Spaghetti with beets, capers and mozzarella

Beets to purify almost everything!

The recipe below, is one I made some weeks ago. It was on a rainy afternoon when I just felt I needed a good lunch, with some great colours to brighten up the day. The combination of the beets and thyme worked very well, especially when topped with some parmesan cheese :-) But of course, this probably would do for dinner even better. The sweet beets and silty capers, and I guess these veggies would even work out with some nicely cooked quinoa, when you're not too fond of pasta's.

Beets are incredibly healthy, and that's not just because of the high level of various vitamins and minerals. Beets are Particularly beneficial to women who are pregnant, as the vitamin B and iron are very beneficial to new growth cells during pregnancy and replenishing iron in the woman's body. But even if you're not pregnant beets happen to have many benefits: they are a wonderful tonic for the liver, (when you 'oops' drank too much!) and they work as a purifier for the blood. To top that, they even can help prevent various forms of cancer.


When you're not feeling too cheerful, beets are really a godsend. They contain 'betaine', a substance also used in certain treatments for depression. It also contains useful 'trytophan', which relaxes the mind and creates a sense of well-being, a bit like chocolate. And finally, they can lower your blood pressure.

Convinced? Good, because there are numerous different and delightful recipes to be made with beetroot! You could use them raw,  finely chopped in a salad with some mint, or for example, a juice with apple and carrot, or in a salad with potatoes and chives, and so on. That said, I'd better think of what beet dish is going to be next on the blog!

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Easy quinoa with mushrooms, arugula and thyme

Day 2: Easy quinoa with mushrooms, arugula and thyme 

Well, it's official. After all the parties; the famous Dutch 'Queens'- into 'Kingsday', the holiday of the kids with sleepovers and thus more get togethers with friends and drinks: it was time to just stop for a while. Get our bodies back in shape, get clean again and healthy. We decided to take a break on our grown habits: coffee in the morning, many products with gluten (bread, pasta's, potatoes etc), dairy (cappuchino's, cheeses..), our awesome glasses of Chardonnay (God, I miss you already), and all the other goods that go along.. (which might be vegetarian, but maybe not that healthy..)

Just none of it all for (at least) 30 days. Our  '30 day challenge' started yesterday, and though i thought it might be tough here or there.. it really isn't at all! (so far.. this is day two, i admit) But it just feels great being busy with your health in a good way; finding and creating new recipes without the stuff that makes you tired and look and feel exhausted! Fresh juices in the morning, great salads for lunch and awesome dishes for dinner...
While we actually just wanted to quit drinking alcohol for a month, we decided to go radical, and quit drink and eat many things of our normal diet.

Thereby, I bought the amazing new cookbook of Gwyneth Paltrow, (yes, she is a cookbook author, I didn't know that either) which just amazes me with beautiful pictures and incredibly simple but tasty recipes.
The book 'It's all good', which Gwyneth wrote with co-author and food-writer Julia Turshen, is really a must have, if you want to change your normal eating program for whatever reason, or suffer allergies like gluten- or dairy intolerances. This easy quinoa recipe is one of hers, and is so easy, it's almost amazing it tastes so good!

Oh, come on, and join us, it's only for 30 days!

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Spinach-arugula salad with oven roasted tomatoes, mushrooms and croutons

Let's pretend it's summer!

As happy as I was last weekwith the first sign of spring, as drairy it is again today. Just went outside for some skating in the park with my kids, but went straight home when my ears started to freeze off.. There is this saying in Holland, which goes like this:

 

'March moves it's tail, april does as it pleases, and may adds some more..' When i write this down in english it sounds ridiculous, due to the fact it makes no sense at all, and doen's even rhyme! Well, anyway, it means we're not yet done with wintery days, and as beautiful the weather seemed to be last week, as cold and wet it is today, which isn't particularly an exception for this time of the year. It actually means carpe diem. Just run outside, when you see a bit of light! That rhymes for sure.

 

So. If the sun won't come out just yet, we just have to pretend. And nothing beats a summery salad on your plate. It's weekend right? Pour yourself a nice glass of wine, mayby an icecold Chardonnay, and enjoy the crispy spinach salad with sun dried oven roasted tomatoes. By the way, you can save these tomatoes for about two weeks in your fridge by cover them with olive oil, in a sealed container. Very nice over some pasta.

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