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.