Yoga, Health, and Wellness Articles + Recipes

These type of cakes are often called vegan cheesecakes, but I call these cakes strawberry cakes, because that’s what they are. The preparation of the cake is relatively simple, but you need to be patient because you need to wait for the cashews to soak and then the cake to set. You also need a very good blender to get the consistency nice and smooth. Once you have the cake ready, you can just keep this in the freezer and thaw it whenever you have unexpected guests or merely overwhelming feeling that you want something sweet. And as far as the sweets go – for the cake it is healthy too! Vegan Summer Strawberry Cheese Cake

There must be thousands of banana bread recipes out there in the world, but I still feel the need to share another one. I have been looking for a good plant-based recipe for a long time, but all the recipes I found always contained a load of added sugar or preparing a flax egg or something third I didn’t like, so I figured out that I don’t follow any recipes and figure out my own recipe instead. This is not the first time I just decide to wing it, and I must admit that I am not very good at following other peoples’ recipes anyway. Even if I choose to follow a recipe, I still somehow manage to switch up half the ingredients and change all the amounts. This is also, why I decided to get blogging years ago, to keep track of the recipes that work for me – with all the changes I always made I wasn’t able to remember anymore which changes I had made and which ones actually worked. Because not all the changes work, especially when baking. Back to winging it – this doesn’t necessarily always work either.

Have you ever met somebody who does not like chocolate? I remember meeting one girl who was not fond of it years ago, but this is also the only time I have seen anybody who does not like it. As a general rule, every dessert that has chocolate in it vanishes from the table within minutes. Chocolate in itself is not unhealthy at all. Having a little square of dark chocolate a day even has proven health benefits. However, the chocolate really needs to be dark to be healthy. Most of the chocolate bars, loaded with sugar and different additives, do not qualify as healthy. I usually choose the chocolate that contains at least 75%, sometimes even more than 90% of cocoa! The chocolate mousse, usually, is full of everything unhealthy – heavy cream and white sugar. But here is good news – the recipe I share with you today only contains ingredients good for you and I let you be the judge of the taste, but in my humble opinion, it is just perfect.

Sometimes the simplest meals are the best, and this bowl full of goodness is a perfect example. The recipe is even simpler to prepare when you have cooked your soba noodles in advance. I often cook a larger batch of chickpeas, lentils, or rice over the weekend and then use throughout the week for my meals. I would never consider cooking pasta in advance, because pasta cooked yesterday…. well, it is just not very nice. Soba noodles, on the other hand, work very well cooled down and in fact, I sometimes deliberately cook soba in advance for chilled salads on hot summer days. It is important not to overcook the soba and mix it with a drop of oil, so the noodles would not stick together. For this recipe, however, you do not need to chill the noodles – they are just as good warm.

If you ever need to change somebody’s opinion about cauliflower, then this is the recipe for it. It is crispy, spicy, sticky, and delicious. Of course, you can adjust the spiciness level according to your taste, but I love the spice, and I have listed the amounts of chili I used. The sauce is one of the things that makes the dish enjoyable and gives it a lot of flavor, but the most essential part is the crispy-battered cauliflower itself. The secret in the batter is vodka! Don’t worry, there will be no alcohol left after frying, but it gives the batter extra crispiness that can stand the sauce and will not be soaked within 5 minutes. In fact, since I had some leftovers the last time I cooked this dish, then I had it for breakfast the next day, and it was still crispy in some parts, even after standing in the fridge overnight. I always love to serve steamed rice with this cauliflower, but it is also good on its own as a snack. Crispy Cauliflower in a Sweet & Spicy Sauce

I challenge you to find a simpler recipe than this cucumber soup! With a beautiful summery weather spending long hours in the kitchen is not my idea of a good time. I’d rather spend it out enjoying the sun, hiking, cycling, doing yoga or just reading a good book. At the same time, I refuse to lower my food standards just because I don’t want to spend too much time cooking. And this is precisely the type of recipe that is quick, seasonal, healthy and super delicious! Just perfect for warm weather. As a bonus, it is also light on calories, so you don’t need to feel guilty having a dessert after! I always like to decorate my food, but this is, of course, not required. If you don’t feel like playing around with balling avocado, slicing cucumber super thinly or organizing edible flowers neatly, this is absolutely fine, but I still recommend to cube up some cucumber for some texture.

Today’s recipe is Asian inspired, but I couldn’t point a finger to an specific country, and I didn’t use any other recipe for a basis. Instead, I just opened the fridge door, found some beautiful mushrooms and my meal pretty much started to develop itself. It often happens to me that I just get creative based on the ingredients I have at hand. A tiny bit from here, something from there, soy sauce and chili make everything tasty anyway, and just like that, a beautiful meal is ready in no time and struggle. This system of mine usually works out nicely, and often the recipes turn out so good that I feel the urge to share them with others. The mushroom dish I share with you today is one of my favorites lately. Since I first made it a few weeks ago, I have cooked it for two more times. Once using champignons so I can peacefully say that they are good in this recipe too, but my personal preference is still shitakes since they have a little more bite and chew to them. The crispiness of the mushrooms is really enjoyable with the slightly sweet and spicy sauce, but as always if crispiness meets sauce – have the people waiting for the food and not the other way around – otherwise the meal will still be delicious, but you will lose the texture. Gorgeously Sticky Asian Mushrooms

I have to admit that my love for kale is growing every day! It is delicious plain straight from the garden (did you know that you can even grow kale on your window sill!?), in salads, roasted to crispy deliciously healthy chips or sautéed – just bring it on and I love it. I did not imagine that I could love these dark green leaves so much as a kid, but I am fortunate to have a rather healthy palate these days. Of course, this also has a lot to do with habits. Somebody who is used to have a hot dog for breakfast, burger for lunch and pizza for dinner would most probably not love this salad immediately, but it is possible to train your taste buds to like healthier foods. Just start with a few healthier choices and soon you realize that salads are actually delicious and real food that you cooked yourself is always better for you than take-out! Cheaper too! Talking about this salad warm Kale & Chickpea Salad recipe here – this is a real 15-minute meal that doesn’t require any cooking skills or fancy equipment and the ingredient list is relatively short.

My recipes are usually very straightforward and quick, only containing a few ingredients and not many steps. For me, the current recipe categorizes under simple recipes too, but it does require quite many steps, especially if you also decide to prepare your own sauce and haven’t precooked the lentils in advance. I usually cook a large batch of lentils, chickpeas or beans over the weekend and then use them during the week in different recipes – it is an excellent way to save time during the busy working week and always prefer cooking my own legumes over the canned versions. Talking about the canned versions, this recipe uses quite an unusual ingredient that is canned because it is difficult if not even impossible to get fresh one outside of Asia. I am talking about the king of fruits – jackfruit! Jackfruit is a huge fruit mostly grown in South-East Asia, and I fell in love with it in Asia.

Winter is the time of the year we tend to stay inside more compared to warmer periods. Staying inside often also means moving less and at the same time, winter dishes tend to be heavier. Good food is my passion, no question about it, but staying fit and healthy is something I am passionate about as well. This means that I always try to figure out smarter recipes that taste amazing but are good for me. It´s all about balance and the recipe I am going to share with you today is a perfect example of healthy food that definitely does not lack flavor! These little red parcels here are perfect as a side dish or even a vegetarian main. They look awesome on the dinner table and are rather healthy and balanced due to the protein in the quinoa. Red Onions with Quinoa Filling