Of lenses, plans and chickpeas

My dear fellows, I have ignored you all for way too long, have I not? How are you?

My days recently just never have enough hours for me to get to do everything I wanted to do.
But here I am, giving you a vital sign with some announcements up my sleeve. Once again.
Well, admittedly, announcement number one is not particularly exciting for you. Depends. I have a new camera. And I am terribly in love with it. It's basically all I do at the moment. Carefully picking that beautiful thing up and taking pictures of everything and everyone not fast enough to do a runner.
And it's exactly why my days are too short and why I am about to go to an exam nearly unprepared and why favourite curly head only sees me in a static position, slightly bent, winking, with a huge black thing in front of my face, making click sounds.

Announcement number two might be a bit more of interest to you. I am working on a new blog!
I think it's time to do that whole food-blogging thing a bit more professionally and I am working hard on it. So: I hope to meet you soon on my new little virtual food-planet.
Anyways. I did find a little time slot to bake between all the new plans and resolutions. Of course only to get another motif to put in front of my lens. Also, my lovely Mom brought me some wonderful Canadian maple syrup. Good Heavens, I love it. I am addicted to it! Sure that I had to include that beauty in my recipe.

And as aforesaid curly-head and I are having a sports-challenge the whole month of January (classic after-Christmas-crisis) the yummy stuff to be taken a picture of had to be healthy and contain as much protein as possible.
So, to summarize: protein rich, maple-syrup-addiction-satisfying, healthy, quick, easy, yummy.
That's it:

Mellow vegan and gluten-free orange-maple-brownies (on chickpea-basis)

ingredients:

1 ,5 cups chickpeas

3/4 cup coconut milk

1 cup rice flour

1/2 cup cashew butter

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup agave syrup

zest of 1 orange

4 tablespoons raw cocoa powder

preparation:

1. blend chickpeas and coconut milk, then put into a bowl

2. add all the other ingredients and stir well

3. preheat the oven on 200°, fill dough into a baking mould of about 25x25 cm and bake for 20 minutes

4. enjoy with a warm coconut-rice milk

from soup to nuts: vegan sweet-potato-coconut-coup with roasted curry-honey-cashews

Hello Folks!

It is about time to apologize again, is it not? Apologize for not having made a sound for ages. Apologizing for not being about to make a lot of sounds for the time coming. Work and uni having me swalloed, guys. And I can tell you it is pretty dark in here. And I cannot imagine I taste good. Aye, it's getting weird. Anyways. I don't want to complain because there is an announcement to make. Now, that sounds way too interesting. Basically, it is just a food update for you to know what to expect when we hear from each other again: I am gonna eat vegan again for a while. Somehow uni-stress always makes me wanna do that. Is it hormones that trigger the need for vegan food? 

If so, go get that damn vegan hormone injection, for I have some very colourful and tasty stuff coming up!

Last weekend I finally found time to cook again. And that was then automatically the start for my vegan project, because eating vegan basically requires two things: creativity and time. 

Eating out vegan is definitely not an enormous problem anymore. Not for me, at least, but for my wallet. Therefore, I wanna show you guys that eating vegan does not at all need to automatically lead to more costs (great news for all vegan-hormone-influenced students out there).

So, as it is that time in the year, actually the only time in the year, where I eat soup (though the weather decided to be utterly mild in Switzerland recently), I decided to create this healthy and easy grey-evening-illuminator:

Sweet-Potato-Coconut-Soup with Lemon, Avocado, Mango and Curry-Honey-Roasted Cashews

INGREDIENTS (2 p.)

1 large sweet potato

7.5 dl broth

2 tablespoons coconut oil

5 dl coconut milk

1 lemon, sliced

1 lemongrass, finely sliced

1 tablespoon pad-thai paste

1 tablespoon yellow curry powder

a pinch of cinnamon

1 onion

4 garlic cloves

2 handful of cashews

1 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon currypowder

salt, pepper

1/2 mango

1/2 avocado

thai basil

PREPARATION

1. peel and finely slice sweet potato and onion

2. preheat a pot with coconut oil, then roast sweet potatoes and onions, deglaze with broth

3. add pressed garlic cloves, pad-thai-paste, curry powder, pepper, lemongrass and lemon slices

4. let simmer for about 30 minutes (depending on the size of the sweet-potato-bits) till sweet potato is absolutely mellow

5. take out lemon slices, blend and let simmer for another 5 minutes, maybe add so broth or coconut milk, depending on taste

6. roast cashews with curry, salt and honey on medium heat and slice mango and avocado

7. serve soup with the toppings and some thai basil

 ENJOY!

At Risk for Addiction: Chocolate-Coated Date-Pralines with Pistacchios, Cherries, Spices and Rose Water

People, from today on I am occupied again. Or at least it is slowly but surely time to get ready to pretend to be occupied and busy and assiduous again: It's university-start today. That is actually very positive. Because I have finished Game of Thrones yesterday and now I need employment. Now that sounds as if I had no hobbies. Damn. Well, anyways, let's not go into that. 

There are basically three things you need for your start into the new semester to be a successful one: 1. coffee, 2. nerve-support-food, 3. a shipload of black humour.

Well, I can provide you with one of them or at least an idea of how to get it. And the other two, I guess I totally need for myself. 

But let's be honest, there is no need to rant about good old uni, is there? 

Apart from fees and professors and boring lectures and crumbling buildings and weird topics and even weirder exam questions. But that is all what the above mentioned three things make an effective antidote for.

Frankly, I already see myself sitting there in my armchair as an old lady, telling my dozen of grandchildren how university was the best time of my life. How I could sleep long. How nobody cared if I slept even longer. How I would sit on the lawn in front of the main building at four in the afternoon, chatting about tough academic life, furiously waving with that beer. Or how me and my friend would get the best bouts of laughter only in the most uncomfortable and quiet moments in seminars. See, I am already getting nostalgic now. 

Well, Imma one hell of enjoy that last year, guys (Well maybe it's gonna be, students-style, one-and-a-half years, we'll see). No more ranting. And I want you to enjoy it with me with these awesome, vegan, surprisingly healthy, addictive, sweet:

Chocolate-Coated Date-Pralines with Pistacchios, Cherries, Anise, Cloves, Cinnamon, Ginger, Vanilla and Rose Water

ingredients:

900 g dates paste

1 tablespoon vanilla powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon anise

1/2 teaspoon ginger powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

100 g pistacchios

100 g dried cherries

225 g dark chocolate

1 tablespoon coconut fat

2 tablespoons rose water

preparation:

1. mix dates paste, spices, cherries and pistacchios and work well

2. refrigerate dough, then form bowls

3. melt chocolate, coconut fat and rose water

4. coat bowls with chocolate and refrigerate for 2 hours

5. enjoy with tons of coffee and use that super-power energy!

So people, wherever you are right now, I wish you a wonderful start into the new semester, week, life or day. See you soon with many broken-nerves-healing recipes!

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!

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!

personal superbowl

Heyo, healthy guys out there! How are you?

In order not to lead anyone on here, I think I might need to mention already at this point that the sweet tooths amongst you will again not (yet) be satisfied today! But, with the highest hopes (and also quite proudly), I present you a sneak peek of what I created today, which, of course, should make you wanna read on enthusiastically.

And, people, I have a wonderful, healthily sweet and sweetly healthy recipe for you up my sleeves which will soon follow this fresh and energizing post. So, enough of the self-adulation!

I have just passed my first of 6 weeks "20-km-running-practice" and I must say it went astonishingly well. Conclusion so far: terrible muscle-ache in my calves, 1 cramp, 32 km, 1300 stair-steps and 209 min. of running (or nice-try-running or creeping or stamping). After that, I consider applying to the "academy of silly runs", by the way.

Anyways, I had to realize today that good old Sir Spring might be a bit bitchy upon us next week. And, of course, the rainiest and coldest of all days will be Thursday. Exactly when I am having an all-day geography excursion to watch river systems (water from above, water from below, let's go the whole hog). 

So, this means: eat right, sleep well and fight those various "catch-a-cold-easily"-offers!

This vegan, fresh and healthy little warrior is a very good start to this:

Vegan young purslane-salad with grapes, parsnip, pomegranate, avocado, roasted eggplant, caramelized kernels and orange-curry-garlic-dressing 

You might now wonder how I got the idea of mixing so many different things. Well, this might have happened for two reasons. First of all,  I had a lovely, curly headed, male help in my kitchen. And secondly, I had this help (with quite a different taste than mine) accompany me to purchase the ingredients.

So, that's what came out and I must say it all gets together very well. But, of course, I won't force you to include all of the ingredients (I will just very insistently recommend it to you).

RECIPE:

ingredients (4 people, starter)

6 handful young purslane

1 eggplant

1 large parsnip

1 avocado

1 pomegranate

24 grapes (seedless)

8 tabelspoons kernels

2 teaspoons raw cane sugar

2 dl olive oil

1 dl orange juice

0.2 dl lime juice

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 garlic clove

1 teaspoon yellow curry powder

salt, pepper

2 teaspoons cumin

preparation:

1. preheat the oven on 200°C , finely slice eggplant and parsnip, put on a baking sheet, add some olive oil, cumin and salt and roast in the oven for about 10 minutes

2. in the meantime, wash purslane and then preheat a pan to roast the kernels with raw cane suagr and 1 teaspoon of water for about 5 minutes

3. finely slice avocado and cut the grapes in half

4. try to get thes pomegranate-seeds out of their surroundings. Not easy, guys!

5. mix olive oil, pressed garlic clove, orange and lime juice, curry powder, soy sauce, salt and pepper to an awesome dressing. Very easy, guys!

6. Serve everything on the same plate and try not to forget anything!

7. Phu, you made it! Enjoy!!!

See you, lovely cookery-addicts! Wish me luck for round 2 of my running-challenge! 
Follow on 
INSTAGRAM: @flavourrunner

vitamin fireworks

Hello guys! Happy new year! (Sorry for this one, I guess you can't hear it anymore by now, can you?)

I must admit that, once again, the frame conditions of my recipe today are not quite creative. It's healthy, light and vegan. And, tell me, who does not preach healthy, light and vegan food after Christmas? 

I have stopped having resolutions for the coming year a long time ago. But nonetheless I like to use the first day of the new year to start afresh in terms of nutrition. And after tender parlinés and crunchy cookies, mellow meat and tons of melted cheese for Christmas, "to start afresh" logically means "to eat healthy again". 

So, in hope that you are also kinda swimming with the tide at the moment AND in even greater hope that you are not fed up with fireworks, I created a vegan, superhealthy, colourful and tasty vitamin-fireworks-salad for you today!

Although it's as healthy as can be, it won't harm you, I promise!

After-Christmas-Vitamin-Fireworks

rocket-peppercress-salad with avocado, roasted pepper, tomato, cucumber and carrot, topped with agave-roasted kernels and mustard-lemon-dressing

ingredients (2 people):

2 handful of rocket

1 handful of peppercress

8 cherry tomatoes

2 baby cucumbers

4 baby carrots

1 pepper

1 avocado

1 large lemon

6 tablespoons kernels

0.75 dl olive oil

1 garlic clove

2 teaspoons mustard

2 teaspoons agave syrup

salt, pepper

preparation:

1. preheat a pan with some olive oil, cut lemon in two halves and cut off two thin slices, then roast the lemon slices golden brown and put aside

2. slice pepper and roast golden brown in the same pan, put aside

3. Last but not least, roast the kernels with 1 teaspoon agave syrup and some salt and pepper

4. Mix juice of the lemon with 0.75 dl olive oil, mustard, pressed garlic clove, 1 teaspoon agave syrup, salt and pepper

5. slice carrots, avocado tomatoes and cucumbers

6. arrange everything on a plate, sequence doesn't play a role, however, I'd advise you not to put the sauce on the plate first ;-)

However unhealthy you might have been feeling after Christmas, you will definitely forget all your worries when eating this salad!

Anyways, despite the superhealthy feeling I got now, I guess I should take up sports again, right?

Whatever, I hope you guys had a pleasant start into the new year and I wish you all the best (and most tasty and healthy meals) for the time coming!

See you soon!

xoxo, Florence

green greens

Good morning everyone!

I have got something very healthy for you today! Something, which might not be very new for Hollywood, but which only arrived in poor slow Switzerland recently: The green-vegetable-smoothie.

I actually resisted it a long time and I was a bit sceptical due to the veggies.

 You must know that I can be quite picky when it comes to veggies and that they have to be prepared in an interesting way to make them palatable to me. So: Raw veggies in a smoothie? Really? Does that taste good?

Yes it does! However, only in combination with fruits. The veggies give it an interesting, refreshing touch, the fruits make it slightly sweet.

Have a look!

Green Smoothie 

with spinach, cucumber, apples, oranges, lemongrass and soy yoghurt

ingredients (2 people)

200 g of peeled cucumber

240 g of peeled apples

1/2 lemongrass stick, finely sliced

1 pinch of cinnamon

75 g of spinach

4 tablespoons of soy yoghurt

juice of 2 oranges

2 teaspoons agave syrup

3 ice cubes

preparation

Blend well all of the ingredients in a mixer, enjoy fresh!

Have a nice day, full of energy!