The easiest and healthiest recipe of salmon steak with stirred veggies

New day, new inspiration, new discovery... The last weekend I bumped by chance into an interesting book by Sarah Wilson "I quit sugar Cookbook". The first impression after diagonal reading through some pages left controversy feelings in my mind and I decided to check it out. Could not walk away without it. From the very beginning I dove into the world of Sarah's nutrition, comparing the facts and figures with my knowledge. Some things were quite surprising for me and the theory itself left some discussions in my head. So I decided to try it. I QUIT SUGAR, in other words. For the next 8 weeks I am avoiding sugar in its pure condition and also hidden in the ready products. By these means I will clean my body from sugar and change my attitude to it. I strongly believe, we can live without sugar. And those, who say "NO, I need sugar", are only very angry with themselves because of this weakness. Wanna try with me? Let's rock our bodies and fulfill them with pure energy. Let us find the balance with our souls. Believe in yourself and get started.

The first week will not be a big problem for me as I already avoid sugar in its pure form. I will still eat dried fruit in moderation and some fresh fruit (green apples, raspberries, blueberries, kiwis), although in the book they are already in "Do not touch"-list. Thus I think it is a good step to start, so join me and clean your body within the next two months.
I will follow up with more details and our further steps in the next posts. Meanwhile I am happy to share the first recipes to make your week sugar-free and vitamin-boosted.

•  For breakfast I suggest to use basic Old-Fashioned Oatmeal or Polenta Variation with mushrooms and bacon. These recipes will be the best choice to start your day full of energy and good mood.
• Lunch should always consist of healthy protein and vegetables, just like Rabbit under Creamy Wine Sauce with Rosemary
•  If you find yourself starving for something sweet, try Pumpkin sugar-free cheesecake or Granola snacks

And for dinner I prepared a special recipe today.

As a big fan of seafood and fish (and my free time) I always try to find the easiest way to cook it, without much efforts. As I already showed in my older recipe of Provencal Salmon with Fresh Salad it is preferable and much healthier to combine fish with veggies. A LOT OF VEGGIES ;)
Moreover, the recipe fits perfectly to the DETOX-nutrition plan "I quit sugar" and fulfils the body needs of omega-3 fatty acids, as well as a lot of vitamins.

Ingredients:

200 g salmon steak
salt and pepper
1/2 cup of broccoli
1 middle-sized carrot
1/2 lemon
1 tsp butter
1/3 cup hot water
sprinkle herbs of Provence

Fish doesn't need a lot of preparations or time. Wash the steak under cold water. Soak it with a paper towel, sprinkle with salt.

Tip!
Do not pepper fish or meat before you fry it, as the pepper will easily burn and add a biter taste. Always pepper before serving. This ensures spicy taste and better flavor.

In the frying pan melt the butter on medium-high heat. Place the salmon steak into the pan and cover with a lid. Fry 5 minutes from each side until golden-brown crust. Add 2 tbsp of water and leave covered under lid on a low heat for about 7-10 minutes. This will ensure the fish is ready inside as well. The main thing here is that salmon steak should not start burning. Therefore I usually add a bit of cold water and cook it on very low heat until ready.

The best recipe for a side dish is always veggies. The more colourful - the better. I love broccoli and strongly recommend them as a companion to fish or meat. The way to cook them is pretty simple, quick and easy. And as a result you get a perfect side dish and wonderful mood. Wash broccoli and cut them into little flowers ;) Peel carrot and cut it into peaces. In a saucepan mix the veggies and add about 1/3 cup of hot water. The water should cover about 1/3 of the veggie level. Do not be surprised that they are not covered fully. That is the tip and trick here. Heat the saucepan and cover it. The procedure of cooking will take here around 5 minutes. Then prepare a bowl with ice-cold water, take the vegetables out and put them into cold water. This is a shocking way to stop the cooking process in the veggies and ensure that all the vitamins stay packed in them. Finally sprinkle them with herbs of Provence and the best and easiest healthy side dish is ready to go :)

As you see it is very easy to prepare healthy meal. And if just think about the benefits from this: better health, balances nutrition, vitamin boost, money savings... Can you remind me why you are still going out for lunch?! :)

Go ahead and eat yourself healthy, Because good food is always a good idea.

Home-made grab'n'go granola power snack bars

We both love to have a sweet crispy addition to our tea-time with my husband. We are sometimes in a hurry and there is no choice to prepare a full warm breakfast like polenta or even pancakes. We also are passionate travellers as you might see here and also for these times today's recipe is a perfect match. Granola bars: easy, healthy and soooo delicious.

The number of basic ingredients is too low to be true. 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

2 middle-sized bananas

2 whole eggs

1 tbsp cinnamon 

optional additions: dried fruits, nuts, vanilla, etc.

No special steps for preparation: just heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Mix all dry ingredients, add chopped bananas and eggs. Mix well and make a layer of about 1-1.5 cm on the baking sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden-brown edges of the oats. Put aside to cool down and then cut into bar pieces - squares was my choice. 

READY :)

Tip!

 For these bars I used raisins as optional ingredients, flaxseeds, pitted dates. When the bars cooled down, I sprinkled them over with a tablespoon of raw honey. This helps to keep all the vitamins and minerals. 

The recipe I offer includes baking step. There are, of course, other options of non-baking recipes with different variations. Those will be presented in my future posts. With peanut butter, chocolate, sesam... What ingredient would you add to your oatmeal bars?

Rosemary baked fish: special recipe with the best tips of fish scaling from Croatia

Hello September! I do not stop wondering how quickly flies the time. It strolls down like a mountain river leaving only memories behind... And then you stop in the rush of the day, wake up at one point, and understand how quickly is everything happening... How come that it has been already two weeks since autumn came?! (yes, I know here they count the start of the season later, but not in Ukraine:) I am still with my thoughts back there, in our dream vacation, warm Croatia and on the seaside... where you can be an idle person, lying the whole day and doing only things you have mood for. While discovering Croatia we were lucky not only to be lazy but also to get some special culinary tips and tricks, which I appreciate very much. One of those was concerning the way to scale the fish. The trick is that you do it in the sea. YES, IN THE SEA! Same actions, but just in the sea. So we took all the needed equipment (sharp knife) and fresh fish from the local market and went to enhance our skills. I have to admit in our family my husband is a professional in these tasks, so I was taking pictures ;)

That morning we decided to buy something different than dorado or sea bass... Sarpa salpa, known commonly as the salema, salema porgy, cow bream or goldline, is a species of sea bream, recognisable by the golden stripes that run down the length of its body, and which might cause hallucinations when eaten. In fact, these curious figures were unknown to us up to the time I made a research for the post. When scaling the fish in the sea, you "kill two rabbits at once" - the outcome is scaled fish and already salted (from natural source, what could be more natural?!). 

Pay attention to the fact that the knife has to be sharp in order to make everything quickly and accurately.

My main concern was - where will we throw out the rests? It is not the most pleasant thing afterwards to swim among fish entrails. But no worries! The nature has foreseen already everything and sea-gull was right there and veeeery hungry.

And here is the recipe:

Ingredients: (for 2 portions)

2 fishes (we chose sarpa)

pepper, rosemary

salted sea and sweet heart :)

Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius or if available prepare the grill (as we did here). Sprinkle the fish in and outside with rosemary and pepper. Bake 20 minutes under foil and another 15-20 uncovered (depending on the size of the fish).

I leave the side dish up to you. My choice was pumpkin puree as I really missed it. For my husband the only way to get full is to get some carbs as a side dish, so whole wheat pasta was his choice.

Here are some nutrition facts about fish:

• For individuals who do not consume dairy products fish and seafood can be a significant source of calcium
• Fish including salmon and sardines canned in oil as well as sea vegetables such as kombu, nori, and dulse are good sources of calcium
• Fish and seafood are good sources of healthy fats such as omega 3s which are an essential part of a balanced fat intake

Bon Appétit!

Cauliflower pizza

Catching the last summer days in Hamburg and enjoying a nice company with my dear friend I ended up with quite a long blog break :) But I'm pretty sure you will forgive me. Because there are not so many people, whom you are always happy to see, no matter how long passed by after the last visit. Once a year, or once in 5 years, you always find the words to say, thoughts to share and stories to tell. You talk about the topics you've never discussed, and find out a lot of new and interesting, you support and get it back, share happiness and always stay there for a friend, do crazy things together and just listen to each word. And I appreciate it much!!!

After the visit of my dear friend I had to dive deeply into work and another week passed by. Usual working days, just the weather got more autumn-like. An extra opportunity I got these days was a Gardening and Decor workshop last Friday, that brought me into atmosphere of creativeness and team spirit. I will update you on my new skills in the next post. The last weekend we spontaneously decided to have a short trip to Amsterdam, which appeared to be a fairytale place... And so we are here: September, autumn breeze and bright yet less warm sun rays fall into my window before they disappear. Sitting in a warm room with a cup of tea I am writing to you, my reader.

Today I decided to make a colourful dish as a sign of leaving summer and reminder of warm Italian food. P-I-Z-Z-A! And who hates pizza?! Especially if I say that this one is a healthy variety and can absolutely stay in line with Italian companion. Cheesy, juicy and crispy, all in one - cauliflower pizza. And if never tried it, you JUST HAVE TO BAKE IT!

Ingredients:
Recipe adopted from The Iron You

1/2 small head cauliflower, cut into small florets
20 gr mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 egg
½ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
½ teaspoon oregano
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

Filling

6 tablespoons thick tomato sauce
6 cherry tomatoes
1 tbsp green beans
1 tbsp sweet corn
8 black olives
20 gr mozzarella cheese
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 220°C. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and sprinkle with olive oil. Wash the cauliflower and rice it in a food processor rice until evenly chopped. Afterwards transfer cauliflower rice to a microwave dish and put into microwave for about 8 minutes, until cooked.

Place the cauliflower rice in a tea towel and twist it to squeeze out as much moisture as you can. This is very important. The cauliflower rice needs to be dry. Otherwise you’ll end up with a mushy dough, not a crusty one.

Transfer the cauliflower rice to a mixing bowl and add egg, mozzarella, oregano, sea salt and pepper. Mix well. Using your hands, press the mixture onto the baking sheet and shape into a round form. The dough is ready. Spread the tomato sauce and add any filling you like. I chose beans, olives, tomatoes, egg. Feel free to be creative at this point. This type of recipe usually is good when you need to utilise last couple of olives, one egg, some rests of the cheese and maybe ham, that are waiting in the fridge...

Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes.

Serve warm and enjoy the healthiest pizza without harm. Because good food is always a good idea ;)