the nine last smoothies

I've now reached the end of my 30 different smoothies for 30 days journey. And while it has been a delicious 30 days (well, at least the breakfast) it has alas done absolutely nothing to improve my energy levels or facial complexion. 

For that I think you need to change your diet and life more radically. Still, when you always have the fridge and freezer full of fruit and veggies anyway it's a great, tasty way to use them. And a lovely smoothie always add a touch of luxuary to the breakfast or lunch.

Welcome to the ingredients lists of my last/latest 9 smoothies:

Pale yellow above - organic (always!) banana, pineapple, oatmilk, agave, turmeric, cardamom.

Pale green - avocado, broccoli, kale, kiwi, agave, oatmilk.

Deep red - strawberry, raspberry, red- and blackcurrant, agave, oatmilk.

Chocolate - banana, apple, chili, raw cacao, oatmilk.

Red - raspberry, apple, pomegranate, oatmilk.

Bright green - banana, spinach, kiwi, passionfruit, oatmilk. 

Bright yellow - mango, banana, orange, passionfruit, agave, turmeric.

Purple - blueberries (lots!), spinach, dates, oatmilk.

And the very last one, Pale pink - banana, raspberry, ginger, oatmilk. Cheers!

Previous smoothies ingredients-lists for 30 days:

two green smoothies

carrot cake smoothie

14 days of smoothies

six more smoothies

four more smoothies

five more smoothies

five more smoothies

I've decided to turn the 14 days that turned into 20 into 30 days of new smoothie blends. It's lovely to gulf down all these fruits, veggies and colours but, again, I'm amazed how little (ie absolutely nothing) it has done to boost my energy. 

That said, let's continue with the smoothie ingredients. Above smoothie is a blend of blueberries, blackberries, black currants, banana, kale, dates and oat milk. Lovely. 

Pale green smoothie with cucumber, banana, peach, pineapple, fresh ginger. I will never again use tinned pineapples, it doesn't taste anything at all and seems an awful waste of good produce. Plus the bisfenol nastiness of most tins of course.

Chocolate smoothie with a blend of banana, avocado, blueberries, fresh ginger, raw cacao and oat milk.

Peach coloured smoothie with banana, orange, passion fruit and fresh chili.

Deep red smoothie with beetroot, carrot, orange and fresh ginger. Note to next beetroot smoothie; use only a tiny bit of beetroot because a small whole one will make the smoothie overpowering with 'earthy' flavour. This was not a favourite blend. It felt very healthy but was not very enjoyable to drink alas.

Next smoothie time I'll most likely give you the last 9 smoothies of the 30 in one post only. And after that I'll probably have  no more than 1-2/week. At the most.

four more smoothies

And the next four smoothies have been - 

apple, banana, gojiberries, cardamom, fresh ginger and oat milk.

Pomegranate, kale, kiwi, mango, raspberries, coconutwater and agave.

Spinach, broccoli, kale, banana, dates, fresh ginger and hazelnut milk. This time the hazelnut milk worked really well and gave the smoothie a hint of chocolate flavour.

Banana, carrot, peach, fresh ginger and oat milk. De-lovely!

six more smoothies

My 14 days of smoothies have now reached day 12. And I'll most likely continue and make it 20 days instead while I'm at it - there are still a lot of fruit and veggie blends I want to try. So far it's been a hit and miss ratio of 75-25. Some blends have eitehr ended up tasting a bit like drinking grass or overly sweet ones.

But honestly, while some smoothies have made me all perky and jazzed up the overal effect has most certainly NOT been the feel-the-dramatic-change! the initial blurb I read excitedly claimed. Nor can I see a visible improved difference in my skin.

Perhaps it's simply the Scandinavian winter season with its stressful and tireing blend of absolutely dreadful, glum, dark, snow-free days and the snowy, cold days with sunshine that makes it really really difficult to absorb that energy of green and fruity vitamins and minerals.

So while it has definitely been lovely to create and drink (most of) them, I unfortunately fail to feel and see the health difference. 

That said, here are the six latest smoothie blends I've concocted (as usual no measurements, I just add some pieces of this, a splosh of that and a dollop of it).

The red smoothie on day 7 was a blend of strawberries, raspberries, banana and a splosh of innocent orange juice plus a sprinkle of cardamom. Lovely!

The green smoothie on day 8 was a mix of kale, spinach, pear, banana and hazelnut milk. Unfortunately the hazelnut milk was really overpowering in flavour and I won't be using that again. Use oat milk for a neutral flavour that will let the natural fruit flavours come through.

The chocolate smoothie on day 9 was a blend of banana, raw cacao, goji berries, raspberries, oatmilk and a dollop of agave syrup. It was de-lovely!

The pale green smoothie on day 10 was a mix of galia melon, oat milk, fresh ginger, pear, mango, avocado and agave syrup. Use a generous amount of that freshly grated ginger otherwise it'll be rather bland and uninteresting.

The pink smoothie on day 11 was wonderfully refreshing and made of raspberries, one carrot, oat milk, dates (3-5), banana, oat milk and galia melon.

The creamy green smoothie today on day 12 was a blend of avocado, mango, kiwi, kale, dates, oatmilk and agave syrup. I should have used less avocado and added banana instead, becasue the flavour ended up just too grassy for me.

Two more days to go. Plus probably six more. And then I want to experiment with pomegranate, passion fruit, apples, beetroot, chili to name a few. It's not the season for peaches, grapes, pineapple and such but I can probably find some frozen.

And I really need to make more chocolate blends, raw cacao is delicious and full of nutrition.

14 days of smoothies

This is by no means part of my 5+ personal goals for 2016-list - which granted, so far leaves a lot to be desired alas. I'm doing lots of stuff, so it's not as if I'm inactive. Just not active in that list-way (apart from the cleansing and giving to charity shops) -

but I read a blurb recently which held one advice for one change this year: "Do yourself a favour and drink one green smoothie per day for two weeks. And feel the change!".

Which seemed like a great and easy idea, given my fancy schmancy blender. So I've begun. With an extra challenge for myself; make a different smoothie every day with at least one new ingredient. Six days in I've managed to have two carrot cake smoothies already instead of new and different ones, simply because I was to tired to came up with new blend ideas those days.

But the other four days have consisted of:
the even greener smoothie

Chocolate smoothie - banana, avocado, pear, kale, raw cacao and oat milk. Looks awful but tastes wonderful.

Blueberry smoothie - blueberries, banana, avocado, kale, cardamom, agave syrup and oat milk.

Mango smoothie - mango, banana, pear, turmeric and oat milk.

I'm now planning for different smoothies with respectively raspberries, strawberries, melon, kiwi, broccoli, apple, orange, carrot, beetroot, pomegranate. Which obviously makes more than 14 smoothies all in all. But that doesn't really hurt.

What's your favourite smoothie blend?

two green smoothies

I felt it was time for a really green smoothie. Or two.

Since I've never really warmed to the texture of cooked and prepared kale I thought it would be an excellent idea to use it in smoothies instead. So I bought a big bag and put in in the freezer. ANd for one smoothie I usually use one big leaf.

Green smoothie 1 is made of bananas, avocado (frozen avocado is THE new black!), kale and a big splosh of oat or almond milk.

Even greener smoothie 2 is made of bananas, avocado, baby spinach and a big splosh or oat or almond milk.

Both are definitely instant perk-me-ups! And I adore the colour green in a glass.

PS. Even if you don't really have to match your nailpolish with the smoothie for a great experience, it does add a bit of magic. OPI My Gecko Does Tricks was my green choice of polish du jour. DS

the grüner smoothie

A few years back I kick-started the new year in what I thought was a brilliant way: a long, brisk winter walk (at Djurgården). Turned out that we miscalculated the distance and bridges so what was suppose to be one hour turned into three hours. My muscles were so sore the rest of the week and to be quite honest it rather put me off the idea of regular, brisk walks routine.

This year I started in a kinder, tastier way: a feast on a green smoothie I picked up at Unverpackt in Berlin last summer. Kale, mango and spinach. I've also stocked up  on kale and other greens and I plan to get back on the regular smoothie-and-juice-track. 

And be a better, diligent yoga practioner that doesn't overdo her brisk walkings.

carrot cake smoothie

Could there actually be such a thing as a carrot cake smoothie? And if so, why haven't I known it until now?

Because it is really, really, REALLY good. Just like a liquid and all healthy carrot cake. And oh so simple to make. Recipe came from the same vegetarian magazine Vego, as the fantastic vegan, glutenfree banana pancake recipe, but from their Instagram feed.

I was a bit sceptical at first, but as soon as I had a first sip I knew the world would be a much better place if everyone drank carrot cake smoothies at least once a week - preferably while wearing Moomin sneakers - it was delicious. And I even forgot to add the walnuts, but it was still amazing.

For one big or two smaller glasses you need this:

1 carrot
1 banana
2,5-3 dl oat, soy or almond milk
a handful of walnuts - can be omitted
1/4 tsp grounded cinnamon
1/4 tsp grounded cardamom

Peel the carrot and banana. Put everything in the blender and whizz.

Enjoy!

the raw chocolate smoothie adventure continues

Yes. Again. A raw chocolate smoothie inspired by the fantastic ones I had at 42Raw in Copenhagen last summers, but I'm still not getting the consistency quite quite right. 

This time it was a bit runny - which of course had to do with that it at first was too firm so I added a splash of coconut milk. Too much of a splosh.

Other than that 2 organic (of course! one of the most important things to buy organic only) bananas, 6 organic dates, 1 tbsp raw cacao, 12 ice cubes.

As I mentioned before, the Wilfa blender is excellent at ice crushing. But the dates are actually impossible to blend completely even with a powerful blender. What weird little fruits they are.

All and all a very good smoothie, just not the right consistency. Yet.

Snooperviser approved though.

sunshine mango smoothie

With the Wilfa blender came a simple, little recipe booklet that inspires me to try fruit combinations I probably wouldn't have come up with myself.

So today I made this fantastic, uplifting, sunshine in a glass smoothie - the blender works amazingly well to make a smoothie with crushed ice and if  you blend everything together at once the ice crushing isn't nearly as deafening as with ice only - with four ingredients only:

2 tins of sliced mango - I would have prefered fresh, but I also like using up what I already have in the fridge. Food waste sucks.
2 large organic pears
1 tsp grated organic, fresh ginger
10 ice cubes

Whizz together and ENJOY immensely!

vegan food in helsinki

So. I've been enjoying a fantastic array of vegan food here in Helsinki. The Yelp-app has helped in finding those gems that didn't exist when we were here in 2012. And I have rekindled with old favourites. Yes the food has been great. The cakes not so much alas, but the odd cinnamon bun thrown in has been fabulastic too.

I have yet to write reviews on Yelp for most of the places, but I can still give you a hint on where to go for a kind and great meal if you find yourself in Helsinki! (And be sure to check out my When in Helsinki-list on Yelp, I will slowly add things to it. These have been my favourite food moments over the long weekend:



Classic vegetarian - vegan restaurant Zucchini was just as good as I remembered it from 2012. Old school, healthy and very flavourful vegan and vegetarian food. Kind staff that speaks both Finnish, Swedish and English. (This was a potato cake with tofu and spinach plus a great salad and ratatouille.)



This is a wonderful vegan meze plate at Just Vege. Lovely textures and flavours, the pita bread is fab. Mostly organic stuff and just as the name says, an all vegetarian (mainly vegan apart from the halloumi) place were they make their own bread and falafels. The owner got so excited about the bobbaloos he took a lot of pictures too - myself I politely declined to be in them. M had a seitan kebab plate which he enjoyed a lot.



Remnants of a, surprisingly given the looks, good vegan pie at cafe Bergga. Simply filled with great, firm tofu, carrots and onions in a flavourful gravy. Their cakes weren't nearly as good, quite the opposite, but this savoury pie, mmm...



A simple falafel from Fafa's - which is a chain of falafel bars that, unfortunately, offers some meat dishes too - which wold have been rather nice (but of course not as lovely as the falafel at the Stockholm place Falafelbaren) if M hadn't said yes to extra chili and we'd gotten it as takeaway...



At another vegan fast food place Soi Soi, situated in the same street as above Just vege, we had these vegan burgers and sweetpotato fries that was quite heavenly according to at least me. Mine is a tofu burger in oat bread and M's is a hot chili tofu in pita bread. I really really enjoyed the texture of the tofu here too, in Sweden the tofu despite claiming to be firm often is to soft, not in Helsinki obviously.



This was the nicest, by far, breakfast (brunch) I had in Helsinki. The popular (amongst all ages and walks of life) cafe is called Tin Tin Tango and they have different breakfast menus of which this is the vegetarian. I don't eat egg, so M got that one, but I fully enjoyed the rest, including a strawberry smoothie, orange juice, an apple, two rolls, cheese and veggies. Plus tea of course. Who knew there was such a thing as a heart shaped roll, too cute!



We shared this freshly baked cinnamon bun too - it was delicious. All and all we shared three different buns at three different places, they were all very very good in their own ways. Conclusion: Helsinki knows how to make a most pleasing bun for a discerning Swedish fika high liver.

eating out - älskade traditioner

Today I spent my morning in a lovely place - a newish cafe in Stockholm called Älskade Traditioner (Precious Traditions) - in lovely company - my old school friend with whom I rekindled a couple of years ago - pre-birthday celebrating with a vegetarian brunch. Her birthday is on the 24th, mine on the 25th, we hadn't seen eachother in ages and instead on just going to one of the usual spots I decided to find something new and special.

I was recommended Älskade Traditioner via Yelp, it sounded really good and I have to say it was love at first sight! Übercute interior á la 1950ies diner, very hipster, very Stockholm Söder (but in a good, unpretentious, service-minded and friendly way).

The food selection is lovely, specialize in wraffles (food and waffle in one, savoury or sweet) but we opted for the 'small' breakfast (tea or coffee - juice or yoghurt or smoothie - sandwich). Turned out they used oat milk with berries for their smoothie so I changed my mind from juice to smoothie and then we got a half half instead, a smaller glass of each. Sweet.

The sandwich was absolutely delicious and so much more than your average breakfast cheese sandwich - a generous amount of salad, pickled onion and cucumber, mustard and cheese on a freshly baked rye bread.

The tiny little blueberry cookie was lacking a decent amount of sugar, but the bobs enjoyed it all the same. They have, for obvious reasons, a special fondness for smallsized food.

Yup, even the toilet was adorable. (I want that waste bin!)

It was so lovely to catch up with my friend - not to mention discussing the pros and cons of running your own freelancer business. A good reminder that you are not alone when it comes to annoying, weird and wonderful clients. - and hopefully it won't be as long until the next time.

And I can't wait to visit Älskade Traditioner again, wraffles anyone?