This recipe literally takes two minutes and is delicious for a Sunday brunch…which is exactly why I cooked it up yesterday?!
You need:
One slice of white brea
One egg
One slice of cheese (preferably a matured one)
One slice of good ham
Spring onions and a mushroom (I took portabello)
Then you whisk up the eggs, chop all of the other ingredients and chuck everything into a mug. Then pop it into the microwave for two minutes or until the eggs are cooked and the bread is getting crispy on top!
This weekend has been absolutely fabulous and I spent yesterday all day at the beach! Where I also managed to enjoy a lobster salad at Alexander Beach Club teamed up with some white Rueda?!
You wouldn’t think that Holland is famous for its beaches but actually they are fabulous! Even though Zandvoort is easier to access from Amsterdam, I would recommend going to Noordwijk which only around half an hour drive from Amsterdam…unfortunately yesterday though we weren’t the only ones who had that brilliant idea?☀️!
This past weekend didn’t only contain cooking sprees but also my other favorite thing restaurant hopping! I should write a comprehensive post on restaurants in Amsterdam at some point but before I get around to that I’ll pick two out of the pile I enjoyed this weekend. First I paid Café Pluk in the negen straatjes in Amsterdam a visit. The café came recommended from a friend and it’s a new organic café which is open from morning until around 6 pm in the evening. Again a fantastic place that I would definitely come back to! Apart from the yummy watermelon and feta salad I had (am I seeing a pattern with my feta;-)) they also have nice little treats you can buy for your kitchen. Definitely a place you can hang for hours at end and enjoy one of their fresh squeezed juices or smoothies.
Cafe Pluk
Watermelon and feta salad
My indulgence in dining out didn’t end there though as I trekked my way to De Wilde Zwijnen in Amsterdam Oost. I have been there before on one occasion and had a lovely dinner at the bar, but without knowing it they have now opened what we call in Sweden a back pocket (bakficka) where there is a slightly different menu and tapas oriented. My love and I enjoyed half a dozen small dishes including a delicious vegetarian tarte tartin with caramelized onions and a salad of fresh peas and sour milk vinaigrette, then we topped up with some cured meat and fish of the day which today was a fresh mackerel with tomato salsa. All dishes were delicious and teamed up with some nice wines. All in all a visit worthwhile and the tarte tartin was a particular favorite. It’s a little outside the main drags but if you take a taxi from the center you’ll be there in ten minutes which I think it’s worth!
Bar position at De Wilde Zwijnen
One new hotspot in Amsterdam is HappyHappyJoyJoy, Julius Jaspers new restaurant. It serves up various Asian dishes with influences from China, Japan, Thailand and many other countries. Clear favorite on the menu was the bao pao both with pork and duck. I didn’t try the dim sum. Only improvement area on the menu is actually highlighting spiciness on a scale from one to ten…unfortunately one or two dishes had a little extra strong kick;-). The visit to HappyHappyJoyJoy made me realize another point to that the trend of the hamburger joints is now officially I feel dead and has been replaced with the street food trend. Just look at all the TV shows popping up on this topic. If you ask me though not a bad thing the hamburger trend died (I was never a big fan of this) and the street food influence is simply fantastic!
Fun decor in HappyHappyJoyJoy
Back to work after a long lazy weekend with lots of fun and of course some home cooked deliciousness! The past weekend has really been in the spirit of R&R.
I started off Saturday with trying out a quick and healthy option of oven baking some portabello mushrooms that I filled with red onion, tomatoes, an egg and feta cheese on top. I tossed them into the oven around 15 minutes on 200 degrees which works quite well but the yolk will be fairly firm then. One thing that didn’t exactly come out the way I wanted it was actually that the portabellas releases a lot of liquid which can mix with the egg whites making them a bit runny even though they are already cooked. I definitely recommend starting the day of with these beauties and a cup of java….and the portabella really fills you up for some shopping!
For Sunday I was up early…well relatively early and cooked up some of my loves favorite banana pancakes. Easy peasy lemon squeezey, just mix half a banana, handful of oatmeal and an egg together. Fry it up on low heat, flipping the pancake once and then smother the pancake with any fruit and berry goodness you like! With the oatmeal it really proves filling breakfast…and you guessed it we also trekked off to the gym for a good Sunday workout! I’m determined to reach my goal weight in the next couple of months so the healthy cooking and working out is top priority on my list.
yummy banana pancakes
Before I let you go though I have to showcase just another couple of delicious homemade beauties: firstly my home made Moroccan chicken pie. This one does take a little bit of work but worth the result. First boil a whole chicken for an hour in a buffet of spices like turmeric, saffron, cinnamon and parsley. Once the chicken is fully boiled reduce the stock down to a couple of deciliters and stir in 8 scrambled eggs to basically make scrambled eggs with the taste of the chicken stock. Then put chicken, scrambled eggs and almonds on top in a easy filo pie and bake it off in the oven. I also kept some of the stock to top off as a sauce on top. Yummy yummy!
The other feast I whipped up was some type of Asian broth with meatballs…don’t honestly know how this one came about but I boiled up a broth made of water, fish sauce, soya sauce, lots of red peppers and ginger. Let the broth reduce while I made a few meatballs of fresh brawns and pork mince spiced with ginger, chives and salt and pepper. Then fry up the meatballs and flash boil some pak choy and some spring onions. Serve everything as a type of soup with a slice of bread on the side. Super quick work and surprisingly delicious! I already had a request on Facebook for the recipe so I hope she enjoys it. 
Happy cooking and see you soon for more recipes! PS. I did plan on becoming a chef when I finished school…and I have unhealthy levels of consumption of Masterchef so maybe the universe is trying to tell me something here;-)
This Saturdays healthy start was oven baked portabello mushrooms that I filled with red onions, tomatoes, an egg and some feta cheese on top! Yummy goodness.
I also saw my dietician yesterday for a monthly checkin and she was happy with the progress and we are well on our way to reaching my goal!! It’s been a bit of a journey but ultimately around eighteen kilos need to go. I’ve also recruited a couple of friends to join the journey so once we’ve hit our goals we will all venture to Stockholm for a girlie weekend!
Enjoy some food porn below and stay healthy and fit?
oven baked mushrooms
On one of my recent travels across the pond to NY, I had some extra time to write this post. Amongst the heavy travels it’s a well known thruth that KLM is amongst the best in the world, if not THE BEST in the world at inflight dining. A privilege of my work and heavy traveling is that I have the luxury of traveling business class. I could definitely spend a long post just discussing the joys of flying business class, however as this post is around food I’ll restrain myself from this.
On the food note, those of you who have been flying KLM as of late may have noticed that the resident chef of the past few months is Librijes Jonnie Boer. I’ve had a few airplane meals however this beats most of them!
On the flight over I started off with a type of smoke salmon roll, named “cream of smoked salmon”, followed up with a signature dish of Librije, oven baked cod in spiced juice. After this experience teamed with my previous enjoyment of the Librije inflight food I had in February flying down to Cape Town a real life visit to the famous food destination restaurant Librije is in the cards eminently…just after I squared off Beluga in Maastricht. It’s a pain to have this many lovely restaurants to visit but somebody’s got to do it;-).
If you want to check out Librije restaurant do so here
A few pictures of the dishes and the menu!!
Main course
Starter
Menu
I just had to share below beautiful picture of Zug! It’s like being in a fairyland…I think a swim in the lake is in the cards tonight!
My first health entry will be on the topic of starting a longterm healthy lifestyle as opposed to dieting. After a few years of traveling and enjoying far too many Guide Michelin stars, my weight was unfortunately soaring so I decided to seek advice from a recommended dietician, Esther hence the name of the posting:-).
So effectively my challenge was:
- I didn’t want a “fad” diet, i.e. starve myself to a good weight or go for a carb only diet or similar. With my lifestyle of at least 100-150 travel days a year I need to make the right choices as opposed to controlling my food intake to specific nutrition
- I need to lose 15kg minimum however I don’t have the luxury of taking a few months off work to do so
- I want to stay in strong physical form, although I sometimes live by the device (nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” (thank you Kate Moss), I would always prefer a good six-pack to losing another couple of kilos
So I trotted down to my dietician de jour, appreciating this may be the first day of a challenging journey however also committed to reaching my goal. After a weigh-in and a run through of the principles of the diet, I called my boyfriend and said…Saturday is the starting day. I forgot to mention my boyfriend was the one who recommended me to see her. The principles are very simple, I need to stick to a diet of around 1250 kacl every day with a varied choice of carbohydrates, fats, protein, greens and fruits. This is broken into units, so I’m keeping a log on my iPhone to take note of all the units I consume in a day. It sounds pretty simple, but I’ll be the first to admit, if you’ve been logging perhaps 1800-2000 kacl a day, a cut to 1250 is a steep change of lifestyle. Additionally to this I’ll maintain my training routine with my personal trainer, making sure I work out at least three to four times a week.
The first meeting was three months ago…and it’s been as they say one of those long roads…but I’m almost there!! Since I’ve started I’ve now lost 13 kilos and I’ve decided I have another 7 to go before I’m satisfied. Granted I said 15 kg to begin with but I think 20kg in total would just have been a step to far! I haven’t done any before or after picture yes but I’ll be sure to post it!
Last Friday I was entertaining myself with finally trying out the Outnet app. Designer shopping for less cash…does it get better thank that?!! The Outnet is the little sister of Net-a-porter. The service is excellent, delivery in two days even though they said 4-5 days delivery. The app is super easy to use and you don’t even have to register an account. Lastly of course they have free return, however I think my gorgeous pieces are staying with me! How do you like my new Current/Elliott studded jeans, Iris & Ink cropped cashmere sweater and a super easy to wear black Sandro cardigan! Bring on autumn wear!
Hi all, ”finally” home after a few days on the beach and since I still haven’t reached my target weight and it was a standstill on the scale while in Schiermonnikoog I quickly hit the kitchen and whipped up below deliciousness!
carrot and crab salad with fruits and dressing
I just mixed together:
- Blended carrots with a splash of orange juice
- One tin of crab meat
- Harissa baked stone fruits such as plums or peaches
- Yoghurt and tahini dressing
- Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top
Pure yumminess I have to admit. I came across the recipe when my sister brought the latest edition of Top Hälsa! It’s rare treat that I get my hands on some Swedish magazines so I really make sure to make the most of them when I do!!
Truly, try the recipe. It’s fab, healthy and took me literally fifteen minutes to whip together?