Bliss!

Make room for more bliss in your life.

Bliss to me means prioritizing wellness and better health to feel awesome & continue kicking ass in whatever I put my mind into.

Like;

• Allow myself to rest when I need it

• Eat nutritious, colorful foods

• Sunshine & natural light exposure

• Spend time with uplifting relationships

• Listen to inspiring music

• Be present & mindful

• Slow down to be intentional & aware

Oh and also bring some more Bliss by treating yourself with wellness, sustainable and less waste products by coia store. Like this gorgeous golden spoon you see on the picture below.

I’m happy to be their ambassador as I love that they’re passionate about making products that make you feel good. Which increases the quality of life, and which at the same time takes care of our nature. The products from coia are designed with quality, natural materials and aesthetic completion in focus.

Join in and use my code team20 for a 20% discount, bring it on with the bliss.

Check out their website here:

http://coiastore.no

With love & care, Melanie

Delicious homemade chocolate!

With cacao nibs, roasted hazelnuts, dried raisins and cranberries

Did you know that homemade chocolate is easier to make than you might think, you only need the right ingredients and thanks to super.nature, that is possible! You just need cacao butter and cacao mass, some sweetener and that’s it!

Recipe

Ingredients

• 200g cacao mass

• 100g cacao butter

• 4-8 tbsp of coconut sugar, depending on how sweet you want it

Add if you like: cacao nibs, roasted nuts like hazelnuts for crunch, dried raisins and cranberries for extra sweetness and sea salt to enhance the chocolate flavor.

Method

1. Melt cocoa mass and cocoa butter in a water bath.

2. Whisk in coconut sugar when the cocoa mass and cocoa butter have become liquid.

3. Taste if the chocolate is sweet enough.

4. Add the desired flavors and additives.

5. Pour the chocolate into a loaf pan lined with parchment paper and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

6. Cut into pieces with a knife and enjoy!

Ps: a thoughtful idea is to give it away as a gift.

https://www.super-nature.no/kakao

Gift wrapping the chocolate!

Did you know that chocolate is good for the heart, brain and mood!

And did you also know that homemade gifts gives you these mental health benefits:

• It improves your well being and life quality.

• It regulates your mood and can reduce stress.

• Can give fewer symptoms of depression.

So by taking these benefits in regard, let’s combat the long dark hours with chocolate to cheer up and stay healthy mentally. Oh and it just gets better by giving it away, remember what I mentioned above;)

With love & care, Melanie x

Truegum ~ the revolutionary chewing gum!

Smile cause it’s like ray of sunshine

The world smiles back when you choose “truegum” and here’s why:

1. It’s plastic free, vegan and biodegradable chewing gum.
2. Made 100% natural with high quality plant based ingredients that’s good for you and our planet.
3. Free from sugar and additives, waaay healthier!
4. Made sustainable and produced in Copenhagen, Denmark.

My 2 favorites are lemon and strong mint because they are so refreshing and leaves you with a good taste and breath!

But go check ‘em out cause they’ve got more amazing flavors in store..
Here’s their website https://truegum.com

Don’t wait to make that difference, the power lies in your choice.

My two favorites!

With love & care, Melanie x

Porto ~ Portugal

As I’m writing and looking into perspective, I feel very fortunate to travel again and do my job as a professional tennis player. When I’m now abroad it feels like I’m given an opportunity to seize all the wonders of live which is enhancing my life experience in all magical ways. Therefore I’m in awe when I see what this beautiful city has to offer and digesting all the ancient monuments with a history greater than time. As I walk through these old, narrow streets of cobblestone, it is as time has stand still and I’m brought back into the town’s past. Although its architecture, tram tracks and atmosphere might be giving you nostalgia, there is a new breath of modern life hanging in the air. If you look closely you’ll sense it by the small healthy cafés standing out which crosses the line of history, traditionalism and conservatism. They will take you to the future of a healthy eating lifestyle that is becoming more common and sought after around the world.

I went on a hungry stomach with great determination towards my target to eat a delicious breakfast. Destination: Nola kitchen. I must admit it wasn’t the cleverest choice to look at the menu when being so eager to eat it all. But in the end my choice landed at the egg bowl. A nutritious bowl of black rice, sautéed kale, grilled corn, poached eggs, oven roasted sweet potatoes and delicious tahini sauce with it.

The egg bowl

However, that bowl still made me hungry for more and so I ordered their summer edition pancakes. With the sun shining towards my face it felt like the perfect choice as chocolate pancakes would be heavy to digest on a warm summer’s day in Porto.

Summer edition pancakes

These healthy pancakes were definitely a new experience to me. They tasted not like normal pancakes if being honest, but with the coconut yoghurt, maple sirup, berries and crunch of pistachios, it balanced it out and so I ended up finishing it all up somehow!

Wanderlust

The square you need to visit

The beautiful facade of the church

Monuments of ancient history

In love with the blue tiles!

During a hitting session on center court before the tournament

With love & care, Melanie x

Eatmytrip Barcelona ~ Brunch

Alps Brunch & Açaí bowl

Barcelona is heaven on earth when you wanna eat great brunch in town. There are so many amazing cafés to go eating and enjoy delicious, colorful dishes from their menus. With some research and evaluation, I came across eatmytrip on google. They did not disappoint. A cozy little place but with an abundant space full of passion and love, I felt immediately at home. I loved their originality in interior, platings and flavors. It was an adventurous experience by the atmosphere and the different tastings of food components. And who doesn’t love new things to try and explore right?

Their menu offers vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options, so it’s a place for everyone to enjoy. I tried their alps brunch; so delicious with the combination of truffle, Parmesan and cheese together with roasted potatoes, mushrooms, poached eggs and pickled onion. It’s symphony to my ears and truly satisfied my tastebuds. The gluten-free seed bread was also pitch perfect with it.

Then, the açaí bowl like no other I’ve tasted before! So creamy, so yummy and I loved that it didn’t have lots of seeds from the berries sticking to my teeth! The color of the smoothie was beautiful, the toppings bringing it next bevel with mouthwatering sweet mango and strawberries, accompanied by crunchy buckwheat granola, coconut chips and gluten-free chocolate chip cookie. Another star component of the dish being so gooey and moist.

Can you see what I mean?

But the brunch didn’t stop right there you see.. I had to finish it in style with their chocoloco pancakes and man that made me loco by how amazing they were. From how beautifully they plated it, to harmonizing the flavors of crunch by red velvet crumbs to creamy coconut mousse and hazelnut ice cream. However, topping it off with fluffy well made American pancakes. I loved that they went loco with the chocolate sauce because that’s the way it should be if the dish says so right? Still day dreaming about them, no doubt I’m coming back for more!

Take a closer look of them guys

Matcha latte served in a dead skull cup, this is what I mean by how cool they are by being so original!

So if you are in Barcelona and want to enjoy a top notch brunch place, this is the café to go. Enjoy and don’t hold back.

With love & care, Melanie x

Pistachio & chia pudding bowl

And with a superfood ingredient: spirulina!

This bowl will give you a kick start for the day, make you full and keep your blood sugar levels in check, plus will nurture you with lots of healthy fats, protein, minerals and vitamins. So let’s rock and roll and make this day awesome!

Ingredients

• 2 frozen banana

• 1/3 cup / 80 ml oat milk

• 1/4 cup / 60 ml pistachios

• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

• 1 tsp spirulina from Supernature

• 1 medjool date

Blend all ingredients in a blender.

For the chia pudding add 3 tbsp of chia seeds with 150-200 ml of coconut milk and stir. Set aside for 15 minutes until it thickens. If too thick add some more milk.

Enjoy it with cashew butter and granola.

It’s so delicious, thick and rich in flavor, all you can ask for!

Take a look and you’ll see…

Chocolate raw balls

Such a delicious treat/snack

It’s weekend and you might be wondering what to treat yourself with and how to satisfy your sweet tooth? Well, don’t you worry, cause I’ve got you covered. These chocolate raw balls are so delicious, they are nut free, dairyfree, vegan, glutenfree and refined sugar free! It got a rich chocolate flavor, with a hint of coffee and a yummy crunch from the buckwheat! The recipe is from talented Tiril Refsum, in her book “Rågodt”.

These are perfect to make on a Sunday as you can save them up for the week when the hangry mood strikes or you need a quick snack in between your busy schedule. Also not a bad idea to reward yourself with a treat after a good long day of work either;)

The ingredients you’ll need are simple:

• Dates

• Shredded coconut

• Cacao powder

• Espresso shot (2 tbsp) or 1 tsp of coffee powder

• Coconut sugar / brown sugar (if you don’t have any of ingredients play around with honey or maple syrup but then see with the consistency of the dough)

• Salt to enhance the chocolate flavor

• Whole buckwheats

Just mix all ingredients in a food processor except the buckwheat until the dough becomes sticky. Then you can add in some buckwheat to your preferring and pulse lightly with the food processor so that it’s mixed with the dough. After you can roll them into balls and cover them with either cacao powder or shredded coconut.

As this is a recipe from the book of Tiril I won’t share the exact measurements but the ingredients are there for you to try it out and make the delicious healthier treat/snack.

Refrigerate them after you have rolled them into balls! Then after 30 min, you can enjoy them;)

Keep them in an airtight container in the fridge and they last for a week:)

Have a lovely Sunday guys,

With love & care Melanie x

Toppings to your smoothiebowl

So, about toppings… Those options are endless and I love how I can just play with it! A smoothie bowl topped with granola, gojiberries, coconut flakes and bee pollen takes it to another level. From my earlier post, I made this grainfree chocolate granola that gives it a great crunch with the clusters, then the gojiberries as well which are rich in antioxidants. The coconut flakes harmonies the flavor and takes me to the tropics. Then last but not least, the bee pollen, making it look even prettier with more vibrant colors in display! It’s also with lots of health benefits, it says that the ancient swore to it for vitality.

Other toppings I love are dried fruit like cranberries, dates and apricot. For a sweet tooth like me cacao nibs satisfy that need and gives it a great crunch too!

I encourage you to invest on toppings to your smoothie bowl since it will be an investment to your health and well being. In addition, it makes your bowl look so vibrant and pretty! Even though you might not think about it, making it a priority to invest on small things like these, means you care about yourself and that is so important for your own reflection and self esteem.

Where I get my favorite toppings are from organic and sustainable products produced by Helios & Supernature, check them out more here:

https://www.helios.no

https://www.super-nature.no

With love & care, Melanie x

Chocolate Grainfree Granola

Crunchy and delicious!

Sinus health is something I want to discuss about in this blog post. Through my experience, I have realized that some foods trigger my sinus and immune system. It’s due to cross allergies you eat that affects your pollen allergy. In my case, I have grass pollen and foods like oats, peanut butter, legumes, tomatoes and wheat triggers that immune response, affecting my health. When I got the news I was kind of devastated since that has been my diet for so many years, however it all made sense to me. Therefore, I could choose to either feel like a victim or make a choice of seeing the opportunity in changing my well being. I made a commitment to look at solutions, how could I replace other foods and still enjoy? That’s why I changed my mindset into looking at recipes replacing porridge or overnight oats to smoothie bowls for breakfast, in addition to making a grainfree granola as topping which is the recipe I will share with you here!

I hope this is insightful for you and that it can make you reflect on your own personal experience to make those necessary changes into feeling better!

What’s without a doubt is that making this granola is way healthier than the store bought cereal loaded with sugar;)

It’s glutenfree, grainfree, vegan and refined sugar free! And better because of chocolate..

Ingredients

• 1 cup raw cashews

• 3/4 cup shredded coconut

• 1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds

• 1/4 cup hemp seeds

• 1/4 cup sesame seeds

• 1/4 cup ground flax

• 1/4 cup cacao powder

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp sea salt

• 1/4 cup maple syrup

• 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted

• I also added some almonds and walnuts. If you would want to swap them for some of the other seeds instead you can, or add them to your liking as I did.

Instructions

Mix all ingredients together until all ingredients are well covered with the maple syrup and oil. Then spread it out evenly on baking sheet with parchment paper.

Bake on 160 degrees for 15 minutes, then allow to cool to room temp for 45 minutes-1 hour before breaking into clusters.

You can store it in an air tight container or glass jar and you’ll have your granola ready for your breakfast with yoghurt or milk or on top of your smoothiebowl!

Enjoy,

With love & care, Melanie x

Paleo Blueberry Coffee Cake

Glutenfree, dairyfree and refined sugarfree!

It’s weekend and it’s time for a treat right? I made this paleo blueberry paleo cake on a Saturday evening with my childhood friend, as I planned for us to make it as a nice dessert which I found on Pinterest! There are so many talented people and there are so many delicious recipes to find! However, many times I don’t know where to start cause I find so many recipes I wanna make.. But I finally decided to make this occasion hanging with my friends over dinner to enjoy ourselves. And the day after, on a lazy Sunday morning for breakfast, this cake only got better, so so yummy with yoghurt and more fresh blueberries to it.

The recipe is from “the roasted root”, check her out and if you wanna treat yourself with this cake too, I suggest you click right away to her site now;) https://www.theroastedroot.net/paleo-blueberry-coffee-cake/

Baking with high quality ingredients is essential, therefore I’m really happy with the products from cocosa – https://www.midsona.no/cocosa/. As you see of what ingredients you’ll need for this cake, are coconut flour, coconut sugar (pictured above) and coconut oil. In addition you’ll need almond flour, coconut milk, eggs, baking powder, cinnamon and walnuts. That’s why it’s glutenfree, dairyfree and refined sugarfree!

This cake is super delicious with vanilla ice cream for dessert, or when having it for breakfast the day after with your coffee. Then you should definitely eat it with either Greek yoghurt or plantbased coconut yoghurt if you want it dairyfree.

Enjoy yourself with a healthy and yummy treat guys!

With love & care, Melanie x