[Cocktail 101] Mojitos!

 

Hi there! I'm back. You know the feeling when you've worked hard for quite some time and you didn't take time for the hobby you need in your life and then you come back and you're like: I need a mojito. But then you're like: I have no idea how to make a mojito. 

Well, no worries! You're in for a treat, cause last night I was at that place in my life and I learned how to make a very drinkable, unfortunately just semi-presentable (but really drinkable, hey!) mojito! And now I shall pass my knowledge to you. You're welcome.

So the most complicated part of it all is actually obtaining this little beauty right here (which I actually ended up finding in a big supermarket at the mall so...not that complicated after all):

Hi, it my pretty little mint tree. <3

You're also gonna have to buy these:

No, not bananas, you dummy (tricky photo ay?). The limes will do.

Lastly, you'll need some sugar (I used the unrefined organic kind, oh yeah, getting healthy right here), some mineral water, and your all time favorite: the white rhum.

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The procedure is really simple. Here I'm showing you, how to begin with step 1:

Spatula in a glass.

The trick is to put 1/2 lime (sliced), 1 tbs sugar and 1 mint leaf into a glass (if you're classy enough - like me, put them in a wine glass (real reason I put stuff in a wine glass: I don't own any regular glasses) and just crush it as much as you can with your spatula. You want the lime to release juice and the mint to emit its essential oils.

Once you've done that, you just mix 40 mL of rhum, 40 mL of mineral water and 40 mL of ice cubes and pour them in the glass!

And that's it! Oh yeah, you can get all fancy and garnish your glass with a slice of lime... I just couldn't be bothered (it's been a rough week, don't judge me).

Cheers!

Wow, already gettin a bit tipsy right there, are ya?

Enjoy!

[Meet Berlin] The Happy Cafes * Glücklich am Park *

Second bogpost about Berlin, oh yeah, I delivered!

As I've mentioned it last week, I was in Berlin. Wasn't really doing much there. None of the touristy stuff at least. Just lots of walking around. Ok that's touristy. But I really wasn't walking around to do the sightseeing! Just the Berlin Wall... and Alexander Platz... and the Brandenburg Gate... but in a totally untouristy way! (PROOF: lack of photos of the sights.) Anyhow, I also sat down I lot, which is my favourite thing to do when on vacation. Sit down to eat and/or drink.

That is how I discovered this cute little sisterhood (cause I was in two of them - though I'm seriously assuming there might be more) of "Glücklich" (which means happy in german, hence the blogpost title, get it, get it?) Cafes.

The first one was this Happy at the Park (Glücklich am Park) Fashion Cafe/Shop.

Why I call it Fashion Cafe? Cause of the window decorations...

...and the fact that they had a little shoes and clothes shop on the first floor.

They also provide quite a selection of fashion magazines to get you in the fashion forward spirit whilst sipping on your coffee.

Oh it was a nice, sunny day that day.

 Inside where the coffee and toast making happens.

I discovered this cafe's sister on my last day in Berlin when I was trying to get me some heavy foods before my 5 hour 'no-food-on-the-plane' flight to Gran Canaria. It was the Buy Yourself Happy (hope you're enjoying my wonderful literal translations) (Kauf dich glücklich) Cafe, where they had lots and lots of waffles! Yum.

Inside. Oh and btw, this is the cafe with a magnificent toilet area that I've already raved about in my previous blogpost!

I indulged in some banana chocolate & cream waffle business and although it was very good (and kept me full right until the evening), I regretted a little that I didn't go for the vanilla - sour cherry option... ...I guess it'll have to wait 'till next time.

And if you replace the banana with almonds you get my boyfriend's choice:

To sum it up, I highly recommend both Happy Cafes. They sure made me happy! Although I have to admit, when on vacation, it don't take much to make my day.


Oh and before I go... speaking of Berlin, remember this one or am I just getting way too old?



Haha.

Bisous,
Eva

[Meet Berlin] Toilet time!

Two weeks ago I took some time off and visited one of the hippest cities in Europe at the moment: B E R - L I - I I I N (imagine a dramatic voice singingly introducing the name). Although I was there for just 4 short days that went by way too quickly, I'd seen and visited quite a lot of places and - very importantly - was greeted by streams of sunlight that we lack so much in Ljubljana during the winter time.

I am planning to dedicate a couple of blogposts (well, at least two - for that I am sure) to this youthful, energetic city and I wanted to start it off with a thing that I'm certain we all regard as high priority when deciding whether or not we like a certain cafe/bar/restaurant. You know what I'm talking about: it's the TOILETS!

All sarcasm aside, I was quite impressed with the fact that many cafes and/or restaurants in Berlin didn't forget about the always too small and unattractive part of most bars that I've ever been to (and I've been to many). On the contrary, they actually managed to make the toilets hip and nice to look at and kind of burst a desire in me to hang out in them. Which I didn't do... but I honestly considered it.

So let's have a look shall we?

Firstly, I'm giving you the Toilet/Chill-Out Place/Work Area of Cafe San Remo:

Toilet Area #1

I love the colors they put together, the contrast of red and orange to green and blue. And the writings on the wall are just a nice finishing touch to it all, like a statement necklace is to an outfit.

The second one that I liked is a much more simple and neutral one, but it still caught my eye because of all the flowers. I absolutely love seeing flowers in a bathroom, I think they can really bring a dull white place to another level. In this case they also decided to spice it up with the 50(3 to be exact)-shades-of-green-tiled walls. You can find this toilet in Berlin's Dada Falafel.

Toilet Area #2

Last, and probably my favourite, is this vintage looking simple, but spacious toilet with an old-school television in it in the Kauf dich Glücklich Cafe. Could it get any better than that? Yes it could. I love that they put the black and white checkered tiles on the floor and a little bit of greens in a vase on top of the telly.

Toilet Area #3.1

And these lights...

Toilet Area #3.2

Here's to toilets!


Do tell me, which of these is your favourite?


Bisous,
Eva

[Recipe] Spelt Flour Bread with Sunflower and Pumpkin Seeds

So I love pumpkin seeds. I eat them every morning with my cereals, I love them in salads and I especially love them in bread. I'm not much of a bread baker, so if you're not an expert either, this recipe is for you.

Les ingrédients:

250 grams spelt flour

100 grams different seeds (I used a 50:50 ratio of pumpkin and sunflower seeds)

3 tbs honey

3 tbs unrefined sugar

150 mL warm water

17 grams fresh yeast

1 tsp salt

It was a lot bigger to begin with, but I already ate the middle part before the photo shoot. Sorry.
#speltbreadmorelikechocolatebread

First you need  to mix the water with yeast and feed it some sugar (yeasts just love it). I added the honey, then salt, then flour and lastly the seeds. 

Let it rise for 2 hours in a warm place. Then deflate the dough and put in in your chosen loaf pan. Let rise a little bit more, then put in the preheated (220°C) oven for half an hour.

 

Close-up.

Why spelt?

• It contains a lot of dietary fibre (10.7g / 100g - in comparison, whole wheat white flour contains 2.7g/100g).
• Rich source of iron.
• Rich source of magnesium and phosphorus.
• Rich source of vitamin B1, B3 and others.

To sum it up: it's good for you.

This bread can be eaten as normal bread, but you can also totally eat it just as it is, because the seeds and a bit of honey just give it this amazing flavour.

The only thing I regret is that I didn't double the amount of ingredients, cause it went all to quickly.
I dare you to try it!

Bon appetit.

[Recipe] Vegan Chocolate Topping/Spread!

Hello my dear readers. As I've promised in the previous blogpost, I did come up with a vegan version of a chocolate spread that is delicious as hell.

If you're anything like me, you always want (/desperately need) something sweet after a healthy lunch. Well desserts can be healthy as well! That is what I made today:

No, it's not Nutella. I actually think it's way better than Nutella. Don't get me wrong, I've always been a huge Nutella fan (hence this empty glass jar I used to store my spread), but since it totally ruins my skin for at least a week after I have had it and the ingredients are so not good for you, I simply don't buy it anymore. 

So, to satisfy my cravings, I came up with this spread, that you can use however you may like. You can put it on a slice of bread, you can use it to top a raw food cake (or the ordinary one for that matter), you can eat it with a spoon just like that (what I do most of the time), you can mix it with some fruits...

Today I chose the strawberries!

I put it all in a martini glass.

The ingredients:

1 avocado
10 dates
1 tsp coconut oil
100 mL almond milk
2 tsp coconut sugar
1 tsp 100% unsweatened cocoa

Of course I had to add some coconut chips to oppose my red-brown color coordination. And they taste good.

Give it a go and let me know what you think!

Bisous,
Eva

[Let's make some] Avocado Cocoa Ice Cream!

Well hello! Today's dessert isn't a 100% healthy alternative to the ice cream that you can buy in stores and it's also not vegan, cause I did put some cream in it. But it still is way healthier than the ordinary one. Why? Because the only sugar in it comes from dates and of course I haven't put any preservatives or food colorants (that practically every ice cream bought in stores is full of) in it.

As you might have already noticed, I love simple recipes. This one is no exception.

You will need:

1 avocado
16 dates
2 tsp 100% unsweetened cocoa powder
100 mL cream
2 tsp extra-virgin coconut cream

The ingredients.

This thingy is just such a treat. It makes every recipe 100% better and it reduces the amount of sugar (e.g. dates) that you have to put into your mixture.

Cut the avocado.

And mix mix mix.

Now this looks really attractive and appetizing, right? [sarcasm]

So after you've mixed all the ingredients, just put them in little containers (or all together, that works as well) and freeze for at least a couple of hours.

For today's dessert, I put one out of the containers, turned it upside down and topped it with some coconut flakes to make it somehwat more attractive.

Final presentation.

And that's it. Hope you try it out. But if you're more into vegan desserts, I will be making a no-cream alternative to this recipe soon, so stay tuned!

Bisous,
Eva

[Raw Food Desserts] Apricot Almond Coconut Balls

Even though I'm far from eating raw at all times, when it comes to desserts, I actually prefer the taste of dates, avocado, coconut butter etc. to the old eggs-flour-sugar mixture... That being said, I still mostly bake just ordinary desserts (see earlier posts for proof). Well, it's 2014 and I wanted to make a little present for some of my 'like-to-eat-healthy' girlfriends, so I decided to kickstart my raw food desserts experiment with this deliciousness you can see on the photo above. I present you the Apricot Almond Coconut Balls.

The recipe is really very simple and quick to make. All you need is:

1 cup of dried organic apricots (they really should be organic, cause their taste and appearance are completely different compared to dried apricots treated with sulfur dioxide)

3/4 cup of almonds

2 dates (yes, just the two of them)

juice from half a lemon

cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt to spice it up

a plate of chopped coconut chips

Instructions:

As I've said, it's almost too easy to make these:

Tip No.1: If the dried apricots you are using are not moist enough already (most of them aren't), put them in water for a couple of hours beforehand to soften them up.

Just put everything in a blender and mix mix mix!

Tip No.2: Put the mixture in the fridge for 30 minutes before making the balls.

Take small parts of the mixture and make little balls with your hands and roll them in coconut chips, that you crushed with your hands (or properly chopped if you prefer that).

Just keep on rolling! (Anybody else having a 90s reference moment right now?)

Lastly, I made these two very asymmetrical boxes to store and transport my treats.

Two funny little boxes (but made with lots of love!).

So, if you're looking for a healthy dessert without processed sugar, eggs, flour and so on... I dare you to try these!

Bon Appetit!