What I Ate Last Wednesday

This week I am back to my usual What I Ate Wednesday posts. The last two weeks were specials from my trips to Berlin and London. 

I'm linking up with Jenn over at Peas and Crayons for the What I Ate Wednesday Party, come check it out!

This week, the photos I took were from my sight seeing day with my good friend, Jackie. She came over to my side of Amsterdam and we took a very long bike ride, which I will tell you more about tomorrow, but the food of course was delicious as always. See it now...

As always, starting off with my favorite bullet proof-esque coffee. 

Here is my favorite recipe:

1 lungo nespresso capsule

1 espresso nespresso capsule

1 tablespoon of coconut oil

1 tablespoon grass fed unsalted butter

1.5 tablespoons local honey

75 ml steamed milk (this recipe is now steamed, local raw milk)

Mix together with a spoon or an immersion blender if you are super picky...it usually blends really well for me, so I don't typically have to use the immersion.

This is so high in calories and good fat from the oil, butter, and milk that it serves as my breakfast along side a banana with peanut butter, which will not be having it's modeling debut today ;) But, it is good and gives me the energy I need to get a workout completed most mornings!

But, this particular morning I did not workout as my friend met me at my house at 10, we had some lavender mint water I'd made. Super simple and delicious:

1-2 sprigs of dried lavender, with the buds, a sprig of mint, let sit in 1 liter of water over night and then drink up!

Now, when we left for our bike ride, we were out for a basic stroll, but I knew we were going to wind up at the local Melktap as she grew up on a dairy farm that her family still owns, so I wanted her to see this. There are several around the Netherlands, this one is just 3 quick miles from my house. It is raw milk that you vend yourself...come back tomorrow for more info on it. The milk is amazing and we each had a cup before we left!

Yum, yum...fresh from the cow milk!

After this we made our way back over in to the city, but we weren't done with nature yet so decided on lunch in Amstel Park. This park is wonderful because you are completely surrounded by nature, but can be back in the city within a 10 minute bike ride. There are two full service restaurants in the park. The one we went to, De Hop 2.0, is the more laid back of the two and has much better food.

Exhibit 1: Pancake. It is filled with cheese and ham and is as big as that plate. It was amazing. I could only eat about a quarter of it though....and they were worried I really didn't like it...I'm all over here do you people see how big this thing is?! 

Exhibit 2: Wine, pretty large pour as well, gotta love Europe!

After eating I headed home to meet my teenager. We weren't very hungry so we went for a walk and stopped by the grocery store, by the time we got home we were starving! She wanted to cook so I threw the menu out the window and let her have at it..how cute is she?!

Cooking up a storm in the  kitchen!

She wound up making a delicious, healthy, protein packed dinner of red lentils, she topped it with chicken, scrambled egg, tomatoes, and sweet chili sauce.

This week wasn't filled with tons of food, but what I did eat was extremely filling. Tune in tomorrow for more on the bike ride we did!

C is for Creating a Coffee Center!

Coffee...it is practically essential to life! Who agrees?!

I did used to be a barista, sometimes I break out my skillz ;)

After moving to Europe I have an even greater appreciation for coffee. Coffee here is very good, so since I was lucky enough to have a Nespresso Coffee Machine in my house I decided to create a whole coffee center. This has worked out really well when guests come because they don't have to guess where everything is!

As you can see I have the coffee machine (if you don't have one of these seriously look into it, they are the best, and Nespresso makes the tastiest coffee!)

Next to it I have my milk frother and warmer. I don't use the frother that came with the machine because, honestly, it is a pain and this one is more self-explanatory for the guests.

The three-tiered shelf is a gem I found at HEMA just after we moved here...on clearance from Eater for €5! Score! Since there is a bolt on the bottom I put one of my awesome placemats from Ikea under it.

I stocked the shelves with mugs on the bottom.

The middle has coffee capsules-I try to put out a small selection of everything we have-and two types of sugar: regular sugar and coconut palm sugar. 

The top shelf holds a no calorie sweetner, chocolate and cinnamon shakers, and little stirring spoons.

Next to the shelf I do keep straws since the kiddo drinks iced coffee, but we just ran out!

This is a really great way to display your coffee center and when coupled with the Breakfast Center I posted yesterday shows great hospitality to your guests so they can feel more independent and at home in your home!

Fall Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate Recipe

So, we love all things fall flavored. Shockingly the Europeans don't seem to have the same obsession with pumpkin everything that American's do! ha! But, have no fear, for we decided to start concocting our own amazing fall treats!

So, my first recipe that we have been enjoying since a warm front came in and we've been enjoying some 70 degree days is a cold brew coffee concentrate.

The idea came to me when I found this recipe on Pinterest (follow me!).

Of course I didn't have all the ingredients on hand, well, because I have no idea what Clove is in Dutch and the guy at the spice stand had no idea what I was saying and told me everything was in alphabetical order. I looked among all the C's as often times due to Greek and Latin roots the words are close, but saw nothing that looked or smelled like cloves...anywhere in the spice stand...so I had to concoct something else, this is what I came up with.

Fall Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate

5 Cups of filtered water (I honestly just use tap water lol)
1 cup of course ground coffee
2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 Teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 Teaspoon ground cardamom

Combine coffee grounds and spices in a large container with a lid and mix up a bit. Add 5 cups of water, give a little stir to make sure all grounds are nice and wet by the water, put the lid on and set in the fridge to steep over night or up to 24 hours. This is what it will look like:

What, this doesn't look appetizing to you?! Well, sometimes things need to get a little ugly before they get better...I promise the results are AMAZING!

The next day line a large bowl or pitcher with a cheese cloth and strain the coffee from the grounds. If you strained it into a bowl make sure you put it into a pitcher with a lid:

Don't judge...our kitchen isn't yet equipped with everything so I use the top of a coke bottle for a funnel #nowaste 

See, my funnel is awesome and it successfully got my cold brew from bowl to pitcher...

***that is a recycled juice bottle by the way. Being an expat and trying not to buy extras has made me quite creative!

Once you are done straining your concentrate store in the fridge and it is good for at least a week. This hasn't lasted longer than a week in our house so I can't vouch for it being good for much past that, but you could give it a go!

How we make ours

This is how we assemble our delicious cold brew. One should note, cold brew concentrate is very strong and high in caffeine, so a little goes a long way.

1/2 cup concentrate

1 cup unsweetened almond milk or regular milk

2 Tablespoons cinnamon brown sugar syrup

3-4 ice cubes (ours are quite large lol), or to taste

whipped cream

Put ice in your cup, add syrup, concentrate, and milk. Stir, top with whipped cream. Enjoy!

Are you a fan of "fall spiced" items? What is your favorite? Mine seriously is this coffee!

Culture Shock: Serving Sizes

When we moved to Europe one thing I was anticipating was a huge change in serving sizes. Surprisingly, they really aren't that much different honestly. When we go to a restaurant I feel like we get the same amount of pasta we would anywhere, chicken breasts are chicken breasts, and sandwiches are sandwiches.

However, I did  notice a huge difference in the serving size of coffee.

Y'all know I love my coffee. My days just are not the same when I can't fix a nice coffee and just have a few minutes to wake up. Well, I also love to stop at a cafe for coffee when we are out sightseeing and love to have my after dinner coffee.

So, lets start in North America. When I lived in the US and in Canada these were what we'd typically get:

A good old 8 oz-20 oz drip coffee. Brewed god only knows when, and sits on a burner for god only knows how long. Usually served with a nice burnt aftertaste. Now, the only place I can find such things are at the local Starbucks....which I don't frequent too often...

When I get to a cafe here this is what I wind up with:

This was a HUGE shock to me when we first got here, I am still figuring out how to order to get exactly what I want, but I am getting used to the surprise of what they will bring me when I order, "coffee with milk please". haha

So far everywhere I have gotten coffee here, I typically get something different. Some places I just get an espresso, some places I will get a couple shots of espresso, some places give me a few shots of espresso topped with water, and some places press beans. 

A few weeks ago when out with another expat who had just gotten here I said I was going to order a macchiato....she asked me, "Will that get me a regular size coffee?" haha I said, I think so...I will ask to be sure though because sometimes a macchiato is different here....

Good news: it was a regular size macchiato.

I have run into very few places that do regular American drip coffee. I actually prefer it this way, the coffee tastes way better and you don't get that awful burnt after taste that you get in many places in the US and the coffee is usually fairly fresh and very hot!

Here are some latte's I've managed to get while here:

When you order a coffee at a cafe or restaurant here you usually get a biscuit/cookie or a nice piece of chocolate ;) That was the best surprise!

These are a decent size and usually are what I get when we are out for a snack during a day of sight seeing.

Even my coffee's at home are small:

In our temporary home when we first got here we were left with a pod coffee machine and in our new, permanent apartment our fabulous landlords left us with a Nespresso Machine. I looked around for a drip coffee maker and they don't seem to have a wide variety in the stores. They seem few and far between...seems the more common thing here are the pods.

I know this seems like a small thing, but when everything is changing there are somethings you think are consistent...but nope, moving to a different country everything changes...including your coffee! 

Have you been somewhere and been surprised by the serving size?