Lemon and Orange Raw Bars

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #rawdesserts

I felt like having some almonds the other day. From my previous raw desserts I knew that almonds and coconut go really well together. I also thought why not add my other favourites - lemon and orange -to the mix. A delicious dessert came out!

Serves: 12

Ingredients:
1c almonds
0.75-1c coconut
10 prunes (you can use dates or figs if you prefer)
1 lemon - juice and zest
0.5 orange - juice and zest
0.5t cinnamon
0.5t vanilla powder

1. Process all ingredients together until they start forming a ball.
2. Place the mix on the parchment paper, flatten to form 1-2 inch thick block.
3. Place in the fridge for at least one hour.
4. Enjoy!

Mushroom Miso Soup

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #soup

I had some leftover chopped carrot, celery, and a mushroom. It turned out they are a perfect match with a plan miso soup.

Serves: 4

Ingredients:
1L of veggie or chicken stock
4T miso (I used genmai miso)
50g chopped mushrooms (I used portabella)
10g dried wild mushrooms
50g dried wakame, reconstructed
150g tofu (silken, soft or medium would be best)
1 carrot
1 stalk celery

1. Soak dried mushroom for 10 minutes, then chop into smaller pieces.
2. Julien carrots an celery stalk and cut into 1inch pieces.
3. Chop fresh mushrooms into smaller pieces.
3. Bring stock to boil and add julienned vegetables and mushrooms. Cook on a gas mark 3.5 for about 10 minutes.
4. Take a little bit of hot stock and mix it with miso. Add mixture to the stock.
5. Take tofu out of the packaging, dry it lightly with a paper towel and cut into small cubes (1cm x 1cm).
6. Cut reconstructed wakame into smaller pieces
7. Once soup starts boiling add tofu and wakame pieces. Lower heat to gas mark 2.4 and cook for another 5 minutes.
8. Enjoy!

Healthy Treat: Banana and sesame seeds muffins

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #muffins

Serves:12 regular muffins

Ingredients:
0.75c whole wheat flour
0.5c oat flour
1c rolled oats
1 egg
0.75c honey
2t baking powder
0.5t vanilla powder
0.5t cinnamon
0.25t nutmeg
2 overripe bananas
5T sesame seeds, toasted
0.75c coconut milk (or any milk you like)
0.25c olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 200c .
2. Mix all dry ingredients together first.
3. Add all wet ingredients, egg, and mashed bananas. Mix everything well together.
4. Fill muffin pans 0.75 of the way.
5. Bake for 25 minutes.

Fresh bread

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #bread #masterchefaustralia

I watched Master Chef Australia the other day and Chef Matt Preston was demonstrating a very simple bread recipe. The bread looked fantastic so I had to try it.

This recipe is enough to create one loaf of bread. You can use it to make buns as well, just keep in mind that they need to be baked for 30 min. Do not bake both together as your bread might not come out right if you open the oven before baking time is over.

Ingredients

1.5 t salt

1t dry yeast

500g flour (I used high gluten unbleached white flour; i used bread flour; the other time I used 200g rye flour and 300g white flour and it worked great too. The best result was with hard bread flour but all of them were very comparable)

475ml warm water

Optional - 0.5c Sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds 

1. Mix all ingredients with a spatula.

2. Cover with a clink film and put it in the fridge overnight.

3. In the morning, preheat the oven to 220c.

4. Dust generously a flat baking pan with flour.

5. Mix the dough couple of times and place it on the dusted  baking sheet or pan. 

6. Bake for 40 minutes. 

7. Enjoy!

Middle Eastern Flavours: Chicken Marrakech

I decided to experiment a little with Middle Eastern flavours as they combine some of my favourite ingredients - chickpeas, lamb, cilantro and number of spices such as cumin, turmeric, cinnamon.
Chicken Marrakech is one of the popular dishes and is very easy to make. It has chickpeas in it so it is a major plus for me! I looked at a number of recipes for this dish and created my own version of what I felt would work best.
I just love chickpeas, it is my perfect main dish as well as a perfect snack; I cannot go long without chickpeas on my plate.
My son loved this dish. Judging by the quantity of the food he ate today, it is probably one of his favourites.

Serves: 6


Ingredients
5 chicken thighs (I prefer using thighs in dishes like that as they have more fat, hence add more flavour than chicken breasts)
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled
3 medium carrots, peeled
1c chickpeas, cooked (you can use canned if you want; I always cook it myself as it is very easy to do and is a lot cheaper)
1 medium onion
2 garlic cloves
1t cinnamon
1T turmeric
1T cumin
1t black pepper
1 red chilli, deseeded
500g canned diced tomatoes
2T tomato paste
fresh cilantro, chopped
1T olive oil
1c water

1. Chop sweet potatoes and carrots. Set them aside.
2. Roughly chop onion and garlic; then puree it.
3. Heat oil in the pan and add onion and garlic paste. Cook for 3-5  minutes on a medium heat.
4. In a meantime prepare chicken by cutting it into bite size pieces.
5. Add spices to the pan with onion and garlic paste and cook for another 3 minutes.
6. Add chicken to the pan and cook for 5-7 minutes until chicken is well coated.
7. Add chopped sweet potatoes, carrots, chickpeas, and tomatoes and tomato paste. Add a cup of water. Mix well and let it cook for about 40 minutes.
8. Once it is cooked serve with generous amount of chopped cilantro.
9. Enjoy!

Back in Time: Leniwe (Lazy Pierogi)

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #leniwe

This is the very first dish I was able to make all by myself at the age of 5. My first dish will always stay very close to my heart so today you will have a chance to see how to get your kids cooking and what is possible for them to do at that age. I believe that at the early age kids should be involved in the kitchen as much as it is suitable to their abilities. If they don't get burned and cut then it will happen 10 or 15 years later  so we are not really protecting anyone here, just delaying when it will happen. Getting kids involved early will help them love cooking and with that often comes passion for healthy eating.

My mom showed me how to make this dish as I was requesting to to have it way too often. At the age of 5 I mastered it and never forgot how to make it.
In Poland there are number of ways how people enjoy leniwe - some people eat them with sugar, some like them with cream. This version is with breadcrumbs with butter. I made them this way since I was 5 years old and it is still my favourite version.

Ingredients:
250g quark or cottage cheese (I prefer quark as it has not added salt)
2 eggs
0.5-1c white flour
2T cinnamon (cinnamon gives you a feeling of sweetness)
1 packet of vanilla sugar (you can add more if you like; I don't like using too much sugar)
3T butter
3T bread crumbs

1. Mix quark with eggs until fairly smooth.
2. Add flour to the quark mixture. Work it with your hands to stretch gluten, add more flour if required.
3. Once dough is elastic roll it with your hand on a flour dusted chopping board. Cut into pieces.
4. Bring a pot of water with a pinch of salt to boil.
5. Place pieces of dough into the water and cook until they start floating on the top.
6. On the pan, add breadcrumbs, let them brown a little bit then add butter. Once butter is melted pour over cooked leniwe.
7. Enjoy!

Asian inspiration: Tofu sensation

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #tofu

This dish was brought from the need to increase the quantity of cooked greens in our diet. We eat raw greens quite often, but in the recent months cooked greens were not frequent guests on our plates. Cooked greens are abundant in a number of nutrients hence I made a commitment to have them back on our plates at least twice a week.

Serves 4

Ingredients

250g extra firm tofu (you want to use firm or extra firm)

0.3c soy sauce

1T sesame oil

1c stock (vegetable, mushroom, or chicken will work well)

2T sesame seeds, toasted (you can use white or black or a mix)

3 garlic cloves

1inch ginger root

3 scallions 

3 large bok choys

0.5 red pepper

2T olive oil 

1 packet of Soba noodles or bean noodles

1.5t cornstarch or arrowroot 

1. Remove tofu from packaging, dry it with a paper towel. If you want you can bake it for 30 min on 175c; I do it when I have time as it helps in absorbing marinate.

Cut tofu into thin slices (about 0.5cm in thickness). I cut the tofu block into quarters then slice them thinly (you can make them larger or smaller, whatever you like).

2. Mix soy sauce with sesame oil and add tofu slices. Mix it and let sit while you are preparing other items.

3. Put water to boil for the pasta. I like using Japanese soba noodles but Korean bean noodles would work really well too.

4. Julien scallions and red peppers. Chop bok choys.

5. Crash garlic and grate ginger.

6. Put half of the oil in the wok and fry tofu (reserve marinate for later) for a few minutes. If you baked it there is no need to fry it. Remove it from the pan leaving oil in.

7. Add garlic and ginger to the marinate, mix it and let it sit.

8. Stir fry bok choy, scallions and red pepper for a few minutes. Add tofu, stock and marinate with ginger and garlic. Cook for about 2 minutes.

8. Add cornstarch mixed with cold water to the dish. Mix and take off the heat.

9. Your pasta should be ready now. 

10. Place pasta on plates and top it with stir fry veggies and tofu. Top it all with sesame seeds.

11. Enjoy!

Heavenly Froggies

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #oatmeal

I remember my sister making those cookies when we were young. They are so simple and yet so delicious.

I had some hot dark chocolate mix left so I decided to use it in this recipe. I felt for extra vitamins ovaltine would work in it too so about 3T of the chocolate mix consists of ovaltine.

Ingredients

3c quick oats

0.75c coconut flakes

1 packet of vanilla sugar

4T icing sugar

3T honey

7T hot dark chocolate (if it has sugar added you may need to cut down on adding extra sugar) and ovaltine 

0.75c warm coconut milk (I used the packet ones as you need to add hot water to it and it is quite a bit cheaper than can version. Milk in milk containers is a little too watery and does not have a lot of fat so I am not sure how it would work)

1. Dissolve chocolate and ovaltine in the coconut milk

2. Mix all ingredients together.

3. Spoon them into desired sizes and place on the plate or baking sheet. Store in the fridge for at least 1 hour (they will become harder).

4. Enjoy!

Healthy Egg Benedict

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #eggs

This is one of my favourite Sunday breakfasts. We do not eat it too often any more as my son refuses to eat eggs in any form or shape. It is a very nutritious breakfast loaded with proteins.

Serves: 2

Ingredients
1 English muffin, cut in half (typically I use Ezekiel brand)
2 eggs
dill (you can use parsley or cilantro instead)

Sauce:
200 g natural Greek yoghurt
2T lemon juice
1t mustard (either in a jar or powder)
1T paprika powder
salt and pepper to taste

Garnish and decorations:
you can use any vegetables you have on hand - mushrooms, spinach, asparagus, tomato
I used sliced tomatoes and yellow sweet paprika.

1. Toast muffin halves, until slightly brown.
2. Mix the sauce ingredients together until smooth.
3. Prepare 2 eggs sunny side up.
4. Place muffin on a plate, put your vegetables (tomato and paprika slices in my case), pour 2T of sauce, place an egg on top. Decorate with chopped dill.
5. Enjoy!

Curry Time: Mung bean coconut curry

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #curry

Recent assessments for my food nutrition indicated that I need to add more potassium to my diet. I am doing my best to incorporate more bens and legumes in our dishes on weekly basis. Beans and cooked tomatoes are great sources of potassium and this recipe came out really good, so I am sharing it with you.

Serves: 6

Ingredients

2 c cooked mung beans (I soaked them just for a few hours; they cook for about 30-40 min)

1inch fresh ginger root

4 cloves of garlic

1T ground garam masala

1t turmeric powder

1T cumin seeds

1 green chilli (I don't remove seeds but it is up to you)

2c coconut milk

3c diced tomatoes (I used caned ones, but fresh would work too if you remove skin)

2T olive oil

0.5c fresh cilantro

1. Heat the oil on medium heat, add cumin seeds and wait for them to start popping before adding turmeric and garam masala. 

2. Add chopped garlic and fry for about 1 minute then add grated ginger root.

3. Add tomatoes and cook for about 5 minutes.

4. Add beans and coconut milk and cook for further 10-15 minutes.

5. Before serving mix in chopped cilantro.

6. Serve by itself or with a naan bread or rice.

7. Enjoy!

Healthier Popsicle: Blueberry Popsicles

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #popsicles

Serves: 14 large popsicles

Ingredients;
1.5 frozen banana, sliced

0.5 raw medium size beet, cut into cubes

1 handful of raw spinach leaves

1 slice of lemon

2 c fresh blueberries (I used high bush blueberries, also called American blueberries)

200g natural Greek yoghurt (I used full fat)

1. Blend all ingredients together in a fast speed blender.

2. Pour into Popsicle moulds and freeze for at least 5 hours.

3. Enjoy!

Healthier Treat: Mango Popsicles

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #popsicles

Serves: 14 large popsicles

Mango Popsicles

1/4c large carrot, cut into smaller chunks
1/4c green cabbage
0.5 large avocado
1 ripe banana
2 c frozen mango chunks
100g-150g plain greek yoghurt

1. Blend all ingredients together.
2. You can serve some immediately as ice cream if you want. Place mixture in popsicle moulds and freeze for at least 5 hours (Usually I leave them overnight).
3. Enjoy!

Fiber packed snack: Carrot Pulp Muffins

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #muffins #leftoverstation

Once every couple of weeks I make freshly squizeed juice, usually it is carrot or beet or a mix of those two. This time I had just over 2 cups of leftover carrot pulp that I did not want to waste.

I found the recipe for the carrot pulp muffins online. They were so good that I felt I need to share it.
It comes from the website: fitnessandfeta.com; recipe is called "Erica's Carrot Pulp Muffins".

Carrot Pulp Muffins
2c whole wheat flour
1t salt
2t cinnamon (I added more, close to 2T)
1t nutmeg
2t baking soda
3/4c brown sugar (quite a lot of sugar for my liking but since most sugar from carrots was gone with the juice there is a need to add some sweetness back to the carrot pulp)
1c olive oil
2t vanilla powder
4 eggs (I added 3 as I am not too fond of eggy testing cakes)
2 c carrot pulp (I added more, about 2.33c)
1c soaked, chopped pecans (can use walnuts)

1. Preheat oven to 200c
2. Mix all ingredients together.
3. Place the mixture in the muffin forms.
4. Bake for 20 minutes (mine took exactly 20 minutes).
5. Enjoy!

They were all gone before I managed to take the picture; will take one next time.

Best treat for a hot day: Cold beet soup (chlodnik)

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #hotday

This recipe comes from Poland where we eat a lot of beets. I created my own version based on the ingredients that are available in Canada. For this recipe I used all local ingredients since everything is in season right now.

Beets are very nutritious and in spite that it is one of the veggies that is rarely eaten by many Canadians.  Since it is very rich in fibre, protein, iron,  it should show up on many more plates more often. Beets are so versatile that in Poland we eat them raw, cooked, cold and warm, in desserts and juices.

Cold Beet Soup

1 bunch of beet roots with greens (look for ones with fresh and crunchy greens)

2c water

3T lemon juice or 2T vinegar 

3-4 garlic loves, crashed

3 scallions, finely chopped

1 cucumber, take seeds out and finely chop

1 bunch of radishes, finely chopped 

1 bunch of fresh dill

2c Greek yoghurt ( I use full fat but it is up to you)

1. Chop finely beet roots and beet greens. Then put them in a pot with water, lemon juice and garlic. Cook them on a low medium heat for about 40 min or until beet roots are tender.

2. Let beet soup cool at room temperature. 

3. Add yoghurt and all chopped ingredients. Mix well and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

4. Serve by itself or with sliced boiled egg.

5. Enjoy!

Fibre Bomb: Fibre loaded meatballs with my signature tomato sauce served with zucchini noodles

This recipe is a result of another nutrition course I am taking on Coursera. The professor mentioned that most people only consume about 13g of fibre a day, which is only about 1/3-1/2 of the daily recommendation. When I did a review of my eating habits I discovered that I consume 45-50g of fibre a day so I decided to share some of my tricks how to incorporate more fibre rich foods into dishes that typically have no or minimal fibre content.

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #fiber #meatballs

Meatballs:

0.5kg chicken thighs without skin (you can use breast if you want lower fat option, I use thighs as they have more iron and there is not much extra fat added in this recipe)

2.5c  red lentils (I soaked them overnight but it is not necessary) cooked with some spices (cumin, paprika, dried garlic, dried oregano, dried onion). Blended until fairly smooth.

1 egg

1.5c oats blended into a flour

4 cloves of garlic, pressed

1 onion, chopped and lightly sautéed

1. Sauté onion and garlic, then blend them.

2. Mix all ingredients together.

3. Bring a pot of salted water into boil (if you add salt the water they cook faster as salt traps the heat hence increases boiling point, if you prefer you do not need to add it)

3. Form balls with your hand. You will have around 40 meatballs.

4. Cook meatballs until they start floating. 

Tomato sauce:

1kg of crashed tomatoes, I used canned as fresh ones are quite expensive so I prefer to eat them raw

10 prunes, finely chopped (sweetness from prunes will offset the sourness of the tomato sauce, also it will help thicken the sauce)

1 onion, finely chopped

4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped 

2T fresh basil

4T dried oregano

1T butter or olive oil

1. Sauté onion and garlic in butter for a few minutes, until they start browning.

2. Add crashed tomatoes and prunes, cook on a medium low heat for 10-15 minutes

3. Add herbs and cook for further few minutes.

4. Add cooked meatballs and cook with the sauce for about 5 minutes.

Zucchini noodles:

2 large zucchini

1. Use spiral slicer to creat zucchini noodles.

2. Bring a pot of water into boil.

3. Cook zucchini noodles for 30s to 2 minutes depending on the firmness and size of the zucchini. Do not overlook!

ENJOY!

Quinoa Pudding

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #quinoa

This morning I had some coconut milk and quinoa on hand that needed to be used.

I decided to try making Asian inspired quinoa pudding. In the past I made it with glutinous rice but quinoa works really well too.

Ingredients:

1c quinoa

0.5c coconut milk 

1c water

0.5t Cinnamon

0.25t Cardamom, ground

2T honey 

1. Cook quinoa in coconut milk and water for about 15 min. Stir occasionally. 

2. Add all remaining ingredients, mix well.

3. Enjoy!

Happy Fathers Day Cheesecake: Cheesecake Heaven

Today finally I got to do the recipe for a cheesecake that I created in my head a few weeks ago. I am very pleased that it worked out so well and the consistency and sweetness was just right. It is my Happy Fathers Day Cheesecake, enjoy!

It is a raw inspired cake, hence so flour, no eggs, no sugar...and also no baking!

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Soaking time: 30 minutes
Freezer time: 30 minutes
Cooking/baking time: 0 minutes

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #nosugar #glutenfree

Ingredients:
Crust
1c walnuts, soaked for about 30 minutes
0.5c almonds, soaked overnight
12 dates (I soaked mine as they were a little hard), you can use rasins, prunes, or figs instead
1t lemon juice
0.5t vanilla powder
1t cinnamon
0.5t nutmeg

Cheesecake
500g pressed cottage cheese or quark
0.25-0.5c macadania nuts
2 bananas

Topping
1c raspberries
4 dates

1. Prepare crust by processing all crust ingredients together until they blend well together. The consistency should be very dense and sticky.
Press them with your hands to the tart pan (I use tart pan with removable bottom).
2. Blend all cheesecake ingredients together until very smooth. The consistency should be fairly dense.
Spoon the cheesecake to the tart pan and arrange it nicely.
3. Place the cake in the freezer for about 30 minutes.
4. Prepare the topping by blending raspberries (reserving some whole ones for decoration) with dates. Blend it to the desired consistency.
5. Put the topping on the cake once it is removed from the freezer or you can top each portion as they are being cut out. The cake needs to be kept in the fridge.
6. Enjoy!

Cabbage Mishmash (Bigos)

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #leftoversstation

This is another recipe for leftovers - today we are using leftovers meats, in my case Italian sausage, mushrooms and sauerkraut. This recipe  draws from my Polish roots where cabbage is frequently consumed.

Ingredients:
1.5c Fresh cabbage, grated
1.5c Sauerkraut
1t caraway seeds (you can use powder if you prefer)
2 Portobello mushrooms, chopped
leftover sausage, and any other meats, chopped
3T butter


1. Add a little bit of butter and cook caraway seeds until they start popping, do not let them burn. If you are using powder caraway add it in step 2.
2. Add cabbage, sauerkraut, and butter and cook on a medium low heat for about 15-20 minutes.
3. Add meats and mushrooms and cook for another 20 minutes.
4. Enjoy!

The best part is that you cannot overcook it, the longer you cook it the better it is. It tastes great the following day after being reheated. There is no need to add any other spices as your meats will already have some.

Nutritious Broccoli: Broccoli Tart

Here is another recipe I created with my broccoli supply obtained at $1 this week.

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #broccoli

Tart:
1c unbleached white flour
0.5t salt
25g butter, softened
0.25c cold water

1. Mix all the ingredients and work them with you hand until smooth. It will take about 15 minutes.
2. Roll the dough with a rolling pin until fairly thin. If you worked the dough really well you will not need to add extra, else you may need to add some to help you roll.
3. Put the dough on the tart pan, press it to the bottom and then roll it will the rolling pin so any access dough cuts off.
4. Mark it with the fork, and place in the freezer for 10-20 min.

Tart toppings:
1c broccoli
1c of other veggies I used leftovers from making pizza - yellow pepper, spinach leaves, tomatoes. Also I had a little bit of tomato sauce left so I used it.
0.5 medium onion, chopped
1 egg
3/4c milk
1T cheese, grated

5. Preheat the oven to 177c.
6. Cook tomato sauce with onion for about 5 minutes.
7. Place cooled tart crust in the oven for 7 minutes.
8. Spread the tomato sauce, then add mixed remaining toppings other than milk and egg.
9. Beat an egg with milk until fluffy. Pour over the toppings. Sprinkle with cheese.
10. Bake for 40-50 minutes.
11. Enjoy!

Simply the best: Pizza with broccoli

This week I found broccoli at a very special price of $1, which is about 1/3 of its usual price. I could not stop myself from buying a whole week supply.
As a result this week I was serving variety of broccoli dishes besides using them as a side dish.

Today I am going to share with you my not so secret pizza recipe that is super easy to make. Another benefit is that and you end up with 6 pizza dough supplies, which for  us is approximately two months worth of supplies of quick and delicious dinners. When I tried to make this dough for the first time, about a year ago, I was amazed how good it was. In opinion of several people who tried it, it is of a top pizza restaurant quality. Every time I make it I am never disappointed with the results, it is consistently good and is definitely the best pizza dough I ever found, and I tried quite a few over the years.

The pizza dough recipe comes from the book "The Bread Maker's Apprentice" by Peter Reinhart. Overall it is a great book that explain principles of break making. You can find the book on Amazon; it is well worth having it in your cookbook collection.

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #pizza

Pizza dough (makes 6 pizzas):
4.5 c unbleached white flour (I used 2c white floor and 2.5c whole wheat and it worked well too)
1.75t salt
1t instant yeast
0.25c olive oil
1.75c water

1. Work the dough for about 15 minutes until it is very smooth.
2. Divide the dough into 6 even pieces, roll them into balls and put them into plastic bags coated with olive oil. You can freeze them for future use.
3. If you saved one portion put it in the fridge for a few hours. If you are using frozen one, defrost it in the fridge for 2 days before use.
4. Preheat oven to the maximum temperature.
5. Sprinkle some cornmeal or semolina on the pan or mat you are going to bake you pizza and roll your pizza with your hands until flat.

Tomato sauce
1c fresh tomatoes chopped (I often use 1 small can of  tomato paste, or canned tomatoes)
0.5 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crashed and chopped
1 T oregano
0.5t basil
some butter for frying onion and garlic

1. Saute onion and garlic with some butter, for a few minutes.
2. Add remaining ingredients. Cook for about 15-20 minutes at a medium low heat (gas mark 2.8-3), stirring occasionally.

Usually I set the oven to preheat to the maximum temperature and in a meantime prepare the sauce and chop all the vegetables I am using on my pizza.
Right before the oven reaches the desired temperature I take my pizza dough from the fridge and shape it into pizza pie with my hands. Then spread generous portion of the tomato sauce, and put toppings on top. For toppings this time I used: spinach leaves, tomatoes, yellow pepper, broccoli, and cheese.

1. Put assembled pizza in the oven for 15 minutes and immediately lower the heat to 177c.
I bake my pizza on the non stick mat that I place on the pizza stone (the mat works really well as it is easy to transfer pizza to a pizza plate after baking since it cools off really fast).
2. Enjoy!

Leftover chilli with a face lift

We had chilli for a couple of days, I don't think we would be able to handle another day of the same ... Too booting for us! Today we only had some left, which was not enough to feed even one of us. Usually that would most likely end up in the bin as it was not enough for anyone to bother with reheating it (we don't have a microwave) and no one wanting to eat chilli once again.

Since I starting paying more attention to what we throw away I noticed that number one reason is leftovers in smaller quantities. Since we cook on daily basis we do not tend to throw away as much in unused spoiled produce - we do inventory eve two days what has to be used within next 4 days - it seems to be working well.

I am going to share how the boring chilli received a facelift. For this recipe you can use any other one-pot dish that you are left with.

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #leftoversstation

Preparation: 5 minutes

Baking: 25 min

Serves 3

Ingredients:

6 slices of bread, for this recipe white bread works best as it has higher gluten content and will hold together better. I used Ezekiel and it was quite challenging to work with. 

Leftovers chilli or any other one-pot dish

2T cheese, grated

Some water

1. Preheat your oven to 177c. In a meantime prepare you muffin form by spreading a little bit of butter.

2. Cut out bread crust from your bread slices. Roll bread slices flat with a rolling pin. If you bread is not very fresh or if it not a white bread you will need to use some water.

3. Put rolled bread in the muffin forms. Make sure you don't have any major holes. Sprinkle a little bit of cheese if you have any holes. Place in the oven for 5-7 minutes.

4. Take muffin form out of the oven. Fill forms out with your leftovers and sprinkle some cheese on top. Put in the oven for another 15-20 minutes.

5. In a meantime prepare veggies to go with the dish. I prepared blanched green beans and some chopped tomatos with whole olives.

6. Enjoy!

Anniversary Celebrations: Prune Stuffed Pork and Fennel Chutney

For this year's anniversary dinner I decided to use organic pork tenderloin that I got at a great price of $3.15. I also had some beets and fennel bulb that needed to be used.

The dish is inspired by my mom's pork recipe with my fennel chutney invention from a couple of years ago. Since both use prunes I thought it will be a perfect dinner.

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #fennelchutney

Preparation time: 10 min
Cooking and baking time: 1 hour
Serves: 3

Ingredients:
1 pork tenderloin
8-10 prunes for the stuffing
salt and pepper

Fennel Chutney
1 fennel bulb, chopped to small pieces
6 prunes, chopped into small pieces
0.5-1T brown sugar
2T fruity vinegar (usually I use fig infused vinegar but I also used apple cider vinegar in this recipe in the past)
40g butter
0.5c red wine (optional)



1. Place chopped fennel with butter on a medium heat (gas mark 3-3.5) for about 15 minutes.
2. Add sugar and vinegar to the chutney and lower the heat (gas mark 2.8). Cook for another 5 minutes.
3. Add prunes and lower the heat to gas mark 1.8. Cook for about 30 minutes before adding wine.
4. Cut the tenderloin horizontally making a pocket. Stuff it with prunes and then tie it with a thread so prunes do not fall out during cooking.
5. Season the meat right before searing it. Sear the meat briefly on each side on a very hot pan, then transfer to a baking dish. Place in the preheated oven (preheat to the max) and lower the temperature to 177c. Baking time is between 40 min to 1 hour depending on the size of the tenderloin.
6. Take the meat out of the oven and let it rest for 5-10 minutes. Cut rested meat into slices removing thread before serving.
7. I served it with sweet potatoes rosted with dried thyme, and blanched beet roots.
8. Enjoy!

Anniversary Celebration: Healthy Chocolate Pudding

Today's is our 15th wedding anniversary so I decided to whip up a dessert as part of the celebration  - Happy Anniversary to Us!

Usually we do not eat desserts as we favour savoury food over sweet. However, some 4 years ago I was inspired by raw food and experimented quite a lot with raw food techniques. Today I still use many of those ideas and techniques in my cooking, especially in desserts.

Healthy Chocolate Pudding was created from ingredients I had on hand today and key ingredients combination that I know work well (banana and avocado - one of my favourite smoothies). It came out really tasty so I decided to share it.

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #rawdesserts
Preparation time 5 minutes
Fridge time: 30 min to 1 hour
Serves 3

Ingredients:
1 ripe avocado
1 ripe banana
5 -7 dates (depending how ripe is your banana)
1.5 T lemon juice
0.5c of water or any kind of milk you like
0.5c whipping cream (optional)
1T lucuma powder (optional, it give more caramel taste)
1.5T carob powder (I used raw)
1.5T cocoa powder (I used raw)
0.5t vanilla powder (I used raw)

1. Put all ingredients except whipping cream in a blender and blend until smooth.
2. Add whipping cream and blend for another 30 seconds.
3. Put in the serving cups and place in the fringe for 30 minutes.
4. Enjoy!

Veggies time: Baked daikon

One of our grocery cost cutting strategies involves hunting for deals, which I am going to call "Food Deal of the Week" category.
During our last shopping we found daikon at a super low price. One smaller size daikon cost us $0.86, which is about 1/3 of the regular price. We also found leeks to be at 1/3 of their regular price, which is a great news however, we only managed to get one last bunch which won't be enough for experiments as we use a lot of leeks in soups.

I decided to try something new with daikon. Typically I would grate it or slice it and eat it raw in salads or on its own.

#easyfoodcreations #fooddealoftheweek #healthyeating

Preparation: 2 min
Cooking and baking: 25 min
Serves 6

Ingredients:
1 small dikon, peeled and sliced into 1 inch pieces
2-3T soy sauce
1T sesame oil
1t green curry paste
1T grated cheese

1. Cook daikon for about 5 minutes in boiling water or broth.
2. Dry daikon, coat it in the mix of soy sauce, sesame oil, and curry paste. Heat the pan with some oil and fry on a high heat for about 2 minutes on each side, until lightly brown.
3. Transfer daikon to the baking pan, top it with grated cheese. Bake in a preheated oven to 177c for 15-20 minutes, until cheese gets slightly brown.
4. Serve on a bed of spinach leaves.
5. Enjoy!

Sense of Japan: Fish nuggets Japanese style

Preparation time: 15 min

Cooking Time: 10 min

Serves 4

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating 

Ingredients:

Fish nuggets

1 tilapia filet, or any other white fish

1 egg, beaten

0.5 c Flour

0.5 c Bread crumbs

Salt and pepper

Oil for frying

Rice

1 c sushi rice cooked, or coconut rice

1 t fish sauce

1 T soy sauce

1 t rice vinegar

1 T sesame seeds, toasted

Sesame paste/sauce

4 T sesame seeds, toasted

2 T soy sauce

0.5 t rice vinegar

0.5 t fish sauce

Veggies

0.5 carrot, grated, or daikon

Broccoli, blanched (dipped in a boiling water for 1-2 minutes)

1. Prepare sesame paste/sauce by grinding sesame seeds with sauces into a paste. If you want more liquid consistency add more sauces. 

2. Make rice sauce by mixing fish sauce, soy sauce, and vinegar. Prepare rice sticks by forming them with your hand. On the top spread a little bit of sauce and top with sesame seeds.

3. Prepare fish nuggets. Cut filet into small pieces, coat each one in flour mixed with salt and pepper, then egg, then bread crumbs. Fry on a medium heat for a few minutes on each side.

4. Serve with blanched broccoli and grated raw vegetables.

5. Enjoy!

Curried Time: Sweet potato, tempeh, and fava beans coconut curry

Yesterday's review of our food spending budget made me realize that we eat too much of  "luxury" items. This includes fruits and veggies out of season, expensive meats and fish. We managed to get our cheese consumption under control now, which means big savings as cheese is very expensive in Canada.

I will be searching the aisles for healthier, cheaper, more basic alternatives. In each blog post I am going to point out cheaper alternatives to what I would had normally used.  

Cheaper alternative to canned coconut milk:

Instead of using caned coconut milk, which costs anything between $1.99 to $3.00 I used creamed coconut that you mix with hot water to get coconut milk. It costs $0.99 and it makes 500 ml of milk - great deal! It tastes a little different and is not as smooth but it worked well in this recipe an helped to make the sauce denser. Since I ended up with too much milk I made coconut ginger rice to go with this curry.

#easyfoodcreations, #vegan, #healthyeating

Preparation: 15 min

Cooking time: 60 min

Serves 5

Ingredients:
1 large sweet potato, diced

1 large onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1 T ginger root, grated

250 g tempeh, cut into cubes or strips

1T Soy sauce

150 g fava beans 

handful of cilantro leaves, chopped

250 g coconut milk

100 g tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes

2 T lemon juice

1 t cumin powder

1 t garam masala powder

0.5 t sambal oelek or 1 small Thai chilli 

Salt and pepper
water or coconut water

1. Blanch tempeh for about 5 minutes. Then dry it, and fry it with a little bit of oil until lightly brown. Set aside.
2. Saute onion, ginger, garlic and spices and sambal oelek, in 1T of oil for a few minutes. Add sweet potato and 0.5 c of water, let it cook for about 15 minutes on a low heat. Add beans, soy sauce and coconut milk and cook for another 15-20 minutes. Add tempeh for the final 15 min of cooking. Before serving mix in cilantro.
3. Serve with coconut ginger rice.
4. Enjoy!

Pancake morning: oatmeal and cottage cheese pancakes

This is one of my favourite breakfasts on the weekend. It is very easy to make hence chances are minimal that something will go wrong.

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #vegetarian

Preparation time: 2 min

Cooking time: 5 min

Serves 3

Ingredients

1 c plain oatmeal

1 c cottage cheese

1 egg

1 t Cinnamon

0.5 t Carob  powder

0.25 to 0.5 c water

1. Mix all ingredients in the blender adding as much water as necessary to achieve consistency slightly denser than regular American pancakes.

2. Fry on medium heat on both sides. Depending on the pan used you may want to use a little bit of oil for frying.

3. Serve with fresh fruits and local maple syrup.

4. Enjoy!

Island Memories: Lemon garlic lime shrimps served with coconut ginger rice and mango avocado salsa

I am so happy that I started this blog as in the past a lot of my great creations got lost amongst a pile of cookbooks, printed recipes, and cooking notes. This is one of my most tasty creations, so I am very happy to be able to share it. Enjoy!

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #seafood
Preparation time: 10 min

Cooking time: 20 min

Serves 3

Ingredients

300 g Shrimps

2 large garlic cloves, pressed

Ginger root, grated

1 lime, lime zest and lime juice

Cilantro

Salt and pepper

Coconut ginger rice:

1 c rice, soaked overnight, rinsed

1 t Ginger root grated

1 c water

0.5 c coconut milk

Mango Salsa:

1 mango, diced

2/3 avocado, diced

0.5 medium onion

Cilantro

Salsa dressing:

0.5 lemon juice

0.4 c coconut milk

1 red Thai chilli, cut into very thin strips

Salt and pepper

1. Mix all ingredients for shrimps, except cilantro. Add peeled shrimps and let them marinate for about 15 minutes.

2. Place rinsed rise with water and coconut milk on a medium heat (gas mark 3) until it starts cooking, then turn to low heat (gas mark 2.3). Cook covered for 15 minutes, then take off the heat and let it steam for another 5 minutes.

3. Prepare salsa by mixing all in ingredients together. In a separate bowl prepare dressing, then add it to the salsa and mix well.

4. When rice is resting heat the pan and cook shrimps in its juices.  Add cilantro when it is almost ready.

5. Serve all parts of the dish on a bed of fresh spinach.

7. Enjoy!

Box less Supper: Lentil and quinoa burgers served with fries and salad

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #vegan
Preparation: 10 min

Soaking: 1 hr to overnight

Cooking time: 30 min

Serves 8

Ingredients:

Burgers

1 c soaked brown lentils

1 c quinoa

1 c walnuts

1/2 c almond meal

1/4-1/2c breadcrumbs

2 garlic cloves, chopped

Fresh basil

Fresh oregano 

Salt and pepper

Fries

10 medium potatoes, cut into strips like fries or wedges 

2T olive oil

Dried oregano

Dried basil

Salad (Spinach leaves, Diced tomatoes, Diced cucumber, Chopped green onions, Chopped fresh basil)

1. Put fries in the preheated oven to 177c, bake for 30 min.

2. Cook lentils for 20 min if soaked for at least 1 hr. Otherwise cook a little bit longer.

3. Cook quinoa for 15 minutes in 2 c of water.

4. Mix all burger ingredients except almond meal and breadcrumbs  in the blender until smooth. Transfer to the bowl and add almond meal and breadcrumbs, mix well.

5. Form burger patties. Fry on a medium low heat, gas mark 2.8, on both sides until lightly browned.

6. Transfer burgers to plates and serve with fries and salad.

7. Enjoy!

Have a Break: Beet rice cookies served with rhubarb and apples compote

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 60 minutes
Serves 8

Ingredients:
Cookies
1 c rice flour
1/4 c almond meal
1 whole egg
1 medium raw beet, chopped
50 g butter, soften
2 T rhubarb and apple compote juice or water

Rhubarb and Apples compote
1 rhubarb, chopped
2 large sweet apples, peeled and deseeded, chopped
1-2 T lemon juice
cinnamon
nutmeg
cardamom (optional)
4 cloves
3 c water

1. Prepare compote - place all ingredients in a pot and cook on a medium heat for about 1 hour or until apples are soft.
2. In a blender place rice flour, almond meal, egg, beet, butter. Mix until blended well and all ingredients are wet. May need to add water or compote to achieve right consistency.
3. Preheat oven to 165 c.
4. Form balls of a size of larger nuts and place them on a baking sheet or pan. You may need to add some rice flour if mixture is too wet. Flatten them with your palm and create an indent with a fork.
5. Bake for 15 minutes.

Breakfast Time: Healthy French Toast

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #breakfast
Preparation time: 5 min

Baking time: 20 min

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 to 6 slices of stale bread

0.5 mango, mashed

2 eggs

0.25c coconut flour

0.25c almond meal

0.5c milk

cinnamon powder

vanilla powder

nutmeg, grated

Salt

Fruit sauce:

1 banana

1 mango
mint, dried or fresh
water

Fruit salad:

cantaloupe

melon

mango

watermelon

walnuts

1. Place bread slices in a baking pan, no need to oil or butter the pan. Spread mashed mango on each slice.

2. Beat eggs with milk, coconut flour, almond meal, and spices. Pour over sliced bread. Put in the oven overnight. There is no need to turn it. 

3. Preheat oven to 177c, bake it for 20 minutes.

4. In a meantime make fruit sauce by blending banana, mango and adding some water if required.

5. Prepare fruit salad.

6. Enjoy!

Easy Lunch: Mushroom Pizzas

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #vegetarian
Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serves 2

Ingredients:

4 portobello mushrooms

50g-60g of blue cheese or goat cheese, crumbled

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2T dried oregano

1T dried basil

1/2 red pepper, diced

1. Preheat oven to 177 C. 

2. Place mushrooms (cup down) in the baking pan. Top them with garlic, oregano, basil, cheese, and on top place red peppers.

3. Bake in the oven uncovered for 15 minutes.

4. Enjoy!

Serve with tossed salad.

Example salad: spinach leaves, sliced radishes, chopped tomato, feta cheese, sunflower seeds. Salad dressing: dash of lemon juice, avocado oil, salt and pepper.