It’s June! And I cannot believe that I am actually kind of nervous to go on vacation this month because the weather at home has been so amazing! Of course we don’t have the ocean and the beach so scratch that first sentence. But since the weather here has been extraordinarily good (30 °C every day for a month!), I would not have minded a true „Staycation“ at the moment. Has anybody ever done a real staycation? Explored your home town like a tourist? I think we will actually do this for a few days this year, too. I’m actually pretty hooked on this thought. Let me know if you have any tips for the perfect staycation in the comments below!

Before I leave for our short one-week vacation, I prepared three easy and delicious party finger foods. If you live in Europe or any other soccer-loving country/continent, then you will not come around the soccer World Championship this month. That said, you will not come around soccer parties either. It kind of goes hand in hand and it is basically why I like Championship months. The social aspect of it.

If you try to eat a bit healthier in your life, then it can be hard to stick to it when you are invited to dinner parties or BBQs. While I eat whatever I’m served at a friend’s house, some people, especially when they follow a strict vegan, gluten- or dairy-free diet, will have difficulties going to dinner parties. That’s why my number one tip for eating out is to move the party to your house! If you’re the host, you decide what food will be served.

Another tip is not to tell your friends that their food is refined sugar-free, plant-based (vegan), gluten-free, dairy-free and whatever else-free. Tell them, you’re making incredible tasting finger foods served with delicious bread, high quality olive oil to dip, Kalamata olives, watermelon and strawberries. Trust me, they will love it. Of course it’s totally up to you to make other snacks, too, but if you make these and you love eating vegetables just like I do, you will love these vegan cauliflower wings!

They are made with a deliciously crunchy outer layer made with brown rice flour and delicious spices, a spicy glaze and dip and simply taste so much not like boring steamed cauliflower. Even your little ones will want to try one of those vegan cauliflower wings. Of course, if you have kids, you might want to limit the use of cayenne pepper and make them “not so spicy” vegan cauliflower wings.

Just a last quick note: these wings definitely taste best when they come freshly out of the oven, so make sure to turn the oven on about 1 hour before the big game / half time. However, they can be warmed up in the oven the next day for about 10 minutes at 200°C fan setting.

Enjoy!

Enjoy!

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*This post is sponsored by Honeycrunch.

I have been blogging for almost three years now, but I am always blown away by how many visitors my blog gets in January. It’s by far my busiest month of the year. That’s why I love January. Not because of my blog visitors, but because I love the feeling that’s in the air after New Year’s Eve. It’s a feeling of a new beginning. The feeling of a fresh start. The feeling of joy and excitement for life and the new year.

I’ve been getting lots of questions if I couldn’t do a January challenge. Such as a „30 days of no sugar“ or „30 days vegan“ or „30 days of healthy recipes“ or „30 days being dairy-free“. But somehow, that doesn’t feel like me. I don’t like challenges. Never have, never will. They feel so much like diets.

And diets is something that we definitely do not like.

The problem with diets is that they are bound on a certain amount of days. I dream of a world, where I can encourage people (you!) to make long-term changes in their diets. Or at least change their perception and understanding of diet and health. Once it clicks that diet and medicine are closely related, then everything will fall into place.

If you love challenges and if you need challenges, then I challenge you to eat Heavenlynn Healthy recipes for 30 days. Then you’ll have it all at once: plant-based, dairy-free, gluten-free, sugar-free and vegan. And if you’ve been health-conscious for a while now, then you’ve probably been living a year-long healthy eating challenge last year.

To continue your healthy eating progress in January, I brought you this delicious cauliflower apple power salad. It’s loaded with vitamins, minerals and nutrients, and it tastes incredible due to the addition of Honeycrunch* apples. Honeycrunch is a new apple  that originated in France, but that is now also grown locally near my home. As lover of apples, I love testing new breeds, and Honeycrunch really is bursting with flavor, balancing the art of being sweet and tangy at the same time.

This salad definitely is an aromatic explosion – I know I tend to exagurate sometimes, but trust me on this. You need to make this salad asap! Adding Honeycrunch to really adds the … well … crunch! Seriosuly! If you want the whole apple experience then you need to make the apple sauce dressing, too! It’s like the fuji apple salad from Panera minus all the artificial add-ons. Natural and simple and made only with local ingredients, at least most of them.

So who’s making this salad this weekend?

Enjoy!

*This post is sponsored by Honeycrunch. All opinions are my own. Always. Thank you for supporting the brands that keep me dancing in my kitchen (oh and cooking, too!).

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Lasagna is one of my secret favorites. However, it can be quite heavy, especially when you make it with a cream-based bechamel sauce. That’s why I’ve tried this healthy version a few days ago, and luckily it turned out amazing. It’s filled with fresh veggies (whereas the freshest thing in most lasagnas is probably the onion), fresh herbs and it is topped with a creamy cauliflower bechamel that is so delicious and nourishing that you won’t even taste that it is healthy.
I’ve used cauliflower as a base for a healthy carbonara (alfredo) sauce before, so I have been wanting to try it as a substitite for bechamel for ages.The result was more than satisfying. It tastes pretty much like a vegetable lasagna, but much fresher and better than most bechamel–based lasagnas. There’s so much goodness in this lasagna, such as vitamin A-rich carrots, vitamin K-rich cauliflower or manganese-rich zucchini squash. I promise that you won’t even miss the cheese (although, sprinkling some feta cheese on top, won’t hurt – nobody’s perfect, right). Just try it next time you feel like comfort food, but don’ t want to feel crappy afterwards. This lasagna is the best way to get some nutrients into your system, without compromising on taste.

Enjoy!

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Curries are my favorite comfort food. They make the best dinner as they are stuffed with healthy ingredients, deliciously creamy coconut milk, and amazing spices. I have to admit that I can rarely get my curries to taste the same because I love to experiment with different ingredients, flavors and spices, but this Sweet Potato and Cauliflower Thai Curry has been my go-to-curry for the past weeks. Since it has been pretty rainy and cold in Germany these past couple of days, we’ve come back to this curry three days in a row, so I decided that it just had to go on the blog.

My favorite curries are Thai curries like this Thai Curry with Lemongrass I posted a few months ago, but this sweet potato and cauliflower thai curry is just as delicious, warming and healthy, and I’m sure you’ll find just as much comfort in it as I do.

The healthy sweet potatoes, cauliflower and carrots really absorb the unique thai spices, so with every bite, you can make out the ginger, coriander, and cilantro, and the cumin and lemongrass from the curry paste. It is such a great dish that you can throw together on a Sunday night and eat throughout the week because it can easily be stored in the fridge for a couple of days. Curries like this one are also perfect if you still have a couple of different veggies in your fridge that need to be used up before they spoil. You can literally put every vegetable or legumes into a curry: aubergines (eggplants), zucchini, squash, chickpeas or any other beans, mushrooms or peppers – there are no boundaries when it comes to curries.
I prefer to eat my curries with brown rice, but quinoa, buckwheat are also great options. Just use what you have in stock. Give it a try, and you’ll see how easy and great curries are.

Enjoy!

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