It is the very end of the year...
... and it is the time of the year where we like to think back of what happend in the past year and we like to make plans for the new year. I have quite a few plans for 2016, more than usual when it comes to the end of the year, actually. I have some blog related plans and some personal plans. And I have a lot to look back to.
2015 - looking back on my life
In 2015 my life changed more than in any other year before - I became a mother. A huge step which felt so normal and natural to me. My daily life changed, my status in society changed, my role in the household changed and yet I embraced all of these changes and I was nothing but grateful for my little daughter during this entire year.
The birth of my daughter was definetly the biggest happening in 2015 but loads of other small thoughts, moments, conversations and inspirations made this year so special to me. I learned a lot about me in 2015, I learned a lot about how I want to live my life. I actually think now, at the end of the year, that I understand and know myself better than ever before. This makes me feel good with myself because I can see now that I live in accordence with my beliefs, my ideologies and my personality. I feel good. I feel better than ever actually. I am happy at the end of the year, even very happy. Full of gratitude and without any regrets. Its been a while since I felt like this on New Years Eve!
2015 - looking back on my blog
In 2015 loads of things changed on my blog. I finally dared to change my blog in a way that made it more personal and brought it back closer to my values and ideologies - I decided to cooperate with sustainable companies only, not to make posts for cheap clothes anymore, to share more about my personal thoughts on life, to make my blog more personal in general and to be more critically with myself and my behaviour as a consumer, not only in real life, but also, and especially on the blog.
I critically reviewd all the clothes I bought during the year in my My Purchases column, I wrote a few posts in my About Life column, I wrote about my Pregnancy, and I wrote more about brands I really love and which I love to support. I am happy with my blogger year of 2015 but still, there are a few things that I still want to change...
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| Lisbon January 2015 |
2016 - looking ahead to my blog
I have a few plans for my blog for 2016. Of course I want to continue to cooperate only with sustainable brands and I want to show you even more "good" brands in the coming year. I also want to continue with the My Purchases posts because they are really helpful for me to critically analyse my shopping behaviour. Furthermore, I plan to post slightly more on healthy food. You will not see a single recipe containing refined sugar or white flour on my blog in 2016 and you will be able to read slightly more on why to eat in a certain way. Since I am a nutritionist now, I think its okay to share a little bit more of nutrion advices :)
Also - I plan to go down to two posts a week! Since I am usually blogging at night or early in the morning I would have a night per week more to read books, watch movies, or write letters, and a morning more to go running. So there will be fewer posts on the blog but more quality time in my life :)
2016 - looking ahead to my life
I have quite a few plans for 2016 when it comes to my life in general.
Here is the first one:
I will not eat any refined sugars and no white flour for the entire year of 2016! Bam! This is mainly because I want to get my acid/base ratio into balance (its not bad since I am already eating a healthy vegan diet, but I am not yet where I want to be). I am totally looking forward to this small challenge. I will share with you how things go every few months or so and I will share even more healthy recipes with you :)
But now to a more emotional level. I plan to accept myself the way I am every day, every minute, every second. I love myself and I want to be able to feel the love I have for myself every single day. I do no longer want to blame myself for things others feel disturbed about. I did this for a long time but I understand now that when someone feels disturbed by my way of living, it is mainly because the other is not happy with his/her way of living. So my goal for 2016 is to simply be ME every moment and not to be afraid what others think of me when I am being me :)
I also want to want to take the responsibility for my relationships with others. When a relationship that is important to me does not go well, it is not the others fault but it may also be my fault. So I want to take responsibility for every relationship that is important to be and make it be a good one. On the other hand, I want to let go with relationships that are draining energy from me and are trying to "keep me small" if you know what I mean!?
There are of course also loads of travel plans, work plans, what-to-do plans for 2016 but these are not as imortant to me as are those more spritual plans I have. I could write a lot more but I think that I managed to put down what is most important to me. The rest can wait and you will see it anyway on my blog as I will post about my travels, my business, my outfits, my food, any my life :)
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| Iran October 2015 |
I am looking forward to 2016, to life in general and to everything that is going to happen here on the blog!
Thanks for having been with me in 2015!
I am looking forward to see you all in 2016 and to stay in touch, keep inspiring and getting inspired and exchanging news :)
Happy New Year to all of you!
Sending loads of love for 2016!
Let me share our vegan Christmas menu with you...
... Christmas is over but before the holiday spirit is completely gone, I would love to share our vegan Christmas menu with you. Maybe it will inspire you for your New Years menu or even for next years Christmas - plus, I really want to show you that you can eat a delicious, filling and healthy menu for Christmas, where you do not feel like missing ANYTHING and all of that without eating ANY animal products, ANY sugar ANY oil! True story :)
I am sorry for the terrible quality of the pictures - candle light is still a tough one for my camera.
So here we go with the starter; we had a soup with savoy cabbage, carrots, potatoes, and apples, seasoned with cinnamon and vegetable broth. We sprinkled some smoked tofu and some roasted red onions on top. I prepared the soup for lunch and we had some for lunch and then some as a starter for the Christmas dinner. Since I prepared it for lunch already, there was less work at night :)
The main dish was a baked sweet potatoe, filled with roasted onions, smoked tofu, cranberries and walnuts (yum!!!), as side dishes we had kale in maple syrup (just a little bit of maple syrup of course), red cabbage with lemon, orange and pomegranate seeds, and mashed turnips with coconut milk and ginerbread spices. This was delicious!!!
I prepared the red cabbage and the mashed turnips the night before so that I only had to make the stuffing for the sweet poatoes and the kale on December 24. Like that we did not spend much time in the kitchen on Christmas eve and we had loads of quality time spent together as a family.
And now the desert... I am terrible sorry about the bad quality of the picture - its totally not worth such a bad quality, since it was a desert that should be presented in some fancy high quality food magazine; it was that good! We had almond pudding (almond milk, coconut sugar and agar agar) with vanilla pine seeds and maple syrup. Oh my! This. Was. Amazing. It was more or less the best desert I EVER had. And it is completly vegan and free of sugar!!! I ate like three portions and felt great, because I knew there was nothing bad in there - how cool is that? I think its pretty cool ;)
So my husband and I fested on these tasty dishes the night of the 24. On December 25 we went to see my mother for a Christmas brunch and on December 26 we went to Berlin to celebrate Christmas my brothers and a few other family members. The holidays were filled with love, laughter, hours spend on the sofa, reading the books I got as gifts, quality time with my husband and my daughter, loads of long walks through the woods and parks of my city and a whole lot of very good vegan food. I did not feel like missing anything for even a second.
Now, we are in between holidays and it is the time of the year where most people (including myself) think a lot about the past year, the coming year, and life in general. I will share some of my thoughts about the past year and the coming year with you on the blog soon.
Until then, I am sending lots of love to all of you! How was your Christmas? How does this Christmas menu look to you :)?
It`s Christmas eve...
... and in Germany Christmas eve is the "real" Christmas. Today is when the magic happens, when we open our gifts, we sing our Christmas songs, we read the bible, we go to church (well, some people do...), we have a nice family dinner... all that is happening today. This is why I want to wish all of you a wonderful Christmas today!
I will be busy having a cozy and nice time with my family for the coming days so I will be away from blogging for the rest of the week - and I highly recommend each and everyone of you to do the same ;)
Christmas is not about big gifts, fat food, stress and family fights. Christmas is about being grateful, being modest and enjoying every moment with your loved ones.
This year my husband, my little one, and I will be together for Christmas eve, we will go for a long walk during the day, maybe we go to church to listen to the beautiful songs played on the pipe organ, we will have a vegan dinner (three courses... will share more about it after the holidays) and we will be grateful for everything we have. I am tremendously grateful for so many things and I got the biggest gift ever already - in April my beautiful daughter was born. What more could I wish for? I do not need and I not want any expensive gifts from big brands. I want to have a good time with my loved ones, read Christmas cards full of love, and give what I think will make people happy and inspire people. And of course I am looking forward to the gifts I will receive; I love receiving gifts as much as I love giving them. But mainly those, that come with a thought, that are made or bought for ME and not because some advertisement said that its a good gift. Can you relate to that? I am sure you can :)
Well, this is our cute little Christmas tree with some gifts ready to be unwrapped tonight :)
So, once again - MERRY CHRISTMAS! Have a WONDERFUL time with your loved ones! Be grateful, be happy, ENJOY!
I am sending you much love!
The day after tomorrow is Christmas!
And I am still making gifts and am far from done with wrapping the gifts I already have. What about you? Are you done with everything?
In case you still need a DIY idea for a Christmas gift I have one for you - a superfood topping for muesli or oatmeal! It is very easy to make and a great gift for everyone who likes muesli or oatmeal, who eats healthy or who wants to eat healthy :)
I came up with this idea because I still had some cocoa beans from Keimling left over after I made the filled dates (see post here) and I did not really know what to do with them... but then I thought about all the mueslis out there made with cocoa nibs and I came up with the idea of making a muesli - but I thought its even better to make a superfood mix that can be used in muesli, oatmeal, buckwheat, groats or whatsoever :)
What I put into the superfood mix:
Pumpkin seeds
Goji berries
Chokeberries
Chia seeds
Cocoa beans
Popped amarant
Popped quinoa
In case you use coca beans make sure to remove the skin before shredding them! I removed the skin from my cocoa beans and put them into my food processor so that I get small pieces that are like the ready made cocoa nibs who can buy in stores. You can of course also just use cocoa nibs - will be less work for sure ;)
Would you like to get this as a gift? I would - this is why I made some for my husband and me too ;)
So, are you on holiday yet? Or still working? I hope you are free and ready for Christmas :)
Its my birthday tomorrow so all my thoughts go to my birthday instead of Christmas right now. These days are soooo busy with preparations, gift-making, grocery shopping, card-writing and sending etc. etc. but I feel wonderful and I am soooo very happy!
Sending you all much love!
Let me share my very personal Christmas gifts with you...
... I know you all have seen loads of Christmas gift inspiration posts made with fancy collages and pretty products coming straight from whatever companie's website. I do not want to say anything against these posts, but I definetly want to show you my Christmas gift ideas in a more personal post :)
So here are some ideas for those of you, who are still missing some gifts and/or ideas for gifts.
There are a few things I always like to give as gifts and they do basically fit three categories:
1. Natural cosmetic products
Everyone uses cosmetics so everyone can use gifts that are related to cosmetics. I like to give products from nice brands such as Weleda, Love me Green, Dr. Hauschka, Lavera or even Primavera. Especially Weleda has great products for both women and men in a nice packaging (they also have gift boxes). Also for babys it is a great idea to give a natural baby oil or cream - every mother can use that :)
2. Books
I love to gift books as a gift. I usually give books that I read myself and that either inspired me or that I found very beautiful. I rarely give novels but rather nonfiction books or illustrated books. This year I will give my favorite vegan cook book, an intersting illustrated book about non-organic and organic food in comparision, and a few other nonfiction books that inspired me throughout the year.
3. Food
I always like to give some kind of "special" foods. The Christmas pasta and the tea in the picture are just an example. I usually like to give herbs and special kinds of salts or pestos. Those kind of things that everyone can use in their kitchen and that last long.
Of course I also like to give my homemade sweets, like filled dates, cookies, dried apple rings or similar.
There
is one other things on my picture that does not fit into these three
categories but that I also like to give - when it comes to babys, I like
to give clothes. High quality, organic clothes of course. Like pyjamas
from Hess Natur, a body made from silk and wool or even a cute woolen
hat. Somehow its only when its about babys that I like to give clothes.
I am probabably afraid of giving clothes to an adult because of the
chance that s/he will not like it... like the gifts from the other three
categories, they are basically things everone can use somehow. So the
risk of giving something completely "wrong" is very limited :)
By the way, I also give loads of pictures as gifts to my family members. I either frame my favorite pictures that I made during the year, or/and I make calenders with the pictures I took. I find it important to make personal gifts to close friends or family members and not just to buy whatever it is.
There is one more DIY gift that I made this year but I will not yet tell you what it is because I plan to make a post about it next week, so stay tuned ;)
Do you also have "categories" of things you always like to give as Christmas gifts? Or do you give very different things every year? I would love to know!
Have a wonderful weekend and a great third Advent Sunday :)
Seems like I am no. 2 today...
... and thats okay, I do not need to be no. 1 every day ;)
Sorry, just kidding, I just found this shooting location the other day and I am very happy about it. Such a cool place to take pictures. I am sure I will be back there again with a new outfit soon.
But now about todays look. Yeah, its my favorite colors again. Blue and white. But hey, its a different look anyway. I am going all boyfriend style today, with my boyfriend jeans and my husbands checkered shirt. I layered a thick white cardigan and an oversized scarf and decided to wear my high heel boots for once ;)
How do you like this look?
Are you getting tired of my blue-white Winter uniform yet ;)? I basically just switch between white/blue and black/grey this season... I really do not feel that comfortable in other colors at the moment so I just go with how I feel and come up with loads and loads of new looks with these colors ;)
How is your week going so far? Mine is really nice! I spent the first half of the week in Northern Germany with my husbands family and enjoyed the baltic sea winds, the fresh air and some pre-christmas coziness. Now I am back in our place and it feels so good to come to this beautiful new place of ours. I really feel so much "at home" here. I mean, sure, that is what you are supposed to feel like when you are home, but you get the idea of what I mean, dont you?
I hope you are all doing wonderful and I wish you a splendid rest of the week!
Sending much love!
I am continuing with my healthy alternatives to Christmas cookies...
... today with something special: raw vegan glutenfree sugarfree super healthy super yummy most delicious and awesome pumpkin pie! Pumpkin season is not over just because thanksgiving is over and the delicious taste of ginger and cinnamon is perfect for the Advent season.
This pumpkin pie is super creamy, crunchy and tasty and you can totally feel good about eating it - because its super healthy.
All you need for this pumpkin pie are these few ingredients:
A Pie Pumpkin
A RIPE Khaki (make sure you use a ripe khaki, it should be really really soft!)
Dates
Walnuts
Some Ginger
Some Cinnamon
You will need approximately as many dates as walnuts and the amount depends on how much you wanna make. Maybe around 200 gram of walnuts and around the same quantity of dates (since dates are heavier than walnuts it will maybe be 300 or even 400 gram) for a regular sized pie pan.
For the crust you put your walnuts and 80% of your dates (leave around 4-7) in a food processor and process until you get a nice crust. Put the crust into your pie pan. - You may notice that the crust gets very oily, like you can see on my picture here, its all natural walnut oil!
For the filling you put around a small teapsoon of cinnamon, a fingernail size of ginger, pumpkin (cut into small pieces) and the khaki into your high speed blender and blend everything up until you get a very creamy golden filling. Add the rest of your dates, or less or more, depending on how sweet you like it - also add more ginger or cinnamon if you like :)
Et voilá - your raw vegan pumpkin pie is ready! So easy, so fast, sooooooo good!!!
We had this delicious pie on the weekend to celebrate the third Advent Sunday. My mother and her husband came to visit and even though they were a little sceptical in the first place, they both loved the raw vegan pie and both of them asked for second slice - which made me very happy of course :)
Have you ever tried some raw cakes or candies? I love to try out new healthy recipes, especially when they do not contain any sugar. I need to practice to make sweets without sugar because I have a little bit of a challenge planned for next year... will tell you more about it soon.
For now, have a great Monday!
Sending much love!
