My first picture!!!!! And Glycerin

Dear all,

today I made the granola bars using the recipe of the Basic Granola Bars (told you I make them all the time). Today I added half a cup of "some sour berries" (not joking, that's what I have written on my container... but I think it is cherries), half a cup of sunflower seeds, 1 cup of choco chips and 2 medium sized eggs (instead of one XL egg - which has become the standard size in this country).

I decided to make pictures of it. They came out really bad :(  Here are the two that I think came out ok - but you'll be the judge of it.

Actually, my hubbi and I had a discussion earlier on about granola bars. He had checked at work some and saw that they were full of unwanted ingredients.
By chance I had bought some (yeah, I know) for convenience purposes (they are about 100cal each... takes the thinking process out). I had checked them and didn't see anything that was totally obvious. So, I gave DH the package and told him that theose are fine. There was however, one ingredients that I didn't know what it was "Glycerol". I thought it was some kind of sugar (it was right next to sorbitol). Well, we checked it out and turns out that it is Glycerin.

Now, before you jump the gun, glycerin is not dangerous for you (well, are we not relieved) but it is just something that is totally beyond me why people would choose to eat it. Here are just some foods you find it in: Mentos (sadly enough for me as I LOVE them), tortiallas (don't ask me why) and now, as I had to find out, granola bars... Oh, and usually you find it in soaps and medicines next to being used to make nitroglycerin...
Again, glycerin is something very usefull, but not something I wish to digest.

Mix-in-the-Pan Chocolate Cake

This is a standard cake that I make when I am running low on eggs as it doesn't need any. Quick to make  

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1c. granular sugar

1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa

1/2 tsp. salt

1 T. white or cider vinegar (something that doesn't have a strong flavour)

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/3 c. oil

1 c. water

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Prepare cake mold.

Combine all ingredients and mix together; the batter will be almost smooth, a few small lumps are ok and will disappear in baking.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.  Remove the cake from the oven, let it cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning it out onto a rack. 

Tip: You can add chopped nuts, fruits or chocolate chips

Turkish Bulgur Salad

I originally come from Berlin which has a large Turkish population. I love Turkish salads. They are quick to make and usually quite healthy.

Bulgur salds are just one example of it. In fact, Bulgur is used quite a bit in Turkish cooking. Since it is Ramadan at the moment, I thought it would be nice to add something from around the globe that is quick to make, taste great, is lean on the waist line and my bank account.

Prep Time: 15 Minutes  Cook Time: 15 Minutes            Ready In: 1 Hour

Servings: 6

3 tbs olive oil

1 onion, cut very, very fine

1 ripe tomato, cut into small cubes

3 cups broth

2 cups bulgur, rinsed

1/2 cup cooked green lentils

1/3 cup cooked chickpeas

1 bunch fresh mint, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the onions cook until golden, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and cook for an addition minute or two. Add the broth and bring the whole mixture to a boil.

Stir in the bulgur and season. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook at a simmer until the bulgur begins to soften (takes about 5 minutes). Add the lentils and chickpeas and cook for another 3 to 5 minutes – the bulgur needs to be tender and the liquid should have evaporates.

Remove from heat and cool for about 30 minutes. Fold in the mint just before serving.

Angelic pudding

I am preparing for Master Chef. Yes, my dream is to actually get in J I know that this season is already closed (I was too busy with other things) but hopefully next season I will make it.

One of the things that you need for Master Chef are quick but tasty dishes. The judges always throw a surprise challenge your way. You just HAVE to be prepared.

This one is a pudding that, unlike rice pudding, is made with Angle Hair pasta (Vermicelli) and cardamom. Cardamon in Arabic and Hebrew is called הל (Hel – pronounced like Hell just with a long E). It can also mean halo or aurora …. Thus the name

I personally use a light cardamom infusion as I am not the biggest fan of cardamom…

You can eat it both warm or chilled – which makes it great to take with you to work or a pot luck.

Prep Time: 10 Minutes Cook Time: 15 Minutes            Ready In: 40 Minutes

Servings: 4

  

1  l milk

5 tbs white sugar

5 cardamom seeds

1 (500gr ) package Angel Hair/vermicelli pasta, broken into small pieces

1 handful of raisins

Mix the milk together with the sugar and the cardamom seeds (slightly crack them if you want a stronger taste) in a saucepan. Bring to a near boil (careful that the milk will not over boil) then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 5 minutes (make sure that the milk will not burn at the bottom). Stir the pasta and raisins and continue to simmer until pasta is tender and the cream sauce has thickened, about 5 more minutes. Remove from heat and let stand until warm, about 15 minutes. If the pudding is too thick you can stir in a little bit more milk

Please tell me what you think of it.

All out onion pie

I have started on a 1200-cal diet and finding recipes that fit the bill is sometimes a bit of a struggle. The diet I follow has 3 meals and 3 snacks, where dinner is made up of about 300 cal (give or take…)

This is an onion pie that, including a salad, has about 300 cal. I adapted to meet my dietary requirements and with whatever is available in this country.

My kids LOVED it (they asked for seconds) and so did my husband.

2  large onions – 1 normal and 1 red, cubed or sliced

  2 leeks - white part only, sliced

 8 green onions, chopped

 1 bunch of chopped chives (either the normal one or the garlic ones)

4 tsp. oil

 250 gr 5% white cheese (or cottage)

 2 tablespoons of natural yogurt

 4 eggs

 4 tbs all purpose flour

 1 tsp baking powder

   1 tbs mustard

 3tbs soup granulates

Salt and black pepper to taste (I don't use any salt as I think the soup bouillon is salty enough)

 Preheat the oven to 180 degrees medium heat.

 In a large frying pan, sauté all the onions and the leek in the hot oil for about 10 minutes – stir frequently. Don't put the heat up too high so that it won't burn. Add a little bit of water as needed.

Add the green onions and chives and sauté for another 5 minutes. Add the flour, the soup mix, the baking powder and the flour. Turn down the heat completely and gently fry for another 4 minutes.

In a bowl, mix the eggs and cheese together and season to taste.

 Mix the cheese-egg mixture into the onion mix and mix well. Put everything into a baking or pie form and bake for about 45 minutes until golden.

For a 300 cal meal you need a fifth of a pie and a side salad.

Viccyssoise - French Potato and Leek Soup

I love Viccyssoise and my husband, first totally unsure about this one cause of the leek, always wants seconds when I make it. I have several ways of making this one, and all of the recipes I have are really easy to throw together, light on your budget and yummy in your tummy J

Prep time: 10 minutes    Cooking time: 30min                 Serves: 4

• 6 large potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
• 8 leeks, green trimmed off, washed, and chopped into largish chunks
• 3 stalks celery, cleaned and again chopped into large chunks
• 1 medium onion, peeled and quartered
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 quarts stock – can be chicken or vegetable
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (equals to about 125 gr butter) at room temperature
• 1 cup heavy cream
• salt and pepper to taste

In a large soup pot, put the vegetables with the bay leaf and chicken stock over medium-high heat and bring to a boil, then turn heat down to a gentle boil and cook about 10 to 15 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender. (Don’t boil too hard or you will end with yuky potatoes.)

Mix the flour and butter in a small bowl until they form a dough like mixture.

When the potatoes are fork tender, put the flour-butter mixture into the soup and mix, don't worry if you get big blobs of that stuff in your soup, we'll take care of it later on. Add the creamand season with salt and pepper to taste.

Remove the bay leaf (I always call it happy hunting) and puree the soup with a stick blender until smooth. If you don't have one, just ladle the food into your food processor in batches. Just be careful that you won't get any hot soup spritzing on you.

Once your soup is as smooth as you want it, you need to continue to cook it over low heat stirring frequently for another 15 minutes – the soup needs to thicken up. Be careful that the soup doesn't burn

Serve it with some hearty bread.

Basic Granola Bars

I love granola bars – they are quick to grab when you are on the run (in the morning or when I am going out to the playground with my kids), brilliant for that "I need something right now" snack in the afternoon (I work 10 hours a day, so I really do need something small). My kids love them as well, as they are sweet and come in great varieties.

I usually make my own rather then purchase them. They are quick to make, have no preservatives and unknown ingredients (you know what I say: If you cannot pronounce it, it is most likely not natural and should not go into our boddies)– oh, and you will find that they are not too heavy on your budget too.

I have a few basic granola bar recipes. Here is one that I like to make which has peanut butter, oats and honey, and whatever the kitchen holds.

Prep: 20 min. Bake: 15 min. Yield: 20

1/2cup natural peanut butter

 1/3 cup honey

 1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 3-1/2 cups old-fashioned oats

 1/2 cup packed brown sugar

 3/4 teaspoon salt

1   cup semisweet chocolate chips

In a large bowl mix the first 4 ingredients together. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well (the batter will be rather sticky).

Transfer to a 25 by 30 cm (or there off… honestly, I have no idea what the size is, I have one dish that I can adjust to my needs) that has been laid out with baking paper. Bake at 175C for 12-15 minutes or until set and edges are lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack. Cut into bars.

You will enjoy these, and make them again, and again and again... you get the point :)

Variations:

Exchange the half cup of oats with wheat germs.

Exchange the peanut butter with Nutella (or something like that)

Exchange the chocolate chips with nuts and fruits (or just reduce the quantity used)

You can dunk the finished bars in melted chocolate to make them look like the stuff you get in shops

In place of the chocolate chips and 1/3 cup of oats, I used 1 cup of dry crushed, crispy cereal.

If you want them crunchier, just cut them into bar size, put them on a cookie sheet and back them again at 175C for another 15 minutes

Varieties are seriously endless.

My Safta raba's Knish Kabak

This is a recipe from my grate grandma who originally came from Moldavia. I don't have many recipes from her, but remember her food was always totally delicious - she passed away when I was 8 or 9 years old and I still remember (says something about her cooking :) )

Serves: 16

puff pastry or phyllo sheets for 2 portions
500-750 gr fresh pumpkin, grated
1 cup raisins
2 tbsp. each sugar and flour
1/8 tsp. salt
ca. 2 tbsp. oil

Preheat the oven to about 175C (moderate hot).

Prepare a baking pan by covering it with baking paper.

In big bowl mix the pumpkin, raisins, sugar, flour and salt.

Take one phyllo sheet and brush it with some oil. Arrange half of the pumpkin on the dough (on the lower end). Sprinkle some oil on pumpkin.
Start rolling the phyllo sheeet up (i.e. away from you). Fold in the sides continue to roll, try to keep the roll as tight as possible. Put the finished roulada on a baking pan. Repeat with the second leaf.

Brush some oil on top of the rouladas.

Bake at 175C for about 35 or until nicely browned.

In my grandma's family Kabak is eaten either hot with our main meal, or, as my grate grand dad prefered it after dinner (but before desert).

Berry much of a breakfast bar

The consistency of this is more of a cake then a bar but still very yummy and quick to throw together. You can change the fruits to whatever is on sale

Servings: 16

1.5 tablespoons oil

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 till 1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon (depending on how strong it is)

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 pinch ground nutmeg

1 tablespoons vinegar (anything that is not too strong flavoured)

1/3 cup juice – apple, berry or cranberry.

1 1/4 cups fresh blackberries

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 165 C. Line a 20x20 cm baking pan with baking paper, letting some of it hang out on the sides so that you can pull the cake out easily afterwards

2. In large bowl mix the wet ingredients together.

3. Combine the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and stir to combine. Fold in the blackberries.

4. Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake at 165 C for about 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Let cool in pan, lift out and cut into squares.

Square meets lemon again - Lemon Bar 2

Really lemony, really easy and totally delicious!!! And again, not for those of you who watch your waist line J

Prep Time: 20 mins  baking time: 50 minutes  Yield: 8-12 bars

For Base

2  cups flour

1/2 cup powdered sugar

150 g. butter (1 American sized stick of butter)

For filling/top

4  large beaten eggs

2 cups white sugar

1/2 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

fresh lemon rind from one lemon

Prepare a 30*25cm backing tin by lining it with baking paper (let some of it hang out so that you can pull out the lemon squares more easily).

Preheat oven to 175C

For the base mix the flour and sugar together. Work the butter into this mixture until it all sticks together (will resemble crumbs). Press into the  backing pan. Bake at 175C for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned.

For the filling, beat together the eggs, sugar and lemon juice. Add the flour and baking powder into egg mixture and pour over crust. Bake for another 25 minutes at 175C.

Cool and cut into bars.

No-wait Pizza base

Although Pizza is not something that we eat often as I don't perticular like it, however, my family does so I do have a few recipes kicking around.

Here is a recipe that is real quick, requires no waiting (except for the starter to go foamy and then another 5 minutes rest time) and tastes way better then any pizza base you get in this country - take out or freezer.

Trust me, this recipe is faster start to finish then any take out you can get (over here from the moment I place the call till delivery is 45 minutes and it is usually slightly cold when it gets here).

1 pack yeast (fresh or active dry)
1 tsp sugar
1 cup look warm water (make sure it is not too hot as it will kill the yeast)
2 1/2 to 3 cups flour (plain works fine, I usually use bread flour)
2 tbs good quality olive oil
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to very high (about 230C).
In a bowl disolve the yeast with the sugar in the water. Let in stand until foamy. Depending on the water temperature it can take up to 10 minutes - this step is called "proving the yeast"

Add the flour (start with 2 1/2 cups), oil and salt.

Mix with your hands, adding flour as neccessary, until you get a smooth dough. Let the dough rise for 5 minutes

Put the dough onto a slightly floured surface and roll it into a circle. I often put it on a floured baking sheet, pat and roll it to the desired shape.
Transfer the dough onto a baking tray (or pizza pan if you have one). Spread the toping of your choice.
Bake at 230C for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.

Enjoy!!

Creamy Tomato-Salmon Gnocci

Went pantry shopping yesterday :) I had smoked salmon in the fridge that I originally wanted to use for Sushi but knew in the deepest of hearts that there is no way I will be making any this week. I also had Gnoccies lying around that I had not used as I wanted (frying them with onions and serving them with a salad and steaks).
The other thing I had was spring onions - I bought some to plant it. I still had some left over after I potted them. And last but not least, there was some cooking cream that needed to be used up or binned soon... Soooo this is what I came up with. It was quick, totally yummi (my kids loved it!!! My DD actually asked for seconds) and will feed four adults.


You will need:

6-8 springs onions, green and white part cut into fine rings
1 tbsp olive oil
2 handfull cherry tomatoes, halfed
200gr smoked salmon, cut into stripes
1 pack cooking cream (15%) - it is about 1 cup. (you can of course use 10% or 35%, I just used what I had at home).
Pinch of nutmeg
Salt to taste
2 packages gnocci

Cook Gnocci according to instructions. When ready drain.

While the Gnoccis are getting readdy, heat the olive oil in a pot. Add spring onions and fry gently for about 2 minutes.
Add the tomoates and fry until they get a little bit wrinkled (about 3 min). Stir frequently.
Add the salmon and fry for another minute.
Add the cream and bring the mixture to a boil. Season with nutmeg and salt. I personally don't need the salt as I find that the salmon is salty enough as it is.
Mix in the Gnocci and serve.

Tip: If you have any leftover, you can heat the whole thing up by adding just a little bit of milk.

Basic Picante Sauce

Quick, easy and way better than any store bought stuff. And you can easily adjust the level of spicyness of the sauce

1 large white or yellow onion, chopped
1 fresh jalapeno pepper
6 medium tomatoes
6 tablespoons vegetable oil (I usually use canola/rapeseed)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 tablespoon fresh, finelly chopped cilantro

Remove the stems from and tomatoes and chop into 1/4-inch pieces.

Preheat the oil to medium temperature in a large frying pan. Add the onions and saute for about 10 minutes or until tender but not brown. Add the remaining ingredients. Turn heat to medium-low and simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove the jalapeno pepper after simmering the mixture.

If you want it spicier, cut the jalapeno open, remove the seeds and cook it (then remore) or cut it finely with/without seeds (with seeds is going to be much spicier)