Best of 2015

Unbelievable. It’s already 2016. Wow. How did that even happen? I am pretty sure I say this every year, but this year has been the fastest year of my life, and I am just so excited to see what 2016 brings. Okay, I’ll stop this, I don’t want to sound like a grandmother. 2015 was great, sometimes busy, sometimes lazy, sometimes stressful, sometimes relaxing, but almost always fun! To wrap this year up here are the ten most viewed recipes of last year with a list of my personal favourite things in 2015. Enjoy!

Best of 2015

Let’s start with me. What did I enjoy in 2015? So many things! First of all I loved that we moved to Hamburg, it’s a wonderful city. There is nothing about this city I wouldn’t adore! Hamburg is beautiful and I get never bored of it. There are numerous great vegan and vegan-friendly restaurants, bars and shops, so cool! If you are coming to Hamburg, you should definitely go to one of my favourite places. Visit Pizza Bande for a good vegan classic Italian pizza, Happenpappen for colourful salad bowls, burgers and lasagne, and Leaf for a very special and delicious vegan dinner.

One thing for sure, I ate a lot this year. I cooked a lot, I went out a lot and luckily discovered a lots of great products too. My favourites are/were the amazing Rawlicious kale chips, iChoc’s Choco Cookie and White Nougat Crisp chocolates, Cucumis, this super cheap Edeka Mayo, of course Hendrick’s gin and DM’s also surprisingly cheap Veggie Tortellini. I guess I should also say that this year I was especially addicted to everything tempeh, matcha, liquid smoke and kale. My favourite recipe of the year from the blog was Carrot and Parsnip Salad with Roasted Garlic Dressing (and Raw Fettuccine Alfredo), and the one we ate the most was probably the Tofu Feta – so good!

My most used and loved kitchen tools were my spiralizer (also this and this), food processor and mandoline (and knives and pots and bowls and…)…..and of course so many great cookbooks. I was especially excited for two books to come out, since I am a huge fan of both of the wonderful ladies. Sarah Britton’s My New Roots and Miyoko Schinner’s The Homemade Vegan Pantry are phenomenal! Highly recommended to everybody.

I won’t name any favourite food blogs, because there are just soooooooo many good ones and I really don’t want to list 1000 blogs here now. So many good blogs and I got always so inspired visiting them. Thanks for that, dear bloggers! ♥︎

Also inspired me: My 6D, my studio lightning kit, and some good old reflectors (quick and easy solution for food photography). And of course, Photoshop. All the time. Grrrrr!! I didn’t link any specific lightning kit here, but if you are looking for a trusty little set I can recommend you some brands and stores, etc., I just don’t know any of the online shops where they sell my set, so I won’t recommend them for you.

My two new favourite series this year were Rick and Morty and Better Call Saul. Both super funny and impossible not to binge-watch. The best movies of 2015 were Inside Out, Ex Machina, and Dope. And no, I didn’t watch Star Wars, haven’t seen any of them. EVER. Hahaha. But I watched Youtube and especially enjoyed A Privileged Vegan‘s and Bite Size Vegan‘s videos.

This year’s new discovery was for me that I love board games! I am a bit afraid to admit this here, but I guess I’m officially lame now. We have played endless hours of Catan, Cards Against Humanity and Quoridor, all very addictive. Aaw, I’m so lame.

I haven’t discovered a lots of new cosmetics I liked this year, but I used a lot the Mango Shower Gel from Original Source, the Naked 3 Palette and the Black Cherry Hurraw! Lip Balm. Nothing new, but they are all lovely.

And last but not least my favourite part. I had about 128732149734873249 favourite animal videos this year, so it’s difficult to choose favourites. But here it comes: my favourite animal videos were every video with golden retrievers, pandas, raccoons, the little knocking baby and the munching kids.

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Top 10 Recipe of 2015

And what did you like in 2015? A very wide range of recipes: sweet, savoury, soups, salads, mains, you love it all. And I love YOU all. I can’t thank you enough for all of your kind words, sweet emails and comments this year! I appreciate everything so much. Please let me know what recipes would you like to see in 2016.

1. Cream of Pumpkin and Apple Soup
Subtly sweet and spicy soup, a must-have for autumn (we ate it almost every week). A simple, creamy and comforting dish for a colder day.

2. No-Bake Sweet Potato Cake
Super fudgy, rich and dense 4-ingredient no-bake cake, such a treat! Perfectly sweet, super chocolaty and extremely satisfying.

3. Grilled Corn Salad Bowl
Grilled corn salad bowl with beluga lentils, quick pickled onions, avocado, chili, arugula, pine nuts and fresh basil. Oh yeah!

4. Kale Waldorf Salad
Apple, celeriac and walnut: a winning winter combination. And also super simple to make, yeah!

5. Mini Cauliflower Pizza
One of my favourite recipes too. These little pizzas are so pretty and make the perfect appetiser and an even better main dish.

6. Sweet Potato and Apple Salad with Miso Dressing
There are just so many tastes and textures in one bite, sweet, earthy, nutty, “cheesy”, spicy…this salad really makes me happy.

7. Zucchini Porridge
Don’t let the name of this food scare you, it is one of the greatest inventions of all time! Adding zucchini to your porridge is a genius way to incorporate more vegetables into your diet, plus cuts the calories in half.

8. Chickpea, Spinach and Sweet Potato Brown Rice Bowl
This rice bowl with veggies and maple-tahini sauce is the perfect comforting autumn dinner. It’s also quick and easy to make this super healthy dish.

9. Flourless Chocolate Cake with Coconut
Ooey-gooey, rich, chocolaty, requires only 5 ingredients and as a bonus flourless, vegan, gluten-free and guilt-free.

10. Avocado and Coconut Salad Dressing
Simple 4-ingredient salad dressing that is incredibly creamy and delicious! You can use it on any of your favourite salads.

Wishing you all a very happy New Year with my first favourite video of 2016! ♥︎