#myfood #health #recipe #healthy #fit #fitblr #losefat #getfit #losefat #loseweight #eatforhealth #guacamole #college #green #EatHealthy #eatclean #cleaneating

#myfood #health #recipe #healthy #fit #fitblr #losefat #getfit #losefat #loseweight #eatforhealth #guacamole #college #green #EatHealthy #eatclean #cleaneating

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Peking Duck Pancakes

When you prepare Peking Duck, apart from cucumbers, spring onions and Hoisin sauce, you also need special pancakes to serve the dish. If you don’t have time, you can buy them in a Chinese food shop. But if you don’t have such a shop nearby, you can make the Peking Duck Pancakes at home. They are pretty easy to prepare, you will only need some time as they are made from a dough and require rolling. The good thing is they can be rolled and fried in pairs (see the instructions below) so the process can be speeded up.

INGREDIENTS (for approx. 24 pieces):

225g flour plus extra for dusting,

5 tbsp boiling water,

6 tbsp cold water,

sesame oil.

METHOD:

1. Put the flour into a big bowl, make a well in the center, pour the boiling water and mix it with the flour.
2. Gradually add the cold water and stir the mixture with a wooden spoon until everything is well combined.
3. Work the dough (with your hands) for approx. 5 minutes, then cover with a damp cloth and leave to rest for 20 min.
4. Dust a surface with a bit of flour and roll the dough into a long “sausage”, cut it into 20-24 pieces and roll each piece into a flattened ball.
5. Pour a bit of sesame oil into a saucer.
6. Dip one flattened side of the ball in the sesame oil, repeat with a second ball and put together the oiled sides of 2 balls.
7. On a lightly floured surface roll the merged 2 balls into a 12cm in diameter pancake.
8. Fry it on a small non-stick frying pan on both sides for a very short time (they shouldn’t even start getting brown spots).
9. Repeat with the rest of the balls.
10. When pancakes are cool enough to handle, separate each one into 2 thin pancakes (you will see on the edge where both are merged and gently pull them apart starting from that point).
11. Keep them covered in the fridge till needed or they can be prepared earlier and frozen.

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Fish Pie with Prawns

I am surprised that this Fish Pie recipe hasn’t turned up earlier on my blog. My whole family loves it and I have been making it for years as it is so delicious. It is a bit of a cheat’s pie since it uses garlic and herbs cream cheese as a base of the sauce so the flavor of the pie is sorted right from the start.

This pie can be prepared a day earlier and just baked when needed. That is why it works really well when you know you will not have time to prepare dinner the next day but you still want to serve something really tasty really quickly. So as soon as you are in your kitchen after being away from home, you can put this dish to the cold oven, put the temperature up and bake it for 40 minutes. In the meantime, you can cook some vegetables to serve it with, lay the table and get everybody gathered at the table for a delicious meal. Really convenient when you are short of time.

INGREDIENTS (for 4 portions):

800g potatoes, peeled and cut into equal sized pieces,

50g butter,

200ml milk (plus 3-5 tbsp optionally, if the potato puree is too dry),

2 tsp cornflour,

150g garlic and herbs cream cheese,

400g white fish, cut into bite size portions,

200g prawns (cooked or raw), shelled and cleaned,

salt and pepper.

METHOD:

1. Cook the potatoes in salted water till they are soft.
2. Preheat a fan oven to 160 Celsius degrees.
3. When the potatoes are cooked, add butter and mash them well, check the seasoning.
4. Pour the milk in a frying pan, add the cream cheese and gently melt it on a medium heat.
5. Add the fish, raw prawns, salt and pepper, stir and cook for 2-3 minutes. If you are using cooked prawns.
6. Transfer the fish to an ovenproof dish and cover everything with the mashed potatoes; decorate, if you wish and put to the hot oven for approx. 30 minutes until the top is nice and golden. If you prepared the pie in advance and kept it in the fridge, put it to the cold oven and then turn the oven on. You will need an extra 10-15 minutes.

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Strawberry milkshake is surely a classic in its group although probably everyone prepares it slightly differently: some add cream, some - ice cream; some use very ripe bananas, some - frozen bananas. For a very long time I prepared it as either a treat/snack or - sometimes - as an accompaniment to breakfast.

This time I wanted it to be a wholesome breakfast and that is why I added chia seeds to my more-or-less usual ingredients. Why was chia supposed to make the difference? You may remember from one of my previous posts that chia seeds are not only nutritious but also an excellent source of dietary fiber. Additionally, these seeds are weight-loss friendly because:

• due to a pretty high (for a plant food) content of proteins - approx. 16%, they reduce appetite and
• since chia can absorb up to 10-12 times its weight in water, it becomes gel-like, expanding in your stomach making you feel fuller so you want to eat less calories.

That way when you have this milkshake in the morning you can be sure that not only you have a delicious and nutritious start to your day but also you will not feel hungry for a few hours. And did I mention it takes only a few minutes to make it?

Chia Seeds and Strawberry Milkshake[vegan]

Ingredients

• 200g fresh or frozen strawberries
• 2 bananas
• 200ml rice milk (or any other type of milk)
• 2 tbsp chia seeds

Takes 3 min, serves 2.

Instructions

1. Process everything in a blender for 40-60 seconds.

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Hungarian Goulash

When a few months ago I visited Budapest, apart from enjoying the beautiful city, I was obviously interested in the local food. We had a chance to try a few dishes and cakes that we liked very much and that I wanted to cook myself. Goulash was one such meal.

I spent some time looking for a traditional Hungarian goulash recipe and as it often happens I found many variations. Some of them asked for ingredients I don’t use (e.g. lard for frying), some asked for lots of liquid to make it more a soup rather than a stew. So at the end I combined my knowledge and came up with the recipe below. It is based on some staple ingredients used in Hungarian goulash (paprika spices, peppers, potatoes, carrots) and staple rules (e.g. not using flour to thicken the sauce but cooking the meat for a long time so it creates gelatin). I served the goulash with bread dumplings and I was very happy with the delicious result. My husband must have even been happier: he had the leftovers for breakfast!

INGREDIENTS (for 4 portions):

2 tbsp oil for frying,

2 medium onions, thinly cut,

1 tsp smoked mild paprika,

500g beef (shin or shoulder), cut into 3cm cubes,

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced,

1.2-1.5l vegetable stock,

1 tsp caraway seeds,

3 tsp hot paprika paste (1 tsp hot paprika powder can be used instead),

1 bay leaf,

salt and pepper,

2 carrots, diced, *

1 parsnip diced, *

2 medium potatoes, diced, *

1 tbsp tomato paste,

1 pepper, cut into 2-3 cm pieces

METHOD:

1. Warm up the oil in a big frying pan; add the onions and fry on a medium heat for 2-3 minutes until the onions start getting brown.
2. Add the mild paprika and stir it with the onions.
3. Increase the heat, add the cubes of beef and fry stirring from time to time until the beef is slightly browned (approx. 5 minutes).
4. Add the garlic, caraway seeds, bay leaf, hot paprika paste or powder, pour in the stock, season and simmer covered on a low heat for 1.5-2 hours till the meat is tender.
5. Stir in the carrots, parsnip and potatoes, cook for approx. 30 minutes more.
6. When the vegetables are soft, add the tomato puree and peppers and bring to boil.
7. Serve with bread dumplings, pasta or mashed potatoes.

* The vegetables should be diced into pieces of approximately the same size.

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Healthy Avocado Brownies [gluten free]

Who doesn’t love brownies? For sure I don’t belong to this group of people because I love them like almost everything else that contains chocolate. I especially adore brownies that my daughters have baked for the last few years. Their brownies are moist, chocolaty and rich. They are unfortunately also full of calories and fat as there is butter and plenty of sugar in them… So whenever I have those brownies, my guilt grows proportionately to the number of pieces I eat.

That’s why when I came across a brownie recipe that uses avocado instead of butter, I quickly had to test it out. To be honest I wasn’t ecstatic about the final outcome: I used chocolate with a very high percentage of cocoa solids and the cake was on the edge of being bitter. As I really liked the concept of healthier brownies, I didn’t want to give up and adjusted the recipe to make it sweeter without adding any more sugar. So I used a different type of chocolate and added lots of nuts as well as cranberries. That strategy worked really well: the result of my second attempt was most delicious.

INGREDIENTS (for 16 pieces):

100g dark chocolate (no more than 65% cocoa),

2 medium, ripe avocados, peeled and roughly mashed,

150g sugar,

2 tsp vanilla extract,

2 eggs,

40g cocoa powder,

45g almond flour or ground almonds,

40g dried cranberries,

100g mixed nuts (cashews, pistachios, Brazil nuts), roughly chopped,

METHOD:

1. Preheat an oven to 175 Celsius degrees (or 150 for fan ovens).
2. Line a small (e.g. 14cm x 24cm) baking tray with a parchment paper.
3. Melt the chocolate in a microwave or over a pan of simmering water.
4. Put to a food processor the avocados, sugar and vanilla extract; process them till smooth.
5. Stir in the melted chocolate then add the eggs and process again till everything is combined.
6. Add the cocoa powder and almond flour, mix well until combined.
7. Stir in the dried cranberries and nuts; transfer to the baking tray and smooth the top.
8. Bake for 30-35 minutes.

Based on a Half Baked Harvest's recipe  

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Filo Pastries with Potato, Spinach and Feta Filling [vegetarian]

Autumn has finally arrived again. The days are shorter, the nights are colder and leaves on trees slowly start turning golden and brown. Luckily the weather is still pretty good so how about taking an advantage of it and enjoying maybe the last picnic of the year?

My suggestion for an autumn picnic dish is a loose variation on Greek Spanakopita recipe: I have made individual pastries (as they are easier to eat when you don’t necessarily have plates with you) and their filling includes potatoes (thanks to them the filling stays together). But what if the weather doesn’t permit to enjoy these pastries on an outing? Then they are still a great idea for a buffet or a healthy snack that can be taken to school or work.

INGREDIENTS (for approx. 20 pastries):

500g potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes,

2 tbsp olive oil,

2 garlic cloves, thinly chopped,

300g washed spinach (if you are using frozen spinach then thaw it at first and squeeze out the excess of water),

3 tbsp milk,

200g feta cheese, crumbled into very small pieces,

5 filo pastry sheets,

salt and pepper,

olive oil for greasing the sheets.

METHOD:

1. Boil the potatoes in salty water till soft.
2. In a big frying pan warm the olive oil; add the spinach and fry until water evaporates, add the garlic and fry for 2-3 minutes more.
3. Drain the potatoes, mash them with milk using the potato masher until smooth and add the feta cheese, mix well.
4. Cut the fried spinach and add it to the potato and feta mixture, stir well and season.
5. Preheat an oven to 220 Celsius degrees (200 fan oven).
6. Take one sheet of filo pastry, brush it with olive oil (if you want to use less olive oil, use your hands instead of a brush) and cut along the longer side. The sheets I used were 35cm x 45cm so from one sheet I had 4 strips approx. 8.5x45cm.
7. In a corner of one strip of filo pastry put 1 tbsp of the filling and flip it over so you have a triangle of the pastry on top. Press the filling to spread it and carry on turning the triangle till you have used the whole strip (see the photos below). Place it on a baking tray covered with baking paper and brush with a bit of olive oil.
8. Repeat with the rest of pastries. The pastries can be prepared a day in advance and kept in a fridge on a baking tray covered with cling film.
9. Put the baking try with the pastries to the hot oven, bake for 8-10 minutes. 

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Egg Pancake with Cottage Cheese and Fruit [gluten free]

Breakfast is the most important meal of a day. Unfortunately many of us either forget about it, or simply think they don’t have enough time in the morning to prepare something healthy, tasty and nutritious. But in truth this is only an excuse because proper breakfast can be prepared in minutes. And the below recipe is just one example of such a breakfast recipe.

The base of the recipe is something between a pancake and an omelette, I call it Egg Pancake as it is made only with an egg and a drop of milk, but it is very thin just like pancakes are. It is topped with cottage cheese (for extra proteins) and berries (for vitamins). Because there is no flour added to this pancake, people with gluten intolerance can eat it, too. Making this dish takes a few minutes only but you end up with a delicious and super healthy breakfast that will give you lots of energy to start your day very well.

INGREDIENTS (for 1 portion):

1 egg,

1 tbsp milk,

a drop of olive oil,

3 tbsp cottage cheese,

0.5 tsp honey,

pinch of cinnamon,

raspberries, blueberries, mint leaves,

extra honey for serving.

METHOD:

1. In a cup beat quickly with a fork the egg and milk.
2. Mix the cottage cheese with the honey and cinnamon.
3. Put a drop of olive oil on an 18cm-diameter non-stick frying pan (you can use a smaller one but it shouldn’t be bigger as the pancake will be very thin and difficult to handle) and smear it all over the frying pan with a paper towel.
4. Heat the frying pan and pour the beaten egg.
5. Fry the pancake till it sets, gently flip it over the other side with a spatula. To prevent the pancake from breaking, pry the edge of the pancake with the spatula at first.
6. Place the pancake on a plate, cover half of it with the cottage cheese, put the fruit and mint leaves on top and cover with the other half of the pancake.
7. Serve with extra honey on top.

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French Style Pancakes with Egg

I don’t know any people that don’t like pancakes. Depending on the filling, you can serve them for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  You can have them with a sweet or savoury filing. You can have them extra thin or thick. The possibilities are probably endless.

I also prepare them in many different ways and I am sure that slowly I will share all of them with you on my blog. But for today – pancake recipe in a French bistro style. We had them for the first time a few years ago when we went to Paris. It was late lunch time and we had already been walking for hours so we needed a few moments to rest and – something small to eat. We found a nice looking bistro that was packed with customers (good sign) but luckily there was still a table for us. Some of us ordered a pancake with an egg but we all tried it and liked it so much that every now and then I make it myself at home.

They are pretty straightforward to make and even easier, if you have the pancakes prepared earlier. Since this is a savoury dish, it works really well (and it is healthier) if pancakes are prepared with whole meal flour but a combination or just plain flour is fine, too. The only tricky part in this recipe is making sure the egg stays in the centre and the edges of the pancake don’t unfold but I am sure that with the below hints it will not be a problem. And there is another great advantage of making the dish this way: putting the pancakes under the hot grill allows serving them to everybody at the same time.

INGREDIENTS (for 4 pancakes with eggs and more to have with other filling):

Pancakes:

250g plain flour (or whole meal flour, or combination of plain and whole meal),

250 ml milk,

250 ml water,

2 eggs,

pinch of salt,

sunflower oil for frying.

Filling:

80g grated cheese (e.g. Cheddar),

100g cooked ham (slices),

4 eggs,

Salt and pepper.

METHOD:

1. Put all the pancakes’ ingredients to a food processor and process till combined. Alternatively – use a hand mixer or a whisker.
2. Smear a big pancake frying pan with oil (you can do it by putting a drop of oil on the pan and smearing it with a folded kitchen paper) and heat it; fry pancakes. From the above proportions you will end up with more than 4 pancake so you can have the rest with any other filling.
3. Heat a grill to hot and prepare a baking tray by greasing it with a bit of oil.
4. In the middle of each of 4 pancakes put a quarter of the cheese, slices of ham and fold each pancake like an envelope leaving an uncovered area in the centre.
5. Heat up a drop of oil on a frying pan and put one pancake in, gently pour an egg to the uncovered part of the pancake (you may lift one edge before you pour the egg); season and fry for a minute pressing the edges of the pancake to make sure they don’t unfold; transfer into a prepared baking tray; repeat with the remaining 3 pancakes.
6. Put the baking tray with the 4 pancakes under the hot grill for 2-3 minutes till the eggs are set but the yolks are still runny. (Grilling time may vary depending on the type of grill so it is safer – at least if you are making them for the first time - to keep an eye on the eggs).
7. Serve with a salad made of different types of lettuce, tomatoes and vinaigrette.

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Asian Soup with Salmon and Kale

I had a glimpse of how it is to be on the TV series Masterchef. I mean the moment when participants open a Mystery Box, they can see ingredients and quickly have to decide what they are going to cook. Some of them play it safe and make something they have done before, others take a risk and play it by the ear or – rather in this context – by their taste.

In my case, my Mystery Box was my fridge and the kitchen cabinets before shopping was done when there are still many - but often odd - ingredients not necessarily meant for a specific meal. Additionally everybody was getting hungry so I didn’t have all the time in the world to think what to cook and then cook it. My first idea was the safe one: stir fry. But then I thought that even though I love stir fries, I should go for something different. So I cooked this healthy soup instead.

I included in it ingredients that are typical for Asia: ginger, chilli, soya and fish sauce. White wine might not be the obvious choice, rice wine would probably be better but I didn’t have it then. Overall the combination of flavours in the stock works really well and addition of salmon, noodles and kale makes it a complete meal a whole family can enjoy on a busy weekday evening when nobody has hours to cook and nobody wants to wait for hours to eat!

INGREDIENTS (for 4 portions):

400g skinless and boneless salmon fillet cut into 2 cm cubes,

1 tsp sesame oil,

1.5l vegetable stock,

5 tbsp white wine,

2 tbsp soya sauce

1 tbsp fish sauce,

chilli flakes,

3 tsp grated ginger,

150g kale thorn into small pieces (without stems),

150g bean sprouts,

100g Chinese/wok noodles.

METHOD:

1. Put the salmon cubes into a bowl, add the sesame oil, stir well and let it marinate until you need it.
2. Heat up the vegetable stock, add the white wine, soya and fish sauces, chilli flakes and ginger.
3. When the spiced stock is boiling, add the Chinese noodles (you may break them into smaller pieces so it will be easier to eat the soup), bring to boil, add the salmon and kale and cook for 2 minutes.
4. Serve the soup with bean sprouts.

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Spinach with Raisins [vegetarian]

Unlike many people, I really don’t have any bad “spinach memories” from my childhood. And it is not because I liked it, it is because I didn’t have it at all for the first several years of my life. When I finally tried it, I wasn’t impressed as it looked and – probably - tasted like boiled grass. Luckily I was wise enough to give it a second chance so when I tried pancakes with well-seasoned, slightly garlicky spinach filling, I felt it was the beginning of a long-term relationship.

This relationship evolved slowly because at first I would just have a variation of the pureed spinach with béchamel sauce and garlic served either with pancakes or even - simply but so yummy – with mashed potatoes and a fried egg. After a while, to my tiny repertoire of spinach recipes I added a spinach soup. And that was it for quite some time. That was it until I spent more time researching spinach attributes.

Probably we all have heard that spinach is a very healthy food but what does it really mean? Due to a wide variety of phytonutrients, spinach provides excellent anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer benefits, especially in case of stomach, skin, breast and prostate cancer. It also has anti-oxidant properties that prevent (or at least lower the risk) of blood-vessel related problems like atherosclerosis and high blood pressure. Spinach is an excellent source of Vitamin K, Calcium and Magnesium that are key for maintaining healthy and strong bones. And no wonder that this green leafy vegetable is on top of the list of nutrient dense food as apart from the 3 listed earlier, it is also a very good source of 16 other nutrients: Vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, C and E, Manganese, Folate, Iron, Copper, Potassium, Fibre, Phosphorus, Zinc, Protein and Choline.

Realizing how healthy spinach really was, I decided to use it much more often. These days I include it in soups, dhals, pastas or salads. I know that addition of a few handfuls of spinach to a dish is so easy and will make it healthier and prettier. But I also know that spinach deserves to be a main ingredient like in the recipe below in which I re-created a wonderful meal I had a few years ago in a restaurant. It can be served either as a warm starter or a side dish perfect with baked/roasted fish.

My spinach story is clearly a love story. If you haven’t started yours yet, please give spinach a chance with the below recipe. It is highly likely you will fall for it just the way I did.

INGREDIENTS (2 portions):

75g raisins,

1 tbsp butter,

1 small onion, finely chopped,

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced,

250g spinach,

100 ml double cream,

1-1.5 tbsp honey,

Salt and pepper.

METHOD:

1. Soak the raisins in hot water.
2. On a medium heat melt the butter in a big pot, add the onion and garlic and fry stirring for 2-3 minutes, till translucent but not burnt.
3. Add the spinach and fry it stirring constantly until almost wilted; add the cream, honey, raisins and the seasoning.

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Cookie Dough Easter Eggs

There would be no Easter without Easter eggs. At this time of the year they appear on menus and tables in many different forms: stuffed eggs, chocolate eggs or just eggs with mayonnaise. And to this selection, I would like to add a recipe for another type – delicious and beautiful Cookie Dough Eggs that easily can be a centerpiece decoration of any Easter table.

You will need very few ingredients to make them, just a bit of time to form and decorate them but in truth - this is just pure fun! When they are done, they have all the parts (though in different colours) that a regular egg has: a shell (chocolate), a white (edible cookie dough), and a yolk (dulce de leche). Although the cookie dough is prepared slightly differently - by whizzing together butter biscuits, walnuts and dulce de leche – you end up with a yummy result and additionally, you don’t have to worry about eating raw flour or eggs.

INGREDIENTS (for 8-10 eggs):

150g plain butter biscuits,

25g ground walnuts,

50g  + 150g dulce de leche,

100g white chocolate,

colourful pearls for decoration.

METHOD:

1. On a small plate covered with cling film put 10 portions of dulce de leche and place the plate in a freezer for at least 1 hour. The portions should equal to approx. half a teaspoon and you will use the 50g of dulce de leche to prepare them. The longer they are kept in the freezer, the easier it will be to shape the eggs later.
2. Put the biscuits and ground walnuts to the food processor, whizz them until they resemble fine crumbs, add the 150g of dulce de leche and process till everything is combined.
3. Divide the dough into 10 equal portions and start shaping the eggs: take approximately half of the portion of the dough for one egg and with your fingers create a small disc. Put one portion of the frozen dulce de leche inside the disc, take the other half of the dough to close up the filling and roll it gently with palms of your hands to make an egg shape. Put on a plate (wider part down) and press gently to make sure the egg stands. Continue with other eggs. If you feel it is easier for you to make bigger eggs, then add more dough to each portion. This way you may end up with 8 eggs.
4. When all the eggs are ready, put them to a fridge for minimum 30 minutes.
5. Melt the white chocolate over a pan of simmering water, pour it to a cup.
6. Take one egg and pierce its bottom part with a sharp fork, making sure the egg stays firmly on the fork. Dip the egg in the white chocolate, let the excess flow down. Before the chocolate sets on the egg, decorate it with pearls and then gently place on a plate. You can take the egg of the fork without damaging the decoration with another fork that you put under the egg and gently lift it off the piercing fork. Continue with the remaining eggs.
7. The decorated eggs should be kept in the fridge.

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