Recipe: Quinoaporridge with chopped apples, cinamon and some red berries

I made Quinoa a few days ago for the first time. Its really easy and similar to cooking rice. Important is to rinse the grains before you cook them. I used a normal kitchen filter because the grains are really small. After that I used a small pot and added 2 cups of water. I had measured the quinoa before and the mixture is always 1:2 (1 cup quinoa and 2 cups of water) I had checked some recipes and cooking tutorials on the internet before the figure out if I can/should add salt. Sometimes adding salt to the water is not helpful. For example when you are cooking lantilles. But I found no information but it doesnt matter. I justed cooked for myself and also wanted to use the quinoa as sidedish for lunch as well as for a sweet breakfast and so it was good that I cooked it "neutral".
I turned the oven to maximum till the water started to boil and then reduced the heat to the minimum and covered the pot. The cooking time is about 15-20 minutes. It really "grows" like rice and is really filling. I used one normal "coffee mug" as measuretool and now I have quinoa for I think three meals.

After it had cooled down a bit I put it into a small tupperbox and put it into the fridge. Today when I woke up. It was a quite foggy and not really friendly morning and so it was good to start into the day with some warm food. I took the quinoa from the fridge and put half of it into a little pot. I added a bit of milk and a shot of agave sirup to sweeten it. I think next time I want to try it with soy, rice or even better almond milk but it works fine with any "milklike" fluid or if you dont want any of this products you can use just a bit of water. I let it boil for a while thil the milk was soaked up and the texture was nice. I added some cinamon and just a small spoon of  raw brown sugar. Why using sugar when I had already some agave sirup in it? I think the caramel flavour of the raw sugar is nice and increases the flavour so I often use just a little bit for the flavour instead for the sweetness. While the porridge is cooking I chopped a small apple. Dont forget your "porridge" on the oven. You have to stir it from time to time because it easily burns. When the porridge is nice and hot just add it to little bowl. Put the apple chops to the top and I added some red berries as well. I had glass of freshly squeezed orange juice with it. I think especially when you are doing this recipe vegan that is important. Fresh orange juice helps your body to absorb the calcium from the grains and (soy)milk.

Especially when you prepared the quinoa the day before this breakfast is done into 5 Minutes. It might also be a nice snack that you can take with you to work. Just add more fruits like bananas, oranges, strawberries or cherries and you have a great "sweet" lunch :)

Eating healthy again...

Since my last post half a year has passed. I made the 30day-vegan-for-fit-challange by Atilla Hildmann. The result was nice. At the end of summer I had lost all my finnland-fat and felt "normal" again. I really like vegan food and loved to cook and eat a lot of fresh vegetables and be creative in the kitchen again. Atillas recipes are sugarfree and without wheatflour which is really important. Often vegan recipes and ready-meals include a lot of ingedrients like sugar or different wheat products which are in my eyes not the best for your body. I mean vegan sausages are nice - if you have enough  mustard - but they are not healthy. I had them at the beginning but then reduced the consum of "fake"meat and tried to eat more "pure". I had my summerbreak from university and no job and had enough time to cook myself which made it much easier. Eating outside was always a challange and was sometime really frustrating. 

After the month I started to eat normal again. I tried to stick to some of the challange rules but when you are not totally strict with yourself its just a matter of time till you fall back into old eating patterns. 

Months passed and my life became more busy due to university and work. I started a long distance relationship which is a wonderful thing but had the sideeffect that my fridge was often quite empty because I didnt spend so much time at home. My boyfriend is eating really healthy and this helped me to become a little gumball. Sure we also had some popcorn while watching a movie from time to time and we also had christmas cookies but basically we are both taking care on what we eat. Maybe because of the lack of time to eat I lost some more pounds and friends started to recognize that I became more "thin." Not thin in the common way but when you see photos taken in summer and compare them with those around christmas you can really see the difference. Especially my face became thinner and this makes me really happy. 

Well New-Years-Eve came and after the holidays you always feel like a whale and want to change your eating behaviour. Do more sport, quit smoking...blabla ...the whole new year resolutions which are only sucessful in the first month and then everything is back to normal. Thats the reason why I dont do such resolutions. I want to eat healthier in general and start doing some exercices but in my own speed without pressure and there must be space for little "exceptions" from time to time to still enjoy life. In this way I want to start the 30day bodyrockchallange on the 15th of January and already started to take care of my nutrition again. This means more vegetables, salad, fruits, no white flour but more wholemeal, reduce sugar to a minimum and eat low/no-carb every other evening, eat vegan from time to time, eat only few dairyproducts in combination with soy products, eat meat from time to time and try to enjoy eating no matter what I eat. Enjoying life through food is important for me. This doesnt mean eating sweets and fastfood all the time but also healthy food cooked or prepared in a good way can make you happy.