconut oil and honey on a low temperature until clear (if your coconut oil is already in liquid form due to high room temperature, these can be tossed right away to blender), mix with all other ingredients except strawberries and chocolate powder in blender (use highest gear) for a good two minutes until you have a smooth texture. Take one third of the mixture to a separate bowl, mix with raw chocolate powder and spread over the base of the cake. Once done, take half of the remaining filling, this time spreading just as it is on top of the chocolate layer. Finally, throw the berries in the blender and mix until smooth. Taste if it needs more sweetener. Spread on top of the cake and cover up with tin foil and place to freezer. Let rest for a few hours. 

Before serving let rest on room temperature for 15-20 minutes so the cake has time to melt. Cut with warm cake knife and decorate with berries or raw chocolate covered nuts. Enjoy!

This recipe is originally taken from My New Roots and then modified a little for my taste.