Salads, Salads oh so many salads! / Inspiração para saladas

I love salads, I eat salads during the whole year, but my palate changes with season, so if maybe in summer I eat a whole lettuce in my salad, when it gets colder I prefer apples, fennel, beetroot and other things. I will leave a few pictures just for inspiration. Salad does not need to be boring or tasteless, add some nuts and seeds too, to boost nutritional value and change texture! The thing I don’t change much is my salad dressing : extra virgin (cold extract) olive oil, pink salt, black pepper, oregano and organic apple cider vinegar, it’s sooo delicious I can’t explain. If you like a creamy salad dressing just add tiny bits of avocado and as it kind of melts it makes the dressing so amazingly creamy. What are your favorite salad ingredients?  ❤

Alguma inspiraçao para saladas, cà em casa comemos saladas o ano todo, vamos variando os ingredientes dependendo da estaçao. Se no verao comemos tanta alface e tomates (moro em Italia, como kilos de tomates que eu adoro!), quando esfria o tempo gosto de erva doce, beterraba, maça, cenouras etc… As saladas nao tem que ser aborrecidas e sem sabor, toca a adicionar frutos secos e sementes tambem para aumentar o valor nutricional e sabor! Eu tento comer sempre metade do prato de alimentos crus para ajudar a digestao e para fornecer vitaminas. O que eu nao mudo sao os meus temperos : azeite extraido a frio, sal rosa, pimenta preta, oregaos e vinagre biologic de maça. E um pequeno truque é adicionar abacate em pedaços pequeninos e grandes, os pequeninos desfazem-se e fazem com que a salada fique cremosa.

Quais sao as vossas saladas preferidas?

Lots of love,

Sandrina xx

Spaghetti squash “aglio, olio e peperoncino” garlic,oil and chili / Abòbora esparquete com azeite, malagueta e alho <3

Have you ever tried spaghetti squash?It’s type of pumpkin that when baked and forked out (you use a fork to take the flesh out) it resembles spaghetti and can be eaten as such! It’s wonderful. I always read about it on american blogs and was always soo curious but it’s not easy to find in Europe, but at last I found it in Italy, surprise, surprise as they are not even huge fans of pumpkins…This was my 1st time ever trying it, it’s really easy just cut it i half and scoop out the seeds after grease with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Turn it upside down, flesh down and bake it for 50m at 220 degrees, or until soft at touch. Once you take it out, let it cool for a few minutes and with a fork take out the squash.
You can add anything you like to it, any pasta sauce. I added some more olive oil, salt, fresh chilies and black pepper. I served it simply with purple sauerkraut and cucumber salad. What do you think, do you love it, or not so much? 😀

Jà provaram abòbora esparguete ? Como o nome indica é um tipo de abòbora que quando cozinhada assemelha-se à massa esparguete e pode ser utilizada em vez da tal, aumentando assim o consumo diario de vegetais e é claro, muito mais saudavel! Jà tinha ouvido falar muito especialmente em videos/blogs americanos, mas pela Europa nao se sente tanto…Por isso fiquei mesmo contente quando encontrei esta variedade aqui em Italia e nao hesitei em experimentar.Preparei esta semana pela 1a vez e gostamos muito. A preparaçao é tambem muito facil. Cortar a meio a abòbora e retirar as sementes com a ajuda de uma colher. Colocar um fio de azeite, pimenta preta e alho em pò (ou outras especiarias que prefiram). Colocar a parte da polpa para baixo num tabuleiro de ir ao forno e assar durante 50m a 220 graus ou até ficar mole ao toque. Com a ajuda do garfo retirar a polpa da abòbora da casca e sairà aos fiozinhos. A esta massa vegetal pode-se adicionar qualquer molho desejado, eu simplesmente coloquei azeite, sal rosa e mais um bocadinho de pimenta preta e malagueta fresca. Servi com sauerkraut roxa e salada de pepino.Espero que experimentem e me digam que tal 😉

Lots of love,

Sandrina

Back with vegetarian pasta dishes and some life updates, Yoga related!

Hello! I know it has been sooo long, but I have a good excuse this time! I trained to become a Yoga teacher and started working straight away 😀 I feel so blessed with the opportunities i have been given here in Italy..

Besides my teaching time in the beach during all summer I was working 3 days a week in my other half parents restaurant, so that took a lot of my time too, and it was exhausting.

We had a proper summer 3 months of sunny 35 degrees, actually i couldn’t take it anymore, after living so many years in London it will take awhile to get use to . As I was alone most part of the summer I really couldn’t justify cooking fancy food, or cook at all…I mainly ate salad from my garden, eggs, cheese, fruit and all the veggies you can eat raw 😉 It was quite healthy and refreshing actually.

But now I’m settling back in my routine and actually did a proper planner of my days, so they don’t go idle (watching series and instagram eheh) and I am back into the kitchen, when I a not practicing Yoga or teaching classes ( I still don’t have that many, but hopefully they will increase) or studying (which I tend to do a lot).

So I decided to pack a few pasta dishes, some vegan and some vegetarian, they are mainly for inspiration as they are very simple and quick to make, so we cannot use the excuse that healthy recipes take long time or are hard work. And pasta is healthy, just eat in moderation, with really good fresh ingredients and you are ready to go, and if you _really_ want swap regular pasta for wholewheat or quinoa or brown rice pasta, I don’t as I eat very once in awhile, may 3 times a month, as I am a rice kind of girl 😉

Enough of blah blah and let’s look at this delicious dishes, if I may say :

This is a really easy fresh pasta dish (which you just boil for 3 to 4 minutes) Mixed with a simple sauce of white beans, cherry tomatoes, good quality olive oil and some parsley ❤ Delicious and super healthy and quick, Can be done under 15 minutes.

This is the old school Pasta with Peas that is part of Italian tradition, I added some carrots because I had one laying around, the original is without but I love my veggies and I think it gave a nice sweetness to the dish. This is a one pot dish, so even better, it takes around 20m beginning to end. Fry onion and garlic in olive oil until soft and add fresh chilies to taste, add the carrot chopped as small as you can so it cooks really fast and let it be here for 5 minutes, add a touch of white wine (optional, but if used wait a couple of minutes before adding another ingredient). Add the peas, stir for another 2 minutes and add half a cup of tomato sauce (passata, good quality). If you would like add half an organic vegetable stock cube and some black pepper. Add boiling water to this mixture, enough water to cook the pasta and have some sauce left. You can add little by little too if you are not sure. Season with sea salt, and serve as soon as the pasta is ready ( to 10 minutes).

Hope all is well, and get used to see me often now! Have a lovely day/night depending on wherever in the world you are ❤

Banana and chocolate muffins / Bolinhos de banana e chocolate

This is an update on this post : https://fionabluerecipes.wordpress.com/2014/03/03/best-ever-vegan-banana-bread/

Banana and Chocolate Muffins:
Who wants some healthy muffins? My banana bread recipe makes beautiful muffins. The good thing about this recipe is that you can change around the ingredients and it always comes out well. The original recipe is vegan but I’m giving indications for the picture version 🙂

-100grs of self rising flour ( you can mix white and other like rye or wholemeal, if you don’t have self rising you can add yeast like I did)
-200grs of barley or oat flakes (or just 100grs of oats plus some more flour)
-4 big mashed bananas ( or like I did 2 mashed bananas plus 100grs of natural whole yogurt and 50grs of apple sauce)
-1 cup of raisins (you can omit, this time I didn’t put it)
-5 tablespoons of maple syrup or raw sugar
-2 big tablespoons of melted coconut oil(or other oil) (if using yogurt no need for oil, but you can add 1 big tablespoon of peanut butter)
– 1 cup of cacao nibs or dark chocolate pieces

For the muffins I used the () version I also chopped 1 banana and mixed through the batter.
Just mix all the ingredients together and bake at 180C for 40 minutes, but check always as it varies.

Versao Portuguesa :

Bolinhos de Banana e chocolate preto

Se quiserem fazer um doce saudavel este fim de semana, podem fazer o meu “pao” de banana em formas para cupcakes e fica delicioso! Esta receita é super versatil, podem variar os ingredientes e fica sempre bem, ja fiz esta receita imensas vezes e quase sempre uma versao diferente e gostam sempre 🙂

-100grs de farinha para bolos (desta vez misturei farinha de bolo branca com farinha de centeio)
-200grs de flocos de cevada ou de avena (ou 100grs de avena mais 100 de farinha)
-4 bananas grandes amassadas ( ou 2 bananas amassadas + 100grs de yogurt branco + 50grs de aqueles potinhos de puré de maça ou simplesmente 150grs de iogurte ou queijo fresco)
-1 taça de passas (ou como fiz desta vez 1 banana cortada aos pedaços)
-5 colheres de sopa de xarope de acer or açucar escuro
-2 colheres de sopa de oleo de coco derretido (ou outro) – se usarem iogurte nao ha necessidade para adicionar oleo, mas podem adicionar 1 colher de sopa de manteiga de amendoim como eu fiz, que da um sabor bom.
– 1 taça de cacao cru ou pedacinhos de chocolate escuro

Misturar tudo bem misturado e assar a 180C durante 40m, mas tem que ir prestando ateçao pois varia de acordo com fornos e formas 🙂
Bom apetite x

Vegetarian Oyakodon western style / Oyakodon vegetariano ao estilo ocidental

English version:

So I had a craving for Oyakodon ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oyakodon )this week and here, where I live in Italy the only Japanese food you find is sushi .Besides that I don’t eat meat anymore, so chicken was not an option, and I didn’t have some of the ingredients needed for the dish so I just winged it. I have to say, that flavor wise was quite similar and _very_ tasty 😀

This dish is very simple and fulfills my cravings of savory food.

Add some water to a pan, around 1.5 cups and put half a vegetable organic cube stock and let it boil. Chop half a white onion in small pieces and add to the water, let it cook for 10m or until onion is soft. Meantime beat 4 organic eggs and to them add 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, chili flakes and chopped parsley. Add this mixture to the water/onion sauce and keep stirring it while the eggs cook. Keep it a bit runny (no problem as the eggs are organic, good quality) and serve over rice ❤

Lots of love,

Sandrina

Portuguese version:

Esta semana andava com vontade de fazer um prato japones chamado Oyakodon ( http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oyakodon ) que comia sempre em Londres, mas aqui onde vivo so encontro sushi, por isso decidi fazer em casa. Tambem nao tinha todos os ingredientes que se usa tradicionalmente e tambem nao como carne, dai ter sido uma versao vegetariana e mais ocidental, mas que nao deixou nada a desejar em termos de sabor, estava de facto, estranhamente parecido 🙂

Colocar 1 copo de agua num tacho e meio cubo “knorr” vegetal (de preferencia um biologico/organico) e deixar ferver lentamente. Cortar meia cebola branca em pedacinhos pequenos e adicionar a gua. Deixar cozinhar uns 10 minutos ou até a cebola ficar molezinha. Bater 4 ovos ( de boa qualidade, biologicos de preferencia) com 1 colher de sopa de açucar mascavado, 2 colheres de sopa de molho de soja, malagueta seca e salsa picada. Adicionar esta mistura à agua/cebola e deixar cozinhar mexendo sempre. Servir com arroz. Nao devem deixar cozinhar demais o ovo, deve ficar sempre um bocadinho molhado.

Bom apetite xx

Cinnamon roll cake, secretly healthy ;) / Bolo de canela saudavel

English Version:

Yesterday i was in mood for some cake, so I came up with this delicious healthy version of your regular cinnamon bun, it’s rich and sweet, but it doesn’t kill you 😉 I’m lucky enough to say, that as the time goes by, i like regular cake less and less, the only thing I taste is butter and a sickly sweetness, nothing else and i love flavour! so the most important thing for me is for my treats to be sweet but to let me feel the taste of my ingredients. The base of this cake was a chocolate and carrot cake I came up a while back :

Chocolate cake, no nasties! Bolo de chocolate saudavel e humido.

I have to say that baking doesn’t need to be an exact science, it’s about making it your own, play with it, you will see, it’s almost always tasty! It may not me as high, but if you want healthier versions (changing from traditional ingredients) it will always change the texture, try you might actually like it ❤

Ingredients :

– to grease the pan : 1 TBs of organic butter (real thing or coconut oil, not melted) , 1 TBS of cinnamon , 1 TBS of raw brown sugar or coconut sugar –> first grease the pan, after mix sugar with cinnamon and coat the pan until all surface is covered.

for the batter :

150grs of flour ( I used 100grs of rye and 50grs of plain)

15grs of yeast (for cakes)

3 eggs

150grs of natural yoghurt (whole,organic)

7 TBS of maple syrup

1 TBS of melted butter

50grs of lucuma powder OR I would add a 1TBS of sugar(not maple as it is a powder )

For the drizzle : melt 1 TBS of butter with 1 TBS of cinnamon and 1 TBS of sugar (brown or coconut).

Mix all the ingredients ultil a smooth batter is formed. For an airy cake whisk your egg whites until set and fold carefully once all the other ingredients are well mixed. pour batter into the pan and at the end drizzle the cinnamon liquid on top of it in a circular motion.

Bake at 175C around 35m but keep checking, as i used a really big pan, thats why it was so thin. In a smaller pan may take a bit longer.

Lots of love,

Sandrina x

Versao portuguesa:

Ontem estava com vontade de um bolo um bocadinho diferente entao decidi fazer um bolo de canela, delicioso, mas que nao entope nenhuma veia 😉 Eu tenho bastante sorte porque com o passar do tempo o meu palato foi mudando e hoje em dia cada vez gosto menos de doces demasiado doces, onde os unicos sabores sao a manteiga e o açucar, gosto de sentir os diferentes sabores e saber que posso comer 1 bela fatia sem qualquer culpa 🙂

A base deste bolo foi de uma receita que criei ja ha bastante tempo:

Chocolate cake, no nasties! Bolo de chocolate saudavel e humido.

E gostava de dizer que os bolos nao sao aquela ciencia exacta ( a nao ser que queiram fazer um bolo super tradicional para alguem super tradicional), para fazer bolos mais saudaveis, as texturas mudam, o que nao e’ uma coisa ma’, e’ so’ diferente..  E e’ tambem um desafio, para criar coisas diferentes, com ingredientes diferentes, sem aquele medo que nao vai resultar, pois nao diz assim no livro de receitas. acreditem, eu ja fiz dezenas de bolos sem abrir 1 livro de receitas, 90% das vezes ficou bem bom 😉 e as outras por norma era por falta de açucar/adoçante natural, que se corrigia com uma calda.. acho que temos que aproveitar o que a nossa sociedade global nos tem para oferecer, uma data de ingredientes novos e tecnicas desconhecidas pelos nossos pais e avos, e arriscar um bocadinho e comer aquele pedaço de bolo com uma mente aberta.

Ingredientes:

-Para untar a forma usar 1 CS de manteiga, 1 CS de canela e 1 CS de açucar (nao refinado castanho ou de coco), usar o açucar misturado com a canela como se fosse farinha.

-Para a massa :

150grs de farinha (usei 100grs de centeio e 50grs de farinha para bolos)

15grs de fermento para bolos

3 ovos inteiros

150grs de iogurte natural (organico e inteiro)

7 colheres de sopa de xarope de acer (ou mel derretido, mas nao a temperatura alta)

50grs de po’ de lucuma (e’ um po’ de uma fruta peruviana com um sabor a caramelo, e cheio de vitaminas) OU 1 CS de açucar (por causa de a lucuma ser em po’, mas podem experimentar)

1 CS de manteiga derretida ( nao usar margarina que tanto mal faz!) ou oleo de coco

-Para a calda : 1CS de manteiga,1 CS de canela e 1CS de açucar (derreter tudo junto)

Untar a forma, colocar a massa do bolo e no fim colocar a calda de canela por cima, fazendo circulos.

Eu usei uma forma um bocadinho grande demais, dai o bolo ter saido fininho.                                                                   Aquecer o forno a 175 c e cozinhar entre 35 a 45m, mas deve-se controlar pois depende do tamanho da forma e do forno.

Ate a proxima

Sandrina xx

Polish inspired cabbage rolls / Rolinhos de couve ao estilo polaco

I’ve been on an international kick wanting to cook a lot of different dishes from all over the world! So yesterday I decided to do this Polish inspired cabbage rolls, they are delicious, filling, healthy and easily vegan by swapping meat + egg by mushrooms and sauerkraut, a very traditional combination. It’s a bit of work but totally worth it. They freeze very well, and you can heat it up by frying them on a little olive oil. Hope you enjoy it 🙂

Estes rolos de couve dao um bocadinho de trabalho, mas sao super saborosos! Para uma versao vegana e’ so’ substituir a carne e ovos por cogumelos e sauerkraut, uma combinacao muito usada na Europa de Leste e muito saborosa. Estes rolos congelam bem e pode-se aquecer facilmente, basta fritar num bocadinho de azeite.

Ingredients : Makes 16-18 rolls

– 250 grs of lean minced beef  / – 250g de carne de vaca moida magra

-2 eggs  / – 2 ovos

– 1 carrot  /  1 cenoura

– 1 medium round cabbage  / – 1 couve redonda media

– 1.5 cups of rice  / – 1.5 tacas de arroz

– half a stalk of celery  / -um bocadinho de aipo (opcional)

– 1 hand full of fresh parsley  / -1 mao cheia de salsa

– salt, pepper, chili  / – sal, pimenta e malagueta a gosto

– onion and garlic / – cebola e alho q.b.

– 1/3 cup of tomato sauce / – 1/3 taca de molho de tomate

 

Cook your rice, plain white, let cool a bit.

At the same time boil your round cabbage on a big pan for 10 minutes, make sure to cover the hole cabbage.

At the same time fry in a little olive oil your onion, garlic, carrot, celery, chopped cabbage (just take 2 or 3 leaves of your cabbage while raw) until soft, around 10 to 15 minutes.

Cozinhar o arroz e reservar. Ao mesmo tempo cozer a couve numa panela grande, para ficar completamente coberta de agua por 10 minutos. Ao mesmo tempo, fritar num bocadinho de azeite a cebola, alho,cenoura aos cubinhos,aipo e couve aos pedacinhos ( retirar 2 ou 3 folhas da couve antes de a colocar a cozer), ate’ ficar tudo cozinhado, por volta de 10 a 15 minutos.

On a bowl mix meat, eggs, parsley and seasonings and mix all together.

Num recipiente misturar a carne, ovos, salsa e temperos. Mexer bem.

Mix the meat mixture with the carrots, onions etc.. Let it cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until meat is cooked .

Misturar a carne com a cenoura, cebola etc e deixar cozinhar 10 a 15 minutos, ou ate a carne estar cozinhada.

 

In a big bowl mix rice with with the meat mixture .

Num recipiente grande misturar o arroz com a carne.

After the cabbage is cooked, drain the cabbage but keep 1/2 cup of the cooking water. Separate around 20 leaves. You can add the remaining ones to soups, rice, anything really. And start stuffing the leaves with our mixture ❤ Fold like you would do for a wrap, taking both sides in and rolling.

Quando a couve estiver cozida,escorre-se (mas guardamos 1/2 taca desta agua) e comecamos a separar as folhas, umas 20 e guardar os resto (pode-se usar em sopas, arroz, massas…). Comecar a colocar o recheio em cada folha, nao colocar demais. Dobrar os lados e enrolar, como se estivessemos a fazer um wrap.

Pack the rolls really tightly into a container that can go into the oven. Add 1/3 of a cup of tomato sauce to 1/2 a cup of cabbage water and pour over the rolls. Cover them with broken cabbage leaves/lid/foil, and cook for 30 minutes at 200 C .

Serve by itself or with a green salad. Really yummy! Let me know if you have tried this or have other fillings that you like.

Colocar os rolos bem aconchegados para nao abrirem. Misturar o molho de tomate com um bocadinho da agua de cozer a couve e colocar por cima dos rolos. Se tiverem algumas folhas que se rasgaram podem usa-las para cobrir os rolos se nao pode-se cobrir com uma tampa ou papel de aluminio. Assar durante 30 minutos a 200C. Servir sozinhos ou com uma slada verde grande como eu fiz.

Espero que gostem! 🙂

Lots of love,

Sandrina x

 

 

 

Best Dal / Dahl ever! Delicious lentils dish :) Estufado de lentilhas

Versao portuguesa mais abaixo 🙂

Best Dahl ever! But before just let me know that I finally bought my camera on amazon, so from next week no more bad quality pictures, yay! Now on to the recipe, this dish is amazing, really tasty and filling, can be eaten with bread, rice or by itself, it can be made heavier or lighter according to the amount of fat used. I kept mine quite low. This dish requires a few spices, but you can always adapt to suit your taste or pantry. This recipe serves 3 if served with rice, or 2 (that eat a lot, like me) if by itself.

-250grs of brown lentils soaked overnight (or yellow, red or black, but adjust cooking time)
-200grs of black beans,or kidney, white… (have been previously soaked and cooked but you can use either canned ones or just soaked like the lentils)

In a pressure cooker, fry 2cm of fresh ginger with 3 cloves of garlic, both finely chopped in a little olive oil, when the garlic starts to have a bit of color add the lentils and the beans and cover them with water ( not a lot, I wanted a thick dahl) maybe 3 to 4 cms above the lentils.Add 1 teaspoon of black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of paprike, 1/2 teaspoon of chili flakes and sea salt to taste, bu don’t be too shy, otherwise it will be bland. Cover the pan and cook for 30 minutes, if after this you think they are under cooked, just let it cook other 10m.

On a frying pan fry 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds with 1 teaspoon of nigella or black seeds, when it starts to kind of pop add 2 cloves of garlic,1 large onion, 1cm of ginger and half a fresh chili, everything finely chopped, add a pinch of salt, let cook down for 10m. Add 2 tablespoons of tomato paste and let it cook for another 5 to 8 minutes, stirring often.

Once the lentils are cooked (you can mash it a bit with a spoon or not, up to you), add the tomato/onion paste to it and cook for 5 m and serve. I can’t describe the party in my mouth ;D
It may look long, but if you do both at the same time, you will have this epicness in 35 minutes. Enjoy x

————————————————————————-
Dahl e’ um prato tipico da India, Paquistao, Banglades, etc e consiste de um estufado feito com lentilhas e /ou feijao, e bastantes especiarias. Acompanhado normalmente por arroz ou pao. Se nao tiverem estas especiarias podem sempre usar as que tiverem por casa, mas diria que e’ mesmo necesario pelo menos o gengibre, o chili e os cuminhos. Este prato ‘e super saboroso, acolhedor, perfeito para uma noite mais fria ❤ Esta receita serve 3 pessoas com arroz ou pao, ou so’ 2 comiloes como nos 😉

-250grs de lentilhas castanhas (ja demolhadas durante a noite, tambem se pode usar outra qualidade de lentilhas, mas tem que se ter cuidado com o tempo de cozedura)
-200grs de feijao preto ( omeu ja estava demolhado e cozinhado, mas pode estar so demolhado, ou tambem se pode usar de lata. E tambem se pode variar a qualidade do feijao)

Colocar numa panela de pressao um fio de azeite, 3 dentes de alho e um pedacinho de 2cms de gengibre, ambos muito bem picados. Quando o alho ganhar cor adicionar as lentilhas e o feijao e agua suficiente para cobrir, talvez uns 3 ou 4 dedos acima das leguminosas. Adicionar 1 colher de cha’ de curcuma(acafrao das indias), 1/2 colher de cha’ de pimenta preta, 1/2 de parika ou pimentao, 1/2 de chili seco e sal marinho grosso a gosto, nao colocar pouco,pouco senao ficara’ desenssabido. Tapar a panela e deixar cozinhar durante 30m em lume medio. Usar o senso comum, se nao estiver cozinhado tapa-se e cozinha-se durante mais uns minutos.

Numa frigideira, colocar azeite , 1 colher de cha’ de sementes de cuminhos (ou po’, mas a semente tem mais sabor), 1 colher de cha’ de sementes de nigella (ou pode-se substituir por sementes de coentros, ou po’ ou fresco, ou por 2 colheres de sementes de cuminhos, tambem se pode juntar louro). Quando as sementes comecarem a fritar adicionar uma cebola grande picada,2 dentes de alhos,um bocadinho de gengibre fresco por volta de 1cm e meia malagueta, tudo bem picado e uma pitada de sal (pouco, so para ajudar a cebola a caramelizar), deixar cozinhar durante 10m, quando a cebola estiver translucida adicionar 2 colheres de sopa de pasta de tomate (nao e’ polpa, aquela mais concentrada) e deixar cozinhar por mais 5 a 8 minutos.

Quando as lentilhas estiverem bem cozidas, adicionar esta pasta ja feita de cebola e especiarias. Deixar cozinhar durante 5 minutos e servir. Espero que experimentem pois e’ delicioso! Parece bastante longo, mas nao e’, se for feito ao mesmo tempo em 35m estara pronto o prato 🙂 Bom apetite x

Fall jams, falafel and other stories… Update on my new Italian life! :)

A few months have passed since I made a proper post, but it had to be this way. Had so much to do during summer, it flew by almost without a notice. So I left London and moved to Italy where I worked really hard during summer, 10 to 12 hours a day without days off, so that meant no summer for me 😦 but it’s ok, no hard feelings… After that my other half and I had to go back to London by car (with a stop in Switzerland where he has family) to ring back all our things, specially mine as I was living in there for 8 years, so imagine the amount of crap I accumulated 😉 It was very tiring the trip, but really wonderful to see all my friends and sister ❤

Anyway, it took me a long time to get internet in our house, but now it’s all working good, so I can update my blog more often. I did update Instagram and facebook as it requires less bandwidth..

A note on Italy so far, I love the country, it’s wonderful full of colours and flavors and nice people AND bad bureaucracy….omg…it takes ages to do anything and it’s very frustrating but if we keep calm and be patient at some point things happen, which is the most important thing..

Regarding my food , lately we have been eating even less meat and fish than before, for our health and for our wallet too. Choosing high quality over quantity. And nowadays, more than ever before, I make everything from scratch as I have the time and we are given so much produce by my new family 🙂  And I do have a small allotment with fruit trees, and I want to start planting a few things too, if anyone knows any tips for beginners I would appreciate!

Onto some food now :

Figs, walnut and seeds jam Very easy recipe just cut in 4 500gr of fresh figs. In a pan add a heaped teaspoon of cinnamon, the figs, 2 tablespoons of pure maple syrup or honey( I used maple), a dash of water, 4 dates cut in 4 ( or maybe another tablespoon of sweetener of choice) and let it cook in low heat for 20m. Check for liquid content if its too dry add a bit of water ( I needed extra and I had organic apple juice at home so I used that, but water is just fine). Mix 2 tablespoons of mixed seeds like flax, sesame, poppy and let it cook for a further 5m. Chop 10 walnuts and add to it at the end ( when it’s not cooking anymore). Let it cool and put it in some jars. I leave 1 out and freeze the rest. As it doesn’t have any chemicals it last around 1 week in the fridge. It’s so lush!! Sweet and amazing. Over bread, yogurt, pancakes, oatmeal…so many options..

Here is a link for a bread recipe of mine :

Adventures!

And one for pancakes :

Yes, pancakes 🙂

Persimmon, apple and chia jam :

6 ripe gooey persimmons

2 apples

2 TBS of organic brown sugar

1 TBS mixed spice like cinnamon,cloves, nutmeg, cardamon, but more cinnamon!

1TBS of chia seeds

3 TBS of apple puree, not really necessary but I had some open

add a bit of water if needed

Cook for 40 to 60m until very soft and blend, if it’s not thick enough just add a bit of tapioca or potato starch (1 teaspoon is enough) just to thicken it a bit 🙂

From my garden.. we have figs, rosemary, persimmons or khaki, tomatoes and onions 😀

Presents from the south of Italy, what more can I say??

For the Falafel : soak dry chickpeas for at least 6 hours. On a food processor mix the drained chickpeas with raw garlic, onion, parsley, cumin, chilli powder, turmeric, salt , black pepper and a bit of olive oil. Don’t over process. Fry or bake I have been on a spice kick, like to try new things. What is your favourite spicy dish ?

The rice is a normal plain rice cooked with garlic and olive oil. The cabbage was kind of steamed with chili flakes and garlic, chinese inspired 🙂

Black beans 2 ways, vegan

One of our favorite foods is Black Beans, they are delicious, nutritious and a great substitute for meat, but never good looking, I’m afraid..
This are 2 simple dishes one with couscous with a mushroom,spinach and black beans stew, the 2nd is a mix of white and black rice (hence the purple color) and kale, tomatoes and black beans stew. Always a winner in our house

Aqui em casa adoramos feijao preto, é super nutritivo e maravilhoso em vez de carne. Nunca parece é muito apetitoso, mas garanto que o é
Estes 2 pratos sao bem simples, 2 estufados de feijao preto, um com cogumelos, espinafres e cous cous e outro com couve e tomate e uma mixtura de arroz branco e preto, dai a cor roxa .