Banana chia seeds oatmeal pudding | in my Red Kitchen #healthy #breakfast #oatmeal #banana
by Ellen Bannink -

Banana chia oatmeal pudding

Banana chia seeds oatmeal pudding | in my Red Kitchen #healthy #breakfast #oatmeal #banana

– Click here for this recipe in Dutch -> Havermoutpap met banaan en chiazaad –

I told you before that I like to go hiking every week in the Santa Monica Mountains. “Hiking” is nothing more than walking up and down the mountains as a workout. ‘My’ trail is a paved path that leads to a boy scouts camp. It takes me 45 minutes to walk there, so every week I spend 1.5 hours on hiking.

I love it! I enjoy the nature, it’s peace and views over the city and sea. And it’s also cheaper than going to a gym 😉

But… that nature also has a downside. A few weeks ago while I was back on the way down, I saw

Almond date shake, my favorite dairy free milkshake! | in my Red Kitchen
by Ellen Bannink -

Almond date shake

Almond date shake, my favorite dairy free milkshake! | in my Red Kitchen – Click here for this recipe in Dutch -> Amandel & dadel milkshake –

Eating paleo for a month, yes or no? That is the big question that keeps me busy right now. If you don’t know anything about paleo (or ‘the cavemen diet’) then you should read the explaination on my favorite paleo blog, Nom Nom Paleo: What’s The Paleo Diet?

Why would I eat paleo for a month according to the Whole30 principle? Because I feel like I need a break again, a break from bad food, just to take time re-think my eating habits. I have a busy half year behind me, filled with visiting family members and of course our own trip to Amsterdam. I’ve been eating out a lot and I didn’t always go on my weekly hike, I ignored my fitness exercises on YouTube and didn’t got my juices every week.

I gained a little weight again, I’m tired and feel

by Ellen Bannink -

French toast

Growing up in the Netherlands meant an open sandwich for breakfast. And for lunch. My mom made us eat a whole wheat sandwich first, with something ‘healthy’ on top. Healthy was slices of cheese or meat. After the ‘brown’ sandwich we could have a ‘white’ one, topped with something sweet.

Peanut butter, jam, ‘hagelslag’ (the famous Dutch chocolate sprinkles), hazelnut spread or ‘appelstroop’. We all had our own favorites. One of my sisters still can’t live without appelstroop. You can compare it with molasses, only slightly firmer and it’s made of apples so it tastes sweet and sour.

Wentelteefjes p

After the white sandwich we had to have a brown one again and so on. If we could decides ourselves what to eat we would only eat white sandwiches with sweet toppings.
We could also be creative with combining the toppings.

by Ellen Bannink -

Overnight oats

I like to start my day with soy yogurt, fresh fruit (strawberries and banana are my favorite), granola and raisins.
But somehow I’m not able to find soy yogurt in LA anymore. What happened to it?! It was already hard to find: Trader Joe’s sold 24 oz containers so I bought one in the first week after our arrival. And at Wholefoods in Venice I bought small 6 oz containers of WholeSoy Yogurt. The Key Lime soy yogurt was the most delicious one.

Overnight oats p

I couldn’t find the WholeSoy Yogurt at the other Wholefoods locations closer to our home. So yesterday I returned to the Wholefoods in Venice to buy this yogurt but then… I found out they don’t sell it anymore! 🙁