Raw cottage cheesecake in a glass

After a few days of hot soups during summer, it's time for me to enjoy some desserts.

OK! Fine! I admit it! I've been eating secretly desserts the whole time I was sick. I'm out of control! And not even the good kind of desserts - but fat and processed sugar loaded crap.

But these cheesecakes are nothing like that. They're high in proteins, fiber and just delightful, because they're heavenly delicious and light.

Hey lil cheesecake, I wanna try ya! So right I had to make ya!!!

I still can not believe that Nelly's singing this song! First of all I didn't recognize his voice and second I never knew that he's tried my cheesecake. I'm a fan of yours too, Nelly!

Seriously guys, I haven't left the house for days and I'm going out of stuff to talk about. And out of my mind. This cold is slowly taking over my life, I feel like a lonely fish swimming in a fish tank.  And I feel so fat, which is not that dramatic, because with fish it's mostly Omega-3 fatty acids.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup hazelnuts (about 40g)
1/3 cup (20g) oats
15 raisins
1cup/200g cottage cheese
3 tbsp honey/agave
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup berries (fresh or frozen)

DIRECTIONS

1. For the base: Grind oats to flour, then add hazelnuts and raisins and process everything in your food processor. Take half of the mixture, place it into a small glass (u can use small jar, or like me a glass bowl) and spread it, pressing with your fingers, so it coats the base of the glass (try not to break anything). Do the same with the other half of the mixture, of course using another glass. Look down:

2. For the filling: process cottage cheese, honey/agave and vanilla until the mixture is very smooth. Shouldn't be more than 3 min, if your food processor is working properly. Serve as cottage cheesecake fingers (fingers dipped in the filling) or resist for the next step and do the whole thing. Spread over the base in the glass with a spoon. It should be smooth and be covering the entire base.

3. Process the berries for a short time and place them on top of the filling.

And you're ready! You have 2 raw cottage cheesecake filled glasses. Does not take more than 15 min to make them. Leave the cheesecakes for 1-2 h in the fridge to cool down, or if you're that bold (and beautiful btw) - start right away. My cheesecake didn't get too solid, so it's good it's in a glass. But it was so delicious I would dive into that small glass even if it's the last thing I would do. And it's guilt free, so enjoy it.

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Pasta bolognese

Hello hello!

My mission of getting fit is staring today! Yay! And because I have a cold, let's celebrate this with a big tasty portion of pasta bolognese.

Getting fit during the next 4 weeks will be a piece of cake. In other words, because I'm the worst cake maker in the world, for me it will be difficult. And with this cold even more so.

I make pasta bolognese a little differently than anybody else. My bolognese-version is healthy and it's not that dense in calories. Means if I don't eat the whole thing by myself tonight, I might not turn into a fat cow at midnight. At least Cinderella turned into a pumpkin - a healthy fruit-vegetable, not ground beef. Or maybe she didn't. John Grisham didn't report on that in The King of Torts. YET.

But enough about me and Cindy. Let's see what the pasta is doing.

Me: "Looking good pasta! Is your name Google?"

Pasta confused: "No, why?"

Me: "Because you have everything I've been searching for."

And then the pasta is mine. Best pick up line. Ever. I feel like fat Joey from Friends, when he said to some chicken or cheese nugget: "How you doin' "? I loooove it! And this video is such a great quality.

Anyway, I used whole-wheat penne for this recipe.

To anybody who's not exactly fond of whole-wheat products (like me) - I didn't notice any difference between this penne and regular penne. You cook it about 5 min longer, but that's it. Taste is pretty much the same. It doesn't contain less calories, but it has considerably more fiber and minerals. So do something good for yourself and start substituting regular pasta with the whole-wheat version.

INGREDIENTS

For the pesto (that's right I made a pesto for bolognese pasta):

1 cup basil leaves
1 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup chopped spinach
1-2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1 medium tomato - chopped
3 tbsp olive oil


....and the other ingredients are:

4 oz/ 200g whole-wheat penne
1/2 lb / 200g ground beef
3 medium tomatoes
1 carrot - chopped
some arugula to serve with
salt to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Cook pasta according to the label instructions. 

Meanwhile chop carrots, tomatoes, pesto ingredients, process just the additional 3 medium tomatoes to a tomato sauce in your food processor and then start preparing the the pesto. 

For the pesto: you simply put all the pesto ingredients in your food processor until you have a mixture that looks somewhat like this: 

This pesto is not just very healthy, but it's also alkaline, so it somewhat neutralizes the acid our bodies form while metabolizing the pasta and ground beef. You will not need all the pesto for this pasta, maybe half of it. You can keep the rest in your fridge for at least 5 days (that's the longest I haven't used it after preparation)and use it in other dishes - like pizza, pasta, bread and so on.

2. Once you're ready with the pesto start with the ground beef. In a large non-stick pan put first the ground beef and add some water (not more than 1/3 cup), cover with the lid and let it steam for a few minutes. Once the meat is not pink/red anymore remove the lid and let the meat cook, until there is no more water in the pan and the meat gets brown-ish.

3. Stir in the fresh tomato sauce and 1/3 cup water and cover the pan again. Cook for about 5 min at medium heat.

4. Add 3-4 tbsp of the freshly prepared pesto, stir in, salt to taste. The sauce should not be too fluid, but thick. Turn off the heat, but leave the pan on the cooking plate.

5. Add the cooked penne, chopped carrot and stir together until all the penne is covered with the bolognese sauce. Cover the pan and leave for a little (about 2 min).

When you're ready the carrot should still be crunchy. Not only do I like the taste better like this, but vitamin losses (B, C) are also reduced. And because you consume the carrot with some fat sources (olive oil, sunflower seeds, beef) you absorb more beta carotene than if you eat a carrot alone.

And serve with some arugula. I know I add arugula to almost everything, but it's pretty great, so sue me for having good taste.

Makes 4 servings: about 360 kcal per serving with a lot of vitamin A, B, C, iron, potassium, zinc, magnesium. But like Notorious B.I.G. said in his song - More portions, more calories. Be aware of that, while enjoying this deliciousness.

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Pizza with coriander and zucchini

Now that I've had some time to think about my panic attack from three days ago, I realized I'm overreacting and decided that one month is a lot of time to get out of my whale costume!!!!! Bring out the disco ball I'm celebrating! And what do I do every time I celebrate?? I make pizzaaaa!

P is for the way I praise you
I is for the way I ingest you
ZZ is for how zero zero, I care about guilt my dear-o
A is for Arugulaaaaaaa

Love this song! No wonder it's a classic.



So I made this vegetable pizza yesterday and it was delicious. On Friday I ate pizza with some friends and it was very exciting! I can eat pizza every day! But I shouldn't! But I want toooo!!!

PIZZAPIZZAPIZZAPIZZAPIZZAPIZZAPIZZAPIZZAPIZZAPIZZAPIZZAPIZAA!!!!



Normal people would just write PIZZA one time and copy-paste for the next eleven! But I'm not that lazy! Today I even did some exercises and now all the typing, so many movements....Come on, I should get some activity award or something. Sometimes I feel a little pathetic because I'm asking for all those awards, but nobody gives me any and there's still a lot of place on my shelf. It's getting kinda dusty.

Speaking of which...Dustin Hoffman is a great actor and I'm a fan of him. I bet he won some awards. Probably for The Graduate too. I'm probably the only person who's first read the book (last year) and watched the movie after (this year). Next picture is neither from the movie, nor from the book. It's of the coriander pizza!



To summarize this highly intellectual monologue about art and dining out - I will stuff in my body everything I want to eat this week (which means until tonight) and next week I'll say Adios Pizza! Bonjour Salad! PIZZA! Salad I mean!SALADSALADSALAD!



But this pizza is also one of the healthier ones. I used coriander and not basil or oregano for the sauce and it was very delicious. It's really weird that up until 3-4 months ago I didn't even like coriander. Anytime I was eating at an Asian place I would remove all the coriander from my plate (not by eating it). I just couldn't stand that smell. And now I love it. I guess people really can change. If anybody ever tells you people don't change, tell him this life changing story of mine. I allow you.





To the recipe. 

INGREDIENTS

1tbsp olive oil to coat the backing tray

....and that's it....!

Just kidding!

For the dough:

1 cup/0,2 l warm water
1/5 of fresh yeast 
1 tbsp olive oil
a pinch of salt
2,5 cups/350g all purpose flour

For the sauce/pesto

3 medium sized tomatoes
1 tbsp sunflower seeds
1 bunch of coriander/ 1 cup leaves chopped

optional: dried chilli

Further pizza topings:

up to 15 thin zucchini slices
5oz/150g mozzarela
10 black olives

DIRECTIONS 



1. Dough:

1.1. Grind the baking yeast, add the warm water and salt and mix until you get a homogenous fluid. Leave for 5 min.

1.2. Add olive oil and last but not least (not at all!!) add the flour by stirring all the time until the mixture is not fluid anymore and you can work with your hands.

Actually if you have a food processor - just do 1.1. and with 1.2. you can add all of it at once and just process until it's not fluid anymore and you can just massage the dough with your clean beautiful working hands.

1.3. Roll the dough in some flour (dough should be soft but not FLUID!) and leave it for 20 min to rise. While waiting start with chopping vegetables, cheese for the sauce and topping.

1.4. Massage the dough :), cover with enough flour and roll out.

1.5. Then transfer it in the oiled baking tray and move on with your life.

2. Sauce - process chopped tomatoes, chopped coriander, sunflower seeds and dried chilli (optional) to a semi-homogenous mixture. Spread the sauce with a spoon all over the rolled out pizza dough (in the baking tray).

3. Spread first mozzarella, then the thinly sliced zucchini and black olives over the entire pizza (like I did - Exhibit A: the picture below).

4. Preheat the oven to 400 °F/ 200 °C/ (for nerds like me it's 473 K, but if you're a real nerd you would know that, wouldn't you?). Insert the pizza in the lower part of the oven (not the middle!!!) and bake at 200 °C/400 °F/ 473 K for 30-35 min (1800 - 2100s).



5. Cut the pizza in 6 pieces and serve with some rocket salad.

Makes about 300 kcal per piece. I ate 3 pieces and it was all worth it! I have no regrets.

While you're baking, please check on the pizza (and on the dough - it should be golden or slightly brown) after max 20 min. After all every oven is different and you don't want the pizza to look like coal (or taste like that). You want it to look like the after picture above. Although maybe not like the low left corner of the after picture.

This part of the pizza was eaten by a strange mouse, who survived the 200 °C/400 °F/ 473 K in my oven. Yes, I  have a termophilic mouse and I now plan to make a lot of money with it. It can go trough flames, walk on embers, spit fire and all that stuff. You'll hear of it in the news. Soon!




But wait. I remember. It was not a mouse. It was me who ate it, after I took it out of the oven. I couldn't wait for the gazillionth time to eat before taking a picture.


Damn! Now I will not become a trillionaire thanks to the mouse. Good bye Bentleys, Ferraris, Geiger counters, monocles, beach houses, male models and new blenders.

You enjoy the pizza, I now have to live with that. And the fact that I'll be eating clean for the next 4 weeks.

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Bulgur with kidney beans and some veggetables

So people, the eggplant and bulgur saga continues. Now that it's out there, the fact that I substisute rice with bulgur, I'm gonna give you some recipes with my favourite grain. That being said, you can still pretend to be surprised when you see my next post. Spoiler Alert: it also contains....

........B....U....L....G....U....R.....!!!

And I am ....B....U....L....G....A....R (I)!

Man I love surprises. That's why I was totally ecstatic when I found 2 other eggplants that were about to die in my fridge today.

I don't know why but today I'm not really good with my jokes.

- When have you ever been? - you ask.

- Shut up! - I answer.

I so feel like John Grisham right now, writing these dynamic dialogues. It's like I'm there. In the scene! My heart is beating so fast and fats.

Speaking of Grisham, I've been trying to finish The King of Torts for 3 months now, and since one month I'm stuck on page 161. So 327 more to go...makes about another half a year. Hehe good times ahead. I've been sooooo busy.

But to the recipe, which btw John Grisham did not feature in any of his books. Which to me is 100% inapprehensible. Shame on you Mr. Grisham, writing about all those criminals and not about nutritious foods!

This meal on the other side is 100% vegan and 150% tasty. This is another recipe from my *use everything in my fridge* series.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup bulgur
1 can kidney beans, drained (have been there, not opened 1/4 year, i.e. 3 months)
2 of my beloved eggplants/aubergines
2 medium sized tomatoes
2 small green peppers
1 fresh onion
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup parsley
1/2 cup coriander
1/3 cup dill

DIRECTIONS

1. Put the cup of dry bulgur in a pot, cover with hot, boiling water and cover for 10 min with the lid. After 10 min - TADAAA bulgur is ready.

2. In the mean time chop, crop, dice, cut all the vegetables.

3. Put some olive oil in the big pan, that you always need to use when making my recipes (because I only have the one). Add the chopped aubergines and steam (cover the pan) for 5-8 min at second highest temperature.

4. Add tomatoes and bulgur, salt to taste and stir. Cover for 3-5 min.

5. Add the peppers and the kidney beans.

6. Turn off the heat and add all of the other vegetables and stir.

You can serve this with some green leafy vegetables like raw spinach or any vegetable salad suits well actually. As seen in the picture above moi served it with some cucumbers.

The whole thing makes 3-4 servings, depending on how hungry you are. In my case - 4 servings, which means 350 kcal per serving. Packed with fiber, iron, magnesium, zinc, folate and vitamin C.

Enjoy everyone and good night!

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