My Green October - Day 18

Arooo little wolflings! (It was a howl, okay? We all like to howl don't we?) 
My vegetarian month is still going strong! I'm feeling healthier than ever and cooking is soo much fun because there are still tons of recipes that I want to try out before the month goes to an end. And believe it or not, right now I'm seriously considering to remain a vegetarian until Christmas (!). We'll see about that further on, I guess, but here comes a delicious lentil-soup recipe that I came up with on my own the other day. It was SO delicious that I just have to share it with you:

Red lentil and curry soup
approx. 3 dl red lentils
olive oil
1/2  bell pepper (I used an orange one because it's the best colour <3)
about 10 cherry tomatoes
2 potatoes
onion (I used one yellow and one red)
garlic (to your liking, I like LOTS of garlic)
1 carrot
1/2 red chili
turnip (cut off a piece the size of a medium potato)
1 parsnip
2 stock cubes
2 msk tomato purée
Red curry paste (to your liking)
water

paprika powder
black pepper
nutmeg
1 dl fresh herbs (I used basil and parsley)
natural yoghurt
optional: some alfalfa sprouts

Dice up the bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, potatoes, onions, carrot, red chili, garlic, turnip and parsnip into tiny little pieces. Put your pot on the stove and turn on the heat, add olive oil, tomato purée and the red curry paste and let this stir a little. Add the lentils and everything you chopped and fry this carefully until everything has become a little softer but not coloured. Then add water so that it can start to cook and put the lid on. Now let this cook until the lentils are all breaking apart and everything else is soft enough for your liking, you might have to add water once in a while. I wanted my soup really thick and almost smooth, so I turned the heat down to medium and let it cook for about 40 minutes so that the soup was as smooth as in the picture but still with some chunks left. Add paprika powder, black pepper and nutmeg and remember to taste it so that it's not too strong or mild, and your soup is ready! I sprinkled some fresh basil and parsley on top before serving and then I served it with natural yoghurt and alfalfa sprouts on top and pita bread by the side. Best soup I ever made, I promise, so you have to give it a try! 

My Green October : Day 3

Hi again everyone!

For my third day of my healthy and green month eating only vegetarian and vegan dishes, I wanted to tell you a little about sprouting! I have seriously no green fingers whatsoever (in other words: all flowers I touch dies. It's a fact. That's why cactuses and I are the best of friends as long as they keep their spikes out of my fingers...) but sprouting in glass jars is actually super easy! I decided to sprout some alfalfa seeds and mung beans this time, because they are easy and full of proteins and energy. There are tons of instructions online, but I'll focus on the mung beans and here goes the general idea:

Sprouting Greens

Rinse 1 dl dry mung beans in water and put them in a 1 l glass jar and cover them with water. Let them stay there for 8-12 hours preferably while you sleep or occupy yourself with other things. Then pour the water out, rinse the beans and  place a cloth over the jar. There are really cool jars that are made for sprouting, but I only use a large glass jar, a hair elastic and a kitchen towel and it works just as fine. Then you rinse the beans 2-3 times a day for about 4 days and put the jar upside down in between so that the water can fully run out. I like to place the jar in a dark room or a cabinet, since the sprouting goes faster then. The last day when you think the sprouts are big enough you put them in the sunlight for a few hours so they get nice and green! They last for about 4-5 days in the fridge but make sure to rinse them under cool water before eating them. Easy peasy! Oh, and make sure to shake the jar when you rinse the beans, so that you can discover if there's become any mould in there, you can tell if the sprouts smell all funny or disgusting. Some sprouts can look almost "furry", but that is not mould but the way some beans grow. It's all in Mother Nature's hands, so most of the time sprouting works just fine but you might have to be prepared that it won't turn out perfect all the times. Good luck!

My Green October - Day 1

Good morning wolflings!

Today I woke up to a sunny and actually quite warm autumn day, and I love it! I didn't sleep all that good tonight though so I'm really tired, but after my amazing breakfast I actually feel much better. So to start off my green and healthy month I made this yummy breakfast consisting of a green apple & spinach smoothie, seed crackers with cottage cheese and cherry tomatoes and a glass of water and apple cider vinegar. Yum! Doesn't the smoothie have like the coolest colours ever? It was a little tart, but I liked it anyway! The recipe for the smoothie I actually borrowed from the sweet A Beautiful Mess-blog and you can find the recipe in all over here. Basically it contains green apples, spinach, ice cubes, lime, fresh mint leaves, turkish yoghurt and some coconut milk, mixed into two different layers. And for the seed crackers I went with my mum's recipe (thanks mami! <3) which goes as follows:

Seed Crackers

2 dl linsseeds
1,5 dl sesame seeds
1 dl pumpkin seeds
1 dl roasted sunflower seeds
Water
Salt

Mix all the seeds and a little salt in a bowl and add water so that it covers the mixture. Put it in the fridge for about 6 hour or over the night so that the mixture becomes sticky. Turn the oven on and put it on 150 * C. Pour the mixture on a baking tray covered with a baking sheet and try to smooth it out evenly. Bake it in the middle of the oven with the oven door closed. After 1 hour you turn down the heat to 100 * C and bake it for 1 hour more, but open the oven door every 15 minutes to release the moist. Then turn off the heat and let the cracker cool off while the oven door is open. The cracker should be crisp and dry when you break it into pieces. Enjoy!

Autumn magic & My Green October

Good evening my little wolfpack!

October is soon upon us, and being my favourite month of all I just can't tell you how excited I am! October brings pretty much the best of everything; cozy fall evenings, rain, fire coloured leaves, pumpkin-flavoured-everything, Samhain/Halloween (best day of the year!), children playing trick or treat, spooky-themed cakes and food, long forest walks, books and tea. Autumn is my favourite season because I always feel so alive when all the leaves turn bright orange and the mornings are all misty and the air is crisp. This autumn I have way too many projects going on but I love it! My first project I'll tell you about is... My Green October! I have decided to go strictly vegetarian (and a few days vegan) during the entire month, starting tomorrow morning. I have made a strict food and workout schedule which includes lots of healthy and yummy recipes that I will follow for 31 days to become a happier, healthier and cleaner version of myself, all set during my favourite time of the year. Sounds good, doesn't it? I will post the first six days of my meal plan tomorrow morning, and I do hope you're with me! This will be the best month ever! 

Ps. The pictures and their sources are all listed on my pinterest which you can find over here.