Snickers Without Guilt

New week, new tricks! Many of us spend Mondays thinking it's time to start all over, fresh, with a clean table. Perhaps the past week you allowed yourself to have a little too many treats, a few too many glasses of wine, didn't quite eat by the book, didn't do as much sports as you should have, didn't get enough sleep etc. But now it's Monday again, new week, new chance to turn it all around.

I've always had a sweet (and salty) tooth, ever since I was a kid. It's hard to resist goodies if they're lurking around in your kitchen cupboards. After moving to France, there has been temptations around each corner and it has taken a lot of strength to keep making healthy choices. To choose the sad version of ryebread (in Finland it's just so much better) instead of the fresh baked baguette in the bakery by your quartier.

I don't believe in complete denial of cravings. In my opinion if you eat clean the majority of the week, you can have some guilty pleasures here and there (this doesn't mean eating a full packet of crisps and three chocolate bars in one go though).

If you're like me and have a craving for something sweet most days but want to still look out for your weight, I might have a solution for you! Instead of buying candy from the store which is packed in artificial colours, flavors and sugar, try this homemade snickers cake! It's a more natural choice and still so sweet that a small piece will definitely satisfy any sugar cravings! I made this a few weeks ago and even my hubby loved it. The recipe is originally from a Finnish lifestyle blog that I follow regularly. The original recipe can be found here in Finnish.

Snickers Cake

Base

180g salted peanuts

80g oat flakes

8 juicy dates

4 table spoons of water

Topping

2dl cream of choice

2 table spoons of honey

2 table spoons butter 

(replace half with coconut oil if you prefer)

30g sugar free dark chocolate 

Start with preparing the base. Crush all ingredients in a mixer but leave some nuts for decoration. Add the water at the end and mix until you have a base that's easy to handle. Take a plate (pie plate/casserole for example) and spread the base on it evenly. Place into freezer.

Prepare the topping by adding all ingredients expept the chocolate, to a teflon kettle. Let boil on medium temperature, stirring the whole time until you have a thicker mass with caramel colour. Now mix in the chocolate. Take the base from the freezer and spread the topping on. Add a couple crumbled peanuts on top and put back to freezer. 

After a couple hours, take the treat out, cut a slice and enjoy! The cake keeps well in the freezer!

PS. One of my favorite training songs at the moment!

Have an active and delicious Monday!

A Day With Me (part2)

It's been a while since my last "a day with me" post so I thought I'd do another one :) I like reading this type of posts myself in the blogs that I follow, hope you do too! So get a comfy position in your armchair and take a look at how my day went!

5.50

The alarm rings. The first thought is "I can't". 

6.00

Snooze alarm. Damn, I still can't.

6.30

S*it. I get up as I need to wash my hair before heading to the physiotherapy at 8am. Getting up this early and to do this type of activity on holiday should be forbidden by law. I look at my fiancé and Patu who happily snore away when I drag myself to shower.

7.20

I need to hurry up if I want to make it on time. My hair takes forever to dry and the humid bathroom makes me feel like I need to hit the shower again soon. I decide to skip breakfast until after the physio, there's no time for such activities now.

7.45

I park my car by the old soviet style building which works as the homebase for several different companies providing healthcare services. I walk in together with quite a few elderly people who I assume are there to fix potentially similar issues to mine. The only difference is, they're about 45 years older than I am. 

7.50

I run into an old colleague and friend at the waiting hallway of the place. We have a short catch up and agree that we're slowly falling apart piece by piece. Not good.

8.00

My always positive physiotherapist starts to work her magic on my feet. Ouch and ouch, but a good ouch. A little ultrasound and cold air therapy to finish off the treatment.

Yey! One more physio done!

8.40

Time to hit the traffic jam and go home. I feel happy, the physiotherapy is working and I can walk almost normally. Pretty cool stuff.

9.00

Ahhh, breakfast finally! I fix a bowl of oatmeal. I eat it straight from the plastic cup I made it in the microwave, no time to make things pretty. It looks like a bowl of waste but hey, the taste is good! I change clothes so we can head to town to the new Lutherian wedding church.

10.45

Everything sorted at the church, we've booked a rehearshal for Friday before the wedding and agreed on all other details.

Wedding flower "shopping"

11.15

Meeting with the florist. Looking at different flower bouquets and floral table decorations. The florist is really nice and professional and gives us a lot of great ideas. We manage to set up everything and select the flowers we want for our special day.

Mmm. Carbs.

12.00

Lunch and coffee in the market square, things start to taste like holidays :) 

13.00 

The carb loaded lunch hits me hard and we decide that we have deserved a good nap. I set up an alarm for one hour later, feels luxurious!

Me and Patu agree, it is tough waking up after a nap.

15.00

Ok, I snoozed again! I get up and make myself a vanilla Nespresso. It's legday today and I can't head to gym feeling foggy and zombie-like.

It's all about the attitude when working out!

15.45

Sweating like a pig. I did 20 minutes bike, 4 x 10 on leg press (45kg, 55kg, 65kg, 75kg), 3 x 12 deadlift (30kg), 3 x 10 sumo squat, 3 x 10 narrow stance squat (both with 15kg), 3 x 24 lunges (12 on side, 14kg). I drink my protein shake in the dressing room and pack my things and head home.

On my way to the wedding dress fitting!

17.00

Speedy shower at home after gym and change of clothes. I call a taxi and head to my wedding dress fitting at Anna Kara.

18.20

Woop woop! My dress is ready and it's perfect! :) For the first time I can visualize myself as a bride walking down the aisle. Even the weather cleared out as if to celebrate the moment. I decide to walk home instead of taking a taxi. I call my mom on the way home and we go through the dress details and all the things we've managed to sort out for our big day so far.

18.45

At home, starving! I eat nectarins and some rice cakes with ham. Fiancé has finished his workout and is fixing our seating plan for the wedding.

19.30

Cooking a simple omelette for dinner. Eggs & turkey ham served with cucumber tomato salad. Super simple but enough on a day like this. We fix some more details for the wedding. Good stuff coming up I think :)

21.50

I finish writing this post and need to take my butt downstairs. Monsieur PatPat needs his evening pee walk. Around the building it is, against the rules of the residence, like two little rebels we sneak around the backyard. 

Yeah, about the same amount of sweat I had at the gym today. Less muscle though.

22.30

Michael Jordan is tired (my fiancé calls me that sarcastically as I apparently am very lousy at throwing things). Setting my wake up call at 6.45 with 15min snooze allowance. Why? The physiotherapist's torture chambers are calling at 8.30 :)

Good night and good morning! <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!