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Hormone-Balancing Bliss Balls

Jan 12

Hormone-Balancing Bliss Balls

Do you know what you need to eat to balance out your hormones? Fat! Lots of it. The very thing we have been avoiding for decades worrying that it makes us fat. ⁣ ⁣ Instead, with all the fat-free diets we have created a system with imbalanced hormones, more infertility, worse mood swings, a lot more cramping, and a lot less happy women. ⁣ ⁣ So let’s get back to eating more fats. These hormone-balancing bliss balls taste yummy, make the perfect snack for every day, and help you

Pumpkin Spice Moon Milk

Sep 18, 2020

Pumpkin Spice Moon Milk

The most-cooked recipe on the blog is the Moon Milk from this year's #selflovejanuary tips. Not a week goes by when I don't get asked for this recipe to bring you amazing sleep. And that's because it works! I can feel a difference in the quality of my sleep when I drink it at night instead of a glass of wine to calm me down. Well, for this pumpkin spice season the Moon Milk is getting a fall makeover and a new Pumpkin Spice Moon Milk is here! I don't know about you, but I am

Lung-Protecting Turmeric Latte

Sep 15, 2020

Lung-Protecting Turmeric Latte

The last few weeks here in the Bay Area have been hard on so many levels. Seeing the smoke hanging over your home every morning you wake up is scary but not as scary as it is for all the people who are losing their homes, their existence, and their lives. The wildfires are just another huge catastrophe to hit in 2020 and it all feels so overwhelming. How much more can you do as an individual to keep everyone safe and protected? This week I read a post about how wildfires aren

Easter chocolate eggs (raw chocolate)

Apr 10, 2020

Easter chocolate eggs (raw chocolate)

With Easter standing right in front of our door I feel very sad. Baby Zand was planning an Easter extravaganza over the last couple of weeks, telling me excitedly who she wanted to invite, what food there should be, and how everyone would go hunting for Easter eggs. I already knew we wouldn't be able to pull it off, but I didn't have the heart to tell her. So these last few days I have been pulling out all the stops trying to make this weekend as special as possible. We've be

Immune boosting energy balls

Jan 21, 2020

Immune boosting energy balls

All week long I am sharing #selflovejanuary rituals around boosting your immune system over on Instagram and Facebook stories. Today's ritual is all around switching out your afteronon snacks to support your immune system, and these energy balls are just perfect for that! Every single ingredient in this ball is a immune booster by itself and when you put them together it's like a superhero. I try not to use powders often for the recipes here, as I like to show you how you can

Moon milk

Jan 15, 2020

Moon milk

All week long the theme for #selflovejanuary is rituals for better restoration and sleep over on Instagram and Facebook. Come and check out the daily tips. For today I talked about having a hot beverage before you go to bed to calm your nervous system down and make your body feel warm and relaxed, ready to go to sleep. This hot beverage of course excludes coffee :-). You can use this time to try out an herb for a certain goal - for example raspberry leaf to get your cycle reg

Grilled corn and kale salad

Jul 30, 2019

Grilled corn and kale salad

Summer is BBQ season for us, and it is like a ritual to Arman. He uses charcoal, which means it is a process to get the thing to light up and get it hot enough. Every weekend he stands in the garden, and makes fire. And now Baby Zand is getting so excited about being the BBQ helper, she runs back and forth between dad at the BBQ and mom in the kitchen, asking for tools and food, and relaying messages between the two of us. To me BBQ is kind of bitter sweet. I don't eat meat,

Thai quinoa coconut salad

Apr 23, 2019

Thai quinoa coconut salad

Ok, Thai and quinoa in one recipe doesn't seem very traditional. It's not. But it is the coolest creation by one of my favorite restaurants in the Bay Area: Daughter Thai in Mont Clair. I have to say, having lived in Thailand for 3 years, I have become somewhat of a Thai food snob. The majority of Thai restaurants are just satays and pre-made curry sauces thrown together with whatever meat or vegetable you want with some bland rice on the side. Most of it is uninspired and do

Banana oatmeal muffins

Mar 25, 2019

Banana oatmeal muffins

We are currently in Singapore visiting my sister and Baby Zand's cousins. It's been a week of fun, sunshine, and swimming. Plus an entire new household of toys - needless to say Baby Zand has been in heaven. For me, I've been able to test out what it's like having 4 kids - it's a never in a million years for me! :-) Plus we've been enjoying some of my favorite dumplings, coconut buns, and lots of fresh tropical fruit. Last week I had a lovely friend from Shanghai come over, a

Lentils with tamarind chutney

Mar 12, 2019

Lentils with tamarind chutney

Tamarind is a very sour, tropical fruit that grows in little pods, and is used in cooking all around the world. It can be used for both savory dishes such as chutneys and pickling, and sweet dishes such as drinks and desserts. The most amazing fact about tamarind is that it is high in calcium - unlike most fruit. That is great for anyone who can't or doesn't want to eat dairy, and keeps getting asked where they get their calcium from :-). I love the taste of tamarind, especia

Green chia pudding

Jan 22, 2019

Green chia pudding

Green is always the color of the New Year! It is the color of fresh, new nature, of cleaning up your digestive tract, and giving your body the much craved oxygen it needs to have more energy. Green smoothies are always my go to as soon as I come back from holidays. (I even have a beat the jetlag green smoothie recipe :-)), and this green chia pudding is my favorite new breakfast addition. One of the best benefits is that I can whip it up at night, and don't have to worry abou

Pumpkin energy balls

Oct 25, 2018

Pumpkin energy balls

Here is the next Halloween recipe I promised you after the delicious pumpkin chocolate rice crispy treats. As you can tell, we take Halloween very seriously. Our fridge is stocked with healthy treats for the big day, and our costume has been in production for the last month. I can't yet share what it will be, because we need to make sure it actually works :-). But here is our costume from last year. Baby Zand's favorite song at the time was "The wheels on the Bus". Preparatio

Stress reducing hot chocolate

Sep 25, 2018

Stress reducing hot chocolate

A stressful time of the year is lying ahead of us - the end of the year and the holiday season are inching closer. It is a time where we often don't get enough sleep, finish up work projects, buy gifts, and give the kids holiday experiences that take away the last bit of our sanity, like visiting a pumpkin patch. This is also the time when we need to support our body as much as we can. Stress hormones are the number one topic I keep bringing up, because we live in a time of c

Rhubarb strawberry oat crumble pie

Jul 17, 2018

Rhubarb strawberry oat crumble pie

Ah, I have already mentioned how much I am in love with summer produce with last week's asparagus risotto recipe. Let's talk about rhubarb, and my love for this epic fruit (actually it's a vegetable :-)). Rhubarb is super popular in Germany in the late spring/ early summer, and I remember how my grandmother used to cook jars and jars of rhubarb compote during its very short season. This would then be dessert for the rest of the summer, served with either creamy vanilla ice cr

The most divine gluten free blueberry muffins

Apr 24, 2018

The most divine gluten free blueberry muffins

I have been tinkering on this recipe forever! Making blueberry muffins gluten free and vegan without refined sugar is almost impossible. Somehow they always turn into a batch of bitter glue. I have tried all kinds of flours, from brown rice to oat and coconut. Finally, a combination of millet and almond flour seems to create the right texture with a great taste. Make sure you use fresh blueberries, they get the best results. Frozen blueberries melt into the dough, creating a

Stir fried kale and white beans with caper lemon sauce

Feb 27, 2018

Stir fried kale and white beans with caper lemon sauce

A super simple, very versatile recipe is here to end the month of February. It's still very cold and uncomfortable, which makes me crave a lot of warm, cooked foods. And while we know that leafy greens are the foundation of vibrant health, eating them in a raw salad is just not my kind of things right now. That is why I like to quickly stir fry them or add them to soups in the last few minutes of cooking. In this recipe I stir fry kale with onion and white beans. That's it! T

Light little watercress salad with blood orange and avocado

Dec 7, 2017

Light little watercress salad with blood orange and avocado

This number is the perfect little side salad for the holidays: refreshing, super quick to whip up, and it will surely make an impression with its gorgeous bright colors. Watercress is a very underrated leaf. It's such a nutrient bomb with more Vitamin C than oranges for a strong immune system, more iron than spinach for lots of energy, and more potassium than bananas for healthy muscles. Yet often watercress is only used as decoration on a plate in a fancy restaurant, when it

Baby Zand's raw chocolate raspberry birthday cake

Nov 14, 2017

Baby Zand's raw chocolate raspberry birthday cake

For over a week now we've been celebrating Baby Zand's 2nd birthday. Her wish for her birthday was chocolate. So I delivered! We had chocolate almond butter raspberry chia jam cups (that's a long name for something so delicious!), and banana chocolate chip muffins, and chocolate pancakes, and this super creamy raw raspberry chocolate cake. The recipe is inspired by the gorgeous Buffy over at Be Goods Organics. I have modified it slightly to leave out the coconut because my hu

Spiced apple sauce

Oct 3, 2017

Spiced apple sauce

This past month we have been flooded with apples from our trees. Our afternoon post-nap ritual is for Baby Zand and I go to go out, pick an apple to snack on, and watch puppy Haigo run around in the yard. I am dreading the day there are no more apples on the trees, and we will turn into tantrum central! We can't even eat these apples quick enough, more and more just keep falling off the tree. So we have been living on apple muffins, apple pie, apple crumble, apple muesli, app

Balinese banana coconut dessert

Sep 19, 2017

Balinese banana coconut dessert

As a child, I was super fortunate to travel the world with my family. One of the exotic locations we went to for holidays was Bali. It was a short hop over from Hong Kong, where we were living at the time, and a prime holiday destination to get some sunshine, beach, and relaxation. And while we visited beautiful temples, met super kind people, and had a wonderful family time, the thing that stuck with me the most was this banana coconut soup like thing that was served for bre