Healthier Carrot Cake (wholemeal flour)

I fell in love with carrot cakes from the first moment I tried one a few years ago. But this was still pretty late in my life – I was over 20. I think that the idea of baking a cake with a vegetable was in Poland at least pretty foreign for many years ;-)  But my obsession started when I tried an  a m a z i n g  carrot cake while I was in Monterey, California. The cake was absolutely incredible: moist, heavy but heavenly!...

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Calories - how many calories should I eat per day and why so few ;-)

When I have asked some people if they knew how many calories per day they needed, I have often heard “I don’t know, about 2000?”. I wasn’t surprised as this figure is used when recommended daily intake of nutrients is calculated and then included on food labels. But is the 2000 kcal correct amount for each of us? We are all different: some of us are woman, some man, some of us are very active, some have a very sedentary lifestyle...

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Healthy Diet - how to eat to live happily (and healthily) ever after

Healthy diet means probably something slightly different to each of us. Some people will say it is about reducing salt or saturated fat intake, others - that about eating more fruits and vegetables. So who is right? Possibly all of these answers are correct because there is not just one way of eating healthy. But to make sure our way is, we shouldn't concentrate on one aspect of our diet only, we should take a holistic approach...

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Baked Autumn Vegetables with Quinoa (vegetarian/vegan)

Everybody in my family loves pumpkins/squashes. In autumn I often cook soups made of roasted pumpkin and when I take it out from the oven, I have to guard the baking tray to ensure I don’t have to quickly come up with another idea for lunch ;-)  This recipe is based on the favourite roasted squash but I also included here some other vegetables and chanterelles. So apart from sweet pumpkin, we have in this dish nutty parsnip...

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Grilled Goat's Cheese and Fig Salad (vegetarian)

This recipe was inspired by a grilled goat’s cheese salad I used to have in one of restaurants every time I went there. Their dish was served with Iceberg lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers and was very, very good.  But I decided to make my own version and combine two of my favourite ingredients: salty goat’s cheese and sweet figs. In this recipe I grill the figs along with the goat’s cheese but I am sure it would be equally good...

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Bad Beginning of a (Nice) Adventure - about Physical Education in Polish schools several years ago (and hopefully not now)

Physical Education was a subject at school that I always hated. Straight A’s from everything else and barely D from PE. I was slim, I was healthy and fit so why? When I think about it now I know it was due to Polish educational system and my teachers. PE wasn’t about being active and having loads of fun, it was about passing tests. I can still remember how at the beginning of elementary school my best friend and I tried to throw a 3kg ball...

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