Vegan Chili con carne

I want to share with you my favourite recipe for a vegan Chili con (senza in fact) carne. It is so delicious and contains a lot of legumes and beans.... Which means -> Proteins, proteins and proteins :P and they are very high in iron, which is important especially for people who live vegetarian or vegan.

Vegan Chili con carne

~ 2 persons

Ingredients:

- 300g cooked kidney beans
- 200g onions
- 100g puy lentils (Berglinsen)
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon paprika powder
- 250g corn
- 700g tomato sauce ("Passata")
- 200g paprika
- some rice syrup or honey for sweetness
- olive oil, garlic, chili powder, salt, pepper, cumin

Directions:

Start with putting the chopped onions in hot olive oil. Then add all the other ingredients, but be aware that the lentils need about 15-20 min cooking in the tomate sauce to get ready. Season until you have your preferred taste. :)


Enjoy! 

Do-it-yourself nut milk

Good morning out there!

Today I want to share with you my favourite recipe for homemade nut milk. Although I am not vegan and consume cheese, yoghurt etc., I am definitely not a huge fan of dairy products. I don’t want to explain this in detail right now, but you can inform yourself by e.g. reading the China Study or on several vegan homepages on the internet (always check the source and how reliable it is).

What I really dislike is the taste of milk especially in my breakfast oat meal/cereals. Of course there are many alternatives you can buy in any supermarket e.g. soy milk, oat milk, rice milk, but most of them contain artificial flavors, fillers, salt and preservatives.

And for this reason I try to make my own non-dairy milk as often as I can. Sometimes I just don’t have any time for that and like to enjoy “rice-coconut milk” by Provamel.

So let’s come to the recipe, you can exchange the cashews also for almonds, oats, hemp, coconut etc.

Cashew milk

Ingredients:

- 1 cup cashews

- 2 cups of water

- vanilla, cinnamon

- 4 medjool pitted dates

- mixer (I use a “Stabmixer”)

- a nutbag, cheesecloth or “Wäschenetz”

Directions:

1. Some people have problems with digesting raw nuts, so if you count to one of those let your nuts soak about 2 hours and remove the water after that time. I use them raw without soaking.
   
   
2.  Put your nuts, dates and fresh water in your mixer and mix until you have a white liquid.
   
   
3.  Pour the milk through a nutbag or cheesecloth or something like that to remove the nut left-overs otherwise you will have some small nut pieces in your milk.
   
   
4.  Flavor with vanilla powder and cinnamon as much as you like. You can also add a Chai spice blend if you want more “oriental” taste.
   
   
5.  Store in a glass bottle in the fridge up to 3-4 days.

Maybe you have to get used to the taste as it differs a lot from dairy milk. But you can make anything out of your selfmade nutmilk e.g. mango smoothies, banana shakes… Just explore what you like and what kind of taste you like the most.

Last tip from me: If you want to make your own milk regularly I recommend buying a gadget called “Veggiefino”. You don’t have to pour your milk through a nutbag/cheesecloth, because the net is already built in and that makes it more practical.

Have a nice day and let’s drink some cashew milk :D

back to basics...

Hey guys!
Sorry for not posting anything in the last weeks, but I was very busy on my vacation ;)

My boyfriend and I went to Dubai for one week and it was simply amazing!! We had a wonderful hotel on the palm jumeirah and did a lot of funny stuff e.g. visiting the aquaventure park at hotel Atlantis (you can't believe how big this hotel actually is). And of course we also went shopping... Dubai is a shopping paradise! It has the biggest malls of the whole world and you can buy everything there.. for me the most important shop was Victoria's secret and I bought some nice stuff there :P

What I want to tell you in this post is, that I really enjoyed my holidays and this also includes that I didn't really followed my "cleaneating rules" and ate a lot of crap (especially A LOT of nutella pancakes). And guess what? It didn't changed anything on my body. I really don't want to encourage you in eating unhealthy, but I want you to understand that living a healthy lifestyle does not restrict you on your holidays or other special occasions. That means, if you have a balanced diet throughout your normal life it is completely okay to "cheat" once a while, but it is important to find back to the healthy stuff in order to provide your body with important nutrients etc. :)

Although I enjoyed my holiday and I didn't want to leave, I was so looking forward to my chia seeds, nuts, green smoothies, oat milk and so on... I even felt that my body is missing something. 

For that reason I am going to make a 5 day detox to cleanse my body from toxins and help me to get back to my normal routine. Please do not think "Oh my god! What the hell is she doing? Detox is so bad!". Most people have a really negative (and false) opinion about detox - JUSTIFIABLY! Maybe you already heard of detox tea, pills etc... completely shit in my opinion! What I am going to do, is to eat 5 days only food in their most natural state -> no processed food, no alcohol, no coffeine (I don't drink coffee anyway), no sugar, no salt... or simple "back to the basics" :P

I follow the rules by "5 day detox by Nikki Sharp" (link in references) and I am really looking forward to it, because the recipes look truly delicious. This amazing woman is an ex-international model and I really look up to her, because she does an amazing job. The guide costs about 6€ and the foods you have to buy are of course not the cheapest ones, but hey... you only have one body and it is definitely worth the effort.

So let's do this together! Pull out your credit card and invest 6€ to feel better and nourish your body & soul! :)

Love you guys <3


...and I want to share with you some of my holiday pics! (yes, it is okay to get jealous) :D



#jennydetoxchallenge5

Smoothiemania

I love smoothies! 

Nowadays smoothies are literally on everyone's lips. Why? Because they are super duper healthy, quick to make and combine different fruits and greens in one jar. There is a wide range of smoothies... for example Green Smoothies, Fruit Smoothies, Yoghurt Smoothies....

I want to share with you my favourite recipe for a Green Smoothie with some extra power in the form of "Spirulina".

My everyday breakfast

A few days ago I shared with you my favourite pancake recipe... I know that the most of us are very busy especially during the week and don't have the time to prepare and cook that kind of breakfast in the morning.

So I want to show you what I really love to eat on weekdays - it is quick & easy, extremely delicious, and packed with important nutrients! 

The "secret" for a flat belly

Hello world :)

Today I want to clarify something very important, because I don't want to be misunderstood. I am not a professional trainer or nutritionist or something like that, but I can reassure you that I am well-informed about those topics and I claim that I have enough knowledge and experience that allows me to share my recipes, fitness tips etc. with you. Apart from that I want to get clear that every body 'works' in a different way and only because it works for me doesn't mean it will work for you too. My aim is not to make generalizations, but rather to listen and get to know your body so you can identify if this is what you 'need' or not. ;)

Let's come to the interesting part... Summer is just around the corner and most of us want to get in shape for the upcoming bikini season. Unfortunately there is often one little 'problem', which is located on our belly and hips. This type of fat is very persistent and especially for women it is very hard to get rid of it. But believe me... it is definitely not a thing of impossibility.. this is also my 'biggest' challenge and it requires discipline and hard work. 

Concerning this point I have one good and one bad news. The 'bad' news is: "Abs* are made in the kitchen". What does this sentence mean? It points out that a flat belly normally comes from 70% clean diet and 30% exercise -> but once again.. this is not the 'one and only' rule! This is only an approximate value. Of course there are some people who can eat anything they like and have a flat belly (I do definitely not belong to those :P). The good news is you can support this by training your abdominal muscles with the right (!) exercises (doing only 100 sit-ups a day do not count as 'right'). It is a mix of static stabilization, dynamic & integrated stabilization and (in my opinion) weight training. 

For those who cannot imagine what this entails, I assembled a workout plan with MY favorite exercises including static, dynamic & integrated stabilization and some probably well-known where you can incorporate weights (if you want a higher challenge)

Workout for a flat belly:  

The list below is one round (6 minutes) -> do it twice with a break (12 minutes)
Make sure you do a warm up before your training and don't have any injuries etc. If those explanations are to imprecise for you just go on youtube and watch a clip like I have done it at "Russian Twists".

• Forearm Plank with lifted leg: lift your leg straight up and hold (repeat on the other side)
  30 seconds each side
  
• Thai Plank: go in a forearm Plank and bring your bent right leg to your right forearm (then the other side)
  30 seconds each side
  
• Moutain Climbers on a gymnastic ball: place your hands at the side of the ball so that you are in a plank position, than pull your bent right leg to your chest (repeat on the other side)
  30 seconds
  
• Side abdominal muscles with dumbbells: stand up straight with both feets hip width and hold a dumbbell (I use two 3,5kg dumbbells) in every hand, your arms are normally hanging down, now move your upper body slightly to the left side (your lower body is not moving) so that you feel a strain on your right abdominal muscle (repeat on the other side)
  30 seconds each side
  
• Side Plank with hip raise: go into a forearm side plank and drop your hip (sidwise) to the floor and then up again (repeat on the other side)
  30 seconds each side
  
• Leg Raises: lying flat on your back and hands underneath your coccyx bone, keep your feet together and legs straight, contract your abdominal muscles and lift your legs up until they form a 90 degree angle with your hips, down and repeat
  30 seconds
  
• Ab bikes: lying flat on your back, hands to your ears, now pull your bent right leg to your left ellbow, the other leg is straight, repeat to the other side and go a little faster!
  30 seconds
  
• Russian Twists with/without weight
  30 seconds

So whether your aim is to really have a flat belly or if you only want to do something good for your body - try this! Most of these exercises can be performed at home so you can't bring the excuse "I don't have a gym membership" :)

I have a request to you... please comment below (click on "no comments") what you think about this post and my blog! I would love to hear what I should improve or what you are interested in.. if I should bring more recipes, fitness stuff, motivation things or simply nothing :P (no just kidding.. please no rude comments). You can also comment anonymous if you don't want to give your name or something :)

Thank you and have a nice day!

* this means your abdominal muscles are apparent caused by the nonexistent fat

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Start the day right

Good morning! :)

First of all I want to give you a closer look of what kind of diet I try to conduct. I am vegetarian and part-time vegan and I attempt to eat 'clean'. So what does the word 'clean' in the context of eating stand for? Eating a clean diet means that you are consuming products/food found in their most natural state - so everything that is a 'convenience product' or has any artificial additives or comes with any ingredients you are not able to pronounce is probably not clean (of course there are some exceptions). This may sounds a bit confusing or difficult for your everyday life but actually it isn't. I admit that it takes time to understand the reasons and the background of these eating habits, though it represents that kind of diet which has been applied in former times, because all of these 'modern' products we have now, haven't been existing back then.

To make it a bit more comprehensible I will give you an example of a very delicious breakfast, which is done very fast and provides you with important nutrients to start the day right ;)

Vanilla Pancakes with Banana-Kiwi-Cashew Topping (~ 8 small pancakes)

• vegan
• glutenfree
• sugarfree
• YUMMY

for the dough:
- 200g buckwheat flour
- 280ml any non-dairy milk (I used oat milk)
- 2 tblsp baking powder
- a hint of salt
- vanilla (powder or direct from the pod)
- 50g popped Quinoa
- honey 
- Oil for the frying pan (e.g. coconut oil)

for the topping:
- bananas
- kiwi
- cashew mush
- cinnamon

You can use any other fruit you like for the topping e.g. strawberries, apples ...


Enjoy and have a great day! :)



This recipe originally comes from "Attila Hildmann - Vegan for Youth" and was modified by me ;)

My journey...

Hey guys :)

This is my first post EVER... so please be patient with me (also with my english skills ;))

First of all I want to introduce you to my 'journey'.... Since January 2014 I am constantly training to become the fittest person I am able to be. This includes living a healthy lifestyle in general as well as doing sports regularly (at least 4 times a week) and having a 'clean' diet. This may sounds a bit imprecise to you, but I will be doing my best trying to explain this principles step by step.

This picture above shows my body in Summer 2013 (left) and March 2014 (right). As you can probably see there are some differences (not much but visible) in the belly area, a bit on the hips and on my legs... and on my butt which is not in the picture ;)  At this point I want to add that I have never seen myself as fat or overweight or something like that but MY personal wish was to become fit and build lean muscles. Before I started this fitness journey I think I wasn't even able to run 5km without having a brake or nearly fainting.. This has pretty much changed now!

I am feeling more and more comfortable with my body and believe me.. if you are seeing the first results of your hard work, you will get kind of addicted to it :P (in a positive way)

My journey hasn't finished yet - not at all!! I want YOU to get curious about this and maybe you guys also want to know how far you are able to go and how hard you are willing to push yourself ;)

It's all worh it  - come on and join in ;)

xoxo