For my love of food

I love food! And not just in that I like to eat it, no I LOVE FOOD! I love to eat it, cook it, talk about it, read about it, watch movies about it, I love to shop, taste, feel and smell food. I would say that around 20 percent of my daily thoughts work around food in some way or another, if not more. And I love all kinds of different food! I have one requirement though. To truly love it, it has to be homemade, wholesome and taste incredible. I am fascinated my chefs like Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver, to see the passion they put into food. And even more by Jamie than by Nigella, as I tend to think that Nigella actually sometimes uses too much pre-packaged stuff. Of Danish chefs I have a profound respect for Nikolaj Kirk and Oscar Umahro Cadogan. I have a passion for food that few people understand, and I must admit that I can bore people to death with my talk of the latest recipe I cooked :-)

I like to discover new food and I like to eat what my body tells me to eat. Because even though I like almost every kind of food, and practically can get an orgasm from eating a really rich chocolate mousse cake, I also believe that my body should have the best conditions possible to live under. Therefore, I would say that I eat really healthy 80 percent of the time, and when I indulge in my last 20 percent, it's with organic, wholesome, homemade, and sometimes also quite healthy, food. Yes I sometimes end up at McDonalds. Sometimes meaning like once a year. I am by no means a fanatic about what I eat, and I would never ever compromise taste for healthy eating! I just find things I enjoy just as much as the "unhealthy" stuff.

When I put unhealthy in citation marks, it is because I have one problem with the entire health movement. And that is how most articles, interviews, TV-programmes etc. tend to leave out the most important thing, which is the quality of the life you live! If I were to live a life where I was constantly watching what I was eating, never allowing myself the things that are perhaps not good to my body but for my mind and soul, I would be miserable. That is why I bake cakes and blend up amazing chocolate drinks. Yes I do choose to bake some of my cakes with dates instead of sugar, I make raw chocolate with raw agave nectar instead of indulging in regular chocolate everyday. But I do by no means feel deprived, since I try to have my focus on what I do love to eat, which doesn't fuck up my body. So even though something might be unhealthy for your body in medical terms, it can for sure be so very healthy for you and your mind.

Too much sugar fuck up my body AND mind. That is whether it is too many dates, too much processed white sugar or too much agave nectar. And I know, that in order to feel my best, I need to find a way in which I can feel maximum happiness, and that doesn't include too much sugar. But when it's my birthday, I whip up cakes resembling those from La Glace and enjoy every minute of it. I hope that you will follow my adventures in cooking up both these parts of my life!

Apple snack

One of my favourite snacks at all times (when I'm not craving chocolate or salted nuts) is lemon apples. They are so easy to make, tastes amazing and keep for two-three days in the fridge. The sour and yet flavourful lemon along with the sweet and crisp apple is perfect for snacking on throughout the day.

Lemon apples

1 (organic) apple

½ (organic) lemon

Zest the lemon and put zest and juice in a bowl. Cut up the apple into very thin pieces. Mix everything thoroughly, cover the bowl and leave in the fridge for an hour marinating. You can however eat them straight away if you want to. Either drain apples from the leftover lemon juice, or simply leave it all together, depending on how sour you like the outside of the apples to be. Eat and enjoy!

You can mix a bit of pure vanilla powder in the lemon juice for an even more candy-like taste. 

Healthy chocolate drink

Yesterday evening I had a craving for chocolate, but since I try to avoid processed sugar most days (except for when I just HAVE to bake a cake and eat it too), I had to come up with a way of satisfying this craving in a healthy way. Throughout the last couple of years I've been indulging in the most amazing and yet very simple chocolate drink, that tastes absolutely wonderful!

Pillowy chocolate drink

1 banana

2 tsp hazelnut butter

100-150 ml very cold water

A couple of tbsp raw chocolate powder (regular might work)

A pinch of pure vanilla powder

Blend everything on high speed until mixed thoroughly. If you think it is too thin, then try using almond milk, rice milk or simply regular milk.

Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred

I just completed a level of Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD - find it here - and feel soooo good! I love her tough attitude (and her abs)

I believe that exercise should be fun, but I also know that sometimes it just gotta hurt! And that's what I can accomplish with Jillian. 

Salad with scallops

This morning I initially had decided on having a day of all raw food. I've done this before and love it when my body's in the mood for it. However, as lunch was approaching, I found that I needed at least some cooked vegetables, and some more protein.

I found some leftover scallops in the freezer, and cooked then with a bit of garlic. Roasted some egg-plant and asparagus (only slightly), and started assembling my salad, which ended up looking like this

Baby spinach, fresh tomatoes, egg-plant, asparagus, scallops, maldon sea salt and lemon juice

It was fantastic! I love how the crunchy spinach works against the soft, garlicky scallops and the soft-in-the-middle-crispy-on-the-outside egg-plant and asparagus. I'll leave you with some more pictures, before I finish a bit of work and job-applications, and go running in Copenhagen. The weather is starting to get really beautiful, so I might as well get going!

Todays breakfast

I love smoothies for breakfast, and on days where I have the time, I enjoy serving them in a wineglass with delicious topping.

My smoothie this morning

100 g frozen, unsweetened blueberries

100 g frozen, unsweetened strawberries

1 small banana

1 tsp lemon zest (from organic lemon)

Pinch of vanilla bean

Pinch of cinnamon

2 tbsp Flaxseed oil

1 tsp Coconut oil

100 - 150 ml water

Blend everything, pour into wine glass and top with goji berries and a bit of raw cacao powder

The smell and taste of this is amazing. I just love the soft, smooth and airy feeling of the smoothie mixed with the crunchy goji berries, and the flavours just mix heavenly! It feels so decadent to eat something like this for breakfast, truly nurturing myself. 

I'm back!

It's been way too long since I last wrote on this blog, but now I am determined to start over. Throughout time, these pages will be filled with wonderful food, recipes, thoughts on health, how i exercise and my way general of living. I believe in giving my body the best possible fuel, and even though I sometimes splurge with sugar and dairy in amounts that would most likely grooss you out, my everyday life is filled with wholesome, loving and beautiful food. Because I believe that you are what you eat, in more than one sense.

I will try to post as many of my meals as possible, even though I might not get them all photographed. I will have to get used to that though, as I love a lot of photographs!

I will also keep posting on my other blog StressStories, which you find here (in Danish and English)

Have a wonderful day!

Just wanted to leave you with a picture of my homemade Danish rye-bread - to die for!