• Oops, honey, I changed my lifestyle (Before & After My 90-day No Sugar Challenge)

    What started as a 30-day experiment on 2 August 2018 has escalated into a full-blown 90-day no sugar challenge. This is the story about the before and the after, and how much sugar I ended up not eating by changing my sweet-tooth, chocolate-loving ways.  In the recent posts, you can read about the start of the 30-day no sugar challenge, and how it turned into a long-term project once my cravings only stopped after 28 days. BEFORE Basics Chocolate = necessity of life Sweets = treats Meals = sweet/savoury (half/half) Cravings per day = 5 (usually in the morning, during long afternoons & after dinner) Attitude = sugar will solve…

  • Sugar addict? Me too, until recently

    All sorts of medical guidelines recommend a maximum of around 30 grams of added sugars per day. There is no required minimum. You won’t die if sugar is not added to your food. Although you might feel as if you might die. Which brings me to sugar addiction. When I realised I was a player in that game, I decided to embark on an experiment. Today marks day 43 of my no added sugar diet.  Ever since I remember, I have been eating sugar every single day, except for two occasions – one summer a couple of years ago where I went 30 days without artificial sugar (but still had…

  • food blog avocado basil pasta sauce

    Healthy, Dairy Free, Creamy Avocado & Basil Pasta Sauce

    Avocado is perfect for making pasta sauce – rich in healthy fats, tastes great paired with basil, is a deliciously creamy dairy-free alternative and carries a lot of nutrients. Follow my blog with Bloglovin I love a good organic tomato sauce on pasta, but having the same sauce every time doesn’t cut it for my freakishly foodie nature. Of course I could buy other supermarket pasta sauces, but have you ever noticed how many strange additives there are in there? Bleh. It’s much healthier to make your own pasta sauce than to buy some additive-stuffed sauce that’s been standing on supermarket shelves for months. Avocado & basil unite to form a creamy yet…

  • simple wellness soup cabbage local healthy food

    Simple Wellness Soup

    Follow my blog with Bloglovin You don’t need quinoa (kee-NU-wah) to eat healthy. Below awaits a recipe with local, seasonal & afforadable ingredients that together create a soup that is exceptionally good for your health. If you are battling the flu or trying to ward one off, this is the perfect soup to make! When my parents used to force me as a kid to eat savoy cabbage soup (in Croatian: kelj), I’d make all kinds of funny faces at them and fiddle with my food. Now I find myself cooking the same stuff, ah the irony! Turns out cabbage is just as good for you as my parents were saying. You’d…

  • Dumplings with Pak Choi

    Making Dumplings with Pak Choi takes 10 minutes from the moment you enter your front door to the moment you sit down at the table to eat – it’s easy, healthy and quick. That’s also why I call it the recipe for power couples – those amazing couples where both people are working hard, being awesome at what they do, and rushing home late without much oomph (definition) to cook (oops). To your rescue comes this Dumplings with Pak choi recipe, introduced to me by a power couple themselves, Madi & Mathias. In 10 minutes of whizzing about in the kitchen, you will have a satisfying meal loaded with vibrant, green vegetables…

  • indian summer salad healthy ana's bananas blog meeha sodha diabetes friendly fresh

    Indian Summer Salad

    As I’m walking around the cookbook section in a bookshop a couple of weeks ago, a pop of color catches my eye – it’s the “Fresh India” cookbook by a lady called Meera Sodha. Indian cooking finally made simple and not taking 5 days of bending over the stove to make? Yes! This summer salad  is refreshing and full of flavors (it originally also includes a spoonfull of sugar, which I leave out). Enjoy it with a big appetite – it has a grand total of zero (0) calories, really. Fun fact: I buy my bell peppers organic because peppers fall into EWG’s (Environmental Working Group) category of the dirty dozen. This is…

  • rocky road recipe healthy ana banana blog chocolate walnuts goji cranberry dessert walnut nut

    Chocolate Rocky Road with Nuts & Berries

    Rocky road is originally an Australian concoction, used to make rotten candy shipped from Europe still somehow attractive to customers – by mixing it all up into one big pile. Today, it’s a diabetes causing treat in the United States, typically made with milk chocolate, sugary candies and marshmallows. This rocky road is healthy. What? Yes. I’ve prepared it multiple times for various medical departments and not once was I thrown out on the street because of how deliciously amazing it was – while sneakily being filled with nutrients. It melts on your tongue and satisfies every chocolate nerve in the body. Print Recipe Rocky Road with Almonds & Berries…

  • Breakfast Wraps with Egg & Guac

    GOOD MORNING WORLD! Breakfast is labelled by many as the most important meal of the day. Throw your chia & acai water milkshake out the window. You don’t need it. Every nutrient you need is right here. Start your day & live it to the fullest! Print Recipe Breakfast Wraps with Egg & Guacamole Course Breakfast Prep Time 10 minutes Servings Ingredients 4 eggs1 ripe tomato1 small white onion1 tbsp lime juice1 small handful fresh coriander2 ripe avocadoscooking oil4 corn torillas Course Breakfast Prep Time 10 minutes Servings Ingredients 4 eggs1 ripe tomato1 small white onion1 tbsp lime juice1 small handful fresh coriander2 ripe avocadoscooking oil4 corn torillas Instructions HEAT…

  • healthy red curry vegetable dairy free gluten free

    Thai Red Curry with Shrimp & Mango

    I AM TAKING A COURSE ON SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY AT THE MOMENT where a very interesting movie came up:´The Insider´ (youtube / wiki). It is a movie from the 90s, based on a true story about a biochemist who was a whistleblower for the tobacco industry (an industry that, at the time, claimed towards the general public that tobacco was harmless and ignored the reports of its´ scientists about the dangers of tobacco for health). With main actors Al Pacino and Russel Crowe! Just wanted to tell you about it since it inspired me, and made me remember again how as scientists and doctors, we have a responsibility to find facts…

  • chocolate apricot cake healthy food foodie blog

    Chocolate & Dried Apricot Cake

    HELLO THERE! IT HAS BEEN A TOUGH & BUSY WEEK. Since I’m somewhat of an emotional eater (who can resist a sweet bar of chocolate in times of stress? ), I was definitely craving a big old creamy, fudgy chocolate cake to stuff my face in by the time it was weekend. Just as I was about to buy a (definitely unhealthy) cake at the supermarket (what a no-no!), a great friend of mine agreed to meet up for a bake session and save me from myself. EATING THIS CAKE REALLY HIT THE SPOT. It’s a very rich cake, filled with almond flour, real apricots, cinnamon & cocoa powder. You…