Dailystills: February 2015 overview

Every time when I've finished another month of Dailystills I feel really accomplished. It's quiet the commitment to keep up to date with a daily photo challenge! Today it's time to share February's overview. Check below for the challenges.

Recipe: Cinnamon Berry Mugcake

After the tropical mugcake, I made another mugcake with a different flavor. This time I wanted it to be more fitting for this time of year. It's pretty cold outside and I think cinnamon is a typical flavor for winter and fall. It was another delicious breakfast.

What you need for 1 cake:

• 1 ripe banana
• 1 egg
• 4 tbsp oatmeal
• 1/2 tbsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tbsp flax seeds

What you need for the topping:

• 3 tbsp low-fat quark (curd cheese) or Greek yogurt
• 1/2 tbsp sugar free hazelnut chocolate spread (I had the hazelnut chocolate spread from Diablo)
• 2 tbsp raspberries
• Some walnuts
• Coconut grater

What you do:

1. Peel the banana and cut of a piece of 2" and set aside, you'll be using that for your topping later.
2. In a small bowl, mash the rest of the banana and add an egg and the oatmeal. Mix until you've got a smooth batter. Stir in the flax seeds and cinnamon.
3. Put the mug or bowl into a microwave for 2 minutes on 900 - 1000 W. It should come out dry and the sides of the cake not touching the mug or bowl. Turn your mug or bowl over on a plate and there's your cake!
4. Now it's time for toppings! For this cinnamon berry version, I've used some hazelnut chocolate spread and low-fat quark, raspberries, slices of the piece of banana you set aside, walnuts and coconut grater. But you could top it with anything you like or have in your pantry.

Hotspot: Yoghurt Barn, Amsterdam

For Valentines Day, Wouter and I went to the Yoghurt Barn for breakfast. I already saw lots of yummy things on Instagram, so it was time to finally go there. In the Netherlands it's not usual to go out for breakfast, most people never go out for breakfast really. It's one of the things I love to do in The States, go out for waffles, pancakes or best of all, bacon! So it's really special to us to go out for breakfast, perfectly romantic for Valentines Day!

Here we are! The place is not very big, but because of that it is very cozy, I loved the interior. It has a industrial feeling, but with all the lovely flowers and beautiful lightning, it was perfect for a romantic date!

I choose a Brownie Bango (soy yogurt, mango, brownie and walnuts) and a fresh mint tea on the side. The mister had a Crazy Cookie (yogurt, kiwi, Dutch cookie crumbles, cinnamon and honey) with a coffee on the side. They both were delicious.

I totally recommend to go here for special occasions, it was a pretty expensive breakfast (for the two yogurts, tea and coffee we payed € 16,00), not something we could afford to do on a daily, or a weekly base. But it was delicious, a nice place to sit down and relax a bit before the day starts.

Yoghurt Barn Amsterdam 
1e vd Helststraat 80
1072 NZ Amsterdam
The Netherlands

Travels: What's in my carry-on?

For those who are curious about what I'm taking with me on the airplane. I packed my little backpack for an 8 hour flight to Florida and decided to share what I'll bring. We only have one meal on the plane, which wont be clean. I want to try to eat enough before we take off and sleep the whole flight, so I wont have too much troubles with the time difference. But, if I can't sleep and I get hungry, I'll have enough to snack on and enough to do. We can watch a movie, read magazines and books. And when I'm hit with a sudden burst of inspiration, I can scribble it down in my notebook!

What I'm bringing:
My passport - backpack (Dakine) - Empty water bottle (which I fill up at the gate) - Umbrella (Primark) - iPad in a Michael Kors sleeve - earplugs and a splitter (so we can watch movies together) - 2 magazines (Elle and Women's Health) - iPhone 5S in a Marc Jacobs cover - My notebook (Moleskine) and pens - An E-reader (Kobo Glo) - A little toilet bag (HEMA) - Lip balm (Vaseline) - Face wipes (H&M) - Hair bands (Primark) - Hand sanitizer (D.I.O.) - Moisturizing hand cream (S.O.S.) - A case for my glasses (Dolce & Gabanna) and snacks (Smart Bar, apple, boiled egg, apple sauce).

Recipe: Broccoli smoothie

Wouter got me a new smoothie and juices book a couple of weeks ago and one of their juices was made with broccoli. I just bought one so I tried to make a smoothie with it right away! I used what I could find in my fridge and this is what I came up with:

Ingredients for 2 smoothies:

• some broccoli florets, cooked for 4 minutes (I used about 1/4th of a stem)
• a handful of spinach leaves
• juice from 4 oranges
• 1/2 cup mango chunks
• 1 banana
• 1 kiwi

Optional:

• 1 scoop of Body & Fitshop Premium Superfood Mix

Blend everything to a smooth mixture and add a bit of water when it's to thick.

Monthly Review: February 2015

The shortest month of the year is over. But boy, did I do lots of fun stuff this month! At this moment I'm on vacation in Florida and I'm hoping to catch up on reading and seeing movies on our flights and beach time! Let's get on to the lists, again they're a bit short. But it doesn't matter.

Books I've read:
1. Benjamin Alire Sáenz - Aristotle and Dante Discover the secrets of the universe
2. Victoria Schwab - The Unbound (The Archived, #2)
3. Marissa Meyer - Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles, #2)

Books read in 2015: 5

Movies I've seen:
1. Dark Skies (2014)

Movies seen in 2015: 2

The fun stuff I did:

1. I went to the Blog Society bloggers event.
2. Wouter and I went to Food & Soul festival.
3. I went out for drinks with the Dutchies.
4. I had a dinner date with Ellen and Lydia.
5. We met our future neighbors.
6. We went to Sniffies birthday party
7. I did a box hop in Alkmaar and had lunch at Echt Alkmaar with friends afterwards.
8. Wouter and I celebrated Valentines Day by going out for breakfast at the Yogurt Barn and De Foodhallen for lunch.
9. I went to see my newest cousin Sarah.
10. Mirjam and I sold our old stuff on a flee market and made lots of money.
11. We had our annual wine and dine date with Maikel and Liset.
12. We went to see Noortje, the new dog of my parents in law, cute!
13. At the end of the month we went to Florida for a 17 day vacation.

Travel: Summer Vacation TBR

On vacation I always read a lot. I read on the plane, on the beach, at the pool, in bed etc. I love reading from 'real' books, but since I like to travel light, I always bring my e-reader. I picked a few books that have been waiting on my e-reader for a while. I like to switch genres, so I picked out 2 light summer reads by Jenny Han, 1 distopian young adult novel, 1 middle age fantasy book, an adult thriller and an adult high fantasy book. This is my summer vacation TBR (To Be Read):

Jenny Han - The Summer I Turned Pretty (Summer, #1)
Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer--they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one terrible and wonderful summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.

Jenny Han - To All the Boys I've Loved Before (To All the Boys I've Loved Before, #1)
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed. But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters: her first kiss, the boy from summer camp, even her sister's ex-boyfriend, Josh. As she learns to deal with her past loves face to face, Lara Jean discovers that something good may come out of these letters after all.

Susan Beth Pfeffer - Life As We Knew It (The Last Survivors, #1)
Miranda’s disbelief turns to fear in a split second when a meteor knocks the moon closer to the earth. How should her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis wipe out the coasts, earthquakes rock the continents, and volcanic ash blocks out the sun? As summer turns to Arctic winter, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove.

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child - Relic (Pendergast, #1)
Just days before a massive exhibition opens at the popular New York Museum of Natural History, visitors are being savagely murdered in the museum's dark hallways and secret rooms. Autopsies indicate that the killer cannot be human... But the museum's directors plan to go ahead with a big bash to celebrate the new exhibition, in spite of the murders.Museum researcher Margo Green must find out who-or what-is doing the killing. But can she do it in time to stop the massacre?

Brandon Sanderson - The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1)
In a world where ash falls from the sky, and mist dominates the night, an evil cloaks the land and stifles all life. The future of the empire rests on the shoulders of a troublemaker and his young apprentice. Together, can they fill the world with color once more?

Rick Riordan - Blood of Olympus (Heroes of Olympus, #5)
Though the Greek and Roman crewmembers of the Argo II have made progress in their many quests, they still seem no closer to defeating the earth mother, Gaea. Her giants have risen—all of them—and they're stronger than ever. They must be stopped before the Feast of Spes, when Gaea plans to have two demigods sacrificed in Athens. She needs their blood—the blood of Olympus—in order to wake.