Eat Breakfast - Eat Porridge

Yumm! After my morning coffee my second thought goes to my daily porridge making. It depends on the season what fruit I put in. My favourite so far are peaches but let's face it summer is over and there are no more peaches around so I have to go back to the obvious choices like apples & raisins and bananas which are delicious too. 

This one I made with apples from my brothers garden and some thrown in raisins. You can use milk or water, depending on what you prefer. Using water is definitely the healthier option but I love to use milk and end up with a really creamy porridge that smells like warm milk and cinnamon. 

In Germany eating porridge in the morning is not common like it is in England. When we shopped for porridge oats in Waitrose or Sainsbury's in London we had to choose between 15 different porridge oats, here there is one or two options. Since the normal Koelln oat flakes aren't exactly the best choice for a nice porridge we started looking for different options. In our local health store we discovered Hof Hafer from Bauck Hof. This makes a fantastic porridge! The oat flakes are very finely milled and the porridge is much tastier then any of the normal supermarket brands that we tried so far. They are also pricier but if you are looking for a really good porridge then this is it.

This is s rough guide of how I make our porridge:

ca.100 - 150g porridge flakes

ca. 300ml full fat or semi skimmed milk (or use almond or rice milk) 

1 apple, cut and diced

a hand full raisins or more if you like

a tea spoon of honey or agave sirup

a pinch of cinnamon

a pinch of salt

Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and stir continuously for a few minutes and breakfast is ready. If you feel like you need more liquid add a little more milk or water. It took me a few times to get the amounts of ingredients exactly the way I like it but now I can make porridge half sleeping. If I use apples I find that I need more milk then when I use bananas. It is very easy to make and only takes a few minutes, and you should end up with a lovely bowl of porridge that is super healthy and gives you a great start into the day. So much better than eating bread or sugary cereals every day. 

I recently saw a recipe on Pinterest about soaked overnight oats and thought that sounded easy enough and very yummy. I will give it a try and post the recipe when I like it.

Fall Must Have

The other day my husband and I went to the city center to look at the new fall collections. Oooh, if only I had more time to peruse around the shops and get inspired. I love wandering through department stores like Liberty and Selfridges. I used to work right next door to Liberty in London and I would spent most of my lunch breaks in there just wandering around, looking at the all the amazing merchandise and soaking up the smell and the atmosphere. I might have also spent a percentage of my salary there, how can you not if you work in the building next door. Btw, Selfridges and Liberty now ship to Germany too.

My German friend Alex always finds the nicest pieces at Scotch & Soda and I have only been to the shop once before during the sale which is not quite the same experience. So I thought to check it out again. The first thing I noticed was the smell, the store smelled so good. A bit musky and woody in a very good way. It didn't take long before I spotted this amazing quilted bomber jacket. It is perfect for fall, not too warm and not too cold. I wear it with a T-shirt, a pair of black jeans and my Acne pistol boots or my new &otherStories ankle boots. I don't have much time in the morning, between getting Heidi ready, making breakfast for us, the Kindergarten breakfast box and getting ready myself. So I need outfits that require not much fuss but still look good. I like simple designs with an edge and the flower design makes it stand out from all the other bomber jackets that I have seen. I am sure I will be getting a lot of wear out of it. 

DesignLetter Cups

It's 8:30pm and our little Heidi is sound asleep and I am finally sitting on the sofa with my computer on my lap, my iphone, a cup of tea, a small bowl of almonds and a sliced apple...all set up next to me and within arms lengths, so I won't have to get up again at least for another 30 minutes. Is is just me or do other people do that as well?

While we were brushing teeth this evening I looked at our toothbrush cups and thought I should write something about them because they make me happy every time I look at them.

They are by danish cult designer Arne Jacoben who is famous for his designs especially his chairs that are still classics today and fill many households who love a bit of design. 

The cups come in two different materials, in porcelain and in melamine. I bought the melamine cups because I wanted to use them as toothbrush holders in our bathroom and the porcelain cups would have been way to fragile within the reach of a curious three year old. Until recently I had no idea they were done in the melamine. So when I saw them at Lys Vintage in Hamburg I couldn't resist. I bought one for each of us and now our toothbrushes are well organised and no more germy toothbrush touching. Yes, that's right - I am a bit of a hypochondriac when it comes to germs. Anyway, enough of that....I also think it looks so nice and fits well into our black and white themed bathroom.

They are also the perfect present for someone who has it all or if you don't know the person very well - as long as you know their first name ;) Because they are simple, stylish, and can be used for many different places in the house. For kids, for tea, for the bathroom, to collect little bits and bobs and much more. I can also picture them quite nicely in the kids room as a pen holder. 

Good night and don't forget to brush your teeth...

Getting fit at home

How do you stay fit? I stumbled across Daniel and Kelli's YouTube Channel called Fitness Blender a few months ago. It changed my workout routine completely and I can see results in my body, which makes me soooo happy. The hard to get rid of belly fat is slowly vanishing thanks to their great workout videos.

My husband works late nights and our daughter is still small, so I have to be at home almost every night. So when other people go to the gym in the evening for a class of Yoga, Pilates, Cycling, Cardio etc. I have to stay at home and babysit. 

Not that I'm complaining, this was my choice and I could not be happier having our daughter in my life, but there were moments when I wished that I could go the gym at night to burn of some calories. Then I came across Fitness Blender. It still takes determination especially since I do almost all my workouts at night after I brought Heidi to bed. But the reward of how I feel afterwards it well worth it. They amazing thing about their videos are that they are completely free. 

Oh my, I sound like I am paid to say all these nice things about them but I am not, I am just a big fan of their videos. They have the whole variety from cardio, HIIT, low impact cardio, pilates, toning videos, body strength video and more. I have never really been into classes at the gym because I don't like to sweat in front of people so much. But at home I have my yoga mat, a glass of water and my computer and no one is watching me when I break out in a sweat, and believe me you do with their videos. So go ahead and give it a try if you are like me a shy gym goer, a mum who wants to get rid of the extra pounds around her waist or if you love to do a great workout with really good explanations. www.fitnessblender.com

BERLIN - city of FOOD

There are many things that I could list why Berlin is such a cool City, but the thing that stands out most for me is the food. There are many brilliant restaurants, joints, bars, bistros, cafe...you name it. We spent 3 days in Berlin and here is a summary of our delicious food experience....If you are planning a visit to Berlin and like good food, keep on reading...

The first stop we made was at Mogg & Melzer for their highly hyped sandwiches and we were not disappointed. We had the Pastrami sandwich, the Matzoh ball soup, and the pulled pork, avocado and chipotle sandwich. It was the best sandwich I had ever had in Germany. I used to live in NY for one year a while ago and you get used to a certain standard of sandwiches once you enter the Manhattan way of life. Ohhh boy, chapeau to the guys behind Mogg & Melzer. We want to come back for more. The sandwich bread was perfect to begin with, and the meat juicy, slightly warm and just the perfect mix with the sauce and the coleslaw on the side. We had the cider to go with it, and it is quite pricy but definitely worth it.

We did get in some cultural quality time in as well. My husband had never been to Berlin before so we did see the Wall, the Brandenburger Tor, the Holocaust Memorial, the Kanzleramt, the KaDeWe. Btw, this photo I took for our daughter Heidi who was staying with her grandparents for the weekend.

For the evening we had a reservation at DUDU and again we were very pleased. The sushi rolls are good, but what we liked best were the Pho soup with meat and the Papaya salad. Don't order the salad if you don't like to spicy, it is quite hot but together with the soup, the crispy tiger roll and a beer it was a feast for the mouth. 

For dessert we went to Katz Orange a short walk from DUDU. Since we didn't have time (nor the money) to eat a full meal at all the places on our foodie list, we headed to Katz Orange for dessert and a cocktail. I had a Mezcal Mule and the Philly Cheesecake with lemon thyme and a carrot sorbet. The cocktail as well as the dessert were equally pleasing, a real treat. I was not sure what cocktail to take and the waiter was so helpful and explained the drinks, and even said that if I didn't like my cocktail I could give it back. Great service and great dessert. I wish we would have had more time to try their slow food.

The next day we had a coffee break at The Barn for an afternoon caffeine fix. I had a cappuccino, my husband a long black coffee and together we shared a huge slice of carrot cake. The coffee is really good and so is the cake. It was topped off with candid almonds which I thought was different and so yummy. I am in a workout kind of phase, so I wanted to just have one or two spoons but there was no way of stopping me after two spoons. If you like carrot cake then you should definitely try this one.

The two trendy girls sitting next to us had coffee and cake as well and the sparrows in Berlin show no fear. They hopped right onto the plate, you really had to shoo them away. I only got some captured in this picture, but there were many more.

Dinner that night we had at an Austrian restaurant called Alpenstueck. Easy to guess, we had the Schnitzel and a side of Käsespätzle. Great Schnitzel, the potato and cucumber salad were OK. I've had better, but the Schnitzel was the star of the plate. The Käsespätzle were fantastic but not unsurprisingly salty and super rich. So go easy on it. 

Our final food stopp was the 6th floor at the amazing department store KaDeWe. I had read some very glorious reviews about the burger and yes, how could we say no to a great burger. We had the Classic Beef Burger and the burger of the month - I forget the name but it was something along the lines of Singapore Delight - and french fries. If there is space try to sit at the bar, so you can watch the chef make the burger right in front of you. This was the best burger we've had since moving back to Germany almost 2 years ago. My mouth is still watering when I think about it and I wish we had a burger like this in Hamburg.

Good food - that sums our weekend trip to Berlin up in a few words. 

Berlin we will be back for more!