My life as a foodie in Chicago (episode 5): we’re getting married!

Breaking news! Here comes an announcement that is slightly (understatement) different from the regular episodes of my life as a foodie in Chicago. I kept it secret for too long and I’m super excited to tell you about it. Yes, I’m getting married to the love of my life!

But before I tell you more about it, let’s come back to the latest news from my foodie life in Chicago (if you really can’t wait, just jump until the wedding paragraph).

There are many new recipes on the blog lately, that all took place in our new kitchen – you might have done the tour of my new kitchen with me on my Insta story, lately. If not, I’m sharing a photo with you here. Look at the cabinets and most importantly, this beautiful island in the middle, which is just perfect for my baking projects!

This is also where I created all the new recipes you have on the blog since the beginning of March. As you can see, most of them are actually healthy, often gluten or lactose free, without added sugar, and even vegan sometimes. I love experimenting in the kitchen all the time and for some reasons, every year around March-April and when Spring is approaching, the healthy vibes take over in my kitchen. Some of last year’s ones even became very popular, such as my Healthy extra moist chocolate cake (a reader’s favorite on the blog), my Skinny Oatmeal PB chocolate chip cookies, or my Veggie beet pizza with a cauliflower crust.

Now let’s have a look at the new recipes together, in case you missed them. And please don’t ask me which one is my favorite because I could not possibly choose only one of them. I love them all:
Apple Dutch Baby Pancake
Asian Tofu Broccoli Srir-Fry
Red Lentil Patties with a Tahini Sauce
Healthy Double Chocolate Avocado Cookies
Beet-Ginger Granola with Superfoods (vegan, gluten & refined sugar free)
Greek Zoodles with Spiced Roasted Chickpeas
Tahini Sun-Dried Tomato Toast

Alongside my new recipes, I also held a few foodie events. I was a teacher again for a bread class (see episode 4 to learn more about it), and teamed up with Best Of You to co-host an exclusive Morning Yoga + Heathy Vegan Breakfast event. Mo, a certified yoga teacher and co-founder of Best Of You, made it all the way from Sweden to Chicago to hold this special event. Together, we had a mindful morning yoga session followed by a beautiful breakfast (yes, I thank myself here!).

I had lot of fun making my breakfast vegan, healthy, pretty, and in small size portions so that you don’t need to feel guilty when trying them all. If you wonder what I’ve prepared, here’s the menu for you: we started with a fresh orange juice, some fresh exotic fruits (pineapple, mango), and a berry smoothie, then we had some classic avocado toasts made with my beet pesto (that I had made vegan here, i.e. without the parmesan cheese), some tahini sun-dried tomato toasts (new on the blog), and to fix our sweet tooth we had tiny granola cups with a lime cashew cream and other energy balls (some of them topped with the cashew cream and a raspberry). Plus we had some green detox tea from DAVIDs TEA. What a feast! So, who is joining us for the next session? It’s worth all the way to Chicago wherever you are, I promise!

That was all for my latest updates of my life as a foodie, and it’s now time for our big announcement (which involves food too, just wait for it)! In exactly 3 months, on June 24th, I will be marrying the man I love and with who I have been sharing my life for many years now. David is not only my best partner in life, he’s also my better half, the one who is always here to support, help me realize my dreams, and bring some positive vibes (he’s an eternal optimistic in life). He’s indeed even the one who made the Del’s cooking twist adventure possible (the geek in him helped me SO much to launch the blog a few years ago – I will never thank him enough for what has then become my biggest passion in life – if you’re reading it now mon ange, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of this).

Today is March 24th, so exactly 3 months before the wedding date, June 24th. One surprise never comes alone, and I have indeed other news linked to this one to tell you about, but before that, let me come back to our love story, and how it all started!

David and I got engaged in November 2015 and kept it secret until Christmas. By the time, David had just moved to Chicago for work. As I was still working in Sweden, we naturally started a long distance relationship and our little project via the blog SK945 to keep us updated of our daily life in a fun way. After six months, we made a big step forward and I decided to join him to Chicago! Big project!

We had initially chosen our wedding date for June 24th 2017 but we had to speed up the process a little bit so that I could get a visa to the US too. So we decided to make our wedding in two steps (because two weddings is always more fun than one!): the idea was to get married in Stockholm before moving to the US, and then have the big wedding party as originally planned, in France this time.

So back in June 2016, just before I moved to Chicago, we got married the first time in Stockholm in a very intimate picnic with Champagne, surrounded by our closest friends. It was a chilly day but I was wearing a light summer dress and a wreath on my head. David had a blue and white striped suit with a flower in his pocket. The ceremony was in Swedish and everything was magic. I remember these times with nostalgia already, looking forward to marrying David in a few months again!

Just before the civil ceremony in Stockholm, I got the surprise of my bachelorette party!! I had not even thought I would have one so the surprise was intact until I got kidnapped by my girl friends! It was a beautiful warm sunny day and we drove to the countryside in a charming wooden Swedish house, planning all the activities around food – my friends know me well! Honestly, I couldn’t have dreamed better. One of the challenge was for me to guess which recipes from the blog my friends had prepared, having in mind two things: I was presented the ingredients only, and my friends had added their own twist to the recipe, of course! It was so much fun for me, and I was pretty good at the game! Of course, all the dishes were part of the menu we enjoyed together for dinner.

The other challenge was about baking a berry soufflé (suggested by a Chef and friend of mine): this time I knew the ingredients and the proportions, but I had no idea of the recipe instructions. I had to guess them all! Oh, I loved this challenge so much, although I was not that good this time. I failed a step in the beginning, but hopefully realized it before it was too late and managed to bake my soufflé at the second attempt! I was really happy of the result in the end… until I saw a picture of the desired result sent by the Chef. Well, I have to admit my soufflé was not exactly at the same level of perfection, but still tasted really good!

Just before the party ended, my girl friends made me promise that I would recreate the recipe for the blog and share it with you. So this is the new challenge now. Stay tuned until I share it with you on the blog, with the ingredients, the proportions, and the instructions as well!

I am now looking forward to the wedding preparations. I will keep you posted in my coming episodes of “My life as a foodie in Chicago”. I’m really excited about the dress (of course!), the venue, the food of course, and the dessert! Having all our friends and family here to celebrate our love is like a dream to us. I am so looking forward to it! If you have any tips, ideas, or any other suggestions about the wedding preparations, feel free to comment the article or shoot me an email, I would love to hear from it!