Recipe: Mix of chinese vegetables and beans

In one of my Yahoo groups we share a recipe once a month. I've been a bit lazy about sharing mine lately but this month I tried a new recipe and decided to share it. I've been trying to eat more vegetables and less meat so I've been looking for new recipes. I've also been watching a lot of Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver shows where they use a lot of greens and so last week I decided to try my hand at inventing something... well, not really inventing. After all everyone can sautee vegetables and the ones you can use are endless and a matter of taste really. These were my choice:

Soy sprouts
Pekking cabbage
Pod peas
White beans

Heat olive oil over medium heat in a frying pan, add some garlic cloves, sauté for a few minutes until they become translucent. Add the soy sprouts, the pekking cabbage and the pod peas and in a low fire let it cook for a while. Add some apple cider vinegar and soy sauce at will. Youcan only sautée them for a few minutes but I prefer to leave them till they wilt. Then add the already cooked beans and some ham cut in small cubes and let them gain the taste.

Quite simple isn't it? And tasty too! Sadly the photo doesn't really do it justice...

Comfort Food

I've been having a couple of stressful weeks lately and sometimes there's nothing like a bif of comfort food to cheer me up. One of things that always work when I need comfort is chocolate, I just love it when it melts in my mouth and tastes so good... I like milk chocolate and dark chocolate the best, depending on my mood but I'm really easy to please and anything except white chocolate works for me- I'm sure a lot of you feel the same way. ;-)

One of these days I decided to try a new recipe that A. had tried and recommended. Well it was a winner at my house too and I loved it so much that I decided to share the recipe. Some of you may already be familiar with it especially if you watched Nigella Lawson's cooking shows or bought her book. It's called Chocolate Pistachio Fudge and it is so yummy!

Above is a picture of the product of my efforts and here is the recipe!

More Cookies

So recently I've tried 2 more cookie recipes, the Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe by Nestle that Alex sent me:

350g flour
200g Nestle chocolate chips
8 table spoons of condensed milk
250g melted butter
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of vanilla
salt

1. Preheat the oven at 180°C.
2. Mix the flour, baking powder, vanilla and salt.
3. Beat the butter and the condensed milk and add the eggs.
4. Mix everything together and add the chocolate bits.

Spoon the mixture on to a baking tray, slightly flatening each cookie with a fork. Cook for 15-20 minutes till they are golden.





And the Chocolate Coconut Squares that I found here. Both worked out very well and were really easy to make even if the chocolate chip ones came out a bit on the giant side again.

Christmas Recipes: Muesli Cookies

One of the things I had planned for this season was to bake more and find some good cookie recipes. I usually go to my mom's for Christmas so I have no big traditions at my house but I wanted to find something that would be tasty and easy to make that I could take when we go for Christmas dinner. I decided I would ask friends for some nice recipes and would try them out.

The first recipe was shared by Alex who directed me to this site. I couldn't find some of the ingredients so I kind of adapted it to fit what I had:

50 g flour
50 g brown sugar
1 egg
50 g milk (actually I just added a bit not to make it too liquid)
100 g Muesli (it was supposedly just 50g but I thought more would taste better and add consistency to the mix)
1 small spoon of baking soda
50g vegetable butter

Pre-heat the oven at 200º. Mix everything. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10 minutes until the edges are light brown.

Note: my cookies look a bit on the giant side because I used a tablespoon, next time I'm going to use a tea spoon.

I'm still looking for more recipes so if you have any favourite recipes you would like to share leave me a comment.

Tuna Pie

Another experiment that worked well!

Ingredients:
2 tuna cans
Zucchini
Pumpkin
Turnip
Coriander
Onion
Olive oil
1 white cheese
1 egg
Puff pastry

Cook zucchini, pumpkin, turnip, coriander with a pinch of salt. In a frying pan fry an onion in olive oild till it's golden. When the vegetables are cooked mix them with the onion and use a blender to shred them in smaller bits. Add the tuna and the cottage cheese.
In a pie dish place the pastry so as it looks like a pie shell. Put the vegetables in it. Beat the egg and pour it on top.
Put in the oven and wait till a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30 minuts.

I originally found the recipe here

New Recipes At Last

As promised this week I started trying some new recipes again, the first one was this Broccoli Crunch that we ate for dinner adding just some grilled chicken breast cut in small portions. My photo doesn't look exactly like the one in the recipe but I can assure it tasted very good and it's certainly something to repeat in the future!

The Best Cook!!

I am determined to start trying new recipes again and posting them here as I did before. So far I've only bought a couple of books and magazines to inspire me but soon I'll get to it.

For now it's still L. who does the most yummy food, don't you think so looking at the picture above? I think the main difference between us is that he likes to cook and I just do it because I have to. Believe me, that makes a huge difference! He is definitely the best cook in the household!

The picture above is roast pork with potatoes and chestnuts.

Rosario's Spinach and Chickpea Stew

Rosario sent me a new recipe this week and yesterday we tried it for dinner. It was a winner Ro! We both loved it!

Spinach and chickpea stew

Serves 3 - prep time 10 mins, cooking time 30 mins

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, finely sliced
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 level teaspoon chilli flakes or chili powder

Couple of cloves of garlic, chopped

400 g tinned chopped tomatoes
400 g tinned chickpeas
150 spinach (baby leaves preferred, but could be regular spinach)
salt and ground black pepper

to serve:
Yogurt (thick set if possible)
Warm Middle Eastern flatbread (like pita)

Pour the oil into a medium lidded saucepan and gently cook the onion for about 10 mins, covered, stirring periodically to prevent burning. Add the cumin, coriander, chilli and garlic and cook for a minute longer, stirring.

Add the tomatoes and cook for a further 5 - 10 mins, until reduced, stirring periodically so it doesn't burn.

Rinse the chickpeas well then drain. Add them (and some boiling water, if necessary, if too reduced) to the pan. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for some 10 mins longer.

Add the spinach in stages (torn into smaller pieces if not baby spinach), so that you make room for more as it wilts. Stir it in as you add it.


As soon as all the spinach has wilted, serve warm with a dollop (or more, to taste) of yogurt and warm flatbread.

Pasta Fagioli Soup

Ingredients
2 chicken sausages, halved lengthwise and sliced
3 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup uncooked small seashell pasta
2 cups coarsely chopped zucchini (about 2 small zucchini)
1 can stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1/3 cup shredded cheese


Preparation
Heat a large saucepan over high heat. Add sausage; cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add broth and pasta; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 4 minutes. Add zucchini and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 2 minutes. Stir in basil, oregano, and beans; cover and simmer for 3 minutes or until pasta and zucchini are tender. Sprinkle with cheese.


I found this recipe in the Cooking Light website via Elvira's Bistrot and it was our dinner last night. Cooking Light seems like a really interesting site and I think I'll try some other recipes they have there.

Cooking Light Recipes

Still trying to make low calory dishes here's what we tried last night:

2 big turkey steaks
Salt & Pepper
2 smashed garlic cloves
1 tea spoon of oregano
4 slices of ham (or something similar)
2 slices of cheese
200gr of sliced bacon


Pre-heat the oven at 200º. Season the meat with the salt & pepper, the garlic and the oregano. Spread it on an aluminum foil and put the cheese and the ham on top. Roll it so the cheese and the ham will be on the inside and cover it with the bacon. Then roll the aluminum foil around it and take to the oven for 25 min. Take out of the oven, remove the aluminum foil and take it to the oven for 10 min more till it looks golden. Eat with sauteed vegetables.

It was yummy and check the original recipe here because their photo is much better than mine!

Soup

We're ready to get back on track with the diet so yesterday I decided to make a soup for dinner. It had to be a satisfying one so I decided to throw together some things I had in the fridge. Some meat, bacon, cabbage, one onion, small potatoes, beans and some little bits of pasta. It was really yummy!

Chocolate Cake

I'm supposed to be on a diet but there's something about chocolate cake I just can't resist!

Chocolate and Cookies Cake

I've been reading slower this month but hopefully tomorrow I'll have a review ready. In the mean time I leave you a picture of the cake L. made last weekend. It was yummy and of course now it's all gone!!

Fish Puff Pastries

I was looking fot something original to cook for dinner using fish when I saw A. post about the spinach pastries and had an idea. What if I adapted them to fish? I was a bit worried as my adventures in the kitchen don't always end well but this time they did and L. loved it...



Recipe:
2 fish fillets
Cockles
Schrimps
1 leek
1 onion
salt and pepper
2 egg yolks
olive oil
1 piece of frozen puff pastry

What I did was to boil 2 fish fillets for 5 minuts with little schrimps and cockles and then cut the fish in small pieces.

Then in a frying pan I cooked 1 onion and 1 leek cut in small pieces. When they were golden I added the fish, seasoned with sal and pepper and pour white wine on top of it. In a separate pan stirr 2 egg yolks and then mix it with the fish and vegetables.

I spread the puff pastries and cut it in 2. In each of the halves I put half of the fish then closing them and taking it to the oven for 30 minuts at 200º.

We ate it with spinach and cheese so not that far away from the original recipe!

Cooking Again

Although Holly's cooking challenge is over I'm still trying to cook some new (and healthy) recipes. One of these days it was Salmon with Orange and Leeks:

3 Leeks shopped in slim slices
3 onions shopped in slim slices
6 soup spoons of olive oil
1,5 dl water
Salt & Peper
4 Salmon fillets
2 soup spoons of shopped parsley
1 orange
Saffron
2 laurel leaves


Pre-heat the oven at 220º Put half the olivel oil in a frying pan with the onion slices and let it fry for 2 min. Add the leek slices e 1 dl of water. Season with salt and pepper and let it cook till the water evaporates. Season the fillets with salt, pepper and the chopped parsley.
In a bowl mix zest and juice from 1 orange. Add the rest of the olive oil, the laurel, a pinch of saffron, the, the rest of the water, salt and pepper. Mix everything.

Put the leek and onions on a baking tray. Over it put the salmon fillets and then pour the orange sauce on top of it. Bake in the oven for 20-25 min at 220º.

I served it with a boiled vegetables with mayonnaise.

Holly's Cooking Challenge

Ok so I ended up cooking new things but not taking photos nor posting recipes as the weeks of Christmas and New Year were pretty hectic around here. Since the challenge was just for December (although I must say I really enjoyed planning and cooking new things and I'll probably keep doing it) I decided to finish it by sharing the recipe of the Pear Crumble I made for New Year's Eve:

3 pears (you can also do it with apples)
150g sugar
200g flour
150g butter
Cookies
Port wine
Cinnamon


Melt the butter and mix it with the flour and the sugar. You should mix it with your fingertips so it will look like breadcrumbs. Peel and cut the pears in small pieces and put them on a previously buttered baking tray. Pour the port wine on the pears and sprinkle with cinnamon. Cover the apples with the crumble topping and take it to the oven for 30 min on a 180ºC temperature. Smash the cookies and cover the top of the crumble with it.

Happy New Year

Photo of the Pear Crumble I made for last night, recipe to be posted soon.

Holly's Cooking Challenge - Week 3, Recipe 1

Baked Codfish with Corn Bread

This was our dinner the other night and it was great and, as usual, very easy!

4 cod fish fillets
300g corn bread
2 onions
olive oil
garlic cloves
flour


In a pan warm the olive oil. Roll the cod fish fillets in the flour and put in the pan till it looks golden (both sides). Take it from the pan and add the sliced onion and garlic cloves and let it fry till it's golden too. Put the onion and the garlic in a baking tray, put the cod fish on top and over it put the corn bread (the inside only) cut in little pieces till it covers the fish. Pour the olive oil left in the pan on top and take to the oven in a medium temperature.

With this we ate potatoes that I cooked in a pan first and then added to the baking tray to finish it.

Holly's Cooking Challenge - Week 2, Recipe 3

Tonight we made baked salmon in aluminum foil. I had a recipe to follow but in the end we had to invent a bit, as I totally forgot to buy carrots, and used bean sprouts instead.

2 Salmon Fillets
1 Onion
Olive oil
3 Leeks
Bean sprouts
Soy sauce
Salt


In a pan put the olive oil and the onion and let it a cook a bit, when it's golden add the leeks chopped in small bit and the bean sprouts. When cooked add a bit of soy sauce. Put the vegetables in an aluminum foil with the salmon fillets on top. Close the foil and let it bake in the oven for 15 min. at 180º.



To go with this L. made pasta. He fried a bit of bacon and some scrimps and then added the pasta to the frying pan where he mixed everything with cheese and 2 eggs. It was a perfect dinner!!

Holly's Cooking Challenge - Week 2, Recipe 2

I tried a new one yesterday - Sweet and Sour Chicken Breasts

Ingredients
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
Juice of 1 lemon
Fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
Bean sprouts
Chinese Mushrooms (but I used regular fresh mushrooms)
1 small can sliced pineapple, drained and cut into chunks
Soy sauce
Cashews

Cut the chicken into thin strips and mix with the lemon juice and the chopped ginger. Leave to marinate in a non-metallic bowl for about 30 minutes.
In a frying pan heat the olive oil and mix the chicken breast with the mushrooms and the bean sprout. When it's partially done add the pineapple and the chashews. When cooked pour the soy sauce and mix everything. Serve with white rice.

It was really easy to do and tasted wonderfully! To repeat soon...