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Ayurvedic Health Potion – My Morning Routine
When I wake up in the morning, at 5:00 am (I know it sounds early, but I decided not to adapt completely to Swedish time after coming back from India), I start by making my health potion. I start by boiling up water and while it’s getting to the right temperature I start adding all the different herbs and spices into my large 50 cl cup. I believe it’s important to have a large cup for this health potion, because otherwise it becomes too strong and not as easy to drink. I heat it up again after I’ve drank half the cup, because I’m a very slow drinker.
The ingredients that I use are:
- 1 tsp of organic matcha tea from Japan
- 1/3 tsp of ashwagandha (ayurvedic herb)
- 1 dash of tulsi powder (holy Indian basil)
- 1/4 tsp of organic ginger powder
- 1/3 tsp of cinnamon
- 1 dash of organic turmeric
- optional: raw unprocessed sugar to taste (I try not to add any sugar, but in the beginning it might help with the taste)
- boiling water
- oat milk or any other vegetable milk substitute of your choice
I add all the dry ingredients in my cup and start pouring a little boiling water at a time to mix all the herbs together. I fill up slightly more than half the cup with boiling water and add oat milk to fill it up, that is also depending on taste and preference.
I feel energised and very refreshed by drinking this health potion. My hormones are getting back into a nice balance, I can really feel my body changing for the better with these simple steps towards a more healthy lifestyle.
After drinking the tea, I go on with doing my yoga exercise routine, mostly just for 15-30 min, but I intend to increase it gradually.
Hope this is helpful to anyone out there, and let me know if you have any questions and I will get back to you.
Peace and Love,
Kimmi Madeline -
Chana Dal | Vegetarian Indian Soup | Recipe
Chana Dal
RECIPE
Ingredients
2-3 Small Onions
6-7 Garlic Cloves
2 cm / 1 inch of Ginger
3 ½ – 4dl of dry Chana Dal
1 Package of Crushed Tomatoes (390g)
1 tbsp Tomato Paste
1 can of Coconut Milk
1 Organic Vegetable Stock (equivalent of 0.5l liquid stock)
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tsp Turmeric
1 tsp jeera
1 tbsp Coriander Powder
Chili powder (as much as you’d prefer)
½ tsp hing or asafoetida powder
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
salt to tasteHOW TO
These are all the ingredients for the chana dal. Start off by putting the dry chana dal in water to soak for 1 to 1½ hour.
Extra virgin Olive Oil Meanwhile the chana dal are soaking in water, I chop up the onions, garlic and ginger together in a mixer.
I use this method because I find it easier and quicker, but you can of course chop them up by hand and also add them one by one in the frying pan.
Onion, Garlic and Ginger 
After the chana dal have soaked in water I bring 2 litres of water to a boil with 1 tsp of turmeric,
1 piece of vegetable stock and salt, in which I add the lentils to boil for around 35-40 minutes on medium heat.
While the lentils are boiling we’re going to create the masala which will later go into the boiling lentils.
To make the masala, you start by adding your choice of vegetable oil (I use olive oil). When the oil is warm enough
you can pour in the jeera seeds so they start splutter.
Then you add the onion mixture to the oil and fry it on medium heat for about 5 minutes before adding spices.
The spices we add are visible in the image below. I use this Indian tray of spices to store my spices,
and it’s a very convenient way to keep them fresh and to only fill them up when they’re finished.
If you’re interested in buying a similar, I’ve found great ones over at Ebay.
So we’ll add the coriander powder, turmeric, chili and jeera powder. Mix it together with the onion mixture
and let it fry for another two-three minutes.
Afterwards, you’ll add the hing powder. This is optional, if you don’t have hing at home, you can skip this step.
Continue with adding the tomato paste to the masala mixture, and blend well.
Also, we have added the crushed tomatoes to the masala and we’ll let it cook for another 5 minutes before
it’s ready to be poured into the chana dal.
When the 35-40 minutes of boiling the chana dal have passed and the lentils feel a bit more soft, you can go ahead
and add the masala to the boiling chana dal. Keep the heat at medium-low and let it simmer so that it blends well.
In addition, we add the kasori methi, also called as fenugreek seeds in English. If you don’t have this at home,
you may skip this step.
Optional: I added a piece of butter to my chana dal at this stage. If you want to keep it vegan, you don’t have
to add the butter.
To make the chana Dal a bit more creamier, I add one can of coconut milk and you can see the colour change
to a more creamy yellow (image below).
The final step is to add some freshly chopped coriander/cilantro and turn off the heat.
Voilá! Here we have the final result (below). I like to serve it with a small click of butter in my bowl and
eat a nice home baked bread or chapati/roti to go with the dal.
Hope you enjoy this recipe and let me know if you’ve tried it out yourself. If you have any of your own suggestions,
please leave them in the comments so others can benefit from your tips and tricks. Check out my Youtube channel to see more recipes in the future and be sure to hit the subscribe button if you want to stay in touch.
I post images of all kinds of food related things on my Instagram, either out in restaurants or homemade food – be sure to check it out if you’re interested in giving me a follow.Peace and Love,
Kimmi Madeline -
Why Should I Drink Dairy Products?
When I was around 17-18 years old I got some blood tests done for my allergies, and I had a lot of new allergies that I didn’t have as a child. The tests came out positive on a lot of food substances, such as milk protein and wheat. I was in such a denial and I didn’t want to face it since I loved butter, cream and all kinds of dairy including products. At this time I went ahead and tried substituting milk with oat milk, and it wasn’t as popular in the stores so it was hard to get hold of.
I didn’t like it, mainly because I compared it straight on with milk. Now I know that it’s impossible to compare one thing with a totally other, it’s not really meant for drinking as it is like we do with milk. I gave it a couple of tries in different recipes, and got more used to it.Many people in my surroundings have over the years gotten lactose intolerant, and many believe that it’s the same as milk protein allergy. They’re two totally different bodily reactions. I’m not going to get into that subject, if you’re still unsure of the difference, there are many articles on Google and Wikipedia to get a better understanding.
I have also since I got my allergy tests done many years ago, started eating more and more vegetarian food and trying to educate myself more about the industry. I’ve never eaten eggs since I’ve always been severly allergic to them, so in a way I’m basically vegan. But in most other ways, I’m not. The important thing about the diet is not what we call ourselves, it really doesn’t matter. I don’t call myself anything in particular, I find it unnecessary to put labels on people and for others to put you in boxes just because of a diet choice.
However, I have started questioning the reason why we’re told from a very young age (at least in Sweden and in Nordic countries), that milk is important for us and our bodies. Why?
It seems to be pretty clear that a major part of the population has trouble digesting milk when they become older and adults. What does that tell you? It might not be something we truly require to survive.
We might need the different types of nutrition found in milk, but milk is not the only food that contains calcium, vitamin D and protein; it can easily be found in other alternative products or fortified milk substitutes which we’re not sensitive towards.
I do believe we need milk when we’re babies and growing up when we’re infants, and that milk is called breast milk. Either with a bottle or breastfeeding, I’m neither for or against either of those choices. Bottom line is that the breast milk is actually made for us humans, which cow milk isn’t. The cow is producing the milk for their baby calves, and when I truly thought about that, I felt sad. We’re really taking away the milk that is made for their babies and drink it ourselves, how selfish isn’t that? It was mind boggling when I started questioning how much we truly NEED milk in our lives.I eat milk products every now and then, but I try to keep it at a minimum since I started thinking about these things. I have also noticed that the more milk I have digested in my body, the more hormonal acne I tend to get. Ask around, experiment, especially women; is milk the reason behind your breakouts? Do we truly need milk in our diets?
Just some food for thought, what are your ideas and thoughts about this subject?
Peace and Love,
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Allergy-Friendly Gluten-Free Vegan American Pancakes
I made one of my favourite recipes a while back and decided to film it so I can show you how I actually make them. I made vegan, gluten-free American pancakes. I have made egg-free pancakes many many times before, but I wanted to try to recreate another version that are thicker like American ones. If you’re interested in making these here is the recipe and follow the instructions in the video below.
2½ cups Gluten Free Flour
2 tbsp Baking Powder
1 tsp of No Egg Mix
1 tbsp of vanilla powder
1/4 cup desiccated coconut
4 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cups of oat/soy/coconut/almond milk
Pinch of saltPeace & Love,
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Allergies and Diet Choices (YouTube)
One of the biggest topics of my life has been allergies and dealing with them in the best way. All the way from checking the ingredients list on all food packages to learning how to cook allergy friendly. During my whole childhood, throughout my teenage years and now into my adult life, I’m finally starting to come to terms with my allergies and learning to cope with them. I want to share my experience with you all and bring you my best tips and recipes of allergy friendly food.
I made a first video in a series of many more to come, that only touches the subject on the surface, to give you a gimpse of what I will be creating in the coming months.Excuse the bouncy video, it was made with my selfie stick and smartphone due to main camera not working.
Hope you enjoy this video, and if you have any suggestions, comments or questions, please leave them in the comments here or over at YouTube. You can always find me on Facebook, Instagram and on YouTube. 🙂 Hope to talk to you there!
Peace and Love,
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Documentaries I Loved Watching
During the recent couple of months I have watched quite a few documentaries that were all worth watching. I have listed them all so anyone who is interested in learning more about the world we live in, is able to just pick one from this list. I only try to watch films or documentaries that are teaching me something new, or makes me think and reflect. From time to time I still watch commercial films or series only for entertainment, but mostly I enjoy getting some sort of intellectual satisfaction from what I’ve watched. Whether it may be an art film that is based off a true story or if it’s a documentary teaching us about our society. So without further ado, here is my list of nine documentaries all worth watching. I have graded them with stars for you to easier see which ones I recommend the most.
- True Cost *****
- GMO OMG ***/****
- Food Matters *****
- Cowspiracy *****
- Forks over Knives *****
- Living on One Dollar *****
- Blood brother *****
- Fat, Sick and nearly Dead ****
- Supersize me ****
Some comments for each item in the list:
- A must-watch for anyone interested in what goes on behind the fast fashion market; everything from the textile workers to the production of the textile material that is used in the textile industry. It’s harsh, raw and very true – just watch it. You might never want to support all the big fast fashion brands just after watching this. Check out Fashion Revolution online in case you’re more interested after seeing this.
- I couldn’t totally decide whether to give this a full 4 star because of the first half of the documentary. I thought the guy who is making this documentary seemed to be against GMO just because he felt like it, and that he THOUGHT it was bad for you. It annoyed me that he based the first half of the documentary only on emotions of himself and his children. Why does his children have to be involved? If you still get passed that mark and continue watching, it gets more interesting and more data is brought up to surface.
- Despite being a few years old, this documentary was totally amazing. I sat glued in front of the television/Netflix and my wish is for everyone to watch this. Totally worth it if you’re interested in what you put into your body.
- Produced by Leonardo Di Caprio. Need I say more 😉 On a more serious note, it’s about how our diet choices are affecting the environment and the animals and people living on our planet. It’s one of the best documentaries to watch before making any lifestyle changes in terms of diet.
- The same as above, minus Di Caprio. I truly recommend watching these two if you need to choose two that has to do with diet and healthy living.
- Wow, this documentary made me shed many many, oh so many, tears. It was such a heartbreaking story. I love that the guys chosing to make this film made it as their university project and went to South America to actually live the reality instead of just writing about living on one dollar a day. Truly inspiring.
- If no 6 makes you cry, not sure what this one does to me. Maybe it’s because it’s close to my heart, since it has to do with India. A guy from the US travels to India to help children that have HIV/AIDS. His dedication, his interest, love and compassion is just so contagious and it’s beautiful to watch. So beautiful that you will shed some tears here as well. One of my favourites…
- I think it’s a great healthy living and food related documentary. It might not be super relevant for me since it deals with a lot of overweight issues and how to overcome those by going on a Juice diet for a while and then going over to a plant based diet. I found it inspiring despite not struggling with those issues, it’s still a very motivational and powerful documentary. Seeing their journey is sometimes enough to feel inspired.
- It’s a little old, it dates 10-12 years back and when McDonalds had Supersize menus in the US. I believe they have removed those options now (perhaps after this documentary was made). It’s about a guy eating only McDonald’s food for breakfast, lunch and dinner for 30 days. He cannot walk more than 5000 steps a day, since that’s what the average American walks every day – that is not a lot of steps. It’s recommended that everyone at least walks 10K a day, and is active for around 30 min a day. Worth watching, but it will disgust you from ever entering a fast food chain ever again. I have made my promise, not eating McDonald’s after seeing that show. Neither will my future kids.
Peace and Love,
