Greetings dear readers!
Although I was trying really hard not to neglect the blog it didn’t really work! I sometimes see blogs of other mothers and wonder how did they have the time to update and write and post – my day is being consumed by an almost a year old (!) sunshine – we go swimming and to a music course, we spend hours and hours in the park, we meet friends and do picnics, we sit in the sandbox and go to the playground. By the time my husband gets home from work I am in a desperate need of shower and then I fix us a dinner. Once all is done I just want to chill on the sofa, watch some TV, spoil the cat, and think of nothing!
Some exciting news:
- I am proud to announce that I will start offering Israeli vegan cooking courses at Kurkuma, Hamburg’s new and only vegan cooking school. It belongs to Roman from Happen Pappen (where I will give a cooking workshop this Saturday, after almost two years!) and it is going to be amazing! You can check my workshop and other interesting workshops here.
- In addition, I will be doing my first catering service in two weeks, I promise to write all about it once I am done!
- Also wanted you to see that I was in Bild.de not so long ago, an article about 50 years to the diplomatic relationship between Israel and Germany. They interviewed Israelis in Germany and vice versa. Was a lovely experience!
But enough with these updates, let’s get to the point of this post!
My daughter will be a year old at the end of this month, the preparations for her birthday party are exciting and we are all rather shocked that a year passed by so fast.
I did not write anything about my pregnancy and such related topics before because this is a food blog and I didn’t want to mix topics here. However, for this post, it is important that you will know that I gained 31 kilos during my pregnancy.
31 kilos! (Americans, that’s almost 69 pounds)
That’s how I looked on my due date – 16.07.2014
I can blame the IVF, the hormonal treatments, the fact I was not allowed to do any kind of sports, had to stop riding my bike, the bed rest for a month – can blame it all, but the fact is simple: I gained 31 kilos – it’s a lot!
Three months after giving birth my weight was still far away from where I wanted it to be – where I was when I started it all, on 70 kilos / 154 pounds – being 178cm / 5’10, this weight is what I know and what I like.
It was difficult for me to go back to the physical activity I used to. It was hard to go jogging in the evenings once my husband was home, so I started doing yoga and some workouts with a Kettlebell at home. But it was not enough. Something else was needed and so we entered the salads madness.
Israel is the land of salads. We eat salads ALL the time, morning, lunch, dinner – there are always vegetables, always! It is a common thing and a huge part of our lives. In Germany not so much. But I knew that if I want to lose weight I need to work harder in the kitchen than on the yoga mat or in the park and thus the salads took over my life.
If you follow me on Instagram (vegan_dorian_gray) you already know what I am talking about. A huge bowl, colorful, filled with everything I have – 3-4 even 5 times a week – for dinner.
I am now 4.5 kilos away from my goal – 4.5!
And although I started running again and although I try to walk at least 10 km a day, I know for sure that it is all thanks to the hard work in the kitchen, making salads (I am kidding, it is an easy job!). Sometimes I am too lazy, like on Saturdays, so I just make a lazy salad plate… and I also make a box of salad for my days in the park – my fellow mothers are often jealous!
So let’s start with a gallery of my salads from the past few months, and then I will list all the ingredients that I used:
Please note:
- Some ingredients are basic – greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, spring onion
- I always use one type of grains
- I have a nuts/seeds mix that I made
Ingredients:
- Greens
- Cherry tomatoes
- Cucumbers
- Radishes
- Spring onions
- Carrots
- Bell peppers
- Avocado
- Spinach
- Cooked sweet potatoes
- Bulgur
- Buckwheat
- Quinoa (my favorite is red Quinoa)
- Walnuts
- Pecans
- Mushrooms
- Cilantro
- Parsley
- Nana
- Dry cranberries
- Pumpkin seeds
- Sunflower seeds
- Chia seeds
- Pine nuts
- Sesame
- Nigella seeds
- Croutons
- Dry tomatoes
Dressing:
I have my basic dressing which is fresh pressed lemon juice, olive oil, freshly ground salt & pepper / I almost always add a spoon or two of raw tahini and sometimes I have regular tahini (the white sauce).
Here is a small gallery of my lazy salads:
And here are two photos of my park box:
What about you? How do you like your salad?
