Crochet and chevron cushions

I have recntly finished these two little projects, they add a pop of color to my white bedding!

The chevron cushion cover was very simple to make. I used a tutorial I found on pinterest, I think I finished it within 20 minutes. Here is the link to the tutorial if you're interested: https://acuriouslychiclife.wordpress.com/2012/12/15/diy-pillowcase/

The pattern for the crocheted cushion cover comes from a crocheting magazine, so I sadly can not share this. It is easy to do, as it only requires the treble stitch. It doesn't make a complete cushion cover. It makes one big square that acts as the front of the cushion. I then bought a simple blue cushion cover which I sewed the large crochet square on.

Easy babyblanket

I have been wanting to make a babyblanket for ages, so when my friend told me she was pregnant I knew straight away what I was making her! This blanket is super-super easy, and can be made in a day. I choose a pretty 100% cotton fabric which would be the front of the blanket and some fleece fabric for the back. I then looked up the measurements for a baby blanket online and cut both of the fabric to size, allowing a 1 cm seam allowance. With right sides facing, machine stitch the sides of the fabrics together leaving a small gap. Once the sides are al stitched up (except the gap) turn the blanket inside out through the gap so that the right sides appear. Iron the blanket and neaten up the gap by ironing the sides in. Machine or hand stitch the gap so that there are no holes left in the sides of the blanket. I finished the blanket of by sewing some bias band round the edges and adding a sweet 'made with love' label.

New house keyrings

Two of my best friends will be renting an apartment together. I wanted to make them a little present for their new home. It had to be something easy, quick and that I could do in bed. I decided to make a keyring for them to hang their new keys on! I used an old piece of fabric which already had these printed houses on, I then cut a piece of fleece and a piece of cotton fabric and sewed these all together with the fleece in the middle. I then attached a piece of ribbon and sewed on a pretty bow and button. I then cut round the edges with special scissors that give the edges a distressed effect. I added a pretty notebook as I found it very handy to have one little book to write everything down in while packing and moving. And my little 'new home' pressies were ready!

Christmas memories 2014

 

''It's not what's under the Christmas tree that matters  it's who's around it''  

Motivational quotes for lymies

I’m still here!! And I’m starting to feel better, which makes me so happy and grateful. I still spend most of my days in bed or on the couch, but am able to go out for short walks. Sadly, I’m not able to attend university in the state I am now so I decide to put my studies on hold until February to give myself some more time to recover. I’m a sucker for quotes and especially ‘motivational’ ones. These quotes have helped me to think positively and have faith that everything will be okay in the end. I printed some of them and had them close by so whenever I was feeling down I could grab them and remind myself of the fact that it is what it is and that I will get better. Now, I’m not saying that this is some kind of ‘magical’ medicine (if only that were true!!) but it sure helps! And frankly I can use any help there is right now. These quotes have been my favorite:

It’s a long road but it’s worth it - Unknown

When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on – Thomas Jefferson

You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have – Unknown

You’re allowed to scream, you’re allowed to cry, but do not give up – Unknown

Whenever you find yourself doubting how far you can go, just remember how far you have come. Remember everything you have faced, all the battles you have won and all the fears you have overcome – Unknown

Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t – Unknown

It’s okay not to be okay – Unknown

The longer you have to wait for something the more you will appreciate it when it finally arrives – Unknown

This will make you go bananas!

At the moment I’m lying in bed feeling very, very sick and in a lot of pain. I have been in bed for 4 weeks due to a new treatment for my lyme. It’s really hard at the moment but I’m hoping that it will be worth it in the long run! I have my moments in which my head feels okay and I’m able to get some school work done and do some blogging. As I haven’t really been able to eat much the last couple of weeks I haven’t done any recipe testing or cooking anything worth showing on my blog. I was looking through my pictures on my laptop the other day and came across this picture of a breakfast I had a couple of months ago. I think this must have been before the summer holidays as I can remember trying to finish everything up. I had just a handful of these dried bananas left and had some cocoa nibs and organic crunchy peaunutbutter that needed to be finished before leaving my dorm room for the summer. It’s so easy to put together that it isn’t really worth writing a recipe. I just sliced a banana in half and covered this with peanut butter and sprinkled the cocoa nibs and dried bananas on top. Due to the banana and peanut butter it’s rather filling, which is good as it kept me going until lunch!

Raspberry and banana trifle

A few weeks ago we celebrated a family birthday. We had a festive breakfast with lots of nice things. I decided to make something that wasn’t only gluten-, dairy- and sugar- free but would also taste great so that everyone could enjoy it! At first I wanted to do a simple fruit salad as that is always a big hit with my family. But then I decided I would spice things up and do something totally different. I did want to use fruit though. I decided to go with raspberries and banana and go from there. I like having yoghurt in the morning and I like something crunchy in my yoghurt. That’s when I thought of a trifle! This recipe combines the fruit, crunchy biscuits and yoghurt. It was a big success and there was nothing left after breakfast!

 

 

Recipe for 4 people

 

200 g gluten free plain biscuits (I used Dr. Schar’s butterkeks)

300 g raspberries

2 bananas

500 g plain soy yoghurt

50 g whole linseed

 

♥ Place the biscuits in a Ziploc bag. Roll over the bag with a rolling pin until the biscuits have formed crumbs.

♥ Chop up the banana into neat slices.

♥ Put half of the raspberries in a bowl and mash these up with a fork.

♥ Take a pretty glass (I used whisky glasses) and start with a layer of the raspberry sauce, then add the biscuit crumbs and banana and finish of with the soy yoghurt. Repeat this to form a second layer.

♥ Garnish the trifle with some banana slices, raspberries and linseed.

Oven roasted vegetables with lamb cutlets

This is a lovely summer dish, which is great for those long summer evenings! It’s really simple to prepare as it only requires cutting up the vegetables and mixing everything together in an oven dish. No cooking involved, your oven will do all the work for you! This is great with some homemade potatoe wedges or chips.

 

 

Recipe for 2 people

Half a courgette

Half an eggplant

150 gram of cherry tomatoes

2 large tomatoes

4-5 lamb cutlets

Italian herbs

Olive oil

♥ Preheat the oven to 180 ⁰C.

♥ Dice up all the vegetables.

♥ Coat the lamb cutlets with olive oil, Italian herbs, pepper and salt.

♥ Put the vegetables in a large oven dish.

♥ Make a hole in the middle in which you put the lamb cutlets sprinkle with some Italian herbs and olive oil.

♥ Put the dish in the oven for 25-35 minutes.

Easy Gluten free camping meal

This was a meal that I prepared while camping in France this summer. I had to make do with a small camping stove which could only hold two pans. When shopping that day in a big French supermarket I came across this gluten free tagliatelle pasta. It’s by the brand Gerblé. I decided to make a simply sauce to go with the pasta as I really wanted to give it a try. I must admit that I’m not a huge fan of the pasta, I thought that it was too thick and slimy. The pasta sauce turned out to be delicious, which compensated the untasty pasta. I thought I bought chicken but when we got back to the campsite it turned out to be turkey, which was also fine! I made the sauce by chopping up some mushrooms and red pepper and combining this with a store-bought jar of organic gluten free basil pasta sauce. I fried the turkey first and then added the mushrooms, red pepper and the sauce. In a separate pan I cooked the pasta. I put the pasta on the plates first and then added the sauce. Then we enjoyed this meal picknick style as we didn’t have any campingchairs or a table. This enhanced the camping feeling!

Gluten free in France - My experience

As I mentioned earlier I found eating gluten free in France relatively easy. I did most of the cooking myself which made things a lot easier! There´s a big supermarket chain in France called the Super U. While camping this was the supermarket we went to. They did sell some gluten free products mainly from Dr. Scharr. I didn´t buy anything as I brought a lot with me and I´m already familiar with Scharr´s products. While staying in an apartment we did our shopping at L´eclerc. Which has a much bigger range of gluten free products in comparison to the Super U. L´eclerc has its own gluten free brand called Chaque jour. I bought some products by this brand. The chocolate chip cookies were a bit of a disappointment. The raspberry cookies were divine! I wish I brought more of them home with me. I haven´t tried the flour or the pasta yet. I´m planning on baking a bread using the flour.The supermarkets in France are HUGE. They have loads of fruit and vegetables and have their very own butcher. There were a lot of natural gluten free foods to choose from! 

 

We ate out a few times. I printed a French restaurantcard at home. This turned out to be a lifesaver! I don´t speak any French and the French don´t speak English that well. Which made explaining the gluten free diet rather difficult! On entering the restaurant I gave the waiter my friendliest smile and handed over my restaurantcard. He smiled back and nodded and pointed to the kitchen. After consulting the cook (well at least that’s what I think he was doing in the kitchen!) he showed me exactly which dishes I was able to eat from the card. This usually turned out to be a salad or a steak (without sauce) and some vegetables. Those options were fine for me. The dessert card was more challenging.  Either the dish contained gluten or the cook couldn’t guarantee me that the dessert would be gluten free (ice cream). I didn’t have any dessert while eating out but enjoyed some fruit as soon as we returned to our apartment.

Overall my experience with gluten free food in France is very positive. There is a lot of gluten free products (L’eclerc) available and eating out wasn’t that difficult when using my restaurantcard!

Weekly Eats Wednesday- Holiday eats

I’m back! I had a great holiday, with lots of delicious gluten free meals. I found it very easy to eat gluten free in France, though this was probably due to the fact I did most of the cooking! I’ll do a separate blogpost about my experience with gluten free food in France. For now I’ll show you what I ate during my holiday. This is what I had during a very hot day which we spent on the beach. I probably had about two liter bottles of water but forgot to photograph these so you’re just going to have to believe me on that one!

 

 

Breakfast- I had my gluten free muesli (which I brought from home), some chopped up vigs (which I also brought) and some soy yoghurt for breakfast. With this I had a large glass of iced water and two cups of orange and ginger tea.
 

 

Lunch was a picknick on the beach! I packed two rice cakes, a kiwi and a nectarine to have as my lunch. Unfortunately I forgot to put my lunchbox in the cool bag so the fruit was rather warm and soggy. I had an icelolly as a treat after lunch! It had been such a long time since I had one and I thought it was overly sweet and didn’t enjoy it that much. It was refreshing though (which is why I had it in the first place!).  

 

 

We came home after a long beach day to discover we didn’t have any food for diner. We didn’t feel like going to the supermarket, so I decided to eat some of the leftovers. I toasted some gluten free focaccia bread (which I had brought with me). On the bread I put some pesto and a slice of ham. With the leftover tomatoes, pepper, cucumber, a teeny bit of salad and a homemade pesto dressing I made a roughly chopped up ‘salsa’ which I then layered onto the ham. It turned out to be very tasty. For dessert I had a few slices of watermelon.

Peanut butter cookies

These cookies are great with a cup of tea! They aren’t too sweet due to the use of peanut butter. I have added some honey just to give it a little bit of sweetness. The coconutflour gives a slight coconut taste to the cookies, which makes them even more delicious!

 

Recipe

Makes about 12

♥ ½ cup peaunut butter

♥ ¼ cup honey

♥ ½ cup coconutflour

♥ 1 egg

♥ 3 tsp of baking powder (make sure this is gluten free)

 

 

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Combine the peaunut butter and honey.

Add the egg.

Add the baking powder and coconutflour to the mixture.

Turn dough out onto a baking tray and spread evenly.

Bake in the oven for about 8-10 minutes.

Let it cool and slice into 12 even pieces.

Smoothie sunday: Happy Strawberry

Gluten free holiday - what to take??

I’m on of on a holiday to france with my boyfriend in a week time. Unfortunately you can’t take a ‘holiday’ from living gluten free! I have had numerous gluten free holidays and have noticed that preparing right is the key. I have been searching the internet for supermarkets that sell gluten free products nearby the place I’ll be staying. I also read lots of forums as I feel they give more accurate information. All the information I can find I copy into a word document which I print and take with me. I have also ordered a gluten free restaurant card in French. My French is terrible and I don’t want a miscommunication causing me to eat gluten. Better safe than sorry! When I go on a holiday I always take my ‘gluten free box’ with me. This contains various gluten free products and various kitchen utensils to make sure there’s no cross contamination. We will be camping as well as staying in an apartment, which makes it easier to cook my own meals (contrary to hotels). This the gluten free box I’m talking about:

 

As you can see there’s still some place left, this is where I’ll be packing our campingstuff (plates, glasses, cutlery etc.) I love this box as it fits in the back of the car perfectly. It holds all my essentials and has room left to pack other things! Now let’s tell you what is in it!

This is everything that I have packed at the moment. The night before we leave I’ll bake a gluten free bread in the bread machine to take with me.

 

This is what I have packed food wise.

-          Gluten free pasta from the brand Free from.

-          Foccacia bread from Dr. Schär. This is what I like to have at diner if we’re barbequing which I’m sure will happen at least once!

-          Organic dried figs. I like to take these with me as a snack when visiting places or going to the beach. This way I’m sure I have a gluten free snack with me, when I can’t find anything locally.

-          Rice cakes. I often eat these instead of bread. I only packed one pack, because I’m certain you can buy these anywhere in France.

-          Mixed nutbutter. I always take this to be sure I have something to put on my bread/rice cake. In some countries bread spreads contain gluten. I have no idea if this is the case in France (can’t really find anything about it on the internet).

-          Gluten free muesli. I LOVE this muesli this is my all-time favorite! Quite expensive though, that’s why I take it with me on holidays as a treat. The only thing I have to buy is some (soy) yoghurt and I have my breakfasts sorted!

I also packed some non-food stuff. First I packed some lunchboxes. Easy to bring snacks to the beach or when sightseeing! I also added some ‘pegs’ which I clip onto opened packages to keep them fresh. In the second picture you can see I packed two chopping boards, a breadknife and a sharp knife. I bring my own chopping board to ensure there’s no cross contamination. Then there’s the bakingpaper, we have an oven in our apartment. I use this to make sure my food is gluten free (I also clean the over before use!). And last but not least sandwichbags! They always come in handy when travelling!

 

I'll probaly will be adding some gluten free mueslibars to take with me as a snack and the homemade gluten free bread. I'm also planning on taking my own toaster, but forgot to photograph this!

 

 

Weekly Eats Wednesday- Breakfasts!

Aaah breakfast my favourite meal of the day! In the morning I seem to feel less nauseous, so that's the time of day I try to eat a good healthy nutritious meal. I have noticed that eating smaller portions spread out trough the day helps me feel less sick. So I would usually have a snack a few hours after I have had breakfast. Here are some random breakfasts I have enjoyed this week:

 

Ricecakes made of brown rice, a boiled egg. With this I had a large glass of water and a cup of orange and ginger tea.

 

 

This is a breakfast I had on an examday. It consists of soy-yoghurt, chopped up banana, cinnamon and cocoa nibs. With this I had a large cup of green tea.

 

Breakfast on the go! I took this green smoothie with me to college. It is a spinach, mango and fresh orange juice smoothie.

 

A big plate full of fruit! I enjoyed some grapes, watermelon, banana and blueberries over the weekend! With this I had a large glass of water and a cup of orange and ginger tea.

 

 

Another fruity breakfast. I think this was Sunday's breakfast. It's watermelon, strawberry and mango. With this I had a large glass of water and a cup of orange and ginger tea (can you tell this is my favourite? haha).

Healthy cupcake

Long time, no see! I have been very busy the last couple of months. I have started a new treatment for lyme (which seems to be doing something) and have been very busy with my study. There have been some birthdays and holidays these last couple of months. On one of these occasions I decided to make healthy cupcakes. These yummy cakes consist of fruit and fruit alone. They are super easy to make as all that you need is melon and strawberries!

 

Healthy cupcakes

makes 4

 

Melon

Strawberries

ice cream scoop

cupcakecases

 

♥ Cut the melon in half, and scoop uit all the pits.

♥ With your ice cream scoop scoop uit a melon ball and place this in the cupcakecase.

♥ Decorate your 'cupcake' with a strawberry!

♥ Enjoy!

 

Soup in a bun!

The temperatures are dropping (at least here in Holland!) and the autumn is slowly taking over Amsterdam. People are wearing their wolly coats and are wrapped in their warm winter scarfs. Nighttime falls early over the city. I love the autum, it's such a cozy time of the year! It makes me want to snuggle up in a blanket with a good book and a large cup of tea! It is also time for comfort food. The other day I was craving tomato soup. I decided to spice things up a notch! I served my tomatosoup in a bun, and what a good choice that was! The hot tomato soup makes the bun so flavoursome! I used a storebought glutenfree bread roll, as I was lazy and I didn't feel like baking my own bread. I did make my own (very easy) tomato soup though! I enjoyed every crumb, and will definitely be making this again!

Soup in a bun

 

recipe (serves 4)

4 glutenfree storebought bread rolls (even better , make your own!)

4 cups of sieved tomatoes

2 generous handfulls of fresh basil

1 litre of vegetable stock

 

♥ Heat the sieved tomatoes and vegetable stock in a pan.

♥ Cut off the top of a bread roll and scoop out the bread roll.

♥ Add the fresh basil to the soup, and let the soup simmer for 10 minutes.

♥ Pour the soup into the bread rolls

♥ Enjoy!

Passionate Pineapple

Caprese pinwheels

I don´t read many magazines but there is one I make an exeption for. It´s called Zonder Meer, a dutch magazine full of recipes for people who have food allergies. This recipe is from the newest issue (Nr.6) all credits go to Zonder meer magazine. As the recipe is in dutch I have translated it into English. The pinwheels turned out so good that I didn't see any reason to change anything about the recipe.

  

Caprese pinwheels

recipe

450 g gluten free wholegrain bread mix
7 g dried yeast
20 g olive oil
200 g mozzarella cheese
100 g sundried tomatoes in oil
30 g fresh basil leaves
A sprinkle of sea salt

♥ Dissolve the yeast in 300 ml lukewarm water

♥ Add the bread mix and the olive oil knead the dough until it forms a bal, let the dough rise for 30 min

♥ Preheat the oven to 190 degrees

♥ Slice the mozzarella, basil leaves and sundried tomatoes into small pieces

♥ Cover your worktop with a small amount of cornflour

♥ Roll out the dough into a cm thick square

♥ Sprinkle the mozzarella, basil, sundried tomatoes and sea salt over the dough, make sure to leave 10 cm on the right uncovered

♥ Roll up the dough starting at the left side, then cut the roll into slices

♥ Bake the pinwheels for 20-25 min in the middle of the oven

Nutty brownies

One of my friends sent me this youtube video* knowing I'm always on the lookout for new recipes. After watching the video I decided to give these brownies a go. The only thing I changed is substituting the butter for coconut oil to make them lactosefree. If you do want to use butter in your brownies use the same amount as the coconut oil (130 grams).

Enjoy!

Nutty brownies

 

Recipe

 

200 g dark chocolate (the darker the better!)

130 g coconut oil

1 teaspoon honey

2 eggs

¾ cups coconut flour

¾ cups coconut sugar

½ cup nuts (I used walnuts, but any nuts will do)

 

♥ Preheat the oven to 180 degrees

♥ Roast the nuts and break them up into little pieces

♥ Melt the chocolate and the coconut oil

♥ Add the coconut sugar and the honey to the melted chocolate mixture

♥ Add 2 eggs, one at a time and whisk really well

♥ Add the nuts and the coconut flour

♥ Pour the mixture into a baking tray

♥ Place the baking tray in the middle of the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes.

 

* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7CupRVPaHo