Categorie: LIFESTYLE

Vegan avocado and tofu poke bowl

Posted on by Chloé

Hi everyone! We’re almost halfway into the summer holidays and in July I was mostly working in a clothing boutique in Ghent. I’m only working a few days in August and September, because I will be traveling a lot (tomorrow I’m leaving for Venice and Verona!), and in between my last working days and the days I will be away, I like to get creative at home by trying out some new recipes. Yesterday I told my family that I would cook a vegan dinner for them, more specifically a tofu poke bowl with some sushi rolls as a side dish. Both my parents, sister, and I loved how this bowl turned out, so here’s the recipe, if you want to give it a try!

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Amsterdam hotspot: Pluk

Posted on by Chloé

Hi everyone! A couple of weeks ago I made a little trip to the Netherlands, to meet up with some girls I got to know in England last term. The plan was to meet in Amsterdam, have lunch together and visit the Rijksmuseum and then, in the evening, take the train to Utrecht. One of my Dutch friends has a place in Utrecht so the five of us could stay there. I arrived quite early with the coach  bus in Amsterdam, so I decided to look for a nice place to have breakfast, since the others hadn’t arrived yet. I had seen and heard a lot about Pluk, a breakfast- and lunch spot in the centre of the city.

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Vegan in Ghent: my recommendations (part 1: Breakfast & Coffee)

Posted on by Chloé

Hi everyone! Not everyone knows this about me, but the past couple of months my eating habits have changed drastically, since I am switching from a vegetarian to a vegan diet. I have not eaten meat or fish for almost four years now, and could not imagine ever going back. When I was in England for my Erasmus, I forced myself to eat vegan whenever I had the opportunity, and realized that this was easier than I thought it would be. Many restaurants had vegan options and vegan grocery shopping was an easy task. I think I can say that England is definitely ahead of Belgium when it comes to vegan food, especially since it has become sort of a trend, with a lot of celebrities opting for a plant based diet and vegan youtubers making ‘What I eat in a day’-videos. When I had to return home, I feared that it would be very hard to stick with my good resolutions. I knew that compared to what I was used to in England, the range of vegan products in the supermarkets would be limited and that some traditional (read: old-fashioned) restaurants don’t have anything fully plant based on their menus. That’s why I decided to do a little research and try out some supermarkets I would not normally go to, in order to find out what they have to offer. I came to the conclusion that a lot has changed already and is still changing when it comes to plant based food. Apart from checking out the supermarkets, I went through the online menus of all the places I used to go to in my university town Ghent, to see what I would still be allowed to eat as a vegan.

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My favourite places to eat in Canterbury

Posted on by Chloé

Although three and a half months seemed like a really long time before I left my hometown behind to start my ‘erasmus adventure’, as I like to call it, time has passed so quickly and I can hardly believe it’s almost time to go home. During my time in Canterbury I spent a lot of time just wandering around in the city, stopping for a coffee and a cake now and then (or, as I’m in England, a ‘cream tea’) and I would often get up early to have breakfast at one of the many coffee houses. Like this, I discovered some really nice places which I would like to show to you.

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Bitterkaartje

Posted on by Chloé

Hi everyone! I’m a real collector: cinema tickets, old letters, my mom’s jewellery…  The broadest of my collections is without doubt my collection of postcards. Whenever I go on a holiday I buy some postcards to hang them on my wall. Since recently I also collect greeting cards, so I always have some cards in hand when it’s someone’s birthday or when I just want to wish a friend good luck. A little different from most of the cards I own are these new ones from the online shop Bitterkaartje, founded by a Dutch girl. Apart from greeting cards, you can also find balloons, posters and tote bags, all characterized by their comic and often sarcastic text. To be honest, I wouldn’t send these to my grandma, but I can not wait until one of my friends is pregnant so I can send her a card saying ‘Congratulations on your temporarily huge boobs’ or ‘A mini version of you two! How’s that even legal?’!

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9000

Posted on by Chloé

Hi everyone! This week was quite tiring since I had my first exam on Monday. Coming home from my dorm room in Ghent yesterday to find a package containing this phone case made me feel much better. This week, Case Company launched a new concept called ‘CityMarble‘: you can now have a map of your favourite city printed on your phone case! Of course I chose to have a map of Ghent printed on my IPhone, since Ghent has started to feel like home for me over the past two years that I have been studying and living there. Also, I thought it would be nice to have something familiar with me when I’m studying abroad next semester. What’s nice about this is that you can mark your favourite places in your city on your map. I wanted to do this, but I have so many favourite places in Ghent that it would be impossible to choose from, haha. Be sure to check out Case Company’s website! You can make your own personalized phone case (or find other phone and laptop cases, believe me, they are all so nice!) via this link.

To all of you who have exams, I wish you a lot of luck! We can do this. xoxo

2x breakfast inspiration

Posted on by Chloé

Hi everyone, long time no see! Exams are starting in two weeks so at the moment I try to be as productive as possible each day to save the semester. My grades are extra important this year since I’m studying abroad next year! I’ll definitely tell you more about this, since it’s something I’m very excited about. Although during the exams the temptation to eat lots of unhealthy food can be very high, I try to avoid this. Today I want to share with you two of my favourite breakfast recipes. Both of them are very healthy and easy to prepare.

When I’m at home I like to have oats as breakfast. These are incredibly nutritious, very filling and great if you want to lose weight. I always use plant based milk when I make oatmeal for breakfast. My favourite is just simple soy milk (if you live in Belgium, go get the one from Aldi!), in my opinion this tastes way better than cow milk, plus it’s nice to know that no animals have suffered for my meal. As an oatmeal can get quite boring I like to add some toppings. My favourites are frozen raspberries, fresh strawberries, almonds, banana or blueberries. What I always do is adding one teaspoon of coconut oil. This adds healthy fats and makes the oats more creamy. A pinch of cinnamon gives this breakfast some extra flavour, too.

Last Sunday I wanted to make my oatmeal extra “fancy” so I added just a little bit of melted chocolate as an extra topping. I can tell you, this was delicious! If you’re vegan you can opt for cocoa powder, which also goes very well with the oats.

Although oats really don’t take a long time to prepare (around 5min in total, depending on how many effort you put in making your breakfast #instaproof, haha), sometimes I don’t have the time for this. At days like this I will usually go for a smoothie. People who know me a bit will know that I’m a huuuge smoothie addict. My favourite recipe contains the following ingredients:

1 banana
1 cup of oats
soy milk or almond milk
2 dates
a pinch of cinnamon

See, this recipe is so simple! Another great combination is strawberries, some greek yoghurt and coconut milk. If you want to make your smoothie extra healthy: add spinach or kale. But make sure to try out some new recipes! You’ll find a lot of inspiration on Pinterest. Be sure to let me know your favourite combination!

What is your favourite breakfast? let me know in the comments!

xoxo, Chloé

How I get into the Christmas spirit

Posted on by Chloé

It’s the most wonderful time of the year… Fi-na-lly my favourite time of year has arrived! I’m quite a sucker for Christmas so getting into the Christmas spirit isn’t that hard for me, but this year I want to experience and enjoy it to the fullest. I decided to make a list with Christmas related stuff that I want to do before the 25th of December arrives. Maybe it will inspire you how to make the most of these days 🙂

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MADE MY OWN SHOE FRINGES

Posted on by Chloé

Een trend die we het laatste jaar heel erg vaak voorbij zagen komen is het opfleuren van je sneakers met shoe fringes. Ze zijn er in heel veel verschillende kleuren en stofjes en laten je sneakers er net iets unieker uitzien, wat wel eens van pas kan komen als de helft van je school met dat ene paar Adidassen aan loopt. 😉 Een hele tijd geleden kwam ik op het idee om zelf shoe fringes te gaan maken. En dit is het restultaat! Dit is ondertussen al mijn derde paar, maar toch wel mijn favoriet. Met behulp van zilveren glitters heb ik geprobeerd een soort metallic / snake effect te creëren.

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HOW TO GIVE YOUR BEDROOM A MINIMALIST TOUCH

Posted on by Chloé

Een trend die we de laatste tijd vaak zien voorbijkomen is minimalisme, oftewel ‘het reduceren naar slechts de noodzakelijke elementen’. Eenvoud en rust staan centraal: less is more. Een minimalistisch interieur is clean en maakt veelal gebruik van neutrale kleuren. Dit werkt rustgevend en blijkt stress te verminderen. In dit artikel geef ik een aantal tips hoe jij in een paar stappen je (slaap)kamer kan omtoveren naar een Pinterest worthy, minimalistische ruimte.

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