Since I have Zaphira in my life I started going for walks so much more; naturally, of course. Yet, I get bored quite easily if the routine hits too hard and seeing the same scenery daily really doesn’t boost my imagination nor creativity. I likewise noticed, sadly enough, that I don’t know Zurich as well as I wish I did. I thus decided to try and find new walking routes at least once a month. This Sunday I started with taking Zaphira to the Wildnespark (Wild Animal Park) in Zurich. It’s really quite the nice walk in autumn – calm, quiet, not too many people but still oh-so-many smells that kept my little fur-friend fascinated at all times. I especially loved that dogs are allowed in the area – at least when kept on the leash. Likewise, there is no entrance fee – which was also nice. The parking (when arriving by car) did cost 10,- Swiss francs; though because this money is used to support the wild park I really didn’t mind the fee (it’s a one-time pay for the whole day). For those that want to go more often, one can also purchase a parking ticked for the whole year (for 100 Swiss francs).
I absolutely loved this new scenery (and loved seeing the Moose!) and will absolutely go back – especially to see the park throughout the different seasons!
I love all season – really. I love winter and the Christmas season – when all is covered in white (at least in the mountains here in Switzerland) and there is nothing better than putting on the fireplace and drinking a glass of red wine whilst sitting on the fur. Then comes spring, when finally everything awakens again and the birds start coming back to slowly build their nests. The greatest flower fields are usually found in spring and near summer. Summer is just fabulous because of the weather – there is nothing better than being able to wear a t-shirt and shorts and not freezing our asses off. Yet autumn,.. it something special to me. Perhaps because so many of my beloved people are born in autumn, or maybe because we are getting ready for the festive season. Surely, I love the magic of nature – when all leaves turn turn their colors and everything becomes yellow, orange and red. When the sun turns gold in the evening and every look at nature takes my breath away – that is when I enjoy being outside the most.
One of my closer friends and I decided to use this time of the year and start exploring Switzerland just a little more. I can’t believe I have been living in Zurich for nearly 4 years (in spring) and I still don’t really know the country. There is so much beauty – and we decided we want to explore as much as possible of it. Because Zaphira (my puppy) is only 4.5 months old now, we decided not to do a huge trip (she does not have the energy, yet). We wanted something nearby but still go outside the city – outside of Zurich. Quickly, we decided on Einsiedeln. It is a super tiny town just about 1 hour away from Zurich city. There is a huge monastery one can visit, see the Black Madonna inside the church and go for an amazing short hike (or longer, if one has time and feels like it).
Stepping out of the train already made us realise we are definitely out on the countryside. The air was brisk clear – and that is almost surprising as I always believed Zurich already has such clean air. No, Einsiedeln topped it off immediately. The second smell that we immediately welcomed was the smell of horses. Oh, how I love those graceful animals. It reminded me of my childhood, when I used to horseback ride once in a while and loved every minute of it. It now is back up on my to-do list for the future. First, however, I need to get Zaphira used to those “long-legged dogs” which she saw for her first time last Sunday.
After a plentiful lunch that we jumped into right when leaving the train station, we went up the hill and enjoyed nature to it’s fullest. Of course, being “big city girls”, we had to stop about every 5 minutes to either take picture of the surrounding, my puppy, or ourselves (selfie-time for the win!). To not bore you in trying to explain the beauty, I wanted to share some of the photos with you.
I cannot say it often enough – people, go out into nature! There is so much to explore. Sometimes just around the corner – perhaps a few streets aways, but there is always something beautiful if we only just try to see it. It seemed like all the pressure, all my worries, all open tasks – everything just went away for those few hours we were outside. I really recommend it to everyone; for your heart and health!
Good morning and happy October already! Time flies so fast I am struggling to keep up with it. How did we manage to get into autumn so quickly already? It’s getting colder by the day I feel and I am ready to take out my winter jackets soon. With the cold approaching rapidly, I have the feeling my body is in extra need of vitamins and all things healthy a little more than usual. I notice my skin looking duller by the day – and I ain’t liking it at all. So I decided to start my mornings these days with an extra boost of healthy fruits and mostly vegetable juices and get in those greatly needed vitamins.
Yesterday I spent almost an hour in the kitchen only to grind through those vegetables and fruit into the juicer. And I am proud to say I am rather satisfied with the outcome – the colors of the different juices are just as I had hoped they would be. A grassy-green that makes you feel healthy by looking at it (includes mostly apples, cucumber, spinach, one orange and ginger), a wake-you-up orange (consisting mostly of oranges, carrots, ginger and apple) and a deep-loving-red (made up of oranges, carrots, apples, ginger and beet root).
I am also thinking about doing a few days of juices only and find this a great way to getting used to the tastes already. I have never really done a full juice cleanse and thought that now with autumn having kicked in and winter approaching, this may be a good time to clean up inside of myself after this wonderful summer and lots of glasses of wine. I will, probably though, order juices, as making freshly pressed juices on the daily really is a bit time consuming (don’t forget buying the groceries first). Do any of you have experiences with juice cleanses and are there any you can recommend?
With that I am wishing everyone a great Monday and kick-start into the new week! xo
You might have noticed that I love using avocado whenever I have the possibility. Be it as a substitute for butter, smashed on a piece of toast or simply in form of a good guacamole – you cannot go wrong with avocado. Imagine one would be allergic – is that even possible? I think it would be my nightmare come true. Either way; as you might remember I had a dinner with a few girls at my place a couple of weeks ago (before I started my travels). Speaking of travels – it feels so good being back at home with the loved ones!
For one of the starters I had made these eggs filled with guacamole. Simple, tasty, quick in the making – and super cute! For 8 halves you (obviously) need 4 eggs, round about one medium sized avocado, some salt, pepper, lemon juice, hot paprika pulver and perhaps a little onion. Once you have boiled the eggs and let them cool off, carefully cut them in half and take out the egg yolk. Add the yolk with the mashed avocado, add a little pepper, salt, the juice of half a lemon, and if you like, a small onion (cut into small pieces). Mash up the whole thing and add whatever ingredient you feel is needed to making it taste as good as you can. Carefully fill the egg-white halves and sprinkle a little paprika pulver on top – eh voila; off you go and present it to your guests.
I love making this little treat as a snack on the side or even as a topper for a good green salad. Nevertheless, don’t underestimate the power of an egg-avocado guacamole – it is SO filling. My friends and I snacked on these together with the homemade sweet potatoe and pumpkin/hokkaido chips (recipe here) and were basically full. Going over to the main meal was already a heavy task given we were so full – and we actually never made it to the dessert (which got eaten a day later). I’ll present the two courses to you shortly, too – and will also post a couple more footage from my trip.
Today and tomorrow is mostly office and admin work. There is so much to catch up on and so many emails to go through. Thursday I’ll be leaving to Geneva for a night, enjoying a lovely (business) dinner event and going to some meetings. I love these kinds of dinners – they have them every couple of weeks in different cities – and they are absolutely great for networking within the industry. I may have time to write another post on the train so do stay tuned!
Breakfast. Who doesn’t love breakfast’ Now, I am not talking about needing it. I totally have my phases – swinging from not being able to live without my breakfast to not wanting to eat at all before lunch (and living on coffee and hot lemon water before). Since a few weeks now, though, I literally need breakfast again to function. It seems that every time the summer ends and the colder, darker days near, I need my vitamins and protein right after waking up. I usually have a chia-pudding during the week. It’s easy, its prepared and done for me to indulge in when waking up and the preparation the night before takes no more than 5 minutes. I usually add some frozen raspberries into it and flavor it either with cinnamon, vanilla or some cacao. I then quickly cut up another fresh fruit in the morning and am ready to eat – or take my breakfast to the office.
Then come the days where I really want to sit down – enjoy every bite, and probably, just enjoy life. These days usually come around on the weekend; Sundays to be precise. I have now made it my little Sunday ritual to sit down and enjoy every bite or spoon of whatever my breakfast is made up of. Lately I have been making cloud breads and eating them with a mix of fresh avocado spreading, home-made jam (such as this pumpkin-apple-cinnamon one), or simple cream cheese (lactose free) topped with some berries. Seriously, there is probably no combination that does not work with these fluffy little pieces. I might try Nutella next! I haven’t had Nutella in f o r e v e r – and now that I am writing about it, I really am craving it. Damnit!
What I was getting at: the cloud bread. It’s so simple. I know I say the same thing every time, but it really is. It needs 5 ingredients, 10 minutes to prepare, 15 minutes to bake and a split-second to love them.
What you need
3 eggs 3 tablespoons of cream cheese (lactose free, if needed) 1 tablespoon of agave syrup (or honey, if you like) a hint of cinnamon (around ½ – 1 teaspoon) ½ teaspoon baking powder (gluten free, if needed)
What to do
1) Pre-heat the oven to 150°C 2) Separate the egg whites from the yellow and place them in two different bowls 3) Add the cream cheese, cinnamon, baking powder, and agave syrup to the egg yellow and mix it well 4) Now whip up the egg-white until stiff 5)Once the egg-white is ready, add it to the egg-yellow mixture and carefully mix everything together 6) Using the mixed dough, you want to make around fist-sized circles on the baking sheet (usually 3 tablespoons). Make sure to leave some space between the different “circles” as they will spread a little bit in the oven. The mixture should allow you to make 6-7 cloud-breads – but depending on the size, you might up with more or less. 7) Place the dough into the oven and bake for around 15 minutes – keep an eye on them; they should become fluffy and turn into a golden, slightly brown color. 8) Once done, you can take them out and let them cool off for a couple of minutes
The best part, and one that I really can’t get over yet, is that it is really quite healthy – compared to real “bread”. Not being able to eat gluten I try to stay away from all breads. I know there are several gluten-free breads out there, and there are super many recipes (which I actually want to try out). But because I do need to watch my figure a little bit – to not explode – I do try to keep the empty carb-intake low. I admit it. So this “cloud” bread is perfect. It simply has no carbs and, instead fuels the body with tons of proteins already in the morning. Alright, the Nutella probably won’t be the healthiest option if I try – yet, it could be worse! I am also thinking on making my own chocolate-spread. I always prefer having home-made options. They are usually healthier, surely have no additives that are unknown and often test so much better than the supermarket product. Now, I wish you all a yummy-cloud-breakfast and let me know what you think of it!
Happy Tuesday! Almost humpday and almost half way through with the week already, again! It's crazy how fast time flies these days. Two weekends ago ...
