Category: Madeleine makes

Aussie life, Exercise, Madeleine makes

Internet struggles

by madeleineskristensen2 Comments on Internet struggles

Hello my dears! I sure jinxed it when I said I was back on the blog this week. The internet has not been on my side at all with the wifi deciding not to work exactly when I’ve tried to get a post up… It seems to be working now so hopefully I’ll at least get this up.

This week gone by very quickly once again! I feel at home in my new place and work has been good. On Tuesday I invested in a bike. I saw it on Gumtree and knew from the second I saw it it was the one. Funnily enough the girl who sold it was also called Madeleine. Talk about meant to be. I’ve had one cycle to and from work so far and it was incredible. I’ll write more about it in a separate post and get some pictures of my beauty to show you.

The gym this week has been good. The other night I managed to get nine toes to bar in a row!! Mim managed to film it and looking back they actually don’t look too bad. I can’t believe that I’m finally getting the right movement and that they’re coming together. Sorry, I feel like I’ve been talking about these toes to bars a lot but the struggle I’ve gone through to learn these has been crazy. I’ve felt so ungraceful, clumsy and lost faith entirely sometimes. Now when I finally get what it’s meant to feel like it makes such a difference and the movement so much easier. I can’t believe it’s actually happened. I keep on looking back at my video and can’t believe it’s me doing them.

We didn’t go to Mamma Mia the other day as not all of us to could make it last minute. I was really disappointed haha but hopefully we’ll all make it next week otherwise I’m going on my own at this rate. I need to see it!

Yesterday evening I invited Em, Mich and Mim over for dinner! My first dinner in my own place in Australia. Well, my place for the next couple of weeks anyway. Poor Mim had to cancel last minute because she’s very ill. Mich and Em still came and I made my falafel. It went down well at our vegan dinner party not long ago and I have had requests for them since. With it I made a tonne of sweet potato wedges, a cauliflower aubergine salad, guac and served it all with lettuce cups.

The salad I improvised together by roasting cauliflower and aubergine in the oven and then mixed it up with spinach when it had cooled down. For the dressing I used tahini, a bit of maple syrup, a bit of water, lemon, herb salt and pepper. For some texture I put in pistachios and some sweetness, dried apricots. The girls gave it a thumbs up. Afterwards we sat down in front of the TV and watched Fittest on Earth (Em had never seen it!) with a cup of tea and some raw vegan chocolate. We were stuffed. I was once again reminded of how much I love having people over and cooking for them. It makes me so happy feeding people. I don’t know why, I just love hosting and taking care of people in my home. It’s a nice feeling.

It was an early night as Mich was up early the next day for work and Em was doing a half marathon! She is incredible that girl. I can’t think of anything worse but she’s just doing it for a bit of fun as she put it. I think she’s just finished soon. I can’t wait to hear how it went!

I’m just about to get ready for Sunday track session. The sun has actually just popped out despite the fact it’s been saying rain today. A very nice surprise. I’m really excited to cycle down there on my bike. It’s going to save me like 20 minutes of travel to cycle.

After track I’m meeting a friend in Richmond (an area closer to Melbourne) for lunch. We’re going to The Vegan Shack. I’ve been following them on Instagram for a while and I can’t tell you how excited I am to try their food. I’ve been drooling over their images and I really hope it tastes as good as it looks. Then this evening I need to do some grocery shopping, cook some food prep for the week and do some laundry.

Not too bad for a Sunday xxx

Aussie life, Madeleine makes

My latest veggie obsession

by madeleineskristensenLeave a Comment on My latest veggie obsession

It may seem like I’ve only been eating out since I got here from my updates but this is not the case I promise! I’ve actually been really good with cooking whilst I’ve been here in Australia too. Perhaps more so now when I’ve got an entire kitchen to myself and eating out isn’t quite as readily available where I’m staying at the moment. I think that’s probably a good thing for my bank account and I love cooking so it’s been nice to get fully into it again.

My roasted veggie obsession continues and I think it’s bigger than ever. It’s so handy to chop them up quickly before taking Taylor out for her longer walk and putting them in the oven when heading out the door. Then by the time I’m back they’re all ready to be eaten. Minimal effort but the results are delicious. Roasting veg brings out all the incredible flavours even more. Then I chuck them on top of quinoa and a massive bed of spinach and by massive I mean all the spinach. Need to get those greens in!

The veggies I’ve been roasting recently go on two different trays. The first tray I’ve put broccoli, courgette (or zucchini as it’s called here and in Sweden), red onion, garlic cloves and mushrooms. Then I just drizzle them with olive oil, black pepper, Himalayan pink salt and of course my all time favourite seasoning Herbamare’s herb salt. It needs to go on everything.

The second tray is what I really wanted to talk about, hello Kent pumpkin!! I picked this up in the grocery store last week because I was a bit tired of butternut squash and wanted to get out of always eating sweet potato. Sweet potato I love you but sometimes you need a break and need to widen your horizons. I wasn’t sure how this was going to go. It’s risky business trying new things but I’m always up for giving it a go hehe. Jokes aside, it’s fu mixing it up. I roasted the pumpkin in chunks drizzled with some olive oil, ground cumin, cinnamon, salt and pepper. I kept them in the oven until they turned a nice golden brown on top.

To finish off my bowl of roasted veggie goodness I of course needed to chuck on some hummus because hummus is everything, but you could of course make like a tahini dressing or guacamole or something to go with this. I’m sure that would turn out amazing too! I was so excited to try out the Kent pumpkin and yuuuuuum, it just fell apart when I cut into it. It was incredibly creamy and sweet. I absolutely loved it. My bravery trying something new had been rewarded hehe. It was lovely and I actually bought another one the other day.

Alrighty, breakfast has been eaten. It’s time to get changed and head for the gym. It’s time to do some squats as we’re doing our squat programme today. Looking forward to lifting, yesterday was very cardio heavy so it’ll be good to something a bit more chilled for the first bit of the class.

Everyday Life, Madeleine makes

My latest food obsession

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Okay, we all know I love sweet potato and veggie chilli so that’s not new but what is new is how I eat it. When I was at Faye and Ross’s for dinner a couple of weeks ago we had my chilli with lettuce leaves like these above and filled them with chilli and all the veggie toppings and now I can’t eat my chilli without doing that. I don’t know why I like it so much more but I suppose it makes it a bit fun and different when you eat it that way.

Another thing I’ve been loving recently is thinly slicing red cabbage and finely grating carrot into a big bowl and mixing it with some date syrup ( you can use any other natural sweetener to your liking as well) and raw apple cider vinegar. It tastes really fresh and you can make extra and store it in your fridge. I think it’s a great little side salad during the colder months when the usual salad vegetables don’t taste as good. However, we are finally closing in on spring and summer. It’s been quite sunny the past two days and I’m starting to feel hope that the winter is coming to a close. Or is it? I have been hearing rumours of some more snow next week but I’m hoping this is a false alarm.

I finally got to celebrate Jamie today. After the gym I came home and made brunch. I baked scones for the first time in years (I know he loves when I do that, it’s very rare that I do hehe). I made the banana vegan pancakes, boiled eggs for him, sautéed mushrooms and kale and other bits and bobs. So when he had woken up he just had to roll out of bed and into the kitchen where all the food was waiting for him. I felt absolutely stuffed after that meal, probably had one or two too many pancakes but gaaah they’re just so good with that Almighty Hazelnut Fuj spread and topped off with frozen raspberries I’d heated up on the stove plus coconut flakes and cacao nibs for texture. Match made in heaven I say. So I couldn’t not eat one or two extra hehe.

Now we’re going for a walk into town in the sunshine before the shops close. I got Jamie a ring from Thomas Sabo for his birthday, which was unfortunately too small. I should’ve followed my gut instinct when I was thinking that in the shop but it’s a tough thing to guess. Hopefully we’ll make it in so we can get it exchanged today.

M xxx

 

Everyday Life, Madeleine makes

Day of the Pancake

by madeleineskristensenLeave a Comment on Day of the Pancake

Excuse our messy kitchen in the background…Heeeeellooo! How are you my dears? In case you’ve missed what day it is, it is PANCAKE DAY. However, considering my Instagram feed has been flooded with pancakes all day I think it’s a difficult one to miss hehe. I was at the gym this morning for the second last day of training (it’s getting so close now, I can’t believe it’s happening). Straight after the gym I headed home to make pancakes for lunch because you can’t not have pancakes on this day.

I made the usual vegan banana pancakes we usually have, they didn’t turn out quite as nice as they usually do visually but still tasted good which is the pain part. I’ve now ended up in some sort of food coma! It’s a beautiful day outside and I’m thinking of maybe going back to G5 this evening to hang out and going through some rowing technique. We shall see, I’m undecided.

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Do you celebrate it? Jamie and I aren’t massive Valentine’s people plus he’s busy working so we thought we’ do something nice in Manchester on Sunday after Rainhill. I’ll instead be going to lululemon Glasgow’s Rawnchy Yoga event in the evening in the showroom. My amazing friend Alice Gray will be leading the yoga class (her classes are incredible) and afterwards Rawnchy who do raw vegan desserts will be serving up some treats I think. Doesn’t sound like a bad Valentine’s Day to me. Faye will of course be joining me and my sister! A very nice bonus So we’ll be having a romantic evening the three of us! I’m really looking forward to it.

I now to get going, I’ve got a parcel to return and some other stuff that needs to be sorted.

Speak soon, M xxx