Primal banana protein bars

 

The quest for a minimum ingredient homemade protein bar is over. So is the one for a non bake bar. That's right - this thing is raw, and only has 4 ingredients. It also has 25 grams of protein. Let's dig in.

To make 4 bars you need:

1 medium banana, ripe

3 scoops whey protein ( I used vanilla)

1 cup almond meal 

1 tablespoon coconut oil (feel free to use butter)

Use a blender/chopper to mix everything very well. You will get a sticky raw cookie dough consistency. Form a large bar shape, roll in almond meal and roll and press in baking paper. Place in the fridge for 3 hours and your bars are ready. Take out, cut in 4 and roll the edges in almond meal one more time. It's very tempting to eat the bars before they have thickened up in the fridge - try to control yourself- I dare you.

The great news is that these bars are actual protein bars, not just delicious bars - they can be a whole meal. Enjoy!

per bar: calories 300, fat 18 g, carbs 12 g, protein 25g, fiber 4 g 

Blood orange and Meyer lemon curd

with both blood oranges and Meyer lemons in season, this recipe was in order

I sometimes stand in the jams and preserves isle at Trader Joes and look at those colorful rows of millions of calories of sugar, all lined up nicely with their pretty lids, crafted labels and sticky, delicious insides. One label that always sits there beckoning, is lemon curd. How do you get it so thick and creamy, sweet and sour, sour and sweet...

As with most things I want, I just try to make my own. First, you can control the amounts and ingredients and you can make just a little (no jar of anything sweet is safe in our home, trust me).

I made lemon curd a few days ago and it disappeared so quickly that I could barely write the recipe down, let alone take a picture.

Today, I decided to mix Meyer lemon and blood orange and see how it turns out. The good news? It was amazing - smooth, creamy, flavorful, citrusy...mmm. The bad news: I only made one batch which was barely enough for two small servings, but we had to remind ourselves this is a side custard, not a central dish. Yet, I had to resist whipping a second bowl.

Now, the great thing about this is that it's dairy free, gluten free and for those of you that this information matters, this means a lot. For the rest of us, this just means you have another dessert in your arsenal that is low calorie (about 350 cals for two servings), has high quality fats and protein, and that's relatively low in sugar.

To make 2 servings, you need:
2 eggs 
20 gr butter
2 tbsp honey
1 large blood orange (or regular orange)
1 meyer lemon (or regular lemon)
1 tbsp lemon and orange zest (mixed)

To start, take out the butter and soften it a bit on the stove. Whisk the two eggs, butter and honey together. In the meantime, place a double boiler on the stove. Let it heat and use the time to squeeze the lemon and orange juice. Grate some zest. Set the juice and zest aside. Place the egg mixture in the double boiler and start whisking energetically. In about 1 minute, as you see the mixture start to thicken, add the juice and zest and keep whisking. Whisk until you see a nice thick consistency. Serve cold with cut up fruit for dipping or just eat with a spoon. Enjoy responsibly!

Cottage cheese pineapple parfait

Most people have a love-hate relationship with cottage cheese - they love it for a while, eat it all the time, enjoy the benefits of its high protein and low calories and then they get sick of it and swear off buying it for a while. Other people love the taste, but hate the texture - it's too small, it's too large, it's too slimy, it tastes like diet food - I've heard lots of people say those things and never have the chance to include this awesome ''cheese'' in their diets.

This recipe will show you a side of cottage cheese you have not experienced before - a creamy and rich, smooth texture - that's right - smooth. Because you will use a blender to make your breakfast.

Here is what you need:

Serves 2:
2 cups cottage cheese ( I used low fat, the store was out of full fat)
1 cup frozen or fresh pineapple (or other fruit)
5 drops (or 1/2 inch bean)  vanilla extract

In a blender, combine all the ingredients until they get very smooth. Serve in a bowl, decorate with your favorite fruit and enjoy right away!

One serving has only 235 calories and crazy 26 grams of protein.

This technique will also allow you to make savory herb dips for vegetables and toasted pita or lavash chips. Give it a try!

Chili hot chocolates

Some like it hot! Especially when Roland was cooking up a storm of chiles that our friends over at Marx's Foods sent us to play with. It was 1 am on Thursday night and while I was scrambling to meet a deadline, he was making chili puree. Sneezing and typing on a computer don't go together very well, but oh was it worth it!

I cannot take credit for that laborious, sneeze inducing and fire breathing task. You need to be genetically related to a dragon to handle chiles with the precision that Roland has and it takes both bravery and experience that I am yet to master. Keep reading, I will send you to his blog when the time comes.

I am told that all you do is cut the tops off the chiles, shake the seeds out, then cook the flesh, blend it, push it through a sieve to make it finer and leave the hot sludge behind, obtaining a smooth, almost oily looking paste.

It's thicker than tomato paste, and it will invade every corner of your home with a potent smell. Something about the aroma of chili puree reminds me of hot concrete in the summer sun, dark chocolate, rum and black pepper, all rolled into one pervasive memory that I can't quite put my finger on.

But back to my chocolates. Homemade chocolate is something I love to indulge in. When your chocolate contains only the healthiest, life giving and energy boosting ingredients you can find, you don't need excuses to make it, but I always end up needing a really good reason to stop eating it. I try to put the chocolate making off to a day when we are going out, so that I can share it with friends and control the amounts, because I could literally inhale a whole batch. Homemade chocolate hijacks my self control, but luckily, there are always Samaritan chocolate lovers who are willing to rescue me.

To make 12 large Chili hot chocolates  you need:


1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cups honey
3 tbsp chili puree (here is the recipe)
1 ice tray (deep)

From here on it's embarrassingly simple. Over medium heat, melt the coconut and honey. Reduce the heat to low and stir in the natural cocoa powder. Once it's smooth it should be as runny as water - that just shows everything is ok. Fill up your ice cube trays (or chocolate molds) 4/5 of the way to the top. To place the chili puree filling inside, simply drop a 1/4 of a tbsp inside each chocolate compartment. The chili will naturally drop to the middle and the hot chocolate will seal up on top. You just learned how to put filling in your chocolates! Congratulations!

Place in the freezer for 1 hour, pop the chocolates out of the tray and enjoy. Remember to keep them in the fridge after, because unlike commercial chocolate, these will melt and make a mess!

Please enjoy responsibly, these are hard to resist after the first one! Let me know how yours turned out!

Rosie's sweet potato scones

My friend Rosie is expecting and she asked me to experiment with an orange/fall theme healthy treat for her baby shower. I made these thin scones twice - once with pumpkin and once with sweet potatoes and they turned out great both times! They are soft to the touch, very lightly sweet, rich in fiber and pleasantly satisfying. It's always nice when a treat can also be a meal! I really hope her guests at the party enjoy it! Cook away!

Makes 18-20 small pieces:


wet ingredients:
2 cups cooked pumpkin or sweet potatoes
1/4 cup coconut oil or melted butter
4 tbsp honey or maple syrup
2 eggs


dry ingredients:
1/4 cup flax seeds (ground)
3/4 cup oat bran
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup almond flour
2 tsp pumpkin spice (or mix ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and cloves)
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda


optional: slivered almonds, raisins, dried cherries, etc.

Preheat your oven to 350F. In a large bowl combine all the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly. In a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Carefully add the dry into the wet ingredients and mix well. Spread mixture onto a paper covered pan and cook for 30 minutes. Enjoy after cooling off and consider serving with some maple syrup whipped cream or Mascarpone cheese!

Enjoy with friends or at Rosie's baby shower!

More ways to do pancakes...on a stick is just one of them

Save some pancakes, cut up in squares, spread with fresh cheese and enjoy a sweet and savory snack

We love pancakes - they do eggs a great favor! You can have them sweet or salty - thin or thick, and even on a stick. Don't get me wrong, I love eggs in any shape or form, but nothing beats a pancake with your morning coffee - my clients prove it! Pancakes are by far the most commonly eaten breakfast item on my clients' menus and they won't give them up! If they can still eat pancakes, lose weight and be happy - more power to them!

When I make pancakes I usually try to make extra and have some as an afternoon or preworkout snack - this way if I get hungry, there is no need to scramble eggs and wash another pan! Cold pancakes also have a more solid surface and you can spread cheese on them - sweet and savory is my favorite afternoon combination. The other day I had some leftover blueberry pancakes and used fresh and soft goat cheese to spread before I cut them in squares and joined the happy pieces with a stick! Call me girly but it was fantastic!

Here are some of the pancake recipes I have posted before, and they are all really really worth giving a shot! Let me know which one is your favorite, I am very partial to the blueberry protein ones!

Blueberry protein pancakes

Coconut almond pancakes

Steel cut oat pancakes

High fiber high protein pancakes

Besan pancakes (chickpea flour pancakes)

Wheat berry pancakes

Nectarine pancakes

Cream cakes

Here are some basic pancake rules if you want to maintain a healthy weight:

1. Go easy on maple syrup, honey, jams, etc. Feel free to have a tablespoon or two now and then, but don't make your pancake meal all about the syrup. Use some fruit to make pancakes sweet and juicy.

2. Try to eat your pancakes or crepes with cream cheese, olives, dried tomatoes, pesto, nuts, vegetables. It really adds to the experience and allows you to enjoy non-sweet satisfaction.

3. Do not overeat these healthy pancakes. Yes, they are better than your regular pancake-mix-from-the-store

ones, but they still have calories. Moderation is key!

4. Teach your family to enjoy all varieties of pancakes, just don't tell them what you are serving the first time!

Let me know how you do your pancakes?

Pumpkin custard in a jar

We played with cooking in jars for a couple of months and after making cheesecake in a jar, pie in a jar (for the Art of real food, vol 4) and baked berries...I thought we were done.

....but as they say WAIT, there is more stuff in a jar!

Enter some leftover egg yolks from a baking experiment my friend Rosie and I did the other day. I don't like wasting perfectly good egg yolks, packed with choline, vitamins and good fats. I could make chocolate mousse or some sort of a custard of Zabaglione sauce...and none of those were oven friendly recipes, and the oven was on.

I decided to make some pumpkin custard in a jar. To make two servings (individual jars), I used:

6 egg yolks
2 tbsp honey
pinch cinnamon
pinch cloves
pinch ginger
6 tbsp pumpkin puree (I bet carrots or sweet potatoes would work too).


It's really easy to stir all these ingredients together. Once you have it, place the soft and glossy custard mixture in jars. To cook, put the jars in a pot, filled with water, so that at least half the jar is sitting in the liquid. Place in an oven heated to 350 F for 25 minutes and enjoy.

This is an extremely filling dessert, but if you feel like you want to add more to it you can top it with some Mascarpone cheese and honey and sprinkle decorative cinnamon on top. We liked it plain!You can use it as a midday snack or even breakfast, or as the main conversation piece at your next picnic - it's extremely versatile and fits an active lifestyle!

My KIND of bar

Fruit and nut bars are one of those quick grab-and-go snacks that are on the edge when it comes to constructing a healthy menu. Even the ones with no artificial sweeteners or thickeners offer very little satisfaction for the amount of calories they provide. If you are carb conscious, maybe you don't want to get a whole lot of carbs from a snack like that. My favorite fruit and nut bar has 20 grams of carbs from honey, glucose and dried fruit. It's not something I want to have often, when I could have actual fruit instead (I like to get my carbs from things I enjoy more than bars).It also doesn't have as much fiber as I would like...and to be honest it's a little bit harder than I would like. I would still have it when I am starving and want to grab a quick bite while grocery shopping, but could I have something better that I made myself? You bet.

Enter MY KIND OF BAR:

To make two bars you need:

1/4 cup sliced almonds
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flax meal
1 tbsp honey
5-6 large raspberries

Mash the raspberries into a paste. Melt the butter and honey and mix with the rest of the ingredients. Form a rectangular shape (equal to two bars) and place on a cookie sheet. Cook for 20 minutes in an oven preheated to 375F (180C).

When ready, cut in half lengthwise and let the bars cool off. Enjoy with your afternoon coffee or tea and let me know how they turned out!

Farm loot

I am looking at a basket of beautiful free range eggs as I type this and great thanks have to go out to our friends Greg and Lani for giving us this amazing gift. They have many beautiful chickens and ducks and Greg has a special passion for fruit trees. We did visit Greg's yard last year and had some amazing citrus and starfruit.


duck and chicken eggs, avocado (Linda variety) and cherimoya (deliciosa variety)

This weekend was a bit different, since we got introduced to all the chicks and ducks Lani has. The ducks are a happy family who spend the whole day in a beautiful yard, overlooking the city of Covina. We are told that kids and teenagers love to just hang out at the fence and look at pretty birds. We are definitely looking forward to having some delicious chicken and duck eggs over the next few days, and I managed to put in an Easter order, but these are so pretty we may not even have to color them.


Cherimoya on the left and beautiful Ophelia in my hands on the right (she won't grow any bigger)

We also got to participate in a cherimoya tasting, where we needed to rate them for exterior and interior color and looks, texture, sweetness and flavor. It's funny because we had bought one the week before at the farmer's market and did not like it at all. It was a huge surprise and relief to taste the amazing cherimoyas that Greg had picked. We had several varieties of which Deliciosa and Fino de Jete were out favorites. If you haven't tried a cherimoya and it's available in your area, don't miss your chance, since the season lasts about a month. Buy cherimoyas green and wait until the outer surface has turned lightly brown and a tad soft to the touch. To eat, remove the stem with a knife and slice the fruit in thick wedges. Eat the soft and custard-like flesh and discard the seeds (we are told in some parts of the world those are used as insecticide, since they contain toxins).


The ducks are so sweet and cuddly, I had no idea they could be held just like pets!

We will be going back to that happy and enchanting yard soon and I will have more stories to tell as spring and summer roll around.

Sweet and salty strawberry dessert

This dessert is a favorite three ingredient celebration. I have a long lasting relationship with coconut in all its forms: coconut water, the fresh nut, milk, cream, flakes, flour, powder, and butter. I use it both to eat raw and cook with and I swear it is the single most amazing and luckily healthy ingredient that I would not give up if you had me choose just a few to keep in my pantry. Yogurt is something every Bulgarian child grows up with. In its plain form it can be eaten on its own, mixed with fruit, veggies or nuts and it goes well as dressing on most vegetarian dishes. You could even cook meat in a yogurt sauce and it comes out tender and juicy. There isn't much I can tell you about strawberries that you don't feel yourself: they are the single most aromatic and colorful fruit you could choose for any dessert. I even cooked some with spices this week and they were heavenly.

To make this 2 minute dessert, I used all the above:

Serves 2:
2 cups plain yogurt
1/2 cup coconut cream
10 small or 5-6 large strawberries
2 inches vanilla bean
vanilla salt for sprinkling

Mix the vanilla bean with yogurt and coconut cream and separate in two bowls. Add the cut strawberries and decorate with vanilla salt. If you don't have vanilla salt, you can make your own by mixing 1:1 sea salt and vanilla bean. The color is intensely brown and buttery. We bought ours from Didi Davis, but you can easily make your own and keep in a small jar for decoration. Vanilla salt goes great on chocolate, cookies, ice cream and cheesecake.

Cacao beans and how much they can do for your yogurt ...and your health

If you are like me you probably love the taste of chocolate, but you don't like that you can never get enough (Lindor, anyone?). I find that with less processed types of chocolate like our favorite ChocoVivo it takes a lot less to be full. If you trace chocolate back to it's origins, it all starts from the cacao pod and the cacao bean. If you have never seen them, they are quite impressive and really make you appreciate all the hard work that goes in between picking the fruit and roasting the beans and providing you with a simple package of happiness you get to open on a lonely night.

But how do you do that guilt free? You can get the benefits of chocolate minus all the lower quality ingredients that stimulate your appetite, save the sugars and the emulsifiers and whatever the manufacturer put in there to get you to eat more by simply going back to the source and have the cacao bean.

The bean was so valued by the Aztec and Mayan civilizations that it was practically used as money. You can get whole or crushed beans in most health food stores. The beans are crunchy, they have a nice deep flavor and a great slightly sweet and bitter aftertaste. They are extremely satisfying if you are craving chocolate.

The cacao bean is a stimulant, so it's great to add it to your afternoon or pre workout snack or if you are looking at a long day at work, where you need to focus on complex tasks. It's an amazing brain-food, a potent antioxidant (even stronger than green tea and red wine), it combats depression, helps your heart, and it's told to ease the mood swings of pregnancy. You can use the cacao bean crushed on top of desserts or just eat it in trail mix or on its own, as a snack. I like it sprinkled on my breakfasts and snacks, and as an ingredient in sauces like mole.



Just yesterday I had this awesome pre workout snack. This is all you need to make 1 serving of cacao nib and almond yogurt:

1 cup plain yogurt
3 tbsp almond meal
1 tsp cocoa nibs to top
1 pinch nutmeg

Mix the plain yogurt with nutmeg and top with the almond meal. Use cocoa nibs to finish. If you enjoy the sweet taste, you can add honey or maple syrup for a nice sweet touch.

Let me know how you used your cacao beans and don't forget to get some ChocoVivo chocolate for the next best thing. My favorite flavors are coffee vanilla and Mayan traditions. Oh my, I think we are out!

Mini salads and chocolate mousse...a Valentine's dinner report

I hope your Valentine's day dinner was as tasty as ours. While everyone was crammed in restaurants or still rushing to get to their reserved table for that special day, we did what we do best - we cooked together.

Roland made some amazing Parmesan crisps while I prepared pepperoni and cream cheese rolls and cut some really good smoked and peppery Mahi-mahi. Meanwhile, for the traditional shots of Bulgarian rakia, we needed some shot sized salads.

Taster spoons are a great way to raise the party spirit, since they make serving and eating anything fun. These particular ones in the shot were a timely gift from Roland, but if you are not so much into tiny cute porcelain objects, you can always get disposable tasting spoons at Amazon (they even have bamboo and biodegradable ones now, so you don't have to feel bad).

shot-sized salad

To make shot sized salad, I used:
10 pear tomatoes
1/6 avocado
1/4 cup cilantro
4 Calamata olives

I chopped everything up very well, added a tsp of olive oil and some salt and divided it in the spoons. You could serve practically any salad this way and really impress your guests.


avocado chocolate mousse with a touch of chile pepper

The chocolate mousse-mousse is an all time favorite from the second volume of The Art of Real Food. We faced a huge culinary challenge in that volume, since we wanted all the meals to be strictly vegan. Avocado came to the rescue, providing the best texture to house the rich chocolate flavor we wanted to experience. For Valentine's day, I added a touch of chile pepper, which is always nice if you want to perk up the chocolate aftertaste.

To make 4 small or 2 large servings, you need:

2 small avocados
8 tbsp water
6 tbsp brown sugar / 3 tbsp honey
8 tbsp cocoa powder
1 inch vanilla pod

In a pot over medium heat, melt the sugar with the water, scrape the vanilla bean inside, and slowly add the chocolate powder, stirring until you get a smooth chocolate mixture. In a blender, blend the avocados and start to add the cooked chocolate. Mix very well. Cool after you have served it in smaller or larger bowls and sprinkle a tad of chili powder on top right before you offer it.

Chocolate mousse always make me think of this guy, and I can't help posting this :)

Gently spiced sweet and salty cookies

Remember our friends over at MARX FOODS?

A couple of months ago, they asked their fan bloggers to choose three ingredients and cook something with them.

I chose star anise , Madagascar vanilla and Demerara Sugar.

I love the shape and flavor of anise and vanilla gives a soft depth to dishes that nothing else can, sugar is rarely in my kitchen, but in small amounts, it blesses food with occasional sweetness and if used sensibly it can give you a lot of taste and enjoyment without adding anything extra to your waistline.

These cookies are an explosion of flavors, the first bite meets you with Himalayan salt and dark chocolate, and then butter, vanilla, anise and brown sugar melt on your tongue. The aftertaste is sweet and deep and you cannot eat too many of them, which is what I like best.

This recipe will make about 25 cookies.

You can keep it simple and skip the chocolate and salt and have your cookies plain or you can go the whole way and have a flavor feast.

Here is what you need for the dough:

1/2 cup butter, cold and cut in small cubes
1 1/4 cup flour (mix of rye and wheat)
2 egg yolks
1 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp Demerara sugar
12 anise seeds (take out from shells and grind)
1 inch vanilla (scrape out inside)
1 tsp fine Himalayan salt

to coat:
2 oz melted dark chocolate
Himalayan salt crystals

In a large bowl, combine the flour, spices, salt and baking powder. Mix well. Mix in the egg yolks and stir. You will have large flour crumbs as a result. Mix in the butter and use your fingers to combine everything well until you have a soft uniform dough. Place it in the fridge for 30 minutes. Meanwhile preheat oven to 370 F (175 C).

To make the cookies, use a flat surface coated with flour. Roll out the dough and cut out 5 mm thick shapes. Bake on a baking sheet for about 20 minutes. Remove and cool off before coating with chocolate if you choose to do so. To coat with chocolate, dip each cookie in melted dark chocolate (melt over medium heat in a small pot immersed in boiling water or in a double boiler), then place on a sheet to dry and sprinkle Himalayan salt on top.


You can store the cookies in a cookie jar until someone sneaks them all out, and if they survive, probably for about a week. Place some star anise inside, to keep the wonderful flavor alive.

Meanwhile, head over to Marx and yes:

Christmas cookies and the date plum fruit

Merry Christmas! I hope today and the rest of the holiday days are filled with warmth, health and happiness!

What's Christmas without cookies? It's like Christmas without gifts or a Christmas tree! So here are some Art of Real Food style cookies, both healthy and delicious!


To make about 40 cookies, you would need at least 2 hours. You can start making the dough on day one and finish baking on day 2.

First, get your hands on some pretty shapes so you have hearts, trees, elk, stars or crescents for your cookies. Then, you are ready to start.

For the dough, you need:

3 cups flour (rye and spelt)
1 tsp Himalayan salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp grated ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tbsp ground cloves
1/2 tbsp nutmeg
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup honey (or molasses)
1 egg
1-2 tbsp sweet red wine or port
flour for rolling

Raw cookies, small before baking, but see after?

You can add nuts and raisins, too

Mix all dry ingredients together (flour and all dry spices, baking soda and salt) and set aside in a large bowl. On the stove, over medium heat, melt butter, grated ginger and honey (molasses). After they have melted thoroughly, start slowly whisking the liquid and the egg into the dry ingredients. In a while you will have sticky dough. Put that in the fridge for an hour or overnight.

After you take the dough out, take a small portion of it out (slightly bigger than a baseball) and put flour on it so it's completely covered. Rolling it out into a 4-5 mm thin sheet. Use cookie cutters to cut shapes out and place on a baking sheet. Bake cookies in a 375F (180C) oven for about 20 minutes and store in a cookie jar.

If you like, you can add raisins, nuts or more spices to your cookies, but the better you make them, the faster you'll eat them, so watch out!

What about the date plum tree?

Seems like a great time of the year to find a new type of fruit. My father stumbled upon it at the market, where the guy who sold it to him called it a Caucasus date. Seems like it's more popular for breeding persimmons since the roots of that tree make it large and sturdy.

Anyways, it was meaty, sweet and delicious. I don't think there will be many recipes with it coming, since it seems to be pretty rare.

Tiny date plums (Кавказка хурма )

Тhat's the sweet date plum inside

Wishing you all the best this Christmas! Be happy and healthy!

Pumpkin cheesecake with almond crust

It's pumpkin season and there is always some baked pumpkin in my fridge. I use it to make pumpkin soup, pumpkin hummus and pumpkin cookies, I use it as as a vegetable side, in other words, it gets used a lot. The last two cups of it went into a delicious cheesecake I shared with my friends, but I saved you a picture of a mini cheesecake I made on the side.

Here is the recipe for 10 pieces made in a pie dish:
2 cups pumpkin, cooked, drained
4 eggs, whole
10 oz reduced fat cream cheese
2 tbsp butter
1 cup almond meal
2 tbsp honey
2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon

Heat the oven to 300 F. In a pan, melt the butter and mix with the nutmeg and almond meal. If you like the sweet taste you can add 1 tbsp of brown sugar here. Use the mixture to coat the bottom of the baking dish. In a bowl, mix the eggs, cream cheese, pumpkin, honey and cinnamon. I like to use a blender because it's fast and the texture becomes very smooth and even.

Pour the mixture into the baking dish and cook for 45 minutes. Wait for it to cool off and please enjoy responsibly. Don't be selfish and keep the whole thing to yourself!

Honeydew sorbet

This summer inspiration came over dinner at Sage, my favorite place to eat in Sofia. The chef shared his melon sorbet recipe with me and his wife and a few days later I bring it to you with some minor modifications in the sugar content department. A quick Wikipedia search will show that sorbet is close to many other desserts, such as Italian Ice and Shaved Ice. I like to think of it as a healthy way to introduce cold freshness to your table without risking to break your carbohydrate or calorie budget for the day. It's also a great alternative for those intolerant to dairy (you can skip the mascarpone below and still have a great dessert).

To make 4 very generous servings, I used:

2 cups melon, cubed ( I used honeydew, but any kind will work)
2 cups water
2 tbsp honey
4 tbsp Mascarpone cheese
1 tsp vanilla extract

To make, heat up a little bit of the water just enough so you can dissolve the honey. Mix the rest of the water in and add the cheese and fruit pieces and vanilla extract. Blend on high and place in a bowl in the freezer. Two hours later, take out and blend again. Repeat in 2 more hours and you are ready with your sorbet. Before serving you may want to let it rest outside the freezer for 15 minutes so you can serve it easily.

You can do this with any fruit, peaches, strawberries, lemon and blackberries are my favorite!

Healthful decadence

I had my wonderful friend Gery over for dinner last night. We both like simple food that's rich in flavors of its own, and we like to indulge in greater variety after training hard at the gym. Having a nutritious meal post training is vital to recovery and this is the best time to place a larger amount of your daily calories.

Let me introduce you to some of the recipes I played with for that enjoyable evening.

Homemade fresh cheese with herbs

Shaping the cheese like a log makes presentation easy and nice!

You prepare this cheese this similar to paneer or ricotta. Here is what you need:

1 gallon milk (full fat, in my case, from a local farm)
4 lemons, juiced
tablespoon salt
2 cups yogurt

Boil the milk and while still warm, add the lemon juice, the yogurt and the salt. Let it rest for a while, until you see the whey separating from the curd. Place the mixture in a strainer lined with cheese cloth and let the whey drain overnight. In the morning, or in 8-10 hours, you will have cheese that you can shape into a log. I rolled my cheese log in dried oregano, fresh oregano, fresh thyme and sun dried tomatoes. To prepare the dry mix for rolling, all I did was to combine the herbs and the tomatoes in a blender.

Piece of herbed cheese over slow roasted tomato and topped with simple olive/basil pesto

Mini casseroles with slow roasted tomato sauce

To make traditional lasagna or casserole would result in two issues: you always end up wanting to have a second serving and it's hard not to overeat on it. Making mini casseroles in muffin pans allows for better presentation and easier portion control.

For 12 mini casseroles, you need:

2 cups quinoa pasta, cooked
1 cup slow roasted tomato sauce (just blend the slow roasted tomatoes with a touch of black pepper)
1 cup grated cheese (Swiss is best)

Slow roasted tomato, quinoa pasta and melted cheese on top

Place quinoa pasta at the bottom, cover with a tablespoon of tomato sauce and then top with cheese. Bake in a medium heated oven for 10 minutes or until all cheese has melted and turned golden. Serve with pesto sauce.

We really liked the casseroles and we actually used the leftover ones to take to work the next day. They taste really good cold, too.

Gery seemed to like the cherry on top of my Baked Cherries Vanilla Cream

What is dinner with a friend without dessert? Earlier in the week, I decided to bake some cherries. All you do is take the cherries, place in a small baking pan, add 1-2 tbsp of water, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar and you bake for 30 minutes stirring occasionally. Once out of the oven and cooled off, you can take the pits out after smashing the cherries with a fork. The tasty, caramelized aromatic meat is what I used in this

Baked Cherries Vanilla Cream

To feed two dessert connoisseurs, you need:

1/2 cup baked cherries with the juice reduction from baking
1 cup Mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup Philadelphia cheese
1/6 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp dried cherries
1 tsp vanilla extract

Prepare two bowls. In one, place 3/4 cup of the Mascarpone cheese and all of the Philadelphia. Add the baked cherries, saving 4 for the bottoms of the bowls. Mix well, preferably with an immersion blender. Set aside and mix the remaining 1/4 cup Mascarpone with the heavy cream, vanilla extract and dried cherries. Start filling the bowls, putting 2 baked cherries on the bottom, continuing with the pink cream and topping with the white cream. Use the remaining reduction juice from baking the cherries to drizzle on top. Enjoy responsibly as it may lead to overindulgence.

Dinner with friends make friendship last longer if you share not only stories, but also healthy, nutritious food. Let me know how you do it!

Cherry Cardamom Yogurt

Cherries and cardamom are a couple made in heaven. When I think of new ways to have my yogurt my mind searches through the libraries of spices, tastes and textures, stored in my head from trips, talks, movies, books...

There is something deep to the sweetness of cherries and it can easily be transferred onto the plain tangy nature of Greek yogurt. Cardamom adds the exotic note here and peeled almonds add even more coolness for an afternoon summer snack.

If you have never peeled almonds, all you need to do is soak them in hot water and the skin will come off easily in a few minutes. You can then use them for decoration or add them to recipes. Moms may like to know that almonds prepared in this way are linked to more breast milk production.

To make 1 large or 2 smaller servings cherry yogurt you need:

1 cup yogurt
1/2 cup cherries, pitted
8-10 peeled almonds
2 cardamom pods, crushed

Blend all in a blender or chopper and place in one large or two smaller bowls. Store in the fridge till you need a refreshing snack. If you choose to add water or coconut milk to this creamy yogurt, you will get a delightful shake!

Minty strawberry yogurt

What Americans call Greek yogurt and Bulgarians call strained yogurt is thicker yogurt minus the watery whey. Strain it a tad longer and you have yogurt cheese you can spread, or even something that can pass for sour cream if you are out and you pretend it's the real deal.

I like Greek yogurt, especially the ones that are medium fat, because you can get as much protein as you can from cottage cheese and still use it as a base for a sweet snack. In today's Saturday afternoon snack, I used:

1 cup Greek yogurt
1/2 cup strawberries
1 tbsp cranberries, dried
1 tbsp cream
1 ml vanilla extract
6 mint leaves
green leaves and half a strawberry for decoration

Blend the strawberries, yogurt, cranberries, mint leaves and vanilla extract. You could use any dried fruit to add sweetness, but red colored would be best. If you like your snacks even sweeter, feel free to add 1/2 small packet of Stevia. After blending well, transfer to a bowl, pour the cream on top to add a nice decorative touch and place strawberry and mint or other green leaves on top. Enjoy on a warm afternoon, since the combined cooling effect of yogurt and mint will leave you shivering on a rainy day.

Happy Saturday :)

2 strawberry desserts

large single serving no bake cheesecake

Gelatin is a gift when it comes to making something delicious last longer. Gelatin is tasteless, safe and usually derived from natural ingredients. It's used both as a filler and a thickener and as a way to change the form and shape of foods.

Today I had two tasks: to make dessert for a dinner party I was attending and to also keep a promise to a friend, who wanted to try my cheesecake...

Strawberries was the uniting theme and I proceeded as follows:

1. I took 1 lb strawberries and blended them with a blender
2. I used 2 packets of plain gelatin mixed in water and boiled over a water bath
3. I mixed in 4 tablespoons honey into the warm gelatin
4. I mixed 2/3 of the gelatin with the strawberries (you will use all of the remaining 1/3 in the cheesecake)

This way I had the mixture for what makes the nice red layer on top of the cheesecake and the Mascarpone and strawberry jello cups.

Armed with that mixture, I had to proceed with the cheesecake.

To make that single large serving (equal to 2 regular ones) I used:

3 oz cream cheese
1 oz ricotta cheese
2 whole strawberries
3 tbsp of the gelatin mixture

I mixed the cheeses with the remaining gelatin with honey and left aside. I cut a few strawberries to lay at the bottom of the bowl, then poured the cheese mixture on top. I placed in the freezer for 10 minutes and then poured the strawberry layer on top. Left in the fridge overnight, this looked so good, my friend almost passed out when he saw it.

Next came the cute Mascarpone cream and strawberry jello cups.

To make 6 of those, I mixed:

4 oz mascarpone cheese
1/2 of the strawberry mixture
1 tsp vanilla extract

I placed a slice of strawberry at the bottom of each, topped with the Mascarpone mixture and left in the freezer for 10 minutes. I then poured the strawberry layer on top and put them to rest in the fridge overnight. Dinner party was a success and everyone loved them!

single serving mascarpone cream and strawberry jello cups

I bet you can do this with almost any sort of fruit, add herbs and spices and introduce amazing variety into your life, all guilt free and manageable in calories.