fresh ginger tea

what you need:

• 1.5l hot/boiling water
• a thumbsized piece of ginger
• the juice of half a lemon or honey (or both ;) )

what you do:

• peel your ginger; now I like to put mine on a toothpick and let it sit like that, other people like to chop it up, it's up to you!
• mix lemon juice and hot water, add to your ginger
• add honey if you want to
• you don't have to use lemon AND honey, the tea tastes really good just using one of them too
• you can re-use your one piece of ginger a couple times!

Ginger tea has a lot of benefits, I'm only going to name a few of them here. First of all, it stimulates the blood flow, which warms you up from the inside and helps protect you from getting a cold. Furthermore, it facilitates the digestion, detoxicates and rejuvenates.

It's the most effective when you feel nauseous, have a cold, stomach pain, flatulences, or need help losing weight. 

guacamole

what you need:

• 1 ripe avocado
• lemon juice
• 1 hard boiled egg (optional)
• 1 small tomato
• 1/2 onion
• 1 garlic clove
• pepper, salt 

what you do:

• mash the avocado
• add a dash of lemon juice (it keeps the mash from getting brown)
• chop egg, tomato, onion and garlic finely
• mix it into the avocado mash
• season with pepper and salt (I even added some chilli)
• you can enjoy guacamole as a spread or use it as a dip for nachos etc.

Credits for this recipe go to my mom, thank you! I love it!

quick and easy partysnack: salmon crêpes

what you need: 

• crêpes...dah! here's my all-time favourite crêpes recipe
• cream cheese; I like to use the ones with pepper or herbs, but I can imagine that something more fancy like tomato&chilli would be really tasty too!
• smoked salmon; in case you don't like fish, smoked ham tastes also really nice in this combination, try Serrano or Parma ham!

what you do: 

• fry the crêpes, if you have enough time, give them a moment to cool down a little
• spread cream cheese on them, don't hesitate to be generous ;)
• lay out the smoked salmon on top 
• roll up the crêpes and slice them in about 3cm thick pieces
• you can serve these treats at a BBQ, at a nice evening with drinks and friends or as an amuse-gueule before dinner!

tiny antmuffins

what you need:

• 300g flour
• 150g sugar
• 1 packet vanilla sugar
• 1,5tsp baking powder
• 300g soft/melted butter
• 300ml Advocaat
• 50ml orange lemonade (juice is fine too)
• chocolate sprinkles
• 4 eggs

what you do:

• I usually start baking by measuring all the ingredients I need, this makes the following process a lot easier and quicker!
• in case you're using soft butter, start by stirring it until you get a smooth consistency
• add sugar and vanilla sugar, little by little, and keep stirring until you don't hear any crunchy noises anymore
• add the eggs and mix them in, you should have a smooth and bound dough by now
• mix flour and baking powder, sieve and add them, also little by little, to the dough
• tip: whenever you're making a dough, make sure to add the flour (almost) at last. Stirring flour for too long gives the dough a really weird consistency and may even ruin the whole cake!
• add Advocaat, lemonade and chocolate sprinkles and blend them in
• in case you don't like alcohol or kids are eating these muffins/the cake too, you can substitute the Advocaat with some more lemonade/juice
• now you can fill the dough into whatever baking dish you like (don't forget to oil it first!); I actually used a silicone mould, which is called Moul'flex by De Buyer, which is for teeny-tiny muffins. I really like this mould because there's no need to oil it before usage, the muffins are super easy to remove and they are cute and tiny ;)
• depending on the baking dish you are using, this should take between 10-40 minutes on 180°C
• to let the muffins cool down, I put them on a grill, this way the air gets everywhere

fresh and springy quinoa salad

what you need (for a mid-sized bowl):

• 200g quinoa
• 1 cucumber
• 1 bell pepper
• 2 tomatoes
• about 200g (sweet) corn
• lemon(juice)
• tomato paste
• spring onions, parsley and chives
• pepper, paprika powder
• I also added chilli, but that's just me

what you do:

• cook quinoa according to packaging
• in the meantime, chop up the veggies
• when the quinoa is done, let it cool down a little
• mix it together with the chopped up veggies and add the corn
• add the juice of two or three lemon slices and quite a bit of tomato paste
• last but not least, go nuts with the spices, I mean it! the quinoa itself isn't exactly a firework of flavours, so you really need to add a lot of spices and herbs
• blend it all together and if you have the time, let it sit for an hour or two
• I topped mine of with some extra parsley and chives
• eeeeenjoy!

spicy potato carrot soup (clean and vegan!)

what you need (for 1-2 people):

• 2 big carrots
• 1/2 onion
• 3 big potatoes
• pepper, chilli flakes, herbes de provence, paprika powder
• water
• oil

what you do:

• chop up the onion, peel and chop potatoes and carrots
• oil the pot, add onions
• fry them for a short while
• add potatoes, carrots and enough water to cover the veggies (at least!)
• add all the spices, especially loads of pepper
• if you really need to, you can add a little salt
• let the whole thing simmer for about 10 minutes
• puree, add some more water if you need to
• put it back in the pot and reheat it quickly
• enjoy!

DIY acid washed denim jacket

what you need:

• a piece of denim clothing (I got my jacket at a thriftstore!)
• a sponge (I recommend using one you don't need anymore)
• rubber gloves to protect your hands
• bleach
• a small bowl 
• a plastic bag or something else to protect your working area

what you do:

• cover the working area
• spread your piece of clothing out in front of you
• fill some bleach into the bowl
• tip: in case you never used bleach before or you're not sure how light you want the denim to turn out, mix the bleach with a little water, this will slow down the bleaching process
• dip your sponge into the bleach and go over the denim with it
• you don't need to make it perfect, but try to spread it somewhat equally
• let the bleach sink in and do its work
• if you need to, you can go over the denim a couple more times, if you want the effect to be stronger
• I actually mixed 2/3 bleach and 1/3 water and went over the denim 3 times, my denim was kind of resistant to the bleach. that can happen!
• put your clothing in the washing machine (and dryer)
• voilà!

 

products I used:

Eau de Javel bleach