Give Me Bananas

For some weird reason I still remember the first time I made quinoa. I saw a recipe that sounded amazing and had my parents and sis over for dinner so I whipped up a quinoa salad (with spinach, mozzarella and pine nuts). Thinking about it makes me drool. I have make that dish again soon.

Ever since I’ve been in love with keen-wah.

My boyfriend is not a huge fan because he kind of overdosed on it when he was a kid (healthy mum! me likes!) but I wasn’t really familiar with it so I started to cook it extremely often. I don’t seem to get sick of it!

Yesterday night I prepared some quinoa for today’s and tomorrow’s breakfasts. I cooked some (pre-cooked) black quinoa with rice milk, dates, banana slices, almond slivers and a bit of cinnamon and got this really nice porridge.

It might look a bit ugly but it sure as hell is a keeper.

Other great quinoa eats:

• Quinoa pasta
• Quinoa salad
• Quinoa with basil and pine nuts
• Quinoa porridge (That post is actually titled with “I Love Quinoa (And My Sister Too)” – guess I really like quinoa, hehe)
• Leftover quinoa in a wrap
• Quinoa pesto mix (oh my what an old post!)

There are lots of other quinoa ideas but I could go on and on forever and you’d still be reading the next week .

Q: What’s your favourite quinoa-based meal? I can’t decide. I really love the sweet porridge version but I also love it in salads, etc.. It’s so versatile!

Have you ever tried doing HIIT outside?

Give this workout a go the next time you lace up your running shoes:

• 30 min warm-up jog / easy run
• 1 min sprint, 2 min jog (repeat 6x)
• 10 min cool down

I did this yesterday morning and started my day feeling refreshed and ready to go. Of course you can also just run for the first 30 minutes or just skip that part. I just decided to take it easy because it was 7am and I was still a bit sleepy.

What I really love about doing HIIT outside is the variety of sprint intervals. The first one went straight uphill which was a killer but it made me push myself more. The third interval went downhill and it made sprinting so much fun and felt like flying. It kind of gave me the feeling that I could tackle everything. I believe I can fly. I believe I can touch the skyyyyyy…

On to FOOD!
 

What on earth did I do before I discovered hummus?

I must admit that I like hummus so much better than seitan. You know, I really like this good source of veg protein but it’s kind of.. rubbery. I’m still not sure what to think of it.

However, it was pretty good in tonight’s stir-fry which I made for dinner.

I’m currently cooking some quinoa for tomorrow’s breakfast. When I go to the gym in the morning (as I do tomorrow) I really like to have all things (workout clothes and food) ready so I can grab my bag and go. Otherwise I maybe would sleep in.

The next few days are going to be busier than usual. The Gurtenfestival starts tomorrow and I’m super excited. It’s a very relaxed/fun/happy festival on the Gurten hill which is right next to Bern. You have an amazing view from up there.
Tomorrow I only want to go and see Jet and Babyshambles. I’ve seen them both before but I’m looking forward to their gigs anyway (well as long as Pete appears, I’m happy). The Babyshambles concert ends at 0:45am and I guess that I’ll be at home at 2am-ish. Well the only problem is that I have to work on Friday.

Oh well, aren’t festivals all about lack of sleep, a bit too much beer and sunshine? I hope that I’ll get at least 5h of sleep from Thursday to Friday because I’ll need the energy to dance the night away then . I just have to make sure not to fall asleep at 12pm. I wish I weren’t such a grandma.

Q: Have you ever been to a festival? If yes, which one was your favourite? I’ve been to a bunch of festivals. There are TONS in Switzerland, it seems like all we do in summer is to go to festivals. My favourite will always be the Gurtenfestival though. Not only because it’s in my town but the feeling up there is really special. You should all come and see for yourself, it’s an amazing atmosphere!

PS: I went and saw Eclipse last night with my mum and sister. We giggled like morons. WHAT A CHEESEFEST! I can’t wait to see it again. Haha!

You know, I really don’t like how the word “diet” has changed over the years. In reference to food it simply means your way of eating. Though these days most people assume that the word diet means a crazy weight loss program. Bollocks!

I don’t like diets (and I am talking about the weight loss programs now). They’re restrictive and when you’re lucky you get one day off where you can eat anything you want. Spending a day eating hamburgers and ice cream is not healthy!
I’m not a nutritionist but I honestly wonder why people mention “weight loss” in the same sentence as “health”. They’re both absolutely different! Sure, there are a lot of people who need to lose weight to get healthy but there’s so much misinformation!

First of all, how come that:

• Carbs are bad? (Seriously?? A grain that is given by the lovely earth is bad?)
• Fruits are bad? (Because fructose makes you fat. Uh huh.)
• Meal replacements are better than real food?

Oh I could go on and on.

You see why I really don’t like diets. They’re silly. They make people stress about food.

With that being said I was extremely surprised when I stumbled upon Tone It Up the other day. Girls who love carbs and most importantly BANANAS (!)?

Well the two founders of Tone It Up look like they just jumped out of Shape magazine (ironically they posed for that magazine, I think) but hey, I will trust anyone who looks fit and healthy and eats cupcakes.

So I decided to join their Tone It Up Fat Burning System.

Oh yes indeed.

Besides the fact that the title is absolutely hilarious, it’s a program that is extremely do-able (as long as you like working out).

You train and you eat. I like that.

What I also like is that it’s about toning up, meaning building muscle (I’m not talking about Arnold Schwarzenegger muscles here!) and becoming fitter. Weight is not an indicator for health. You can weigh 60kg and be an unhealthy couch potato. You can also weigh 60kg and be a healthy, active athlete. (Which would lead me to an other topic.. BMI. Sigh. But that’s for an other post).

I can run 10 miles but I’m not incredibly toned. I have a butt (which I like and also want to keep, haha!) but I over all need to tone up a bit more. Sure, it looks nicer to be toned but I want to do that because I like being stronger (again, don’t think of bodybuilder muscles here!). It makes me more confident. And working out gives me a feeling of complete calmness. I almost never stress out and I really believe that it’s because of my active lifestyle. It gives me a really nice balance.

Anyway, if my (real life ) friends read this they’ll probably think that it’s yet another crazy idea of mine. Or all the blog readers in general will think that I’m nutso.
I don’t care.

It’s not because I’m rebellious but because I know what’s good for me. And I know what’s making me happy. Being active and eating healthily might be living hell for some people. You know, that’s ok. I think it’s great if everyone would appreciate real food but it’s absolutely pointless to force people to think the way I do. We’re all different and that’s good.

So… (breathe, Karin! Breathe!) it’s ok when people think this is silly.

Lesson of the day for you all: It’s ok when people think that you’re a moron!

Just laugh about it and live your life the way you want it too.

Goodness, this post turned out to be a bit philosophical, didn’t it (and it also became a huge RANT)? And I only wanted to write about Tone It Up. I guess I was in a writing mood (so basically the complete opposite from the other day..).

Let’s get back to bananas.

I don’t want to be right when banana and chocolate for breakfast is wrong.

Rice milk + ice + flax + hemp (the seeds, silly! Not the weed) + chocolate rice protein powder + banana = Perfect smoothie for this crazy summer weather!

I should take a photo before drinking it. Guess I was (thirsty?) hungry.

Pretty mud water.

Love & Peace

K.

I’m sorry but I have to admit it: FOOTBALL IS BORING!!

Please don’t throw rocks at me.

I get that it’s “bonding” and loved by almost everyone. It’s emotional. But my goodness.. I really don’t understand why people get so extremely sad when their team loses.

Oh well, at least it’s fascinating to people from all over the world and World Cups can help with cultural exchange as well. So it’s not all bad.

(I just wish that some football fans would also start doing sports – lifting beers not included)

After watching 15 minutes of the Holland – Spain final I decided to go back home and relax a bit. It’s been a really hot day and I’ve been craving ice cream like a mad woman. However, I didn’t feel like eating real ice cream…

So I whipped up some chocolate banana protein soft serve!

Believe it or not but I’ve never made banana soft serve before. I know, it’s quite shocking.

I combined 1 frozen banana, 1/2 chocolate protein powder (I used Sun Warrior) and a little bit of rice milk in the food processor and let it do it’s thing.

Oh heavens. I feel really Swiss right now because we always miss the major trends. (Ugg boots came up last winter!!!)

Better. Than. Ice. Cream.

There. I said it. And I will not take it back.

It’s healthier for you too.

I have some fun news to share with you tomorrow! And even more news by the end of the next week (hopefully).

Ps. Speaking of being Swiss.. I saw a Federal Councillor this evening in the old town of Bern. In case you didn’t know: Switzerland doesn’t have a Prime Minister or President. There are 7 Federal Council member that “rule” the country.
Anyway, I saw her walking around on her own and realized how unusual this is.  Aren’t such important people supposed to walk around with an entourage? Ha! Just imagine Obama or Cameron walk around on their own.

Pps: *Cough* my incredibly neglected TV is on. I need to hear when Holland wins after all *Cough*

Hej!

Work was.. intense. And even though I should be completely knackered I’m feeling kind of fine right now. Granted, it’s only 9pm. We’ll see how it looks like in an hour.

It’s kind of odd to work 12 days straight without a break but so far it hasn’t been too bad. I’m only half way through though so we better wait until Thursday before I say something. Hehe.

I got some sweets though!!

Macaroons to be precise.

I don’t mind working for food. Not at all.

For some reason I don’t really know what I should  write about. Today was so.. unspectacular. Nothing else besides work happened!

I have a picture of my lunch but I’m pretty sure you’ve seen salad and quinoa before.

Hum hum hum…

Lalalaaa.

Maybe I should just go and grab a book, I feel like there’s nothing smart coming out of me today. I am pretty sure that this post won’t get a spot in the top 100 blog posts of 2010.

Q:Do you sometimes feel like you have nothing to talk about? I talked to my boyfriend on the phone earlier and I had no idea what to talk about. “Hmm. Yes work was busy…. How was paragliding?”. A chair would probably be more entertaining than me right now.

Happy Saturday you non-boring people!

If you google „Karin“ (in the German Google version), the first sentence you’ll get is:

“Eine Frau, gefangen im männlichen Körper.“

Meaning: A woman, caught in a male body.

Two questions that don’t need to be answered:
- I am a woman who is caught in a male body???
- Why do I google my own name?

Moving on! (The wine is speaking)

I went to the end of the world last night. A place called Gunten.
And no, you’re not the only one, I haven’t heard of that place before either.
It was my friend Mike’s birthday and so I hopped on a train to Thun and then on a bus to Gunten. It was a bit like sight seeing. That bar/lounge/restaurant was amazing though; it was right by the lake and you could see the mountains and the sunset. It was absolutely magical! We also ate some amazing Tarte Flambée.
We all decided that it was utterly silly to work when it’s so beautiful outside. Maybe we should hand in a petition. Wonder what my boss would think of that.

Right before I left for Gunten I whipped up some Krazy Kokonut Karob Bites. Minus the carob. I got the recipe from Toneitup which is a page that I stumbled upon a few days ago. The recipe for the bites can be found here. They are basically like Lärabar balls (Läraballs?? ) and perfect pre-workout snacks.

I should have a few of these in my fridge all the time because they’re incredibly delicious and great on the go.

Tonight after squash I had dinner with my boyfriend at one of my favourite restaurants right by the river Aare. I left my camera at home and enjoyed the company (and food! and wine!) which was lovely.

Life is good.

8 more days of work to go until I have a day off. Partaaay!

Even though we have an amazing farmer’s market in Bern I have to admit that I rarely go there.
Come on! Who am I? Isn’t it the “it-thing” of the health food bloggers? Shame on me!

Well after a long absence I steered to the organic veggies on Saturday. I now only have one zucchini, some radishes, half a head of cauliflower and some celery stalks left. And it’s only Tuesday. I guess I’ll have to go there again tomorrow!

My two day long absence can be explained quite easily. I spent the entire Sunday checking my boyfriend’s thesis for grammar mistakes. I now know everything about electrical engineering. Yep.

We worked until 11pm and was really lacking sleep. That’s why I decided to take yesterday evening off. I had dinner, read my book and went to bed at 10pm. Heaven!

Random fact of the day #1:

I’m slowly eating my way through the bars I got in London.

Random fact of the day #2:

Eating hot oats on a hot day really isn’t cool (ha!). I somehow don’t seem to have any conventional breakfast food on hand.

Tomorrow I’ll make a COLD smoothie.

Brace yourself, tonight’s dinner was beyond (!!!) creative.

Tam tam taaaaam…..

I’d say that this is a meal to remember!

JK. Do I really need to mention that I felt like a lazy bum tonight?

Have I ever told you that I HATE gyms in the evening? They’re so crowded! I still went to my gym after work though

I usually go to the gym in the morning which I like so much better (even though it means that I have to get up earlier). There aren’t many people around and the free weights section isn’t “filled with testosterone” (if you know what I mean ).

Today I did a very basic HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) on the treadmill:

• 5 min warm-up run
• 1 min sprint
• 2 min run/jog
• repeat sprint and jog 6x
• 10 min cool down jog

(Try doing 5-8 sets)

I hate interval training and feel like dying the entire time but I somehow start to like HIITs because they make time fly by. Also, they’re fantastic if you have little time and want to make the most of your workout.

Time to do some yoga now!

Q: Do you know/like/hate/?? HIITs?

Ever since finding out that we’ll have a day long stopover in New York I’ve been extremely exited about going to Babycakes. All the “good” cupcakes, cookies, muffins.. make me swoon!

Though actually I could have made all those goodies myself since I’m in possession of this book…

But you know how it goes; you get a cookbook, want to try all the recipes because they look so amazing, find out that it needs certain special ingredients that you don’t have on hand and set it aside. I never forgot about my Babycakes book but I never got around trying the recipes. Not so on Thursday.

I’ve never had American scones but I dared making some anyway. So I got some raspberries and a new (huge!) jar of coconut oil because I just ran out.

The cookbook suggested to make separate scones but I decided to just pre-cut the entire dough and bake it like that.

I can’t share the recipe for obvious reasons but the scones are made with whole spelt flour and sweetened with agave (which is only of semi-cleanse-friendly.. I must admit.).

Post baking in my stupid oven..

They certainly didn’t end up looking like the ones in the book (for some reasons the finished products never look like the ones on the recipe pages!) but they were GOOD!

I used more raspberries than the recipe called for which made the scones a bit soggy but I love that extra moisture.

There’s only one left  now (don’t worry – I didn’t eat them all. I gave 4 to the boyfriend) and will probably have it for breakfast tomorrow. I’ll make sure to eat it very slowly while having my eyes closed.

Qs: Have you ever made scones before? Are you familiar with Babycakes?

What is it about this day that makes me so H.A.P.P.Y.?

It might be because it’s the weekend. Or because I finished the cleanse.

Speaking of it.. Here’s how the last day went:

Breakfast started off with soy yogurt, sliced banana & nectarine and hemp & chia seeds.

Oh and almond butter. Let’s not forget about the almond butter.

Surprise surprise it didn’t hold me over for too long and so I had some blueberries and an egg.

Still hungry. Grr!

I basically ran to the health food store to get some tofu and veggies to throw together a salad for lunch. Then I grabbed my food, book and a chair and enjoyed my lunch outside. At least until some dude started mowing the grass. Oh the joy!

Yes, that’s a close up of tofu.

Work – snack on apple and AB – work…

For dinner I dug out some frozen food – millet with chickpeas, carrots, onion and raisins that I made some time ago. I forgot how amazing this dish is! Need to make that again soon.
On the side I had some edamame. I love edamame.

Kinda look like grandma edamame though.

…And then I had dessert.

Oh my freaking goodness!!

Well I will tell you all about my baked baby tomorrow but let me just say that this was so good (and perfectly cleanse-friendly).

But how did the cleanse make me feel?

Well, as expected, I didn’t feel much different. I mentioned before that I mostly eat that way anyway so it wasn’t a “real” cleanse for my body. However, I noticed the following things:

• No bloating, weird feeling whatsoever
• No chocolate cravings
• “Clear skin”-feeling

Well the last point surprised me. It felt like my skin could breathe (!?!?). Has anyone ever felt like that before? I didn’t particularly feel more energized but my skin felt (and still feels!) great.
What shocked me lots though was that I didn’t miss chocolate. So strange!

Got to go now! Will meet up with my friend Christine for dinner at Punkt. I think I’m going to order the Pad Thai .

Q: Favourite cookbook? It’s some sort of an out of the blue question but I was just wondering..

Have a GREAT Friday!

It’s been a rough day so I’ll keep this short and sweet.

Even though it’s been incredibly hot in the past few days I was craving oatmeal for breakfast. Talk about weird. That’s like taking an ice bath in the depth of winter.

1/3 c oatmeal, 2/3 c rice milk, 1/3 c water, cinnamon, 1 sliced banana / topped with hemp seeds and 1 tsp almond butter

Work was incredibly busy and I snacked on an apple mid-morning. –>Nothing exciting happened here .

It’s been so nice out so I’ve been eating my lunches outside for the past few days, while reading Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series. It’s so relaxing!

For lunch today I had a huge salad (lettuce, carrots, broccoli and an egg) and some blueberries and an other egg on the side (I actually prefer eating eggs on their own and not particularly in salads).

Sunshine sunshine, I love you.

Unfortunately I had to go back inside and continue working. Oh sometimes I really hate being a grown up. Work continued to be crazy (I’m currently organizing things for a small exhibition and it’s driving me NUTS!) but I snacked on a nectarine in between.

I really needed to go on a run and clear my mind after work, so I ate a dried date because I was feeling tired and hungry– I believe that dates are the perfect pre-exercise snacks if you only need a small boost of energy.

Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE red lentils? They’re exactly what food should be like – nutritious and delicious!

I cooked 1/2 dry lentils in water with a bit of salt and served them with baked sweet potato “fries” and steamed broccoli & savoy cabbage.

I feel like I’m going to explode now.

Workouts of the day:

- 1 hr Tracy Anderson Method Mat Workout DVD (will write a review soon)  before breakfast
- 40 min run (don’t know how far I ran because I didn’t wear my Garmin) after lunch

I will probably finish watching “Narnia: Prince Caspian” and then do some yoga before hitting the hay.

Hope your Wednesday was good too!