Lussebullar

So I had a little Christmas party last night and my Swedish friend persuaded me to make this very typical Swedish pasty, which is only done over Christmas. The Lussebullar. 
Baking these was so so so much work but they turned out really well and everyone really enjoyed them. I think I ended up with 60 or so pieces of which I froze 20 and the rest were all eaten.. we were around 10 people :D

I can recommend this recipe, you just have to have a lot of patience for it! 

I adapted this recipe I found online here . These are the listed ingredients I basically changed it all, everything in bold is what I used:

 INGREDIENTS

• 3 tbsp (50 g) of yeast for sweet doughs 
• 3/5 c (150 g) of butter or margarine vegan margarine
• 2 c (5 dl) oat milk
• 1 c (250 g) quark cheese (creamy; note: cream cheese can be substituted)
• 1/5 tsp (1 g) saffron a couple of drops of saffron aroma (couldn't find the real deal)
• 3 tbsp (1/2 dl) of sugar
• 1/2 tsp (4 3/4 g) salt
• 6-7 c (17 dl) of all purpose flour 12dl of Spelt flour
• 1 egg (to paint dough)
• raisins

DIRECTIONS

1. Crumble the yeast into a bowl.
2. Melt the butter in a pan. Pour in milk and stir, heat until warm to the touch.
3. Pour the butter mixture over the yeast, stir until dissolved.
4. Mix in the quark cheese, saffron*, sugar and salt.
5. Add most of the flour and work the dough in a machine or by hand, until it releases from the edges of the bowl and is smooth.
6. Cover the bowl with a cloth and let the yeast ferment for 30 minutes.

This is the dough before giving it a 30 minute rest

7. Put the dough on a lightly floured surface. Knead

the dough until it is smooth and shiny.
8. Split dough into 5 parts. Each 5th split into 10.
9. Take the small piece of dough and roll into it 20 cm

long rolls and shape into a figure 8.
10. Put onto cookie sheet that has been covered in baking paper. Push one raisin in each end.

11. Cover with cloth until they double in size, roughly 20-30 minutes. 
12. Paint with the whipped egg.
13. Cook in preheated oven 440°F (225°C) for roughly 8 minutes. 5-6 minutes
14. After removing, let it cool under a cloth. It can be then stored in plastic bags and/or frozen.

I basically followed these steps except for putting the dough back in the bowl and covering it so it doesn't dry and just ripping off smaller pieces as needed. I also don't know how long each rolled out piece was and I rolled it into a S shape turning in each end the opposite way to roll in like a snails shell.

This is the dough after the 30 minute rest

I don't know how many I ended up with but there were a lot and I froze 20. Seems like I made them smaller.. 

Here are some pictures I managed to take in between.

What the S looked like before going into the oven

   

fresh out of the oven

C’est vendredi 13

Happy Friday the 13th. Mine started off with waking to screaming (past 5am = win!), nursing on one side while pumping on the other, and breast milk leaking all over the sheets. Change diaper, throw sheets in laundry, make coffee and finally make juice with the juicer (yay!).

 Thought I’d enjoy my juice and coffee while doing some yoga with B next to me doing her tummy time exercises on her mat. She did do some awesome tummy time moves ( her head and upper body are getting so strong!), but I don’t know who these people are who recommend 10-15 minutes of tummy time 3 times a day at her age (or did I read that totally wrong in a sleep deprived state in the middle of the night? Very possible…).
Anyhow, her moment of tummy time awesomeness lasted a solid 90 seconds before the screaming resumed. My yoga video was still going through the initial deep breathing exercises. The first moves were on all 4’s so I grab B, put her on her back on the yoga mat, under me while I’m doing bird dog’s and cat cow’s. She’s smiling, laughing and making me laugh in the process. I feel like I could be in a yoga for mom’s and babies video- #Hero ! Then suddenly the exercises switch to pelvic floor and glute exercises on back. I decide I can hold Brielle while doing these no problem (#hero right?!). So the glute bridges start and I decide that I can also get some bicep work in by lifting B up every time I do a bridge (as Jillian Michaels once said,, you’re wasting your precious time if you just work one muscle group at a time…Somehow I don’t think this is supposed to apply to yoga, or that I should be thinking about being productive , or thinking at all- hmm maybe I’m not the best suited for yoga!), . Anyways, feeling oh so productive, start feeling like a Boss once again until suddenly, mid-glute bridge, I feel something thick and slimy explode onto my chest and run down the inside of my shirt…Yep, the yoga with baby #Hero /Boss was suddenly covered in puke.

Explosions seem to be the theme for the day, as before noon I managed to make oatmeal explode in the microwave (which I had completely forgotten was in there until returning from dog and baby walk in the rain), pick up an explosion of poop Skylar was gracious enough to leave in the yard (what on earth did she eat last night, I don’t want to know…). Oh and of course deal with a few diaper explosions. The exciting part is that one of these said explosions occurred in a cloth diaper, and actually stayed inside the diaper (I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong but every time I’ve attempted to use a cloth diaper until today, half of what was supposed to stay in the diaper ended up on B’s leg and everywhere else on the change table – if I even made it to the change table that is).

So what does any of this have to do with creating new health habits? Well, originally, I was hoping to be going in the direction of daily yoga routine and core work, but if this morning is any indication, that is as likely to happen as exclusively using cloth diapers.

So instead, I‘m going to give myself a 30 day challenge of laughing more often at the crazy random chaos, as I did this morning, both after being puked on and discovering my forgotten oatmeal. I want to add some other challenges in eventually, but I think starting with more laughter will be the key to success (and survival!) in any other area.

Hope it’s a great weekend for all,

Daniele XO

takeaways from a trainer..

My training sessions will be wrapping up soon, so I tried to write down as much as I could remember. I think it would be easy to replicate the workouts on my own at the gym.

Here is a list of item to chose from to mix and match. Usually you would pick 4 or 5 moves. Do them in sequence. Repeat 3 times. If there is time leftover at the end do one or two more moves.

Back to Basics

So guys it's been a while.

I've been one laaaaazy bugger. Seriously since my last post it's basically been 6 months well 5 really but who cares.

Let's see I had a super busy summer and have therefore barely done any workout. I haven't been home much so I haven't gone to the gym much. I haven't restarted boxing yet because I was gone for three weeks and so it goes on.

I have however started private training sessions with a friend of mine tomorrow is my third class, my friend unfortunately can't make it, so this should be interesting.. 

In my last class I got some homework --- to practice doing a cray which is something you do to practice getting into a handstand supposedly..

Anyway I plan on being back and sporty next year. I have signed up again for a level 3 poledance course this will be the third time i'm doing that. So that'll always be wednesday evenings. Tuesday mornings at 8 I have my personal training sessions and mondays and thursdays i will start with boxing again.

It's time to get real and back to business :) Especially with it being december again ..

I shall review my training session with you tomorrow ! Wish me luck 

Badminton, Running in Boston and Back to the goodlife

Slowly getting back into things..

Last week S and I went to Badminton on Wednesday night. I hadn't played in ages and my arm hurt for so long. No joke, i couldn't squeeze out conditioner for a good 5 days after! That may explain why my hair looks so crazy..or maybe just the wind.

Here we are running along the Charles River in Cambridge.

We stopped for a bit at this cool outdoor gym!

Here I am like, what can I do? I was tired but I kept wanting to go further to get better views. one more bridge..okay one more..okay one more.. we made it all the way to the end, crossed over into Boston and back and then ubered home. Actually ubered straight to 3 little figs..

So nutrition is still a work in progress. trying to eat healthier since being home. the weekend in Boston was a write-off.

We walked up the Bunker -hill monument, that has about 300 stairs and I was huffing and puffing. That doesn't bode well for my upcoming hiking weekend in the Adirondacks..

I went to body shred Monday, soccer yesterday and hopefully badminton today :) I also packed lunches today so that's a start. Fall back to the basics I guess!

Back to the Grind

I hate letting myself get out of shape, because getting back into shape is a b*tch!! But hey, it beats the alternative of staying lazy and barely squeezing into clothes.

After a wonderful vacation and amazing summer I gained 5 pounds. unacceptable.

So, what now?

well, Goodlife membership started up. This week I did:

Monday pm spin

Tuesday am short run with S and Maya the dog

Tuesday pm soccer but I was late because of work so only 1 hour instead of 1.5

Wednesday lunch yoga

I am hoping to go to badminton tonight with S

All this don't mean nada without proper nutrion and last night I had beer and wings. yikes!!

Today so far i've eaten healthy, musli yogurt and raspberries for breakfast, salad for lunch, carrots and apple for snack.. so far so good.

That's all for now, I'll try to post regularly with workouts and nutrition.

get up and get out!

Finally I got up and got out! And I was happy I did :)

I started out my day with a good, quick 5k run :) it started raining on my way back and I got quite soaked but it was a rather nice cool down!

Going to the gym later to do some weights training - been doing a lot of shoulder/arm/legs training so I might to arms/stomach today or legs/stomach