Rome: A Trip for the Tastebuds

December 16, 2018 Danijela Unkovich

A glorious few days eating around Rome…

Mini Eggplant Pizzas

December 2, 2018 Danijela Unkovich

Make the most of the eggplant season with these tasty morsels!

Cream of Pumpkin Soup (Vegan, Dairy-Free)

November 17, 2018 Danijela Unkovich

A recipe for a five-ingredient, vegan and dairy-free cream of pumpkin soup…

Tips for Getting A Good Night's Rest this Summer

November 3, 2018 Danijela Unkovich

I’ve paired up with Sealy NZ to chat about some simple tips and considerations for getting a good night’s rest…

Ideas for Making Vegetables More Exciting

October 13, 2018 Danijela Unkovich

Within the wonderful, yet often wildly contradicting, world of nutrition, one piece of dietary advice that has stood the test of time is the importance of eating our vegetables...

Hi, I'm Danijela! I'm a nutritionist from New Zealand. Welcome to my blog, a space I share healthy easy recipe ideas and wellness inspiration.

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Green veg and butterbean pesto pasta for dinner🍃 Super easy to whip up this one, and a yummy vegetarian dinner option! Simply pop a pot of water on to boil, then add your choice of pasta and cook to packet directions. In the last few minutes of cooking time, add a handful of frozen peas. Meanwhile, sauté a sliced brown onion in olive oil until soft, and then add a sliced courgette and repeat. Once each has cooked mix the sauté onion and courgette with the drained cooked peas and pasta, then toss with a drained tin of butterbeans, a handful of rocket or spinach, a few turns if the salt and pepper shaker, a squeeze of lemon, a handful of Parmesan cheese and four or so heaps tbsp pesto (or to taste)! I used store bought pesto for this - aim to buy one that has a high percentage of olive oil, otherwise basil is in season so totally make your own (I have a simple basil pesto recipe on my blog)👍 While on the topic of all things pasta, I’ve just shared my Rome blog post online, covering all the delicious things we ate and amazing places to see!🍝 So nice reminiscing on this one - totally recommend Rome for a visit. Link in bio if you’d like a read🇮🇹#pasta #pestopasta #dinneridea #healthymealidea #greenvegetables #eatyourvegetables #italy #rometravel

Fried halloumi bowl with a red cabbage-carrot coleslaw, sliced avocado, an egg and a quinoa-pea mix. To jazz up your quinoa try boiling it in veggie or chicken stock instead of water! Totally amps up the flavour👌 As for the jelly egg, because I know you egg-loving folk will be curious - simply boil an egg for 7 minutes then plunge it into ice water for a few minutes. It’s a smidge more admin, but the white will be cooked, while the yolk still runny. Yaaaaas🥚💃 Happy Friday friends! #healthymealidea #saladbowl #avocadolove #salads #nutrition

Mini eggplant pizza🍆🍕’Tis the season of eggplant and what better what to celebrate then these tasty morsels💃 They are super easy to make - simply slice an eggplant into 1 cm thick pieces, sprinkle lightly with salt and then bake for 15 minutes into a 200 degree oven. While they’re baking mix together a small pottle of tomato paste (140g), 1 minced garlic clove and a 1 tsp of oregano. Once the 15 mins is up, remove the eggplant and spread each with the pizza sauce, then top with grated cheese and a few cherry tomato halves. Bake in the oven for another ten or until delicious little cheesy bubbles start to appear🤤🤤 Remove and add overtop torn basil leaves and enjoy! Yum. For a vegan-friendly option use a vegan cheese or forgo cheese. Full recipe on my blog now - head over for a read💃 Still riding the trip to Rome wave here, but really #ilovepizza #eggplant #eggplantpizza #dinneridea #lunchidea #healthymealidea #nutrition #pizza #ilovepizza #eatyourveggies #eatseasonal

Happy Friday guys!👋 Now that I’ve arrived back in NZ I’ll be back joining the Auckland adidas Runners community as of next Tuesday🏃‍♀️ I'll be there to answer any nutrition-related questions you may have before and after we run, so please don't be shy - come and chat! As usual, we run rain or shine at 6pm at the adidas Performance store on 12 Custom Streets East, Britomart. These runs are open and free for all - no matter your fitness or goals, everyone is welcome, so if you’re in the area come run with me!😊 Next Tuesday is social night so we’ll be running and then enjoying something tasty afterwards to eat. If you can't head along but are keen to learn more, head over on the adidas Runners NZ FB page for regular nutrtition tips on ways to maximise and use nutrition to your advanatage around runs. Hope to see you there💃 #ambassador #adidasnz #adidasRunners #addiasRunnersAuckland

Today’s lunch is roasted beetroot and kumara (aka sweet potato), a few handfuls of salad, a boiled egg, a squeeze of lemon, a sprinkle of pumpkin seeds and a good glug of olive oil. While prepping this I cooked a extra few batches of the kumara and beetroot for lunches the next few days - I find a great way to eat healthily at work is by utilising leftovers! While we may have all the best intentions in the world to eat healthy, ensuring we’re organised does require an element of preparation - and if we’re not prepared that’s often when the convenience factor kicks in, whether manifesting in a quick dart to the bakery or gorging on the catered mini muffins at our stuff meeting because we forgot to pack lunch. If you're spending time in the kitchen, prep a little extra to take to work the next day (or the next, and the next - cook once, eat four times!)👍 Otherwise, packing some 'workplace essentials', to keep in a desk draw, like a small bottle of oil or salad dressing, tinned fish/beans, nuts, crackers or rice cakes, can help with throwing together a quick speedy meal/snack when you're stuck for time and unprepared. It's a great way to save money too - eating out, while fun, can get pretty spendy when we do it most days!💁‍♀️ #lunchideas #lunch #healthymealideas #nutritiontips #dinneridea #saladidea #eatarainbow

Home sweet home💛 After 24 hours of flying this totally hit the spot (along with a shower😅). Dinner tonight is a salad of sorts with smoked salmon, asparagus, tomato and cucumber, sliced avocado, dill-tossed potatoes, a dollop of homemade tzatziki (I just whisked grated cucumber, lemon juice, dill, salt and Greek yogurt together!) all on a few handfuls of greens! It’s really nice to be home - I’ve spent the afternoon unpacking and getting life back in order again, before heading back to work tomorrow☺️ Moving forward I’ll be working again clinically in nutrition practise at @feelfreshnutrition every Tuesday - if you’d like to book in an appointment with me to chat nutrition, please PM me for more details and I’ll send you an email, or head along to the @feelfreshnutrition website🙂 We’re excited that our wee clinic is expanding, and will now be operating in Auckland out of three locations across New Market, Greenlane and Browns Bay, throughout the week, so hopefully we might be in an area near you!😊🍏🍇🍒🥕 #dinnerideas #salad #dinner #healthymealidea #nutrition #feelfreshnutrition

Time to head home😊✈️ It has been the most brilliant three months in Europe studying and I feel very grateful for the experience - leaving with new friends, better knife skills and memories to last a lifetime. Can’t wait to see my family, friends and my dog🐶💛 London you’ve been great👍 What an incredible city! #hometime #travel #london

These last two days in Italy I have eaten some of the best food of my life🇮🇹 So tasty, so comforting, so simple but flavourful! I took recommendations *rather* seriously before coming over as time is of the essence, and nothing has disappointed, just pure tastebud heaven!😌😇 Swipe right for my Rome food diary - starting with amazingly flavoured tiramisu pots from Tiramisu Zum (the hazelnut and amaretto is insanely good), the BEST pizza in Rome from legendary @boncipizzariumlucca , superb quality gelato from Fatamorgana with REAL PIECES OF BASIL in it, an artichoke carbonara from Catina E Cucina which was so good I could have cried, espresso with melted chocolate round the cup from @sciasciacaffe1919 in Vatican City (nothing short of extraordinary), a deliciously healthy wrap with olive and prosciutto from @fabioorganic made with fresh, organic and local ingredients, pistachio cannoli for snacks because ITALY, and, of course, bottomless plates of pasta on repeat. I am possibly more pasta than human right now, and couldn’t be happier👍🇮🇹 #romefooddiaries #rome #italy #italianfood #romefood #italytravel

🍝I’ve been in Rome for a little less than 24 hours and have already made and eaten three types of pasta😂💃 I decided to do a local-run pasta making class this morning and it did not disappoint! This is one of my favourite things about travelling - there is so much to be learnt about a countries heritage, tradition, culture and local environment through their food. Our teacher told us that Italians are guided by their senses when cooking - they taste, touch, smell, look and listen to their food. If we can learn to recognise the signals our food gives us, a dish will never fail! What’s your favourite Italian dish? #pasta #italianfood #pastamaking #rome #wheninrome #raviloi #homecooked

Today I finished my diploma at @lecordonbleulondon 👨‍🍳😊 It has been the greatest few months, and I’ll be forever grateful for the experience! My knife skills are considerably better, my kitchen whites a little grubby, I can finally truss a chicken, buuut most importantly this whole experience has affirmed how valuable and interlinked I believe cooking and nutrition to be, and that this a space I’d like to work more within. As cheesy as it sounds, I’m really excited for the next chapter, and bringing some new skills and ideas to my work as a nutritionist. To those I met on this course...you made this experience outrageously good, and man I’ll miss you all!💛😘 Annnd big love to you all who follow my page and for your lovely replies and messages to my stories and photos these last few month - it has been so great to share the experience with you!💛 Now off to Italy to eat bottomless plates of pasta!🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹 #schoolsout #lecordonbleu

Veggie fry-up🍳 With portobello mushrooms, broccoli, tomatoes, spinach and an egg, jazzed up with pesto and avocado. A veggie spin on the classic full English breakfast this morning. I’m about to pack a bag for Rome tomorrow! Italian food is my FAVOURITE😊. So amped for a weekend of pasta eating (...and making!), in what will basically be my foodie bucket list dream🇮🇹🍝🤩#veggiefryup #eatyourgreens #vegetables #breakfastidea

Cream of pumpkin soup with pesto toast🥣🍁. It’s well and truly soup weather in London (it’s totally dark here by 4:30pm...can’t get used to it?! haha), and so the latest recipe to the blog is this perfect autumn warmer to combat the chilly weather - a super easy 5-ingredient creamy pumpkin soup! While creamy, this recipe is vegan-friendly and dairy-free - can you guess what I used to substitute the cream with? I enjoyed this with a traditional pesto slathered on toast, but if you’re vegan or dairy-free and want to hop on the pesto-toast bandwagon sub for a cheese-free pesto (pesto traditionally has parmesan in it, but you can make it yourself to suit your dietary preference by simply blending olive oil, basil, pine nuts, lemon and S&P - still tastes great! Otherwise many supermarkets offer cheese-free varieties). Recipe over on the blog now for the soup - give it a go guys! #soupweather #souprecipe #pumpkinsoup #mealidea #creamofpumpkinsoup #pesto #veganfriendlyrecipe #dairyfreerecipe

Let’s talk about sleep!😴😴 With its endless health benefits, a good nights rest is being considered more and more a priority than a luxury, with the strong understanding that in order to function at our best we must take time to rest. While there’ll be times in our life when our sleep may be compromised, maximising what time we can will always pay huge dividends the next day - time in bed should never be regretted! I’ve teamed up with my friends at Sealy NZ for our second blog post, talking about simple considerations for getting a good nights sleep this summer, including ways of making our bedroom environment conducive to sleep and some bedtime routine ideas. They headed over a few month back to shoot a photo story for it (I’m not usually this bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in the morning😂💛) in which we hilariously got to feature my dog who surprisingly sat still (swipe right for pics). Head over to my blog for a read, link in my bio now. Do you guys have any tips for getting a good nights rest? #sponsored #sealynewzealand #sealybeds #sleeptips

Super simple four ingredient orange and coconut macaroons🍊 These are so easy to whip up! Just mix in a bowl 1 mashed ripe banana, 1 cup shredded coconut and 1 small orange (2 tsp zest and 1 tsp juice). Spoon tbsp of the mixture into balls and flatten gently on a lined baking tray. Shape into a cookie, and then cook for 10-12 minutes in a 175 degree preheated oven. Watch carefully at the end as they can burn! Remove from oven and sit for 5 minutes. Then choc-dip - melt a few lines of dark chocolate, then dip in bottoms of macaroons or drizzle chocolate over the top, before placing in the freezer for a few minutes to set🤤 The banana adds naturally sweetness, while also acts to bind! I’m nearing my last week of culinary school - I can’t believe how quickly times gone😭👨‍🍳 Until then I’m knee-deep in culinary assignments this week before heading off to Italy the week after to eat my body weight in pasta🇮🇹 Any recommendations on Rome please send through💃 #sweet #sweettreat #macaroon #healthierdessert #dessert #coconut #yum #snack #snacktime

Happy Monday☀️ Muesli bowl this morning with sliced banana, a big handful of berries, a few heaped tbsp muesli, nuts and seeds, plain yoghurt with a sprinkle of cinnamon, and nut butter🤤 Most of the food I eat I don’t post an image to Instagram, nor do I spend time styling it (unless maybe I’m cooking for loved ones💛). This platform is a great creative outlet, and I love sharing nutritious meal ideas, taking time to lay out ingredients to showcase what’s in a dish and *hopefully* make meal ideas look appetising enough to give a go - because so often we eat with our eyes!😊 But in reality, it really doesn’t matter how our food looks when we plate it up - just ask your stomach not long after you finish a meal😂 - nor will it affect nutritional quality💁‍♀️. While Instagram is an amazing place for inspiration, it’s also largely one big highlight reel. A lot of content we see when we scroll through our feed, no matter the niche, has had some time, thought, energy and editing behind it (sometimes even with a team of people!). This can be a beautiful creative thing, buuut if we start to compare our ‘everyday’ to it, it might leave us feeling a little off. I eat this bowl of muesli many days of the week, but the ingredients will be just chucked together into a bowl in the space of a few minutes - and it always tastes the same when I dig my spoon in💛 Just a spiel of thought! I’d be curious if you guys have any thoughts on this area. Have a great start to your week! #monday #breakfast #breakfastideas #breakfastbowl #muesli #muesliboowl #yoghurtbowl #blueberry #nutritiousmeal

Edamame soba noodle salad for lunch🥗 Tossed with sautéed eggplant, courgette, shallots, tofu, soy sauce and a sprinkle of sesame seeds, and served with broccoli and avocado on the side. My latest blog post is up and is all about how to make vegetables more exciting!🍆🥦🥕 As a nutritionist I spend a lot of my days talking about how cool veggies are - but encounter many who don’t share quiteee the same enthusiasm as me😋💛🙏🏻 Sure, if we’re taking a limp ice-burg lettuce salad or boiled three-mixed vegetables...I will totally admit defeat💁‍♀️. But there’s tonnes of ways to make veggies more exciting, and I’ve shared tips that will have hopefully have you reaching back for seconds. Head over for a read, link in my bio. Do you have any tips of your favourite veggie-eating tips to share? #eatyourgreens #vegetablelove #healthymealidea #recipeidea #vegetables #healthblog #avocado #sobanoodles

Our community garden☀️🌻 It becomes so alive at this time of year - listen to that noise!😳🐔🐝🐤 This is our twelfth season growing food, and with the addition of beehives a year ago I don’t think we’ve ever been this overflowing with produce (summer helps a lot too☝️). At the moment we’re harvesting loads of artichoke, beans, strawberries, cabbages, lettuce, courgette, kale and herbs, and we’ve got potatoes, raspberries, gooseberries, grapes, eggplant, chilli, and capsicum to come! I’m forever grateful for the lessons growing has taught me, about where food comes from, how intertwined food is with environment, eating seasonally (so much fresher, cheaper and more accessible!) and just how amazing freshly picked produce tastes. These are the #dingwalltrust gardens, where I manage a community garden and cooking program with little humans - we’re organic and haven’t really had any issues with many pests, only ever minor stuff (and a bit more weeding, but alas organic!)! We also have to fence a lot of our stuff off from the chooks (hence the bright orange stuff), but we let them roam quite a bit and snack - they’re great for the soil, always turning it over with their talons💁‍♀️ #garden #organicgardening #summerproduce #summerharvest #vegetables #summergarden #auckland #gardening

There’s so many things to love about London, with their incredible markets one. If you’e a bit of a foodie one market you have to check out is Borough Market! 🍒🥦🥐🧀 It is a paradise of tasty treats, packed with everything you could need for your weekly shop, from fish and cheesemongers to butchers to genuinely exceptional produce; as well as plenty of ready-to-eat items, including yummy baked goods, street food from all corners of the globe, mountains of delicious fudge and colourful fruit smoothies. When my talented kiwi friend @jonny_goose was passing though London we headed down to the market for our first time to explore, armed with his camera to try and capture the market vibes. We went early in the morning before it got crazy busy…a few hours later you could barely move!🙈 Markets are neat for many reasons - one is that smallholders are often also producers. You can chat to the baker who baked the cake, or fisherman who caught the fish, and learn about where your food comes from and its story! My two tips for an adventure to Borough market 1) come ready to eat! ’Window’ food shopping is encouraged, with plenty of samples on offer from food stalls, before you make your selection 2) bring a market tote to load up on your goods to take home! Other epic London markets (that aren’t restricted to food) include Camden Lock markets, Old Spitalfields Market, Greenwich Market, & Covent Garden. Do you have any other favourite market spots? #londontravel #travellondon #boroughmarket #market #foodmarket #nutrition #london #nutrition #markets #yum #londonist #londonfood

Oh Rome!🇮🇹 On our trip bucket list was ‘climb up somewhere high and check out the view of the city’. This was the scene that met us on the hill overlooking Piazza del Popolo - between the sunset, random man singing in Italian, view of Rome (can you see the Saint Peters Basilica dome?), a sticky hand from eating gelato and sky full of bubbles curtesy of a street busker, this moment made me very happy or ‘molto felice’💁‍♀️I’m heading back to London before home to New Zealand in a few days. Rome you are amazing and I really dig your foodl🍝🍕 I threw a coin in the Trevi Fountain, which according to tradition means I’ll be back👍 #italy #rome #holidays #travel #italytravel #piazzadelpopolo #sunset #italytrip

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