Roll with it

I’m currently studying over at my dad’s house and I bumped on a package of rice paper just the other day, while I was on a hunt for food in the fridge and the kitchen cabinets.

My dad does not keep any ‘real’ food in his house, I swear, it’s like a bachelor’s house! He had a cabinet full of cookies and chocolate and some mayonnaise, hot sauce and coca cola in the fridge…
well, that should make a great and nutritious dinner.

I’m so glad I asked him to do some groceries for me cause now I at least have some veggies, fruit and some rice.

So I decided to just roll with it:

Salad with cherries tomatoes,spinach and carrots.
Rice paper Spring rolls with:

One version is made with spinach, strawberries and half a peach.
The other version is made with a wild rice and quinoa mix, smokes almonds, pine nuts and dried figs.

And in case you never worked with rice paper before, have no fear: it’s super easy and quick. All you need is bowl, fill it with cold water, place the rice paper in and let it soak  for about a minute,take them out, place them on a towel and stuff them.

 

Green

Can a person become addicted to broccoli?

If possible, I think I’m addicted to broccoli.
If not possible, I still think I am addicted to broccoli!

I’ve been eating broccoli with every meal except breakfast and even managed to sneak in some broccoli in my snacks, but I did not truly fall in love with broccoli until I ate today’s lunch.

 ‘Quinoa Broccoli Bowl’
serves 2 as a main dish, 4 as a side dish

• 6 T of quinoa
• 12 T of vegetable broth
• half a can of tinned lentils
• half a medium broccoli
• 1 T of hummus
• some lemon or lime juice

Cook the quinoa in the vegetable broth: add the quinoa when the broth boils and reduce it to a simmer, let it absorb all of the liquid (it takes about 20 minutes). Cook the broccoli in boiling water for about 5 minutes. Rinse the lentils

As soon as the quinoa is done, add 1 T of hummus and stir to combine. Add the lentils and the broccoli. Sprinkle with some lemon/lime juice right before serving.

This stuff is so incredibly creamy! It reminds me of when my mum used to make broccoli in cheese sauce.

Fruit for dessert: Melon + strawberries + cottage cheese + sunshine = one happy Maxime!

Happy Monday!
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.

Running on Pink

I’ve been having the most productive week ever!
And it’s only Wednesday, so things can only get better.

So far I’ve been:

• catching up on courses I’ve been neglecting
• writing papers like my life depends on it (one of which on the development of dummy from the 16th century to now, such fun)
• rode on a bike in the city for the first time  (which was fun and scary at the same time)
• took 2 yoga classes in 2 days (vinyasa power and ashtanga)
• working on my gift for Floris (more about that later!)

My mind is on full speed, even though my body has not been really cooperating, I’ve been sporting a throat ache that is not really something serious yet but serious enough to bug the living hell out of me at night, which translates into some severe sleep deprivation.

But apparently you do not need sleep to be productive, as long as you have enough caffeine and strawberries at you disposal.

Overnight oats with coconut and strawberries to start the day of on the right foot.

Smoothie with banana, strawberries and some ice cubes to sooth the troubled throat.

Spring salad: Lamb’s lettuce with cherry tomatoes, radishes, asparagus and strawberries of course.

Today’s lunch on the go: quinoa and strawberries with an apple and cherry tomatoes on the side.

PS: there won’t be any photographs of Floris until the weekend as I’m stuck in Leuven for the week!

Love, M.

Lots of Randomness and Sweet Potato with Quinoa

I hereby already apologise for the randomness that is going to be featured in this post. I just have a lot of random facts to tell, so here it goes:

I got a haircut!
It’s kind of short now: think  Katie’s Pan Am coupe, but without all the curl, I don’t do curl. And unfortunately without the feisty red as well.

Talking about Pan Am…. I’m obsessed. It aired in Belgium a couple of weeks ago and I’m hooked, please let me be a stewardess in the Sixties as well, I want to where those cute outfits!

And talking about flying, in two weeks I’m going to be in an air plane for the first time in my life! We are going to Rome with a couple of students and professors. Gelato and pasta, watch out, here I come!

I went to visit my aunt last week and I’m amazed by the speed that baby is growing:

This is so strange, all this time  I’ve been thinking about a baby bump when I thought about the kid I’m going to be godmother of but it’s going to be a really baby soon.

I just ordered two tickets for Werchter. Daphne and I are going to go there on Saturday to see Editors, Noah and the Whale, the XX, Kasabian… jealous yet?!

And for the last random fact: I really enjoy sweet potato in combination with quinoa.

• 4 T of quinoa cooked in 9 T of soy milk, sprinkled with cinnamon
• half a sweet potato, cooked in the microwave and mashed with a bit of soy milk
• half a banana, mashed with grated coconut
• some slivered nut for the base
• some extra grated coconut for topping

Parfait style: nuts – banana – quinoa – sweet potato – quinoa – sweet potato – quinoa – grated coconut.

That’s it for the randomness for now,
enjoy your weekend,
Love M. 

Hang in there, Tiger!

Two more exams, one more week, four more days of studying, one more day of dying at an oral exam… and then I’ll be free once again!

For now I’ll just drink coffee, try to stay awake and sane, swear like a sailor (keep your kids away from me, I’m serious, I might look tiny and cute but stress and sleep deprivation do this to me)…

and eat of course!

In case you’d have some oven grilled cherry tomatoes on spare from the recipe in Thursday’s post (though I’d doubt it) I know the perfect purpose for it:

Oven Grilled Cherry Tomatoes with farfalle pasta
and sauté spinach with pine nuts

Sauté the spinach and the pine nuts in a skilled on high heat in some olive oil while the pasta is cooking. When the pasta is done, add it together with the cherry tomatoes in the skillet. Sprinkle some olive oil on top right before serving.

Another highlight:

The best breakfast I had this week: Pur Natur blueberry yoghurt with quinoa cooked in soymilk, walnuts, flax seeds and rice flakes.

And the best part of this week: Monday it’s Daphne’s birthday and I’m going to try a new chocolate cake recipe to celebrate it.

Love,M.

 

Ginger and Pear

Working with leftovers sometimes makes you come up with amazing combinations, here’s what I threw together yesterday evening as a quick snack, it would be amazing for breakfast too!

‘Quinoa with Ginger and Pear’

• 4 T quinoa
• 4 T soy milk + 4 T of water
• a couple of slices of ginger
• 1/4 of a pear
• cinnamon
• honey
• some olive oil

In a small casserole put together the milk, water and ginger slices, let this mixture come to a boil. Once it boils lower the heat, add the quinoa and let is simmer for about 20 minutes.

Honey Glazed Cinnamon Pear: Slice the pear and coat them with honey. Sauté them in some olive oil in a skillet, add some cinnamon once you’ve put them in the skillet.

This pear is also great in oatmeal or on ice cream!

Make sure to take the pieces of ginger out of the quinoa before serving, I forgot to do that and got a huge chunk of ginger with my first bite, intense flavour is an understatement in this case!

Love, M.

 

Crazy Dinner on the Go : Episode 2

There is no way on earth you will ever guess what I had for lunch today!
What did you say? Spring rolls?? Why, you’re good, how did you know?

Okay, enough with the sarcasm already, cause you really won’t be able to guess what I’ll be having for dinner.
I’ll be leaving to go to a friend’s place soon to work on our Linguistics exam and tonight I’m going to be on the train home so it’s time for another episode of crazy dinner on the go:

Thus far it looks pretty standard: apple ,crackers and a box with an undefined content (and some leftover khaki, but it’s still in the fridge for now).

Just wait till you open the box!

On the left: Greek yoghurt with spinach and kiwi (it’s a crazy dinner on the go favourite) with flax, almonds and dried berries.
On the right: quinoa cooked in soy milk.
It looks really horrible, but the flavours are great.

When I’m home tonight I’d still like to go for a run, so I hope this is enough to hold me over for some time.

Love,M. 

A New Take on Old Favourites

It seems to become a tradition to have quinoa for lunch at least once a week.

Today’s creation: a lamb’s lettuce salad with cherry tomatoes, some khaki and some canned tuna with a side of avocado -cherry tomato quinoa.

Just cook the quinoa according to package directions in some vegetable broth (ratio: 4 T quinoa, 8T broth), chop the avocado and the cherry tomatoes and stir them in when the quinoa has absorbed all of the liquid.

Look who’s getting all witty and crafty with an avocado shell 😉

For a treat I was think about a parfait.
Not a yoghurt parfait though, more in the lines of something with chocolate and petit beurre cookies, of course.

It was meant to be a parfait but the pudding didn’t agree on that part and just decided to seep through the entire thing, hence the lack of layers.

If there would have been layers, they would have looked like this:
oats – pudding – petit beurre pieces – pudding – granola – pudding – rice flakes – pudding – more petit beurre crumbs.

Now I’m not trying to get you guys hooked on petit beurre or anything (having one addict among us is hard as it is) but I have to say: If you haven’t tasted soy chocolate pudding with petit beurre crumbs yet, you haven’t lived!

Just saying!

Love, M.

Breakfast Top Three

Some of the better breakfasts that got consumed these past couple of weeks:

1. Gingerbread Oats

Oats prepared on the stove top with cinnamon and nutmeg, topped with the newest peanut butter discovery from Davinia , melted of course, and half of a ginger bread cookie.

2. Quinoa Porridge

Quinoa porridge with half a banana and a few strawberries, topped with a teaspoon of strawberry jelly and a handful of granola.
Almost just as good as the tropical quinoa porridge from a couple of weeks ago.

3. Oats in a jar

First time ever I tried this: oats with soy milk and cinnamon, heated in the microwave in a not-so-empty peanut butter jar. Topped with dried berries , sunflower seeds and another splash of almond milk.

Another novelty that rocked my world breakfast-wise: crumble (half) a petit beurre cookie in the porridge and stir it through right before eating it (works with oats as well as with quinoa).

Love, M.