Mushroom and kale canneloni

A quick blog post with a rather delicious vegetarian recipe I came up with the other weekend when the InvisiblePinkKitchen was without its main carnivore.

As I'm writing this I. Enjoying the breakfast buffet at the hotel. I just can't resist breakfast buffets, and to be honest we are enjoying the breakfast buffetso thoroughly that we haven't made it to lunch at all. It's just all about breakfast and dinner, with a few caipirinhas in between. The hotel food is rather mediocre, but there is always fresh grilled fish which is great. Today we are off to try wind surfing!

Mushroom and kale cannelloni (serves 4):
For the Béchamel sauce:
750 ml milk
a few parsley stalks
2 bay leaves
10 black peppercorns
1/4 onion, sliced
60 g butter
30 g flour

For the cannelloni:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
150 g mushrooms
200 g kale
250 g ricotta
salt and pepper
cannelloni (I had just enough filling for 15 cannelloni)
grated cheese to sprinkle on top (I used Grana Padano)

The howto:
Start by preparing the Béchamel. Put the milk, parsley, bay leaves, peppercorns and onion in a large saucepan and slowly bring to a boil. This will take a while, and make sure you keep stirring from time to time so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. When milk has boiled, strain to remove the flavouring ingredients. In a large saucepan, melt the butter. Add the flour and keep stirring to make a paste stirring vigorously to avoid any lumps. Start adding the milk while stirring with a whisk constantly. Add the milk in small amounts to start, whisking all the time to incorporate the milk in the butter-flour paste. Keep adding and whisking until all the milk has been added and you have a smooth white sauce. Bring to a simmer and take off the heat.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C (400 F). To prepare the filling for the cannelloni, very finely chop the onion, garlic, mushrooms and kale. You will later be filling the cannelloni with a piping bag, so chop finely enough that it will be easy to do the filling. I used my small food processor and did the chopping in batches.

In a large frying pan, heat the oil to medium. Cook the onion and garlic until starting to soften. Add the mushrooms and cook another few minutes. Last add the finely chopped kale and increase the heat a bit if there is a lot of liquid in the pan. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Transfer the filling from the frying pan to a big bowl and let cool for a while. Mix in the ricotta and taste, adjust pepper and salt if needed. Transfer to a piping bag with a large opening and pipe into the cannelloni. Place the filled cannelloni in an oven proof dish and cover with the Béchamel. Sprinkle with grated cheese. Cook for 40-45 minutes, until golden and bubbling.

The verdict:
This was just something I made up in my head while walking around the grocery store and being inspired by the cannelloni pasta. As the designated meat-eater was out of the house I thought I would take the chance and prepare a vegetarian meal. I was thinking spinach and mushroom, but then I thought the kale might be a good option instead. This results in a very affordable meal large enough to serve at least four and it turned out really delicious. I didn't use any strong spices so the flavours from the mushrooms and kale would come through which they did. The creamy Béchamel and cheese topping worked really well, and he cannelloni were perfectly cooked al dente in the sauce. I will definitely be making this again.

 

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Steak and warm kale salad

I am less than a week away from my summer holiday in the sun. A multitude of maxi dresses have been eBayed and I'm hoping my huge sun hat will arrive in time. I need to nip by Boots for some sunscreen and some other summer necessities tomorrow, other than that I should be more or less good to go. Although I'm hoping all I will be needing is a toothbrush, a bathing suit and a few dresses.

I should start packing soon, as we leave on Monday. Incidentally we are having some of the Culinary Consultant's family over on Sunday for a BBQ (this was agreed on before the summer holiday had been booked, have to admit the timing is not optimal). And I need to make the whole BBQ menu dairy free... oh deary (or dairy, hehe) me, I have no idea how to make a dairy free pudding. Anything I can think of has milk or butter. Maybe Eton mess with coconut cream instead of whipped cream? Or a nice dark chocolate sponge cake with oil instead of butter? I shall have to turn to my dear friend Pinterest to figure this out. At least doing dairy free BBQ should be quite easy. No cheeseburgers though... And I am thinking of having a salad station where everyone can make their own salad, bowls of ingredients like lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, feta, onions, sweetcorn, chorizo and whatnot. I just want to make it as easy as possible. And I'm happy the Culinary Consultant will be left to clean up the mess while I jet away to sunny Cape Verde. So expect an update on Cape Verdian food coming up!

Today's recipe is perfect for a quick and easy weeknight dinner. It takes less than 15 minutes to prepare if you multitask preparing the warm salad and cooking the steaks, and it will help you get rid of those last few leftover handfuls of spinach and kale. I always have a bit of kale left and never a good idea what to do with it.

Steak and warm kale salad (serves 2):
2 steaks of desired size
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
150 g mushrooms
2 big handfuls of kale
2 big handfuls of spinach
1 clove of garlic
salt, pepper

The howto:
Slice the onion and mushrooms. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan, and cook the onions over medium heat until starting to soften. Increase the heat a bit and add the mushrooms. Let cook for a few minutes. Add the kale, and cook until starting to wilt. Add the spinach and finely choppped garlic. Toss well, season to taste and cook for another minute or so. 

Cook steaks to desired doneness. Let rest in foil wrap for a few minutes before serving with the warm salad.

The verdict:
This was something I just tossed together from the left overs in my fridge. I had a few traditional, "cold" salads over the weekend, and with the weather all overcast and chilly today I thought I rather have a warm salad instead. And it turned out rather nice even if I do say so myself. The kale was still a bit crunchy and the flavour of garlic came through really well. The Culinary Consultant, who is back from his weekend of debauchery also enjoyed it, although I served him some boiled potatoes with butter and mint to make it a bit more substantial. And I might just have had one or two of those potatoes when I tidied up after dinner. Leftover calories don't count! 

Brunch mushroom

I think I'm suffering from post-birthday depression. Or maybe it's just the miserable weather. Or the fact that the roads were really congested today when I was trying to get home. Or maybe the fact that my crafting mojo is gone and no-where to be found except for a few half-forced cards. I just think it's one of those days, or weeks. But hopefully the sun will return soon along with Mr Mojo and all will be well in the world again. I should be excited about my upcoming holiday, and plan holiday clothes and places to see and things to do. But to be honest, I think both me and Sis are looking forward to a really relaxing holiday with nothing to do but slouch poolside or on the beach, eat too much and read a ridiculous amount of books while going to bed early and sleeping in late. Which brings me to the big question - should I get a Kindle? Usually I read all my books on my iPad, but it's not very good in sunlight. But is it worth getting a Kindle just for a holiday? The Nook is a more reasonable price, but the books are so expensive. Choices, choices... Maybe I'll just go old school and buy paper, but I hate accumulating stuff. Well, at least other than crafting stuff. After having moved from one country to another you have a newfound appreciation for digital books, music and movies. If you could only get digital cookware as well...

Ok, enough rambling, and on to the main star of the show. As usual I wanted to cook something special for our weekend brunch. I had spied this recipe during the week and just had to try it. Anything with an egg in it will get a go in the InvisiblePinkKitchen. This recipe is slightly modified from the original, which can be found on a blog called This Gal Cooks. I added onion and bacon as I happened to have some lying around. I also replaced all the dried herbs with fresh ones from my garden. By the way, just to assure you, we do eat other things beside brunches from time to time in this house. One day I will post a dinner or lunch recipe, just to prove a point... But not next time, next time it's all about baking again (oooh, what a cliffhanger, eh?).

Sausage and sweet potato filled mushroom (serves 2):
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 red onion
1 small sweet potato
sausage meat from 1 sausage
1 rasher of bacon
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp black pepper

2 portobello mushrooms with stems removed
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp grated parmesan
2 eggs 

The howto:
Preheat oven to 190 degrees C. Chop the sweet potato into small cubes and slice the bacon. Heat up the olive oil in a frying pan. Add the onion and cook for a few minutes until it starts to soften. Add the sweet potato, sausage and bacon, and cook until cooked through. Break up the sausage while cooking, to the consistency of minced meat. Add the finely chopped herbs and pepper and cook for another few minutes. Take off the heat. 

Brush the oil on the top of the mushrooms and sprinkle lightly with salt (can be omitted). Turn the mushrooms around (i.e. tops down) and spoon the filling into the caps. Make a well in the middle of the filling and sprinkle generously with parmesan. Gently crack the egg into the well. Cook in the oven for about 15-20 minutes depending on how runny you like your yolk. Mine were perfect after 15 minutes.

The verdict:
I thought this looked rather good when I saw the recipe, but I wasn't quite sure if it would really work with the sweet potato in there. Well, trust me, it does. It makes a really delicious brunch or lunch. I particularly liked the fact that the mushroom was cooked through, but the egg yolk was still lovely and runny. It was a bit tricky to try and get the egg to stay in the well in the stuffing, make sure to slide the egg into the well very slowly to increase your chance of success.

I actually prepared a good double serving of the filling, and made four mushrooms. Two for brunch and two as sides with dinner the next day (yes, it works for that as well. If you feel too weird to have an egg with dinner, just leave it out). And I still had some stuffing left over, so I took it with me to work for lunch the next day. That is good value from one cooking session and from relatively cheap ingredients as well.

Forest mushroom soup

I have been neglecting the food blog lately. I know it's a bad excuse, but it just feels like the days flow away and it's always bedtime long before I would be ready for bed. And lately, with a load of cute new stamps just having arrived at my door, I have definitely been spending more time in the craft room than in the kitchen. This is a recipe I made a little while ago, but didn't get around to posting immediately.

This soup will only work if you have dried mushrooms which have been lovingly hand picked from the Finnish forest and then slowly dried in Finnish sauna. And the picking and drying has to be done by Mum, because that gives the soup just that extra little additional ingredient of love. So don't even try this unless you have those Mum picked mushrooms. Just kidding, just kidding. You can substitute with other mushrooms according to taste and preference.

My mum has given me plenty of dried mushrooms, and I haven't been very good at using them. I recently had a cold, and skipped eating dinner for two nights in a row just because I was too tired to even think of chewing anything. On the third day, my solution was to make this lovely soup.

Mushroom soup (serves 4 as a starter):
2 tbsp olive oil
2 onions
1 stalk of celery
300 g fresh mushrooms (I used closed cup mushrooms)
1 litre (4 cups) veggie stock
1/3 cup dried and crushed funnel chanterelle
a handful of dried, whole chanterelles
1 cup single cream
black pepper to taste

The howto:
Chop the onions and celery. Peel and slice the fresh mushrooms. In a large saucepan, sauté the onions and celery in the olive oil for a few minutes. Add the fresh mushrooms and sauté for another few minutes. Add the veggie stock and dried mushrooms. Cover with a lid and cook for about 40 minutes. Add the cream, season with pepper to taste and quickly let come to a boil. Serve with fresh bread.

The verdict:
The soup is really warming and comforting. There is just something special about making a soup from mushrooms that have been picked from a forest instead of bought from a supermarket. I think chanterelles are the tastiest mushrooms out there. I haven't seen them very much in the UK, so you better stock up on them if you ever happen to visit Finland. This is perfect comfort food. 

Chicken and leek pie

I seem to be completely out of sync with my blogging schedule. I realise I didn't publish a single food blog post over the weekend! But it all got a bit crazy with a surprise visitor. Well, he wasn't so much of a surprise to the Culinary Consultant, just to me. Can you say communication breakdown? So it all ended with me running around like crazy trying to clean the whole house (which usually takes at least three hours) in less than an hour and a half. To his defence, the Culinary Consultant did chip in when I started to run up and down the stairs with a mop in my hand a completely panicked face. 

Any left over time I had in the weekend was spent crafting. I had a few cards I wanted to finish. Funnily enough, I seem to manage at least from time to time to photograph my cards in daylight, whereas I never manage that feat with my food. I always seem to eat when it's dark. But spring is coming, along with the slim chance that I manage to photograph some food in actual daylight! 

Today's recipe is just a simple an humble chicken and leek pie. I love pies. And I love to get the corner pieces with loads of pastry. Who wouldn't love flaky pastry? And the creamy hot filling oozing out when you cut the pie. I get hungry just looking at the picture!

Chicken and leek pie (serves 4-5):
3 tbsp olive oil
600 g mushrooms
1 leek
500 g chicken (I used thigh fillets as that was what I had in the freezer)
300 ml (1 1/4 cup) single cream
1 egg
150 g cheddar, grated
1-2 tsp mild curry powder
1-2 tsp tandoori curry powder
1 tsp chilli flakes
1 tsp ground pepper
a pinch of salt 
1/2 tsp pilau rice seasoning

1 pack of puff pastry, egg for brushing

The howto:
Start by preparing the mushrooms, leek and chicken. Peel the mushrooms (if you wish, I always peel mushrooms, although the Culinary Consultant thinks I'm crazy) and thinly slice them. Cut the leek in half and wash thoroughly before chopping. Dice the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan, and fry the mushrooms in two batches and set aside in a large bowl. Add another tablespoon of oil to the pan, and cook the leak briefly, I like it to still be green and a bit crunchy instead of limp and pale. Add to the bowl with the mushrooms. Add the last tablespoon of oil into the pan and cook the chicken until cooked through. While the chicken is cooking, preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Add the chicken in with the mushrooms and leeks. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix. Line a pie tin with puff pastry, and add the filling. Add the pastry lid on top, and seal the puff pastry with a fork or by pinching the pastry base and top. Brush with egg and bake for 45 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown. 

The verdict:
I like the slight twist in seasoning to this otherwise very traditional pie. There is just something very comforting with a good pie. I also love how the leek brightens everything up with that bright green colour and gives you an excuse to pretend there is actually something healthy in there as well. Oh, who am I kidding. But like I said, the point of making a pie in a square instead of a round tin is that you have the corner pieces which have more pastry than you would get in a round tin. 

Mushroom stroganoff

It's finally March, I can't express how much I have been waiting for February to be over, done and dusted. It feels like spring is coming, and also a change I have been awaiting for the last three months is finally here. One more week of wonderful, relaxing holiday and then a new job. Whether it's a good one or not remains to be seen... But at least I feel like it can't be worse than my previous one. I am so relieved that is all over. Sad to leave my wonderful colleagues behind though. I can't believe such a wonderful bunch of people can all work in the same place, it has been such a pleasure to work with them. But onwards and upwards, and hopefully our paths will cross in the future. 

For now, I have been enjoying the most beautiful sunny Saturday. We spent a good few hours in the garden with the Culinary Consultant enjoying the wonderful sunshine. I'm hoping the weather will turn a bit drier soon, as everything was so muddy. I cleaned up some flower beds, it looks so much nicer now with last year's dead and dry bits cleared away and so much more light and space for the new buds to grow. I cleared out the strawberry patch as well, the strawberries are getting a bit old, so I will grow some new plants from seed as well. And we cleared out the bits that will make my herb garden. There already is a great selection of herbs growing, but I removed a big patch of celeriac (I'm sorry, I just can't stand that stuff...) as well as a huge patch of parsley. I use very little parsley, so I wanted to only keep a tiny little bit of it, making much more space for the other herbs. I am planning to shoot off to the garden centre to buy a few plants and then grow the rest from scratch. So tomorrow I will try to get the seeds going, they should be all right in the greenhouse and I will hope for an early spring and no cold or frost anymore. I just can't wait to get all of those herbs growing, although I have to say, this has been such a mild winter that my parsley and chives have been growing all through the winter. Who would have thought, fresh herbs all year round from my own garden!

Finally on to the main subject... today's recipe. I have tried to cook one vegetarian dish every week lately. I seem to be able to get away with cooking non-meat for our weekend lunches as there will be a meaty dinner later. I try to make big servings so that there is enough for both the Saturday and Sunday lunch and some leftovers either for me to take to work for lunch or for us to have as sides with our weeknight dinners. I was thinking about what I wanted to cook this week and for some reason thought of an old friend who I used to discuss plenty of cooking with and he said he makes a mean mushroom stroganoff. I can't for my life remember his recipe, but I did some research on the Interwebs and after combining from different recipes came up with the following which I think turned out rather nice.

Mushroom stroganoff (serves 4-5):
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
3 onions

4 cloves of garlic 

2 tbsp paprika (I used 1 tbsp sweet and 1 tbsp hot)

1kg mushrooms (I used half button and half chestnut)

1 green pepper

2 tbsp tomato puree 

2 tsp Dijon mustard

1/2 beef stock cube

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
15 g flatleaf parsley

pepper and salt for seasoning

300 ml sour cream (I used half fat)

My lovely jars of sweet and hot paprika from our
trip to Hungary last summer.

The howto:
Slice the mushrooms. Chop the onions, garlic and green pepper. In a large saucepan, melt the butter and add the oil. Cook the onions until they start to soften. Add the garlic and paprika and cook for another minute or two. Add the mushrooms and cook on medium to high heat for about 5 minutes. Add the pepper, the tomato puree, mustard stock cube and Worcestershire sauce. My stroganoff had enough liquid from the mushrooms so I didn't need to add any water, but if yours is dry, add some water. It should not be a soup, but there should be a little bit of sauce. Let cook for 20-30 minutes. Season and add the parsley. Take off the head, and add the sour cream. Serve with your carb of choice, or just with a side salad for a low carb option.

The verdict:
I wasn't quite sure whether this would work or not, but it turned out to be a really tasty meal. My meat eater ate it without complaints. I think the mushrooms makes this dish filling enough to work well as a main course. I served it with rice, but for me no extra carbs would have been required, it would also work great with a side salad. The dish was warm with just a little bit of kick from the hot paprika, but also creamy from the sour cream. There are plenty of flavours from the different sauces and spices but they go well together. Definitely worth a try, and I will be making this again because I really liked it.

Viva Veggies

The other night we had a power cut at home. It followed a very short but rather extreme winter storm with high wind, pouring rain and some loud thunder and lightning. First we thought it would be really quick, as we were assured engineers were already on site when we called the electricity company. But it started to get dark, and still no sign of electricity. It was rather nice and atmospheric to have the house lit with candles, and the Culinary Consultant soon started snoring on the sofa. But I started worrying about what would happen with all the stuff in the fridge, not to mention the freezer in case we would have a longer power cut. And then I realised we have an even bigger problem - the snakes! They are dependant on electricity to keep their tanks warm. So we started to plan for what we could do in case the power cut would be long. Over the Christmastime, I know there were households without power for days. Luckily the power came back on after about six hours, several of which we actually spent at a friend's house enjoying wonderful Cosmopolitans. But after the incident we made a contingency plan for future power cuts. We will buy hot water bottles and get some equipment so that we can boil water even without electricity to keep the little ones warm comfy in case of an emergency. Things I never thought I would do: make plans for snake re-heating.

The power cut was a great reminder that it is always good to keep some emergency food at home you can eat even if you don't have any electricity at all to heat things up. Crackers, jams, tinned food... Although I guess we could have driven off to the nearest Tesco in case of an emergency, but you never know. It could be extreme weather, or something else weird. We already learned last summer during some problems with the water supply that having a few gallons of drinking water always stocked in the garage is a great idea. And there are probably a few other things we should stock up on, such as a few flashlights and batteries for them. So remember to keep safe out there and plan for unexpected emergencies. Particularly, we are so dependant on electricity that it becomes quite hard to imagine life without it, but extended power cuts do happen. 

Well, after the above public service announcement, on to more interesting subjects. Such as today's yummy dish. Looking back at my food diary from the last few years, I used to eat much more veggie dishes than I do now. I guess having a dedicated carnivore in the house has shifted my cooking to include meat or fish at almost every meal. I'm not sure I'm happy with this, I would love to eat more vegetarian. The Culinary Consultant will eat anything I put in front of him, but I know he prefers a meal which contains something from the animal kingdom. 

I got this recipe from a friend and she said this was the best vegetarian dish she had ever had. So obviously I had to try it out. And tell you all about it!

Viva Veggies (serves 4-6 as a side):

1 bunch broccoli

1 bunch cauliflower

2 tbsp butter

225 g (1/2 lb) mushrooms, sliced

1/2 cup mayo

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup Parmesan, grated

Salt and pepper to taste

3 tomatoes, sliced

55 g (1/4 cup) butter, melted

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

The howto:

Precook broccoli and cauliflower until tender crisp. Sauté mushrooms in 2 tbsp butter. Grease a 20x20 cm (9x9 in) dish. Mix mayo, sour cream and parmesan and mix the sauce with the veggies. Transfer to an oven proof dish and cover with tomato slices. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Mix melted butter with breadcrumbs and sprinkle over tomatoes. Although not in the original recipe, I sprinkled some additional grated parmesan on top. The original recipe instructs to cook for 20 minutes at 160 C (325 F), I cooked for about 30 minutes at 180 C to get to my desired result.

The verdict:

As my friend suggested, this was a rather tasty meal. I'm not sure I would go quite as far as calling it the most delicious vegetarian dish ever, as there was a oven roasted aubergine I had in an italian restaurant once which is pretty hard to beat. But this was definitely delicious. I particularly liked the topping with the cheese and buttery breadcrumbs. I also liked the combination of mayo and sour cream, it was tasty and yummy but at the same time refreshing because of the slight sourness. And the Culinary Consultant ate it without complaining, so I think it had to be quite good as he prefers things from the animal kingdom.

I made this as a light (well, light as in no meat, but not necessarily light as in low calorie) lunch and served it with bread. This makes a good lunch or veggie main on it's own, but both me and the Culinary Consultant agreed that it would also make a wonderful side to any meat or fish dish. This will definitely go on the list of dishes I will make again. The only change I will make is to add a bit more mushrooms, but I guess the proportion of mushrooms to cauliflower and broccoli depends on the size of your bunches of veg. Mine were rather big so there was a lot of cauliflower and broccoli compared to the mushies, but that is of course easily remedied. I very warmly recommend you try this, it's very yummy!

Herb roasted mushrooms

The day has finally arrived. We completed today!! After work we drove off to New Home, just to hang out for a while and have a look around in preparation for the big move tomorrow. We are going to move everything ourselves, and a large part of things are not packed. Well, to be more exact, a large part of *his* things are not packed, mine haven't been unpacked since the last move. I can't wait for tomorrow morning, I should probably go to bed immediately to make tomorrow arrive faster. Given the heat wave we are currently experiencing here in the Island Kingdom, it is bound to be a hot and sweaty day.

So this is a bit of a forced connection to link in the recipe, but soon I can make these mushrooms using herbs from my garden. I can't believe I will have my own garden. Based on how it currently looks, the previous owners must have been expert gardeners. There are all sorts of herbs, raspberries, strawberries, apples, pears, plums, cherries, rhubarb and so many other things. Oh, and asparagus, I am so excited about the asparagus. And then there is the greenhouse. Tomatoes, courgette and grapes. Yes, really. Grapes! How incredible is that! For now I'm just enjoying the thought of endless mojitos using the abundantly growing mint in my garden, and ignoring the thought of how much work it will be to keep a garden looking as immaculate as it is right now. Hopefully it will be mostly fun, and hopefully I will be able to keep most of it alive. I just can't believe how much tomatoes there are in the greenhouse, I think there will be an abundance of tomato recipes on the blog very soon. Before getting to the recipe, please excuse the following photos, but I'm so incredibly excited there is no way of stopping me.

Does anyone have any good pear recipes?

I had no idea one tomato plant will make so many tomatoes!

Who knew you could grow your own grapes? I mean obviously I
realised someone can grow them somehow, but just having them
around in your greenhouse. Who knew. And I think it's rather obvious
 I'm not a very experienced gardener.

Hoping the birds will leave a few cherries for us.

My own raspberries! At least something I shouldn't
be able to kill off. 

Baby apples, hopefully they will grow big and strong really soon.

Getting to know the neighbours.

This recipe is from a blog called Italian food forever. I think I originally found them it Pinterest. They looked really tasty and I also like the fact that they were good both warm and cold, so I could use the leftovers from the weekend in my lunch salads during the week.

Herb roasted mushrooms (serves about 4 as a side):
400 g mushrooms (I used a mix or Forestiere, shitake and button mushrooms)
1/4 cup (60 ml) olive oil
2 cloves of garlic (I used my beloved smoked garlic)
herbs (the original recipe suggests 1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary, 1 tsp chopped fresh sage and 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley. I used a handful of flatleaf parsley and a handful of lemon thyme, as that was what I had at hand)
salt and pepper to taste
2-3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

The howto:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees C/400 degrees F/gas mark 6. Wipe the mushrooms with a cloth or wash them. I like to peel off the skin for larger mushrooms or if they feel a bit sweaty after being wrapped up in plastic containers. Chop to bite sized pieces. Mix olive oil, finely chopped garlic, herbs, salt and pepper. On an oven tray, mix the mushrooms with the oil and herb mix, making sure to coat the mushrooms well. Cook in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until cooked, depending on the size you chopped the mushrooms. When mushrooms are done, drizzle with balsamic.

The verdict:
This is a nice way of cooking mushrooms, usually I just pan fry them, but this was much easier. And you can adapt it using any of your favourite herbs. I did take some of them with me for lunch the following day, and they were nice both warm and cold. And I bet they will taste even better with herbs from my own garden. Soon, very soon!

Heart attack breakfast

Well, this one is for all my Finnish friends who are hung over from celebrating Vappu, and could use something really substantial for breakfast. Of course, today most of them will be out in the parks, having champagne brunch picnics. But soon, my friends, soon. The hangover is out to get you.

First, to torture you, a random true  story. A few days ago I had the type of day that makes you believe in the good of people. When I was grocery shopping the other day, I lost my gym membership card. It's always in the same compartment with my phone in my backpack (you know that little handy pouch thing on the shoulder strap of the backpack so that you can reach your phone all the time). I got out my phone to check my grocery list. I got my phone out of it's little pouch, and didn't notice that the velcro didn't close properly, and the little pouch-y thing was hanging upside down in my shopping trolley. So somewhere along my trek through the grocery store I dropped my card without realising. I thought I would have to go to the gym today admitting I was unable to take responsibility of my card and needed a new one. But on my way to the gym I dropped by the grocery store, and someone had found my card and handed it in to the lost and found! I was so happy, that really made my day. Ok, random life moment part of the blog is over and done with, so let's get on to the main course now.

To continue with my theme of health food after my mayonnaise extravaganza the other day, I thought I would blog about a breakfast which is guaranteed to clog your arteries faster than you can say chorizo. I realise this is a bit on the heavy side for a breakfast, but in the weekends, I like to replace breakfast and lunch with a nice brunch that will get me all through the day to dinner. And this most certainly is one of those. The little sausages are Mini Chorizos from Morrisons. The culinary consultant loves his chorizo and I thought the little sausages were so cute, although I'm personally not a huge fan of sausage. And let me apologise profusely for the even more horrible than usual photos, as I was taking pictures in suboptimal lighting with my phone. At least soon all my cooking will be done in the same house where my camera is, so hopefully the photos will be a little less horrible.

"Yes please, I would love a heart attack" omelette (serves 3-4):
1-2 tbsp 
1 red onion
5-6 mushrooms
7 mini chorizos (or other sausage)
6 eggs
1 tomato
3 tbsp grated cheddar
salt and pepper for seasoning

The howto:
Slice the onion, mushrooms and tomato. Crack the eggs into a bowl, and lightly whisk with a fork. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a big skillet and add the onion, mushrooms and chorizos. Cook for a few minutes, keep turning the sausages so that they cook on all sides. When the onion is starting to soften, add the eggs, and add the tomato slices on top. Sprinkle cheese on top, and let cook over medium heat until the eggs set (about 30 minutes). Serve immediately.

The verdict:
This is an easy breakfast, it only takes a few minutes of preparation, and the omelette will practically cook itself while you get back in bed for that extra half hour of dozing off (but if you do that, remember to set an alarm clock so that you don't end up setting your house on fire). If you like hearty breakfasts, this is definitely for you. If you are a dry toast and half a grapefruit type of person, maybe you should skip this. This certainly kept me going all day until dinner. Actually, it would probably make a good lunch too, or maybe a quick and easy dinner. It will certainly please any carnivorous males if you happen to have any of those around.

Card of the day:
Talking about carnivorous males, I tried to create a male themed card. Sure, it's easy enough to make cute cards for children, or pretty flower or shoe themed cards for your mum, aunt or best friend. But the men... Football? Beer? Well at least the culinary consultant loves all sorts of mechanical machine thingys, so I thought the Chronology Cogs background stamp would work. I stamped using Tim Holtz distress ink Walnut Stain, and embossed using Ranger Fine Detail clear embossing powder. I used distress inks for the borders. On another cream card I stamped the clock and cogs from another Chronology stamp set and the compass is a Tim Holtz stamp, all stamped using Walnut Stain and cut them out using scissors. I really like the compass stamp, and the cogs are really fun, I can see lots of opportunities with them.

New Year, New Waistline

And so the misery of yet another year has begun. No more holidays in sight (well, to be honest, I'm jetting away to the Canary Islands in the beginning of February but it's still a lifetime away...), no sugar, no chocolate, no fun. Well, apart from going to the gym. Which is great fun! I just have the best instructors ever, they make me come back again and again, because working out and sharing some of their amazing positive energy is the best thing ever. Healthy life is obviously a balance between eating healthily, enjoying some goodies every once in a while, and being physically active. For me the hard thing isn't the exercise. I really enjoy it, honestly. Well, at least 90% of the time. Sometimes dragging yourself out in the rain and the dark to get to the gym is a bit uninspiring. Especially now that I switched to another gym which is not around the corner like my old gym. But it's totally worth it, the classes are much better, and the instructors are amazing. 

Clearly my problem with the healthy lifestyle is eating healthy. Well, not even that is such a problem really, I like healthy food. I'm lucky that I really love fresh veggies in all forms. It's the part about enjoying goodies within reason that I struggle with. I just can't keep it to a small treat every once in a while. If I told you what I have eaten over the last three or four months, you would not believe it. You would think it would be impossible for a human being to gob down so much food. But trust me, my friends, it is. And that is why I am currently wearing only skirts, as I cannot get the zip done on my jeans. Not even on my fat jeans! The only way to try and lose weight for me is to go cold turkey on sugar in all it's forms. No treats until the jeans fit again. It worked for me a year and a half ago when I got rid of almost a third of me. Part of that has been creeping back, and now I'm taking action again. I'm not going to quite the extremes I did back then (I don't think months of doing three hours of exercise every single day is really a good idea in the long run) but I have to get rid of my sugar addiction. I did it once, so I can do it again.

To keep on the straight and narrow I have decided I will have to give up one of my favourite hobbies. No more browsing Pinterest or food blogs. Looking at pictures of all those wonderful cakes and cookies and chocolates and bars and pies and whatnots is just too painful. Except of course, I have already slipped. However, I can proudly say that what I found was NOT this Oreo cookie bark from Cookies and Cups, but this really yummy looking lentil stew from Chocolate Covered Katie. And this was a great find today as I was going to make a lentil soup. But that was just the same old lentil soup I always make, so I was really happy to run into this recipe. And I had almost all of the ingredients at home. The only thing I didn't have was mushrooms. And having just got home from work, I really couldn't be bothered to go out mushroom hunting, so I decided to finally use up the bag of dried mixed mushrooms that has been living in my kitchen for way too long. And I threw in a handful of dried black trumpets as well, lovingly hand picked straight out of the clean Finnish forests by my Mum. I'm currently trying to use up all the food I have stocked in my kitchen, I have such a bad habit of buying more and more without using up the old ones first, and with a kitchen the size of a shoebox, it might be a good idea to try and keep the food stocks to a minimum. It's not like I'm going to starve, with six (!) grocery stores within a five minute walk. Truth be told, there are a few things I absolutely must have stockpiled in my kitchen. As long as I have onions, chick peas, tuna and tinned tomatoes, I'm ok. I know that's enough to survive on if there was a crisis. Not that I know what kind of crisis that would be, but still. Better safe than sorry.

Well, after all that rambling, I guess it's time to finally get to the good part. This recipe is not only healthy and colourful, but it is also great for using up any left over veggies from the fridge. The list of ingredients may seem long, but at least for me, almost all were things I already had at home. Fresh mushrooms will work as well as the dried ones, the original recipe used fresh mushrooms.

Lentil stew, slightly adapted from Chocolate Covered Katie (serves 6):

40 g dried mixed mushrooms

2 onions

1 tsp coconut oil

2 cloves of garlic

4 big carrots

3 stalks of celery

2 bell peppers (I used one yellow and one red for the nice colours)

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp tomato paste

2 tsp dried cumin

2 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp dried chilli flakes

2 cups dried red lentils

400 g tinned tomatoes

2 cups vegetable broth (i.e. 2 cups of water and a veggie stock cube)

100 g spinach

grated zest from one lemon (original recipe says 1 1/2 tbsp, but I only had one small lemon at home, so I ended up with a bit less)

According to my estimations, one serving contains 209 kcal (2.7 g fat, 43 g carbs of which 7.9 g sugars and 14.7 g protein).

The howto:

If using dried mushrooms, rehydrate the mushrooms in boiling water for 20ish minutes. Chop onions, finely chop the garlic, and chop the carrots, celery and bell peppers. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and cook onions for about 5 minutes. Then add the garlic, carrots, celery and peppers and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms, vinegar and spices and let cook for another 5 minutes (15 if you are adding fresh mushrooms). Add the lentils, tomatoes and broth, and cook until the lentils are done (for me this was about 40 minutes, and I had to add another cup of water during the cooking, so keep an eye out). Right before serving, add spinach and lemon zest, and cook for 2-3 minutes. 

The verdict:

Food with lots of veggies in different colours is always tasty. It's nice to eat because it makes you feel so healthy. This was a bit different from my usual lentil stew, which was really great, I need to stop cooking the same old things over and over. This stew was nice and warming on a cold evening, and with plenty of lentils it's nice and filling. Also, letting it all slowly cook together really brings out the natural sweetness in the veggies, I think the addition of tomato paste and lemon really enhances this aspect. 

One thing I have always wondered about, is how all the "real" food bloggers always get their food to look so nice. Just have a look at the photos on Katie's blog, the stew looks so beautiful and colourful and appetising. Mine, despite tasting absolutely wonderful, turned out to look like a bunch of red goo. Oh well, beauty is only skin deep. 

Pearl barley risotto

My sister sent me this recipe and I was going to put it somewhere on my mile long to-cook list. For some reason, the more I thought about it, the higher on the list it rose. I haven't cooked much with barley, so I was eager to give it a try. I did a few tweaks to the original recipe, the major one being the addition of dried mushrooms. My mum sent me dried funnel chanterelles she picked and dried herself, so I wanted to find some recipes I could use them in. Risotto and mushrooms go together like me and chocolate, so I thought I would give it a try. Funnel chanterelle is a mushroom which commonly grows in Finnish forests. I have no idea whether you can get it in the UK, but I'm sure any dried mushroom will give the risotto a very nice, earthy flavour. I also thought that the rather strong taste of dried mushrooms would go better with beef stock than chicken stock. The downside to this is that the colour gets a bit soggy and dark, whereas chicken stock would result in a beautiful and white dish. But taste-wise, I think it was a good substitution. This dish certainly is nowhere close to being low carb, but oh well. I'll be extra low carb tomorrow. Maybe...


Mushroom and pearl barley risotto (serves 3):
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1/2 tbsp rapeseed oil
200g (1 cup, 2.5dl) pearl barley
20g dried funnel chanterelle or other dried mushrooms
1.5 l beef stock 
40g (60ml) grated parmesan
a few tbsp finely chopped parsley and mint


The howto:
Soak the dried mushrooms in water for about half an hour (water volume should be around 2-3 times the volume of the mushrooms). Fry the onion and garlic in the oil for a few minutes on medium heat until translucent but not brown. Add the barley and fry for another few minutes. Add mushrooms and the water they have been soaking in. Then start adding the stock, about 100ml at a time and let it absorb into the barley before adding more. You can keep the stock at a low simmer in another saucepan, or as I do because I'm lazy, just boil the water in a kettle, then add the stock cubes. Although technically it's not boiling, it keeps quite hot for a long time. I don't think this has too much of an effect on the result, but I'm sure the masters of classic cooking would find this a sin. When you are nearing the end of the stock, keep testing the barley, you want it to still have a bit of chew in it and not go completely limp. When satisfied with the consistency of the barley, add parmesan and herbs and serve immediately with some black pepper on top.


One serving contains 350 kcal (19g fat, 37g carbs, 10g protein).

The verdict:
I really like the texture and the taste of the barley. It's a good substitute for rice in many recipes, and I already have a few ideas of things I want to try, so keep an eye out for more barley recipes soonish. The risotto wasn't nearly as creamy as it would be if made from rice, but for me, the texture of the barley more than makes up for this shortcoming. And of course the parmesan adds a bit of creaminess. Also, I was really surprised how well the mint went with the beef stock and mushrooms, it really added a different flavour compared to risottos made from chicken stock. Although the taste was much stronger, I think it complimented the mushrooms and barley well, and was not stuffy or heavy at all.