Ever since I started my research internship at the KNMI (Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute), this salad has been part of my go-to lunch if I have the ingredients on hand. It is super simple to make with only 5 ingredients, it takes less than 10 minutes to prepare, and it is really tasty too! And it will even taste better if you let it sit for a while, so the flavors can really mix together.
I’m a huge granola fan (examples: coconut quinoa granola, the ultimate granola). It’s pretty healthy, crunchy, full of fiber and good carbs and a little sweet, so what’s not to love? However, sometimes I like to spice it up a bit (literally) and make a savory granola. This granola is perfectly crunchy and has quite some fire to it thanks to a generous amount of black pepper.
I’m gonna be honest about it, I’m not the biggest fan of ginger. I think its flavor can be kind of intrusive and sort of overwhelming. However, when you only use a little bit of it, for example in a smoothie or in these delicious bliss balls, it just add a little depth and warmth to the overall flavor of the dish.
These tiny bliss balls are real powerhouses with healthy whole food ingredients like fresh ginger, turmeric, nuts and seeds. For example, it is scientifically proven that ginger has plenty anti inflammatory and antioxidant characteristics. Interestingly, a 2012 study even showed that when mice with tumors were fed 100 mg ginger extract per kg body weight, their tumors decreased in size by 56%! Even though this study was done in mice, it still provides an interesting perspective of the positive effect that ginger may have on our body.
Hey guys! It’s been too long since my last post here, sorry!! My 5 week trip to Thailand was truly amazing, and ever since I got back I’ve been extremely busy with my thesis… Only half a year to go and I’m done with my bachelor! Time flies when you’re having fun I suppose!
Before I went on my trip I actually made sure I had some recipes to share with you on the blog while I was on my trip, but in the end I was too busy enjoying my vacation to post them, so in stead I’ll share them with you now.
As promised, today I present to you one of my favorite to-go lunches/dinners: Instant Noodle Soup! Whaaaa!! It’s a dream come true, or at least for me. I used to love instant noodle soup when I was younger, it was salty, it was warm and it was super quick — no prepping or cutting of vegetables involved, just pouring in boiling water and wait 3 minutes (which was the hardest part!) and then you’d have this delicious bowl of salty soup with teeny tiny chunks of veggies and lots of noodles.
Of course, that’s not really healthy, and most of those instant noodle soups have extremely high sodium levels and actually little ingredients that were nutritious or had any significant value of vitamins and minerals.
Most bouillon powders or stock cubes are chock full of additives, flavor enhancers, sugar, salt and other weird things that you don’t actually need. Although using stock cubes is an easy way to e.g. give your soups extra flavor, it can also give you all those things that you would probably prefer not to ingest. Therefore I went on an experimental journey, to see if I could make a powder as an alternative for stock cubes!
For a simple dinner, I love throwing some beans in a pan with a spicy tomato sauce and maybe some diced peppers or other vegetables that I have at hand. Then, after it’s warmed up in the pan, I just put the whole mixture in a wrap and dinner is done in under 10 minutes… Talking about fast food 😉
However, lately I’ve been getting quite bored with the taste of normal wraps you can get at your local supermarket. Other than that they don’t taste great, they’re not great for your body either. Often they are made with white bleached flour of which all the fibers and many nutrients have been stripped, and they are full with “flour enhancers” and weird additives. Personally I’m not necessarily against additives, as not all of them are bad, but I do think that in such a simple product as wraps, adding all those additives shouldn’t be necessary.
