Rubriik: Toitumine

EQUA water bottles

Published on by Margit Partei6 kommentaari

So about a week ago I did something that I usually never do: I clicked on a FaceBook advertisement. I usually never even notice them and avoid them by all cost. But this ad caught my eye: it had really pretty water bottles with fun patterns on it. So I clicked.

About 15 minutes later I was around 20€ poorer.

What did I buy? I bought 2 re-usable water bottles from EQUA: one for everyday use and one for working out. They look cool, are BPA-free (unlike regular plastic bottles) and hold 600 ml of water. Water is my absolute favourite drink and I drink around 3–5 litres of tap water every day. Tap water in both of my homes tastes just fine and having a re-usable bottle to carry it to school etc is great. Until today, I had been using regular plastic bottles to carry my water around but they collect tons of bacteria, get bumps in them and one has even broken in my handbag once, ruining some school papers. For workouts I had an old black sports bottle that was getting really dirty no matter how much I washed it. It also leaked sometimes. Not cool at all! 

My old bottles. Pretty pathetic.
My old bottles. Pretty pathetic.

EQUA also offers really beautiful and lightweight glass bottles but since I tend to break stuff very easily, I ordered plastic bottles. Better be safe than sorry. The bottles were 7,85€ each (on SALE right now!) + transportation (4,5€). They have so many beautiful patterns and it’s really hard to choose only one. 🙂 Right now I’m thinking about ordering another one in the future. I think I want a glass bottle to keep in my fridge. I wish they made something bigger, like 1,5 litres though… Anyone knows any other sites that sell something like that? 🙂

Around a week after placing an order online, my pretty bottles arrived. The quality is great and they look just as good as the photos on their website. The caps also look really durable and I’m pretty sure the bottles won’t leak and get all of my stuff wet. I’m 100% pleased with my order.

My new bottles: Green Leaves and Universe
My new bottles: Green Leaves and Universe

What is more, the creation of the company EQUA (from the words eco+aqua) was inspired by the idea protect the nature. Re-usable bottles are a great way to save the nature and not create as much waste. And also: EQUA donates 10% of net profit to organizations which promote a healthy lifestyle and are aware of the importance of nature. I find that’s socially responsible and awesome and from them. I felt a lot better spending my money on their products. 🙂

Drinking water is so important for your health and functioning of the body. Why not use a cute and environmentally friendly bottle? It sure inspires me not to forget to drink my water 🙂

Bottoms up!

LCHF pumpkin cheesecake

Published on by Margit ParteiLisa kommentaar

My go-to celebration dessert is cheesecake. You can make it grain-free, sugar-free, gluten-free, low-carb and guilt-free and have it still taste great. So this recipe will be my low-carb pumpkin cheesecake that I had for my 22nd birthday. Enjoy!

DSC_0007_2

The recipe makes 6 portions.

 

What do you need?

For the base:

  • 70 grams of hazelnuts or hazelnut flour (depends a lot on your cakepan, see more at the end of the recipe)

  • 5 grams of cinnamon / gingerbread / pumpkin pie spice (optional)

  • 1 egg

  • a dash of baking powder

For the filling:

  • 400 grams of ricotta

  • 3 eggs

  • 100 grams of pumpkin pyree (I used just pyreed pumpkin with no extras that my mom canned herself)

  • gingerbread / pumpkin pie spice to your liking

  • a dash of baking soda (about 1/2 teaspoon)

  • sweetener

For the topping:
 
  • 50 grams of dark chocolate (the darker, the better, I used Fazer 70% but would recommend Wawel 90% – it has nearly 2 times less carbs)
Extras:

  • a springform baking pan (I used a 17 cm in diameter)

  • an oven

  • a fridge

 

How to make it?

Depending on whether you are using hazelnuts or hazelnut flour, the recipe varies.

 

 

If you are using full hazelnuts:

First of all, roast the nuts. For that heat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius, pour nuts into a pan and dry roast them for about 10 minutes or until the little skins start to come off and nuts become fragrant.

Turn the oven to 180 degrees, you’ll need the oven soon.

Now let the nuts cool a little and them blitz them up in a blender or food processor until nice and fine.

Then add the egg, spice (optional) and sweetener. Then you have a batter that looks like this:

 

If you are using hazelnut flour, just mix all the base ingredients together until you have a smooth batter. That’s what I did, very simple and easy.

 

 

Now push the batter into your cake pan. You might need to wet your hands or use a small rolling-pin with water and then push it in, since the batter is a little bit sticky.

Bake the base of the cheesecake in the oven for about 10 minutes. Take it out of the oven and put aside.

Now it’s time to make the filling. Take your all of the filling ingredients and mix well with a whisk or handheld mixer or food processor. A regular whisk works just fine.

Taste the filling and add some more sweetener if needed. Pour the filling on top of the prebaked base and put your cake in the 180 degree oven. It depends on the size of the pan. If you have a 26–28 cm pan, 45 minutes might be enough. 20–22 cm would require about an hour I assume. Since my pan was really little and the filling layer was really thick, I baked mine for an hour and 15 minutes. Keep checking it after every 15 minutes or so.

Now your cake is ready. Let it cool completely in the pan (don’t remove the outer round!) and then put it into the fridge. The longer, the better (mine was in there overnight). Before serving and decorating remove the outer round. I also removed the bottom of the pan, I had wax paper on the bottom and the cake didn’t fall apart. But you can totally leave the bottom of the pan there.

Melt your chocolate. I melted mine using the microwave, I just had to make sure I didn’t burn it and mixed it every 15–30 seconds. Then pour the chocolate on top of your cheesecake and spread it until it looks good to you. Let the chocolate set in a cooler place or fridge.

And here it is: a gorgeous cheesecake ready to be enjoyed.

DSC_0007_2

 

What about nutrition?

The whole cake is 1589 kcal, 89 g of protein, 45 g of net carbs (fiber excluded), 118 g of fat.

If cut into 6 portions, then one portion is 265 kcal, 15 g of protein, 7,5 g of carbs, 20 g of fat.

Macronutrient ratio: 11% carbs, 22% protein, 67% fat.

The nutrition really depends on how much nuts you add to the base and what kind of chocolate and ricotta you use. It’s definitely possible to make the cake with less fat if that’s what you want, for example by using fat-free quark (rasvatu kohupiim) instead of ricotta and skipping the chocolate.

 

Any other suggestions?

Base recommendations according to the diameter of cake pan:

  • under 20 cm: 70–100 g of nuts

  • 20–22 cm: 125–150 g of nuts

  • 24–26 cm: 175–200 g of nuts

  • 28 cm or bigger: 200 g of nuts or more

The amount of nuts also depends on if you want a thick or thin crust.

 

Bon appetit! 🙂