Breakfast: Zucchini Omelette Baked / Steamed/ Fried

My favourite way of preparing omelette lately is by steaming or baking it. Steamed omelette creates a very nice fluffy texture that I really enjoy. Baking creates a texture that is similar to flying and also creates some browning if that is what you are after. 

This omelette allows you to incorporate leftover egg yolks, and use zucchini that currently is in season. 

This year my garden blessed me with an abundance of zucchini so I ventured on a culinary journey to make the best of this nutrient dense vegetable. And starting your day with a healthy protein packed breakfast is always a win!

Ingredients

• Around 150-200 g of zucchini, grated. Peel it if skin is hard.
• 3 scallions or a bunch of chives, chopped
• Bunch of fresh parsley, chopped
• 4-5 eggs, can use leftover egg whites or egg yolks
• 25-50g hard cheese such as parmesan, gruyere, grated (optional)
• salt, pepper
• 2 tsp pine nuts (optional)

Instructions

1. Place eggs in a blender and mix until fluffy.

2. Add chopped scallions, parsley, grated zucchini, grated cheese (optional) and pine nuts (optional).

3. Mix all ingredients with a spoon until well combined.

4. Season to taste.

5. You can fry it, bake it, or steam it! Place the mixture in a frying pan with some butter and cook covered for about 5-7 minutes. Alternatively, place the mixture in a dish that can go to the oven or into a steaming vessel. Bake or steam for about 20-25 minutes.

6. Enjoy!

7. If you made the recipe - share and tag it @healthywithjoanna

Plant-based breakfast: Banana Pancakes

Looking for a fluffy yummy plant based pancakes that hold their ground against regular American pancake? Look no further!

One of the complains about plant-based pancakes is that they are often flat and lifeless and hard to cook. I have to agree that often they miss the body and softness of the regular American pancake. However, it does not have to be the case, as it is very easy to add this attribute to plant based or vegan pancakes. 

Ingredients

Recipe makes approximately 10

260 ml plant based milk of choice (I like oat milk)

240 g spelt flour (or barley flour or other whole grain flour of choice)

2 tsp of chia seeds

2 ripe bananas

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda 

0.5 tsp real vanilla powder

Instructions

1. Blend all ingredients together until smooth.

2. Let it sit for about 10 minutes. In a meantime heat the pan. 

3. Fry them without oil on a well-heated good quality non stick pan.

4. Enjoy them with anything your soul desires! 

Carrot and apple muffin - vegan and gluten free option

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #muffin #carrot

Today my son asked for muffins. I asked what does he want in his muffin...he said carrots and apples!

So we pulled a big bowl and set my son in his muffin mixing position with a measuring cup in one hand and a spoon in the other.

Ingredients:

1.5 c millet, milled into a flour

0.75 c buckwheat flour 

4 tbsp flax, milled and mixed with 6 tbsp of water and set aside for a few minutes

2 sweet apples

2 medium size carrots

2 handfuls of raisins

0.25 c honey

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1.5 tbsp of cinnamon 

1 tsp vanilla powder

1 tbsp of grape seed oil

1. In a bowl, mix all dry ingredients.

2. Grate carrots and add to the mix. I grated them on the small eye grater.

3. Place cored apples in the blender and blend until you have apple sauce. Add to the bowl.

4. Add flax mix, honey, and oil to the bowl and mix everything well.

5. Add raisins and mix everything together.

6. Place mixture in the muffin forms.

7. Bake in a preheated oven at 177c for 30-35 minutes

8. Enjoy!

Oat bran orange and black cherry muffins

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating

Today my son was calling for muffins and he picked the ingredients - orange and cherries. I picked oatbran and vanilla powder. So we whipped up some incredibly good muffins.

Makes 10 muffins.

Ingredients:

1 c oat bran

0.5 c buckwheat

0.5 c all purpose flour

4 tbsp flax, milled

1 tsp vanilla powder

10 frozen cherries 

1 orange, peel and 1 cup orange juice

0.25 c honey

50 g butter, melted 

1 tbsp baking powder

0.5 tsp baking soda 

1. Mix all ingredients, starting with dry ingredients.

2. Bake at 177c for about 30 minutes.

3. Enjoy.

Muffin time: Oat, Apple, carrot and pumpkin seed

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #muffins

Here is another super easy muffin recipe. This time we throw away flour, eggs, sugar, oil - typical ingredients in baked goods, and replace them with oats, honey, fruits, veggies, butter and spices.

Serves: 10

Ingredients:

2 c oats, grinded into flour

1 carrot, finely grated

1 Apple, corse grated

1/3 lemon, juice only 

100 g honey 

1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp baking powder

0.5 tsp baking soda

0.25-0.5 c butter, melted

Handful of raw pumpkin seeds

1. Mix all ingredients together. Let it stand for a few minutes.

2. Bake in a preheated oven at 177c for about 30-45 min depending how moist were your fruits and veggies.

3. Enjoy!

Porridge series: Cremita de Maiz

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #porridge

We eat a lot of oatmeal for breakfast so this time I decided to  put some spin on our staple. In many countries the most common porridge is made from cornmeal (maiz).

This porrage cooks relatively quickly and has a pretty smooth consistency.

Ingredients:

1.5 c milk (you can used a mix of water and milk, I often do that)

1 tsp butter (optional)

1/3 c cornmeal 

1 tsp cinnamon 

0.5 tsp vanilla powder 

0.25 tsp grated nutmeg

2 tbsp honey or raw sugar 

Pinch of salt

1. Put milk, butter, cornmeal, spices (and sugar if you are using it) in the pan on a medium heat and cook stirring until it starts boiling. Then lower the heat to low high (2.5-2.8) stirr occasionally. It should be done in about 20 minutes.

2. Let it rest for a minute or two, stir in more milk to make your desired consistency, add honey.

3. Top your porrage with grated apple, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, and raisins. 

4. Enjoy! 

Green smoothie: green and yellow

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #greensmoothie #raw

I had been a crazy maniac of green smoothies when I first discovered them some 5 years ago. For about 2 years I had them for breakfast everyday, rotating my greens and all that. I drunk them though my pregnancy which probably helped as I did not feel noutious even once. 

Many people say that green smoothies do not taste good and they tried various mixes without success; hopefully some of my hints will be useful.

There are some key rules that will help you create better tasting smoothies:

- Bananas, prunes, dates, figs, raisins - add as sweeteners. Sometimes one extra date changes everything.

- If you need your smoothie to have less intensive taste add some lemon, cucumber, orange, or ginger

- Typically I don't use milk just water or coconut water but had used homemade nut/seed milk in the past. Various fruit and veggie juices could work very well too. Cows milk?... well it is up to you but I wouldn't.

- Creamy fruits such as avocados, bananas create great green puddings. If you want them in you smoothie use less or compensate with other more watery ingredients.

- You can add oats to your smoothies. Typically I like to soack them in water for at least few hours before adding them to smoothies to ease digestion.

- don't overdo it, the simpler the recipe the better. Keep it down to 3-6 ingredients.

Serves: 2 cups of smoothie

Ingredients:

3 large kale leaves, take stems out

1 whole celery stick

1 Granny Smith apple, take core out

1 banana

1/3 lemon, peel it

1.5 c water

Put all ingredients in the blender. The rule is to put ingredients that are toughest to blend at the bottom. In this case order is: greens, celery, apple, lemon, banana, water. Order is especially important if you do not have a very powerful blenders such as blentec or vitamix. 

Enjoy!

St. Patrick's cupcakes -Pistachio and Green tea Cupcakes with Avocado Icing

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #stpatricks #vegan

The upcoming St. Patrick's day got me thinking about "green" food and how I can create something new and delicious, and of course at least partially healthy.
I decided to try cupcakes this time, a small change to my usual muffins creations. This recipe will work equally well if you skip the icing so it is up to you.

Serves 7 muffins

Ingredients:
0.5 c all purpose flour
0.5 c oat flour (I grind oats rather than buying oat flour, it is cheaper and does not involve a lot of effort)
2 tbsp flax meal
6-8 tbsp green tea (liquid)
1 tsp green tea leaves, grounded (I used sencha but matcha would work too)
2 cardamon pods, keep seeds only
0.25 c brown sugar
1 packet of vanilla sugar
1 tsp baking powder
0.5 medium size zucchini
25 pistachios
0.25 c melted butter (you can use oil instead, typically I would use grapeseed as a replacement)
pinch of salt
Icing:
0.5 avocado
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp water
0.5 ripe banana
1 tbsp icing sugar
(If you want chocolate icing add 1 -2 tsp cocoa powder)

2-3 tsp psyllium husk

1. Grind 20 pistachios, set them aside. Reserve 5 pistachios for decoration.
2. Prepare flax meal - mix it with 5 tbsp of green tea and set aside.
3. Grind zucchini with remaining green tea to a smooth consistency. Set aside.
3. Mix all dry ingredients well. Then add wet ingredients to mix everything well.
4. Bake in a preheated oven at 177c for 20 minutes.
5. Let them cool before decorating with icing.
6. Prepare icing by blending avocado, sugar, lemon and banana. Once the mix is smooth add psyllium husk to thicken the mix.
7. Decorate cupcakes with icing, then sprinkle with crushed pistachios.
8. Enjoy!

Canadian Pancakes

#easyfoodcreations #CanadianFood #pancake

Today, something Canadian. 

We get maple syrup from a local producer as it is delicious and they were the first people who persuaded me that maple syrup can be good if it is done right. We go see them every year; do the maple tour with them where they show the whole process of making it. It is quite fascinating.

I like the early season syrup as it is lighter and less sweet, as season progresses the syrup gets darker and sweeter. However, from this place end of the season syrup is not as dark as some brands I see in the supermarket ...

Some local brands of maple syrup found in the supermarkets are ok but others are awful. Poor quality brands often dilute the syrup with water and sugar... Producing an overly sweet, disgusting tasting stuff.

Ingredients:

2c all purpose flour

2tbsp baking powder

2c milk

2 eggs

Pinch of salt
sugar (optional, typically I don't add any sugar as they are more versatile and can go with sweet and savoury dishes)

1. Mix flour, baking powder, milk, egg yolks, salt.

2. Beat egg whites until they are stiff. 

3. Fold egg whites into the pancake mixture.

4. Fry on a medium low heat on both sides. Depending on your pan you may need to add fat for frying;  typically I don't add any fat and they do not stick. 

5. Canadians often eat them with sausage, beans and maple syrup. I like them with fruits and maple syrup but they also go well as a replacement for bread.

6. Enjoy!

Memories from the Island: Conkies

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #desserts #pumpkin

When I was in Barbados I had a chance to try Conkies, which is a traditional dessert Bajan's eat to celebrate their independence in November. This treat had quickly become my favourite dessert of all times. These cakes are so nutritious and filling that they can be served for breakfast.
And what is better on the weekend than a dessert for breakfast that is actually good for you.

Ingredients:

1 small pumpkin or squash (about 0.5 kg)

1 sweet potato

1.5 very ripe bananas

1 can coconut milk

1.5-2 c cornmeal 

0.5 c grated coconut (I use unsweetened organic brand, but if you use sweetened you may want to adjust bananas, coconut sugar, and raisins)

2-5tbsp Coconut sugar (optional. I find all other ingredients sweet enough but if you like sweet food you may want to add some sugar)

0.5 tsp grated nutmeg

1.5 tsp grated cinnamon

0.5 tsp allspice

3-7 tbsp raisins

5 tbsp melted butter

1. Bake pumpkin and sweet potato for 40-50 minutes at 220c.

2. In the blender add peeled and cut pumpkin and potato, cut banana, and coconut milk. Blend until smooth.

3. Move pumpkin mix to the bowl and add all remaining ingredients, mix well. The consistency should be fairly dense, you may need to adjust cornmeal quantity.

4. Make packets from banana leaves (gives a superior taste, but this time I could not find them anywhere) or aluminium foil (it sticks a little bit) by putting the mix on the cut out pieces and folding it. I heard that you can also use parchment paper but I did not try it.

5. Put packets in the oven preheated to 180c for 50-60 minutes.

6. Enjoy warm or cold.

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.