Random eats!

Hey everyone!

Just got back from another grueling Bikram yoga class. It seems that on monday the class is packed full full full, so the humidity goes up! That means a lot more sweating and a lot more dizziness for this girl.. Well better next time

There was a ballerina in the class, and the teacher asked her to show us a perfect Cobra posture.. Damn!! Those girls are like elastic bands, heil to all the ballerina’s out there!

Isn’t this cool?? I hope I can do this someday *wishfull thinking *

Since yesterday was lazy sunday, the boy and I didn’t feel much like cooking so we went to get some Sushi take out. I discovered whilst I was there that they have a wide selection of vegetarian sushi’s and sushi’s only made out of veggies.. That would be great for me to order next time! For now, I did have some with salmon but I substituted a lot of my regular sushi amount with edamame and wakame salad

The boy’s plate..

My plate: Sushi rolls, edamame ( or edimama, that’s how the boy is calling them beans ) and wakame salad

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm delish!

Dessert!! Chickpea brownies with pb! They’re not perfect yet so I’m not gonna post the recipe now.. What I can say is that they come at about 120  kcal per piece ( without the pb) and lot of healthy proteins and wholesome carbs.. When I get the recipe right, it will be up soon..

A great tip though, when making any kind of brownie containing beans, let them sit in the fridge for about 1 day.. The typical “bean” flavor will be a lot less and they chocolate taste will be a lot more noticable.. They also firm up nicely in the fridge..

Today’s breakfast: Cheerios with almond milk and a spoon of chocolate protein powder ( vegan)

This baby happened after breakfast..*jum*

Lunch: A salad with baby spinach, chili tofu, cheezly, black olives, edamame, cucumber, lemon hummus and a whole wheat tortilla

All mixed up!

Some groceries..

Soy milk and red kidney beans..

Another chickpea brownie with Artisana Cacoa bliss right before Bikram class + an apple..

After Bikram I really craved a smoothie.. This is a green monster containing 3 spoons of soy yoghurt, a splash of soy milk, baby spinach, raspberries, 1/2 banana, some rhubarb preserve, cacao powder and a spoon of protein powder.. I also addes a pinch of Xanthan and Guar gum to thicken it..

The (not so) green monster haha! It turned out a bit brown because of the cacao in it

Sleep tight sweeties!

Ps. I just wanted to make sure that everyone knows that I do not photograph all of my eats, some rather boring stuff sometimes stays unphotographed or sometimes I just seem to forget it ( gotta work on that )

It’s the city I live in..The city if angels..Antwerp

Hi guys!

Thank you so much for the nice tips to improve this bloggie.. Right now feels like it’s just a baby bloggie and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue but a lil birdie (you know who you are ) told me to be patient and continue if I love doing it ( which I do!!)

What I can conclude from some of the comments ( keep them tips coming pulease!)

- More Fashion

- More healthy desserts

- A Vlog ( this one scares me a bit haha)

- More lunches

-  More random food pics

- More traveling experiences ( April is a very slow month for me but that will change in May, in June I’m going to Paris and Germany and in July I will do a road trip around the west coast of the US of A, lots of exciting things to blog about! )

- Being more personal ( I realized that I don’t really post a lot of pics with myself or my bf , gonna change that as well )

Today I felt really really bad! Totally drained and tired.. I think it had something to do with my Bikram classes last week, I lost a looooooooot ( And I mean really really a lot of sweat) of fluids and I think I have to be more carefull to drink more WATER!!

Normally I drink 3 starbucks cups of green tea ( about 1.5l , the daily recommendation)

but I think I have to up that whilst doing Bikram yoga..

I’ve also started to ease in to running again.. I have always had some kind of love/hate relationship with running.. I love running if I’m able to do some distance ( and get the runners high), but after wintertime it’s like starting from scratch.. The first month I kinda  resemble this :

But I hope to be like this in May starting the 1/2 marathon training program:

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A few people asked me to write a bit more about traveling, but I have to say I always love coming home to my own city..Antwerp..

Antwerp lies in the flemish region of Belgium and is currently known for it’s number of great fashion designers like

-Dries Van Noten

- Ann de Meulemeester

-Dirk Bikkembergs

- Walter Van Beirendonck

- Dirk Van Saene

We have some amazing shopping streets:

Awesome Belgian food ( If you’re NOT a vegan )

Belgian chocolate..

Belgian fries with mayonnaise..  ( so not diet friendly, but the national pride)

Belgian Waffles..

Belgian beer..( I’m not really a beer drinker, but we do have the best beer in the world )

I usually roll here: Lombardia, it’s a small organic restaurant where they have Vegan and Vegetarian Dishes! We only have one restaurant like this in Antwerp and it’s super popular!

Antwerp is just a very cosy and cute little town with it’s nice architecture and old buildings.. In summer it’s very nice to just wander around in all those little streets or to go to the river and have a nice pick nick..

In summertime I like to chill out here:

It’s a place close to the river where they put white sand and some palm trees, excellent to escape for a little while

- What do you like about the region/city you live in?

- Did you know Antwerp/Belgium already? Would you like to visit it someday?

Lazy sunday and Give away!

Hey hey!!

Today will be a typical example of a lazy sunday.. Blogging/ reading/baking and slacking around I hope I get to see Food inc today, but i don’t think that will be a problem since the boyfriend is watching sports ALL day ( he’s obsessed, really , kinda like me with food related things haha )

Yesterday I went to Bikram Yoga in the morning, seems like morning classes are less my thing cause it didn’t go that well.. Ups and downs, that’s life Afterwards I had a date with mom, to check out the market in Antwerp and to go to the health food store.. I’m really gonna do my best to make my eating pattern more and more vegetarian/vegan so I got these goodies:

500 grams of pecans!!

Organic Soy yoghurt

Cheezly Imitation Cheese.. So curious about the taste of this baby!

Chili Marinated Tofu strips..

Spelt seitan..

Black olives..hmm!

First time trying Almond milk! I was so excited! It tastes a bit funny at first but not bad at all

A (not so ripe) pineapple !

Organic Quinoa!

Organic Bulgur! This reminds me a lot of my days in Turkey, they have it every day and it’s delish!

Organic lentils.. Excited to make lentilloaf out of this package

I also planted some fresh herbs on the terras..

Rosemary..

Sage and Thyme..

This is kinda like mint, but it tastes lemonlike.. I think it’s called Lemon balm in english

Seems like I’m turning into a health monster.. Yesterday the boyfriend had a craving for some nasty fatty foods.. Normally I would eat a small portion but I just didn’t want any of it.. All I had on my mind was this..

Delicious oats with chocolate protein powder, nanner, peanut butter and cacao bliss.. Heaven in a bowl!!

After thinking about it for a little while I decided to give away a few of the bars I picked up in New York..

MY FIRST  (small) GIVE AWAY yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! * doing a party dance*

The goodies!

The goodies:

- Skinny Bitch in the Kitch

- Larabars: Blueberry muffin/ Cinnamon roll /cashew cookie

- Luna bar : Cookies and Cream delight

- Thin thin bar: White chocolate chip

All u have to do is:

- Tweet about the giveaway: ” I just entered @Ellalinea awesome giveway! Visit http://ellalinea.com/”

- Comment on this post:  What would you like to see more on this blog?

Give away will end 20/04/2011!

Have a great lazy (or not so lazy) sunday!

Model Pictures and Running Music..

Hey guys!!

Today I received some new pictures that i wanted to show you.. I love that they keep the photoshopping at a minimal.. My legs aren’t stick thin, and they haven’t made them stick thin but kept them rather athletic.. The way i look in REAL life

It’s nice to see some pictures coming back from Turkey, but lately I’ve been wondering if modeling is still the way to go in life.. I love the work, the traveling and meeting new people but they’re are a lot of con’s as well.. The constant pressure to lose weight and mostly the insecurity.. As an independent I never know how much I’m gonna earn in one month, and because we just bought an apparment and have a mortgage.. This is beginning to weigh on me..

I’m starting to look at new opportunities.. I’d love to do something with healthy eating and organic food.. Although this market hasn’t really bloomed here in Belgium, it is slowly starting to.. So I might look into that in the future..

Nothing more to say for now, here are the pics!

Today I’m also starting my first practice for the 1/2 marathon I’m gonna do in Octobre in Amsterdam ( Sabine, we gotta meet girl)

I’m kinda nervous but also excited! Here are some amazing music mixes you can put on whilst running:

http://www.mediafire.com/?kyifzesfj6kcj02

http://www.mediafire.com/?y6jrlhyle9qr68o

http://www.mediafire.com/?zzertz5eln4

Food porn and Bikram recap!

Hey hey

Hope everyone’s doing great!!

Today I wanted to show some of my eats, although I have to make clear that some items go unphotographed! I sometimes just forget to make a picture or sometimes it’s just not interesting enough :p:p

I started my day with a bowl of cheerios ( fuck I’m so very addicted to this stuff!! This is the best cereal on the market here, at least in belgium, counting at 1g of sugar per 100 grams, you can’t find any better here) with 1/2 of nanner and some soymilk mixed with a scoop of chocolate protein powder!

Ooooooh this is heaven!!

As a snack I had an unpictured bowl of soy yoghurt with berries..

I had about 3 of these today, just plain simple green tea without sugar, it’s very important to drink enough during the day before attending a Bikram Yoga class..

Snack plate for lunch: fresh pineapple, nanner with pb and a bowl of chocolate oat bran with artisana cacao bliss and cashews..

Right before Bikram I had a little snack: organic chicken breast with brown rice, olive tapenade and mushrooms

and one pink lady apple on the way!

oops it’s upside down :p

After Bikram I took a shower and was haaaaangry!!!! There wasn’t a lot left in the fridge so I just threw a salad together..

Brown rice, Chickpeas and Lima beans

Cut up some cucumbers..

Look at this beauty!

All cut up

Add some Romaine..

Some avocadoooooo..

Aaaah look at those pwetty colours! I also added some green olive tapenade..

After tasting, I missed something sweet to balance all the saltyness so I added some Balsamic creme..

This bowl made about 2.5 servings, I know what I’ll be eating tommorow for lunch

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Today I had the best Bikram yoga class ever!!! The first time I attended a class, I had to sit down about 20 times because I just coudn’t stand the heat..

Today was the first time I completed an entire 90 minutes class without sitting down, and just 1 waterbreak! I also feel like I’m becoming more flexible, for me this is quite a miracle.. I used to be like this :

I hope to be like this in the future:

No just kidding This will do :

I also felt a change in my state of mind.. I was totally concentrated for 90 minutes straight, it just flew by actually.. Hope to have many of these classed to come! I feel like taking on the world!!

- Did you ever feel like you could walk on clouds after exercise?

- What do you eat after a hard session in the gym or a nice run? Post work out fuel tips please? :d

First trip to Whole Foods!

Haaidie how! Hope everybody’s doing well!

When I was in New york.. I wasn’t all that excited about the empire state building or the guggenheim.. I was very very excited about my first trip to Whole Foods! Does that make me a bit crazy.. I guess so

The last day of our trip, I set my alarm at 7.00am.. As soon as the alarm went off,  I jumped out of bed like a  five year old girl on christmas morning

The boy was still very much asleep, so I quietly snuck out of the door, on my way to union square! As soon as I reached Lexington Avenue, I was kinda wondering how I should hault a taxi.. In belgium we have fixed places for taxis to stand, so if you want to take one, you just gotta go there.. So I stood there a little bit, wondering if I should hault the taxi ‘carrie bradshaw’ style ( she always yells ‘taxiiii’ so confident and then raises her hand for one, whilst looking absolutely stunning and perfect). I just put my glasses on to at least recognize a taxi, and stood there with my hand up for about 2 minutes, it took a bit longer, but it worked :p

At about 7.55 am I reached Whole Foods, about 5 minutes before opening time ( at this moment I felt a bit like a Justin bieber fan, waiting 2 days in advance, in front of the concert doors ) And then the guy came with the keys, finally it was time!!

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!

The bakery section was the first section that caught my eye:  they have different kinds of bread: cornbread, foccacia, bagels, croissants, pies, and cakes of all kinds, each one made from the finest ingredients. The thing I liked about them is that they don’t allow artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, preservatives or trans fats in any of the products they sell..

Fresh fruits? YES please!

Larabaaaaaaars! I never had these before, I haven’t tried all the flavors yet but the ‘peanut butter cookie’ rocked my world! I absolutely love everything with PB I bought a lot of them to bring home.. maybe a give-away in the future?

hmmmmmmmmmmmm =)

Organic Nanners! I like that you know where your food comes from,they display the origin of every piece of produce they sell.

The goodies that I bought to take take home were:

Organic mango, I munched on most of it in the plane, sorry :p

Whole wheat wraps, I absolutely love these! They’re super big and taste pretty darn good

Think thin bars, I haven’t tried these yet.. I don’t really like the name of the brand though, but I was curious..

Luna Bars: I’m very curious about these!

A lot of Larabars!

Carob powder, I used this one in my oats, it’s quite chocolatey without being overly sweet…

Nutritional Yeast.. I’ve been dying to try this and it tastes better than the name would suspect you to

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That was all regarding my trip to Whole Foods, I defenitely will be going back this summer. I’m also dying to go to trader Joes in the summer, so excited!!

Today I had a salad for dinner: it wasn’t vegan or vegetarian but as you guys read in my previous post.. I’m gonna make the changes gradually and educate myself better first before deciding to become vegetarian/vegan..I’m starting by doing small changes first!

Salad with Scampi, Romaine, Cucumber, tomatoes, shrimps, smoked salmon, pesto and hummous..

Oh, I almost forgot the sunflower seed bread

Dessert: fresh strawberries with Artisana cacao bliss, no bake cake and nanner with pb

- Have you ever been to Whole foods? What are your favorite products?

- What do you like to munch after dinner?

 

Sleep tight!!

 

 

 

Recipe : Rhubarb Preserve

Today I had some leftover rhubarb, I don’t really know what to do with it so I made a rhubarb preserve!!

Ingredients:

- I think I used just under 2 pounds of rhubarb

- pinch of cinnamon

- agave to sweeten ( optional)

- 3/4 of a cup of water

1. Clean the rhubarb. Cut the ends off and wash them under very cold water. Cut the rhubarb in pieces of about 1 inch.

2. Boil the water and throw in the pieces of rhubarb.

 

3. Add cinnamon and let simmer for 15 minutes.You can add some extra agave if you like it sweeter.

4. Boil all the excess water until it thickens. I also used a little bit of Xanthan and Guar gum to thicken it in stead of sugar..

5. Delicious Rhubarb Preserve

 

I mix this with plain soy yoghurt or put in on my bread together with organic PB

 

enjoy!

 

 

Turning your sweat tooth into something good..

Hi guys!!

How is everybody doing? Work is kinda slow for me at this moment so I’m mostly doing stuff at home.. It’s quite typical that models work in cycles, sometimes it gets really super super bizzay and sometimes it just slows down.. Works for me

Today I wanted to write something about misleading your sweet tooth.. Whether we are simply chilling at home or writing a paper, we all, from time to time, experience an urge for something chocolaty. It is a feeling that occurs naturally and we often have a difficult time escaping it.At least I do! The key is balance and control.

Here are some recipes I often use to mislead my sweet tooth:

- Breakfast cookies

- Black bean brownies

- Apple Cupcakes

- Chocolate tofu brownies

- Protein Ice cream

- Strawberries with cane sugar and balsamic vinegar

- No bake cakes

- Apple with cinnamon

Just microwave some chopped apples with agave and cinnamon

- Protein pancakes

These are the recipes I make on a daily bases..

By making all of these delicious recipes, I can keep that sweet tooth monster tamed.. I don’t feel the need to eat M&M’s, snickers, chocolate or any other baked goods.. And they are all super nutritious and healthy for ya!!

 

Have a very nice day!!

 

The exotic market + NY buys!

Hi guys!

 

Hope everybody’s having a relaxing sunday.. We have plans to go to a dinner party with a friend and chill a little bit because it’s a very nice day outsife!! I think it’s about 20 degrees, heavvvvvvvvvvvvven!! I think there will be sushi on the menu, my absolute favorite!! Since I didn’t have time to notify the host about mekan vegetarian or vegan option, I’m just gonna roll with it..

Yesterday I went to an exotic market in the centre of Antwerp, the weather was sunny and breezy and it was awesome to see all of this fresh produce for reasonable prices.. I loved it! Nuts and dried fruit until the horizon, fresh pineapples and strawberries, fresh bread!

I scored these lil items:

 

 

Cheerios from the USA store / Tomatoes de boeuf / cucomber/ Romaine lettuce/ 2kg of fresh strawberries/ Pink ladies..

Doesn’t that look delish!!

 

While I was in NY I also did some shopping there ( Well DUH ) I must say that NY is a fabulous city to shop.. Especially Macy’s, Victoria’s Secret, A&F, Hollister, Forever 21 and SOHO are the place to shop!!

Running pants for upcoming 1/2 marathon     Forever 21   7.80 dollars

White lace romantic summer dress    Forever 21    19.90 dollars ( I think )

Summer short  Forever 21 9.90 dollars

Hollister Surf shorts 19.90 dollars

Hollister surf shorts blue 19.90 dollars

Hollister top ( Can’t remember the price)

Awesome butt sweatpants hollister 39.90 dollars

 

I still have to make a recap of the NY en wholefoods en candle 79 adventure.. I think it will be up tommorow )

 

Have a great one!

To be or not to be..Vegan

I’ve been thinking about becoming a Vegan for some time now..

 

There are a lot of good reasons to be a vegan or a vegetarian:

- Environment: It is significantly better for the environment

- Health: It is significantly better for your health

- Animal rights: There are a lot of factory farms that mistreat meat producing animals and dairy cows

 

I think I’m gonna call myself a  “50% Vegan”. After long and hard thinking I think it will be too difficult to be a full Vegan, with my job and all.. It’s very hard just to eat healthy, and when I’m doing a shoot, I just can’t be too picky about food towards the costumer.. I could bring all my food myself, but I work a longer shoot in a foreign country, I think it veganism wouldn’t be sustainaible.. At least for the moment…

I want to move more and more towards veganism but I will do it over the course of a few years I guess.. I will commit myself to be doing a few things like:

- soy yoghurt in stead of plain yoghurt

- Soy/almond/ricemilk instead of plain milk

- Subbing meat as much as possible and eating lots of beans, tofu, tempeh and seitan

- I will still be eating fish ( I’m a big fan of tuna and salmon)

- I will still be eating chicken 1x a week but will buy Organic one starting from now

- Nutritional yeast in stead of cheese

- organic goat cheese and feta ( in very small amounts)

- sub eggs as much as possible

This is the best I can do for myself at the moment, under the circumstances..:)