The one about the Cat

Mona likes it when people prepare food.
She always thinks there might be something in it for her so she meows and she cuddles and she darts around your legs (hoping you’ll fall and she can get to the food easier, no doubt).

I always tell her she won’t be pleased with the stuff I have to offer when I’m cooking, with me being vegetarian and all, but apparently Mona thinks eating vegetarian is a very appropriate thing for a cat to do.

We already knew she was crazy for sweet corn and chickpeas, but today she took it up another notch:

She was hooking up with some lamb’s lettuce!

Love, M.

Dinner Date

A couple of weeks ago I decided my dad, my sis and I should do dinner or breakfast dates a couple of times a month in order to make more time for each other and see each other more often.

Yesterday night we went on our first dinner date at Het Onderwerp (people who live in Belgium should really go and have dinner or breakfast there, and for the people who don’t live in Belgium: make sure you go eat there when you visit our country).

The photographs are taken with my phone (I did not want to embarrass the sis by carrying around my big camera).

I had the Normandic salad with: mixed lettuce, carrots, zucchini, cucumber, pear, caramelized apples and, most important, gratinéed brie drizzled with balsamic on top of al kind of nuts.

Brie + balsamic + pear/apple + nut on a fresh, still warm whole grain bread = LOVE

I didn’t even think about taking photographs of the sis or dad’s meal until they were halfway through it, better luck next time!

I did manage to take a sneak peek of the sister’s dessert before she magically made it disappear.

Chocolate mouse! I love the way it’s dressed on the plate.

My dessert: vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce and egg liqueur

On here’s one final photograph, which is totally unrelated but I would really like to share it with you guys:

Mona really likes birthdays or events like mother’s day because she loves to play with gift wrapping paper.
She’s been hiding out in there for almost a week and took her loyal yellow scrunchy with here (no scrunchy will ever be safe in the house when Mona is around!).

Love, M.

Bits and Pieces

Bits and Pieces: Crappy Phone Camera Edition.

I’d like to start on the note that the weather in Belgium has been extremely weird: it’s been extremely hot and humid but very grey, rainy and stormlike at the same time. It feels we’re in a rainforest out here, but without the constant sun shine!
As much as I love this kind of chaotic weather (for some reason thunder storms make me feel very alive yet tiny and humble at the same time) I appreciate it much more when it results from a week of sunshine and bathing suit temperatures!

Okay, maybe there was a little bit of sunshine from time to time, otherwise there obviously wouldn’t have been a rainbow.

First ice cream of the year: dramatic weather calls for dramatic ice cream!
New York Super Fudge Chunk with pieces of  white chocolate, milk chocolate, pecans, walnuts and chocolate covered almonds.

Warm weather also calls for dinner plates with a lot of small titbits: baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, strawberries and quinoa with mango cubes.

I found the last of the Easter Eggs in my dad’s fridge last weekend, oh how I will miss these guys, can’t wait till next year!

Since it’s still grey pancakes are allowed, it’s been more like a pancake kinda week than a pancake kinda day. Pancake stack with strawberries and raspberry jelly on the first layer, peanut butter and granola on the second one, topped of with coconut milk and more granola.

Mona has been helping me edit my papers… or it least she thinks she’s helping but she’s always begging for me to rub her belly and take a nap with her.
Sorry kitty, can’t nap, have work to do!

She likes to help me take care of lunch as well.
That kitty has been crazy, she follows me around the house and especially likes it when I’m starting to cook, it makes her all zen.

Lovely Lunch: two pieces of bread toasted in a skillet in some olive oil topped with: philadephia and herbs, tomatoes, spinach and a fried egg. Carrots and mini corn and the side.

So, that’s enough random stuff for today!

Love, M.

Packing and Baking

What I tried to do today:

Translate some Virgil and snack on some grapes before going into a total frenzy with ‘to do’ and ‘to pack’ lists.

What I actually did today:

I snacked on some yoghurt with fresh pineapple and grated coconut while watching Pan Am.

I drove over to my dad’s house twice. The first time I went there to pick up some clothes I needed for packing,the second time I was on a secret mission to steal the peanut butter jar (you’ll see way I needed that peanut butter jar in a minute).

I went for a run in the blistering heat (well, maybe “blistering heat” is a bit exaggerated but it is 20°C over here and the sun is shining like crazy).
I adored it. My yoga teacher (who also trains runners and was a triathlete back in the days) give me the advice to do some sun greetings after my run to help the tightness in my shins and I have to say it works, they felt much better after some yoga!

I took an elaborate shower for over an hour, had lunch and went for a walk with my mum.

I decided I needed to bake some granola bars to take with me on the trip:

The photograph doesn’t do them justice, they don’t even look edible like this but I swear: these taste amazing.
Speaking of photographs, sorry for the bad quality, all photographs today were taking with my phone since my camera is already packed and sealed!

‘Pumpkin Seed and Almond Granola Bars’
makes 5 bars

• 2 T peanut butter
• 2 T maple syrup
• 2 T vegetable oil
• a couple of handfuls of almonds, halved
• a couple of handfuls of pumpkin seeds
• a couple of handfuls of walnuts
• 40 gr of oats ( about 8 T)
• optional: flax seeds, chocolate chips, dried fruit

Preheat the oven to 170°C (340 F).
Melt the peanut butter, maple syrup and vegetable oil in the microwave. Fold the nuts and oats under this mixture.
Line a cookie sheet with wax paper, sprinkle some olive oil on top. Make 5 bars out of the dough on the cookie sheet, bake for 25 minutes.

Mona’s face when she smelled the granola bars.

My mum and I snacked on the first batch and I decided we were in need of a second batch as well, but we were all out of peanut butter, hence the sneaking to my dad’s place and stealing the peanut butter jar.

And then I finally decided to tackle the packing frenzy…
First I had to find all the lists of things I had to pack I had been making the last couple of weeks.

Toilet bag and hand bag, my other luggage is still too much of a mess to show on the world wide web, and I don’t think the whole world should see my panties and pyjamas either.

Mona’s face while owner was dealing with packing frenzy
“I don’t even care where you left that pair of socks, just let me sleep!”

Well then, I guess this is goodbye, I’ll see you back next Friday !
 Arrivederci! Love, M.

Yoga and crazy stuff my cat does

Since it is still freaking cold out here and my mum won’t let me go out for a run because she is afraid I will fall,end up in a ditch and freeze or get lost, end up in a ditch and freeze, I decided I’d do some extra yoga this week.
Problem is there is no yoga studio in the neighbourhood when I’m at my mum’s house so as I can’t go the a studio I tried to bring the studio to the house.

Yesterday I wanted to try some yin yoga since I really enjoyed the class I took at the studio in Leuven the other week.
Turns out staying in the same pose for 5 minutes on the cold floor at home and with no one to motivate you and talk you through the discomfort (well, discomfort, maybe that’s a bit of an understatement…) did not work out that great. Today I practised vinyasa power followed by some ab workouts.

A great post yoga snack: tea, some oatbran with granola and a kiwi with seeds

Which brings me to the next topic: Mona!
Here’s what happened when I left the food unguarded for  half a second. Mind you, she did not go for the creamy, (fake)milk stuff but she went for the kiwi…

Crazy stuff my cat does:

She often thinks she’s human.
I kid you not! She likes to sleep in a bed, drink out of a glass instead of out of a bowl and she often wants to eat from a plate (when you offer her the food she was trying to steal from your plate in her bowl, she won’t have it any more).  She also really likes human food and I’m not talking about meat and fish: Mona likes corn and kiwis, she will eat paté but only if you put it on a sandwich…

She sometimes thinks she’s a dog.
She steals our scrunchies or other belongings (another favourite are mittens),then she walks around with them in her mouth, looking smug and stores them in her food bowl. We haven’t convinced her to play fetch (yet).

She gets high on the tea my mum drinks to sleep better. Apparently she is really fond of valerian, she starts to purr when she smells it and she always tries to take the teabags and sit on them.

Since we moved she has not yet found out that there’s an ‘outside’ with this house too, so for now she just sits in front of the window and tries to convince the birds and the other cats to come play with here inside of the house.

See, I told you she was a bit crazy!

Love,M.

 

Thank God!

Since I’m currently studying a religious course I am totally allowed to use God’s name in vain, so here it goes:

Thank God for…

1. Decadent Bowls of Oatmeal

Fluffy Oats with vanilla pudding (for the Dutch people around, not really pudding but vanille vla), crunchy peanut butter and Jordans nut granola.

2. Running in the pouring rain: hurricane winds and soaking wet socks included. My mind never felt so clear and a hot shower never felt so great!

3. Sweet Potatoes with Peanut Butter or Greek Yoghurt as a quick and satisfying lunch

4. Pizza to combat post oral exam stress: pizza hawai with extra mozzarella, home-made with the mum!

5. Being in Leuven again:enjoying some time alone, the peace and quiet and most of all enjoying being able to take a Yoga Class for the first in three weeks.

6.Crunchy Peanut butter to lift the spirits

7. Staying away from chocolate for almost a week now and feeling less ‘yucky’

8. The cat that high-jacked my lap to sleep on, because she hadn’t seen me in a couple of days

‘I’m sorry mum, I can’t *insert chore here*, Mona is sleeping on my lap’

Love, M.

Insomnia

Mona has been so good since the move, she’s one brave little kitten.

Mona’s ‘ What’s that?! Did I hear something… What are you doing??? Don’t make me come over there!’ -face

The first few days she was really scared, she hid under the closets and meowed in a way that could break your heart. She choose my mum’s bedroom as her ‘safe place’ and she stayed in the bed hidden under the covers the first day.

But Mona is a tough gal, a bit arrogant too, and on the second day she already decided that if this place was going to be her new home she was going to rule it.

‘Okay I’m too lazy to come over there
so you’d better tell me what’s going on out there!’

Now she walks around like she owns the place, sleeps in every soft and warm corner she can find (preferably beds and radiators) and she is much sweeter and affectionate than we ever thought possible for such a headstrong cat.

She also traded her sleeping place in my mum’s bed for my bed, so now I have to share my bed with this little black ball of fur… well actually it rather seems like she’s willing to share her bed with me than vice versa, at least that’s what she thinks.

Hence the insomnia.
As much as I adore sleeping with a warm and fuzzy kitten, she always manages to fall asleep in the most inconvenient places: on my feet so they get numb, behind my back or on my belly so I can’t turn over to the other side and she always manages to not share the blankets!
It’s pretty obvious who’s in charge in our house 😉

But you simply can’t wake up to this in the morning and still be mad about your disturbed sleeping pattern… sleep is overrated anyway, cuddling with kittens on the other hand is not!

Love, M.

Best Wishes

I wish you all lots of Chocolate on Christmas day!

Mona’d like to say something as well:

Food Shopping

One of our family traditions is to go food shopping on the 24th of December to make sure we have enough yummy stuff in the house for Christmas eve and Christmas.

Another tradition we have is trying to make Mona wear this Christmas hat, as you can see she doesn’t like it one bit!

This year it we’ll be just the three of us for Christmas and I’m in charge of the Christmas Eve menu: I’m going to make lots of little snacks (like a tapas style dinner) and bread and cheese.
I also made sure we bulked up on yummy and nutritious foods to help me get thought the 3 weeks of studying that lay before me.

I love food shopping around Christmas time cause the shops are full of special and festive foods, today I saw so much fruit I never even heard about and don’t get me started on all the chocolate treats we came across…

 

Tomorrow I’m preparing artichoke for the first time

We got this raspberry jelly in a gift back and it’s my new addiction!

Enjoy Christmas Eve!
Love, M. 

The Wrath of a Kitten

She might look cute, that little fur ball of ours,
But trust me, you don’t won’t to get on her bad side!

This pillow did something to offend her, and look what happened to him

Of course the kitten plays innocent and claims she had nothing to do with it.

‘But look at me, I’m cute, I’m wearing a ribbon, I wouldn’t hurt a fly’

Of course we all know better, above mentioned pillow was last seen unharmed last night while kitten was fast a sleep and cuddling it. Love and hate people, two sides of the same coin.
Also, the kitten hunts down flies for fun, you can’t trust someone that can bribe you by purring and nuzzling.

She might look cute, but take a look at those claws!

And watch your back, you never know where she has set up her next ambush.

‘Don’t take pictures of me, I’m pretending to be invisible and am planning on jumping at your legs and scaring hell out of you later’

Side note: no pillows were intentionally hurt in the making of this post 😉

Love, M.