Light summer salad

by Unknown | on Thursday, July 18, 2013 | | | | | |
Yes, it's another salad! I don't know how you've guessed it - is it the picture or the name of this post? Or maybe it's just a gift - the gift of guessing.

Anyway it's so ridiculously unbelievably and unpleasantly hot, I just want to throw myself in a cold water somewhere, doesn't matter how dirty and stay there!!! Today I didn't even want to eat anything normal, I just had this salad and it was enough. Usually I would have this salad as a side to something - meat, grains, fish, but now...shame on me! OK tonight I'll probably eat something pretty serious, because nobody can beat Mr. Hunger, but for now I'm good.

I don't even think you need an ingredients list - tomatoes, cucumbers, dill, parsley, olives, some olive oil and salt to taste and you're ready!

Now I don't even have anything else to say, I'll look for some place to cool myself off!

Spinach, chickpea and bulgur salad

by Unknown | on Tuesday, July 16, 2013 | | | | | | |
Whyyyyyyy???? Why is it soooo hot? I can not concentrate on anything, besides trying not to sweat, and I'm telling you, that's not working out very good for me either.

 I hope you're as excited as me about me going to the beach in 2 days. Yaaay!!! Are you? You don't have to answer that, just keep on nodding. I think I will not come out of the water for hours. Pretty much like in my childhood, when I would spend all of my beach time in the water and would come out only after my lips are purple-blue. Aaaaahhh best memories ever!

But before I go, I'm still trying to lose some belly, so I can look like a slimmer whale on the beach, and not like the fattest one. And now I'm eating mostly alkaline - mostly salads, wraps and watermelons (love love love love love watermelons). I have to admit everything is really delicious and I feel a whole lot better than during the times when I was eating mostly pizza, burgers and sweets. OK, those times were less than 2 weeks ago, but hey 2 weeks is something right?

I make this salad and it's variations really often, and mostly it's my lunch at the office. I don't feel sleepy afterwards, so I can still work, so that's probably good for some reason.


INGREDIENTS

2 cups spinach
1 cup chickpea (canned)
1/2 cup cooked bulgur (1 cup uncooked bulgur makes about 3 cups cooked - you can store it cooked in the fridge for at least 5 days)
1 small tomato
1 small cucumber
1/3 cup chopped parsley
handful of arugula
dill
olive oil
salt

DIRECTIONS

As for all the salads preparation is really easy - one of the many good things about salads. You just wash and afterwards chop all the vegetables and herbs (spinach roughly). Place vegetables, herbs,  chickpea and bulgur in a bowl, add some olive oil and salt to taste and you're ready to serve, even better to eat. Does not take more than 20 minutes and afterwards you don't have to take a nap.

Bulgur with broad beans

by Unknown | on Wednesday, July 10, 2013 | | | | | |

Hello bulgur lovers (and soon to be bulgur lovers like my mother)!

To be completely honest here I just tried to copy a recipe from my aunt. She made this very delicious dish for Christmas with rice and broad beans. It was the first time I've eaten broad beans in my life. More than six months have passed since then, and I still can not forget this dish. I've tried to get over it with other dishes...lots of them. Nothing worked. Two results - a fat belly and a broken heart.

And the saddest thing is I couldn't even buy broad beans, because they were not in season. I've tried with dried and canned, but they tasted disgusting (to put it delicately).

This month my torture was over, because I finally found broad beans and was able to make a dish similar to the one my aunt made. Of course I substituted the rice with bulgur, are you kidding me? Not that I'm an enemy of rice, but bulgur is more nutritious and very easy to prepare.

INGREDIENTS

1 kg/ about 2 pounds fresh broad beans (large)
2 cups bulgur
1 bunch parsley
1 cup of spearmint
2 onions
2 tbsp dry basil (if you have fresh - even better, put as much as you like)
1 tsp paprika (ground red pepper)
salt
olive oil

DIRECTIONS

1. The first thing you need to do with the broad beans is free them out of their pods, boil them for 1 min and free each bean out of its coating.
Removing the beans from the pods


Free broad beans with coating
And after just 1,5h of pure fun BAAAM - all the broad beans are freed out of their pods and coats and are ready to get steamy.
Broad beans without coats
At some point I felt like I've been uncoating broad beans a lifetime. But if you listen to some nice music you might even not have the urge to hang yourself. I recommend that.

If you don't want to use all the broad beans right away, you can put them in a freezer bag and freeze them. They should be good for about 1 year, so you'll have some time to think about what you want to do with them.

2. Next - in a large non-stick pan, at medium high temperature, place the chopped onions, the broad beans, add some olive oil, paprika (ground red pepper) and the basil stir for 2 min, add some water (not too much - 1/3 cups) and cover for 3-4 min.
3. Add the 2 cups of bulgur and coat with water (about 1 cup, maybe you'll have to add some more) and cover the pan for about 7-8 min. Check every now and then, if there is enough water in the pan, and if bulgur and beans are ready.
4. In the end - turn off the heat, add chopped parsley and fresh spearmint, stir in and cover the pan for 2-3 min.

And then you're ready!!!

Now I don't remember anymore how many portions this made. But it was a lot, because I remember I ate it for 3 days, I even took it as a lunch at the office. And I have to say - it was very good, but after eating it for 3 days and peeling broad beans for 1,5 h I don't think I'll be making this dish another time this year.

Serve it with some salad - mine was tomatoes, arugula, hot green peppers and some olives.

Not another hummus recipe

by Unknown | on Monday, July 08, 2013 | | | | | |
Greetings everyone!

Hmm, I haven't posted anything here in a long time and my excuse is: I've been ridiculously lazy. Bad Stella!

Good news is, I will post all the recipes I've done lately during this and next week and on Friday next week I'm going back to my home country Bulgaria to spend some time on the beach, eat real food and just be lazy a little more. But!! At least this time I'll try to keep you updated on my laziness and on what's not going on in my life and in my kitchen.

On another note my back and neck are killing me and I want to kill the orthopedist, who told me that this is normal and I should do some exercises. I will do some exercises with a needle on a voodoo doll with your face on it!  It's called acupuncture, don't worry ;)

Before I start making the doll let's see what you need for this ridiculously (my favorite word lately) tasty hummus. Well it's not actually hummus. I like to make different things out of garbanzo beans - jewelery, clothes, paper, sometimes dishes and next up: voodoo doll!

Yeah, I made almost all of the above up - I use garbanzo beans just in dishes. But now that I think about it, what a waste, right?

Anyway, normally I just take one big can of garbanzo beans, open it, put the beans in my food processor and process the hell out of it with whatever I have in the fridge. Then tadaaa!!! Best dip ever! Every time I tell you! So yes this is the first hummus recipe on this site, but definitely not the last.

INGREDIENTS

1 can of garbanzo beans (chickpeas) (about 250g)
1 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp olive oil
1 dried chilli
1 eggplant/aubergine
some dill

DIRECTIONS

1. Start with the aubergine/eggplant. Wash it, make small holes all over it with a fork and then bake it at medium high heat until it's soft inside - just try with the fork. Take it out, put it in a bowl/pan and cover for 20 min. Afterwards remove all the fluids (they're bitter) and peel the aubergine.

2. Put garbanzo beans, olive oil, tahini, chilli and prepared aubergine in a food processor and process until smooth.

3. Put in a bowl or a plate and garnish with parsley, cilantro or in my case with some dill.

You can use this as a dip (with carrots, cucumbers, fingers work also), spread for bread/wraps or as a side dish.

Cinnamon chocolate balls

by Unknown | on Friday, June 28, 2013 | | | | | |
ginger cookies
Hello good people!

This whole being sick thing is getting on my nerves. It's the 4th or 5th day now and I'm still not amused. Not at all, but at least it's kinda getting better. So let's hope next week it'll all be better. And then I only have to be patient for one week to start doing sports again. Until then I can just somewhat control what I eat. My least favorite part of getting into shape. Anyway I made these cinnamon-ginger balls, covered in chocolate. Usually I would use dark chocolate, but I said to myself hey yolo! hahahaha yolo whatever that means, crazy kids these days!

So where was I?

Oh yeah, about the chocolate - well I used a whole milk chocolate. Sshhhhhhsh!!! Don't judge me! Or do, I don't care...because these balls were P*E*R*F*E*C*!T*!

INGREDIENTS

2 oz/about 50g hazelnuts (soak over night)
1 oz/ 25g raisins
1/3 cup/25g oats
2 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
whole milk chocolate for coating

DIRECTIONS

1. Grind oats to oat flour, add raisins and process. Then add the soaked hazelnuts. There should be small nut chunks in the mixture at the end.

2. Add cinnamon and ginger to the mixture - and it's ready. Form small balls (about walnut size like with the raw chocolate hazelnut balls) with your clean hands.

3. Melt chocolate - I did this in a hot water bath using a heat resistant bowl.

4. Once the chocolate is melted - coat the balls with the chocolate (use spoon, or just dip the balls into the melted chocolate, if I say melted chocolate again I might start drooling) and place them on a plate. Leave in the fridge to cool off.
ginger bread
And that's it. Although I used whole milk chocolate and I should probably go and seek a doctor right away, these balls still are better than any chocolate or cinnamon dessert you can buy in the store. So less judging and more trying, mkay? This made very delicious 8 balls, of which I consumed 8 in 2 days. You do the math for the rest. And it's about 80 kcal per ball.

See you soon or even better write to you soon!

Raw cottage cheesecake in a glass

by Unknown | on Thursday, June 27, 2013 | | | | | |
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.

Pizza with coriander and zucchini

by Unknown | on Sunday, June 23, 2013 | | | |


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.

Bulgur with kidney beans and some veggetables

by Unknown | on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 | | | | | | |
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!