Lovely by Lucy

24/07/2011 |

>Lovely Salads

In summertime, I eat a lot of salads. They are light, fresh, and help you fit into that amazing summer bikini. There are about thousands of food combinations to make salads with, but you do have to have a little bit of inspiration when standing in the supermarket. And of course, some salads take a lot of time and effort to make, while some salads are very easy. I like to make simple, easy salads on days when it’s just too hot to make too much of an effort. Here are some ideas for days when you don’t have a lot of time, but do want to eat something good, healthy and delicious of course.

Rocket salad with peach and feta cheese

There’s really no recipe to this, just take some rocket, a peach, and some feta cheese, mix it, and dress with a bit of vinaigrette or just olive oil and salt and pepper. Sprinkling the juice of half a lemon on top is very tasty too. It’s such a good combination. You can add some cucumber or green beans if you want more vegetables, but I like the simplicity of this salad. The peach makes it really fresh.

Smoked chicken and garden pea salad

This salad is so healthy, but so delicious. Cook some garden peas for about 5 minutes. Mix the peas with some spinach leaves, slices of smoked chicken and a bit of basil. The recipe I found tells you to crumble some blue cheese on top, but since I’m not a big fan of blue cheese, I don’t. Dress your salad with a simple vinaigrette with mustard. Ceasar dressing works too.

Roasted pumpkin salad

I love eating pumpkin, but a lot of people only eat it during fall and winter. However, this salad is very light and a good way to eat healthy pumpkin in summer!

Sprinkle some olive oil, thyme and salt an pepper over the sliced pumpkin, and roast it in the oven at about 200 degrees. Toast some almonds in a dry pan. Mix some rocket, the roasted pumpkin and the almond and sprinkle olive oil and balsamic vinegar on top. As simple as that!

Really Simple Salad.

This is a very basic salad, but I just absolutely love it, also as a side dish. Shave cucumber into slices, mix with spinach or salad leaves. Make your own croutons by cutting your old bread into slices and sprinkling it with garlic olive oil (garlic butter is nice too), and put it into the oven or fry in a pan until golden brown. Add a boiled egg, or a poached egg if you’re in a fancy mood, and dress with a mustard vinaigrette or just olive oil and vinegar. Don’t forget the pepper and salt.

Easy but so simple! Have it for lunch!

Avocado Caprese with Chilli

It doesn’t get any simpler than this. Who doesn’t love a good caprese salad? Add a little spice to it by making it with avocado and chilli. Slice tomatoes, mozzarella (please use buffalo mozzarella, it’s sooo much better and cheap versions of mozzarella taste like plastic) and an avocado. Sprinkle with shredded basil leaves, olive oil, salt and pepper and chilli to taste. So fresh!

Green bean, bacon and herb salad

This salad is very healthy and fills you up for a while, so good when you’re planning to party all night! Fry the bacon until crispy. Cook the green beans for as long as the package tells you to. Mix the beans and the bacon with quite a few leaves of basil, mint and coriander. Make a dressing out of lime juice (from 2 small limes) and 3 tablespoons of honey, and salt and pepper. So many flavors in your mouth!

6 Comments

17/07/2011 |

>Breakfast Idea: Eggs in a cup

Here’s a good idea to make something great out of something simple. Toast, eggs, and bacon. Sounds like a pretty simple breakfast, right? But there’s a way too make this simple breakfast into a very special one!

Use a baking tray for muffins, or other cups that can go into the oven.

Lightly butter the cups so your toast won’t stick to the sides.

Press a slice of toast into each cup, and remove the bits of the toast sticking out of the cup, so that the bread comes up to the edge of the cup. Brush the bread with a little bit of butter again.

Preheat oven to 190 degrees (Celsius).

Crack an egg into each cup, and season with salt and pepper.

Cook in the oven until the egg whites are set, for about 20 minutes.

You can put the bacon on top of the tray in the oven during the last 10 minutes, to make it crisp, or you can bake it separately in a frying pan, whatever you want.

Makes a simple breakfast suitable for a romantic breakfast in bed!

www.marthastewart.com

2 Comments

13/07/2011 |

>Love: Frozen Yoghurt

I just looooove frozen yoghurt. Unfortunately (or fortunately of course), there are only a few places in the Netherlands where you can get the real deal: Frozz. Located in five places in Amsterdam, it sells healthy frozen yoghurt with all the lovely toppings you can think of. Last weekend, I went to Frozz in Hartenstraat Amsterdam. Whenever I’m in that city, I just have to get a frozen yoghurt. It might actually be my absolute favorite spot in the Jordaan. Frozz, please open an establishment in Arnhem!

1 Comment

08/07/2011 |

Healthy Fridaynight Snacks

Here’s some tips for healthy fridaynight snacks.

I love to eat, and I wish I could eat ice cream, crackers with french cheese and chocolate everyday without gaining a gram, but like many of us, I can’t. Still, I can’t do without a little bit of snacking every now and then. So here are some healthier options on which you can chew without feeling guilty. Most of them are actually really healthy!

Pistachios

Pistachios are a good nut-option. Everybody knows that nuts are really healthy because of the good unsaturated fats and vitamins and minerals in it. I really like eating nuts, but because they are relatively heavy (compared to, say, potato crisps), if you eat two handfulls you’ve already eaten a lot of calories. The great thing about pistachios is that you will have to peel them first, which takes a while, and they are very small. So you’ll take longer eating them (and enjoy them for longer!).

Hummus

Not everybody loves hummus. I do. It’s made of mashed chickpeas with cumin, olive oil, lemon juice and some seasoning (really easy to make yourself). Chickpeas are really healthy, they contain a lot of protein and vitamins. You can buy pretty good ones at the supermarket. I love to eat hummus with vegetables, just dip raw carrot or cucumber sticks in it. But it’s also really tasty if you toast some pita bread with a little bit of olive oil and sea salt in the oven and than dip it in hummus. Whatever you like!

Popcorn

Popcorn is actually a really healthy snack – if you choose the right one. If you buy salty microwave popcorn that you pop yourself, the only thing added to it is salt. It doesn’t contain a lot of fat, but it does contain a lot of anti-oxidants! Who would have thought a snack like this would actually be good for you?

Dark Chocolate

Since there has been so many information about the health benefits of dark chocolate, it seems like this is the perfect snack when you crave something sweet. It contains a lot of antioxidants which can lower your blood pressure and your risk for heart diseases. We all want something sweet every once in a while, and who doesn’t love chocolate? Provided you don’t eat two bars at a time, dark chocolate is definitely a tasty and healthy snack!

What are your favorite fridaynight snacks?

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03/07/2011 |

Sunday Breakfast: French Toast with Blueberries

To me, this is the perfect sunday breakfast. Sometimes you just have to enjoy and indulge, and what better way to do that than with this yummy french toast with blueberries?

Ok, the best way would be to have your boyfriend prepare it for you and serve in your bed, but they’re really easy to make and don’t take long at all so doing it yourself should be great too. So here’s my recipe for french toast for two (which some of you might know as ‘wentelteefjes’). Enjoy!

4 slices of bread (it’s best to use old bread)

1 egg

150 ml milk

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 pack of vanilla sugar

some butter

blueberries (as many as you like)

Put the egg, milk and cinnamon into a bowl and beat it slightly until mixed.

Melt some butter into a pan.

Dip the bread shortly into the egg/milk mixture, each side.

Put the bread into the pan and bake it (make sure your temperature isn’t too high)

for a few minutes until golden brown. Turn them and bake the other side.

And that’s how easy it is to make french toast!

Put them onto a plate, serve it with a little bit of vanilla sugar and blueberries.

Do you really want to make it a dream-breakfast? Add some whipped cream!

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01/07/2011 |

Healthy Banana Milkshake

Here’s my recipe for a healthy banana milkshake, that tastes even better than the ones you buy at fastfood restaurants, and just as thick even though you don’t use ice cream!

Whenever you buy a milkshake at a fastfood restaurant, it will be full of sugar and fat from the ice cream it’s made with. I like my version a lot better than those unhealthy ones, because this one tastes like real bananas (oh, you thought they actually put a banana in your banana milkshake at MacDonalds? Ehm, no..) and it’s much healthier but just as thick and yummy!

What you need (for two people):

One big banana (or two small ones)

100 ml milk

400 ml of low fat soft curd cheese (magere kwark)

a little bit of honey, if you like.

Just put everything in the blender and blend!
After that, put it in the freezer for a few minutes. This isn’t necessary but it makes your milkshake taste more like a ‘real’ milkshake.

This milkshake contains a lot of protein so it will fill you up for a while!

For an extra anti-oxidant boost, sprinkle a few crushed walnuts on top.