Wednesday 29 April 2015

A day in Rotterdam: The Market Hall

Hello lovelies,
Last weekend I spent a lovely few days with my boyfriend in Rotterdam. And when people ask how my weekend was and what we got up to I noticed it mainly involved FOOD. Rotterdam has a new Market Hall in the city center, which is filled with gorgeous food stalls. I was only in Rotterdam for 4 days and we visited this market hall on 3 of those days – enough said. 
It was so stunning I wanted to share some pictures with you.

It starts with the building itself – it’s massive. And a really designy. How cool does it look?

Then when you walk in you are hit with a vibrant mix of smells and colours, from spices to fresh fruit & of course dutch cheese.
The cool thing about this Market Hall is that its like a modern market. It has all the traditional market stalls like the cheese, meat, fruit & spices. But it also has modern ones like donuts & churros. Plus there are a handful of restaurants and bars scattered around in this massive building of delicious food.
Oh and have I mentioned they had a few juice bars too? I had a delicious Mango & Orange juice from one of them. Truly a Heavenly Smoothie! 
Now are you ready for some real foodporn pictures? Check out these sweet treats!
And yes of course we had to buy some of the naughty sweets! I had a donuts and Tim went for a chocolate cookie.
I hope I didn't make you all too hungry with this blog post. But I wanted to share some of my food highlight from my weekend trip with you. 
Have you been to Rotterdam? Or the Netherlands? And one last important question, would you choose a donut or cookie? :)
Have a wonderful evening,
Love,

Sunday 26 April 2015

What I eat in a day: Weekend Edition

Hello lovelies,
Today I thought I would share with you what I would typically eat in a day. However, I thought I would make two editions a weekend and a weekday edition as my eating habits are slightly different. So here is the weekend edition of my food diary. I don’t count calories or macronutrients; I just try to have a balanced diet filled with the goodness from wholefoods.

First off is breakfast!
I had scrambled eggs with some spinach, cherry tomatoes and ham mixed into my eggs. I love adding foods into my scrambled eggs, it just makes it more exciting plus it will keep you full for longer! To drink I had some water with lemon slices. I only really drink water throughout the day.

Then after breakfast I got ready, threw some workout gear on and went for a super long walk with my mum. One of my personal challenges from the #ActiveAprilChallenge (read more here) was to get out into nature more and do an outdoor workout at least once a week. So we went for a 9k walk in the sun.

Once we were back it was time for LUNCH!
Today we had small steaks with mixed vegetable baked in the oven. I love cutting up vegetable & potatoes adding spices and throwing them in the oven. It is really easy and super tasty. If you want other ideas on how to make your vegetables tastier you can check that out here.

Then it was finally SNACK TIME!
Snack time is my favourite time of the day – who’s with me? I had baked a healthy chocolate cake (find the recipe here), which was perfect for a little afternoon snack. I had a slice of cake with a scoop of ice cream. Nothing healthy about the ice cream at all, but I think life is about balance. Healthy chocolate cake and unhealthy ice cream = perfect balance.

Lastly it was time for DINNER!
For dinner there wasn’t much in the fridge so I ended up having 2 sausages, a cut up red pepper and a wholegrain bread with guacamole. GUACAMOLE is one of my favourites. I will have to share my guac recipe with you in the future ;)  

There is one last thing which can't be missing DESSERT!
I made myself a fruit bowl consisting of a banana and a few strawberries & rasperberries.

And then that is it.
This is what I ate on this particular Sunday. I hope this post is useful to you in some way or maybe you don’t care at all! Let me know what you think. Would you want me to do another food diary blog post?
Have a wonderful day,
Love,

Wednesday 22 April 2015

Carrot and Orange Soup

Hello Lovelies,

I want to share a healthy delicious dinner recipe with you today; a carrot and orange soup recipe to be precise. This is a perfect light dinner even though it's not winter anymore, plus you can make extra and eat it for days (at least that’s what I do). I find soups  are a really easy way to add more vegetables to your diet!

All you will need:
7 Carrots
2 Oranges
2cm of fresh ginger
2 onions
2 tablespoons of olive oil
7dl water
2 dl Greek Yogurt
Salt and pepper
Sunflower seeds

Process:
Cop the onions. Peal and grate the carrots.

Add the olive oil to a big saucepan and warm it up.

Add the onion to the saucepan and once the onions have been cooked for a bit add the grated carrots.

Add in the water and ginger and let the mixture cook for 10mins or until the carrots are soft.


Let the mixture cool for a bit so that you do not burn yourself and then place the mixture in a blender.
Blend the mixture until smooth.

Pour the mixture back into a saucepan and add the juice of the two oranges and the greek yogurt.


Heat the mixture again and add salt and pepper to your taste, you might need to add some more water if the soup is too thick for your liking.

Enjoy with some warm whole grain bread and sunflower seeds on top.

If you give this recipe a try please us the hashtag #debbieariella so I can see all your delicious creations on Instagram. What are you favourites soups?
Love,

Sunday 19 April 2015

Healthy Chocolate Cake

Hello lovelies,
Did you know people bake cakes from beans? I always thought that was a bit weird and there is no way it could taste good, right? I mean since when do beans taste of cake?
But hey, you can’t really talk about it until you’ve tried it. So I did.
And wow. Maybe beans do taste of cake? This Chocolate Cake has no flour, no sugar, no milk, no butter – yet it taste of chocolate cake. Good, even GREAT chocolate cake!
This recipe will become one of my keepers, I can tell already (I have just finished eating my second slice as I write this!)
So let’s get down to it.

All you will need
240g of black beans
3 eggs
1 ripe banana
5 dates
3 tbsp cacao
3 tbsp almond milk
1 tsp baking powder
1 shot of espresso

Process:
If you can find black beans in a can then lucky you! Because I could not. Which means I had to get dried black beans, lay them in cold water over night & then cook them at a low heat for nearly 2 hours before even starting the baking process.
However, once you have your black beans sorted it is very simple.
Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C.
Add your beans, eggs, banana, dates, cacao, almond milk, packing powder and shot of espresso in a blender and blend it up.
Make sure the mixture is smooth – if in doubt, blend a little longer!
Pour the mixture into your preferred baking shape with some parchment paper so that it does not stick and place it in the oven.
Bake for roughly 25mins.
Let is cool and then add some berries & powder sugar on top if you would like.

Serve with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream and enjoy!


What I have learnt is that baking with beans sounds a lot weirder than it taste. Give this recipe a try, I am sure you won’t be disappointed. If you do, make sure to use the hashtag #debsterariella so that I can see your delicious creations and feature you on my page!

Wishing you a wonderful day
Love,

Wednesday 15 April 2015

Home-Made Healthy Pesto

Hello lovelies,
One of my all-time favourite meals is pasta pesto. For a while that was my cheat meal every single week and I would not get tired of it because it’s just the best. So I decided to try to make a healthy version of green pesto and I must say it’s delicious maybe even better than the barilla sauce I usually use. Plus it was actually really simple & easy to make!

All you will need (3-4 servings)
2 large handfuls of fresh basil
100g pine nuts
1 garlic clove
3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
The juice of 1 lemon
Salt & pepper

Add all the ingredients to a food processor and blend it up, it’s that simple. You could add a little more or less lemon depending on your taste. The same goes for any of the ingredients really – just taste test it and add the aspect you think is missing.
Then serve your home-made healthy pesto with some pasta of your choice. I like using spelt or wholegrain fusilli pasta, but you can use which ever you prefer.
Enjoy your delicious and healthy pesto pasta!

Give this recipe a try and make sure you tag me and use the hashtag #debbieariella so I can see all your delicious creations and feature you on my page!

Have a wonderful evening!
Love,