I have just created a very nice albums in my Instagram and itching to share with you :) This is one with all smoothies

view healthy-smoothies by ariyarna

And this is food (not liquid) related posts

view healthy-food by ariyarna

Warm Layered Vegan Salad

Today I am sharing a recipe that is great for vegans and easy to make. It requires about 20-25 minutes for preparation, or less if you have rice cooked earlier (left overs). I call it warm layered salad, it has a mix of cooked and raw ingredients. Obviously, there are many variations of  cooking this type of dish but I'll tell you what I made last night.

Click to IG

You will need:
A cup of boiled rice
White or green cabbage, dry-fried (with no oil added)
Red onion
Green beans
Carrot
Tomato
Any green leaves
Spices to your taste
Lemon

You will NOT need:
Salt
Sugar
Oil
Butter

Preparation:
Cook rice as you usually do, when water is evaporated, add sliced onion and turn the hob off, close the lid and leave the sauce pan to saute on cooling hob.
Chop cabbage (I used green cabbage) and put in the sauce pan with NO any oil. Add spices (I added cumin, black sesame, garlic powder, fresh sage - because I had it) The hob should be turn on medium or a bit above. The cabbage will be frying, you keep stiring it so it is not get burned (I prefer a bit burned because it is crispy). Sprinkle with lemon juice (1/3 of fresh lemon) and leave to saute. It takes about 15-20 minutes in total and in the end the cabbage is half raw and this is what we need!
Whilst cooking rice and cabbage, boil beans. Grate carrot, cut parsley and tomatoes.

Dishing Up:
Zero layer: Put the green leaves around the plate (they should stay cold, not nice when hot).
Low layer: Put cabbage in the middle
Middle layer: Rice is over cabbage
Top layer: Green beans
Decoration: sprinkle the dish with green herbs (parsley, dill, coriander, etc), decorate with carrot and tomatoes. I have a funny pencil for carrots, that's why my carrot looks like what's left after sharpening a pencil :)

Bonus: even vegans need some fat, so it is fine if you pour olive oil over the dish, so I did :)

Green Smoothie with Stinging Nettle

Green smoothies have really captured my mind and heart because I keep experimenting with different ingredients and consistence. Some of them are made with milk kefir (separate blog for milk kefir) and some are pure vegetarian, with water or even without, just raw mashed veggies and fruits. 

Today I went even further and tried with stinging nettle's leaves. I was told that nettle clean blood and have many vitamins. e.g. vitamin A and C. Here is a very good scientific article I found in the internet you may want to look at.

Apart from stinging nettle, I added banana to make it a bit sweeter, two kiwis, one cabbage leaf, one pear, one orange, 1 tb spoon of grounded flax seeds, and two heaped tb spoons of buckwheat soaked overnight. It was really really good and healthy. Excellent choice for those trying to lose weight, vegetarians, even for raw vegans. I am not one of them (maybe not yet, who knows), but am trying to change my eating habits and start eating healthy and make healthy diet my normal life style. 

Click to get to IG

 The pics below is where I picked my nettle - far form the roads and people :)

Your own healing mixture of ginger, honey, lemon and garlic

I have found this wonderful recipe with ginger, honey, lemon and garlic which an author says help healing when you are sick. I did not check yet but will do!

Recipe

– 500 g of honey and a jar of 700-800 ml (not smaller)
– 2 medium-sized or 1 bigger ginger root
– Juice of 1 lemon or a whole lemon cut into slices
– 3-4 pieces (or 1 small clove) of garlic
– Grate the ginger, squeeze the lemon juice or cut it into slices, chop the garlic finely
– Put everything in the jar with honey, but not full (fill it a little more than half), because the lemon and the ginger will release some juice.
– And after this, you should fill the jar with honey.
If you are sick, you should take 3 tablespoons a day. If the purpose is prevention and strengthening of the immune system, it is enough to take 1-2 tablespoons a day.
Source: For Health Benefits Website

How to Make Healthy but Delicious Green Smoothie

You probably know a saying that everything healthy is not tasty (not yummy) and oppositely - everything yummy is not healthy. I must admit that this is not a case when we talk about smoothies. They are really healthy (if your body can accept mashed raw veggies), and they are delicious. My first green smoothie was a bit too much sour because I thought that I have to put all green veggies and fruits I had, and that they must be savoir. I was so wrong. After I failed I decided to read how to make green smoothies and as a rule of thumb was that for 3 savoir/sour/tasteless veggies you need to add one sweet fruit. For example, spinach, celery, cucumber and one banana (or kiwi, mango, strawberry, etc).
My second smoothie was very very good, and third one was even better, a little bit too sweet to me, but my husband - not sweet tooth person - liked it most of the others.

 

Smoothie with a Straw

Take a look at my Instagram for recipes of my Green Smoothies with celery and ONE in a Jar with a Straw

Chocolate chunks cookies by Smitten Kitchen

My first ever chocolate cookies 

I never wanted to make them mainly because it is not very healthy food (butter in!) but yesterday something changed - I wanted to cheer myself up, and thought this is what can help, especially if I like dark chocokate so much. Another reason why I changed my mind was a new blog post from #smittenkitchen - its owner posted its recipe and provided it with such tempting photographs...look here .  I could no longer resist  

To be fair, I made some minor changes, namely added less sugar, 160 g in total (mix of white and brown) instead of 225 g as per the original recipe, and I also skipped the salt because I used saulty butter. P.S. next time I will add more chocolate chunks   Now if you wish Instagram Link and some pictures...

Crochet and Orange

My today's photo session with a crocheted cotton bag with orange thread and an orange ended up in new listing on Etsy :))  So here I am sharing it, thank you for looking! P.S. This bag was made for  a different occasion, namely for the counting stones  but I this it can be many purposes item :)

Your "That's Pink" Bright Smartphone

I've just added new item to my Etsy Ariyarna and you know, one picture of that item just make me laughing every time I look at it. It's this one

I asked my husband to hold this smartphone sleeve case for me whilst I was talking pictures, and it looks so funny, I call it 'manly-man' is holding a girly pink-ish mobile case.
I have a couple of other pictures, but this one captured my heart :)))

Click to go to Etsy

Japanese pyramid and white lily

Grey stones and white lilies, what can be better, so I thought and took several shots. By the way discovered new place to take pictures indoor, it is by the lift, it was so sunny there afternoon

My Zen Stone's Pyramid

You know (well, some of you may notice) that I like to paint stones, I also find it fascinating to create Zen type pyramids, it is amazing how simply and harmonic they look. Here is one of my first attempts - fortunately nothing fell of :))

It is also presented in my Etsy store, you may find if click this link 

My IG leading page

Since I started my Instagram the leading post that got more likes was about cooking. I noticed that vegan food get more likes quickly but this one is not about vegan diet. Still healthy but with the fried egg. Mushrooms were dried fried - I do it to reduce amount of fat and calories (I believe this way we consume less calories), toasted bread, and a heart shape red pepper - it would be perfect breakfast for the Valentine's Day but I did it in March :)

Homemade Healthy Grain and Berry Bars

This is healthy grain & berry bars made by me for a girls meeting. Took all seeds, figs, raisin, nuts, #granola etc, everything I found in my cupboard. The base (sticky bit) was mashed banana, a bit of honey and molasses, added oats, mixed everything, formed on a tray shaping it as a square and baked for 40 mins (120 C). The results was so good that even hubby liked it ( not a sweet tooth person), the girls like too :) #healthybars #veganfoodshare #vegan #healthysnack #eathealthy #naturellie #foodie #foodstagram #veganrecipe #recipe #eatclean #feedfeed #granola #fintessdiet #eatstylish #homemade #healthyhabits #HealthyCooking #amodernwaytoeat #snackfood #snack #recipeforsnacks #granolabars #veganfood #glutenfree

A photo posted by Ariyarna Boutique (@ariyarna) on Mar 27, 2015 at 6:56pm PDT

Breakfast Fruit Salad - healthy and easy way to treat yourself

Breakfast salad, again very simple and incredible healthy - cut fruins of your taste or availabilyty at the moment, add granola or just oats, raisin, figs, some milk or if you follow vegan diet just water or juice, mix, leave in a bowl for 10-15 minutes to soak, and then enjoy your #healthybreakfast #healthyhabits #HealthyCooking #healthysnack #healthyfoodshare #vegan #veganfoodshare #feedfeed #cookwell

A photo posted by Ariyarna Boutique (@ariyarna) on Mar 29, 2015 at 5:18am PDT

How do you start your crafts?

How do you start your crafts, what inspires you? I will tell you my story....The majority of my successful creations (successful means I like them so much and they are so cute that I will repeat them for my online shop) - it may be crocheted things, painted stones (started recently doing it!), covers for gadgets - come up because I need this 'something' myself. Here is a real story. When my fiance proposed and gave me a beautiful ring I crocheted and felted a little nested bowl to keep this treasury (I told this story before). The latest thing was a crocheted sleeve for my new phone. It's a bit of rare in my place maker and as a new model it did not have a full range of accessories as for example IPhone would have. I searched globally and was not pleased with available covers so I crocheted a sleeve from a very luxurious (and expensive, too) yarn - it is beige and golden, here how it looks like.

Now it is in my Etsy Shop

I am really very pleased with the result and the smartphone enjoys it, too, I believe :)

It is interesting how you come to your best craft ideas and implementations? What helps you to switch your imagination on?  I have a survey on my mail page at the right part, wondering if you like to answer just one question? 

The 1st of March

The spring is coming!!! 

A bit of news happened since ....

Hello my dear visitors! I have not been here for a while and lots of things happened since (starting new not craft business, made several crafts online shops, traveled a lot and even been at the Public Speaking University!) but am still crocheting even if time is very limited - crocheting is so calming and relaxing activity after busy days.
One is the latest things I made are a crocheted from fashion yarn smartphone sleeve,

Click for more info

Several new nested bowls - yellow and green-ish multicolor. One of them - multicolor - is amazing if you look at its pattern - I can never repeat it again, although I have two, but this is just fortunate case :)

Another news is ....