Salmon and egg brunch salad

I have been wondering whether there is more traffic accidents on Friday than on any other day. At least based on my limited experience of living out in the countryside and driving to work for the last seven or eight months or so, it seems that on Fridays there is always an accident somewhere along my route. And with the weight of traffic being much heavier on Fridays anyways, it makes the trip home last forever. It is so frustrating to see all the routes turn red in an instant on Google Maps when people fill up the alternative routes once the main dual carriageway is blocked. The road infrastructure in this country is so incapable of sustaining the weight of traffic. We will have a brand new A14 in say 10 years or so, but it isn't much comfort right at this minute when the only option to get to work in a sensible time is leave home no later than 6.20 am in the morning. And even at that time I rarely get to do 70 on the A14 for long stretches at a time. 

Traffic has become one of my pet peeves, how people are so hell-bent on "Me, Me, Me, I need to get through here quickly" and no thought on the big picture of how your behaviour affects the traffic flow in general. When I lived in Cambridge and could walk everywhere I barely noticed the traffic jams, although they were always there. But they didn't touch my life in any way. Now, it's just such a gamble every time I look at Google Maps before leaving work. Is that red stretch on my route bad enough that I should take the alternative, longer route? I used to try and logically plan my choices, but I have learned that here the traffic situations change in an instant and looking at maps before leaving work amounts to no good, as by the time I have reached the car park there is another accident out there somewhere and another route is blocked. People, be careful out there! Everyone gets home quicker if we have some patience and don't do idiotic and stupid manoeuvres that cause high risk situations to occur. Ok, stepping off the soap box now. But promise me you will drive carefully!!! 

Ok, on to the main star of today's pos. This salad is a great healthier alternative to your usual salmon and poached egg muffin. Perfect for a delicious lunch or weekend brunch. Loads of flavour, healthy fats and protein along with several of your five a day. As easy to make for one, or scale up and make for a bigger party.

Salmon salad (for one):
big handful of mixed greens (I included spinach)
cucumber, chopped into sticks
handful of cherry or plum tomatoes
2 slices of smoked salmon
1 boiled egg
2 tbsp mozzarella pearls

For the dressing:
1/2 tbsp cider vinegar
1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tbsp finely chopped dill and chives
black pepper

The howto:
Pile all salad ingredients onto a plate. Mix the ingredients for the dressing, pour over the salad. All done! Can food get any faster than this?

The verdict:
I like to make my salads with lots of things in them. The lettuce and cucumber are there just for the background whereas the main stars of the show are always something delicious like chicken or smoked salmon, and some cheese too from time to time. Salmon and egg is one of my favourite salad flavour combinations. Healthy fats from the fish and lots of protein from the egg. Also, the right way to eat a salad is to eat the lettuce and cucumber first, and then leave all the goodies to finish with. I should maybe start assembling the salads upside down, with all the filling at the bottom and the greens on the top to make it easier to eat in my preferred way... Although that wouldn't make a very pretty photo now would it? 

Gratin of mussels

My body's clock seems to be quite well tuned and getting used to waking up at 6 am, as I was fast asleep a bit past ten pm last night. I'm such a party animal! And although I did sleep in a bit this morning, I was still up at quarter to seven. But I don't want to sleep in too late on the weekends, as that will only make it harder to get up during the week. So instead, I have a few hours of crafting and blogging time on Saturday and Sunday morning while the Culinary Consultant sleeps. That lucky bastard gets to sleep until eight in the morning even on working days, and he tends to stay up rather late, so he does take the opportunity to sleep in a bit over the weekend. I used to be able to easily sleep past midday on weekends. I guess I'm officially old now, no longer able to sleep in the mornings. During my holiday, I established a nice sleeping pattern of going to sleep around 11.30 and waking up around 8 am. I think that would be ideal for me, being able to sleep until 8 am. But I guess the next time in my life when I'm able to sleep as I wish is when I get retired. And I'm sure by then I am one of those people who wake up at 4 am, complain that the day feels so long and then I fall asleep on the sofa at 8 pm. Hopefully shifting the clocks tonight won't upset my internal clock too much...

I am also slowly getting used to my commute, I spend some mornings dozing off a bit in the bus, other mornings I plan next week's menu, or just read a book. On the way back home, I try to get some work related reading done, and sometimes I just stare out the window with a completely blank mind. There is no point in thinking about all the time that is wasted sitting in the bus (or as was the case yesterday - waiting for a bus for over 45 minutes). This is the choice I made, and the price I pay for a nicer job is the longer commute. It won't get any better by complaining about it, so I might as well make the best of it. I have now used the car+bus combo for three weeks, and kept a diary of the expense as well as the time it has taken me every day. Next, I will drive in for the next three weeks and compare time and cost, and then decide on what is the best option in the long run. I'm so annoyed we get charged for parking at work. I'm sure that should be illegal...

After all those pointless ramblings, on to today's recipe. You know all that food your Mum used to make when you were a child? And then trying to re-create it years later, and it just doesn't look the same. This is something I remember my Mum making quite often for her and Dad. I don't think I ever tasted it, not sure if it was because we were never served this dish, or because we simply refused to eat it (I would assume the latter is the more accurate). 

Gratin of mussels (serves 4 as a starter):

1 dl (approx 1/3 of a cup) chopped parsley

1 dl (approx 1/3 of a cup) chopped leek

1 dl (approx 1/3 of a cup) chopped chives

1 clove of garlic, sliced

2.5 dl (1 cup) dry white wine

2.5 dl (1 cup) fish stock

2 dl (3/4 cup + 1 tbsp) single cream

2 tbsp flour in 2 tbsp water

black pepper (you can add salt, but the smoked salmon which is added later is salty enough for my taste)

1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

a pinch of dill

about 400 g mussels (thawed if frozen, smoked mussels will give nice added flavour)

100 g smoked salmon

150 g grated cheese (or more/less to taste)

chopped parsley

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Add the chopped parsley, leek, chives, garlic, wine and fish stock into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Let boil until the volume is reduced to half. Add the cream and bring to a low boil. While stirring, add the water and flour mixture in a thin stream and let bubble for a few minutes. Season with finely chopped garlic, black pepper and finely chopped dill (fresh is better, but dried will do).

In an oven proof dish, or individual ramekins, spread the mussels and salmon. Cover with the sauce. Top with grated cheese and chopped parsley. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown and bubbling. Serve with fresh bread or baguette.

The verdict:

In my memories, when my mum made this, it looked very different. But then again, she used to make it in individual servings, whereas I didn't have any ramekins which were the right size, my soufflé ramekins were too small. It was very tasty though. I can't remember whether I ever tasted my mum's version of it so I can't compare taste. One warning I have is to be very careful with the salt. I don't think this dish needs any added salt, especially if you use smoked mussels or smoked salmon. This makes a really great starter, and I took the leftovers with me to work for lunch the next day. It felt rather decadent to eat such amazingly good food for lunch at work, but it certainly made my day. To be honest, the dish is definitely best if served right out of the oven, re-heating does make the mussels a bit tough.

Oven baked salmon with olives and feta

When I was a child, I hated it when I had to take the clean dishes out of the dishwasher and put them away in the cupboards. I thought it was incredibly tedious. Now I would kill to get to just place all my dirty dishes in a machine which would magically make them clean, and then I would just need to put them back in the cupboards. Oh how I hate washing dishes. It's possibly my number one most hated house chore right now. Last weekend I cooked so many different dishes to have food for us all week. And the cooking part is mostly fun. But the washing up... And apparently "the cook doesn't clean" does not apply in this house. It's the cook who does the dishes, cleans the kitchen, cleans the bathroom, and everything else. I used to frown at the expression "a woman's touch". As in "this place certainly needs a woman's touch". I'm a big believer in equality, and I've always imagined men are certainly as capable as taking care of themselves and their homes as women. It turns out that living with a man for just a few weeks has completely changed my view. Well, enough about that subject. And on to food, a much more fun subject.

When I was working on my PhD, we had a really sub-par cafeteria at the research institute where I worked. The food was absolutely horrible. According to my colleagues who work there, it is still as horrible if not even worse. There was one thing they did well though, a dish called greek salmon. It was simply oven baked salmon with feta and olives on top. The dish had a sad history though, as food prices kept creeping up and the cafeteria wanted to make more profit, they swapped part of the salmon to cod, so it was a strange hybrid fish, half white and half pink under the veil of olives and feta. Then they left out the salmon completely, and then the feta and the olives. And so it was just oven baked cod. But back in the day, that was definitely the best dish they were serving. This recipe is based on that idea, but I have taken it a bit further adding yogurt and fresh herbs to the topping.

Oven baked salmon with olives and feta (serves 6-8):
1 kg salmon fillet
150 g feta 
10-15 large olives (I used green olives in oil with herb seasoning)
2 tbsp olive oil (I used the oil from the olives)
3 tbsp greek yoghurt
1 clove of garlic (or to taste. I used smoked garlic)
a big bunch of flatleaf parsley
black pepper to taste

The howto:
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C/400 degrees F/gas mark 6. Place the salmon in an oven proof dish. Grind black pepper to taste on the salmon. In a bowl, mix crumbled feta, chopped olives, olive oil, yoghurt, garlic and herbs. Spoon the topping onto the salmon. Bake for about 30-40 minutes, or until the salmon is cooked and the topping is starting to brown. 

The verdict:
Of all fish, salmon might possibly be my favourite. Even if it's crappy quality cheap salmon from the supermarket. Mix that with the massive punch of flavour from the feta, olives and parsley and you can't lose. The salmon is great out of the oven, but it also works cold to have along with your lunch salad. You could tweak the topping to include any leftovers you want to get rid of. Sundried tomatoes, other herbs, capers... so many options. This is definitely my favourite way of cooking salmon. Just make sure you don't overcook it, the topping does help keep the fish all nice and moist. Admittedly, this is not the most beautiful food, but as I have said before, this blog is all about the flavour!

Card of the day:
This weekend I finally got an opportunity to dig out all my crafting equipment from the moving boxes. To be honest, lately the problem has not been restricted to finding time for crafting. It's about finding a place for crafting. The bachelor pad has only one table. And don't be fooled to believe it would be a dining table. No, it's a desk in the bedroom. And on this desk you can usually find... oh, wait for it... a bike! But this weekend, I was lucky enough that the bike was gone from the table temporarily, so I decided to make the most of it. I think that might be the only crafting fix I will get for as long as we are staying in the bachelor pad, so I made the most out of it. I pulled out all my three boxes of crafting equipment and made a right mess. There might or might not be a few ink stains on the desk which didn't come off... The first card I made was a congratulatory card for the Culinary Consultant's uncle whose 45 year wedding anniversary we are attending next weekend. I wanted the card to be simple and elegant. The colour of the cardstock doesn't show very well on the pictures, the top one shows the colour of the cardstock pretty accurately whereas the bottom picture shows the details a bit better. The background is embossed using a Cuttlebug folder, and the thin panel to the left is stamped with black ink and then heat embossed using a silver embossing powder. The stamp is the Hero Arts Flourish background stamp. The sentiment is from my trusty Hobbycraft General Sentimets set, stamped using black ink and heat embossed using silver embossing powder. The matting has been done using a silver paper, and to finish off, three silver gems and a grey bow. Very elegant and dignified.

Thai salmon soup

I usually like recipes with a minimal amount of ingredients. As they say: KISS - keep it simple, stupid. I rarely cook anything Asian because the recipes usually contain a crazy long list of ingredients and spices I don't have lying around at home. After dragging home bags full of pastes, spices and other exotic ingredients, you use a tiny amount of each of them, and a year later you rediscover the jars in the back of your fridge, growing all sorts of exotic moulds. However, there are times when you have a bunch of stuff in your fridge that needs using up, and throwing it all in a soup is a perfect solution to the problem. So I devised a nice soup which contains loads of leftover veggies, and a few simple ingredients to give the soup a thai flair. The only ingredients I had to buy specifically for the soup were coconut cream, curry paste, lemon grass and prawns. And of those four ingredients, the only one I had left over after cooking the soup was the curry paste, which is easy to use in pretty much any recipe. And there is nothing as comforting as a nice bowl of soup when your apartment is so cold that you have to keep running processor heavy tasks on your laptop to make it heat up nice and toasty on your lap. Actually, the best way to keep the laptop hot is to play Civilization. It's not because I would enjoy it, it's just to keep from freezing to death.

Thai-ish salmon soup (serves 4):

1 tsp virgin coconut oil

1 onion

1 clove of garlic

a piece of ginger root

2 stalks of celery

2 carrots

200 g cabbage

250 ml coconut cream

1 veggie stock cube in 500ml hot water

1-2 tbsp thai red curry paste

1 stalk of lemon grass

1 red pepper

250 g salmon

200 g prawns

200 g sprouted beans

150 g rice noodles

150 g spinach

fresh coriander

The howto:

Finely chop onion, garlic, celery and ginger root. Chop the carrots, cabbage and red pepper. Heat the coconut oil in a big pan, and cook the onion, garlic, celery and ginger root until the onion turns translucent. Add carrots and cabbage and cook for a few minutes. Add the coconut cream, stock, curry paste and lemon grass. Let cook for 30 minutes, or until the carrots turn soft. Add the red pepper and salmon, let cook for 5 minutes. Add the prawns, sprouted beans, noodles and spinach and cook for another 5 minutes. Serve garnished with fresh coriander. 

The verdict:

I know that the ingredient list for the soup is rather long. However, you can use any veggies you happen to have around. The main thing is having salmon, prawns, coconut cream and red thai curry paste and a mix of veggies. You can leave out whatever you don't like or don't happen to have around, and replace with things that are hiding out in the back of your fridge. 

When the weather gets really cold, there is nothing like a hot steaming bowl of soup to keep you warm. And the curry paste adds some extra heat to make sure you stay warm. The flavour combination of the spicy hot curry paste with the creaminess of the coconut cream and the crunchiness from the vegetables makes a wonderful combination. If you want to be health conscious you could always swap the coconut cream for low fat coconut milk, or even just the vegetable broth. But with this cold winter weather, it might be a good idea to get in some extra calories to keep warm in the cold and the rain. Or maybe that's just me rationalising, but at least there is no arguing with the fact that the coconut cream brings a wonderful soft... well, creaminess... to the soup. 

Beside the seaside

I can't believe it's Friday again. Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy about the fact that weekend is upon us. But I have had such an unproductive week, I've been working from home as I've been suffering from strange flash headaches, and when they hit, I need to lie down and close my eyes. Thankfully they usually pass really quickly, but I would love to know where they came from. And what to do to make them go away. So far, apart from lying really still, the only other thing that helps is exercise. As long as I'm doing sports, they stay away. But there is only so much sports you can squeeze into a day, especially after a ten day holiday during which I did practically no exercise at all, so have to try to keep the rest of my body from breaking down on me. Well, next week should be better as I'm going to the Lake District to enjoy what I'm sure will be fabulous British fall weather, and one or two full English breakfasts. 

Approaching Suomenlinna on the ferry.

Ok, well onto the theme of today. The sea. When I was back home in Finland for my summer holiday, I had a whole afternoon all by myself in Helsinki and there is only one thing to do on a sunny summer afternoon in Helsinki. Stop by heaven, aka. the amazing big grocery department at the Stockmann department store (very appropriately named Delicatessen), get some picnic food (which could be anything but for me has to be chicken Cesar salad, Karelian pastries and donuts), and hop on the ferry to Suomenlinna. Suomenlinna is a group of islands outside of Helsinki, formerly a sea fortress and currently a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is a popular picnic- and hanging out spot, located a short, 15 minute, ferry ride from central Helsinki. There are plenty of things to see if you go there for the first time, old buildings, fortifications, museums, old cannons, stuff like that. However, if you have visited countless times, you just want to go to the more secluded regions, sit down on the rocks by the sea and stare out on the horizon. 

Sitting on the rocks and staring out at sea.

In the summer Suomenlinna can get crazy like any other popular tourist attraction, but I was lucky that it wasn't too busy although I went out on a Friday evening. The first year students have just started their studies at universities across Helsinki, so there were big groups of students picnic-ing and enjoying a drink or two. It's one of those really traditional things people do when school starts. Watching the big groups students wearing overalls brought back warm memories from my own student days. In Finland, university students often wear overalls when having university related social outings. The colour of your overalls reflects your place of study or the student union you belong to. When I was studying at the university of technology, I was wearing the Swedish speaking student's burgundy overalls with yellow print, and when I was studying at the department of genetics, I was wearing a dark blue overall with white print. Given the activities that used to go on at those parties, having protective wear was actually not a bad idea.

View from the Southern part of Susisaari (Wolf island)
towards Downtown Helsinki (in the background)

My Friday quickie today is also sea inspired. I made a really amazing omelette with salmon and prawns. I've been craving prawns like crazy lately, and have had them for three days running now. And smoked salmon in an omelette is great for flavour, not to mention for good fats as well. After working out in the morning, I also like to have a bit of salt in my breakfast, so the salmon is perfect for that as well. Anyways, this is of course not the most exciting recipe ever, but it turned out so great I wanted to share it with you.

Sea inspired omelette (serves 1):

1 tsp virgin coconut oil

1 medium onion

1 cup spinach

2 eggs

1 slice smoked salmon

50 g king prawns

The howto:

Finely chop the onion, and sauteé in the coconut oil. Add spinach, and cook until spinach is wilted. Use a fork to mix the eggs, and pour on top of the onions and spinach. Let cook for a minute or so, add sliced salmon and prawns on top. Cook for about five minutes, until the underside has set but the top side is still soft. Fold over and slide onto a plate.

The verdict:

Overall, I'm not a huge fan of coconut oil, the flavour is a bit too coconut-ty for me. Also, I know it's all the health rage right now, and I know it's good for frying as it's thermostabile, but I do worry a bit about the saturated fat content. Anyways, I have decided to vary my fats, so that I use a bit of butter, a bit of coconut oil, some olive oil and some rapeseed oil, figuring I should get a bit of the goodness of everything and hopefully spread out the possible unhealthy effects. However, I think coconut oil goes really well with prawns, which is why I used it for this omelette. And the combination of flavours really was spot on with the onions, coconut oil, prawns and the salty yummy smoked salmon. And for once I managed to cook the omelette to perfection, not dry at all. The secret is to get the omelette off the heat at least three minutes before you think it's done. I'm happy I still have a slice of salmon and some prawns left for tomorrow, I think my sea omelette will make a reappearance tomorrow morning after my Saturday morning workout.

Lucky coincidence seafood lasagna

Putting together a three course menu always requires a bit of thought. I usually start with an idea for a main course and then build around that. It's a bit of a puzzle to put together a nice balanced menu trying to somehow tie together the dishes while still keeping a balance. If there is cheese in the starter and main, it might not be a good idea to bake a cheese cake for pudding, that sort of thing. I finally managed to settle on a nice combination of dishes, and headed off to the grocery store. Only to realise there is no way I would be able to cook what I planned as I couldn't get the main ingredient. Sob. Happened to me last Saturday. There I was in the grocery store, trying to come up with an alternative. I had settled on a bit of an Italian theme, melon with parma ham and Burrata with tomatoes and basil for a starter, mussels in white wine and freshly baked cheese bread for the main and then lemon and meringue pie for pudding. Turns out there were no fresh mussels. Panic!!! And you know how your brain always shuts down when you need it the most. There I was, the person who could list a dozen of dishes I want to cook in a minute, not coming up with anything. Ok, so Italian theme. Pasta. No mussels, but maybe sticking with sea food. Salmon! Salmon pasta. Then I remembered Best Friend talking about a smoked salmon lasagna she had made and it turned out great. Breakthrough! Smoked salmon and king prawn lasagna with sundried tomatoes and a lovely Bechamel sauce made from scratch. Lots of parmesan and mozzarella. Problem solved!

I have to admit this was the first time I have ever made proper Bechamel sauce, and I'm happy to announce that it was a success. The secret is to boil everything slowly enough so that you won't burn the milk or the flour so that the sauce stays nice and white. And to use a lot of onion and pepper. I managed to get a wonderful, creamy and delicious sauce using this recipe.


Seafood lasagna (serves 6-8):
For the Bechamel sauce:
1 l milk
a couple stalks of parsley
1 shallot
2 bay leaves
20 black peppers
80 g butter
40 g white flour
salt and black pepper


300 g fresh lasagne
200 g smoked salmon
200 g king prawns
300 g mozzarella
100 g grated parmesan
1 jar sundried tomato paste (finely chopped sundried tomatoes in olive oil)
white wine


The howto:
Start by preparing the Bechamel. Finely chop the onion, and add the onion, parsley, bay leaves and black peppers to the milk and bring it slowly to a simmer (yes the secret is to do it very slowly, and stir every once in a while to make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan). Then strain the milk. Melt butter in a pan, and when melted, add the flour. Make sure to keep a low or medium heat so that the butter doesn't brown. Stir rapidly to make a gooey paste. Add milk in very small amounts while stirring rapidly to the butter and flour to make sure no lumps form. After adding half of the milk, you can start adding the milk in slightly more at a time, and keep whisking with a ballon whisk. Bring everything slowly to a simmer and let simmer for about five minutes, or until the sauce is thick and shiny. Season with salt and pepper. Go light with the salt, as the smoked salmon will bring quite a bit of salt to the dish.


Line an oven proof dish with lasagna, spread tomato paste on the pasta and add smoked salmon, grated Parmesan and a quarter of the Bechamel sauce. For the next layer, use prawns and mozzarella instead of salmon and Parmesan, and make the third layer identical to the first. Top with a layer of pasta, and pour Bechamel sauce and white wine over the top, and finish off with the rest of the mozzarella. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until the lasagna is bubbling and mozzarella is golden brown. 

Ready to go into the oven, with mozzarella
and creamy dreamy Bechamel on top.

The verdict:
Sundried tomatoes and salmon. And lots of cheese, and a creamy dreamy Bechamel. A splash of white wine, and more of the same in a glass to accompany the food. Admittedly not health food in any way, but amazingly good. And it was as terrific re-heated the next day. And the day after. I ate way too much of it. And will be making another batch very soon, as this was one of the best things I have eaten in a long time, even if I say so myself. I'm actually happy I didn't end up getting any mussels as it resulted in this amazing dish. Talk about lucky coincidences.

Peppers with stuff

Just to keep up appearances that I actually cook healthy food in between all my baking, I tried to find a recipe to blog about which would not contain sugar, butter or cream. Also, my sugar, cream and butter overloaded derriere actually needs a healthy recipe or two. Actually it needs about two years of healthy recipes. I'll try to make it to next weekend before I do another baking post. Whoops, actually realised there are a few more baking posts coming up soon... I think I have a serious problem.


But I'll try to get down from my sugar high for long enough to finish this post. This is a recipe inspired by my mum's amazing salmon pie, one of the comfort foods of my childhood. And to be honest, she still makes it, and I still thoroughly enjoy it. The pie has a filling of rice, salmon and boiled eggs, and it's all baked in a puff pastry crust. And it's best enjoyed with a generous helping of garlic butter on top. Me and my sister always wanted to go for the pieces right at the end, as you got the biggest amount of puff pastry that way.


While still drooling over the memories of my mum's pie, I tried here to recreate some of the flavours but making it more healthy. I have basically kept the salmon and the eggs (and keep dreaming of the puff pastry and garlic butter...). Instead I've stuffed it all inside peppers. I love both stuffed peppers and stuffed tomatoes, and do them with all kinds of fillings. Minced meat with spinach and onion, tuna with olives, or just go veggie with onions, feta and olives. So this time I did salmon, quinoa and leek as salmon was on sale last time I went grocery shopping, and I think salmon and leek go amazingly well together. The quinoa makes a nice addition of healthy carbs and some extra protein, although with the salmon and eggs, this dish is rather rich on protein already. 


Stuffed peppers (serves 4-6):
6-8 large sweet peppers
85g quinoa (uncooked weight)
1/3 veggie stock cube
250g salmon
3 eggs
2 leeks
1 onion
100g spinach
30g dill
200g cherry tomato
black pepper
garlic pepper


If making 6 peppers, each contains 250 kcal (10g fat, 25g carbs of which 10g sugar and 17g protein).


The howto:
Boil the eggs, and cook the quinoa with the stock cube according to the instructions on the pack. Season the salmon with pepper and garlic pepper and cook in the oven until medium (don't over cook). Fry onions and leeks for a few minutes, and add spinach and keep on stirring in the pan until the spinach has wilted. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. In a big bowl, mix the quinoa, the salmon (torn into small pieces), finely chopped or mashed eggs, the leek-onion-spinach mix and finely chopped dill. Season generously with the garlic pepper. Cut the tops off the peppers and remove seeds. If the peppers won't stand up, trim the bottom of the pepper flat. Put a cherry tomato in each pepper, add stuffing until half full, add a few more cherry tomatoes, and fill with stuffing. Bake for 30-35 minutes.

The verdict:
I'm the first one to admit this might not be the most exciting food in the world. However, I love the combo of salmon, leek and dill. And to be quite honest, I'm a big fan of eggs as well, although for some reason I always feel slightly odd admitting that. There are so many variations you could do with this dish. If you feel decadent, add some grated cheese on top. If you want to do a low carb variation, leave out the quinoa. If you don't have quinoa, but don't mind the carbs, substitute with couscous or rice. It's low in calories, high in nutrients, and if you use different coloured peppers it's really pretty too.

Breakfast effins

To keep on the muffin theme for one more post, this is a brilliant breakfast (or light lunch) idea. Easy to take with you, eat on the go or (as I do) while reading the emails at work in the morning. Also, these muffins (or egg muffins aka effins...) are more along the lines of what I usually eat, compared to the previous three posts. I prefer to use fresh, free range, organic eggs. You can already see from the colour of the eggs they are different from the non-organic ones. Also, I think the organic ones make a more fluffy omelette, and taste better. But I'm not sure that observation would withstand a double blinded, placebo controlled study. But it won't stop me from buying organic.


Also, there are endless variations you could make of these. Next, I think I will try a Mexeffin, with onion, tomato salsa, black beans and koriander, or maybe a Italieffin with sundried tomatoes, oregano and parma ham.


Makes 12 effins


6 eggs
1 onion
30 g dill
1/4 stalk of broccoli
1 leek
50 g smoked salmon


Chop onions, leek, dill and broccoli. Stir fry onion and leek quickly on a non-stick pan (or a regular pan and use some coconut or rapeseed oil). Add the finely chopped broccoli to the pan for a short while. Beat eggs with a fork, add in the dill and the stir fried veggies, mix and divide into 12 muffin moulds. Slice salmon, and add a few slices on top of each effin. Bake in 175 C for 10-15 minutes, or less if you like your eggs soft.


Each effin contains around 60 kcal (fat 2.8g, carbs 2.2g, protein 4.8g)