Butternut squash and chicken

Last night I wanted vegetables and meat for dinner, and roamed through my fridge to find the most gorgeous butternut squash that I decided should be the centerpiece of my meal. I ended up making baked butternut squash with garlic, topped by a bit of thinly sliced gouda cheese and served on a bed of baby spinach leaves. On the side was a piece of tenderly cooked chicken breast served with a homemade tomato/basil sauce.

Slice butternut squash into finger-thick pieces, drizzle with olive oil and two small cloves of garlic. Put in a baking tray in one layer. Bake in the oven at around 200 degrees Celsius until done - cooking time varies with each oven, but mine took around 20-25 minutes to finish.

Put a bit of thinly slices gouda cheese on top of the squash, and broil for 2 minutes. Arrange spinach on you plate and pour the hot butternut squash over. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

While the butternut squash cooks, place your chicken breast in a pot. Sprinkle with a bit of salt and pour boiling water from a kettle over the chicken until 5 cm over the chicken breast. Cover with a lid and leave for around 20 minutes on the tabletop. This way the chicken cooks slowly and becomes so very tender and juicy!

For the tomato sauce (which in this case was a leftover from yesterday), cut up six large tomatoes, one small onion and two cloves of garlic. Pour some olive oil in a pan, heat it up to a medium heat and cook the onion and garlic until the onion is clear. Put in the tomatoes, crank up the heat to high and boil for a couple of minutes while stirring. When the tomatoes are completely cooked into a sauce, put in basil leaves and cook for one more minute. Add salt and olive oil to taste.

Put chicken on you plate next to the spinach and pour tomato sauce over. Enjoy it :-)

My equipment for running

I just completed a 10.4 km run, and I'm really proud of myself! With that, I figured that I would just show you what equipment I use for running and for keeping me motivated.

First of all, I run with my Polar watch for monitoring my heart rate, and making sure that I stay around 80% of my maximum heart rate.

For motivation and a way of tracking my runs, I use my iPod with the Nike+ iPod

I love that I can listen to my favourite music on a pre-made playlist, while having the possibility of constantly getting information on how far I've run, what my pace is and how far I have left. All presented by a very motivating lady :-)

So get exercising!

Homemade snack bar

Sometimes I really like to have a snack bar with me, if I know that I'm going to need great fuel for exercise later in the day, or if I need some extra fibers or food during the day. As I think it is very expensive to buy such bars and that it can be difficult here in Denmark, to find bars without excess sugar, I make my own.

Today I made oat and date bars with hazelnut, cacao nibs, flax seed and vanilla.

Oat bars (12 bars/servings)

16 fresh, pitted dates

100 g oats

2 tbsp flax seed

3 tbsp raw cacao nibs

100 g hazelnut butter

4 tsp coconut oil

Pinch of pure vanilla powder

Blend dates into a coarse paste. Mix with remaining ingredients. Shape into bars and put in the oven at 150 degrees for 10 minutes if desired, followed by putting them in the freezer. Otherwise just pop in the freezer. Wrap in cling film and store in fridge. 

The nutritional info on each bar is: 

Nutrition Facts User Entered Recipe   12 Servings Amount Per Serving   Calories 141.1   Total Fat 9.0 g       Saturated Fat 2.8 g       Polyunsaturated Fat 1.4 g       Monounsaturated Fat 4.2 g   Cholesterol 0.0 mg   Sodium 1.1 mg   Potassium 178.6 mg   Total Carbohydrate 16.8 g       Dietary Fiber 3.3 g       Sugars 7.5 g   Protein 2.8 g   Vitamin A 0.1 %   Vitamin B-12 0.0 %   Vitamin B-6 3.8 %   Vitamin C 0.9 %   Vitamin D 0.0 %   Vitamin E 6.7 %   Calcium 2.2 %   Copper 10.9 %   Folate 4.0 %   Iron 5.7 %   Magnesium 8.3 %   Manganese 47.7 %   Niacin 1.9 %   Pantothenic Acid     2.5 %   Phosphorus     7.5 %   Riboflavin 1.7 %   Selenium 0.8 %   Thiamin 8.2 %   Zinc 3.8 % *Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

Calculated at http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp

No-bake cold cashew-chocolate-cookies

I just made one of my favourite sweet things: cashew-chocolate-cookies!

They might not look that amazing but trust me - they are! This is one of those recipes where you just mix things until you think it tastes good, therefore there aren't any real measurements, but don't let that frighten you! 

First you make chocolate chips my mixing heated coconut oil, raw (or regular) cacao powder, agave nectar and pure vanilla powder. Pour the mixture in a tray lined with a baking sheet, and pop in the freezer for 15 minutes. If it isn't solid yet, leave it a bit longer. Cut up into chips and use. 

While the chocolate mixture sets in the freezer, make the dough. Grind cashew nuts in a blender (i use 2 big handfuls), adding coconut oil, vanilla powder, agave syrup and oats when the nuts are completely ground to cashew meal. I tend to add 2-3 big tbsp of oats, 2 tbsp of coconut oil, 2-3 tbsp agave and 1/8 tsp vanilla powder, but as I said just play around with it. Blend some more, until you have a cookie dough texture. Add more of anything needed - make sure to taste it! Mix the chocolate chips into the dough and form into cookies or balls. Pop in the freezer again for 15-20 minutes and eat :-)

This is so easy, and kids can definitely join you in the kitchen! 

Heavenly breakfast

Today I decided that I wasn't in the mood for smoothie or vegetables, but not for something warm either. I searched my cupboards and ended up with this bowl!

It had banana, gojiberries, frozen blueberries, chopped almonds, raw chocolate nibs and topped with a bit of hazelnut butter (my current favourite).

I topped it with homemade vanilla almond milk and went outside in the sun to eat - yummy!