Bacon and cream cheese puffsies

So it's the last leg of the move. Well, the last leg of the first move that is. Almost everything is bundled up in boxes, bags or (very glamourously) bin bags. It's always the final stuff that is the hardest. Random things that you know you will need right up until the move, and then some other random bits and pieces which didn't fit into any box and are now just floating around. I have images flashing through my brain of binning it all, but can't go through with it. Even if it's a jug of olive oil which is almost finished, I can't throw it away if it's still useful. So it's time to make yet another box labeled "Completely random stuff" and throw in the loofah, a few jars of spices, a t-shirt and some jewellery in a box along with a bottle of rum, a fascinator and those left over key chains you know you know you will never use but just can't make yourself get rid of either. The funny thing is, I have already packed at least three "Completely random" boxes. And when I unpack them, I will just think "What the hell was I thinking". 

I can hardly fit into my apartment with all the boxes and bundles all around. I have divided the apartment into two parts, the clean part and the stuffed part. The clean part is a small corner that I have vacuumed, mopped, dusted and am now using to pile the cleaned stuff I won't be taking with me (my apartment is furnished). About a week to go before I leave for good, and I just descaled my kettle and cleaned all bread crumbs from the toaster. They are now waiting in the clean pile for the kitchen to get throughly cleaned so that they can go back to where they belong. Then there is the cluttered part. Which is filled floor to ceiling with boxes and weird bags and other bundles of stuff waiting to be moved. I just wish I could get rid of it all so I could get the rest of the apartment all cleaned out. Patience is definitely not my thing. So much still to clean, even if I've tried to do as many bits and pieces as I can along the way. 

I'm also trying to get rid of a few last bits and pieces of food. There is also an embarrassingly large number of boxes and bags filled with food I didn't manage to use pre-move. I think we will be able to live for at least a month, if not more, without grocery shopping with all the stuff me and the Culinary Consultant have stockpiled. And I have hardly bought any groceries at all this month! A few pints of milk, some fresh veg, but that's pretty much it. I have been a bit bad and bought some bread as well, and some evenings I have just eaten bread instead of working my way through my stashes. But at least the beans are gone! Huzzah!!

I had some left over puff pastry in the freezer, so I bought a pack of cream cheese and used up some left over onions and the last of what has turned out to be a huge bacon stash in my freezer. These small cheesy puffs are quick and easy to prepare, you could eat them as a side or as an appetizer or finger food snack. Or as I probably will, as a late night snack when I'm sick of tossing and turning in my bed without being able to go to sleep. 

Garlic, herb, bacon and onion puffsies* (makes about 12):
1 tbsp oil
4 rashers of bacon
1 yellow onion
puff pastry (about a 30x20 cm sheet) I had some pastry that came in two ready rolled sheets, and used one of them here
200 g (150g would be enough) cream cheese (I used Philadelphia garlic and herb)
(1 egg for egg wash)

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. In a frying pan, heat the olive oil, and cook chopped onion until translucent and starting to soften a bit. Add finely chopped bacon, and cook until bacon is cooked through. Spread the cream cheese onto the pastry, leaving about an inch along the longer side of the rectangle free of cheese. Add onion and bacon mixture on top. You could season with some black pepper at this point if you like. Roll into a tight roll, and cut into 12 pieces. I find it easier to pinch using dental floss instead of a knife to keep the filling from oozing out. Brush with egg wash if you want a really golden finish (as usual I couldn't be bothered to do that). Bake for about 20-25 minutes, until golden and puffy. 
*yes, puffsies is a word because I say it is.

The verdict:
It's puff pastry, cheese and bacon. What's not to love. Apart from the effect it has on my waist. Well, the part that used to be a waist and now is a shapeless ball. I will use my standard response, I'm stressed because of the move, and I have to be at home packing and cleaning (i.e. sitting on the sofa thinking about all the things that need to be done) instead of going to the gym. This is why I need my routines. I can't  live without my beloved routines, it all gets effed up. So, now I will dig into my cheese and bacon puffsies and stare at the mess that is my life. Just another week to go. In this mess. Then there will be a new mess. But I'm just trying to fool myself into thinking this is the only mess I need to get out of and things are getting better after that. Self deception is the best form of deception. 

Card of the day:
This is one from the archives, as I haven't had space or time for crafting for a while. This was a birthday card for a friend. I used the Hero Arts handbag background stamp and coloured it with Tim Holtz Distress markers. I matted the bags onto two different papers from the Dovecraft Back to Basics III set. The sentiment is a Tim Holtz Stampers anonymous stamp which I stamped in Walnut Stain Distress ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I used ink blending foam to apply Spun Sugar and Worn Lipstick Distress ink around the edges of the sentiment. I added a pink ribbon, and attached the sentiment using foam adhesive.

Getting back on track chicken

I've been having just a teeny tiny bit of a problem getting back on track with my nutrition plan after getting back from my holiday, and being sick, and being very undisciplined in general. I thought I really need to make something that is healthy but doesn't taste healthy. Something which packs such a punch of flavours that I don't think about all that unhealthy bad food I've been craving. I needed something that is healthy, high in protein, low in fat and full of flavour. Also, I happened to have some parsley and coriander which had been hanging around my fridge for just a bit too long, so I needed to use  them up asap. Looking around in my kitchen, I spied a huge garlic and my omnipresent piece of ginger root (fresh ginger root is one of those things I always keep in my kitchen). And my eyes landed on my mortar and pestle which I bought probably a year ago, with the aim of making all sorts of spice mixes and my own pesto. But as so many of my other impuse buys, the mortar has just been serving as a garlic bowl. The sad truth is, I haven't used it, not even once. So now I finally thought I would break it in.

Back on track chicken (serves 4):
4 boneless chicken thighs (or fillets, if you prefer)
1 clove of garlic
a piece of fresh ginger about half the size of your thumb (ok I know, we all have different sized thumbs, but you know... just wing it!)
a bunch of fresh coriander (I used about 1/2 of a 31 g pack)
a bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley (I used about 1/2 of a 31 g pack)

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (or other oil of choice)

The howto:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Place chicken in an oven proof dish. Roughly chop the garlic, ginger, coriander and parsley, and place in a mortar. Using a pestle, grind until the garlic and ginger has been thoroughly smooched together with the herbs to a nice paste, and add olive oil. Spread the paste on top of the chicken, and cook in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until juicen from the chicken are clear. 

The verdict:

Not only did my improvised herb-y chicken taste really freshly of herbs and ginger, it also filled my kitchen with the most amazing aroma. Admittedly it's not the most beautiful dish I have ever cooked, but this is obviously your first time here if you were looking for pretty food. My food may not be pretty, but it is good. And this time, it's also healthy. This dish almost made me think spring might be silently creeping closer. Could it be?

Hummus 2.0

I have been using an app called My Fitness Pal ever since I started my weight loss journey in September 2011. Or I guess I should call it my new life. I really like the app. It has a huge database with nutritional information on food items, and it allows you to create your own recipes and calculates the nutritional content of them. It's really easy to use, and it even has a barcode scanner, which has identified the majority of food items I have used it for. Basically you tell the app your weight, and how much weight you want to lose per week (1 lb, 0.5 lb, stay at current weight etc) and it will calculate your calorie allowance. You can also add workouts, there is a database of approximate calorie burns for many sports, although I always wear my heart rate monitor when I work out to get a more exact count. It's a really nifty little app, I have it both on my iPhone and iPad, and you can use it online as well, although the few times I have used it online, I have found the user interface to be much inferior to the apps.

Anyhows, although in general I have mostly good things to say about the app, I was bitterly disappointed last week. I thought the app would save your data indefinitely. However, I wanted to go back to my data from 2011, to the time I was losing weight really quickly, to check on things like daily carb amounts I was eating, but there was no more data left!! I was so disappointed, as on of the reasons I started using this app was to find something that would form a lasting database of my eatings and sports. Seems like I didn't eat anything before March 2012. Which makes me so sad. I would really have wanted that data. But other than that, I still really like the app for keeping check on my daily calorie intake, and to keep an eye on carb and protein levels. Below are a few screenshots from one day last week. I'm currently on a really calorie restricted diet, just to kick start my weight loss. I'm also aiming to reduce my carb intake a bit more than I have for the last few weeks, again just as a kickstart. I seem to quite comfortably get into the 100-150 g carbs per day range, which is quite ok as I work out a lot, but thought I would aim for 50-100 g for the next few weeks, just to be extra strict and hopefully get some booming results during January.

I'm actually off on holiday the first week of February, so it would be nice to have shed at least a little bit of the wobbly bits before that. Also, I know from experience that staying on a really restricted calorie diet and working out 1-2 hours a day is really tough. It's ok as long as you have quite a bit of fat to burn off, but later weight loss has to slow down and I have to get in a bit more calories if I want to keep up this amount of sports. Which I'm totally ok with. One and a half year ago, when I started my new life, I decided not to think of this as a diet, but as a permanent lifestyle change. And I'm still doing that. I know I failed in the latter half of 2012 and put on some of the weight I had worked so hard to lose, and I am incredibly disappointed with myself. I did keep up with my exercises, but my eating just got out of control. Too much chocolate, and way too many mince pies. But I also know I have two options, to dwell on that and keep on eating like a pig because I feel like nothing I ever do will make a difference. Alternatively I can admit that I strayed, payed the price, and will now be strict and work hard to get back to the healthy me I was last summer. And I am happy I don't have anywhere near as much weight to work off as I did back a year and a half ago. I also know I will stray again, and put on weight, but I hope the next time I will catch myself a bit earlier so that there is less to work off. Carboholism is a tough thing to live with.

Anyways, that was quite a long detour to today's recipe. The point is, I enjoy having fruit for snacks, but decided that for the moment, I need to control my sugar intake a bit more. So I needed another snack instead of the fruit, and decided to make hummus my snack for next week. I have made more and less successful attempts at hummus in the past, and I have posted one of my favourite variations on the snack here. As yummy as that variation is, I still wanted to master the original hummus as well. Also, the other recipe contains pistachios, which firstly are too expensive for every day use and secondly add quite a bit of calories to the recipe.

I stumbled upon this recipe of ethereally smooth hummus on Smitten Kitchen, one of the great food blogs I follow. Apparently, the secret to really smooth hummus is to peel the chickpeas. Fair enough, lets peel. In the comments section to that post there was a link to another food blog called Coffee and Quinoa for something called extra creamy hummus. The author of the blog had wondered how to get that really light and fluffy hummus consistency, and discovered that there are over 3 million google hits for the search term 'creamy hummus'. Apparently, the secret is in the order you add the ingredients, you need to emulsify the tahini with lemon juice and water before adding the other ingredients. That should take care of the textural aspects. However, I am still also in search of the exactly right proportion of ingredients for my palate. And I think one of the secrets is that you need to add a bit of salt to enhance all the flavours. I'm usually not a big fan of using salt when cooking, and have gotten used to quite a small amount of salt in food. Which is one of the reasons I have to make my own hummus, I find the store bought one way too salty. But here, I have admitted defeat and use a bit more salt than I would optimally like to, as it's the only way to get the taste just right. Also, I added a bit more tahini than I have used before, and lastly, reduced the amount of garlic quite a bit. Raw garlic is a bit too bitter for my tastes, and I always make my hummus as a snack for the next few days, so the garlic taste really has time to develop while the hummus hangs around in my fridge. A little goes a long way in this case. Of course, you can easily change the amount of garlic to fit your palate. Also, I would love to roast my garlic before adding it to the hummus. But I just can't be bothered, especially since I usually make my hummus on a Sunday night which for me is not a time to be very fancy with my cooking. Using all these small changes, I think I have finally arrived at a recipe I'm happy with. Both textually and flavourly (yes, I know it's not a word, but nonetheless...)

Hummus 2.0 (serves 3-4 as a snack):
1 pack (1 cup) of chickpeas (net weight 380 g, drained weight 230 g)
3 tbsp tahini
juice from 2 lemons
1 tbsp water
1 garlic clove
1 tbsp ground cumin
0.5-0.75 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

One serving (a third of the recipe, as that's what I consider a large enough snack, contains 233 kcal, 16 g fat, 18 g carbs of which 1.2 g sugars, and 7.3 g protein)

The howto:
Peel the chickpeas. This is easily done if you place the chickpea between your thumb and index finger and gently pop the chickpea out of it's shell (see pictures below). It's a bit tedious, but worth it, although probably not absolutely necessary. Put tahini, lemon juice and the water in a food processor, and mix for about 20-30 seconds until the tahini becomes white and fluffy. Then add the garlic, cumin, salt (maybe start with a smaller amount, and add more later if you think it's needed), olive oil and chickpeas. Mix until you have a creamy paste, I needed to add about 2 tbsp of water (or the liquid from the chickpeas, if you aren't an idiot like me and drained it all away) to get a nice texture. Serve topped with some olive oil and smoked paprika.

The verdict:
Finally a hummus that tastes exactly the way I think hummus should taste like. It is so much better than the store bought, it has lots of flavour and a nice tang from the lemon juice. And like I said, it might seem like there is quite a bit of salt, but it really brings out the rest of the flavours. I think it's garlicky enough with one clove, especially after an overnighter in the fridge, but if you are fond of garlic or are serving it right up, then another clove or two might be a good idea. Ideally, I would love to use roasted garlic, but as I said above, I can't be bothered. Which in itself is a bit ridiculous, it's not like it takes long. Well, the baking time is rather long, but the prep takes all of five seconds. But the hour long wait is usually too much for me.

There are quite a few variables to making good hummus. First you need to find chick peas to your liking. One option is also to buy dried ones and cook them yourself. My favourite brand is Tesco's Organic chickpeas in water, they seem to be cooked to perfection, usually every single chickpea is whole and not mushed up at all, and they are very easy to pop out of their skins. Another variable is the tahini, I used to have another brand, now I'm using Al'Fez Natural Tahini, which I like better than whatever it was I had before. Although tahini is usually something you don't have a choice on, there is just one brand (if that), and you should just thank your lucky stars your grocery store stocks any brand. I got the one I have now at the Co-op. Then of course there is the lemon juice, which will vary from lemon to lemon, and some garlics are more potent than others. Which is why it's good to sample the tahini, and possibly adding some lemon juice or salt if the flavour is not quite perfect. And I guess it goes without saying, you want a good extra virgin olive oil. I usually keep two different olive oils at home, one cheap for cooking, and then an expensive, really good one for things like dressings, dipping and hummus.

Man pleasing chicken

I'm pretty sure the overwhelming majority of recipes in the Pinterest Food and Drink section are for oven baked chicken. Chicken parmesan, chicken with mozzarella, chicken smothered in cream, sesame seed chicken, lemon chicken, chicken with cream, mozzarella, parmesan, sesame seeds and lemon... all of them claim to be something along the lines of "best chicken ever" or "better than x, y or z chicken". I still keep lying to myself that I'm trying to eat healthily, so I never pin any of these recipes, thinking if at some point I really want to make unhealthy chicken, I will always just run across them as they seem to pop up time and time again. 

What irony was it that when I really needed to find some yummy chicken recipe really quickly, I couldn't find any. I was having Y chromosome carrier over for dinner, and wanted to cook something he would like. Which inevitably would involve chicken. Thankfully I happened across this recipe for "Man pleasing chicken" from Witty in the City which I thought sounded pretty much like something I wanted. To enhance the man pleasing aspects of the recipe, I decided to stuff the chicken fillets with parmesan and bacon. What could be more man pleasing?

Man-pleasing chicken (serves 4):
4 chicken breast fillets
4 rashers of bacon
a chunk of parmesan 
ground black pepper
100 g of dijon mustard
3 tbsp golden syrup
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
3 tbsp white wine

The howto:
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Cut four pieces of parmesan and wrap them in bacon. Cut a pocket in the chicken fillets and stuff the bacon wrapped parmesan into the fillets. Place in an oven proof tin and grind black pepper on both sides of the fillets. Mix mustard, syrup, vinegar and wine, and pour on top of the fillets. Bake for 30-40 minutes, depending on how big your fillets are.

The verdict:
Let me just tell you, this dish certainly lived up to its name! Y chromosome carrier seemed very happy with it. And so was this double X carrier as well. The chicken was juicy and moist and soft, and the sauce was nice with lots of flavour. I am not a big fan of mustard, so I was afraid I wouldn't like this recipe very much, but apparently the syrup nicely softens out the sting from the mustard. And then you work your way to the nice core of the fillet with the smoky bacon and the strong flavour from the parmesan. It all just came together perfectly. If you are in a hurry, you can always skip stuffing the fillets, and just smother the chicken in the sauce and into the oven it goes. Talk about fast food. If you have a bit more time, wrap the chicken in bacon, and then smother in sauce. Super quick, super easy and super good.  

Paul I heart you!!!

I might have mentioned in passing my obses... I mean fascination with The Great British Bakeoff. Yes, I know the season ended ages ago (and I was sooo happy for John when he won, he seems like such an adorable and lovely guy). Anyhows, after watching the bakers produce the most beautiful yeasted doughs, I decided I really need to hone my bread making skills. Well, technically speaking, I shouldn't as I'm at least in theory still trying to shed some pounds before Xmas. However, I couldn't resist when I saw Paul Hollywood's book "How to bake" on Amazon's black friday sale. Damn you one click shopping! And damn you Paul for your foxxy good looks, making kneading dough look so sexxy.

The minute I had the book in my hands, I just had to flip through it from front to back. Yes, I was at work. But in my defence, it was my coffee break. The book is absolutely wonderful, with good instructions and beautiful pictures. Quite a lot of it covers yeast doughs, starting from basic breads, going on to flavoured breads and there is even a whole chapter on sourdoughs. When I get back from my Xmas holiday I will set up my own sourdough starter and try that method as well. In addition to breads, there are really good instructions for pastry, brioche, croissants, danishes, and lots of cakes and puddings. The book is just full or wonderful recipes which look absolutely delicious and I want to try them all. Particularly the breads.

I'm a bit bad with yeast doughs as I don't always have the patience for the long rising times. When I bake, I want to see the results immediately. And I have always been really lazy with kneading, I have always found it messy and extra work that I couldn't be bothered with. But at the same time, I absolutely love bread, and there are no decent bakeries at all in Cambridge, so if you want good bread you have to bake it yourself. So I'm looking forward to improving my bread making skills. 

To get me in the bread mood, before attacking the yeasted doughs, I decided to try one of the few non-yeast based recipes for a super quick soda bread. In my local store they sell buttermilk in 300 ml jars, so I slightly modified the amounts of ingredients in the recipe. I included the original amounts in parenthesis for a slightly larger loaf.

Paul Hollywood's Soda Bread:
375 (500) all purpose flour
3/4 (1) tsp salt
3/4 (1) tsp bicarbonate of soda
300 (400) ml buttermilk

The howto:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Mix dry ingredients, add buttermilk and mix with your hand or a wooden spoon until the dough sticks together. Shape the dough into a ball, and flatten it a bit with your palm. Put the bread on a parchment paper lined baking tray, and mark it into quarters by cutting deep, but not all the way through. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until golden brown and making a hollow sound when tapped on the bottom. 

The verdict:
This is a super quick bread to whip together, I made it for evening tea with Best Friend. We ate it pretty much straight out of the oven with just butter on top with some hot tea and lots of gossip. Perfect Saturday evening.

Preparing the bread takes just a few minutes, so it would also be perfect for weekend brunch. It seems pretty much foolproof, as it turned out absolutely beautiful. It rose much more than I expected. It was soft and tasted really nice. It somehow reminded me of some oat cakes my mum used to make, whether or not they actually had soda in them I can't remember, but the scent of the bread was exactly as I remember the oatcakes. So I think next time I will try to replace some of the flour with oats. 

Kale frittata

I'm very fickle in my affections. I know me and the slow cooker only just fell in love. And I'm not saying I don't still love it (made a delish pineapple and onion pulled pork just the other night. And when I say night, I literally mean night. I even woke up a few times to the wonderful smell in my apartment. Ok, to be honest, I woke up to leg cramps, but the pork still smelled amazing). But me and the slow cooker are past the initial infatuation, you know when you want to spend every moment together and tell each other everything. I also have to admit, I'm in love. Don't tell my slow cooker, but I found something else. And that something is my brand new shiny, black beauty. My cast iron skillet.

I have wanted to get a cast iron skillet for ages, but I'm still trying not to overcrowd my super tiny kitchen. Apparently I'm very unsuccessful at that... After watching the bakers on Great British Bakeoff make Tarte Tatins I finally cracked. Off to Amazon I went, and ordered a cute little 20 cm skillet of a brand that had quite good consumer reviews. It was also important to me to get a skillet which was ready to use and did not require seasoning as all reviews of pans that were not pre-seasoned said that it makes your apartment smell horrible, and having only just got rid of the smell of smoke from my apartment, I was not too keen on inducing any new smells.

A Tarte Tatin was going to be the first thing I made in my brand new skillet. However, I can't justify that kind of decadence in the middle of the week. But I still wanted to give my new pan a trial run. And I happened across this recipe for Kale Frittata on My Kitchen in the Rockies which was perfect as I had ordered some curly kale and had no idea what to use it for. I modified the amounts of ingredients slightly, and omitted the cheese from the original recipe.

Kale frittata (serves 4):
2 tbsp oil
1 onion
100 g curly kale
1 clove of garlic
65 g pepperoni
6 eggs

One serving contains 285 kcal (22g fat, 8.5g carbs, 14g protein).

The howto:
Preheat the grill. Chop the onion, garlic, pepperoni and kale. Whisk eggs, season with salt and pepper if you want, although I thought the pepperoni was plenty of flavour and no extra seasoning was needed. Heat oil in an oven proof skillet, and cook the onion for a few minutes until translucent. Add kale in two or three batches and cook until kale begins to wilt. After adding all kale, add garlic and pepperoni and cook for a few minutes more. Turn down the heat to medium/low and add the eggs. Stir so that the eggs distribute evenly, and cook until set on the sides of the skillet but not in the middle. Add cheese if you want to, and finish cooking under the grill for a few minutes. Let set for a few minutes in the skillet before serving.

The verdict:
During the last year or so, I have eaten eggs in pretty much any form. Hard boiled, runny yolk, poached, fried, scrambled, in the form of omelettes, mini muffins, oven cooked in tomato sauce, with banana... You name it, if it's got egg, I've done it. So this was a really nice change. I think I have pinned a few different frittata recipes and am excited to be able to finally cook them.

This isn't the healthiest start to the morning, as the pepperoni has quite a lot of fat and salt. But just for a change, this was nice. It can't be helped, but the salty and spicy pepperoni complements the kale and eggs perfectly. Next time I think I might add a bit more onion, as I really liked the combination of kale, pepperoni and onion. Also, I think I might have slight overcooked my frittata, so next time I will leave it a bit more runny in the middle before putting it in the oven. If you don't have kale, I think spinach would also work perfectly, although the kale adds a nice crunch. And replacing the pepperoni with bacon would probably also work perfectly. So as a summary, I now have one more way to cook eggs. And the good thing with the frittata is that leftovers can be re-heated the next day, either for brekkie or as a light lunch together with a green salad. I think my new love will see a lot of use in my kitchen.










 

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Almost healthy Friday quickie

Well it's been a while since my last Friday quickie. Mostly it's because I haven't eaten in on a Friday for ages. Fridays used to be mine and Best Friend's grocery shopping day, we would head off for our half hour trek to the big Tesco, use at least another half hour, often even more, to browse our way through every isle, and then trek back with a weeks worth of groceries. Carrying it all back home was never an enjoyable task, but gossiping about everything that had happened that week or planning the weekend used to make the trip go quickly. Then when I got home, I cooked something simple but delicious and spent the rest of the night on the sofa.

These days, we spend Friday afternoon crawling around in the mud and grass, do our burpees, press-ups, running and all sorts of other crazy exercises at bootcamp. If we are lucky it isn't raining, but last week we got soaked both during the morning and evening bootcamp. Yes, we are hard core that way, we enjoy bootcamp twice every Friday. And Mike, our trainer, has a very special treat for us to finish off Friday's bootcamp. Two minutes of burpees. When you have pushed your body to the limit for a full hour, those two minutes feel like they are never going to end. Point of all of this, after getting drenched in sweat and sometimes rain as well, then chilled until freezing while walking home through a pitch dark field (we have to carry bike lights to find our way, it's really that dark), the last thing on my mind is to cook something. I jump straight into a hot shower, stand there for ages until the feeling has returned to my frozen toes and then wrap myself in layers of fleece. Boiling the kettle and filling my fluffy pink hot water bottle. And grabbing whatever I can find in the freezer to eat. Gastronomy be damned, after that sort of workout you just need calories in any form or shape they happen to be most quickly available. 

And I have to admit, this week's Friday quickie is a bit of a cheat. Because I prepared the figs earlier, and only quickly heated them up today. But it's the thought that counts, in theory it's still a Friday quickie, as I'm eating it on a Friday and it was very quick to prepare, even if I technically speaking didn't prepare it all on a Friday. And it follows the rules of Friday quickies, it only has a few ingredients. Simple but oh so delicious! The figs were inspired by a pin I ran into on Pinterest which led me to this blog post about figs. Figs and goat's cheese are quite a classic combination, I decided to roast my figs instead of having them fresh, although they were so lovely soft and ripe that I'm sure they would have been absolutely delicious fresh as well. I'm just on a bit of a roasting fad, and I wanted proper food, which to me means it has to be served hot. It only seemed appropriate to serve the figs with a side dish which has been prepared by oven roasting as well. I haven't used kale much, but I fell in love with the idea of kale chips when I saw the beautiful photos on White On Rice Couple. Well, obviously I first saw the photo on Pinterest, but I probably didn't need to mention that, now did I?

Roasted figs and chèvre (serves 1):
4 figs
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp whole grain mustard
black pepper
100 g chevre
handful of pecans

The howto:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Cut figs in half, and drizzle with olive oil. Spread mustard on the figs and sprinkle with a touch of black pepper. Cut the chevre in eight pieces, and top each fig half. Pop into the oven until the goat's cheese has turned golden on top, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle with finely chopped pecans.

Salt and pepper kale chips (serves 1):
100 g kale
1 tbsp oil (I used my smoke infused virgin rapeseed oil)
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground black pepper

The howto:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Spread the kale onto a roasting tin. Drizzle with oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss. Roast for 6-8 minutes, until kale is crisp. The kale will burn very quickly, so keep an eye on it for the last few minutes. I know my baking time is shorter than that indicated in the original recipe, I guess it depends on your oven and kale. And after the fire in our building the other day (the flat underneath mine burned to a crisp...) I didn't want to over-roast the kale and risk setting off our super sensitive smoke detector as that would probably cause one or two heart attacks with the neighbours.

The verdict:
First of all, if you want to have enough kale to actually make it all the way onto your plate, you need to cook more than one serving. I hardly had any left over for a picture as I ate it right off the roasting tin. It's just that good. No, actually it's even better. I had no idea I liked kale so much. I might have slightly over salted the chips, but that just made them a bit more chip-like. Maybe next time I should drizzle some malt vinegar on them as well. 

Figs and goats cheese are a classic combo. And there is of course a reason why they are a classic, because they go together like... well like figs and goats cheese. The sweetness of the figs and the savoury cheese. I'm just crazy for figs right now, so stay tuned for more fig goodiness soon.

Reindeer surprise

Holiday!! Holi-holi-ho-ho-ho-ho-hooooliday!! It started over half an hour late, my last meeting at work just went on and on and on and on and on. My brain had already shut off fifteen minutes into the meeting, and as the meeting went on for another hour, I spent quite a long time essentially brain dead. It felt like a century. But then finally it came, that sweet moment of freedom. I wanted to scream "FREEEEEEDOM" and run down the corridor to the door. I did resist temptation. I think my colleagues find me weird enough as it is. 

I had the perfect start to the holiday: an hour of combat. Great class, as usual, great energy. I'm lucky to have such a great instructor. And I got to do my favourite muay thai. Oh my how I love the moments when you stand back, wait, and then get to yell "Hyper Hyper" and get going again. Awesome. The best track ever to get out any pent up negative feelings. Certainly helped me get rid of any residual aggression that I don't want to take along to my holiday. Now I'm totally de-aggressed, exhausted (did my usual 20 mile cycle ride in addition to the combat) and well fed (I made a tomato and bacon omelette and some banana ice cream). Next, I need to pack. Tomorrow I'm off to Finland for a week. Going to go to the summer house for a while, which is why this will be my last blog post for a while. And it's not because there wouldn't be cell phone coverage and I couldn't get online. But we don't have electricity (!). Hard to blog when you can't charge your iPad. Oh well, I will just have to make up for it when I get back home.

I really look forward to seeing my family and Finnish friends. Even better, one of my friends is getting married (which is my original reason of going to Finland). I'm thrilled that I finally get to wear my full length cream dress with red and pink flowers. It's a dress I had been eying out at Monsoon for ages, but of course it was too expensive. Then I stumbled upon it in the end of season sales, so I just had to buy it. It was the will of the shopping gods. But I haven't had an opportunity to wear it until now. I also get to wear my fascinator I bought for Ascot. Oh how I love dressing up a bit. Summer weddings are lovely.

Anyways, now that I have explained why I will disappear off the face of the blogosphere for a while, I'll leave you with one last recipe. And quel surprise, it's a brunch recipe. However, for once it's not from Pinterest (yes, I heard that sharp intake of breath there in the back row). It's actually from the deep dark recesses of my mind. I wanted to empty my freezer before my holiday, so this recipe was part of that effort. Last time I went home I brought some smoked reindeer with me. I still had one pack of it left in the freezer, so I wanted to create a nice brunch using the reindeer. I also had some leftover cheese in the freezer which I wanted to use up. So this just came together. And it gave me an opportunity to try my new pink silicon pie mould. I have big silicon pie pans, but I needed a mid size one for cooking for two. And this was so cute I just had to buy it. Worked picture perfect. And cooking breakfast in the oven gives you extra time to get back into bed and snooze for a while longer, which is always appreciated on a lazy Saturday morning.

Reindeer and eggs (serves 3-4):
100 g smoked reindeer meat (ok, if for some strange reason you are struggling to find reindeer, you could replace with any other smoked meat. If you use bacon, you need to cook it first)
5 eggs
1 shallot
125g grated cheese (I went for a mix of dutch edam and chilli cheddar as that was what I had in the freezer)

The howto:
Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Finely chop shallot and reindeer. In a bowl, use a fork to mix the eggs to make them fluffy, add onion and meat and the grated cheese. Pour into a pie pan and bake for 20ish minutes.

One serving (a quarter of the recipe) contains  231 kcal (15g fat, 1.4g carbs and  21g protein).

The verdict:
What is it about smoked meats and eggs that go so well together? And especially in the morning? The reindeer definitely adds things to this dish you wouldn't get with regular bacon, it does have a very distinct taste of game. Which goes brilliantly with the onion. This got the approval of my culinary consultant, who had never had reindeer before. So if you happen to be around any places where you could get reindeer, do pick up a pack or two, it's really good! Incidentally, tomorrow I'm off to the land of the reindeers, and incidentally my freezer is empty. Will bring home a few packs of reindeer and pop them in the freezer as I have a list of things I want to use it for. Including my mum's famous reindeer jelly. It's epic. Although I'm not sure if it will turn out the right way with UK cottage cheese, which is not nearly as good as Finnish cottage cheese. Maybe I should just use my home-made farmer's cheese instead. Now there is an idea! Stay tuned. The InvisiblePinkOne will be back in about a week and a half.

Friday quickie aka the avocado that never was

Today, after work, I was supposed to clean my apartment. Vacuum, do the dishes, scrub the ladies room. I was going to do laundry and then read a few papers and edit the book chapter I'm writing so that I could finally send it off to my boss (it's only four days late so far...). And above all, I was supposed to eat healthily. I have been trying to be good all week, but on Tuesday I baked chocolate-courgette bread (which I will post about soon), and yesterday I got a lovely lovely parcel from back home with all sorts of goodies I couldn't keep my hands off. Particularly, I got rye bread, which I have been eating for two days now (with butter, of course!) and Dominos. Dominos are the best biscuits ever! They are like Oreos, but much better. And this year there is a new Domino, the Domino Super, which has more of the white creamy dreamy filling than the traditional one. So of course I asked my mum to ship some over ASAP. And they were pretty much gone at the speed of light.


Anyways, when I got home from work (after biking 10 miles, and doing my weekly grocery shopping and cycling home from the store in the pouring rain for 15 minutes) I ate a Domino, two tablespoons of jam straight out of the jar, dates and a piece of banana cake. Dates are evil! Almost as addictive as raisins. I don't know what evil came over me today at the grocery store to make me buy some. I know I can't keep my fingers off them. Sigh. Oh well, after this, surely I cleaned and ate healthily? Oh, are you kidding me. I did pop a sweet potato into the oven, but they take like... forever... to cook. So meanwhile I just whipped up a batch of creamy lemon bars (which I will blog about next, I promise). Not that I made them for me, I'm seeing a friend tomorrow who likes all things lemony. And surely I won't touch them tonight. Of course not! Well I do have to taste a little bit. But not because I would want to, but just to make sure they are good enough to give to someone else. That might or might not require me to sample half of the batch. But it's important to get samples from all over the baking tin, so that I can be assured the pieces from the middle are as good as the ones on the sides. Anyone know where the closest carboholics anonymous meeting is? And do they serve coffee and doughnuts there? Which reminds me, I really want a doughnut pan, there are so many lovely recipes for baked doughnuts on Pinterest, it's driving me doughnuts!

Ok, so that was today's random ramblings over and done with. So, onto todays quickie. It's just something my twisted mind thought up because I had some left over sweet potatoes that needed to be used, as well as an over-ripe avocado. So I thought a nice oven baked sweet potato with tuna-avocado salad can never go wrong. And because I recently made a lovely soup with roasted cauliflower and roasted garlic (once again something for a future post), I thought while I have the oven all fired up, why not roast an onion in there as well to throw in the tuna salad. Of course the avocado turned out to be so over ripe it wasn't edible anymore (which is so annoying as they are crazy expensive). But this crazy concoction still turned out pretty amazing. And it's quick to whip together, the only thing that takes time is to bake the sweet potato. But you can use the time wisely, like I did  by baking something. Or maybe even clean if you are a better person than me. 


Baked sweet potato with tuna and roasted onion salad (serves 2):
2 sweet potatoes
1 onion
1 tin of tuna
2 hard boiled eggs
1/2 sweet pepper
2 spring onions
(1 avocado)
black pepper
cayenne pepper
salt
dried coriander (or whatever other herbs you like, dill would probably be great too)
fresh basil leaves or some other herb
(possibly some olive oil if you are not using tuna in oil and not adding the avocado)


The howto:
Wrap the sweet potatoes and onion in foil individually, and bake in 175 degrees for an hour. Meanwhile boil the eggs. When sweet potatoes and onion is baked, unwrap the onion, but keep the sweet potatoes wrapped to keep them warm. Make the salad in a food processor. Start by adding the onion, eggs, sweet pepper, spring onions and spices, and grind until smooth. Add tuna and quickly pulse. If you happen to have an avocado which is still the proper avocado colour and does not collapse into itself when you touch it, add it to the salad, and pulse quickly, just enough for everything to be mixed. Serve immediately.


The verdict:
The whole idea with the tuna salad was supposed to be the avocado, as I thought it would bring a nice creaminess without having to add mayo. However, now I will never know. Well at least not until I make it again. Because I certainly will. Just the baked onion and eggs did add quite a bit of creaminess, and I think next time if I add the avocado, I will only use one egg. I could also imagine replacing tuna with chicken would work quite well. Maybe add some curry in that case to the spices. Not too shabby considering that all ingredients are pretty much things I always keep stocked at home anyways. I think my traditional Friday night lentil soup has got some serious competition. 

Pan Asian prawn soup

As probably has been very evident from the last few posts, I had a major pig-out weekend (and there are still one or two recipes left unposted from the carb binge). Now it's time to work off all that wobble that went straight to the derriere. I have ran, cycled, pumped, bootcamped and combatted. But the most important thing to remember is, you can't outrun a bad diet (ironically, a sentence that often plays on repeat in my head while I'm running). 


My go-to trick when I'm trying to cut calories is soups. I can't eat a tiny bit of food, no matter how much calories it would have I feel hungry unless I get to dig into a big portion. And with soup, you get to eat a huge bowl and it's still possible to keep it relatively low calorie, especially if you don't add any starch carbs like root veg. 


I got the inspiration for this soup when browsing Pinterest (quelle surprise), and it's from a lovely blog called Food and whine. I did end up changing the recipe a bit, especially since coconut milk is a luxury of several hundred kcals that I can't afford right now. But I think it did turn out pretty nice anyways. If you didn't binge on unhealthy stuff last weekend and can afford the calories, I'm sure the coconut milk would make it all that extra bit more creamy and dreamy. If you want to be really strict with your carbs, leave out the noodles. The rice noodles I was using actually had some corn starch in them as well, but it was the only type of rice noodles I could find when I went grocery shopping. I guess I should go and have a look in some Asian food markets, I'm sure there has to be all-rice noodles somewhere. I would have left out the noodles, but I'm planning a long run on Friday, so I rationalised to myself that I really need the extra carbs (I'm very good at self-deception, I'm sure you have noticed by now). 


Prawn and noodle soup (serves 2-3):
1 tbsp toasted sesame seed oil
1 onion
2 stalks of celery
1 carrot
1 sweet pepper
piece of ginger root
2 cloves of garlic
180g sugarsnap peas
4 scallions
1-2 tbsp curry or chilli paste (I used Rendang, a Malaysian medium spicy curry paste)
1-2 tsp Tamarind paste
1 lemon
150 g rice noodles (I used the ready-to-wok type, which are pre-cooked)
180 g king prawns (cooked and ready to use)
coriander


The howto:
Chop onion, celery, carrot and pepper finely. Fry in oil for a good few minutes, and meanwhile, chop up ginger and garlic. Add them to the pan, and fry for another minute or so. Add 2 cups (500 ml) of water and bring to a boil. Cut pea pods in half and chop scallions, and add. Add curry/chilli paste and Tamarind to taste. Grate some lemon zest into the soup, as well as the juice from the lemon. Let cook for about five minutes. When ready to serve, add prawns and noodles, give them a minute or so. Garnish with chopped coriander and serve immediately.


One serving (half of the recipe) contains 360 kcal (9.4 g fat, 46 g carbs of which 18 g sugar and 16 g protein).


The verdict:

This literally only took a few minutes to whip up, I think chopping up all the veg took more time than the actual cooking. I particularly liked the sweetness when you bit into a sugarsnap pea. And the prawns stayed lovely and juicy because they only warm up a bit but don't have time to cook at all so that they would turn that horrible rubbery texture that prawns easily get if over cooked. The tamarind sauce added a nice sweet and sour taste that went well with the prawns and veggies. Like I said before, probably even better with coconut milk, but very good like this as well. And very healthy, this goes a good way towards your five a day. I was actually going to throw in some spinach in the soup also, as I have some in the fridge that need to be used up very soon, but in my haste to get some food in me after my workout, I forgot all about the spinach. I'll add it in next time. 

Friday choc quickie

 I had such a crappy day today. Without going into detail, I really need to get more involved in the micromanagement of my life, and once again my inattention to detail has screwed me over totally. Do you ever have those moments when you just want to go home, pull the duvet over your head and cry for a few hours? I was also reminded of the fact that the last thing you should do on a crappy day is go grocery shopping. Unfortunately, I didn't have a choice, as I won't have time to do my weekly grocery shopping any other day this weekend. So into Tesco I went, and came out with over a kilogram (yes, scary, and I have no idea wtf I will do with it all...) of cheese (a girl needs her calcium, right??). And some deli meats (well it's kind of healthy, it's proteins. Never mind the fat and salt). And dark chocolate (I mean, it's pretty much health food, it's 70% cocoa dark chocolate). And milk chocolate. Ok, can't rationalise that no matter how hard I try. Maybe some more calcium? All I know is, I just have no self control. Truth is, I had a reason for those choccy chips. It's this recipe from a lovely blog called My Happy Place that I stumbled upon when browsing Pinterest. Ever since I bought my cute little pink ramekins (more about them in an upcoming post soon), I have been obsessed with cute little things that can be cooked in individual portions. And of course the good thing about tiny small recipes is that once you have finished your individual portion, there won't be anything left over to binge on when the craving hits. 


Anyways, this is a single serving choc chip cookie, cooked in the microwave. It is as dangerous as the microwave choc cake I blogged about earlier. The cookie takes exactly one minute to make and another minute (or 50 seconds) to bake. From sugar and fat to belly fat in less than two minutes... This is the reason I can't stock choc chips at home, I would make these every day. Although I'm sure that in desperate times, I could make this with cranberries or raisins if I didn't have any choc chips. Unfortunately the rest of the ingredients are all things I stock at home at all times.


The single woman's choc chip cookie from My Happy Place:
1 tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp dark sugar
1 tbsp melted butter
a few drops of vanilla extract (I used 1/2 tsp vanilla paste, which I like better)
egg yolk
pinch of salt
1/4 cup (40g) white flour
2 tbsp (or more...) choc chips 

Whoops, almost forgot the egg.

The howto:
In a small bowl, mix sugars, butter, vanilla, egg and salt. Add flour, and finally choc chips. I used a generous heaping, 2 tbsp just seemed so... sad and lonely. Put the dough in a ramekin or other small microwave proof bowl, and microwave for 40-60 seconds. I did 60 seconds in 700W, and next time I think I will do 50 seconds. Serve immediately.

Ready to be nuked.

Add a few raspberries, and it's practically health food...

The verdict:
The problem with the single serving goodies: there is just one single serving!! I could have eaten at least three of these (which doesn't mean it's a small serving, it's perfectly adequate, but my sugar craving knows no boundaries). This was even better than I had imagined. You know how cookie dough is always better than the actual baked cookies. But sometimes it can be a bit overwhelmingly... sweet and gooey. Well, this is the perfect missing link between fully baked cookie and raw cookie dough. It's warm and has those great gooey melted choccy bits, but it's cooked enough not to be too overwhelmingly sweet. Ok, it is sweet, it's actually very sweet. Not too sweet for me, but I can understand if people with normal carbotolerance think it is a bit too much.  


I used a very dark brown sugar, because I love the caramel-ly flavour it gives to the cookie. I also used vanilla paste instead of vanilla extract. It's a syrupy dark paste with vanilla bean seeds, and I think it gives a much nicer and more rounded vanilla flavour than vanilla extract. It is rather expensive to buy, but one jar will last you a really long time, and it also doesn't go bad (I think I have had mine for at least six months). 


This recipe is so dangerous. Not only is it quick and easy, there are also endless opportunities to do different variations of it. Orange and chocolate, raspberry, strawberry, lime, nut praline, white chocolate, rum and raisin (of course!!). Make it a bit more healthy by reducing sugar, replace some of the flour with oatmeal and the chocolate with dried berries. Be warned, this is really addictive. It's just too easy to make and tastes way too good. I'm now lying on my sofa typing this, suffering from a very bad carbo-coma. Oh well, it's Friday, and sugar makes me forget all about my worries. And no, I don't have an addiction, but thank you for asking.

The obligatory picture with melted choccy goo.

The end. Which came way too soon.