COOKIES!!!

I just woke up from an amazing 2hour nap and found THESE on my doorstep :)

Isn't that the sweetest?
There were more... Lots more... But all of a sudden they were gone! Weird, reight? ;)
they are just SO good!! Haha!

Thanks to my sweet friend Joke! Blog & Real-life friend :)

Now I guess I'll go back to studying for my exam...

A special night

Last night I decided I would pamper my man a bit. We needed some time off of these stressful days!

I made some home made bread, mushroom sauce, roasted chicken and a tomato mozzarella salad. After cleaning our living room and cooking, I dressed up and hung a shirt and tie in our hallway with a note "First dress up, then come dine with me"!

He loved our time together :)
I know he really appreciates these special dinners and it had been a long time since I planned one!

For dessert we had some chocolate fondue!!
Belgian chocolate, belgian strawberries (SO good!), a banana, kiwi fruits and an apple.

Yep, he was very happy :)
And so was I!

Thanks baby for the great night!
I love you!

Eggs in a basket

I've discovered a new favorite to eat!
Eggs in a basket/ Eggs in a nest/ Toad in a nest/ Bird's Nests, whatever you want to call them

I can't believe how it is possible that it tastes so different than when you'd just bake some eggs and have some toast with them.

This totally is not a picture of my eggs, I couldn't wait to eat them!

It is SO simple:
Melt some butter in a large pan.
Cut out holes in your bread (using a cookie cutter or a glass) and add the bread to the butter. Make sure both sides are coated in butter. Don't forget to use the cut out bread too! Delicious :)
Crack your eggs in the holes and let them cook for a couple of minutes.
Flip the bread&eggs and season with some salt and pepper.

Enjoy your tastiness!!
Too bad I'm out of eggs, I could eat this all day long!

Tomato-basil-cheese "pie"!

Dear friends,

I'm happy to tell you that for the last 2 weeks I've been watching my diet and have lost about 1.5 kg! That is 3 pounds. I'm very proud of myself and my sweet MIL gave me her Weight Watchers Book and I've been doing this since Monday.

I've made some delicious new meals and thought I'd share one with you!
It's a vegetable pie with tomato, mozzarella, feta cheese and basil!
Mmm :)

You'll need:
* 1 pie crust
* 3-4 tomatoes in slices
*20-25 fresh basil leaves
* mozzarella in slices (depends on how much you want, I used about 250g)
* feta cheese, crumbled (I used 1 package)

It is pretty easy:
You press the pie crust in your baking dish. Then you put in
one layer of tomatoes,
one layer of basil leaves,
one layer of mozzarella,

one layer of feta (I use feta because I LOVE it! It's such an amazing taste!)

second layer of tomatoes
followed by basil and 
last layer of mozzarella.

You bake this for about 30-40 minutes on 180°C or  350°F

And you should now have something like this:

It is best to let it cool a bit because there's a lot of fluid from the cheese and tomatoes, so it has to set again. You could also add in some breadcrumbs before your first layer of tomatoes, they absorb some of the fluids.

Enjoy! Let me know if you've tried it!

Linking up here:
 

Im a quitter...

I guess I'll have to tell you guys now that we both quit the diet.
I felt dizzy, had extreme headaches and felt nauseous all the time. It just wasn't really smart to keep on going! I did lose a whole kilo? 2.2 pounds in just 1,5 days? Yes, not so healthy :)

But we're still going to keep watching our diet. Thanks to my amazing readers I've got some knew (healthier) ideas such as no snacks and no eating after dinner :)
I haven't eaten any chocolates so far, so that's good, right?! (We did go for a pizza the night we gave up, mmmm!). We're going to the movies Saturday IF we can keep on eating healthy! jeeej! A little reward can be such a great help!

Does anyone have some good and healthy recipes for me to try out? I need to find some new ways to cook veggies 'cause I don't really like them...

Day one!

Day one of the diet and I feel like quiting!

Man, I'm addicted to Malthesers, M&Ms, chips... It's rediculous!
There's nothing I'd rather do than just watch a movie and stuff my face with (all of) one of those goodies... Or all of them. But I won't! I've done this before, I know I can do this! Haha :)

I've followed everything strictly and I've eaten so many veggies, I feel like I'm a bunny.
Let me say one thing: thank you mom for teaching me how to make the best soups in the world!!

Oh yes, thank you all for saying I don't need a diet :)
Unfortunately, my BMI tells me otherwise... A BMI of 28? Yep, way too much!!

Diet!

 I've recently noticed I gained a lot of weight in the 10 months Jeff and I've been married. I've been trying to eat less and healthier, trying to fit in some more work outs but I need a little boost.

That's why I decided I'll go back on a great diet. I've done this before but I did it with real help and it cost me A LOT (well, it cost my parents a lot...)
We want to save some money for our house so I was really happy I've found a cheap alternative :)
It works just the same and I'm looking forward to shedding some pounds!

 

It's very simple: in stead of regular food you use one meal from this pack. It's pure proteins in the form of omelets, chocomousse, soup, etc. You eat veggies, make sure you drink enough water and just watch the weight fall off ;)

Last time I did this program I lost about 2 kg every week! That's about 4,5 pounds! Let's hope this version works as good as the expensive one...
And the best part?
My hubby is going to support me by joining me! Woohoow :)

I'll keep you updated on how it's going!

I need some help!

This is a call for help to the wives that are still in college...

How do you do it?

Both the housekeeping and the studying in only 7 short days??

I've got the housekeeping (I think)... But the studying?
It's just not working! I feel like I'm drowning in all the work I still have to do for school!

What a regular day looks like for me:

7.30ish: I get up, have breakfast while checking blogs&Facebook
9am: My Quiet Time! (which I haven't been doing lately due to not enough time...)
10am: Workout, followed by a shower (same thing, not enough time this past week...)
11.30: I get ready for lunch with my husband! He works at just a 5min walk from our home!
12-1pm: Jeff and I have lunch
1.30pm: I start the house keeping: ironing, dishes (I hate it... It's a never ending story!)
2.30pm: Facebook&blog-time
3pm: I start our dinner and in the meanwhile I get some more housekeeping done such as making our bed, cleaning up etc before Jeff comes home
4.30: Jeff comes home! Party in da house!! We relax a bit together, talk about our day
5.30: Dinner
6.30: We either have a course/something else to go to (mondays: baking, tuesdays: assertivity course for 4 weeks, fridays: prayer meeting) OR we hang out together with a movie, which is important for Jeff...

What am I not seeing? Am I spending too much time with my husband??
Oh and I even forgot to mention my "projects" such as 

home made bread!!!

or this:

 This is just a sneak peak... 

It's for tonight and one of my readers is going to eat it, so I'm not showing the whole cake just yet!

So tell me, what am I doing wrong?!

I realize I have LOTS of time compared to mommies/ people that are working... But you see, my school isn't shouting for attention like kids do. And I don't have anyone that's mad at me if I don't show up for some studying time, like a boss does... I have to do it all by myself and y'all, that's just so hard!! And I LOVE homekeeping... Just the same as I would LOVE to stay home to care for my babies. But I still have 1,5 year to go before we even can think about that! So for now I need some help :)

Love,
Evelien

Homemade Sugar Cubes

My exam yesterday went well (I'm so happy!)
And I figured I could give myself some time to do something crafty!

And I chose this little project from pinterest!

via

Homemade sugar cubes!

What do you do:

-Take 1/2 cup of sugar 

-Mix in a tsp of water untill it's all moist and a bit crumbly

-Put the sugar mixture into a microwave-suitable mold

-Put in the microwave for 40 sec

-Let dry/cool for a couple of minutes

-Unmold carefully

My result:

Little flowershaped sugar cubes!!
The pink ones are coloured with food coloring. You just color the sugarmixture.

These are great to make something special for a party!

And for those of you interested in Janneman: a bunny-picture!

Sometimes and Always

Sometimes: I feel like I need a snack and grab some cookies
Always: I eat the whole package!

Sometimes:I look at my sweet Janneman and think I want to hug him all the time
Always: I LOVE looking at him jump around throughout the room!

Sometimes: Jeff goes out for the night (guys bible study, other appointments)
Always: I miss him and try to stay awake untill he's back!

Sometimes: I want to surprise a friend and do something totally crazy for their wedding!
Always: I'm not sure if I can pull this thing off!!!
Can't tell any more because if people read what it is, and I can't do it, they'll be sad! haha :)

Cake Pops

Look what I got this morning!

Bakerella's Cake Pops Book! In Dutch, that is, so don't be confused if your book looks slightly different.

Trying it out right now!

And now look at the flat hair, the little eyes, the bad skin... Yeps, this is me in Exam-Mode!
Also, look at all the Christmas Cards behind me! Jeej, I love cards :)

I'm hoping the cake pops turn out nice because I'm making them for a party :) We'll see!!

Now the only thing I need is a good name for my baking stuff!
Any ideas?

5 months of marriage and PARIS recap!!

5 months ago (last friday) Jeff and I got married! It feels like it was just yesterday that I was lying in my bed with butterflies in my belly, dreaming of my beautiful princess dress and my handsome groom...

But when I look at my husband I also feel like I've known him all my life, that we've been together all my life, living together for ages! But it's just been 5 months :)

We celebrated our day by giving blood! We try to donate blood on a regular basis, but it has an advantage for Jeff: he gets a day off of work!! So we're both pretty happy now, and we feel like we're heroes too!! Saving people with our blood, hoorah!


So to make you guys happy too (especially Joke), here are some pictures of our trip to Paris!

 The view from our own private studio in Jeff's aunt's appartment in one of the better "quartiers" of Paris! It was so quiet and so beautiful there!

 The first day we discovered that Christmas had taken over Paris already...

 Ofcourse we loved that :) 

What's better than Christmas except for Christmas in Paris?? (Or London!!)

On our first night we got tickets from Jeff's aunt to go see a show that's typical of Paris in the Lido. Don't know what that means? Think Moulin Rouge... Maybe slightly more decent... It's kind of a very fancy (and VERY expensive!!) circus in a night club.

If the tickets hadn't been so expensive and if Jeff's aunt hadn't said that we had to go because "This is the real Paris!!", we might not have gone there... 

We did got a nice dinner with champagne though ;)

And there were some great circus acts! One of the best clowns I'd ever seen for example! No pictures aloud there though...

 The next morning we went to go see the Eiffel Tower!

Jeff's aunt had made some reservations for this too, which was awesome because we didn't have to wait in line ;)

 The obligatory Eiffel Tower Kiss Picture :)

 My man standing on the Eiffel Tower, looking a tad bit scared!

It was very high...

I was glad we could come back down haha!

 On our last day we went to the Notre Dame. We even went in and there was a service for the first Advent Sunday. 

We sat on a little bench outside and made little films of ourselves (and the pigeons!). 

We both filmed a 'resolution' that we'll try to achieve in 5 years time :) I won't tell Jeff's resolution, but I promised myself I'd learn to play the piano!

Near the Notre Dame there's a gate with love locks on it... We didn't bring one, we totally stole one!

(I'm sorry if it's your lock!!)

We went to the Louvre again before we left... And yes, that's a Sephora bag in my hand :)

We don't have a Sephora in Belgium so my sweet husband let me choose something!!

I picked the Naked Palette from Urban Decay! Love it :)

And a little something for the way home...

Macarons, mmmm!! We both loved them :)

I hope you enjoyed the little recap!

We're already planning a trip back in februari with some friends. We're going to visit a guy that lived in Ghent but he's moved back to Paris! And Jeff's aunt wanted us to come back soon to go to the theatre or the opera with her! 

Aaaah, life is good :)

Lazy Sun(ny)day - gotta love fall!

Yesterday was one of the few times that Jeff and I didn't go to church! I was so tired and we were running late so I decided we'd stay home... Jeff wasn't too happy with that, but we still had an awesome day :)

The weekend has been very bright and sunny (but still very cold): perfect for fall walks!!

 We went to the "Kluisbos" which I had never been to!

We first had to CLIMB our way up hah! Not really, there were even moms with little children in baby carriages but they were having a lot of trouble getting up the hill! (We had trouble too...)

It was kinda crowded but we managed to find a more quiet route that most parents with babies didn't take :) 

We had such a great time, we laughed so much! 

I really enjoyed our time together...

In the evening we decided to dine out at Amadeus.

Amadeus is a cozy place where you can eat ribs à volonté. (Also other stuff, but it's kinda not OK for us to go there and NOT eat ribs!)

Yezzz, ribs I said :)

Jeff surprised me and only had 2 of them... 

When we go there with a bunch of friends the guys will always make it a competition to eat the most...

VERY healthy!

While walking home we had a great chat and so much fun, I felt very happy :)

And then we found this in the middle of the street:

Yeah... A random beer bottle...

It cracked me up and I HAD to take a picture for y'all :)

"This is Belgium. Land of Beer (aannnnd chocolate!)"

Lazy Sunny Saturday

Today we had some of this:

And some homemade this:

First attempt to make a little icing tower on a cupcake, don't laugh! 

It was delicious, mmm

And now we're going for some of this:

Have a nice day everyone!

Happy Birthday to da hubbs!

I had it all figured out: The best breakfast I had ever prepared:
croissants, freshly baked french bread with some yummy eggs, little sticks with fruit on, coffee the way he likes it, orange juice in champagne glasses, 2 cute candles to finish it off... I wish I'd taken a picture BEFORE getting upstairs!

I got upstairs safely with the tray and started to sing "happy birthday to youuuu"!!
Hubby didn't wake up (stupid ear plugs!!) so I had to put the tray down on the chair next to the bed...

But then...

The tray turned a bit (I hate that tray and I WILL buy a new one!) and the two glasses of orange juice spilled all over the tray.
Byebye freshly baked french bread...
Bye bye croissants...
(Luckily fruit stick can take some orange juice)

My whole plan was kinda broken now and I was SO sad! So instead of hearing a happy birthday song, my hubby woke up to me sitting next to the bed, crying (more like sobbing) because it was all ruined haha!

Luckily the croissants weren't completely wet, and the fruit sticks were ok...

 This is what we could save haha!

We stayed in bed untill noon (again!!) and now we're off to a little party with his parents, his sister and her family.
My family couldn't come but they called and sang Happy Birthday through the phone :) So sweet!! I remember doing this for my aunt when she lived in England: all of us so very happy and excited to be singing for her! Precious memories...

Have a nice day! If you've got a spare moment: pray for my birthday man :)

If you're ever in Belgium or the Netherlands...

Please don't book your hotel/rooms before you check out if there's a Hema around! The Hema is a shop with clothes, candies, just random stuff... But some cities in Belgium and the Netherlands also have a Hema Restaurant...

Most people will book a room with breakfast, BUT it's so much cheaper to just book the rooms and to go and have breakfast at the Hema :)

It's just 1 euro for a croissant, a piece of French bread with bacon and eggs, jam and a coffee (with little yummy cake)!

Since we've discovered this, it's become our weekly morning date on saturdays :)

We grab our breakfast and start our day by reading the paper :)

Any good tips for when we're in another country?
I LOVE breakfast :) It's my favourite meal of the day!