Creamy One Pot Pasta cheese and spinach – all in one pot

One Pot Pasta as a symbol for my life It’s magical! You don’t have to bother with boiling pasta in a separate pot. You’re looking at a lot less clean-up? Try out this one pot pasta and you will see it’s so easy. This recipe idea comes from Martha Steward – an american business woman. … Weiterlesen

Blog Carnival #healthyfastfood4

Let’s celebrate Blog Carnival! When you are a Blogger you know the feeling to work almost alone behind the camera. You enjoy your creativity while doing a photo session and have fun with editing your pictures on the computer. But sometimes it can be a really lonely process. That’s the main reason we are all active in social media. We want to share our love, our passion of food and tell others about our experiences, our stories. I think most of the people who read this agree on that point.

I want to create an event where we all participate together. To get connected and to share our same passion.
The passion of creating healthy food, taking food pictures and sharing recipes as well as tricks and tips for a healthy diet.

I invite you to join this #healthyfastfood4 Event (from 3rd September until 30th September) and benefit from our wonderful healthy food community.

Eggplant Feta Sandwich nab2 (5)

Because we ALL LOVE HEALTHY FAST FOOD I decided to use this topic. I really love to enjoy a cold beer together with roasted sweet potatoes with guacamole, quesadillas, sandwiches, tacos or vegetarian and vegan burger! You feel the same? Join now! By the way. I will publish the recipe for the Eggplant Gyros Pita in the picture next week.

By the way. I will publish my current FAVORITE blog post as from today in every single blog post at the end of each post to share the amazing work from my Blogger collegues. There are so many lovely souls out there you need to discover as well.

Chickpea Burger nab (3)


What is a Blog Carnival?

A Blog Carnival is a „virtual party“ where blogger share their blog post with a special topic. The organizer (me) collects all posts and publish them on a fixed date on his blog with a feedback.

Who can participate?

Every blogger with an own blog can join this event. The organizer will proof the participants of authenticity and decide to approve or not. The blog post needs to fit to the topic and it need to have a suitable quality. If the participant isn’t approved by me I will inform you.

Share the Love

Feel free to publish the participant list as well on your blog and / or social media on the 1st October or later to share the healthy fast food love.

1-Sandwich with Red Beet Hummus (12)

Procedure

• Create and publish an own blog post with a healthy fast food recipe until the 30th September
• Include this Link http://nutsandblueberries.com/blog-carnival/ in your post to inform your readers about the Blog Carnival #healthyfastfood4
• The recipe needs to be free from meat and fish (vegetarian or vegan)
• The recipe is healthy and nearly free from any convenience ingredients
• Publish your blog post link in the comments under this post (I will add your link to the Blog Carnival)
• Optional: Write me an e-mail with your Link post@nutsandblueberries.com
• Promote the Blog Carnival #healthyfastfood4 on your social media in advance to join more participants and make the events more interesting for readers
• Use #healthyfastfood4 to tag your recipe on Instagram
• I will publish all participants on my blog and Instagram @nutsandblueberries on 1st October

Can’t wait to see you creations my friend! Happy healthy fast food cooking!

20160828 Eggplant Pita Carnival 1 (1 von 1)


FAVORITES OF THE WEEK

These Matcha Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwiches (Vegan + GF) from Sophie are really mouthwatering and such a great idea to end up summer.

What a great idea from Tieghan to freeze smoothie ingredients to have them on hand when you need them: Freezer Smoothie Pack 6

I was inspired by Dr. Danielle Dowling article about How To Get Vulnerable & Learn To Share Your Inner Truth.


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Muesli and Granola as a simply, fast and healthy breakfast version

Muesli is one of the best healthy Breakfast ideas ever! As you maybe read in one of my previous posts about „Dietary Change for a better wellbeing“. I publsihed the tip to make your own muesli to avoid unhealthy additives. I’m sure not everybody loves to spend a lot of time in the kitchen especially in the morning. As a result of this I like to inform more about muesli and granola as a simply, fast and healthy breakfast version.

A few years ago I started to buy my ready muesli in the supermarket. I don’t know that is wasn’t that healthy I thought. All the hidden unhealthy additives like industrial sugar or sweetened dried fruits wasn’t clearly evident for me. Especially sugar is used in thousands of supposed healthy products you can’t clearly realize by reading the ingredients. There are some titles you can recognize sugar. For example glucose or sucrose. If you like to learn more read this article: Refined Sugar – The Sweetest poison of All…

Muesli is definitely a perfect base to have a healthy breakfast. As I can see in my food community muesli is used really often as a base. Mixed up with everything you like it’s totally flexible. Muesli makes full for longer because of the cereals and roughage.

I prefer walnuts and sunflower seeds in my muesli while my husband loves coconut chips and apple. He use the 3,8% organic dairy milk and I use plant based milk like hemp milk or my self-made walnut milk. I only use natural sweetener for my muesli like dates, apples, bananas or sometimes honey. The best is to top your muesli with a good and crunchy granola like my Coconut Granola with dried flowers

Granola – What is that?

Granola is a little bit different to muesli because it is baked until the ingredients form crunchy clusters. Granola contains dried fruits, healthy oils and liquid sweetener. It is only used for topping mueslis or smoothies. It is really difficult to find high quality granola in the store. I only found this one which is really good. Sure it is a bit expensive but high qualified as well: Lizis Granola.

Beside my Coconut Granola I love this Crispy Granola version from my friend  Heike @tastyasheck. As agreed with Heike I’m so happy to publish it here on my Blog. Heike is one of my absolutely favorite inspirations. She takes care of a fair food use and her Food Photography is always colorful and makes me smiling. You can see more from her work here:  Heike @tastyasheck

Thank you so much Heike for this stunning recipe!

1-Heike (2) 1-Heike (1)

RECIPE
CRISPY GRANOLA from Heike @tastyasheck

Ingredients

1 cup quinoaflakes
1 cup glutenfree oats
1 cup buckwheat (sprouted if you like)
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup pumpkinseeds
2 ripe bananas
1 tsp vanilla powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup coconut oil @royalgreen2008
2 tbsp nutbutter or coconutbutter or tahini
3/4 cup coconut flakes

Optional
dried berries like green raisins, mulberries, gojiberries or cacao nibs

1-Muesli and Granola (1)

Preparation

  1. Preheat the oven on 170°C/335°F
  2. Line a baking tray with 2 baking sheet, overlapping the tray on every side.
  3. Mash the bananas until soft
  4. Add the melted oil, vanilla powder plus the melted butter (melt over a water bath) and mix well
  5. In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients except coconut chips and dried fruits
  6. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and incorporate with a spatula
  7. Press evenly on the baking tray
  8. After 10 min. remove from the oven and flip over
  9. Place back in the oven for another 10min
  10.  Repeat as before and place back for 5 -10 min depending you oven, before it starts to smell fragrant
  11. Remove and add the coconut chips and toast for another 5min
  12.  Remove and let cool down completely
  13. optional: add 1/2 cup of dried berries/cacao nibs and store in a airtight container for up 2 weeks or in the freezer for up to 2 months (no need to defrost before…)

1-Muesli and Granola (3)

Here you find my personal tips for making a good muesli:

• 1/3 Cereals and Nuts
• 1/3 fresh fruits
• 1/3 Yoghurt, Dairy Milk or plant-based Milk
• Dried fruits like dates as a natural sweetener
• Crunchy ingredients like Granola
• Soft ingredients like fruits
• Use a happy and nice bowl you like to serve
• Cut the fruits in bite-size
• Try out and write down your favorite combination
• Mix your muesli in advance to reduce stress

Have Fun and enjoy!

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Dietary Change for a better wellbeing

Dietary Change. I feel a lot of uncertainty in our society when I talk about diet. A lot of people don’t be sensible of the danger based of a wrong diet. They need to know how they can optimize their own wellbeing by changing to a healthy diet. My own experience and research confirm my feeling about the industry lie. Most of the people trust the manufacturer and marketing and eat lots of food which are seemingly healthy. They don’t know that most of the food they eat aren’t healthy.

Do you answer one of the following questions with YES?

You want to raise your wellbeing?
You like to get better skin?
You like to have strong nails and shiny hair?
You like to have dense tissue?
You like to sleep the whole night?
You like to reduce indigestion?
Or only feel better, fitter and livelier?

Then you can continue reading.

1. Dietary Change begins in your head!

Dietary Change

No Win without effort

The human is a creature of habit. We are living in our own comfort zone. If we like to change something in our life it isn’t easy. But it is easier when we accept. It is very important to accept the changing to implement something new in your life durable. A new and more healthy diet requires more organization and you need to think about how to find this time in your life.

Think in small steps

Have you ever been tried to inform yourself about a healthy diet? Maybe you feel overwhelmed and don’t know where to start. You are not alone. A dietary change need time. It’s a durable process. Be relaxed and don’t set to ambitiously goals. Everybody has another reason to change the diet. What’s yours? When you know what’s your reason you can start with some steps which fits perfect to your Vision.

Be honest with you 

I think the biggest point is to be honest. Sometimes we do not know about the unhealthy food we eat but sometimes we know it and we beautify the facts. It’s totally ok when we eat something which is not healthy but it isn’t ok when you tell yourself it IS HEALTHY. For example: When I eat unhealthy fatty French fries I can tell myself: “These French fries are not that unhealthy because they are made from potatoes!”. But that’s a lie. I tell myself: “I want to eat these unhealthy French fries although I know they are really unhealthy!”. In this case I can enjoy my French Fries but I won’t eat them very often. Haha.

2. Analyze: What / When / Where do you eat?

Be aware

I’m sure you tried to change your diet in the past but you haven’t changed it in that way you really want? Have you asked yourself why you failed? Have you asked yourself what you eat in a day and what’s healthy and what not? First you need to analyze your diet and understand what’s wrong with it. My tip is to make a quick mental calculation what you eat in a day. In this way you find a first point you can change. I’m sure there is something you are satisfied with you don’t need to change. But there are some point you are unsatisfied. Begin with snacks or meals you are really really unsatisfied with and search for a healthy Option.

Understand what you eat

Do you know what you eat? Do you know what is healthy and what not? I’m sure there are a lot of food ingredients you think they are healthy but they aren’t. I made my own experience in that case and recognized that the food industry is more interested in making money than in your health. You need to act in your own responsibility. You will have more success and more fun when you know exactly what you eat. Find time to learn about the food you eat.

Feelings and eating behaviours

We are emotional souls full of different feelings. Our eating behaviours are depending with our feelings we have. If you are nervous and angry you will not think about your diet very well. You will eat uncontrolled and often unhealthy because your diet isn’t important in that moment. When you feel good and happy you will think about more because you like to be kind to yourself. You need to discover yourself and your eating behaviours. First when you know your eating behaviors you can counteract. You can carry some healthy snacks with you during your busy work to have something healthy on hand when you need something and when you are stressed. Otherwise you will pick up the best food you find and that isn’t really healthy most of the times. And there are so many healthy Food idea out there. For example Jessie’s Roasted Blueberry Ice Cream & Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookie Sandwiches.

3. Dietary Change Step-by-Step

Avoid radical Dietary Change

I’m often full of enthusiasm when I’m confident of something new. I put all my time in my new project and recognized I worked too hard very often. I learned to avoid stress and think first before approach new projects. Please don’t be too enthusiastic – even less when the project is Dietary Change. Growing on your own experiences and foil is much more effective than act before thinking.

Match your diet to your life

Think about your Dietary Change. Be honest to yourself and asked yourself if your plans are really realistic. You need meals and food which you can integrate in your daily life. For example: You like to bake your bread by yourself in the future. But is that possible? Are you able to bake it 3 times a week? For me it wasn’t. So my solution was to find a trustful store who sell healthy bread. Instead of baking my own bread I spend lots of time in my kitchen in the morning to prepare my breakfast variations. This point is more important for me. As you can see you can’t do ALL THESE amazing things in the kitchen when you have another real life. You need to set priorities.

Start with ONE change ONLY

Sense of achievements are the base for a permanent motivation. And you need motivation to learn all that stuff to live more healthy. When I think about my last years I learned a lot and I’m still learning what is good for me and what not. Dietary change is a process and you need to learn it slow and step by step to integrate new food and meals in your day. Best decision is to start with only one thing you like to change. And then change and listen to your body if you feel good or not. Some food which is really healthy mustn’t be healthy for you. I can’t eat lots of raw vegetables for example. I prefer to cook them or make a smoothie. Some other people feel really good by eating raw vegetables. Find your own way!

Here are some idea to start with:

Müsli

Replace your muesli with a healthy muesli. Look at the Package label to make sure there are no unhealthy additives in it. And avoid sugar in your muesli. Best is to make your own version. Use seed, nuts, oats and fresh fruits and top with milk. You can use dates as a sweetener. You can also buy good quality musli in an organic store but it’s much more expensive than a self-made version.

Bread

Dietary Change

Do you love bread? Make sure you use full-value bread and no bread made from superfine flour. The difference is the health value of the bread you eat. You will get full for longer when you use full-value bread. You make sure you don’t get hungry to fast because in this case the risk is higher to eat uncontrolled and unhealthy.

Meat

A great way to implement more healthy food in your diet is to reduce meat and sausage. It isn’t necessary to avoid is completely if you don’t like to avoid it. But try to reduce and replace. You can eat some organic cheese or a vegan / vegetarian spread instead. In my optinion the best waay is to live without meat and sausages because I made my own experience with the changing. Since I don’t eat animals I implement much more fruits, vegetables and legumes in my diet and I feel much more better. If you need to know more about the benefits of a plant-based diet read this book: China Studys

Milk

Who reads my Blog Post about dairy milk vs nut milk? After my change I feel much more better. I feel more in order and I don’t feel bad in my stomach. I’m not lactose-intolerant but I feel dairy products aren’t really good for my body. This is one more opportunity to eat / drink more healthy. If you buy nutmilk take care of the ingredients because they are often additives inside which are not healthy. I make my own or buy it in an organic store. You can create so many special Drinks with nut milk. Like this Black Sesame Latte from Sophie.

Eat not to late

Another idea is to eat not too late. The human has some habits and they can be change if you want to change it. It isn’t really a problem to change habits. You only need to be patient. I learned to eat not too late to help my body to process during the night. It also encourage your metabolism.

Don’t wait! Start now with your Dietary Change!

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