Heather Taylor's kale and coconut smoothie

Doesn't that sound delicious?

a mug of sunshine: carrot soup with ginger and orange

After the opulent Christmas cooking I'm craving "clean" and simple food again. You know what I mean: a few ingredients like vegetable, fruit and  herbs can make such a quick and delicious (and healthy) meal. I put "healthy" in parentheses because in the past, the h-word was the most reliable motivation killer for my children to like my cooking. Healthy equaled "muesli" and uncool; in consequence: not desirable at all.
Once I learned to avoid the word in question things got immediately better. From then on only the taste decided!

After all, it's funny that the position of the family's health maniac has been seized by my sweet 20 year old daughter in the meantime. And - I must confess- better than I'd have ever been capable!

Carrot soup with ginger and orange 

750g carrots, chopped

1 onion, diced

a piece of ginger (walnut size), sliced

the juice of half an orange (or more to taste)

vegetable stock

salt and pepper to taste

oil to sprinkle over the soup (olive, flaxseed, argan, sesame...)

Put the carrots, the onion and the ginger in a saucepan, cover generously with vegetable stock.

Bring to a boil, then let the carrots simmer for about 15 minutes until tender but not pappy. Process with a hand blender until smooth.

Add the orange juice and stir.

Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle a teaspoon of oil  into each mug. 

Top the soup with a few stripes of green. I took portulaca leaves.

Instead of the greens you may prefer to top the soup with a cappuccino of milk foam.

Enjoy!

Powerdrink N°3: beauty mask for the stomach

Believe me, this drink has been a real challenge to photograph! Due to the mixture of the violet acai berry powder, the dark orange quince sauce and the green portulaca leaves it  quickly adopted an uninviting brownish greyish colour (just like a facial mud pack!)

I took two  nice glasses we inherited from Grandpa  - those with the silver rims, poured in the drink and decorated it with pieces of beautiful apple skin. Now a little bit of overexposure, focus clearly on the apple skins and a seductive name...  I hope, you'll like my marketing efforts!

To prepare Powerdrink N°3 in your own kitchen, blend

1 apple
1 banana
a handful of portulaca leaves
1 teaspoon acai berry powder
1tablespoon quince sauce ( to be prepared like apple sauce; can be substituted by quince jelly or quince juice)
1 teaspoon flax seed oil
1 teaspoon almond butter
a glass of water (2 glasses, if you prefer your drink more liquid)

Enjoy and be healthy!