Can you make money blogging with a small blog?

One question I get asked very often is

„Do you earn money with your blog?“.

To be honest.
My blog is quiet small.
It is not my main job but YES I earn a little bit of money with services which results from my blog work.

I like to start to tell you that bloggers can’t be bought.

Most of the bloggers only like to write about their passion and ideas. It’s a myth that bloggers accept every cooperation for money. I keep an eye on other blogger and the blogger community and I don’t see tons of advertising on the blogs or social media feeds very often. You can see if anybody is bought or not.

There are some Blogger who developed an own eBook to earn money for example. Traci is as Blogger who finished her own ebook last month. Or other Blogger who sell their skills and use their blog as a Plattform, like Dearna.

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My beginning 2 years ago

My blog exists since two years and in the first year I never thought about making money blogging. But when I started my Instagram 1,5 year ago some companies recognize my blog and my passion of food. They realize I “speak” to a perfect target group and they asked me to promote their products in my Instagram feed and my blog posts. I worked a few months on a sample basis but after tons of samples I thought about my needs. I was happy to get something for free in the beginning. But later? I don’t want to have a clear timeline, to have all the pressure and tough targets.

Furthermore I need to invest money in my blog work. For example new plugins or WordPress. In my camera equipment. So when I earn a little bit I spend it straight away for new Blogging stuff. Haha.

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Why I decide to make money blogging

I decided to stop promoting products in on my blog and on my Instagram account for free for about a few weeks to think about my kind of cooperation in the future. In case of getting a cooperation inquiry I decided to claim payment for my hard work. Blogger who read this know what kind of work they invest in a blog post, professional photography or getting more traffic on their blog.

Why should I give companies free access to my follower although they have money to pay for this big media Penetration?

Companies Marketing Budgets

I’m working in sales and marketing since 15 years and trust me – companies have such a big marketing budget. If they decided to use Influencer, like Blogger or other social media they know that they need to invest money. As a blogger it’s my decision which products and companies I like to support. When you search in Google you find a lots of articels who tell you that brands want to spend more on Influencer Marketing. Why? Because they realize they can reach thousands of potencial customers all over the world by cooperating with the right people.

Researches shows a big growning in the online marketing in the last years.

The online Business will grow in the next years as well. So it is really important for companies to invest money in this marketing channel. More and more companies are willing to work with cooperation partnes like Blogger or other Influencer to reach their target group.

You like to know how I make money Blogging?

For me (and I know for other bloggers as well) it is very important only promoting products they really trust. You wouldn’t recommend a product to your friends you don’t like right? Same here.

I didn’t take long until I got my first payed cooperation after asking the companies directly. After explaining what I do and how many time I need to invest. I didn’t earn thousands of Dollars but I was happy to get paid.

I strictly focus myself on product placement and photography for companies.

Because I like this kind of work. They are a lot of other idea to make money blogging. But I don’t find the time to realize them all. And I really have fun by working with my camera and taking pictures for companies and products I respect. When I publish a picture on Instagram with a product I get payed for 70%. The others are still samples I really love. Here are some products I only use as samples:

www.lieblingsglas.de
www.madebyfressko.com
ww.broste-copenhagen.com.

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I don’t accept many cooperation’s for my blog directly because I don’t find the time and I don’t want to overload my blog with banner and sponsored posts. I like it really simple without lots of promotion on my page. But to be honest it don’t disturb me when I see product placement or banner on other blogs. I love honest recommendations and all blogs I read are trustful. I’m happy when I see blogger cooperate with companies because I’m sure that’s the future for companies Marketing.

I hope you find some idea or inspirations how to make money Blogging.

If you have own experiences about this topic I would be happy to read a comment from you or get an E-Mail with questions.

Hugs Janine


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Favorites of the week

Some Blogger Resources from my Blogger friend Dee. You find Tutorials, Tips for Food Bloggers and more on her Blog!

More tips about How to make money blogging 

You could be interested in these posts as well

Find some tips for food photography!

How to grow your Instagram Following

Instagram grow nab

 

Almond vanilla balls and my experiences in food photography

As you know I’m sharing my food photography pictures on Instagram as well as on my blog. Some people ask me why I’m sharing my pictures on Instagram as well. The main reason is to improve my food photography skills. To learn from others and to share my experience and to get experiences back from other food photographer.

Social media is a good place to interchange.

To be honest. Working as a food blogger in your free time means to focus on your favourite tasks. Otherwise you can burn yourself out really fast. Food blogging is such a big field where you can work hours and hours to get more follower and traffic on your page. Everybody need to find his real passion in this niche. Mine is taking pictures. Not getting more and more follower.

I like to share a little bit of my food photography journey as well as my recipe today. I won’t go into the details. This is only an idea how my journey has been.

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Food photography

Food photography is a big part of my life and I’m always really thankful to find time for it. I’m only taking pictures when I’m sure I have no other obligations during the day to focus myself completely. It’s a kind of creativity and silence for me. Something where I can stop thinking.

Some of you follow me since I started my blog or my Instagram account 1,5 years ago. As you can see in my pictures my results getting better and better. To be honest. I invested a lot of time and patience to learn how to take good pictures. Why? Because I love taking pictures. I love to look at stunning food photography and I love to realize I can do it as well.

Example 1: Turmeric cashew smoothie with lemon

One of my very first pictures was my turmeric cashew smoothie with lemon.

Kurkuma Cashew Smoothie NEU I

As you can see this picture isn’t really clear. Ist blurred.
It is overexposed and the props are really simple. But when I shot it I was so proud of it. Haha.

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I took this shot a few days ago with my new skills. My new lense and I edited it in Lightroom. This picture has a nice  depth of Focus and the probs are so lovely. It isn’t too loud. As you can see it looks much more professional in total. But it takes 1 year to learn how to shot it.

Inspirations

First of all I got a lot of inspirations from other cook book authors, bloggers and Instagramer. I always have a look and think about which kind of food photography I prefer. I read a lot. I bought books to learn how to start. I could tell you in detail how I improve my skills. But it’s so much better to have a book on hand and learn it step by step.

My German recommendations for good books: Food-Fotografie: Leckere Bildrezepte für Einsteiger and  Food-Fotografie – Essen perfekt in Szene setzen (Digital fotografieren)

Natural light & Props

I started using natural light early because I read it everywhere! Natural light is one of the most important things to follow in taking good food pictures. I didn’t use man props like napkins, towels or different cutlery in the beginning. My first pictures were really simple. But I was really proud of every single one because I took it. LOL. Later I discovered my pictures looking better and better when I use some props.

Example 2: A simple smoothie in a small jar

Look at the difference between these two smoothie pictures. I didn’t used probs in the first one. It looks so lonely and not inviting. Sad smoothie.

Kakao Amaranth Smoothie I

In contrast you feel the athmosphere when you look as this simple banana almond smoothie. I try to avoid too many colors but I added some green in the backround and red from the figs to create a nice view. It fits perfect to the wood I used in that picture. Wooden boards are always a good idea.

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Camera Equipment

I started with a good DSLR camera. Maybe this was the reason I had so much fun when I began. You can easily take pictures with your mobile phone as well but trust me the results with a good camera is so important to improve your skills. And when you decide to take pictures in the future and to invest time to learn it, the camera invest is appropriate.
I use a Nikon DS5200 with a 50mm f/1.8D Lens .

Editing program

In the beginning I used a freeware program to edit my picture. It is from google and the name is picassa. You have the possibility to start editing your pictures without buying an expensive program like Lightroom. You can play around and try out how you can edit your picture to make it looks better. One year later I spend all my money and bought an Apple IMAC with Lightroom. I use it 2 month now and it is the best I ever bought. My results are so much better! I’m also really happy to use Dearnas Food Fotography Guides to learn how to take good pictures and how to edit them in Lightroom.

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My journey isn’t at the end

I’m sure I can learn so much more about this amazing creative hobby. I’m so happy I discovered my passion of food photography because it’s a place I can turn myself off.
I love to share this recipe today because I’m proud of one of my absolutely first action shots. I watched a guide from Dearnas Food Fotography Guides how to take this kind of pictures. And these balls are really delicious, easy to prepare and healthy. My plan was to make almond butter with peeled almonds. But is don’t works. So I decided to convert the paste into balls.

So let’s go!

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Almond vanilla balls
 
Author:
Recipe type: Treats
Ingredients
  • 100g almonds (1 cup)
  • 100g desiccated coconut
  • 400g medjool dates (2 cups)
  • 3 tbsp coconut oil
  • 2 tbsp ground vanilla
  • 4 tbsp raw cacao powder
Instructions
  1. Mix up all ingredients (except the cacao powder) in a food processor.
  2. Form the paste into balls.
  3. Sprinkle the balls with cacao powder or icing sugar.
  4. Enjoy!

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FAVORITES OF THE WEEK

Marta, a mum, is sharing this easy and healthy Little Polenta Bowl with onions

One of my favorite Bloggers, Sara, creates a Basic recipe for overnight oats and chia seeds!

I just discovered this cute shirt, perfect for cat lovers: Cat Lovers – meaningfulpaws 

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You like to try out a healthy Version of snickers? Here it is: Healthy Hemp Snickers

Everybody loves chocolate! Try out this Nutritious Choclate Mousse

My new disvovery – coconut yoghurt, used in a 2-minutes breakfast bowl

 

Fast good! 2 minutes coconut blueberry bowl

What’s that? Fast Good? Sounds funny, right?

To be honest. Nobody find the time to cook hours and hours. But everybody likes to eat more healthy and fresh. The solution?

Fast Good!

More and more restaurants discovered a new trend. To prepare fast, delicious and healthy food for everybody. If you are open-minded you will recognize more and more healthy possibilities in the food market. There are more and more fresh alternatives instead of meat burger or fatty french fries. In the last years it was really difficult for me to eat something healthy when I was on a business trip.

The Change

But I see the world is changing and I love it! I find more healthy sandwiches, spelt pasta, vegan and vegetarian burger as well as raw desserts. It’s amazing to see how people change their mind and take care of their selves. I’m also recognize a changing in the supermarket portfolio. There are more fresh juices, vegan bread and I was so lucky to find the first coconut yoghurt in my supermarket as well. You need to know I don’t live in a big city. I’m living in a small village and the next city is 30.000 people big. I prefer to buy from a local shop instead of buying food in the internet. Are you feel the same?

Was can you learn from this fact?

This fact and this food trend can help you to live more healthy step by step. As you can read in one of my last posts “Dietary change for a better wellbeing”. I recommend to change your diet not completely. You need to change it step by step. Try to find more healthy alternatives and be open-minded for new food ingredients you don’t know. A healthy diet don’t need to be really difficult.

If you open-minded to cook something easy and healthy you find some idea here:

A vegan idea! Sunflower seed tzatziki sandwich

Fast, healthy and tasty! The 10 minute mushroom ragout

This simple banana almond smoothie is a great breakfast idea!

Spiritual Food as a Lifestyle?

I read about the Food Trend “Spiritual Food”. Have you ever heard from this? It sounds also really funny.

When we talk about spiritual food we talk about ethic and social engagement. We talk about to think about what we eating. To think about the origin, the production conditions. We talk about animal farming and labor conditions. The fact is that we need to eat every day. To think about what we eat is really difficult. We need to learn how we can change our view.

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Start thinking

Sometimes I know what I eat and I know it isn’t really “spiritual” but I eat it and I repress the memory. But sometimes I don’t eat anything in particular because I know more about ethical aspects. For example chocolate. I watched a German video about the production conditions of chocolate. I learned about child labor and I never never never bought conventional chocolate again since this experience. And I am really proud of it. We all can do little steps to make the world a little bit better. Build up your level of awareness and you will change little things as well. I am sure you can and you feel satisfied with your decision.

The Influencer

I recognized a big healthy food blogging trend in the last years. All these amazing souls helps to inform the world. They help to build up awareness. They share own experiences. I’m proud to be a part of this community and I’m proud to share my ideas and I’m proud to learn from others as well. I learned so many new thing about awareness, healthy food and living in the last year. I could write a book about it. But unfortunately I don’t find the time. Haha.

What are your experiences with food trends? Are there any who helped you to change something in your life?
I would be happy to read a comment from you.

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2 minuts coconut smoothie bowl

To share a simple and easy recipe idea I choose my coconut blueberry bowl with coconut yoghurt. I use frozen berries because I have them on hand at every time when I need a fast breakfast. Coconut yoghurt is such a great and healthy alternativ for dairy yoghurt. I am really lucky I found it in my supermarket. I see more and more healthy alternatives are coming. I topp this bowl with my coconut granola. You can find the recipe here: Coconut Granola

Fast good! 2 minutes coconut blueberry bowl
 
Prep time
Total time
 
Author:
Recipe type: Breakfast
Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • 170 frozen blueberries
  • 4 dates
  • 1 tbsp coconut flakes (or desiccated)
  • 150 g coconut yoghurt
  • 100 ml almond milk
Instructions
  1. Mix all ingredients until smooth. If the smoothie bowl is too cold add a pinch of really hot water.

 

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Favorites of the week

A health Coach’s 5 Favorite Pre- and Post-Workout Snacks

The Goodmanproject wrote about “Awareness the Presence of Being” and how to reduce stress

You could be interested in these posts as well

Learn how to change your diet step-by-step: Dietery change for a better wellbeeing

You need more energy in everyday life? Juicing is the solution!

Learn how to make your smoothie more filling

10 minutes mushroom ragout with oven-baked yeast buns

Welcome Autumn! Who isn’t thinking of mushrooms?

Some of you can understand my joy and enthusiasm for this really special season. I was born in Novemer when the leaves falls down and the light is magical. I love forest walks and cooking warm stews as well as light candles when we have dinner. It is a magical time.

My hubby felt totally in love with mushrooms. And I? I love to cook simple meals during the week to have a good meal on hand at my lunch time as well as cooking simple meals at the weekend to spend more time with my hubby, friends, family and my cats. Sometimes I spend more time in my kitchen but at the moment I feel a bit empty and I enjoy cooking some easier stuff. This ragout is made within 10 min. You only need to let the dough prove for the oven-baked yeast buns. If you don’t want to spend time with these buns you can easily eat this ragout with pasta or rice.

I highly recommend to use the bay leaves because they add a heavenly taste. Bay leaves are full of flavor and they are often used in the kitchen.

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Enjoy vegetarian

This mushroom recipe isn’t vegan and I don’t recommend any vegan changing because I didn’t cooked a vegan version of this meal. I use butter in this recipe. I really love butter. I often use coconut oil instead. It is much more healthy and also delicious in many meals. But I need the butter flavor in these buns and in the ragout as well. My hubby and I eat a mix of vegan and vegetarian and we are very happy with this kind of life. We both don’t want to “hurt” animals. I am sure a vegan diet is the best to protect animals but I am not on the point I can change my diet completely so I doesn’t. Changing need to be happen free from stress. It need to be happen from the inside. Maybe the time will come or not. We will see.

Special humans can change the world!

In someone’s eyes people who fight for their considered opinion are too extremely. But I think the world need people like this to open eyes and hearts. People who fight for their visions and ideas get hurt often but they don’t stop fighting. And the win fights! I am not that kind of person. I don’t have the energy to speak loud and use my voice. My idea is to share my way to life on this blog and Instagram. But there are some others out there who have a louder voice than me. One person is James.

I’m following this inspiring soul on Instagram for a while. You find him here: Instagram: @jamesaspey & http://www.jamesaspey.com.au. He was diagnosed with leukaemia when he was 17 and he changed his life and he “speaks loud”. Loud about animal suffer. To be honest. Anybody needs to do this. That‘s the way people start to think about their life and their diet. Like me. I read an article from PETA and became a vegetarian in 2009. One of the best decisions I ever made.

But no matter if you a non-vegetarian, vegetarian or vegan. You can only make your own change. Whatever you want! You need to feel good with your own decisions.

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Recipe
10 minutes mushroom ragout with oven-baked yeast buns

Serve 4

For the buns

200g spelt flour
150g whole spelt flour
25g fresh yeast
150ml lukewarm milk
1 tsp sugar (I use coconut sugar)
1 tsp salt
2 organic eggs
60g butter
40g liquid butter for coating

1 ring tin

For the mushroom ragout

2-4 tbsp butter
500g brown champignons
2 onions
1 garlic glove
1 tbsp spelt flour
400ml vegetable broth
200ml whipping cream
2 bay leaves (important!)
1 bunch of fresh parsley, chopped

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Preparation oven-baked yeast buns

  1. Add flour in a big bowl and push a pit in the middle of the flour.
  2. Mix yeast with 70ml lukewarm milk and add 1 tsp sugar.
  3. Throw in the yeast liquid over the flour.
  4. Cover and let rest 10 minutes.
  5. After resting add 1 tsp salt and stir in the 60 ml milk as well.
  6. Beat at medium speed of electric mixer.
  7. Add 60g soft butter and 2 organic eggs and knead until dough is smooth and elastic.
  8. Cover and let rest 40 minutes.
  9. Divide dough into 20 equal pieces; shape into balls.
  10. Place in greased ring thin.
  11. Brush with additional melted butter.
  12. Cover and let rise in warm for 15 minutes.
  13. Bake in preheated 200 degrees F oven for 20 minutes or until done.
  14. Remove from pan.
  15. Serve warm.

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Preparation 10 minutes mushroom ragout

  1. Quarter Champignons.
  2. Slice onions.
  3. Cube garlic glove.
  4. Heat the butter over high heat and fry the champignons until they starts to get brown.
  5. Add onions and garlic and fry for 2 more minutes.
  6. Sprinkle with 2 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp flour.
  7. Fry 1-2 minutes.
  8. Deglaze with vegetable broth.
  9. Add by leaves.
  10. Let simmer for 5 minutes.
  11. Stir in whipped cream and chopped parsley.
  12. Taste with salt and pepper.
  13. Enjoy!

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FAVORITES OF THE WEEK

I meet a young girl. Lyndsey. She is running a wonderful blog and baked this “Honey Pumpkin Pie with maple toasted pecans”. OMG!

Dearna already published her Editing Guides for all who are interested to learn more about using Lightroom.
I’m using them and I am so satisfied! More information: Food Photography Guides

James Aspey, a 29 year old vegan from Australia protect animals 24 hours a day.
He was diagnosed with leukaemia when he was 17 years old and changed his life.
He is such a great inspiration for all who like to learn more about veganism: James.

YOU COULD BE INTERESTED IN THESE POSTS AS WELL

A fast healthy vegan sandwich with a vegan tzatziki.

A warm curry for cold days. Easy to cook: Creamy coconut curry with vegan meatballs

Autumnal! Fresh warm Naan (Yeast Bread) out of the pan: Naan

Sunflower seed tzatzki sandwich and Blog Carnival Participants

A healthy vegan sandwich and lots of fun! That’s what you find in this post.

Finished! My #healthyfastfood4 Blog Carnival is over. I’m happy about your enormous participation and I love to see so many “food” friends from Instagram as well. As promised I share the list of your delicious recipes, Websites and Instagram Accounts today and I would be totally happy if you would do the same on your social media and Website. It’s such a great way to share our passion of food. You find the complete list of all participants at the end of this post. Thank you all for your participation! I had so much fun and all participants would be really happy if you find the time to share the complete list also on your blog. To share our Passion for Blogging, Food, cooking and Food photography.

I like to introduce you to one participant who joined as well and published her eBook last week. It is Traci from vanillaandbean (@vanillaandbean).
You can find her amazing eBook here: grab-n-go snacks. I bought it and I am totally satisfied.

Be You

I want to share a little bit about my feeling to be more YOU in this life.

At the moment I’m really in a lazy mode and spend a lot of time with relaxing and slow movement. I’m thinking about what’s really important for me. I like to discover more silence, calm and awareness because I feel that I really enjoy it. I don’t like to run across my life and recognize nothing. So many people are busy and stressed from their own timeframe because they want to fulfill the expectations from others and their own. The expectations from the world and from yourself are so high. Nobody can fulfill them the whole life. Don’t fulfill the expectations means to be not everybody’s darling. And some people won’t understand you when you act like yourself but that’s the only way to find happiness in life. To find your own way.

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I recognized I need a change. I needed a break from the society to think about my truly needs. I recognized I don’t want many people around me. I don’t want to join every party or event. Instead of this I love time with myself, my cats, my food and my hubby. I love to meet family and friends from time to time but not every day and not every weekend. I enjoy to do some sports, yoga, meditation in my free time. I enjoy to cook. I enjoy to read books and watch movies. I love cuddling my cats and I love to sleep early to feel fit the next day. I’m truly happy I realized this.

What are your Needs?

Food to Go – for example a sandwich

Because I’m really lazy at the moment I don’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen. I try to find more easy recipes to relax in the evening. I am a full-time worker and be in the kitchen mean a kind of meditation but I can’t meditate hours and hours. I don’t want to spend more time than 1 hour after my work with cooking and cleaning. I discovered Sandwiches for me to have a great and healthy lunch I can easily prepare in advance. I often prepare the ingredients in the evening and put them all together in the morning for my hubby and me.

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As you already know I don’t eat animals because I love them. My base bread topping is cheese and avocado. But I try out other toppings as well like this sunflower seed tzatziki. It is so easy to made, vegan and full of healthy nutritions. For example it’s is full of Vitamin E. I love Vitamin E because it is really helpful for a good skin. Maybe I’m crazy but I recognized my skin is so much better since I eat more seeds and nuts. I eat them every day. Vitamin E also help neutralize free radicals to protect brain health.

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RECIPE
Sunflower seed tzatzki sandwich

Serve 2

100g sunflower seeds (soaked for 4 hours in water)
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
2 tbsp fresh dill (chopped)
1/4 cucumber (grated, scrape out the seeds with a spoon to avoid liquid)

4 slices of whole wheat bread
6 slices of smoked tofu
salad

Preparation

  1. After soaking your sunflower seeds, drain and rinse them.
  2. Add lemon juice and olive oil and mix in a blender or with a immersion blender.
  3. Add the grated cucumber and the dill.
  4. Season with salt and pepper.
  5. Serve your sandwich with tzatski, fresh salad and smoked tofu.
  6. Enjoy.

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Participants of #healthyfastfood4 Blog Carnival

Thank you all for your participation! I had so much fun and all participants would be really happy if you find the time to share the complete list also on your blog.
To share our Passion for Blogging, Food, cooking and Food photography. I would be happy if you share this list as well on your Blog to share the food love.

Blogger Recipes

Sweet Potatoe Sandwich with beetroot cashew cheese from Tiina @myberryforest

Pumpkin Millet Burger from Klara

Pineapple Lime Coconut Parfait from Dee @greensmoothiegourmet

Golden roti, curried carrot falafel and masala corn Bo from @bos.kitchen

Spiced Fall Porridge von Lynn

Strawberry Rhubarb Tart and salted brownie cheesecake bites from Mitra @nutriholist

Healthy fast food pizza from Jo @healthyeating_jo Pumpkin millet burger from Klara @klaraslife

Vegan saitan chicken sandwich from Lauren @rabbitandwolves

Sri Lankan beetroot curry & toasted coconut sambol from Annabel

Sweet Potato and Chickpea Curry from Nattalie @healthynatty

Healthy Indian Chaat from Meghnas @meghnas_

Quinoa-Pumpkin Burger with veggie chips from Verena @frei_style

Pink dream cream parfait from Corinne @healthypieceofcake

Antioxidant Açai Chocolate Oatmeal Bowl from Brenda @crave.the.benefits Cashew cream kale Caesar sald and fried shallots with parmesan vegan from Lyndsey @lyndsey_eden

Raw vegan oreos from Sara

German

Regenbogen-Lunch: Buchweizennudeln mit Tofu und Tahini from Anna

Healthy Sushi from Steffi

Schnelle Beerenmuffins für das Wochenende from Jessi

NEWS!

One of my favorite food blogger published her eBook. Traci participate with one of her new recipes from her eBook: Almond Chocolate Coconut Bars from @vanillaandbean
Download: grab-n-go snacks

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Instagramer Healthy Fast Food Ideas

Portobello Bun Red Lentil Burger / Slider from Marisa @missmarzipancom

Cauliflower pizza crust from Chloe @the_smallseed_

Mexican taco style from Annelina @food_without_regrets

Savoury Rainbow toast on glutenfree bread from Dora @theradiantkitchen

Rainbow Veggie Open Pittas from Lorna @eatmyyythoughts

Breakfast bowl from Jenny @jenny.rai

Mango Vegan no churn ice-cream from Arzu @vitalityandmore (Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vitalityandmore)

Potato chili fries with the best plantbased cheesesauce from @lenkas_kitchn

Spring rolls with satay and sweet chilli style sauce from Lee @vegan_naturalee

White and red quinoa from, hummus, eggplant dip, chimmichurri, vegetable stock and 4 greens pesto and Tropical Bliss Pitaya, mango, Pineapple, Banana Nicecream from Silv @minimuncherbali

Creamy Millet Porridge from Philine


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A simple banana almond smoothie

Banana

Super easy and healthy

I recognized I haven’t shared one of my absolutely easiest and delicious smoothie with banana and almond butter (or raw almonds). When I haven’t much time in the morning or forget to prepare my breakfast in advance I mix up this smoothie. It Is full of healthy ingredients and makes me full for longer because I added some oats. As you already know I always stock a jar of self-made almond butter. If you like to know how you can make almond butter by yourself, read more on this post: Vanilla Almond Butter at the end from the post

One of my favorite smoothies every is my Cashew Lemon Smoothie with turmeric . I drink it 3 times a week because I haven’t find another smoothie which is more delicious for me. You only need to soak the cashew nuts a day before and simple add banana, turmeric, dates and vanilla. It’s soooo good! But to be honest it is really hard to decide which one is better. This banana almond version or the cashew lemon version. I love both. In the past I added lots of superfoods to my smoothies. In the meantime I don’t do that because I’m not really sure if I need them. My option changed. I think we don’t need lots of superfoods to live more healthy. It is totally enough to use natural superfoods like kale, beetroot or linseeds. A few superfoods are still in my kitchen. One is maca. I still eat it because I like the taste not only it’s healthy.

 

Banana 

Some people ask me if I get full by drinking a smoothie. YES! Because I add some filling ingredients as well. If you like to get some ideas read my blog post: perfect smoothies.
I’m sure you find some ideas you didn’t know yet.

Thank you all for your nice feedback for my running Blog carnival “healthyfastfood4. I didn’t know so many people would be join so fast! It is still open until 30th September. If you want to participate it’s not difficult. Read more easy instructions here: Blog Carnival

If you using bananas in a smoothie it is really important to use ripe ones. My biggest tip for preparing smoothies is to freeze bananas in chunks. You have them ripe on hand in time. Perfect!

I bought coconut butter and use it in this smoothie. You can also use oil instead of the butter.
The butter is thicker and includes the flesh as well. It’s more like almond butter and it’s more creamy. Like a creamy puree.

Banana

A simple banana almond smoothie
 
Author:
Recipe type: smoothies
Ingredients
  • Recipe
  • Banana Almond Smoothie
  • Serve 1
  • 1 ripe frozen banana
  • 1 tbsp almond butter (or 3 tbsp raw almonds, soaked if possible)
  • 1 tsp coconut butter
  • ½ tsp ground vanilla
  • 250ml almond milk (or any other milk you prefer)
  • 2 tbsp rolled oats
Instructions
  1. Add all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
  2. Enjoy!

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Banana

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Favorites of the week

What is your favorite cookbook? Mine is “At home in the whole food kitchen” from the one and only Amy Chaplin

Have you seen Lynns “Plum Cake with Buckwheat & Spelt Dough”? I love love love the plum time!

Because I don’t made many chia breakfasts I highly recommend Melanie’s “Passionfruit Chia Smootie Cups

You could be interested in these posts as well

Learn how to create the perfect smoothies with „Make the perfect smoothie more filling

My absolutely favorite smoothie! With Lemon and cashew nuts and turmeric! Excellent superfood!

Kale is such a great natural superfood to add in a smoothie. This one is really sweet and tasty: Creamy Kale Detox Smoothie

Eggplant Gyros Pita

Eggplant Gyros? Trust me! This is such a taste revolution!

This Gyros is served in a fluffy pita and topped with fresh yoghurt. It’s a perfect food for my “Healthy Fast Food Carnival”. I really love healthy fast food like roasted sweet potatoes with guacamole or self-made fries. There are so many possibilities to bring more healthiness in your diet without losing taste.

I recognize a big trend for a healthy living and I get asked so often how to live more healthy. It starts with the small things. If you are interested in learning how you can live more healthy permanently read my post about: Dietary Change for a better wellbeing

You love fast food but you get stomach problems after eating that stuff? Or don’t feel good? Try out healthy versions and discover more fun by eating fast food. This could be the first recipe to check it out.

Blog Carnival

Thank you for your great ideas for my Blog Carnival „Healthyfastfood4“.  It’s still running until the end of September. I would be happy you join to spread the food love overall! I will be publish a list of all participants on the 1st of October.

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Back to this easy delicious pita with eggplant gyros!

They are definitely one of our newest favorites! You can release the flavors by grilling the eggplants really easy. Eggplants are bitter. A great tip to reduce the bitterness is to soak them with salt for 10 minutes. You simple need at least a half tablespoon of salt for every medium sized eggplant. Drain and rinse them after 10 minutes. The salt will help to draw the bitter liquid out from the eggplant. It also helps the eggplant pieces stay more shapely and become tender during cooking instead of becoming soggy. The iron and calcium in eggplant supply the essential nutrients required by the body.

Here you go!

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Eggplant Gyros Pita

4 Pitas

2 Eggplants
1 tsp sae salt
2 tbsp paprika powder
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp mustard seeds (optional)
100g Cocktail tomatoes
1 cucumber
1 red onion
100g red cabbage
12 tbsp olive oil

250g yoghurt
2 tbsp tahini
2 tsb lemon juice
1 bunch dill
sea salt

1 flatbread or 4 pita

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Preparation

  1. Cut the eggplants in 1cm thick slices.
  2. Sprinkle them with sea salt and set aside for 10 minutes.
  3. Mix the olive oil, paprika, oregano and mustard seeds.
  4. Rinse the eggplants and marinate them in the olive oil mix for 2 hours.
  5. Slice the tomatoes, onions and cucumber.
  6. Cut the Dill.
  7. Mix the yoghurt, tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, dill and salt.
  8. Grill the eggplants 3 min over high heat each side.
  9. Grill the flatbread / pita as well or roast in the oven.
  10. Serve the bread with all ingredients and top with yoghurt.
  11. Enjoy!

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You could be interested in these posts as well

Tasty and simply burger. Meet Mr. and Mrs. Chickpea Burger!

Such a delicious sandwich with eggplants and parsley mayonnaise. Read more.

Fried egg with fried mushrooms and Avocado. My favorite Fried egg Sandwich.

Favorites of the week

Tiina from myberryforest published an amazing Sandwich with sweet potatoes! Sweet Potatoe Sandwich with Beetroot Cashew Cheese

Autumn is comming here in europe! I find this warm salad recipe with pumpkin on Nikis page: Warm roasted veggie salad

Blog Carnival #healthyfastfood4

Let’s celebrate Blog Carnival! When you are a Blogger you know the feeling to work almost alone behind the camera. You enjoy your creativity while doing a photo session and have fun with editing your pictures on the computer. But sometimes it can be a really lonely process. That’s the main reason we are all active in social media. We want to share our love, our passion of food and tell others about our experiences, our stories. I think most of the people who read this agree on that point.

I want to create an event where we all participate together. To get connected and to share our same passion.
The passion of creating healthy food, taking food pictures and sharing recipes as well as tricks and tips for a healthy diet.

I invite you to join this #healthyfastfood4 Event (from 3rd September until 30th September) and benefit from our wonderful healthy food community.

Eggplant Feta Sandwich nab2 (5)

Because we ALL LOVE HEALTHY FAST FOOD I decided to use this topic. I really love to enjoy a cold beer together with roasted sweet potatoes with guacamole, quesadillas, sandwiches, tacos or vegetarian and vegan burger! You feel the same? Join now! By the way. I will publish the recipe for the Eggplant Gyros Pita in the picture next week.

By the way. I will publish my current FAVORITE blog post as from today in every single blog post at the end of each post to share the amazing work from my Blogger collegues. There are so many lovely souls out there you need to discover as well.

Chickpea Burger nab (3)


What is a Blog Carnival?

A Blog Carnival is a „virtual party“ where blogger share their blog post with a special topic. The organizer (me) collects all posts and publish them on a fixed date on his blog with a feedback.

Who can participate?

Every blogger with an own blog can join this event. The organizer will proof the participants of authenticity and decide to approve or not. The blog post needs to fit to the topic and it need to have a suitable quality. If the participant isn’t approved by me I will inform you.

Share the Love

Feel free to publish the participant list as well on your blog and / or social media on the 1st October or later to share the healthy fast food love.

1-Sandwich with Red Beet Hummus (12)

Procedure

• Create and publish an own blog post with a healthy fast food recipe until the 30th September
• Include this Link http://nutsandblueberries.com/blog-carnival/ in your post to inform your readers about the Blog Carnival #healthyfastfood4
• The recipe needs to be free from meat and fish (vegetarian or vegan)
• The recipe is healthy and nearly free from any convenience ingredients
• Publish your blog post link in the comments under this post (I will add your link to the Blog Carnival)
• Optional: Write me an e-mail with your Link post@nutsandblueberries.com
• Promote the Blog Carnival #healthyfastfood4 on your social media in advance to join more participants and make the events more interesting for readers
• Use #healthyfastfood4 to tag your recipe on Instagram
• I will publish all participants on my blog and Instagram @nutsandblueberries on 1st October

Can’t wait to see you creations my friend! Happy healthy fast food cooking!

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FAVORITES OF THE WEEK

These Matcha Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwiches (Vegan + GF) from Sophie are really mouthwatering and such a great idea to end up summer.

What a great idea from Tieghan to freeze smoothie ingredients to have them on hand when you need them: Freezer Smoothie Pack 6

I was inspired by Dr. Danielle Dowling article about How To Get Vulnerable & Learn To Share Your Inner Truth.


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Juicing – more energy in everyday life

Juicing! What a mess when you try it out by yourself without a good juicer. Haha. Okay maybe I should have start with beetroot ;o). So I decided to buy a juicer. I was concerned with juicing the last two weeks and can’t be more happy with my learning effects. Since I drank fresh pressed carrot-celery juice on the Maldives this year I planned to buy me juicer as well. Half a year ago. After receiving my juicer 4 weeks ago I started directly with juicing and was totally excited with the result. Everybody who match a supermarket juice with a fresh pressed juice will never drank a supermarket juice again. Fresh pressed juice is so much fresher than bought one. And it contains much more vitamins and minerals like stored one.

Juicing and Detox? What’s the context?

Detox means to detoxify your body. To clear your body from toxins and other harmful substances. They are many different ways to detoxify. One way it to use your diary another way is to use cosmetics and help your skin to detoxify. Detox means also to avoid any harmful things like smoking or less sleep. I implement a few detoxifying components in my life. One example is drinking warm water the whole day long or sleep enough. For me it’s very important to feel good with all I’m doing. I need to have fun and I need to live the right balance between living “unhealthy” and “healthy”. I recognize a big wellbeing since I relax more often during the day. Meanwhile I even meditate and can’t live without. An no meditation has nothing to do with esoteric ;o). Maybe the following app is helpful for you: Mindapps

I write about two Detox opportunities in this post.

  1. Detox juicing

  2. Detox juice recipes

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1. Detox Juicing

Juicing helps you absorb all the nutrients from the vegetables and fruits. Fresh pressed juices are an excellent easy way to support your immune system with vitamins and minerals. You can easily press a fresh and healthy juice with the right juicer. I tried out a slow juicer in the last weeks and I’m absolutely convinced. Does speed really matter? Yes it does. Slow juicers are slow because they need to use a pressing force to get the juice through the filter without creating too much heat and friction. With juicing you can vary your vegetables easily. Many people eat the same vegetable dishes every day.

1.1. Difference between smoothie and juices

My first questions was if fresh juices are better than smoothies and what’s the difference? It’s important to understand juices are not a replacer for smoothies. You can drink juices alone as a juice cleanse but most of the times you can drink fresh juices additional to your normal diet. Both have great health advantages. Smoothies and juices are pure nutrients in a jar. They give you an energy boost and taste amazing. To make fresh homemade juice you need a juice machine. Juice is the water and most of the nutrients that have been separated from the fibrous pulp. The body requires little effort to absorb nutrients in juice when fiber is removed. I try to drink my fresh pressed juice additional to my regularly diet to clean my bowels.

Juicing

1.2. The biggest benefit to drink juice

When you drink juice, highly concentrated vitamins rapidly enter the bloodstream absorbing all of the nutrition’s of the fruits and vegetables. Bottled juices from the supermarket are pasteurized. They are heated and processed, which can kill vitamins and minerals. Drink life with fresh pressed juice! You can simply add whatever you want in your juice. If you prefer it sweeter add more sweet fruits. If you prefer it more special add some wild herbs. You can combine many different vegetable, herbs and fruits.

1.3. Juicing techniques

I decided to use a “Slow Juicer”. I want to explain a little bit about exactly what a “slow juicer” is, for those of you who don’t know it. This technique is also called cold juicer. For beginner, you will have to cut your vegetable and fruits into smaller pieces and feed the pieces slowly enough to not overwhelm the machine. This can be a little more time-consuming, but I love it. For me it is a kind of meditation. I don’t want to hurry up while preparing my juice. I clock how time-investing it really is to make my own juices with my machine and I only need 15 minutes to cut my vegetables and fruits, to produce the juice and to clean the machine. To be honest, that isn’t much time.

1.4. My choice – Hurom Juicer

After my research I was sure I will use a Slow Squeeze Technology which functionality is similar to how you would hand-squeeze an orange instead of shredding fruits and vegetables. This technique minimizing damaging ingredients and keeping natural taste and nutrition intact. The Hurom Juicer isn’t the cheapest juicer in the market but for my it is important to have fun and a high quality machine to make sure I will not damage nutrition. The Hurom Juicer rotates at just 45RPM, ensuring an even gentler process of squeezing the juice from your fruit and vegetables. What results is the purest of juices that preserves even more vitamins and the best possible taste. The model I use is really easy to clean. I didn’t expect it’s so simple.

I have this model: Hurom Juicer

2. Detox Recipes

Red cabbage pear juice

¼ small red cabbage
2 pears
1 piece fennel

Cut all vegetables and fruits in pieces and place them in your juicer.
Enjoy!

Apple fennel juice

2 sweet apples
½ fennel

Cut all vegetables and fruits in pieces and place them in your juicer.
Enjoy!

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Cooperation Partner

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Creamy coconut lentil curry with veggie meatballs

Veggie meatballs? My hubby asked me about the association between meat and vegan / vegetarian Food. He think it’s stupid to bring vegetarian or vegan food in connection with animals. I need to think about my opinion. Vegan or vegetarian food often get names like “Veggie Tuna”, “Veggie Chicken” or something like that. For me vegetarian food has nothing to do with meat. Sure, it sometimes tasty similar but never complete equal. The reason we vegetarians or vegans call our meals sometimes like this is to show people the big range of possibilities in the vegetarian and vegan kitchen. Sometimes the meals looks like a “meat meal” but it isn’t one. I really thought about the name of this new recipe and decided to use veggie meatballs because I’m sure lots of people who haven’t ate a lot of vegetarian or vegan food in the past will take notice of this recipe when they read “meat”. The people were raised by eating meat and some people have problems to change their diet. Names like this helps people to find a way to test new ways of cooking.

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Thank you by the way

Lots of people leave a comment on my last Blog Post about „How to grow your Instagram Following„. I hope people who didn’t use Instagram aren’t upset I talked about this topic as well. For me Instagram is a big part of my life and I want to share my experiences with all these lovely people who supports me at any time. I had the feeling to give something back. So this food blog is more than food and sharing recipes. This blog is a place where I share my experiences about my food journey and Instagram is a big part of this.

I definitely will write down a second blog post about the details of my (food) Instagram growing. Lots of you asked my about the details as well. These details are more about the food Instagram in a special niche. But I’m sure the most of my follower are food lover as well. Not a surprise right. Haha.

About the recipe and veggie meatballs

Back to the recipe. This creamy coconut centil curry with veggie meatballs was a spontaneous creation from me because I need to use my leftover I have at home when I was hungry. I always stock some lentils in my kitchen as well as coconut milk or cream. So it was easy to prepare a coconut lentil curry with some spices. It is such a fast and healthy meal. As you maybe know I’m still experimenting with tofu in my kitchen. By the way you find the best tofu scramble on my friends blog. In this way I also have some different kinds of tofu in my fridge. Herbs in the garden are a standard base as well. I got the preparation tip for these aromatic veggie meatballs from a good friend and decided to try them out as well. Really good stuff ;o).

This meal is full vegan and really healthy because of the high quality fatty acids from the coconut milk. Lentils are such a big source of protein. They are quick and easy to prepare when compared to other dried beans and you can stock them always in the kitchen for a long time to have them on hand when you need them.

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RECIPE
CREAMY COCONUT LENTIL CURRY WITH VEGGIE MEATBALLS

Serve 4

For the veggie meatballs

400g Tofu (natural one)
200g breadcrumbs (I use whole grain)
1 red onion
1 bunch of fresh parsley
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp paprika powder
1 tsp Italian herbs (dried)
2 tsp salt
Black Pepper
Coconut Oil

Preparation
veggie meatballs

  1. Pick up the parsley leaves
  2. Roughly cut the onion and the tofu
  3. Mix all ingredients in a blender or with a immersion blender
  4. Form 12-15 small balls
  5. Heat coconut oil in a pan
  6. Fry the balls over medium heat for 2-3 min each side
  7. Set aside

For the creamy lentil curry

800g canned tomatoes (I use cocktail tomatoes)
400ml coconut milk
120g red lentils
100g cherry tomatoes
2 tsp grated ginger
2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 bunch chopped cilantro
2 garlic gloves
2 tsp salt
Black Pepper

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Preparation

  1. Press garlic and fry in coconut oil over high heat
  2. Rinse lentils
  3. Add canned tomatoes, grated ginger, turmeric and cayenne pepper
  4. Bring it to boil and cook for 5 min.
  5. Add red lentils and 700ml of water
  6. Reduce heat and let simmer for 35 min.
  7. Chop the cilantro (save a few leaved for decoration)
  8. Once the lentils are soft, add the cherry tomatoes and coconut milk
  9. Simmer for 2 min.
  10. Add chopped cilantro (save a few leaved for decoration)
  11. Taste with salt and pepper
  12. Serve with veggie meat ball
  13. Enjoy

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