Honey glazed chevre pecans

photography: Pm Sloan

Our friend Steve is exceptional - a wine connoisseur, an artist (who paints with wine), and the most friendly of all Trader Joe's people we've ever met. He helped us choose wine a year ago for our wedding and we've been friends ever since. This week he has an event at a winery where he's going to present some of his amazing art and I will be catering the event.

On Saturday we got together to sample some options for the event - endive appetizer boats, skewers, bruschettas, strawberries with cream. We had a whole bunch of honey glazed pecan halves left alongside soft rolled up goat cheese and we just put them together - let me say for an accidental recipe this was an all round winner.

All you need to prepare this appetizer is pecan or walnut halves, some honey and a log of fresh goat cheese.

To candy the pecans, heat up the oven to 375F. Coat them gently with honey and spread on a cookie sheet - cook only for 7-8 minutes and let them cool off. In the meantime take small pieces of cheese in your hand and roll them into a marble sized ball. Assemble each bite by sticking the halves together with the cheese in the middle and enjoy.

It's hard to think of anything that goes so well with some excellent red wine, but if you are not in the mood for it, just toss them on top of a fresh green salad.

Looking forward to Steve's event this week, this recipe won't be on the list, but now you know how to make it!

If you are in OC, check Steve's event in Costa Mesa this weekend.
In the mood to browse or purchase some of his work? Visit his profile on FineArtAmerica

Kiwi, cucumber and avocado tabbouleh

Parsley has officially moved into our fridge. From the look of it, it has kicked out lettuce, and it has almost replaced arugula, which I thought I would never see missing from the crisper. Ask my why - other than the clear craving that we have developed for it, it comes with some awesome health benefits.

A sprig of parsley may be a good decoration, but once it takes the center part of your plate, it now brings significant amounts of vitamin K, vitamin C, iron and folate - all of which we need to usually supplement with. So think of this salad as your supplement on a plate :) Of course, we need calories - and here avocado comes to save the day, with fiber, great fats and smooth texture. Then we need a crunch - boom - cucumbers provide crunch and cool. Something was missing though - so I added kiwi for the flavor and sweet and sour tang, but it ended up proving to be a great addition of vitamin C. As winter ends and we enter into spring this is one very green way to celebrate it!

To make 2 servings you need:

2 cups chopped parsley

1 medium avocado

2 small kiwis

4 persian cucumbers

juice of 1/2 lime/lemon

1 tbsp olive oil 

sea salt to taste

Clean parsley well. I like to soak it in a deep bowl of water with some salt and let the cleaning happen on its own. After I remove the rough stems, I chop it finely. Once done with the parsley, cut the avocado and kiwi in small cubes, followed by the cucumbers. Mix everything well, season with the olive oil, lemon juice and salt and let the salad sit for 20 minutes before enjoying ( I dare you!)

Hope this brings you satisfaction and joy, it certainly made us very happy :)

Apple chia pudding - a 2 minute holiday breakfast

The holidays are a time when you don't want to make a huge ritual out of breakfast: if anything, you want to make it fast, filling and get as little calories out of it as you can, so that you save some space for delicious and festive parties and dinners.

I've been making this simple Apple chia pudding and wanted to share it with you!

Here is what you need:

Serves 2:

1 large honey crisp apple

1 1/2 cups plain whole fat yogurt

2 tablespoons chia seeds

We like honey crisp apples because they add so much sweetness, but if you choose another kind of apple, feel free to add some honey or a touch of Stevia for sweetness! Grate the apple, mix with the yogurt and chia and set aside for 20 minutes. The chia seeds will soon grow in volume and thicken the pudding. You can add a touch of vanilla or cinnamon to spice things up! Enjoy in the morning or as a mid day snack - it will keep you full for a very long time.

Merry Christmas!

Polenta and tomato tart

You know I love slow roasted tomatoes, so I use any excuse to incorporate them into a recipe. This morning I went to the farmer's market with two wonderful ladies and an adorable little baby so we could all buy our favorite fruits and vegetables for the week ahead. I got some tomatoes that spent the nicest last days of summer in the sun and took them home to further condense the sweetness by slow roasting. 

 

What could I make from them? Hm....a tart. But how to make a tart without having to make the crust and using dough? Pre-made polenta to the rescue. You can read all about how polenta became a meal survivor approved item, here. You can make your own if the premade is not something you enjoy, either way, my recipe calls for ready made polenta.

To make 1 tart (serves 4), you need: 

2 cups polenta (cooked) 

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese 

1 tbsp olive oil 

12 or more slow roasted tomato halves 

4 oz feta cheese 

1 fresh tomato 

6 olives 

2 tbsp fresh herbs, chopped 

 

Preheat the oven to 375 F. In a bowl, mix the polenta, Parmesan cheese, and olive oil. You can taste it and add salt if you need to. Lay the polenta flat in a baking dish, and cover with the slow roasted tomato halves and feta cheese. Place thin slices of fresh tomato on top, and end with the olives. Cook for 25 minutes and 

sprinkle the herbs right before serving.  

I used sage, thyme and lemon basil to top the tart

This polenta tart is great for a late brunch, if you serve it warm, but you can also let it cool off and snack on it later. It also makes a delicious post workout meal. Let me know how yours turned out!

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!

Breakfast for yoga champions

I got home from yoga practice this morning and I felt like I had not eaten in days. The fridge sometimes looks like a cave on Friday mornings - our farmers' market loot from Saturday is almost gone, leaving a few basics behind. It's always refreshing to use simple food items to make a delightful meal - one that will sing from your fork with every bite, one that will make abundant energy flow through you.

To make this meal for one, I used:

1 tbsp coconut oil (we get ours from Tropical traditons) 
1 medium sweet potato, peeled, grated
1 tbsp cumin (whole)
pinch Himalayan salt
2 eggs

To prepare the bed of sweet potatoes, I grated and mixed them with the coconut oil and salt. In a pan over medium heat, I placed the potatoes and put just enough water (about 1/2 cup) to cover them. Once the water was evaporated, they kept cooking in the coconut oil until nicely golden around the edges. Then it was time to toast the cumin and add to the sweet potatoes. In the meantime, I heated about 4 cups of water in a deep pot and brought it to a boil. Once it was boiling I dropped the eggs and let them poach for about 5 minutes. The great thing about using a deep pot that does not have a huge diameter is that the eggs move up and down and don't stick to anything.

I served the potatoes laying them down evenly with a fork, placed the eggs on top, sprinkled some cumin and I was ready for my day. The combination of coconut oil and sweet potato is a melty, velvety, sweet and salty adventure for anyone who hasn't tried them before and a much awaited pleasure for everyone else.  Please enjoy responsibly, there will never be any leftovers, no matter how much you make.

Arugula flower salad

We've been shopping at a new farmers' market, and have encountered some unusual, delicious and beautiful ingredients. My favorite of all are arugula flowers. Yes that is correct.

Most greens end up flowering and while some cultures discard of the flowers or feed them to their chickens, others cherish, utilize and proudly display their flowered vegetables.

The farmer we get these amazing flowers from sells them like it's the most usual thing in the world, yet every week someone is delighted to try them, proceeds to hopelessly fall in love with the flavor and takes them home. The great news is because noone knows what they are, they are really cheap - they go for 2 dollars for a huge huge bunch at our market.

Here is how to use them:

Take home, wash thoroughly, inspect for insects (what, you thought only you like the flavor of arugula?) and pull off any larger green leaves. Then place the flowers in a vase or jar, just like any bouquet.

To make the salad above (serves 2) I used:

2 cups arugula
1/4 cup arugula flowers
6 slices prosciutto
2 oz hard Parmesan cheese, grated
1 plum
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

To make, tear the larger arugula leaves, tear the prosciutto, cut the plum in crescents and arrange on top, grate the Parmesan coarsely, and season with the vinegar and olive oil. Decorate with the arugula flowers, you can use them as a single flower or a few on a small section of the stem - this is your true cherry on top!

Enjoy immediately - the flowers are bursting with delicate flavor, you will love them!

Stuffed zucchini blossoms

Let's vote this the most elegant appetizer ever made and say no more.

A couple of months ago, while Diana and I were looking at exciting new items to prepare for the Art of Real Food, vol 4, I was looking online to see what people had to share about the taste of zucchini blossoms.

Someone said that they tasted like air. If that is the case, then they taste like the air in heaven and kind of look like they belong there, too.

You can buy squash blossoms at a Farmers' market, you can pick them in your garden, your neighbor's garden or convince your grandpa to look away while you destroy the future of what could have been the largest squash in his greenhouse. Either way, if you've ever bit into a warm, soft, airy and delicious stuffed squash blossom, you will find a way to get your hands on them.

A few years ago I talked to a Chinese lady who claimed the only proper way to handle a squash blossom was to stuff it with ground meat and then steam it. She was so insistent on it that it took me a couple of years to build up the courage to approach squash blossoms with another idea.

So I stuffed them with cream cheese, olives, and arugula flowers. Were they amazing? You bet!!!

Here is what I used to stuff 12 of them:

12 squash blossoms
3 tbsp cream cheese
1 tbsp arugula flowers (chopped arugula leaves will do the same job)
2 tbsp chopped black olives
a really small spoon
1 tbsp olive oil
pinch sea salt

And that is all. Cream cheese has enough softness to carry the saltiness of the olives, and arugula adds a necessary bitterness to the mixture to make it perfectly matched. If you don't have arugula, use an herb you like, such as basil or parsley, or dill weed or Verbena, you can make it work!

To make the stuffing, mix the softened cream cheese, chopped olives and arugula. Wash and dry the blossoms, making sure no insects are hiding inside. Open each blossom up carefully and stuff with a couple of teaspoons of the mixture. Close by twisting the ends together. Salt all of the blossoms lightly.

In a pan over medium heat, heat up the olive oil and place the blossoms inside. Wait until they have turned slightly golden and turn over. Take out by the stems and arrange on a plate to enjoy immediately. These are addictive, so be sure you will make them again. Experiment with different stuffing, such as ricotta and Parmesan, prosciutto, blue cheese, mushrooms, nuts and even seafood. You can bake them or steam them, just bear in mind that they really carry the flavor of the oil, so use delicious and flavorful oils you enjoy! Let me know how yours turned out!

If some of your squash blossoms don't open or break, feel free to put them in an omelet :) Maybe there is a hungry Paleo guy in your kitchen, too :)

Oven roasted salmon with sweet potatoes...

...and lemons out of this world.

Praise Frank Nicolas Meyer, said to have brought the Meyer lemon, a cross between a lemon and a sweeter citrus (mandarin or orange) to North America. Those lemons are my favored variety, and luckily, they are grown all over California. We get them at farmer's markets, pick them from friends' trees or sometimes even find them hanging over fences and about to fall of a tree (and yes, I sometimes reach up and get them, it's called gathering).




This recipe is one of the few that I have ever created specifically targeted at recovery from heavy training. As I have added more strength training back into my routine, a salad with feta cheese does not quite work for lunch anymore.

Please enjoy this nutrition packed meal after your training and let me know how you feel!

Serves 2

2 medium salmon fillets, with skin
2 sweet potatoes (medium)
1/4 cup coconut flakes
1 small Meyer lemon
5-6 Verbena leaves
3-4 Sage leaves
dash Himalayan salt
1 tbsp coconut oil
1/4 cup water



Preheat oven to 375F. Use a cast iron pan and place your ingredients down as follows: potatoes, peeled and sliced, salmon fillets on top of them, skin up, herbs, chopped next, dash of salt, half of the coconut chips and then the slices of Meyer lemon. Melt the coconut oil over medium heat and drizzle over the potatoes. You can add more salt to the potatoes if you wish. Add 1/4 cup water to the pan. Place in the oven for 25 minutes. Take out, remove the lemons from the top of the fish and place the rest of the coconut chips. Return to the oven until you see the chips turn lightly brown. This will give them a crunchy feel and makes for a wonderful combination on your fork, contrasting the delicious, soft flesh of the fish. Serve immediately while still warm.

For the love of eggplant

We recently visited Roland's mom, who invited us to stay over for dinner and served some delicious eggplant, tomato and cheese sandwiches, generously topped with basil. We've always loved eggplant and decided to play with the recipe a little bit and suggest serving eggplant with various delicious and highly nutritious toppings as an appetizer, rather than making it the main star at dinner.

This recipe is only a platform for developing your own relationship with eggplant (or zucchini squash or sweet potatoes or peppers or any vegetable you can use as a base for your toppings).

To make 2 generous servings, I used:

1 eggplant
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 avocado
3 oz feta cheese
2 oz olive tapenade
basil leaves for decoration

optional toppings: tomato salsa, caramelized onions, pine nuts, walnuts, pesto sauce, sour cream

Slice the eggplant in 1/2 cm slices. Coat them well with olive oil and cook them in an iron cast pan over medium heat. When they are ready, place on a serving plate and top each slice with avocado slices or paste (you can leave the pieces whole or mash finely as I have done above), and feta cheese or olive tapenade and feta cheese. Decorate with a fresh basil leaf and enjoy immediately, while still warm.

This recipe is in the company of many other delicious and health-boosting recipes over at Chowstalker, your primal source of cooking ideas and recipes on the net :)

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!

Morel mini kabobs

update: Thanks to Marx Foods for choosing this recipe to be the winner of the 2011 Morel challenge! We are touched and thrilled!

Our friends at Marx Foods had another exciting challenge - creating a morel mushroom hors d'oeuvre recipe. For that purpose, Roland and I were sent flavorful and beautiful dried morel mushrooms.

Your first encounter with the morel is like no other, they look like mushrooms that are more fit for a fairy tale book page, than for a kitchen counter. See them in nature, and I promise you can get lost in the marvelous texture, wondering how something this unusual popped up from under the leaves. I can see you thinking: "is this mushroom for real?''.

In Bulgarian, we call them ''frowning mushrooms'', perhaps to illustrate the deep wrinkles on their surface, but we had nothing to frown about when we cooked them. They were delicious!

It's not easy to come up with a recipe, specifically tailored to one type of mushroom. Enter the Flavor Bible, our favorite companion in tough times. The authors smartly lined up paragraphs upon paragraphs of items we could successfully match with morels, so we used our kabob idea and some inspiration from the list of flavor affinities! The result was more than we had hoped for.

To make 12 mini kabobs, we used:

12 teeny tiny potatoes
6 oz Fontina cheese
12 small dried Morels
2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
2 tbsp olive oil
12 bamboo skewers

We started with soaking the morels in a bit of warm water and letting them reconstitute for about 20 minutes. We boiled the mini potatoes and cooled them off. Then, we cut the cheese in 12 cubes. We lined a potato, a piece of cheese and a morel on each skewer. Then, we mixed the rosemary and olive oil on a plate and rolled each skewer so that the rosemary could stick. At the end, we heated a large non stick pan over medium heat and cooked the skewers on both sides, until the cheese had melted. If you feel like your cheese has melted too much, just take the pan off the heat and let it cool off before removing. Less than 5 minutes for each side of the skewer should do the trick and have the cheese cooked to golden and slightly crispy. Let the mini kabobs cool off slightly and serve with rosemary. Enjoy with your favorite dark beer or a glass of red wine.

To get your fresh or dried morels, head over to Marx Foods. You can also check out their extremely rich morel recipe section!

Coconut almond pancakes

It's breakfast time...at this time of day I know what gets me sustained and great energy is eggs. There are so many egg recipes here on Eat Love and Train, that I am sure you know that by now.

One thing that doesn't get me going in the morning is grains: give me flour, cereal, a cookie...and I can just go back to bed. Don't bother waking me up because I will be cranky anyways!

I find that most of my clients who don't do great on grains in the morning, find that coconut flour satisfies a lot of their cravings for a pancake or waffle type breakfast, so I decided to share my favorite coconut pancake with you.

This pancake recipe uses coconut flour and almond meal, which both give great texture and accompany my favorite eggs in a one of a kind way. To add an extra benefit, they are cooked in coconut oil - rich in MCTs - those fats that can be readily used for energy and that will supply you with the fuel you need for your workout or stressful meeting.

To make two large pancakes, you need:

2 eggs
2 tbsp coconut flour
2 tbsp almond meal
1-2 tbsp milk (depending on type of coconut flour)
1 tbsp coconut oil

honey to top

In a bowl, mix all ingredients. Heat a skillet over medium heat and heat 1/2 of the coconut oil ( you will need the rest for the second pancake). If your batter looks too thick, use 2 tbsp milk instead of 1. Coconut flours vary in how they absorb liquid and so you may need less or more. Pour half the batter in the middle of a pan and flip when you see that the sides of your pancake are golden brown. Set aside and melt the rest of the coconut oil. You are ready for your second pancake.

I love to top these with honey, but feel free to use a topping of your choice, experimenting with cream cheeses, ricotta or even cooked fruit!

Enjoy!

Каle chips

You might have heard of kale, seen it at the store or even cooked it. Kale is extremely nutritious and is full of antioxidants, anti carcinogenic elements, and last but not least - Calcium. Think of kale as cabbage with lots of texture that is extremely easy to prepare. You can steam it with some garlic, nuts, chili powder and raisins or cranberries, add mushrooms or meat. For vegans, it becomes a great option mixed with couscous or quinoa.

I love green veggies, especially spinach and dock, and even though kale is cabbage, I like to think of it as a leafy green and choose to like it more than broccoli.

If you like crunchy food, you will LOVE kale chips, since they provide a lot of nutrition, but very few calories for the enjoyment. Here is what you need to make them:

For a couple of servings, you will need 4-5 kale leaves. Wash thoroughly with water (I like to soak them in water with some salt added to it), rinse well and pat dry with a towel. Cut the tough stems out and then tear the leaves into bite sized pieces. It's time to preheat the oven to 325 F. Place the pieces of kale on a large sized paper covered cookie sheet and drizzle with some olive oil. Sprinkle sea salt on top. To add spice, you could also sprinkle some black pepper or paprika on top. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Make sure you watch the chips after the 8th minute because depending on their texture they may start to turn crispy earlier. Remove at the first sight of brown, since the more brown they turn, the less you will enjoy the taste.

Serve on their own or as a side to scrambled eggs, the combination is unbeatable!

Sweet potato casserole

One sweet potato can go a long way, like in this sweet and salty and very delicious breakfast casserole. If you are carb conscious, you probably make sure you take in enough protein and fat every time you have carbs, and you are careful not to eat too many carbs at one sitting. This recipe offers it all: just enough sweet potato for texture, color and wonderful taste, and plenty of eggs and soft cheese to boost the protein content. Eggs are an excellent source of choline and high quality protein! You can read more about the many benefits of eggs in this excellent recent article by nutritionist, writer, coach and female role model Cassandra Forsythe.

But let's get back to our casserole, and its ingredients

Serves 2:
1 small sweet potato
3 eggs
3 tbsp cream cheese
1 tbsp butter
4 tbsp milk
2 tsp Himalayan salt
2 tsp cumin seeds

Preheat the oven to 400F (200C). Peel the potato and use the peeler to slice the whole potato thinly. Line the bottom of the casserole dish with the potato, place the butter on top, pour 2 tbsp milk and place in the oven for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs, cream cheese, cumin, salt and the rest of the milk. Pour on top of the sweet potatoes and return to oven until the casserole turns golden, it takes about 25 minutes or so. You can grate and melt some cheese on top and add that extra layer of delicious. Serve warm or cooled, it's great both ways!

Roasted pepper hummus

We just visited a Turkish restaurant last week. I ordered hummus after the owner insisted that he had '' the best mmm ... hummmus..." and it really was the best I'd had in a long time. It was smooth, had just enough tahini and they had been easy on the garlic. It came with a generous serving of beef on top and was extremely satisfying to the last bite.

Our lunch reminded me of how much I love hummus, yet I must admit I rarely take the time to make it. You may remember my recipes for red beet hummus and my favorite pumpkin hummus, which was so good that it made the second volume of the Art of Real Food. Today's hummus is also a variation off of the original hummus recipe, with some ingredients omitted and some skillfully added. Enjoy!

Serves 4 (but really you want it more to serve 2, it's so good)

1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (you may use canned)
2 large red roasted peppers (freshly roasted and peeled or canned)
3 tbsp fresh cilantro (or parsley)
1/2 small lime (juice only)
1 tbsp pine nuts
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
optional: clove garlic: crushed

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. You can serve with vegetables for dipping, use as a side dish to accompany various meats or baked potatoes, or as a sandwich spread and wrap filling. I served it with baby carrots and some boiled eggs today, and it was really really good. Please let me know how yours turned out!

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.

Minimalist quiche with oat bran crust

It has been challenging to work with just a few ingredients for breakfasts, but I bet that's how many great recipes started. I was surprised to see how well this one turned out.
I love quiche, I just don't love what the crust does to me...it's so loaded with carbohydrate and calories that I can barely eat it more than once a month on a pretty busy day.



This morning I used oat bran to substitute for the crust and the result was so good, I decided to share the idea with you.

For two servings, I used:
1/2 cup oat bran
2 eggs
30 grams feta cheese, crumbled
2 tbsp chopped sun dried tomatoes (feel free to use peppers or fresh tomatoes or olives)- do not drain
dash pepper

Preheat oven to 400F (200C). Coat the bottom of a casserole with the oat bran. Place the sun dried tomato pieces on top. If your sun dried tomatoes came without oil, sprinkle some melted butter on top. In a bowl, scramble the eggs and cheese, season with the pepper and pour on top of the bran carefully distributing until the whole surface has been covered. Bake for 20 minutes and enjoy immediately.

You can always add shredded cheese on top and melt for an even more delicious breakfast. Feel free to experiment and let me know how it was!

A very apple weekend

The weekend started with apple pie and ended with apple sauce, and in between, we had some raw apples.
I made the pie on Friday, after Roland's son asked me to make him pie and there they were, two hours later, two mini pies that the boy ate in 24 hours. We don't eat pie, but we used some of the apples to make cooked apples with coconut and rum and they turned out pretty good.
I will only share the applesauce recipe with you, since I don't want to tempt you into trying pie, but oh well, here is the picture anyways.



Applesauce is a whole different story, since you make at least 4 servings from just two medium apples and it gives so much satisfaction for the calories.



Here is how to make 4 servings of applesauce. You need:

2 medium apples
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp butter

Place the two apples(don't peel them) in a steamer and steam for 15 minutes. Take out, let them cool off a bit and scoop out the flesh into a blender or chopper. Discard the skin and seeds, and any hard parts. Blend the apple flesh until it's smooth. Over medium heat cook that with the butter and cinnamon for about 5-6 minutes or until you feel the warm caramel smell. Don't forget to stir constantly.

You could use the applesauce as a part of your breakfast, or to flavor yogurt. If you added some chili pepper it could turn into a great sauce for cooked meat, it's your call how to use it, so please let me know.

Wishing you a great Monday and a happy start of the week!