La Vie en Rose: Romance and White Plums for Dessert

Hey lovely folks!

No, unfortunately life is not always 'en rose'. Not for me, nor for anyone else. But I am gonna let you guys in on my magic trick today, which will help a little bit when life seems all confusing or grey or nerve-racking or just way too bitter for a sweet-tooth like you are. 

And, people, lazy Miss Sweet-Tooth has FINALLY managed to finish her papers. Next big thing to do is shelving that Bachelor's Paper that's waving from the corner of the eye. Gosh, certain things never change. Time pressure has always been and will always be the best motivator in the humble history of my life. And, well, I do have some excuses to postpone Uni-stuff. Honestly!

For I have planned some 'totally-worth-looking-foward-to-like-crazy' trips. First of them is a - tadaaaa - surf-trip to the South-West of France. Have I surfed before? Of course not! Am I gonna make a fool of myself? Absolutely!

Second trip is one week of Brighton with my best bud. Hope that's gonna be less of a challenge for my ego and more of an inspiration for the little, hungry, eager cook in my head. I hope I'll be able to convince myself that Britain is more than sausages for breakfast and fish and chips. I am sure it is. Otherwise: Brighton, you have three weeks to make a big change in your eating habits!

But before I leave I am gonna make your lives get a bit more rosy, lovely, tender. I got a bunch of marvelous dried rose blossoms and I could not wait to use them! (With a little thanks to my Dad's girlfriend at this point. Yes, unfortunately these wonderful guys are not growing in my own garden).

In order not to make my new rosy friends feel alone, I thought I'd go get them some roundish juicy bodyguards, also known as yellow plums. And there we go for this healthy, easy, fruity, energising, summery recipe:

Coconut-Roasted Yellow Plums with Rose-Lemon-Syrup

ingredients (4 people)

12 yellow plums

1 dl of water

1 handful of dried rose blossoms

150 g cane sugar

1 lemon

3 tablespoons coconut rasps

2 tablespoons coconut oil

preparation

1. bring water, rose and cane sugar to a boil and let simmer

2. grate lemon, then press and add juice to rose-syrup

3. cut yellow plums, preheat a pan with coconut oil and quickly roast them together with coconut rasps

4. sieve rose syrup

5. serve plums with syrup and add some lemon zest on top

This tastes awesome with some biscuits, black coffee or yoghurt! The whole preparation won't take you any longer than 15 minutes. So, go get your friends and celebrate summer and, of course, la vie en rose!

SEE YOU GUYS!

Tender-Roasted Sweetness: White Apricots

Hello hungry fellows! What's up?

It is so damn hot here in Switzerland! Hot damn! And I am getting ever lazier. There are a only few things left to do for University before I can enjoy my semester holidays and if I finally managed to get up and did this EFFICIENTLY, it would not take very long, frankly speaking. But as you might know, I am easily distracted. And distraction is frequent these days. Like, for example, the sweet distraction I really wanna share with you guys today! 

And my new resolutions about sports and nutrition, well, they have been made use of but...but. Yeah. It was hot outside. And I had to realise that I totally can be knocked out by one single workout. Thanks, Jackie Warner, for your wonderful 2in1 Workout that made me walk like a fool for at least three days! 

But I won't give up, of course. I am gonna have a rendez-vous with virtual DVD-Jackie tomorrow again and I do not know if I am ready for this. I guess not.

So let's turn to more pleasing stuff. More tender, sweet and nice-to-look-at stuff. Like those lovely, roundish guys here: white apricots. God, I love fruit-season!

So I decided to prepare them in a new way. I mean, sure, who does not love fruit smoothies and fruit salad, but it's nothing that would strike you, right?

So I decided the white apricots to meet the oven. And some other tempting, charming sweet and sour companions. For example birch sugar (this is one of my favourites right now: no calories, good for your teeth but damn close to sugar). And basil. And lavender.

And, people, I have to say (sorry for self-complimenting): what came out definitely falls into the category "must-try". Especially because it's easy, ideal for a lovely, warm evening with friends and family. 

So, promise you try these:

Oven-Roasted White Apricots with Lavender-Basil-Lemon-Dressing

ingredients (4 people):

12-14 white apricots

4 tablespoons birch sugar (you can also tak real one, birch sugar is however awesome for thos who want to watch their sugar-intake)

***

3 tablespoons yogurt

6 tablespoons birch sugar

1 lemon

1 handful basil

1 tablespoon lavender

preparation:

1. preheat the oven on 200° C and cut the apricots in half, spread the birch sugar on them and roast for about 10 minutes

2. bring the lemon juice with brich sugar and lavender to a boil, sieve and mix with hashed basil and yogurt

3. serve the warm apricots topped with the yogurt sauce and enjoy!

SEE YOU, SWEETIES!

the cream of the crop

Good late saturday morning! Doing fine?

Today, I brought you guys a raw and vegan dedication to all the sweet tooths out there with a little help from my best friend, the avocado. It seems as if I was just not capable of cooking without him lately.

Guys, there are moments, phases or days where actions speak louder than words. Today is such a day. I have had a frustrating week concerning running-practice and I really do not know how to make these 20 km with a left knee that is behaving like an old diva. So let's better turn to more pleasing stuff: the recipe I brought you and, basically, avocadoes! I mean, those green, fatty, pear-shaped little guys are just so talented in the kitchen! Up to now I have always used them for salty snacks. But it turned out that they make utterly loveable companions for sweet stuff, too (especially in vegan kitchen, which I am again indulging to today)!

However, we should not forget the second multi-talent used for the creamy comforters that will hopefully soon accompany you, my dear fellows, as well: silken tofu!

I have always been very skeptical towards this wobbly, indefinable thing. But I have definitely made friends with good guy silken tofu for it is thanks to him that you won't be able to distinguish the vegan recipe from today from a non-vegan one!

Oh, and finally, I have added some coconut flower sugar my Mom bought me, in order not to sweeten the lovely thing I created with empty calories only. (Sounds good, doesn't it?)

So after all this fulsome praise, let's finally reveal what the praiseworthy actually is!

Let's summarize: In main parts we have avocadoes and silken tofu. Then, there's coconut flower sugar, agave syrup. oranges, vanilla and, of course, chocolate! Last but not least, the little dessert-beauty is vegan, supereasy to prepare and healthy! What more could one want?

Try this:

vegan chocolate-orange-cream with coconut-flower-sugar and vanilla

ingredients:

2 ripe avocadoes

400 g silken tofu

75 g coconut flower sugar (raw cane sugar works just as well)

75 g agave syrup (you might also like to add some more, depending on the size of your sweet tooth)

1 teaspoon vanilla bean powder

2 oranges, zest and juice

150 g dark chocolate

preparation:

1. blend avocadoes, silken tofu, orange juice and zest and vanilla bean powder in a mixer

2. melt chocolate with agave syrup and coconut flower sugar

3. add chocolate to avocado-cream and stir well

4. refridgerate for 1-2 hours

ENJOY!

refreshing, colourful "threesome": creamy, summer-scented frozen yogurts

Good evening, guys! 

Summer is returning! I have already prepared myself for a rainy, wet, chilly summer, but, good news, I will not have to spend the rest of my semester holidays at home with a cheesy skin-colour. Instead, I, well, all of us, will have to get prepared for hot temperatures. And I am here to help you, guys. See what I brought along:

After having seen the weather forecast for next week, I did not only have the impulse to prepare some frozen yo'. No, I actually had the impulse to prepare loads of frozen yo'. With refreshing, colourful, summery ingredients. So I took a quick look at our supply (which was astonishingly manifold) and let the cookery-addict-part of my brain work to finally come up with:

* Blackberry-Rose-Frozen-Yogurt

* Lime-Peppermint-Lemon-Balm-Frozen Yogurt

* Honeydew-Melon-Lemon-Orange-Frozen-Yogurt

I have just tried them and my favorite flavour is definitely Rose-Blackberry. Not only due to the colour, of course. However, I'd say that Peppermint-Lime-Lemon-balm is the most refreshing one. You might like to prepare all frozen yogurts at once (If you have guests that might be a good idea, so that everyone can find their favourite flavour). Or you might like to test just one version. If so, you would have to divide the frozen-yo-basis by three. 

Ingredients and Preparation (for three tupperwares of 20x10 cm):

* Frozen-Yogurt-Basis

700 g greek yogurt

2,5 dl cream

300 g raw cane sugar

2 egg whites

1. Mix Yogurt and raw cane suagr

2. Whisk stiff egg whites and cream

3. Mix carefully and divide into three portions

__________

* Lime-Peppermint-Lemon-Balm-Mix

2 handful peppermint

2 handful lemon balm

4 tablespoons raw cane sugar

2 Limes: zest and juice

1. put all ingredients in a cutter and blend well

2. Mix with one third of frozen-yo-mix and freeze for 5 hours

__________

* Blackberry-Rose-Mix

150 g fresh blackberries

6 tablespoons raw cane sugar

5-6 tablespoons rose water

1. Blend all ingredients well in a mixer

2. Mix with one third of frozen-yo-mix and freeze for 5 hours

__________

* Honeydew-Melon-Citrus-Mix

1 orange: zest

1 lemon: zest and juice

 2/6 honeydew melon

1. finely slice melon

2. Blend all ingredients in a mixer

3. Mix with one third of frozen-yo-mix and freeze for 5 hours

If you should have too much of the flavor-mixes, just put the rest into the fridge. It tastes awesome with fresh yogurt or some muesli.
If you would like to prepare a skinny version of it:

1. leave away 50-100 g of sugar
2. leave away cream and take 200 g more yoghurt

ENJOY!

Blackberry-Rose

Honeydew-Melon-Citrus

Lime-Peppermint-Lemon-Balm

SEE YOU GUYS! 

xoxo, Florence