Smoked Trout Spread with Pumpernickel bread and Daikon / Radish

First one of the appetizers I made for my father's birthday and it was off to a pretty good start. I apologise before hand that the pictures of these are not going to be the greatest, since I was kind of surrounded by a ravenous family, so couldn't really take the food away for a photo shoot. :P
This is fairly healthy as party appetizers go and will probably be tasty to anyone with a love of a good schmear. I used a combination of soft goat cheese and sour cream as the base for this spread, since basically I forgot to buy cream cheese, but the choice is completely up to you. I think both ways would work equally well. For me the best way to eat this was first the pumpernickel, then a slice of the daikon (a big white winter radish) and then the spread, but if you're not a fan of pumpernickel or want it even healthier, you can use just a slice of daikon. Kids probably would like this on some crackers though. The recipe for this comes from one of my favourite newly discovered food blogs foodwishes, link below.

Appetizer/Snack - 1 big bowl (about 14oz/350g) - 1000cal - 15min

(58g fat; 89g carbs and 77g protein)

Chicken with ratatouille (and couscous)

Classes have started up again so we're back to budget, healthy recipes. In my week off I visited Krakau/Krakov for a few days, which was wonderful, might do a quick post about that and just generally relaxed at home. Apparently both my mother and brother are doing a low-carb diet, so it wasn't too hard to keep at it, not that I didn't indulge once in a while.

This one is actually a classic I make all the time, since you can make a big batch of ratatouille and eat leftovers all week long or freeze them for when you just can't be bothered to cook. I so usually eat this with couscous, which I'm foregoing today since I'm going out later and need my calories for drinks, ah the struggles of being a student. For a fancier version this recipe would definitely go well with some lamb as well, though I wouldn't use such an elaborate recipe for the meat then, just salt/pepper and thyme.

The typical ingredients of ratatouille are onion, garlic, courgette/zucchini, eggplant/aubergine and paprika/bell pepper. I didn't have any bell pepper so I used some leftover butternut instead, which worked fine as well!
 

Dinner - 3 to 4 people - 350 cal (ca. 400 with couscous) - 45 min prep + 45 min oven time

Tandloos (Toothless) Bladwijzer

Een tijdje geleden zag ik deze foto op Pinterest van een Tandloos (Toothless) bladwijzer zoals deze, maar ik kon er nergens een tutorial van vinden, dus besloot ik om er gewoon zelf één te maken voor mensen zoals ik die zelf teen tandloos bladwijzer wouden hebben! Die op Pinterest is (grotendeels) gemaakt uit vilt, de mijne gewoon van papier.
Een vriendin van mij houdt erg veel van Tandloos (wie niet?): zij heeft er een hoodie van en voor nieuwjaar gaf ik haar zelfgemaakte tandloos sokken, dus ik ga haar collectie uitbreiden en haar deze cadeau doen. Ik ga er misschien nog een tweede voor mijzelf ook maken! Het is zo schattig en nog kei nuttig ook. Ik lees heel graag, en kan nooit genoeg bladwijzers hebben. Ik vind het resultaat best wel goed gelukt, maar er zijn toch nog een paar dingen die ik misschien anders zou doen, dus dat zal ik er zeker ook bijzetten in de onderstaande tutorial. Ik heb alle elementen van de Tandloos gewoon met de losse hand getekend, maar als jullie willen zal ik een sjabloon hiervoor maken dat je kan gebruiken. Laat onderaan gewoon een berichtje achter en dan zal ik er zo snel mogelijk ééntje maken!
30 minuten

Toothless Bookmark

A while ago I saw a picture on Pinterest of a toothless bookmark like this, but I couldn't find any tutorial for it, so I decided to just try to make it myself and put a little tutorial out there for people like me who really wanted to recreate it. ;) That one was created (partially) out of felt I think, mine is just paper.


A friend of mine really likes toothless (and who can blame her?): she has a toothless hoodie and I gave her DIY toothless socks for new years, so I thought I'd expand her collection by gifting her this bookmark. I might end up making a second one for myself though! It's super cute, but functional. While I like the result there are a few things I would've done differently, so I'll mention the mistakes I made while doing this tutorial so you can keep it in mind for yourself!
I drew and cut out all the elements just by eye, but if you guys are interested I'll make a template for this, so you don't have to take that risk or for if you're not so confident in your skills just yet (not that mine are that great :p). Just let me know and I'll make a full template! I might do so anyway if I decide to make more of these, but for now the one I have a plan for (gifting away) is finished, so there's no need...

30 minutes - Easy

Origami Flower with Leaves

This year as a small gift for my friends I made these Origami flowers decorated with earrings (I also gave a few other things which I might post about later). I made it in a few different colours to complement the earrings I was giving, but unfortunately I only have a picture of this one. I also made a quick video on how to make the rose. It's the first time making a video for me, and I just edited it with Windows Live Movie Maker, so it's clearly amateur-ish, but I thought a video was much clearer as an instructional/tutorial than just an explanation with pictures. Let me know if you like video-instructions instead of just text! So I know to do more ;)

Click read more for how I attached the earrings.