Coconut Oil

The smell of Coconut Oil reminds me of Summer. I love it! There are so many benefits in using Coconut Oil. It lowers cholesterol, obesity, heart disease and Alzheimer's disease!

How to use Coconut Oil :
- You can make a super healthy and oh so jummy chocolate fudge out of it. How great is that. Eating chocolate and knowing you are doing your body a favor (and your sweet tooth). Here is the recipe.
Here is a video from youtube by Naturesknockouts that shows you have to make it.

- You can use it as a body lotion. It will make you smell good and it moist your skin. Two birds in one.

- You can use it in your hair. Use it in your ends after showering to give you healthy hair, and not dry split ends (don't use to much.. then your hair might look a bit greasy).

- U can use it as a conditioner for your hair. Use it to massage your scalp if you have a dry scalp.

- Some drops of Coconut Oil in your hair color when dying it will protect your hair from the chemicals.

- You can use Coconut Oil instead of butter when you are using your frying pan.

I am sure there is a lot of other things you can use Coconut Oil for, but this is what I use it for.
Enjoy smelling like coconut, the Summer sun and eating chocolate Fudge :)

Blueberry Muffins

I made the same kind of muffins as the carrot muffins. I had to tuck the blueberries in though, cause the muffin dough is pretty thick and I did not want the blueberries to crack.

These are my new "Blueberry Breakfast Cake". I love Starbucks Blueberry Breakfast Cake and would treat myself with it once a week. Now when I'm Vegan I can't have them but I can have these :) They are just as good without the sugar. Hmmm.

Recipe (Just change the shredded carrots with blueberries and added 1/4 T of lemon juice pr muffin.) This is not my recipe. I found it on the blog where I linked you too. You should try out some of the other recipes too. I have tried many and keep coming back to this blog, cause the recipes are healthy and so goooood!!

This is how they look plain (without the cream on top). As you can see I multiplied the single lady recipe by 12. So now I have 12 muffins instead of 1. My mum wanted some extra muffins she could freeze.

Next time I might add some more lemon juice to the recipe. I love the lemon taste in the Blueberry Muffins. Enjoy your breakfast :)

My kind of Toast

Yummy. Toast for Breakfast. I repeat yummy. The bread gets oh so crispy…  This sandwich does not contain any animal products like most toasts. Which also mean it does not have all the fat. Hurray!

It does however have spinach and tomato. Your body is going to love you for picking this toast.

You need:

-       Two slice of bread (non dairy) – Mine is made from whole wheat and has hemp seeds and sesame seeds on top.

-       Some spinach and one other lettuce of your choice (I used 5-6 spinach leaves and 2 Little Gem leaves

-       Slices of tomato (I used 2)

-       Vegan cream cheese (I used Tofutti plain)

-       Some pepper to taste

      I fry mine on a pan, but you can also use a oven. I don't have one..

Directions:

1.    Take on slice of bread. Cover with cream cheese.

2.    Put the veggies on and some pepper

3.    End with the second slice of bread on top

4.    Press it together

5.    Fly 3-5 min on each side

6.    When done eat, or cut it across so you end up with two rectangular sandwiches.

I love this sandwich and cannot get enough of it! I ate three of them yesterday and felt like I could not move. I would recommend only eating one J

3 Months Vegan =D

I have made it 3 months. Around 90 Days. I am so proud of myself.
Time has gone very fast. I still get a bit tempted if I see someone drinking a glass of milk or eating a burger next to me.

Burgers used to be one of my favorite food. Cold milk was also my favorite drink. It´s not easy seeing people eating your favorites when you don´t eat that sort of stuff anymore. If I´m hungry I get more tempted though so it`s a good thing to make sure I´m not hungry.

The first week I missed bread and milk the most. The second week I missed milk. The third week I did not really miss anything. It is weird how fast your body gets used to new things. I most say however though a few days ago I got an urge for cheese, but only cause my mum bought it and I started thinking about melted cheese toast. I have been thinking about toast a lot these last few days, so I´m going to be making my kind of toast this week. I just need to wait for the stores to reopen after Easter break.
Tomorrow I will have a huge food shopping day and make a few favorites and try out a few new ones.

My favorite thing about being vegan is that I just feel so great! I can´t really explain it? Maybe it has with being healthy or knowing what I put into my body. I have lots of energy, but I do get cranky if I don´t eat on a regular basis.
Also I love that I can eat so much dessert. In TheKindLife book it is said I can eat dessert 3-4 times a week. There is a lot of fat in dairy food and meat and since I´m not eating it I can afford more dessert =) I make my own desserts though cause you can´t really get vegan desserts in the stores in Norway.
They do however have a super good strawberry and chocolate ice cream.
I am loving the sweet side of life <3 <3 <3

I have also lost 4 kg. Weird since I have done nothing but stuffing my face with food!  I know that if I started working out more and maybe drop all the vegan sweets I have been making I could loose more weight and very easy too, but I am happy with my body =)

Anyway first 3 months have been filled with temptation (not to much really), lots of new food that I did not know existed and a much more positive outlook on life.

Pancakes

I love them. I can never get enough of pancakes, and I would gladly eat them for every meal. Im not though, cause that would not give my body all the vitamins it needs. I so wish they could though.

I love thin pancakes. Crepes with banana and melted chocolate oh my it just taste so good. Pancakes with bacon it`s so good, but also in my past. I need to find a fake bacon. Thats the one thing I don´t know if I can live without in the long run?

Thick pancakes with Blueberry jam and some vegan cream. It taste amazing!

Here is a recipe for thick pancakes. 

I used to hate thick pancakes at first when I lived in America. I would miss the thin pancakes I was so used to at home. The pancakes I would eat every Sunday and that I grew up with.

After giving the American pancakes a few tries I started liking them too. It´s weird hahh..

When I came back to Norway I missed the American pancakes and when in America I missed the Norwegian ones.

Hahah But now I can have them both =)

Here is a recipe for thin pancakes.

Enjoy the pancakes which ever you like !!!

Fruit Salad

Fruits Salad is a fast and fresh delicious meal. You can serve it to friends as a dessert or eat it yourself as a dessert. It is fun and filled with colors. Reminds me of autumn.

You need :
- 2 Apples
- 2 Orange
- 2 Pears

Direction :
1. Cut the fruits into pieces.
2. Mix in a big bowl
3. Top with chocolate sprinkle, cream, vanilla sauce or cinnamon or nothing if you like it plain ?

Summer is almost here. Jippi, I cannot wait to wear colorful dresses ! Bring some colors into your life and enjoy  <3

Carrot Muffin

These muffins are amazing!  They taste so great I just cannot get enough of them. I made them with both whole wheat flour and normal fine flour, and I liked them so much better with the whole flour. These are really a delicious treat.

I used the single lady recipe by Katie. I just doubled the recipe by six so I could get 6 muffins instead of one.
I also used a different top cream then her. I could not find tofu so I used a vegan cream instead and used shredded carrot on top for decoration.

 Here is how the dough looks. I used a bit more water then her recipe cause I`m not used to the dough for muffins being that thick.

 I used oil to grease my muffin pan. The muffins came easy out, leaving no burnt dough in the pan.

 I let them cool of on a plate before I used cream on them. I did not want the cream to melt.

Here they are finished. I made them with fine flour and wheat flour. I most say they tasted so much better with the wheat flour. They had a harder surface but was softer inside. I saved some for the next day and
I´m happy to say they tasted better the second day.

Have a happy Easter !

Some foods that prevent Diabetes

http://www.5min.com/Video/Diabetes-Diet-Tips-230505726

Oatmeal O How I Love You!

I eat oatmeal almost every morning. Why? It taste good, it fills me up until Lunch, and it only takes about 3 minutes to make. Also on a cold morning, like most mornings in Norway it makes me warm, and ready for the day.

Here are just some examples of how I eat my oatmeal.

1. With  1T peanut butter and 1T cacao powder. Hmmmm. It`s almost like a treat.

2. With cinnamon and vanilla powder in it. I cook it with the cinnamon and vanilla in it.

3. With strawberry jam on top and some vanilla powder in when I make it.

4. With honey and cinnamon.

5. With crushed nuts and chocolate. yumyumyum. I am a chocolate monster

With Blueberry jam, honey and almonds on top. Cinnamon mixed in when cooking.

1 tsp vanilla mixed in and 1T cinnamon when cooking. Honey and cinnamon on top when done.

Oatmeal I love you for your versatility!!!

Raspberry muffins

I used Chocolate covered Katie’s recipe. I know I have been using her recipes a lot lately. It’s because I have loved every recipe of hers I have tried so far.

This makes two muffins. I doubled the recipe and I did not use almond extract, because I did not have it. Instead though I had marzipan.  I used a thin layer of marzipan as a lid on the muffin.

 I used a glass to make the marzipan flat, and to push out the marzipan lids.

 I used melted chocolate as glue between the muffin and the marzipan lid. 

 How the mixture looks like before cooked. The dough is pretty thick compared with normal "muffin dough"

I topped the finished muffins with a fresh raspberry on each muffin. 

I am so happy it only makes 4 muffins. Katie also have single lady muffins which I love. How great is it not to make one muffin when your craving sugar instead of making 10-12 like normal muffin recipes makes. I love it!!!  

Easter Egg

Happy Easter J Instead of giving away Easter eggs this year I did something different. I filled old jars with home made confetti.

 My favorite is the white one, which I’m going to make again this Christmas. They remind me a bit of bounty chocolate.  They are very easy to make and I think they look cute.

What you need:

-       Marzipan

-       Vegan chocolate

-       Shredded unsweetened Coconut

-       If you want to color the marzipan pink you can use the juice from beet vegetable

(If you use just a bit of it you cannot taste the beet!)

Directions for white snowball:

1.     Make balls out of the white marzipan.

2.     Use a toothpick and dip half of the marzipan ball in melted vegan chocolate.

3.     Sprinkle the shredded coconut on the chocolate half of the ball before the chocolate dries.

These are just dipped in chocolate.

 These have an almond inside. They kinda look like red pepper 

 Decorate the jars different and have fun with decor 

I hope you get inspired to making your own Easter candy.

Hairstyles

I have been trying to be more creative with my hair lately. Just a fun project for myself. Learning new hairdos on youtube and recreating styles I know. I'm pretty boring when it comes to hair.
I would always be the wash and go kind of girl. Which sometimes leaves me feeling that my hair is boring, cause I never really do anything with it. I know a lot of different do's I just never bother.

I have been trying to change that these last few days. I know these hairdos are not anything special, but it is a beginning at least for me.
(And yeah it feels strange posting a picture of me... but I figure why not... I always find blogs with picture of the person better, cause it's more personal)

 Two bun updo.

 Scarf in braid.

 How my hair normally looks.

 Sleep in curls.

 French braid.

Short hair updo.

These are just a few.. I'm just terrible at taking pictures of my hair from the back.

I hope this inspires you to try some new hairdos :D Internet is a good way to learn if you can't braid for example.
Here are some hair tutorials on youtube I like :

Fake Bob

Overnight curls 

Dutch Braid

Boohoo

Peanut butter and Cocoa milkshake

This milkshake definitely cures my sweet tooth. It is one of my favorites smoothies. You don’t need any sugar. This is more then sweet enough. This is the kind of drink that makes me so happy I’m a vegan. I’m not missing out.

And Yes I have been bitten by the smoothie/milkshake bug

I'm also going to make Ice Cream out of this one. I love peanut butter and chocolate !!

You need:

-       1 frozen banana (I usually put the banana in the freezer in the morning when I’m headed out the door for school, so I can make the milkshake as a treat when I get back).

-       1T peanut butter

-       1 tsp raw cocoa powder

-       ½ a cup to ¾ of a cup milk (I use almond. It makes all my milkshakes creamy)

You just put everything in a blender and wait till it’s smooth. You will not be sorry you took the time. 

Have a good Easter break people :D Take some time off for a bubble bath and a walk in the park, or for some reading. 

Gone with Baking Soda - In with Olive

I love baking soda shampoo, but............
 I recently found out that baking soda takes away B-vitamins from your body, which in my case is not good. Since I don't eat meat or dairy my body does not get B-vitamins that easy. I also like my body to keep the B- vitamins I'm feeding it. So I started using a different "shampoo".

Face, body and I use it for hair too. How great is that!

My new shampoo:

1. Use a 100% olive oil soap bar. Just foam it into your hair like a normal shampoo. Okay so it feels  different than normal shampoo. It does not give that massive foam you get with normal shampoo, but it cleans the hair.

2.  I use 1 cup of hot water with 1 T apple cider vinegar to rinse my hair.
Use cold water at the end.

= My hair ends up looking good!! It is soft and shiny and I don't need to condition my hair. I figure is the olive oil that makes my hair so smooth :D My hair also smells great.. it's like my hair gives off it's own perfume.

What I have been eating for Dinner Lately

Here is some of the stuff I have been eating for dinner lately. It might look a bit boring, but I'm a student without a stove. I use different spices to make the dishes taste different. I love all these dishes. They are very very simple to make which suits me perfectly.

 Homemade hamburger with lettuce, corn, cucumber and pickles.

 Taco : Lettuce, cucumber and white beans with taco powder

 Brown rice, mushroom, white beans, carrot and peas with teriyaki sauce.

 Whole macaroni with tomato sauce, yellow onion, paprika and black beans.

 Red quinoa, carrots, peas and tomato sauce

 Seaweed, cucumber, quinoa, tomato paste and soy sauce on the seaweed and cucumber.

 Black beans, veggies and taco shell.

Brown rice, butter beans and corn with teriyaki sauce.