There are days when you get up and already know that you will not get anything done as planned. Today was a day like that. It started with going to bed way too late yesterday, and having to get up this morning after sleeping a few hours too little.

~ story of my life ~

I then realized that I have been devoured by mosquitoes last night. Although I do not eat much sugar anymore, there seems to flow honey in my veins, and they liked it.

~ they ate me from head to toe ~

Unnecessary to say that I have stitches everywhere, and they itch like crazy. I am very bad in tolerating things like that, and it was hard for me to sit through my Japanese class in the morning and my lab work in the afternoon without scratching all the time.

When I came home, I felt tired and sluggish, and my plans to spend a few productive hours with my diploma thesis in the evening started vanishing. In the end, I made almond butter instead.

I wanted to make white almond butter for some time now, and today was the day! James the blender did a great job again. I had bought skinless almonds and I highly recommend to do that! A while ago – since I claim from myself to try everything out before putting it on my blog – I had two hours of fun peeling a big bag of almonds I had soaked in hot water … It was a once-in-a-lifetime-experience, and I really do not have to repeat it. (For the record: I did not even use those almonds to make almond butter then. Mysteriously, they were eaten within a couple of days, before making their way into the blender … )

White Almond Butter

250 g (1 cup)

Ingredients

250 g (1/2 lb) almonds, skins removed

Directions

Put the almonds into a blender or kitchen machine and blend them on high speed. When the ground almonds stick to the walls of the container too much, stop blending and turn the machine off. Open the container, and carefully scrape the almonds off with a long spoon. (I had to do this 2 times after 60 seconds blending each, and granted my blender some time to cool down at these opportunities.) Then continue blending until the ground almonds have combined to creamy and delicious almond butter.

~ the lovely mess ~

So in the end, I am pleased with today after all. And writing on my thesis will go on tomorrow with a vengeance. I am confident about it!

Recently, a friend made a post in which she showed the contents of her fridge. Following her invitation, I will let you peek into mine today. So, what do we have in there?

In the top shelf:

container of lamb’s lettuce
bag of spinach
box of chicken in anise and onion marinade

In the bottom shelf:

containers with organic butter and miso
white and green asparagus
carrots

In the vegetable drawer:

bag of organic lemons
red bell pepper (which needs to be finished off next)
Pink Lady apples
more carrots (hiding underneath)

In the door:

jar of mustard
bottle of lime juice
stylish bottle of Kikkoman soy sauce (my favorite)
tube of wasabi
piece of fresh gingerroot
pot of diluted cream

On the fridge:

kabocha squash
pot of fresh basil
bananas
bottle of roasted sesame oil
little jar of shichimi togarashi spice mix
James the blender (you can only see his feet)

And what do we do with all that spinach and a banana, with the help of a blender?

Spinach and Banana Protein Smoothie

2 glasses

Ingredients

1-2 big handful of spinach
1 banana
125 ml (1/2 cup) almond milk
175 ml (3/4 cup) water
2 tbsp protein powder (I used rice protein powder)

Directions

Blend and enjoy. (And yay, Kristina, it really gets that green! )

~ moving on to some questions … ~

Q: What do you consider healthy eating?

Plenty of fresh vegetables and some fruit, healthy fats, sufficient and easily digestable protein, high fiber and some complex carbohydrates, low sugar and starch, low PUFAs and anti-nutrients, plenty of herbs and spices, as few processed foods as possible, base excess. Taking time for eating and enjoying the meal.

Q: Do you consider your diet healthy?

Yes, meanwhile.

Q: What’s your favorite healthy food?

More than one: winter squash, carrots, spinach, onions, ginger, garlic, chicken, fish, almonds, butter, basil, parsley, just to name a few. Look at my tags list!

Q: What’s one thing you could do to improve your diet?

Eat more regularly.

It was dancing time again! Friday was the day of this semester’s psychology party, and unlike the last time, it did not take place at the psychological institute, but at a small alternative music club. However, like the last time (and several times before), I was asked to DJ, and so I did!

I am not at all a party girl, but I enjoy DJing every once in a while. Being an introvert person, this is also a great way for me to “survive” a party. See, I usually have a problem with being squeezed in the middle of a crowd and people touching me all the time (which cannot be avoided in the middle of a crowd), and I am not so much a socializer, so I usually just go for an hour or two, sustain some small talk, and then go home. I like to go and see some fellow students and dance a little every now and then, but I tend to get tired very quickly – not in the sense that I would have to go to bed, but from too many people and chatter and noise around me which feed my need for alone time. But there, in the little peaceful space behind the mixer, I have a sanctuary from where I can observe the dancefloor and feel like actually attending the party without being in the middle of it, or standing by the side and feeling a little lost. And everybody is happy that I am there because I get the people dancing.

I am not a professional DJ, but I have a good feeling for music and for what the people want for dancing, and I was happy to see that I had them on the dancefloor non-stop for the three hours of my shift. Three hours may sound like a lot of time to fill, but they passed very quickly, like DJing time always tends to do. This means that you should play the best you have.

I had prepared different sets of music, according to different styles – it always works fine to start with independent rock, then move on to dancehall, funky tunes, and big beat, and end with electro later at night, because there are a lot of people with different tastes in music, and this is quite a good solution to play something for everybody and still have consistent music sets. People screamed when I played The Killers and The Gossip, they sang when I played The Rolling Stones and The White Stripes, they danced on the tables when I played MC Hammer and Peter Fox, they raved when I played Trentemøller and Deadmau5. We all had fun.

The next day, I was tired and vexed by a headache until late afternoon, although the only thing I drank the night before was a big bottle of sparkling water – unnecessary to say that I had quite a hard time to stick to my “from mollusk to muscle” plan, and I must admit that I did not manage to go for a running-and-walking something in the morning. However, I managed a quick-paced 20 minutes walk later that day, and I think this is quite good since my goal was to do a little something every day, and 20 minutes of walking are a little something.

Even more unfortunately, I woke up with a sore throat and stuffed sinuses, and I am seriously annoyed. I feel a little sick rather often – not enough to stay in bed, but too much to exert myself a lot. What do you do in situations like that? Have a rest day, or exercise nevertheless? I am afraid I would have quite a lot of rest days, and I am concerned about my habit building plans when accounting for it too much. Of course, it also means welcome counter-exercise arguments for the blue Smiley … So, I am thinking about another walk today and some stretching at home. And lots of vitamins to get back on my feet – like this.

Apple and Lemon Protein Smoothie with Chili

2 glasses

Ingredients

1 apple
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp protein powder (I used rice protein powder)
175 ml (3/4 cup) water
125 ml (1/2 cup) almond milk
1/4 tsp dried chili flakes

Directions

Blend and enjoy.

What do you do exercise-wise when feeling a little sick? Do you enjoy parties? And which is your favorite kind of music for dancing?

During the last two weeks, I have given a lot of tutorials on multivariate statistics and earned some additional money that came just in time to do something about my miserable blenderlessness. This, by the way is a funny thing: as soon as I am in the happy situation to have some leftover money, one of my vital household or kitchen appliances decides to go belly up, so there the money leaves me again … Gah.

De mortuis nihil nisi bene, but my old blender had its limits. For example, a while ago, I found this incredibly appealing recipe for homemade nut butter on a blog, and since that day, the idea of trying this out myself has haunted me. In a nutshell: using my old blender, my attempt resulted in almond crumbles. So it dawned on me that it was time for a bigger investment, because in a situation like this, when you are going to buy something that you will use every day and have certain expectations of, you are better off with not making false economies. I took a deep breath and went for really big. (Well, not Vitamix big, but maximum affordably big.) And I ordered a spaceship.

This, my friends, the blender butler. (He comes from a German company called Gastroback, in case you are interested.) Let me introduce him a little.

First of all, I find him quite handsome. He can be taken apart easily (what delights me when I think of future cleaning activities), the container is made of glass, and everything seems to be well-made. This is a real improvement, because my old blender had a plastic container, and the blade element could not be taken off which made it difficult to clean.

The blades are shaped in a way that makes the food move from the edges into the middle and be blended nicely and evenly. There are five different speed levels, extra programs for smoothies and ice crushing, a pulse blending function, and a time display.

Then it was time for a crucial test, so the first thing I made was …

Almond Butter

1 cup

Ingredients

200 g (1 1/2 cups) almonds

Directions

Put the almonds into the blender and start blending. I used a lower (chopping) speed at first. After a few seconds, you will get almond flour.

The ground almonds tend to accumulate at the walls of the container, so you have to stop blending, take off the lid, and carefully scrape off the almonds with a spoon so they fall down onto the blades. Then put the lid on again and continue blending. I used the highest speed from now on. Whenever you observe that the almonds accumulate at the walls again, stop blending, open, and scrave them off. I had to do this around two or three times. After some more blending, the almonds will start clumping together, and a few minutes of total high-speed blending time later, you will end up with this.

Wonderful, home-made almond butter! I have calculated that I save around 5 to 10 Euro per jar if I make it myself, compared to buying it at the store (depending on whether it still contains almond skins or not). This is totally worth the 10 minutes I needed for making it and cleaning up the mess. And, of course, this.