Give Me Bananas

 

It’s official: Technology hates me. Yesterday I was all excited about blogging from home because my sister bought this super cool laptop off her boyfriend and I thought that setting up the internet was easy peasy. Well, I was wrong.

I tried to be all zen about it but I was swearing up a storm on the inside. In the end I gave up and did  lunar flow yoga à la Shiva Rea. 1 hour 13 minutes later I was a relaxed person again .

(Though I was secretly still a bit pissed that things didn’t work out the way I wanted them to.)

Sorry that I’m being such a horrible blogger.

 

On an other note: Thank you for all the lovely comments! You are the kindest people on earth . Things are back to normal and I’m somehow glad that this happened. Is that weird? “Bad” experiences always remind me to live my life at the fullest – which includes fun times, as well as solving problems and dealing with issues. Only this will prevent me from getting stuck. I never want to stop learning new things – no matter how big or small they are. The thought of becoming a grumpy, narrow-minded grandma scares the hell out of me.

Anyway. Yesterday I wanted to write a good old traditional food blogger post and show you every little thing I ate. Too bad that the laptop was on strike. Do you mind seeing everything today? I hope not

I decided to go to the gym first thing in the morning because I did no strength training last week. (Cough). I grabbed a almond butter & fruit spread whole rice waffle on the way out.

The entire workout took me 1h 15 min (10 minutes on the cross trainer & 5 minutes of stretching included) and afterwards I had a hard boiled egg & a shake.

Behold.. The prettiest shake EVER:

I was out of non-dairy milk so I used regular 2% milk and protein powder.

Afterwards I headed to the health food store because I still had some time before work. I was in the mood for some earthy teas and so I bought some rooibos and pu erh tea.

My tea stashes at work and home are getting out of control.. but I like variety!

Mid morning I snacked on a banana that looked super beaten up.

Lunch was a fabulous salad and some black sesame crackers & a hard boiled egg

And then I ate more crackers. They’re incredibly addictive and I have no will power at all.

Work was good and busy and I managed to get a lot done.

At one point I had some apple and peanut butter.

After work I basically flew back home because I was starving. I had some tomme and edamer cheese while I was washing the dishes.

For dinner I was craving breakfast. Porridge, to be precise. However, I wanted to use the buckwheat flakes instead of oats that I got from the health food store in the morning.

 

The porridge turned out to be bran-like and I loved it!

Of course I couldn’t miss the usual toppings..

For some reason I was still hungry afterwards and so I also had a piece of toast with vegan margarine and some chocolate.

I skipped pilates because of the computer troubles but it was good to get some yoga in. I love lunar flow yoga and the one of Shiva Rea’s Yoga Shakti DVD is so relaxing. Shiva Rea’s classes need some getting used to at first (if you’re not very used to creative movements and “letting go”) but I like them. I haven’t done any yoga with DVDs in ages but today I dug out an other yoga DVD of Shiva (Creative Core Abs) and flowed for 35 minutes . Today isn’t going to be much of a work-out day but it was good to get some yoga in.

Oh I almost forgot.. I also made some protein bars à la Averie last night! I changed the recipe a bit because I had to work with what I had on hand.. (No major changes though. Only dates/apricots instead of raisins and no chocolate chips…). Check out her blog for the recipe .

I just had one and I highly recommend them.

Xanthan and Guar Gum seems to be quite popular in the blog world but I knew that there was no way we could get them over here. We’re lucky enough to have goji berries and hemp seeds!! It was a huge surprise when I saw Guar Gum at the health food store yesterday..

Of course I had to use it for breakfast. I’ve never made smoothie in a bowl before and so I knew that I had to make some for today’s breakfast.

In the blender went:

• 1 cup soy milk
• 1 banana
• 1 scoop chocolate whey protein powder
• approximately 1/4 cup frozen blueberries
• 1/2 tsp guar gum

Tadaaaaa…

I can’t believe that it made such a difference!! It was like eating a runny mousse . Unfortunately I couldn’t finish it all – it was way too much.

But now that I’ve tried it with guar gum I wonder what a difference some added xanthan gum would make…

Tonight I’ll meet up with my friend Daniela and we will go and see “An Education”. I adore Nick Hornby books and I’m looking forward to seeing the film. God, there are so many great films at the cinemas right now.. I also can’t wait to see “The Men Who Stare At Goats” – Jeff Bridges and Ewan McGregor are such cool dudes .

Q: Have you seen a good film lately that you can recommend? The last film I saw was “A Single Man” which I really liked. I was a bit sceptical at first because Tom Ford (yep, the former fashion designer) is the director but the film was beautiful and very artistic. Colin Firth was also fantastic in it and he truly deserved his Oscar nomination.

Q2: Have you tried xanthan / guar gum? And to those who did: what exactly does xanthan do to the smoothie? I only see bloggers using both guar gum and xanthan gum but I wonder if that’s “necessary”.

 

Sometimes life shakes you around with great force, pushes you off a cliff and makes you stand up again. Without going into details, this is exactly what happened this weekend. I felt broken and helpless but things turned around yesterday and life is good again.

Even though moments like these are really hard, they make us grow as persons. I am thankful for times like these because they make me appreciate even more how lucky I am.

Needless to say that there was no room for blogging, I hope you’ll forgive me.

 

On a much brighter note: I tried the whole “I feel bad so I’m allowed to eat ice cream” thing and even though I love ice cream it didn’t really feel that special. Or comforting. It was more like a "oh, that’s what other people do when they feel down”-moment. You know, carrots would have given me the same amount of satisfaction.

 

There was food though! No bad mood can kill my appetite. I’m primitive .

Sautéed veggies with 1 egg mixed in

 

Sweet potato with cinnamon

 

 

Bread with almond butter, banana slices and a tad bit of agave

 

Lärabar love

 

 

 

 

 

And then last night my boyfriend and I made some roasted veggies..

..and homemade whole wheat “Spätzli” with saffron cream sauce. I never make cream sauces though yesterday I felt like being a bit rebellious .

 

You know, I don’t really care if there was a bit too much ice cream and beer involved this weekend. Sure it wasn’t the healthiest food but I was ok with it. It has also taught me that, in every possible situation, I’d rather have some veggies than anything else.

 

Q: How do you handle depressing days? I always go from feeling that everything’s going to be fine to crying. But I generally think that it takes a lot to make me feel like there’s never going to be a light at the end of the tunnel. I will always know that things will get better someday (because they will!). However, a nice cry every once in a while doesn’t do any harm.

Ps. Did you watch the Oscars? Well I didn’t because they show them at an ungodly hour but I’m so happy that Christoph Waltz won the Best Supporting Actor award! I would have been super mad if he didn’t get it because his performance in “Inglourious Basterds” was fantastic. Extremely horrifying but fantastic.

Pps: My google reader is on 615. Guess who’s got some catching up to do?

Such great comments on my last post! I’m really happy that you’re excited for my trip too . I hope there are going to be a bunch of blogger meet-ups. On the other hand, I really hope that my friend won’t be annoyed or thinks it’s strange because let’s face it: Meeting someone you only know through the internet is kind of like a blind date. And weird. BUT FUN! I can’t wait!
Maybe we’ll set a date and you’ll see me waiting and then you’ll run away screaming because of my horrible black teeth. Or my missing eye.
Kidding.
But let’s get back to being serious. It might be strange for someone who’s not familiar with this crazy and wonderful blog world. We’re like nerdy boys who talk about videogames with their friends online. The only difference is that we talk about food.

Anyway. I just wanted to inform you that Swiss bloggers are slowly but surely taking over the food blog world. MUAHAHAHAHAHA. Yesterday the lovely Christina commented on my blog (hi there fellow Swiss pal!) and of course I had to check out her blog too. Well obviously, the layout is way too great to be true but there are also a bunch of amazing posts. You should all go and read her most recent one “Good Food vs. Bad Food”.
Watch out guys! The mountain people from the tiny European country are here to take over the woooooorld. (Can you hear the menace in my voice??)

Oh god. Wait one second. Do I see snowflakes? NOOOO! I thought it was getting spring already! Where did it go? Dear little snowflakes, you can party in the mountains but not down here!

Ok. Back to food.

Wednesdays usually bring running (or swimming) + dinner dates with my boyfriend. After a quick run around my neighbourhood, Silvio pulled out a recipe for a pear & potato quiche.

It basically consisted of pear, potato, cottage cheese, gruyere cheese, parsley, nutmeg, salt, pepper, garlic and onion. We also used a white organic pre-made dough.

After 30 minutes in the oven it looked like this:

I had some with a mixed salad that my sister made.

 

It was good but I woke up this morning with a HUGE tummy ache. I don’t know if it was because of the quiche but I don’t think that I will make it again soon.

But I really liked the sweet note of the pear. However, the crush/potato mix was a bit too much.

We had a good evening anyway. While the quiche was in the oven my boyfriend and I made some raw vegan chocolate chip cookie dough balls à la Averie. These are always too good to be true and my boyf is obsessed with them. I get so mad when he eats more dough than makes balls. Yesterday was no different. It took all my strength to keep him away from snacking (I was –again- arguing like an old woman but this is serious stuff we’re talking about! ).
But just look at the balls:

Can you tell which ones he made??

We also made a second batch to fulfil our needs.

I love me some balls. (TWWS!)

By the way, have you ever thought that your oven was lame? Well, I can almost guarantee you that mine is 1048384 times worse:

Yes it doesn’t really close properly. What a waste of energy but we don’t know how it can get fixed (any ideas?).

Plus: it’s tiny.

But despite it’s size and obvious flaws, it produces some really good stuff

Q: Do you have any food intolerances or can’t mix certain foods? I once got a super swollen throat and lips because of pistachios. I’ve stayed away from them since then. I also get an upset tummy when I mix fruit + yogurt for example (took me a while to figure that out).

Oh wait, there’s no snow anymore. *K breathes out a sigh of relief*
Happy Thursday! Can’t believe that it’s already Friday so soon!

No, I’m not singing the Phantom Planet song anymore but I’m way too excited to not share this with you guys: I’ll go to California in August!!

Well we won’t visit OC (thank god ) but we’ll start in Seattle (ok, not California but western USA anyway) and drive down to San Francisco!! My friend Simone (who sometimes reads the blog.. Hi pal! Hope you don’t mind me sharing the news with the rest of the world) and I booked the flights yesterday and are über excited now.

Oh and by the way, we’ll also stay one day in New York on our way back home.

Who wants to play?

Some of you probably think that I travel a lot. Well it’s true. Travelling has always been an important part of my life (that happens when your parents are from two different continents). I also think that meeting other people from other cultures is amazing and helps us deepen our mutual understanding.
I’m not rich (ha! far from it!) but I want to see something of the world. And since I’m young and work full time, this is the time to travel!  I’m aware that I’m really lucky which is why I want to make the most of my life. It would be awful if I looked back and regretted something.

After we booked the flights I went back home and found a precious little surprise in the mailbox..

(Like my paint skills?? )

A PACKAGE FROM KARLA!!! Awww you’re such a sweetie!!

I basically ran upstairs and ripped the package open when I got to my apartment. And look what I found inside:

 

(Karla: Hope you don’t mind me publishing your note too but it made me SO happy to receive mail from you!!)

Only a foodie will understand my joy.

Let’s take a closer look of what was inside:

AB & PB (The über famous barney butter!!)

Chocolate!!!

And BARS! Oh my dear Lärabars, how much I’ve missed you. I’m also super excited to try the Kind and Kashi bars.

I had my eyes fixed on Barney Butter though and just had to try it with some apple for “dinner” (it was pilates night after all).

Heaven.

Oh and I also couldn’t resist the chocolate..

Karla, can you read my mind? I love chocolate with mint filling!!!! Thanks again for all the goodies sweetheart. You’re too kind!

Today’s breakfast was much less exciting but great nevertheless. I used to have sweet saffron polenta for breakfast all the time a few years ago and then kind of forgot about this amazing ayurvedic dish.

First I cooked 1/2 c cornmeal with 1 c water and then added a tiny bit of saffron and some agave. That’s it!

 

You can top it with whatever you want to. Today I was in the mood for mixed nuts and some flax.

 

I actually wanted to make a smoothie for breakfast but I had no banana and wanted a creamy drink. Tomorrow is a new day.

For lunch today I had an other thrive-inspired meal (tired yet?).

The salad had: mixed greens, 1/2 cucumber, 1/2 avocado, 1 tbsp sesame seeds, 2 tbsp pine nuts, 1 tbsp nutritional yeast.

I also used the tomato basil salad sauce (an other thrive goodie) and some tomato sesame paste.

Best. Salad. Ever. (Or at least in a long time)

Q: Weirdest Breakfast creations?? (I need inspiration! I love porridge but I like mixing things up a little bit too)

Have a STUNNING Wednesday

Morning pals! Please excuse my absence yesterday. My laptop is still dead (though it might get fixed today, hooray!) and I had to work through lunch break. Fun times, I can tell you.

At least I managed to catch up with a few blogs though my google reader is still on +400.  Le sigh.

Anyway, let’s back up a little. Despite the fact that yesterday was super busy and a MONDAY, I had a good time. Don’t know why.. Some days are just good. Maybe it’s because it’s March? I seriously can’t believe that it’s already March. Time flies, doesn’t it?

Some bloggers asked about March challenges and I didn’t plan anything… until I saw soba noodles on Coco’s blog.

Now here’s a confession: Despite the fact that I’m 1/2 Japanese and speak it every day due to my job I hardly know anything about this country! First of all: I’ve only made sushi once. With my mum. Sure, I’ve made instant ramen (pre-veggie times) but who can’t boil instant noodles? And secondly I’m not very familiar with traditions and customs. They weren’t very important to my mum (she’s kind of a punk, hehe) and we never learned much about them. So my March challenge is going to be like this:

I’ll cook at least one (vegetarian) Japanese meal per week.

There are so many recipes that call for fish sauce and I’ll make some vegetarian variations of these recipes. I seriously miss ramen but to be honest: I could have made my own version ages ago! I think that also falls into the “I should try this and that recipe but don’t have enough time"-category.

Anyway, this is going to be a fun challenge. I hope you don’t mind my increased rambling about Japan but I realize more and more how important it is to know your roots. As a kid I was always embarrassed because other children teased me and asked me if my mum slaughters whales too.. I just wanted to be normal. It’s funny how we try to be(come) “special” when we grow up though.

Back to food!!

I fell in love with the Thrive recipes. They simple and with ingredients that aren’t too exotic. Basically it’s all I want from a good recipe. After the first round of goodies I made more Thrive-food.

First up the vegetable crackers.

It took me some time to make them because my food processor was way too small.

 

But after some work I got a nice mixture that I spread onto a baking sheet and baked as advised.

They turned out FABULOUS! Seriously, I never thought that they would be that good.

I also made some sunflower seed pâté to go with it.

It doesn’t look tasty at all but it’s so good (again a bit crunchy because of my lame mini-processor). I love the garlic flavour!

+ This morning I also made some tomato basil salad dressing.

While I was making the crackers and pâté, Selina made some gnocchi and tofu that she got from the organic food store.

 

We served it with some crunchy celery.

 

Loved the gnocchi! They tasted very authentic and worked well with the rosso tofu.

Afterwards we watched the first few episodes of season 1 of The O.C.! Did you watch the show too? It was so hilarious to see the old episodes. My sister and I always have the biggest party when we watch TV shows together and yesterday wasn’t any different. We commented on every single silly line and sang along to the theme song (“Californiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa here we cooooooooome”).

Ah, I love nights like these.

Today I cooked some oats and made some salad sauce (you’ve got to use every second of your free time ) + a sandwich for lunch.

It included sunflower seed pâté, spinach, yellow bell pepper and 1 hard boiled egg. Can’t wait to take a bite.

Q: Do you have any challenge planned for March?

Ok let’s rant for a second: Having no laptop SUCKS! I’m currently blogging from my parent’s place and yesterday I quickly typed a post on my boyfriend’s laptop. I miss reading blogs but don’t have the time to check them right now because I want to go and help my mum with dinner after I hit publish. Sorry guys! I promise, I’ll catch up with your lives tomorrow.

I just came back from running (9km) and weight training with my dad. We went to his gym which is a very typical “basement gym” (with all its charms ) but it was cheap and had all the equipments that I needed. It was good (especially the run) and I am SUPER hungry now.

Yesterday I ended up giving my Thrive book a break and quickly made a casserole of sorts and some spinach with garlic.

For the casserole (which was actually more like a frittata) I mixed 1 egg and 3 egg whites with some left over cooked lentils, mushrooms and carrots. I topped it off with more mushrooms and some Emmental cheese.

 

..and then I went and had a drink (or two ) with my friend Christine. She’ll go and study in Oxford in less than two weeks and so we made plans to go out next week. I’ll miss her so much when she’ll be away (but it’s good that she only stays for 3 months, hehe.)

Fast forward to this morning: I actually slept in until 9:45am (shocker! ) and then made an oldie but a goodie.

Are you tired of porridge photos yet?

 

For the road I also made a juice with

• 2 handfuls of spinach
• 2 carrots
• 1 apple
• 1/2 lemon

I love how colourful they always turn out!

I wish I could juice more often but it does take a bit of time plus it makes a lot of noise! Apparently our neighbours who live below us have the bedroom right under our kitchen.. Needless to say that they wouldn’t be too happy when I’d juice at 7am.

Q: Do you have a juicer? If yes: Do you have any tips how to now annoy the neighbours with the noise? I’ve been thinking about making them the day before but I’m not so sure if they’re still that tasty when they’re not fresh.

Gotta run now and help with dinner. See ya!

 

Glad to hear that you liked the Japan recap.

I’m all sore of yesterday’s yoga class which is weird because it wasn’t really that tough (or at least that’s what I thought ). So today me and Silvio only took a leisurely walk because the weather is currently so nice and spring-like .

Before I headed to his place I had some time to whip up a few goodies though.

I’ve had “Thrive” for ages but never made anything out of the recipes. You know how that goes, you mark all the great recipes and want to try them “as soon as possible” but then life (and other recipes you “have to try as soon as possible”) get in the way and you still haven’t made anything after months.

Today marked a new day though and I couldn’t wait to try some of the recipes. Particularly the buckwheat pancakes sounded superbe.

Apparently the recipe yields for 2 large servings. And yes, large it was. BUT it was pretty easy to eat it all .

It was so good with some almond butter and agave.

After some groceries shopping I decided to give the chocolate blueberry energy bars a try.

I had no fresh blueberries or cooked buckwheat which might have been the reason why I only got 8 bars instead of 12.

They were almost purple though .

I thought that they were rather “interesting” tasting (not bad though!) but it was a bit of a surprise when my boyfriend said that he liked them.

The thrive party was ended by a green smoothie for lunch. However, I had no kale so I used spinach.

I can’t wait to try the crackers now (though they might have to wait until tonight because we’re currently watching “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers”).

Does it ever happen to you that you get a cook book but then end up not making anything out of it for quite a while?

I hope you’re all enjoying your Saturday. We’re having a super relaxing day, just what the doctor ordered.

 

Some of you might have noticed that I still haven’t written the second recap of my Japan holidays (and for you new readers: I was in Japan from 30 December – 8 January. Check out Part 1 of the recap over here!).

Since today is a very boring day (food-wise) I decided to finally share the rest of the goodies with you all. I hope you don’t think it’s lame that I write a recap about something that happened almost two months ago.. (Time flies!!!)

 

Kyoto

So we left off where we headed to Kyoto. (Remember? ). Being the cheap people that we are we decided to go by bus and not by the super fast but super expensive shinkansen. It took us approximately 4 hours to get to Kyoto but that was ok because I really like “long” journeys as long as I don’t have to drive .

We arrived at 6pm and were starving after check-in (more about our dinner later!). Our hotel was located in the city centre and the room was lovely. The view was stellar too.

Yep, that’s a graveyard. My mum called them the “silent neighbours”.

After dinner we were surprised by our aunt who brought us gifts and wanted to say goodbye (again). Ah I love her! She’s fantastic.

On the next day (which was our only “real” day in Kyoto) we did all the touristy stuff. Kyoto is well known for the temples and shrines and we did the whole grand tour.

 

New Years is very important in Japan. Since it was only a week after New Year’s there was still lots going on at shrines.

 

These wooden plates can be bought there too. Since it’s the year of the tiger, all of them are tiger-themed. (Huh, makes sense, right? )

Everyone who gets one of those (except the tourists who buy them for souvenirs) writes a wish on them. The heart-shaped plates are obviously for those who wish for something that involves romance. Weird things are sometimes written on the plates too (no matter what the shape ) like: “I finally want to get divorced!”. Ha!

I think it’s a very nice tradition though. I don’t make New Year’s resolutions but I love traditions (that aren’t super silly). The white paper notes (see above) predict what happens this year. Mine was pretty average (wheww.. thank god for no family/boyfriend/work/injury/money.. problems ) but I remember that Selina’s said that she shouldn’t get too involved with trade but if she has to she should only buy/sell silk and pottery.

We got from one place to the other by a normal city bus. Much cheaper and cooler than a stupid tourist/sight-seeing bus.

Next stop was the Kinkaku-ji, aka the Golden Pavilion. What a beauty!!

K + S in: “The silly tourists”

 

SO postcard-worthy, don’t you think?

This was actually our last touristy spot that we visited in Kyoto. During the day we also walked through the markets a lot. Which brings me to a very important part of our Japan trip:

 

Food

Some of you might wonder how it’s like to survive in Japan as a vegetarian. Here’s the truth: It isn’t that difficult (when you’re cooking for yourself).

I generally ate much less than at home (aka in Switzerland) because I was a lot less active (I just didn’t need that much food). I ate all sorts of traditional food but also “western” dishes.

Here’s an example of what I ate at my grandma’s place:

Pickled veggies, rice, sautéed mushrooms and spinach with sesame seeds and an omelette.

See how big that apple is?? I LOVED it

 

Mochi. Oh how I love theeee. My grandma and mum made them on 1 January (which is an other tradition in Japan – making omochi on 1 January).

Edamame. Too good for this world!

I almost screamed out lout when I saw WW toast. Whole wheat products don’t have a huge fan base in Japan.

I also had a lot of green tea.

A typical Japanese style breakfast that my sister had looked like this:

Eating out was a whole other story..

Being a vegetarian in Japan is easy. When you’re staying at home that is. I didn’t really want to be a burden but sometimes I was so annoyed that there were no veggie options at all.

We went to a “kuru-kuru sushi restaurant” in Kurashiki. You know, it’s that kind of restaurant where the sushi goes around and around – how do you call that?

Anyway, we went inside and I was like a 5 year old, happily watching the sushi pass by.

The thing is.. most sushi contains fish. Nevertheless, I still managed to grab 4 fish-less plates.

My mum and sis on the other hand are sushi killing MACHINES!

 

On the first evening in Kyoto it was almost impossible to find anything vegetarian on the menus. I almost felt desperate and was really sorry for my mum and sis because it was because of me that we had to wander around with grumbling tummies.

…Until we found a gem of a restaurant.

 

Well it might not look super exciting but the menu said that there were tons of vegetarian options. Plus everything was organic. Totally my kind of place .

I had a bunch of yummy things to eat like tempeh, veggies and a salad.

We went back to this restaurant for the second dinner too.

Other random stuff…

We strolled through the markets of Kyoto and saw a lot of fish.

And a lot of veggies.

Oh and shopping for groceries is just as fun as anywhere else on the world…

Oh and let’s not forget about the pastries!

This was called a sweet potato boat..

+ this looked like.. you know.. But it was good!!!

I only bought this because I was intrigued by the awful grey colour but I loved it! It was stuffed with beans and sesame seeds. Mmmmm.

 

Looking through the picture makes me want to go back!

Though I would happily skip this meal…

(But just to be fair: Airplane food has definitely improved over the years)

Oh and let’s end this post which a fantastic treat..

Matcha latte. LOVE.

Sorry for the super long post but I hope you liked the recap nevertheless .

Have a great Friday!

 

I think we can all agree that we’re addicted to the internet (to some degree). It’s not all too bad though. Just think about all the friends you wouldn’t have without it! I for sure wouldn’t want to miss my bloggie friends.

I really wish I could go to Paris for a weekend; They’re currently showing “Maison de Poupée” (A Doll’s House) by Henrik Ibsen at the Théâtre de la Madeleine AND Audrey Tautou is in it AND it’s my mum’s favourite play. I so wish I could take her to see the play. Maybe I should give some hints to dad as I’m pretty sure it would make her super happy. Oh well, just a random thought.
Do you like plays? I absolutely love them and saw some of the most amazing plays in London (naked Harry Potter in “Equus” anyone?? ).

Dinner last night involved a ton of veggies. It was stir-fry time!

Sigh, it’s been too long.

This morning I went to the gym (I’m getting used to these 5am wake-up calls!) and ran 3 km on the treadmill, did 20 minutes on the elliptical and finished off with some ab work. IT WAS BORING! Running on a treadmill is much harder than running outside. It was good workout nevertheless.

I still had lots of time on hand before work so I headed to Tibits. I’ve never had breakfast there before but today I discovered that they have some great vegan muesli. Expect to see me back there soon.

With my muesli I had some vegan spelt “croissant” and an other small WW roll (with poppy seeds!!) that came with the muesli.

Oh and let’s not forget about the chai… which was heavenly!

Gelareh wrote a great post about electrolytes which you all should read. My best post-workout friend is this guy:

 

Coconut and banana? An other match made in heaven.

Lunch was a bunch of rabbit food.

• arugula
• 1/4 red bell pepper
• mushrooms
• vegan sausage thingy
• hummus
• olive oil + balsamic vinegar + pepper
  

 

Eaten at work with style.

These guys begged me to buy them this morning. Of course I had to oblige…

 

Sesame + chocolate = LOVE!

Off to squash I go now… Keep in mind: Tomorrow is Friday! Hooray!

Even though I love different breakfasts and don’t always stick with the same, I tend to go back to oatmeal all the time. We just can’t be separated!

Also: Why I lived for more than 20 years without almond butter is completely beyond me.

+ Even a closer close-up of the gorgeousness.

Filling and hearty and FULL OF LOVE!

Ok, I’ll stop drooling now. Foodies are so weird, they get overly excited because of one small dish. Those people are nuts!

No wait, I lied (about the stopping part that is)! I’ll continue with foodgasms. Ha!

 

Today I bought some hummus and a tomato spread. You know, I needed some party friends for these guys:

 

Match made in heaven. Some people think that this couldn’t possibly be a satisfying lunch but I felt super snacky today and craved veggies.

I had this hummus before and it truly rocks my world.

The tomato paste was new to me and I decided to give it a try.

OH MY STARS!

This was so amazing! I’ve never thought of combining sun dried tomatoes and tahini but it works so well!

I had one tablespoon of each for some dipping action.

Crunch crunch. Truly heavenly. The good stuff was followed by equally amazing food:

May I repeat myself? I’ve missed out! This is like a classical PB&J sandwich but with rice cakes, almond butter and a lovely new spread:

I picked it up at the health food store a few days ago and opened it today and noticed today that 75% of it is fruit AND it’s sweetened with agave. Yay!

Plus it’s also really yummy.

Today hasn’t been the most exciting day but I slept in until 7:30am which was quite the miracle. I’ll meet up with the boyfriend for a run after work though. You know, I actually hate running in the dark and didn’t do as much running in the past few weeks as I liked because I was simply scared to slip on that freaking ice! The ice is gone now though and it’s getting really warm (down here.. not in the mountains ) it almost feels like spring! Love it!

If you like running/jogging: Do you sometimes have troubles with seasons? (Like yours truly who can only run in the morning/evening when it’s super dark in winter)

I’m actually on my lunch break right now and currently searching some information for our getaway on Easter! We have planned to go to an amazing area and I’ll share more info with you when the details are clear. Just one word: Italy!

Oh I can’t wait! Even though I love my job and life I really need to get away from time to time. It’s pretty handy that I live in Switzerland because there are so many pretty things to see, plus so many great countries are near by!

30 days shred update: Well I wrote that I’ll stick to it and I really wanted to but only my laptop can play American DVDs. And you all know that my laptop is currently ill with the flu . To be honest, it’s pretty annoying and I can’t wait for it to get fixed. I wish Selina had one too but nope, it has always been super handy to use mine.

Are we too addicted to the internet?
Would you be ok without your laptop/PC/notebook/..whatever?

Let me know what you’re thinking!