The healthiest bfast which looks & tastes like a yummy dessert..

… and about the lovely exceptions in life

Many of my friends ask me these days “So what is it all about? Are you on a diet? Is it a detox you’re doing? How can I join you, but first I have to go there and there and attend this and this.” etc. Guys, stop! You know what? The easiest moment to start is always NOW 🙂 We are all humans with better days and worse days and having an exception here and there doesn’t mean that you can’t start with a healthy lifestyle every day. So, no – this is not a diet and not a detox. This also doesn’t start and end again. What I try is to change my general eating style to an healthier one, to reduce sugar, animal produce (meat, fish, dairy), wheat, coffee and alcohol on the one side and increase health veg, fruit, grains and proteins (nuts, beans, seeds) on the other side. Not because it’s a diet but it’s decreasing inflammation, risks of cancer, allergies, diabets and many other diseases of nowadays’ society. But mind you – this doesn’t mean I restrict myself all the time! Once I treat myself with an exceptional dinner in a nice restaurant I love to enjoy my fish or meat or cheese (oh this list can go on and on!) from the bottom of my heart. But in the end it’s all about the intention to then come back home and continue with something healthy the next day (or the next meal if you decide to spoil yourself with an occasional cake in the afternoon 😉

Once you changed and restocked your pantries it’s super easy to create all the yummy meals which are not only good for you but also really good for you body. So remember – try to keep the balance of 60(up to ideally 80)% of alkalising meals – 40(20)% acidic foods. Get yourself a book (I wrote about my favorites in this article), get into the topic and you’ll see this lifestyle is not restricting – it’s extremely intersting, tastes delicious, inspires you and the most it’s FUN!!

One of this week’s highlights was this beautifully looking bfast, which could easily be served as a dessert too. It’s super yummy, easy to make and very versatile – you can play with the ingredients depending on your mood or what you have to use up!

Oats & chia pudding

What you need
(for 2 persons)

• 2 table spoons of chia seeds
• 4 table spoons of organic oat flakes
• 1 cup of nut milk of your choice (I took coconut) plus a splash of hot water
• goji berries or other dried fruit
• organic vanilla essence
• cacao nibs
• a tiny bit of agave, maple or other natural sweetener of your choice
• some fresh fruit (I used apple & oranges, but feel free to take strawberries, mango etc.)
• coconut flakes
• a bit of cinnamon

What to do

Mix everything but the fruit and cinnamon in a small blow. Make sure to stir it a couple of times. Add the milk and some hot water so the oat flakes are soaked up nicely and stir. Let it stand while you go have a shower and get ready (20min at least or do it night before and soak it over night). Finish with chopped apple & orange (or other fruit of your choice) and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

HHHMMMMMMM!!! My love P called it the bfast dessert – I hope you like it as much as we do ❤

Love & sunshine
N x

Advertisement

Thai holiday on a plate.

Sadly but truely, even the nicest holiday comes to an end at some stage… You can just make the most out of every moment you have, breath in the warm air, feel the sun on your skin and the sand below your feet, listen to the sound of the leaves of tree which gives you shade on the beach and enjoy the flavors of the lovely meals you get to try out every day. And HERE comes my point: The only thing you can take home is as easy as that!! Try to learn the local cuisine and cook it yourself at home!

It’s not the first time that we did a cooking class either at home or when we went abroad. This time in Thailand it was one of the nicest ever: directly on the beach, the sea as a view and a chef just for the two of us. Epic! Lucky as we were we could even chose the dishes to cook the day before and we only chose our most favorite meals of our holiday: green papaya salad, Thai glassnoodle salad and tom yam goon (hot and sour prawn soup). Those are actually all starters but after I’ve done curries in a course four years ago already we wanted to focus on those.
Our chef prepared all the ingredients and when we came the restaurant manager helped him with translating everything. They built up a small mobile kitchen on the beach next to the restaurant and after the introduction it started with hands on! Not even 2hours later we were the happy people enjoying a lovely meal, fresh, tasty, boasting with Thai flavors and the best news: it was so easy to make! We left happy and hoping to get all the ingredients back in Malta. Three days after our return four of our best friends were the first guinea pigs. It took me 2hours to get around different supermarkets and veggie stores but finally I got everything and I was really impressed by the huge choice of the Asian supermarket in Gzira. Abroad I guess you’ll have less stops to get all the fixings you need 😉 Everything came out really well and nearly the way we had it on the beach just a couple of days ago. The only thing I was adding to our menu which was not totally authentic was the dip to start with our aperitif (pinapple prosecco btw). So if anyone knows a Thai dip to start a meal I’m curious for ideas! Instead I tried out another SmittenKitchen’s Bean & Pepper Dip wich came out really nice too – check out the recipe here (really nice food blog btw).

All recipes serve 6:

Thai Glassnoodle Salad with chicken

Soak glass noodles (1 bunch p.p) in cold water for a couple of minutes, drain, put aside. Chop up some cherry tomatoes and mushrooms, chilies as well as fresh corenader. Fry some garlic and ginger in coconut oil and fry approx. 400g of minced chicken. Season with fish sauce and lime juice to taste. In the meantime put the prepared glass noodles in cooking water for like 10min, drain. Add them to the chicken, add tomoatoes and shallots and some sweet and sour chili sauce. Stir everything and decorate with chopped coreander. Top with fresh chilies depening on your love for heat 😉
Note: If you can’t get fresh coreander celery greens is also great. You can also take spring onions instead of shallots. This dish can also be done with prawns, seafood or all of them together.

Tom Yam Goon (hot and sour prawn soup)

Chop up 2 pieces of galanga, a bunch of lemongrass, some cherry tomatoes and shallots as well as fresh coreander. Wash some kaffir leaves (dried or fresh would be even better if you can get them). Put everything but the prawns in a pot with boiling water and let it simmer for some minutes until nice and fragrant. Add  2-3 tablespoons of high quality tom yam paste (I prefer the brand COOK from the Asian supermarket which they also used in Thailand) and season with lime juice and fish sauce, some sugar if it tastes too sour. At the very end add the prawns (or seafood) until they turn pink and finalise with a splash of coconut milk. Divide it in nice bowls and decorate with fresh coreander. Serve with fresh chilies so everybody can take spice it up to taste.
Note: can be served with rice to make it a full meal (or handle the heat 😉 )

Banana in sweet coconut milk

Slowly heat up 750ml of coconut milk. Add some tablespoons of brown sugar and some pinches of salt. Cut up 6 bananas in half and half them another time. Put them into the hot coconut milk for some minutes. When they are soft and tender serve them in little bowls.
Note: This dish can also be done with sweet pumpkin, melon, lychees or other fruit.

pumpkin with lemon pepper & fresh orange. the favourite of this year’s soup season so far..

what you need
proper piece of an orange maltese pumpkin
same amount of potatoes
1 big onion
6 cloves of garlic
thumb size piece of fresh ginger
lemon pepper
salt, peperoncino
250ml water & vegetable stock
1 tin of coconut milk
fresh juice of 1 orange
olive oil
fresh coriander
2 handful of prawns
pine nuts

what to do
cut the veggies into little pieces. chop the onion and ginger and fry it with olive oil on medium heat. add the garlic and veggies and roast slowly on medium heat. fill up the pot with water and a bit of vegetable stock, coconut milk let it simmer until potatoes and pumpkin are soft and tender (approx. 25min). season with lemon pepper, salt, peperoncino and fresh orange juice.

chop up the garlic in thin slices and roast them in olive oil until nice and fragrant. add the prawns until they turn pink. now add the pine nuts. chop up the fresh coriander. now puree the soup. put them in bowls, sprinkle with the garlic prawn mix and top up with fresh coriander.

ENJOOOOOOOOOOOY 😀