Around Arizona

Today I want to show you some pictures from around Arizona...

... I loved Arizona, not only because of the Grand Canyon but also because the variety of the landscapes impressed me a lot. Yeah, somehow its all desert but the different colors and shades of desert were so fascinating for me. Also, I was impressed how the landscape changed as soon as you get into the mountains. In one place we even saw snow!

These pictures are all from the one day, where we spent the entire day in the car. We drove from Arizona to Utah and made many stops to enjoy the landscape and to take lots of pictures. Somehow it was one of the best days of the trip :)  

I am actually quite sad to be back in Germany, since I enjoyed the time with my dear friends so much. Now I am trying to get used to life here again... you know this feeling after a great vacation when you try to get used to your routine again? Its difficult, isnt it?

I wish you all an awesome weekend! Enjoy the warm weather :)

The Grand Canyon

Hey there!

I am back home after a most beautiful vacation in the US. 
I spent one week in Ohio, then a few days in Chicago and then we went for a roadtrip through Arizona, Utah and Nevada. I will show you a few impressions in the coming weeks and I want to start with one of the most important stops on our rodatrip: The Grand Canyon! 

I hope you all had a wonderful time in the last weeks. I am sorry I was absent so that I could'nt follow on the news on your blogs. I am fully back now and ready to scroll through your last posts :) 

Have a good start in the week everyone! I hope you enjoy the small impression from Grand Canyon and I hope you will enjoy my other US posts too :)!

Lots of love to you!

Greetings from Ohio, USA

Hello there!

Here it is, my first 2014 post from the USA :)
I am currently in Ohio, ready for trips to Chicago, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon National Park. Can't wait to show you all of my adventures. Right now I am in the small town where I used to study last year. Its soooooo good to be back!!! I missed my friends from here so much and its the best ever feeling be finally reunited. 

Yesterday we went to the lake and enjoyed the evening sun. Up to now the weather was rather bad so we spent most of our time going from breakfast restaurant to lunch to coffee to dinner ;)

Not much more to say for now. Just that I am happy. So happy!

Lots of love to all of you!

Off on Holiday...

Sweet readers and followers and friends,

in the next three weeks I will be mostly absent. I will try to post one or two posts to keep you updated on where I am and how things are going, but I will be pretty busy enjoying my vacation most of the time ;)

Right now, I am again on a seminar where I learn how to manage projects for a good cause professionally and right after the seminar`s end, I will take a flight to the other side of the ocean... so thats tomorrow. I am super exited!

This picture was taken this morning here where I have the seminar. Its a really beautiful region and I enjoyed a early morning walk today. 

Please don`t forget me in the meantime! I am looking forward to post a lot of posts from my three weeks vacation and to look through your blogs and all the posts I missed.

Have a wonderful time!
Lots of love to all of you!

My Easter Weekend

How was your Easter Weekend?

Mine was full of sunshine, beautiful moments with family and friends and some nice Easter surprises...

My fiances parents made us search our Easter presents in the garden - like we did when we were little. It was a lot of fun! 

In my opinion there are two important things to do on Easter Sunday in Germany. The first one is to have a huge breakfast with some Easter decoration on the table :) 

The second one is the traditional Easter-walk. You see soooo many families being out for walks at the beach or in the woods on Easter Sunday. We did of course also go for a long and beautiful walk :) 

So how was your Easter weekend? I hope you enjoyed as much as I did :)
By the way, on my instagram feed you will find some pictures of the beautiful small town where part of my family is living! 

Red Shorts at the Lake

Today I want to show you my new sunglasses and my red shorts at the lake...

... I got the sunglasses from firmoo and they are actually my first pair of prescription sunglasses. Earlier, I used to wear contact lenses and normal sunglasses but now that I got used to wear glasses, I also wanted a pair of prescription sunglasses. 

The pictures were taken last weekend we J. and I went for a cycling tour to a nearby lake. That day it was super windy and a little cold (I think you can tell from looking at the pictures).

How do you like my new firmoo sunglasses? I am quite happy with them. The  bow above the nose (how do you call that?) is not fitting perfectly, so I was afraid that I may be uncomfortable after a while, but for the few hours I wore the glasses so far, I did not have any problems.

I chose them because I like the fact that the frame is really slim and like that I will not have a sort of white stripe in my face when getting a tan with my glasses on. You know this "white stripe" problem :)???

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL OF YOU! ENJOY YOUR LOOOONG WEEKEND :)

Vegan Brunch #2

Here comes the promised post about our vegan brunch from last Saturday...

We made three breads, three cakes, a bunch of sandwich spreads, a soup, different styled oatmeal and we had some fruits and different juices and tea and coffee. 

I will not share all the recipes as its a little too much, but at least the ones from the sandwich spreads (they are also easiest to copy)... 
if there are other recipes you would like to know more about, just feel free to ask :) 

We  had thee breads, one made with spelt and onions inside, one with hazelnuts and hazelnut-flour (if you can call the leftover from making nut-milk for flour... I think you can ;)) and one made out of a sourdough with different kernels.

Concerning the sandwich spreads, I made two different pestos. I made a wild garlic pesto with cashnew nuts, a little bit of lemon juice, olive oil and salt (we actually have A LOT of wild garlic around here and I love making pesto out of it). 

The second pesto was a basil pesto and I made it the same way as the wild garlic pesto. You really jsut need to mix together the ingredients (greens, nuts, oil, salt and lemon juice) until you like the consistency. Its the easiest thing to do when you have shredding machine... :)

The second sandwich spread I want to share with you is one made out of potatoe, carots and onion. You have to boil the potatoes and carrots until they are really soft, OR you shred the potatoes and carotts into really small pieces and you fry them until they are really soft. This is how I did it cause I like the taste better, when the things are fried instead of boiled. Also fry the onion and then mix everything together until to have a nice consistency. I added different green herbs (basil, majoram, thyme etc. etc.) and sweet pepper powder, pepper and salt and some nutmeg to it. 

The next two are made out of rice cakes. You know those dry boring rice cakes that taste like nothing (I think...)? You just crush them until there are no longer cakes but milions of small pieces. Then you add some hot veggie broth and let it soak for some ten minutes. You can then add whatever you like - I made one with onions, tomatoe-paste, caraway and nutmeg and the other one with a bunch of green herbs, a little bit of tomatoe paste and some fresh basil.

Since the shredded ricewaffles are soaking up the taste of the herbs and spices, the sandwich spread tastes best when letting it soak for around a day. 

My favorite one is this simple, super easy tomatoe butter. 
I just love tomatoe butter! You just need vegan butter, tomatoe paste and garlic and then the herbs and spices you like. I usually use majoram, thym, basil, sweet pepper, hot pepper, black pepper and salt. 
Just mix it all together and enjoy ;) 
 

Somehow I didnt manange to take pictures of the soup or the oatmeal, cause they were in the kitchen whereas everything else was in the living room. I made a really yummy veggie soup with chickpeas, leeks, carrot, onion and potatoes. 

For the oatmeals I made one with apples, cinnamon and millet and one simple with only oats and some cinnamon. I also had dried fruit to add to the oatmeals. Since it was in the kitchen too, I didn't manage to make pictures of it.

Then we also had cakes... 

my favorite chocolate cake which I make at least once a month!

A super yummy banana bread with hazelnut flour and three ultra ripe bananas.

And a carott cake with cinnamon and lots of shredded carrots inside :) 

Finally, we also had homemade almond and hazelnut milk :)

So, I hope you liked this little overview of my last vegan brunch :)
We actually enjoyed it once again so much that we decided to make this a regular event... can't wait for the next one :)

Have an awesome start in the week lovely reader and follower!