The past few weeks I’ve really focussen on some home cooking. When the weather goes from summer to a chill in the air, the cast iron comes out and the long cooking commences. Last weekend I cooked up both a simple stew that simmered for four hours and a chicken stew which was a bit of a play on a coq au vin. The beef stew is effectively chuck some cuts of meat in a cast iron pan, fry the off with some onions and whatever herbs you fancy. Perhaps add some tomatoes and carrots or peppers! Boil away at a low heat?
the picture may mot be too pretty but the flavoue was amazing!!
I also managed to cook up my regular banana pancakes to my loves delight!
banana pancakes and the morning newspaper on a Sunday, best start of the day
This week I’ve actually taken off work which doesn’t happen to often (and I still worked a little bit the first two days) so I want to get back on track withy diet. I haven’t really been off track, I’ve rather felt my body has decided at this point that losing 15kg was more than enough! I went to see Esther yesterday and she told me to focus for now on maintaining and perhaps in the next month we can break those final 5kgs I have to reach my goal!!
I went to fix my nails the other day and because the days have been getting shorter and there’s a chill in the air I opted for a lush Opi Christmas color…oh and I also got matching pedicure!! The small blisses of life.
Finally my regular nail technician was also back from vacation so all is well in the world?! She’s really fantastic and does a lot of the sculpting by hand without any machine which really leaves the final result with a very natural look and not as thick as acrylics can generally get.
On the beauylist I also just heard from a friend that Hotel Diplomat in stockholm has opened a blow at…and as a surprise I’m heading over there soon. Naturally I’m already booked for a Friday afternoon appointment.
I’m starting To approach my weight loss and health goal which is effectively turning the clock back four years to the day I moved abroad and was in reality my fittest of my lifetime! I have secretly been taking before and after pictures throughout the process so have a look at th below??
waiting to get weighed in and measured…
As always as I walked into Esther we had a great chat about various trends in nutrition such as Paleo diet. We both reached the conclusion we believe that a healthy lifestyle not excluding any diet is probably the best however in our current society we are overwhelmed by too much sugar in everything we eat! The. We also discussed vi real fat versus the fat under your skin and the healthy hazard of vi real fat. All in all I don’t think I have too much to worry about in that department…but you never know?!
Below you can see my progress in about four months and 15kg! I’d still need to lose another 4-5kg to be in my target weight but I’m starting to feel that the target is near at which point I can start focusing on maintaining the weight!
left before and far to the right after…and some progress inbetween!
The one thing I feel happy about though is I have found a fantastic nutritionist that will hopefully follow me the rest of my life! Esther’s already told me I can call her whenever, if I feel I need a boost after vacation or a tough period she’ll be there for me!
friends I haven’t updated you lately on my fitness/health journey! All in all it’s going well, I’ve lost about 14kg and I’m another 6kg away from what I define as my original weight because it’s the weight I’ve always felt comfortable with! I’m calling this blog healthy lifestyle update because to be honest I never want to go through a weight loss diet ever again!! It’s tough work although the results are worth it, one thing I noticed last week was that my Zumba class was all of a sudden light compared to a few months ago. The movements and routines actually felt easy, but no wonder I’m over 15kg lighter!! Only give more to go so wish me luck??!
I was really good this weekend when it came to my diet, tried out both a nice healthy fried egg with garlic broccoli and pickled kohlrabi. Dinner was a quick homemade rye bread on a bed of arugula and pulled pork and a little grilled aubergine dip. Sort of baba ganoush but of course I didn’t add any oil?!
breakfast of egg, rye bread, broccoli and kohlrabi
pickled onions with pulled pork…yumminess
The past couple of weeks has truly shown the autumn rolling into Europe. That slight hint of cold breeze makes me want to take out my woolen sweaters and sit inside with a good book and a nice drink. Last weekend the place of choice for this relaxation was Andaz Amsterdam and the Bluespoon Bar. I’ve had the intention to go here many times during the weekend but if you want a long snooze in the morning with a good cup of java and maybe even a stop at the gym before heading to lunch Bluespoon has always been open a little too little to get the time in to go. For lunch now Bluespoon is open until 15.00.
autumn vibe
So what’s on the menu! It’s a healthy, slightly smaller dishes (however definitely not small) and delicious menu as always. I opted for the gazpacho with aged cheese, a lovely gazpacho however very rich. I often take a gazpacho because of it’s light start to any meal but this gazpacho could have sufficed as a main. Following this I had the endive salad with goat cheese. Both dishes were great and the mozzarella salad was also a great option as a starter. The only criticism was the salad nicoise…which didn’t contain any tuna!! Ok fair point it didn’t explicitly say tuna on the menu, but I think if a salad is to be called a salad nicoise tuna is a given. The ambiance at Bluespoon is lovely and I absolutely love the view of the inner garden. Surprisingly enough the place is also not too busy on a Saturday at 2 p.m. so I truly enjoyed a super relaxing lazy Saturday with a magazine or two! If you’re in town and you want a lighter and healthier lunch yet refined and relaxed Bluespoon is the choice!
rich gazpacho
yummy mozzarella
the goat cheese and endive favorite!
So I’m back and I had an absolutely magical food weekend in the sign of Japanese dining primarily!
Before heading straight into the weeds of my dining experiences I have just started Dutch lessons to finally tie together my German and Swedish command with the language I suspect I will spend most of my life speaking! It’s off to a good start and to be fair my command of Dutch is reasonably good which I think most Nordic people experience so I have opted for private lessons once a week. Due to my travel schedule lessons during the week and attending classes won’t really work for me. I’m studying at Dutch & Such…and although I loved the class going back to the school bench is rather traumatizing and as we speak I’m ploughing through my first week of homework?!
So heading into the dining experiences it started off by visiting the new restaurant EN Japanese Kitchen & Sake Bar in Amsterdam De Pijp. A chef from the famous Okura has decided to open his own restaurant and the result is fabulous. In true Japanese style everything you’re served is beautiful and like piece of art. I also warmed up with a glass of prosecco and cheery liquor, lovely start to the evening. One piece EN is famous for is its salt stone where they fry anything from tuna, wagu beef or vegetable. Naturally I had this and opted for the tuna. I also tried the crowd octopus, delicious but a little on the fatty side, suspect the fryer wasn’t quite heated up there. The sashimi was fresh and delicious. The quality vs price elasticity of EN truly makes it a place to visit!
I wasn’t done with the Japanese flow at EN though, but rather my love and I had already booked at table at the one star Michelin teppanyaki restaurant Sazanka at Hotel Okura. Pure heaven as always and I love sitting at the plate and watch your food being cooked. As luck had it we were seated together with only Norwegians so a truly Nordic table and I had the chance to speak some Swedish which doesn’t happen to often these days! So, how about the menu? We opted for the pre-selected Classic menu which includes tapanyaki starter of wagyu followed by the fish of the day which is a seaboard seabass. Already last time around this was by far my favorite! Naturally the menu also includes some classic Angus steak, which you can also upgrade if you wish.
All you can say is that the Okura restaurants are classics in amsterdam and they won’t disappoint you! And before sitting down to eat…don’t forget to head up to the 23rd floor for a drink and to enjoy the beautiful views of the city.
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;-)