Wholewheat Fig Pie with Almonds and Poppy Seeds

Autumn is almost gone and I just realized how quickly the time passes by...Only couple of weeks ago I was enjoying visiting my parents and here we are in November: Christmas markets are already being built all over Hamburg.... Nice times with hot wine and baked chestnuts have come. And as my oven was not working properly for some time you can imagine how happy I am now with the new one. Finally baking!!!! This time I wanted to bake something appropriate as a TO-GO Breakfast as well because it is getting harder and harder to wake up in the morning earlier in order to prepare it.  And I knew where to look for such recipe. "Super Food" can help. You probably remember how happy I was cooking this healthy breakfast by Jamie Oliver or baking a wonderful banana bread. For the latter I did not have figs and almonds that time so I chose dates and walnuts. But this time I tried to follow the recipe. I did my best. Although no the Best Best :) Well, you know me :) 

Ingredients:

yields 1 round loaf of bread 24 cm in diameter or heart shaped in my case :)

adopted from Everyday Super Food by J.Oliver

250 g dried figs

100 g wholemeal spelt flour

50 g wholemeal buckwheat flour

4 tbsp grape seed oil

5 tbsp Bulgaria yogurt

2 tbsp sesame

2 large eggs

3 ripe bananas

1/3 tsp vanilla paste

1 heaped teaspoon baking powder

100 g ground poppy seeds

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1 apple

50 g whole almonds

For the recipe scroll down....... 

When I prepare my breakfast I find it very important to balance energy and protein intake reducing sugar as much as possible. At least not to pack my breakfast with added sugar. Fruits and healthy fats in moderation are welcomed. Hence this recipe took my attention: no added sugar, wholewheat flour, protein from nuts and poppy seeds, healthy fats and natural sweetness. Therefore it serves a perfect snack to-go, breakfast or dessert. I personally had a wonderful breakfast today.... Yummy!!!

First of all preheat the oven to 180 °C. Line a 24 cm round ovenproof form with baking paper.Or just simply take a silicon form if you have one. Wash the figs and place 200g of them in a food processor together with eggs, peeled bananas, oil, yogurt and vanilla seeds. Blitz until smooth. Then add both flour types with baking powder, ground poppy seeds and turmeric. Pulse until combined with the rest of the dough.

Grate the apple and mix it in. Pour the mixture into the form and spread evenly. Cut the remaining figs into pieces and decorate the bread with them, pushing them a bit. Then place whole almonds all over the top. Bake for 40 minutes, or until golden, cooked through and as inserted skewer comes out clean. Let it cool a little.

And here you go. It can be served with clotted cream (as my husband prefers) or peanut butter / yogurt or just eaten as it is because the texture it moisture and smooth with pieces of crispy fig parts.

Breakfast Idea: Pumpkin Pancakes

About a month ago I posted on my Instagram these wonderful pumpkin pancakes and promised to come back with the recipe. And here I am, took me a bit longer but better later than never, right? So finally sharing this tasty recipe with you. By the way, I found it in one of my favourite blogs of a Ukrainian girl living in the USA -  Mom Story. As usually I can not just simply follow the rules. So instead of orange sauce proposed in the original recipe I have made a chocolate one. Just did not have oranges in house...:) White sugar I substituted by black Demerara, white flour - by wholewheat buckwheat. No matter what version you choose, you will be very happy with the result.

Ingredients:

yields 15 pancakes

cup=240 ml

1 egg

3 tbsp sugar

2 cups milk

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

1,5 cup flour (I used wholewheat buckwheat flour)

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp cocoa powder

1 ripe banana

blueberries

Whisk egg with sugar. Add milk and mix well. Rub pumpkin puree through a sieve and add it into the milk mixture. Fold until smooth, add cinnamon.

Mix flour with baking powder and sift into the batter. It whould be quite thick when everything combined. Pour 2-3 tbsp of vegetable oil. 

Heat non stick pan (I used a small sauce pan for even round shape). Do not add any additional oil. Onto a dry pan pour scoop of batter in the middle. Wait for about 2 minutes and when you notice bubbles on top of the pancake it is just time to flip over. On the other side 30 seconds is enough. Do mot oil the pan. In the same way cook the rest of the pancakes one by one.

For the sauce blend banana with cocoa powder and sprinkle of sugar. Serve with blueberries and a good portion of Latte Macchiato :)

Enjoy you weekend and remember that Breakfast is the most important meal of the day! Becausehow you start it does matter!!!

Baked Cinnamon Apples with Ricotta filling and Dried Plums

Finally the last weekend it warm in Hamburg!!!! On Saturday we even opened a Grill season in the park nearby and it was amazing. We grilled our favourite squids as in the recipe here. And also made mackerel as in the easy recipe here. This method is suitable for any type of fish you like. An tastes sooooo good. This week though the weather changed day by day to a rainy changeable one. These are the days when you wake up from the sun rays creeping into your window, happily take your sun glasses and on your way to bus stop realise that it starts raining and gets really dark. Then approximately 5 times a day you observe the same phenomenon. "Hello April!" - in other words. 

The changes in the weather also inspired me to make a change in my nutrition. This week I live without meat. And I have to say that I feel myself perfectly good. I am not saying that I am getting vegan. No! But a little break from time to time is needed. Besides, fish did a good job this week for me. 

As you remember from my autumn posts about "I quit sugar" our bodies are able to live without processed food, empty calories from sugar and other harmful ingredients. So as summer is coming let us try again. Sugar free life brings much more benefits!!! Usually with hiden sugar from processed food we consume around 25 and more tea spoons of sugar daily. Did you know that American Heart Assosiation recommends women to consume maximum 6 tsp of sugar (24g), men - 9 tsp (36g) and children - 3 tsp (12g)? So grab your friend, partner, colleague and take the challenge. Are you with me?

Let us start from limiting sugar in the first week. Try to avoid adding sugar to coffee, tea and food. OR at least reduce the amout of it in comparison to your regular intake. For more recipes and inspiration see also Home made peanut butter and other healthy sugar free recipes and Wholewheat Banana-Date Bread with Walnuts. And here is one more recipe to make your detox time a big pleasure.

Ingredients:
5 medium apples
5 dried plums
1 tbsp honey or agave syrup
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup ricotta cheese (250g)
1/3 tsp vanilla seeds
allspice for decorating

Preheat the oven to 180C. Accurately cut off the apple tops. Using a potato peeler cut out the core scooping out all the seeds. Sprinkle the apples with cinnamon. Into each of them push one dried plum. Place the apples in a baking pan or form. Place the apple tops on the apples. Bake for 20-30 minutes. Baking time depends on the size of apples. Check them from time to time not to overbake. From outside they should become shiny and a bit soft. Do not overbake.

Meanwhile place the ricotta cheese and 1 tablespoon of honey or agave syrup and vanilla into a small bowl. Mix well.

Once the apples are done, remove them from the oven and let them cool for a few minutes. 

Then open the lids and fill the center of each apple with ricotta cheese filling. Sprinkle the apples with allspice and couple drops of agave syrup.

Place the apple tops back on the apples and serve. 

And what is your favorite sugar free recipe? 

How much sugar do you consume daily? 

How long can you keep your nutrition plan sugar free?

Let me know in the comments below.

Old-New Oat flakes: 5 Easy and Healthy TOP- recipes

It is sometimes quite interesting how one posts get more popular than the others. I often try to guess in advance if the reader will like my recipe this time or not. I often find a post not that powerful while the others just love it. Or it also happens that I am really proud of the recipe and pictures but, indeed, they do not find a wide public of adherents.

Therefore today I decided to dedicate my post to a product we all know and sometimes forget about: old-fashioned oatmeal. Too simple? I do not think so. Easy, healthy and (!) gluten free - YES!

And here are my 5 TOP-recipes with oat flakes:

1.Starting with the classic breakfast recipe: Old fashioned oatmeal. It becomes creative when you open your drawer and get out all the various nuts, coconut flakes, dried fruits, seeds, cinnamon. Keep cool and eat oats :)

2. Oat banana egg pancake with fresh figs and joghurt: my recipe on duty in case I have a sweet rush. It is done within three steps Mix-Fry-Fill. Add your favourite seasonal fruit pieces and way to go for a healthy snack.

3. Oat pancakes with cinnamon apples and vanilla ice-cream - can be served as a dessert or snack or breakfast in bed ;) My tip to you - make yourself a time out when you can fully enjoy each bite. It is so worth it!

4. And what do you usually have as a snack while travelling? I prefer Home made grab'n'go granola power snack. They may be easily transported in an air tight container, easy to prepare and always ready to charge your power.

5. And the last but not least - chewy healthy and easy Sweet date candy-balls. They may be prepared in advance and frozen for "better times". And how entertaining it becomes when kids are involved in the process. Did I ever tell you the story how my nephew helped me to bake a cheesecake? He was delighted! But that is a totally another story.

Summary for today: do not understate the healthy benefits from consuming oats. Because we live once, let us live a healthy life!

Gluten Free Ricotta Cake

Why are Fridays always that good?! I get up easily, go to work with a light feeling knowing that after it I am free like a butterfly: can stay awake longer without any need of getting up early the next day, can go meet my friends and not hurry up home to cook/bake/make my homework for the German classes, can just sit the whole evening reading doing NOTHING ;) Those are the moments worth to wait for from Monday through Thursday. And although my work is a lot of fun, I sometimes really need a rest. Just some time for myself, with no rush and time pressure. And for all this I love weekends. And moreover I adore days off for having more time to bake/cook something really special. Just like the recipe today. 

This is a gluten free cake with ricotta and polenta. Worth to try, I promise! A bit moist inside, yet nutty and redolent with a slight sourness.

Ingredients:
yields 18-20 cm cake

2 middle ripe bananas
50 g butter
160 g corn flour (polenta)
100 g honey or rice syrup
3 tbsp lemon zest
4 eggs
100 g almond flour
250 g ricotta
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 160°C. Line a 18 cm round ovenproof form with baking paper. It may be also a 20 cm form.

As you know from my other posts you may reach additional pleasant sweetness in the pie by replacing sugar with banana. And this is exactly the case. In a food processor blend bananas, add butter, 50 g honey, lemon zest, vanilla. Then pour the egg yolks and mix well. Now it is turn of the main ingredients. Fold the batter adding almond meal, polenta and ricotta. 

Meanwhile beat the egg whites for about 1 minute. Portion by portion add honey and do not stop whisking until shiny glossy meringue. Honey may be replaced by rice syrup if you prefer. I did not have it this time.

Pour the batter into your form and bake for about 40-50 minutes  or until golden, cooked through and as inserted skewer comes out clean. Let it cool a little. My decoration was pretty simple - sugar dust and pecan nuts.

Enjoy your weekend and save some time for yourself ;)

Wholewheat Banana-Date Bread with Walnuts

Rainy weekend... Nothing surprising for this time of the year in Hamburg. And sometimes it is not that bad because you pick your "To-do-in-rainy-weather list" and find something special to cheer you up. It may be reading of another interesting book that was waiting on your shelf for better times, or watching a movie that transfers you to a different world of adventures, or doing something useful like cleaning, sewing, knitting. For me it is usually cooking. But firstly - gathering inspiration. I start leafing through my favorite cooking books, magazines, food blogs, pinterest posts in my Recipes desk and usually come back to reality in about an hour, full of ideas and energy. This time it was very quickly. Since I finally got Everyday Super Food by Jamie Oliver I wanted to do this fantastic recipe: Figgy Banana Bread. And everything would be cool and smooth if I didn't realize that I don't have dried figs and almonds :(......

 But who cares?! If I have enough dates and walnuts! And a bowl of inspiration!!!

So here is my version of Bread from Jamie Oliver - Wholewheat Banana-Date Dread with Walnuts.

Ingredients:

yields 1 round loaf of bread 24 cm in diameter

adopted from Everyday Super Food by J.Oliver

250 g dried pitted dates (about 30 dates)

100 g wholemeal spelt flour

50 g wholemeal buckwheat flour

4 tbsp grapeseed oil

5 tbsp Bulgaria yoghurt

1 tbsp corn flour

2 large eggs

3 ripe bananas

1/3 tsp vanilla seeds

1 heaped teaspoon baling powder

100 g ground walnuts

1 tbsp poppy seeds

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1 apple

50 g whole walnuts

This bread is really packed with healthy ingredients (nuts, wholewheat flour, seeds, healthy oil), contains only natural sugar, no added. Therefore it serves a perfect snack to-go, breakfast or dessert. I personally had a wonderful breakfast today - couple of banana-date bread slices with peanut butter.... Yummy!!!

First of all preheat the oven to 180 °C. Line a 24 cm round ovenproof form with baking paper. Wash the dates and place 200g of them in a food processor together with eggs, peeled bananas, oil, yoghurt and vanilla seeds. Blitz until smooth. Then add both flour types with baking powder, ground walnuts, poppy seeds and turmeric. Pulse until combined with the rest of the dough. Add corn flour.

Grate the apple and mix it in. Pour the mixture into the form and spread evenly. Cut the remaining dates into pieces and decorate the bread with them, pushing them a bit. Then place walnuts all over the top. Bake for 40 minutes, or until golden, cooked through and as inserted skewer comes out clean. Let it cool a little.

Voila! Easy and ready to be eaten: a Perfect Smooth Sweet Nutty Healthy Date-Banana Bread with Wholemeal flour and Walnuts!

All you need now is PATIENCE not to eat it all at once ;)

Healthy brekfast: Fried egg with Veggies, Smashed Avo & Whole Wheat bread

Beginning of winter brought me sore throat. Veeeery good :( But I have no time to get upset. My Bible has arrived - brand new culinary book by Jamie Oliver. And it is not simply his next book. This one is definitely special, especially for healthy lifestyle fans. Here it is: Everyday Super Food. Recipes for a Healthier Happier You. And today I tried the first recipe. Can't wait to present it to you asap. 

With the first pages I dove into a world where I feel myself as a fish in my own sea: healthy recipes, balanced combinations, spicy flavours, all in all a wonderful journey into the Super Food World. Today I woke up full of inspiration and created a variation of one of the recipes by Jamie which I am ready to share with you, my dear! 

Ingredients:

(serves 2) 

1 tbsp olive oil

2 large eggs

12 cherry tomatoes

2 mushrooms

1 bio lemon

1/2 ripe avocado

4 slices of wholewheat bread

2 brussels sprouts

1/2 tsp Tabasco sauce

salt, pepper

You know me, I just cannot follow the recipe as it is :) It is too strict for my creative soul. So this is a variation with a bit different ingredients and my own interpretation. Important is that you will get a balanced breakfast including a around 13 g of protein to feed the muscles, fibre from veggies to support your digestion, and healthy carbs to charge your energy battery. 

The first thing you will need is a non-stick sauce pan. Heat it with olive oil and fry an egg there. I usually heat it till maximum, beat the egg, reduce the heat to medium-low and cover with the lid. In 2 minutes I add 1 tsp of cold water and cover again for another minute. Then turn off the heat. It gets a nice fluffy texture. Finally season it with salt and pepper.

In the same saucepan prepare the veggie mix. Roast cherry tomatoes. Wash mushrooms and cut into slices. Same with brussels sprouts. Add them to tomatoes and roast for another 2 minutes. Salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, peel and smash avocado and season it with lemon juice. Spread the smashed avo on the toasted bread slices like butter. Serve with fried egg and veggie mix. Finish with a drizzle of tabasco sauce. Delicious.

Here you are: healthy breakfast is ready!

Easy, quick and tasty. Because good food is always a good idea!

Healthy breakfast: Oat banana egg pancake with fresh figs and joghurt

Weekends are always about more time to relax, to do what you want, to go out with friends and to do some sports. For me weekedns are as well about long enjoying breakfasts :) Because you don't have to run to work and you can prepare a full charging meal. If you are looking for a nice breafast recipe you just have to try Oat pancakes with cinnamon apples and vanilla ice-cream, Polenta with mushrooms and pancetta or French Crepes.

Or just follow this post...
What is nice about the recipe I wanna share today is that it is
Healhty
Easy
Quick
Sweet
3-Ingredients Only
Lactose Free
Wholesome
Christmas
All in all perfect recipe for breakfast.

Ingredients:
Pancakes
(yields 2 pancakes)
2 eggs
1 banana
1/4 cup oats
coconut oil for frying
1/2 tsp Christmas spices

Filling:
2 fresh figs
2 tbsp Bulgaria joghurt

Blend oat flakes thoroughly. Add banana, Christmas spices and eggs. Mix well until the dough is smooth and creamy. Preheat pancake pan and oil it with some coconut oil to prevent sticking. Fry the pancake for about 1-2 minutes, then flip it over and wait another 30 seconds. READY :) 

 Serve with any filling you love. My favorite is peanut butter. This time I chose some fresh figs and white Bulgaria joghurt. Spicy latte macchiato made a perfect match to my breakfast. Warm scent of Christmas spices completed cozy atmosphere.

Wish you a nice weekend evening and a wonderful week.

Enjoy your meal and let your mind wander about all of the amazing flavors you experience.

Baked chesnuts: how to select and bake chesnuts

Christmas is officially on its' way. And that means: Christmas markets are widely open ;) Hot spiced wine, sweet comforting scent of roasting chestnuts, big company and a lot of fun during cold evenings. Wanna make a Christmas mood at home? Here's how.

Chestnut season is running from early October through late December. When buying chestnuts pay attention to healthy, unwrinkled shells and a glossy brown surface. Pick the heaviest chestnuts. Fresh chestnuts feel firm to the touch and are heavy in the hand. There should be no space between the shell and the nut inside.

Did you know that chestnuts...

• ...are the best choice for evening snack? Because they are easy to digest and are boosted with relaxing Tryptophan
• ...act as a base food and therefore help at heartburn?
• ... contain a mix of protein, starch and fibre, thus making for a longer time full?
• ... with a high value of B-vitamins make the nerves stronger?

As you understood for this recipe you need only main ingredient and around 30 minutes.

First, wash the nuts under running water. Preheat the oven to 160-180C.  With the use of a sharp knife, make a cross-shaped incision about 0.4 cm deep on the top of each chestnut shell. Bake them 20 minutes and leave in the closed oven for another 10 minutes to rest. Here you go: a healthy snack is ready to go.