The Green Kitchen is a wonderful new addition to Deliciously Ella’s website. These posts are there to inspire others to live “Green”. Check out her other posts too, for amazing healthy vegan dishes.
Inspiration: Green Kitchen Stories
October 29th, 2014
I’m really excited to introduce a new section of the blog to you! My new inspiration section is dedicated to all the people that inspire me and that I hope will inspire you. There are so many incredible people working in the wellness world and I want to introduce them all to you so that you can get tips and tricks for living a healthy life from them too. So today I’m kicking of this section with an interview fom Green Kitchen Stories, who share all their thoughts on cooking, exercising, natural beauty, blogging and more. GK stories was a huge inspiration to me when I first started blogging and continues to inspire me all the time. Everything they create is so beautiful, inventive and delicious, plus they are the most beautiful family and take mouth-watering photos (as you’ll notice as you scroll down this post)! When I first started Deliciously Ella I aspired to one day be in the same league as them so I’m truly honoured that they wanted to be interviewed for this! I hope that you all find them as inspiring as I do and that everything they share below gives you some new ideas and inspiration for living a happy, healthy life. I’ll be sharing one of their beautiful recipes on the blog this weekend too, which I’m really excited about – it’s holiday themed and super delicious!
Name: Luise Vindahl & David Frenkiel
Where do you live?
Stockholm, Sweden. But I (Luise) am Danish.
What sparked your interest in health and wellness?
I have a bachelor degree in social studies and worked for many years with people at group homes in Denmark and experienced everyday how focused the doctors were on trying to cure the patients with drugs. No one seemed to care what food we served the patients. Since then, I have always been interested in eating well to stay healthy and keeping my body and mind strong. I think we should focus more on preventing sickness and poor health instead of just curing it. I have just finished a 2 year course qualifying as a Holistic Nutritionist, so now feel I can finally also help others.
How did you build your passion for healthy living into a career?
It was never meant to be a career for us. We were actually determined not to make it into a career as we were afraid that it would take the passion away. But as the blog grew, our apps started selling and we were approached to start writing cookbooks, we just couldn’t say no to such an opportunity. But we have promised each other that we are only going to continue as long as we find it fun. And we still do!
Who inspires you?
We started the blog when I was pregnant with our daughter, Elsa. So she has always been in our minds with everything we have done. Teaching her about vegetables, health and balance is also a constant reminder to ourselves why we are doing this.
Favourite quote?
I don’t think I have a favourite quote. But Elsa says the most hilarious things every day. I need to start writing them up so I can answer questions like this better!
What is your biggest achievement so far?
Giving birth to our son. It was a natural water birth in our home without any anaesthesia. I was so happy and proud of myself.
What’s your typical…
Breakfast:
I’m mad about breakfast. I actually often lie in bed and look forward to breakfast the following morning. We are a porridge family and love it in all forms. Overnight oats (we have a few different versions in our new book), cooked oatmeal, whole buckwheat porridge or rye porridge. But healthy banana pancakes and smoothies are also a favourite of ours.
Lunch:
Little-bit-of-everything leftover salad bowls. It’s usually lentils or quinoa (we cook large batches so we always have some ready in our fridge), greens, fruit, some roasted veggies and eggs.
Snack:
Smoothies, chia pudding, boiled eggs, a sourdough rye sandwich or vegetables sticks and fruit with some nut butter.
Dinner:
Stews, soups and green pancakes! I don’t think we have a typical dinner, but whatever it is, it’s always focused around vegetables and whole foods.
What’s your favourite dessert?
Anything with chocolate and fruit. At the moment, I am preparing a Swedish dessert called Gino. It is chopped fruit with grated chocolate quickly baked in the oven for 5 minutes. I always choose really dark chocolate and add hazelnuts as well.
What’s the best recipe you’ve ever made?
This always changes as we get tired of old recipes and fall in love with the new.
But we are always extra proud of recipes that feel new and inventive to us. Some examples are our Stuffed Pumpkin, Turmeric Lassi, Baked Carrot Cake Oatmeal, Beet Bourguignon or Turmeric Muffins. We had never seen those kind of recipes before and they were often sparked from a loose idea that we then worked intensely on perfecting like the Turmeric Breakfast Muffins. David had the idea of matching blueberries with turmeric in a recipe, he had to test and tweak the muffins many many times before we posted it and it has also turned out to be very popular.
Where do you get the inspiration from to create so many awesome recipes?
We don’t have one specific way of finding inspiration. We often get inspired by fresh produce at farmers markets, reading magazines, other blogs or going to restaurants. When we travel, we always try to get invited into local kitchens to learn their tricks and get inspiration on how to make our own version of their recipes. And sometimes (quite often actually) it can be very inspiring just improvising with what we have left in the fridge. You know, late night a-little-bit-of-this and a-little-bit-of-that kind of recipes. If we feel pressured to come up with a new recipe, we often fall back to creating a vegetarian recipe from a classic meat dish. Or trying to give a classic nordic dessert recipes a healthier twist, like our Swedish Chocolate Biscuits.
What are the ingredients you can’t live without?
We eat tons of berries, nuts, seeds and green vegetables.
Where are your favourite places to eat?
There is a quote from an Astrid Lindgren book that we recently read for our daughter that goes: ”Out of all the places that you can sit and eat on, I prefer those that are up in a tree”. I think that is a good answer.
There are also lots of places in Stockholm that we like. We have listed all our Stockholm favourites in this blog post.
What do you do to stay active?
Both David and I have been doing sports since we were kids, so having an active lifestyle is a part of our lives that we prioritise. We do everything from yoga to tennis and gym classes a couple of times a week. Since Isac was born, I have been been more focused on functional training at home. Whatever I can fit in between his naps.
What is your beauty routine?
I have very sensitive skin so I use cacao butter or almond oil for my skin instead of lotions and face creams. Too many products are filled with chemicals and allergens.
Do you have any favourite natural skin care products or awesome beauty recipes?
My mom has recently started making amazing all natural body scrubs. She calls her brand House Scrubs and she sells them at local markets in Denmark. My favourite is brown sugar, ground vanilla, almond oil and argan oil. They are so pure that you actually can eat them.
Where’s your favourite place in the world?
I think Rome, Italy. It’s were David and I met each other and it will probably be where we move when we are old.
What makes you happy?
Hugging (each other and our children). Travelling. Eating good wholesome food. Skyping with my family and friends in Denmark.
Describe your perfect day
We are always so busy, so a perfect day would be a day without any plans, together with our kids. Preferably a sunny day so we can eat lunch outside at one of our favourite cafes and then just spend time doing nothing.
Do you have any favourite tips and tricks to stay healthy and happy everyday?
Try to live a healthy life by eating real food, drink lots of water, breathe and exercise. Don’t forbid unhealthy food, enjoy it from time to time, just aim for balance. Listen to your heart. Eat to feel good, not bad.
