4-Course Fish Menu

Time to present you with the second menu I believe is suitable for Christmas but of course, also any other time of the year when you have guests over and you want to impress them with a delicious, healthy, homemade meal without spending hours in the kitchen!

I started with a Vegetarian Menu and a Chicken Menu and now I will give you an amazing Fish Menu!

4-Course Fish Menu

For this menu I choose a somewhat Italian style. These three courses are my favorite vegetarian options and the guests I served these dishes to absolutely loved them! So if you want to impress your family with a healthy bit amazing vegetarian menu you should absolutely give this one a try! Of course you can substitute the quinoa for just regular (brown) risotto rice. How you can make this one is the same as for the quinoa recipe, it only takes a little bit more time and if you want you can add a glass of wine to the risotto when you crumble over the vegetable stock instead of the glass of boiling water.

 

Appetizer

My Pumpkin Soup. You can make this earlier during the day and only heat it up when it's time to start!

Spoon

Surprise your guests with a small appetizer during your starter and your main menu. My family and I always like to make a spoon with smoked salmon, fresh basil and some cottage cheese. And a spoon with 'Dutch shrimps' (the small ones), some cocktail sauce and fresh parsley. Simple, easy to make and perfect!

Main

And for our main course you definitely need to make my amazing codfish with a delightful crust served with a nice simple salad and of course the rosemary thyme potatoes. For this dish I would also suggest that you make two simple, yet delicious side dishes. A carrot puree and peas with a twist!

For the carrot puree you need 100 gr carrots per person and some fresh thyme leaves. How do you make it?

1. Clean the carrots, cut them into slices (in your food processor). Put them with a little bit of extra virgin olive oil, pinch of sea salt and some fresh thyme leaves in a hot sauce pan. Pour enough boiling water with it so they are just under, put the lit on the pan, turn up the heat and let them cook for about 15 minutes or until tender.
2. When they are cooked, let them drain, put back in the pan and puree them. If necessary season them with salt and pepper. 

For the peas with a twist you need a bit more ingredients (serves 4 to 6): 2 small little gem lettuce; 1 piece of butter; 1 tbs spelt flower; 3 dl organic chicken stock; couple of fresh mint leaves; 500 gr frozen peas, 1/2 lemon. What you do:

1. Put a large pan on high heat. Wash the salad leaves and cut them in your food processor. Add  the butter and the flower to the pan together with the chicken stock and some freshly torn mint leaves and beat with a whisk until a smooth, simmering sauce. Add the salad and peas with the juice of half a lemon and a splash of boiling water. Give it a good stir and season with salt & pepper. Leave them until everything is heated through.

Dessert

A fruity dessert for this menu! How do you feel about a healthy banana split?! One whole banana might be a bit much after a large meal, so you can share or cut them in half!

Enjoy! 

 

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4-Course Meat Menu

Time to present you with the second menu I believe is suitable for Christmas but of course, also any other time of the year when you have guests over and you want to impress them with a delicious, healthy, homemade meal without spending hours in the kitchen!

I started with a Vegetarian Menu and now a Meat Menu!

4-Course Chicken Menu

Another simple menu with which you will definitely impress your friends and family!

Starter

My Fig & Ham Bruschetta's. Easy to make and if someone isn't a huge fan of goat cheese, simply omit it or replace with for example, feta cheese!

Spoon

Surprise your guests with a small appetizer during your starter and your main menu. And since the theme of this menu is meat an amazing spoon with Beef Carpaccio can't be missed!

Main

What do you serve for the main course? Well that's a very easy question to answer! Serve the Oven Baked Chicken with Rosemary Thyme Potatoes! You can't go wrong with that and it almost certain that you won't fail! Serve it with my colorful Beetroot Salad and your dinner is complete!

 

Dessert

Yes, we are going to cheat during dessert!!! And you are going to love it! You will make my Totally Nuts Dessert! The ice cream I use in this dessert is called Totally Nuts (for the Dutchies: it's from the 'Albert Heijn huismerk') and it's one of the best ice cream flavors I ever tasted)! For anyone that lives outside the Netherlands, you need to find ice cream with a caramel flavor and chopped pecans!

How do you make this dessert and what do you need?
Per person you need 2 cookies which we call "Kletskoppen". These are very crunchy cookies that contain lots of sugar and nuts, usually almonds. And I always like to serve it with red fruits like blueberries, strawberries and raspberries.

Enjoy! 

 

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4-Course Vegetarian Menu

In my previous post 'How to survive Christmas' I gave some tips to make sure that you don't feel guilty if you indulge in all the delicious Christmas snacks and some tips for healthy activities and foods. Following this post I made a vegetarian, fish and meat menu which you could serve during Christmas dinner which are healthy and easy to make! Starting with the Vegetarian menu and the other two will follow later today!

Of course you can also make this menu any other time of the year!!!

4-Course Vegetarian Menu

For this menu I choose a somewhat Italian style. These three courses are my favorite vegetarian options and the guests I served these dishes to absolutely loved them! So if you want to impress your family with a healthy bit amazing vegetarian menu you should absolutely give this one a try! Of course you can substitute the quinoa for just regular (brown) risotto rice. How you can make this one is the same as for the quinoa recipe, it only takes a little bit more time and if you want you can add a glass of wine to the risotto when you crumble over the vegetable stock instead of the glass of boiling water.

Starter

My Simple Tomato Soup. You can make this earlier during the day and only heat it up when it's time to start!

 

Main

(quinoa) Mushroom Risotto with my delicious Tomato Bruschetta on the side and a simple salad! What kind of salad could you think of? Well this is my favorite salad to serve with quinoa? A delicious corn salad with arugula, sundried tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and roasted pine nuts!

 

Cheese Board

Just add a selection of some delicious French cheeses with dried figs and maybe some small toasts

 

Dessert

Black Bean Brownies with a scoop of ice cream of your choice!

Enjoy! 

 

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Christmas Smoothie

Yes, it's time for a Christmas Smoothie! So decided to try out some smoothies with Christmas colors red and green! Okay, I know, it has turned out pink, but on top the goji berries are bright red and the coconut grater represents some snow and of course some Christmas balls needed to be represented in the form of blueberries!

 

Duration: 5 minutes

The ingredients:

 Pink layer

• 100 gr strawberries
• 3 tbs quark or greek yoghurt
• 1 tbs coconut grater
• 1 ts chiaseeds
• 1 ts flax seeds

 Green layer

• 1 avocado
• 1 kiwi
• Handful spinach
• Splash of water

 Topping

• 1 tbs blueberries
• 1 ts coconut grater
• 1 ts goji berries
• 1 strawberry

What you do:

1. Blend all the ingredients for the pink layer until smooth and pour in a large glass (not all the way to the top!)
2. Rinse the blender and then blend all the ingredients for the green layer until smooth. If the mixture is too thick just add more water. Pour on top of the pink layer. Then finish with a straw and the ingredients for the topping!

 Merry Christmas!

Poached Egg (V)

I love eggs and I eat one every day! But today I wanted something different so I decided to give a poached egg a try! The first one failed miserably but the second one turned out perfect!! I always imagined that making poached eggs was very difficult, well it's not! So if you want to make one yourself make sure you read this post!

You can easily have this for breakfast or serve with a salad for lunch! And doesn't this look fancy when you serve it for Christmas breakfast or brunch?!

Duration: 5 minutes

The ingredients:

• 1 large organic egg
• 1 slice of whole wheat (spelt) bread
• 1/2 avocado
• 3 cherry tomatoes
• 1 small spring onion
• Salt & Pepper
• Optional: fresh basil leaves

  
What you do:

1. Boil water in your kettle and put the slice of bread in your toaster. When the water is boiled pour it into a pan (I used a saucepan) and make sure that the water is at minimum 5 cm high. Bring back to a boil, add some salt and then slightly lower the heat but make sure it is still boiling! Break the egg in a small glass or bowl, make sure the yolk stays intact, and gently pour it into the boiling water. Use a spoon to make sure that the egg white remains centered and boil for 3 to 4 minutes so the yolk is still nice and soft. 
2. Get your slice of bread out of your toaster, cut the avocado and put on top and season with pepper. Cut the cherry tomatoes and spring onion and sprinkle over the bread and your plate. When the egg is done, gently get it out of the pan using a large spoon and put it on top of the sandwich. If you want you can serve it with some fresh basil leaves.

Little tip from one of my Instagram followers: Add a little amount of white vinegar to the boiling water! This also prevents the egg white from 'leaking'!

Enjoy!

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How to 'Survive' Christmas?

It's December, in the Netherlands 'Sinterklaas' is back to Spain.. and in America Thanksgiving has passed. So the Christmas trees are back in our houses, the streets are brightened with Christmas lights and our houses are fully decorated. So Yes, it's finally Christmas time! A time of joy and love. It's actually one of my favorite times in the year! As a bonus, I'm also celebrating my birthday this time a year.

Christmas means it's time to connect to all your love ones and do fun things with friends and family, drink wine and eat delicious food! Yes, food and not always the most healthy food.. But it's my opinion that Christmas wouldn't be the same without a little indulgence! There is no harm in cheating these days, but where do you draw the line? How can you enjoy Christmas foods and not go overboard?! Well, I've been giving it much though and I would like to share with you some tips to survive Christmas in the most healthy way there is, whilst you can still enjoy all the good things.

Offer to Cook

We always spend 26th December (Boxing day) at my parents' house so this year I offered to cook dinner. This way I am in charge of what we will eat and I can make sure that there are enough vegetables (my parents don't normally eat lots of veggies, mostly salad). I will also make a grocery shopping list and bring some of my own products to make sure that they are as clean as possible!

On the blog you will now also find an overview of all the healthy recipes that I believe suit Christmas! And in my opinion these recipes are even tastier compared to unhealthy cheats! I made a special heading Christmas which lists all sorts of delicious Christmas Meal Ideas!! Here you will find, among other things, a delicious starter: Fig & Ham Bruschetta or a traditional Tomato Bruschetta. But you can also serve a simple Tomato Soup or Pumpkin Soup.

And what about a delicious Crusty Codfish served with Oven Roasted Rosemary Thyme Potatoes for main course and my amazing black bean brownies with a scoop of ice cream for dessert?!

Some of the lunch sandwich recipes are also perfect to incorporate in your Christmas breakfast or brunch. For example: Avocado Pomegranate Sandwich or the Smoked Salmon Sandwich. If you feel like pancakes why not make healthy ones like my Coconut Meal Pancakes?! And make a healthy but delicious Gingerbread which is perfect with organic butter!

Make sure you check it out! And also keep an eye out for one of my next posts in which I will compose some complete Christmas meals.

Choose Your Indulgence Carefully

As a already mentioned, indulging is inevitable at Christmas. Okay, if you really really want to it's possible, but it's a time to enjoy and you don't have to be that hard on yourself. But still moderation is key! A great tip I read somewhere whilst preparing this post was to pick your indulgence. If you decide to have ice cream or chocolate cake for dessert, then make sure your day is filled with enough nutrients. Especially your breakfast is very important so you can give your body the best possible start which will help you during the day. And don't forget to enjoy your ice cream or cake! Where is the enjoyment if you feel guilty about it! And remember a cheat once a while actually boosts your metabolism and is very good for your mental health ;).

Proportion control, especially for the snacks!

The most weight gain during Christmas comes from snacking on all those snacks offered! Of course it's good to have some of them, if they are delicious why not!? But one or two hands sugar coated nuts or 3 small toasts are just as good as the whole bowl! So make sure you control the amount of snack you're having. And if you know that dinner is served in about an hour, why fill your belly with all these snacks. First of all you don't have room for the whole dinner, but you will eat it all anyway and as a result you will almost certainly be guaranteed that you feel like you can roll back home.

And a little tip: make sure you have sugar free mints or chewing gum with you. Pop a mint just before you go to your family and this will help with the urge to devour all the snacks that are going round. Even when you've finished the mint you will still have the lingering mint tasts inyour mouth like after brushing your teeth. And nobody feels like eating anything after you have brushed your teeth!

Stay active!

Whatever you do, make sure you keep moving! Of course I don't mean that you should do some hard-core weight lifting schedule or run 20 km if you don't want or don't have the time, but you need to do some moving of light to moderate intensity. Take your family for a walk and get some fresh air. Or if you don't feel like going out or the whether isn't cooperating, incorporate some small exercised during your day. While you brush your teeth do some squats and lunches. Or when you are waiting for those delicious brownies to be baked in the oven grab a chair and so some triceps dips, planking on a cushion from the sofa or some pushups. But another and way more fun way: turn up the Christmas music and start dancing! You actually burn a lot of calories by dancing and it's fun! So why not?! It's Christmas after all! The point I want to make is that, no you are not going to lose weight during these days but keep your muscles activated to minimize damage!

Prepare some delicious, light, healthy meals the days after Christmas

And last but not least, after Christmas you need to get back on track. So what better way than to experiment with some new healthy recipes that don't contain lots of carbohydrates from pasta and bread. Make sure you have some ingredients lying around the house for some delicious healthy and light meals for the days after Christmas! Here are some options:

• Fish Cuisine with Green Beans
• Grilled Tuna with a Green Salad
• Pangasius filet with Asparagus
• San Fran Quinoa Salad

Or just a simple soup or any other combination of just fish/chicken with vegetables!

But most of all I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

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Beef Carpaccio

Who doesn't love carpaccio? Well I do! If I lunch in a restaurants I almost always order a carpaccio salad or a sandwich! I'm currently preparing Christmas dinner for my parents, brother and his girlfriend and this is probably going to be our starter or as a small course during our starter and main dish.

I will give you the recipe for a starter for 1 person and if you want to serve it as, for example, a spoon between courses just divide the ingredients by four! And if you want this for lunch just serve it with two slice of whole wheat organic (spelt) bread!

The ingredients:

• Thinly sliced beef carpaccio (125 gr per persons)
• Grated parmesan cheese to taste
• Handful arugula
• 1 tbs roasted pine nuts
• Green pesto dressing (use this recipe but add more extra virgin olive oil) or you can use organix truffle mayonaise (they sell this at the organic store!)
• 2 to 3 sundried or cherry tomatoes

What you do:

1. Place the thinly sliced carpaccio on a plate. Top with the arugula, grated parmesan cheese, roasted pine nuts and sundried or cherry tomatoes and finish with the dressing of your choice!

Enjoy!

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Tomato Bruschetta

Bruschetta is very easy and simple to make and if I have friends over and my meals are kind of Italian I always like to serve these because it's not expensive to make and just delicious. You can have it as a simple starter or as a side dish. Either way, your guest will love them!

The tomato mixture can easily be made earlier that day so you won't have to spend a lot of time in the kitchen when your guests arrive.

Duration: 15 minutes

What you need for 4 to 6 persons:

• 5 (Roma) tomatoes
• 1 small red onion
• Some fresh basil leaves
• 3 garlic cloves
• 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
• 1 to 2 ts balsamic vinegar
• 1 Ciabatta bread
• 3 to 4 tbs olive oil
• Salt & pepper

What you do: 

1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees of Celsius.
2. In a small bowl mix the regular olive oil with one crushed garlic and some salt and pepper and set aside.
3. Remove the seeds/pulp from the tomatoes and peel the red onion. Finely chop the tomatoes and red onion and put in a bowl with 2 garlic cloves, the extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
4. Slice the ciabatta bread and brush lightly with the olive oil - garlic mixture. Put the on your griddle (covered with grease proof paper) and bake for 10 to 15 minutes in the oven until their golden brown and crunchy. Put them on a large, beautiful plate and put the tomato mixture on top. Finish with some freshly torn basil leaves and serve this colorful dish to your guests.

Bon appétit! 

 

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Oven Baked Chicken

As I mentioned in my previous post, my grandmother came to visit me yesterday and I decided to make this delicious dish from Jamie's 30 minute meals. Served it with my amazing Oven Roasted Rosemary Thyme Potatoes and a simple Winter Salad.

Baking chicken this way results in a perfect tender piece of chicken! It's full of flavours and perfect for in the winter. But as you know by now I'm in the mood for Christmas and I'm trying out some recipes suitable for the holiday's and this is definitely one of my favorites!

Duration: 30 minutes

The ingredients for 2 persons:

•  2 large chicken breasts of about 180 gr each
• 1 tbs dried oregano
• 1 tbs sweet paprika powder
• Butter
• 1 lemon
• 10 cherry tomatoes
• 4 slices Pancetta
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary
• Olive oil
• Salt & Pepper

What you do:

1. Preheat the grill in your oven and put a large frying pan on high heat. 
2. Put the chicken breasts on a chopping board and rub with the dried oregano, sweet paprika powder, pinch of salt and pepper. Make sure all sides are covered and sprinkle over some olive oil. Put a somewhat large piece of butter in the frying pan and a good splash of olive oil. Bake the chicken for 4-5 minutes total in the pan on both sides until their golden brown. Then, put the chicken breasts in a baking dish. Cut the lemon in four and put them, together with the cherry tomatoes, next to the chicken. Pour some juice out of the pan over the chicken breasts and put the slices of Pancetta on top. Put the pan with the rest of the gravy back on the heat, stir the rosemary sprig through, put on top of the chicken and the rest of the gravy in the baking dish and put it for 14 to 16 minutes under the hot grill. Make sure you check whether the chicken is cooked through before you serve! 

Serve with the Oven Roasted Rosemary Thyme Potatoes and a simple Winter Salad.

Enjoy!

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Rosemary Thyme Potatoes (out of the oven)

I don't eat a lot of potatoes, but if I do then I almost always make these delicious potatoes out of the oven! They are so good and I thought, with Christmas coming up that it is finally time to post the recipe. It makes a perfect side dish and everybody who I ever served these potatoes absolutely love them! As a bonus your house will smell fantastic and very homey! It's perfect with chicken or a nice piece of meal for Christmas. But you can also serve them with, for example, chicken burgers.

I had these potatoes yesterday when my grandmother came to visit me and served them with Chicken from the Oven. The recipe for the chicken will follow later today!

Duration: 45 minutes (mostly waiting!)

The ingredients for 4 persons (for one just divide everything by four):

• 1 kg potatoes with skin
• 3 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 ts dried oregano
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 ts sea salt

What you do:

1. Preheat your oven to 225 degrees of Celsius.
2. Clean the potatoes under cold running water and halve them (don't remove the skin!). Cook them in a pan with boiling water (all potatoes need to be under water) and some salt for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, mix the olive oil with the oregano, thyme leaves, rosemary leaves (finely chopped), the garlic (sliced) and the sea salt in a small bowl and set aside.
3. Pour the potatoes and let them evaporate. Mix with the olive oil mixture until everything is evenly covered. Put them on a griddle covered with grease proof paper and place them in the oven for about 25 minutes. Make sure you stir them once a while! When they are golden brown they are done and ready to be served!

Enjoy!

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Black Bean Brownies

I'm celebrating my twenty-six birthday next week so I always bake some goodies to treat my colleagues during coffee break to celebrate my birthday. For this purpose I was looking for some new recipes and first I decided to try out a black bean brownie. And oh my gosh! It's even better than just your regular brownie. You don't taste the black beans (I was afraid that it would) and it's just perfect. You can add some more sugar or syrup if you're a sweet tooth but I suggest you first try out the recipe as is! You can have it as a sweet next to your green tea but you can also easily serve it as a dessert (maybe for Christmas dinner!!) with a scoop of ice cream and maybe even some whipped cream! And as a bonus it's super easy too make!

What you need:

• 1 can (15 oz. - 425 gr) black beans
• 50 gr raw cocoa powder
• 45 gr rolled oats
• 2 eggs
• 4 tbs coconut oil
• 40 gr palm sugar
• 70 ml agave syrup
• 1 ts vanilla extract
• Pinch of Himalayan sea salt
• 1 ts baking powder

What you do:

1. Preheat your oven to 175 degrees of Celsius.
2. Simply add all ingredients to your food processor (it fits exactly) and mix until you have a smooth batter. Grease a baking dish of 20 x 20 cm or a similar size (25 x 17 or something) with some more coconut oil and pour the batter in. Put it in the oven for about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a toothpick whether it's done, the toothpick should come out fairly clean.

Variation tip: Don't throw away the left over crumbles or brownie. These are delicious over you bowl of (Greek) yoghurt or quark in the morning!!

Enjoy!! 

 

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Piri-Piri Chicken with Baked Potato and a Simple Winter Salad

Since Christmas is almost here I decided to make some dishes that you could serve as a healthy Christmas meal and I added anothe page to the blog: Christmas on which recipes are posted that, in my opinion, suit Christmas!

First up is this delicious recipe from Jamie's 30 minute meals, his piri-piri chicken. Changed the side dishes because this felt more suitable to me.

Duration: 30  minutes

Amount of servings: 4

The ingredients

 Pri-piri chicken:

• 4 large chicken thighs
• 2 yellow paprika's
• 2 red paprika's
• 6 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 1 red onion
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 (piri-piri) pepper
• 2 tbs sweet paprika powder
• 1 lemon
• 4 tbs white wine vinegar
• 2 tbs Worcestershire sauce
• Large bunch of basil
• Pepper & Salt
• Olive oil

 Baked potato:

• 4 large potatoes
• 2 sprigs of rosemary
• 4 tbs sour cream
• Some freshly chopped parsley

 Winter salad:

• 150 gr corn salad
• 50 gr arugula
• 150 gr cherry tomatoes
• 1 cucumber
• 125 gr pomegranate seeds
• Dressing: 4 tbs extra virgin olive oil, 1,5 tbs balsamic vinegar, juice of half a lime

What you do:

1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees of Celsius and put a grill pan on high heat.
2. Sprinkle the chicken thighs with olive oil and season with sea salt & pepper on each side. Put them in your hot grill pan on high heat and grill until that side is golden brown. Slice the paprika's into small stripes and put them in the grill pan until soft when you turn the chicken. Grill the chicken until the other side is also golden brown.
3. Meanwhile wash the potatoes, cut out the ugly spots and prick some holes in it using a fork. Put them in a baking dish covered with a double layer cling film. Put them in the microwave for 14 to 16 minutes on 900 to 1000 watt until their cooked.
4. Make the piri-piri sauce. Peel the red onion, slice is roughly and put in your blender together with the peeled garlic cloves, grated lemon zest, juice of 1/2 to 1 lemon, the deseeded pepper, the paprika powder, white wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, salt & pepper and the basil. Add a splash of water and blend until you have a smooth sauce. Poor it into a large baking dish. When the chicken and paprika are done put them on top of the sauce. Place the thyme sprigs on top of the chicken and put into the middle of your hot oven for about 10-15 minutes - depending on how thick they are - until their done (make sure you check after 10 minutes if they are done, if not put them back for another 5 minutes). 
5. Meanwhile, mix all the ingredients for the salad and for the dressing and put them in separate bowls on your table.
6. Check whether the potatoes are cooked. Pick the rosemary leaves, chop them finely and put in the baking dish with a pinch of sea salt and pepper and a dash of olive oil. Toss the potatoes equally, put them on your griddle (with grease proof paper) and put them under the grill for a couple of minutes to make sure they become crunchy. Mix the sour creams with the juice of half a lime and some freshly chopped parsley.
7. When you get the potatoes out of the oven, cut in half or crosswise and serve with 1 tablespoon of the sour cream mixture per potato and sprinkle some freshly chopped parsley on top.

Enjoy!

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Avocado Pomegranate Open Sandwich

Inspired by one of my favorite instagram accounts: sassyballerina, who also blogs about food on: Hip & Healthy - Food I made this delicious sandwich! I simplified it to make it more budget but I was still amazed by the combination of flavors! In my opinion this is a perfect healthy sandwich for Winter and would also make a delicious, Christmas colored, breakfast during the holiday's! I'm sure it will be part of my Christmas breakfast! Since I'm also working on a post on how to 'survive' Christmas in the most healthy way whilst you van still indulge in some not so healthy or clean treats, this is the perfect example of a healthy festive treat!

Duration: less than 5 minutes

The ingredients:

• 2 slices spelt or whole wheat bread
• 1 ripe avocado
• 6 cherry tomatoes
• Couple of arugula leaves
• 2 tbs pomegranate seeds
• Pinch of pepper

What you do:

1. Toast the slices of bread. Then mash the avocado on both slices of bread and season with pepper. Put the arugula on top, slice the cherry tomatoes in half and put on top followed by the pomegranate seeds and your delicious open sandwich is ready to be eaten!

Enjoy!

Fig & Ham Bruschetta

Last Saturday I had a couple of friends over from Bootcamp and made them dinner! As a starter I decided to make these fig and ham bruschetta's from my new Delicious cookbook which I got from my mom. And they were delicious, perfect combination of flavors! It fits an Italian meal very well.

Of course you can also use the ingredients to make a delicious lunch baguette! Just substitute the ciabatta for whole wheat or spelt bread and cut the figs smaller after you grilled them!

Duration: 10 minutes

The ingredients for 4 servings:

• 12 slices ciabatta bread (If you want a more healthy version try whole wheat baguette!)
• 12 slices thinly sliced raw ham
• 8 fresh figs
• Soft goat cheese
• Some fresh basil leaves
• Olive oil

 Directions:

1. Put your grill pan on high heat. Lightly brush both sizes of the ciabatta slices with olive oil and put them in the grill pan for 1 to 2 minutes each side until golden brown.
2. When they are done put three pieces on each plate. Then halve the figs and lightly brush the pulp with olive oil and put them 'pulp-down' in the grill pan until they are caramelized (takes about 1 to 2  minutes).
3. Meanwhile put the slices of raw ham on top of the ciabatta. When the figs are done put 4 on each plate on top of the ham and crumble over the goat cheese. Finish with some fresh basil leaves and your starter is ready!  

Variation tip: If you're not a hugh fan of goat cheese you can also use feta cheese or blue cheese.

Enjoy!

Codfish with a Delightful Crust & Italian Salad

This is one of my favorite meals in the weekend! Part from me and a part is from Jamie Oliver.

Duration: 20 minutes

Amount of servings: 1

The ingredients for the codfish:

• 1 Codfish of 200 grams
• 1 slice of spelt bread
• 2 small garlic cloves
• 1/2 ts fennel seeds
• 3 anchovy filets
• 70 gr sundried tomatoes
• 1/4 bunch fresh basil
• 20 gr grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 tbs balsamic vinegar
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• Olive oil
• Salt & Pepper

The ingredients for the salad:

• 50 gr corn salad
• 6 cherry tomatoes
• Parmesan cheese 
• 1 tbs roasted pine nuts
• 2 slices of Serrano ham
• 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil, 1 tbs balsamic vinegar (dressing)

What you do:

1. Preheat your grill in the oven. Add a large splash of olive oil to a baking dish. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and the fennel seeds and rub the codfish with this mixture. Put them on their skin in the baking dish and add a little bit more olive oil on top. Put the baking dish in the middle of your oven under the grill for 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile make the crust. Tear the bread in pieces and put in your food processor and mince. Add one crushed garlic clove, and some drops of the oil from the anchovy filets. Put the crumbly mixture in a bowl and set aside. 
3. Then, without cleaning the food processor, add the anchovy filets, sundried tomatoes, the other crushed garlic clove, fresh basil, and the grated parmesan cheese. With a fine grated, grate the zest of the lemon and add to the mixture together with the juice of half a lemon and balsamic vinegar. Mix until it's a smooth paste. 
4. Get the fish out of the oven and put the sundried tomato mixture on top followed by the bread crust. Put the fresh thyme and rosemary on top and sprinkle some olive oil on top. Put the fish back under the grill for about 10 minutes until they are golden brown and crunchy.
5. Then, just mix the salad ingredients but only add the dressing as you start eating.
6. Get the fish out of the oven and serve with the salad.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Soup (V)

It's Fall in the Netherlands which means that Pumpkins are in season! Based on a recipe from Amber Albarda I made this delicious pumpkin soup that I just had to share with you!

Amount of servings: 2-3

The ingredients:

• 1 bottle gourd
• 2 white onion
• 2 big (sweet) apples (for the Dutchies: elstar, jonagold)
• 3 garlic cloves
• Piece of ginger (2 cm)
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 tbs chili powder
• 1 liter vegetable stock (from a cube is just fine)
• Salt & Pepper
• 3 tbs homemade green pesto
• Optional: slice of spelt bread per person

What you do:

1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees of Celsius. Cut the pumpkin, remove the seeds and chop the pulp into cubes.
   Tip: prick a couple of small holes with a fork in the skin of the pumpkin and heat it for 1 minute in the microwave so it is softer and easier to cut. 
2. Peel the apples, cut them in four and remove the core and slice each piece in half. Cut the onions into large pieces. 
3. In a large baking dish, mix the pumpkin, onion, apples, crushed garlic, chili powder, grated ginger and 2 tablespoons of olive oil and make sure everything is covered in oil. Roast the mixture for about 40 minutes in the oven until golden brown and soft. Don't forget to stir occasionally.
4. When done, puree the pumpkin mixture using a food processor until it's smooth. Meanwhile bring the vegetable stock to a boil in a large pan. Add the pureed pumpkin, give it a good stir and season with salt, pepper and more chili powder to taste. If the soup is to thick add some extra bouilloun or boiled water. 
5. Serve in a bowl with one tablespoon homemade pesto per bowl and if you prefer a slice of roasted spelt bread.

Bon Appétit!

Simple Tomato Soup (V)

Winter is coming in the Netherlands so it's time for soup! This tomato soup is simply delicious and relatively quick to make!

Duration: 30 minutes

The ingredients for 3-4 servings:

• 2 cans organic tomato cubes
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 celery stalk
• 1 carrot
• 1 red onion
• 3 garlic cloves
• 2-3 cm grated ginger
• 2 cups hot water
• 1 tbs rice syrup
• 1 ts each dried: oregano, basil, thyme
• 1 tbs sweet paprika powder
• Salt & Pepper
• Homemade green pesto

Directions:

1. Cut all the vegetables and garlic and heat up the olive oil in a pan add the vegetables and sauté until tender. 
2. Then add the canned tomatoes, salt, pepper, water, syrup, ginger, sweet paprika powder and dried herbs, bring to a boil and let it simmer for about 20 minutes on low heat.
3. During these 20 minutes make the pesto. For directions go to the green pesto recipe.
4. After 20 minutes puree the soup until smooth. Poor back into the pan and if necessary add some extra boiled water to dilute the soup.
5. Serve with the pesto and some fresh basil leaves!

Bon Appétit!

Vegan Healthy Cottage Pie

Not so quick, not so simple, but DELICIOUS! So had to share with you all and really recommend you make this sometime in the weekend or on your day off! It's the perfect dish for me to eat some vegetables I don't eat that often and it sure fits the Fall and upcoming Winter. Recipe is based on the vegan cottage pie from Kenko Kitchen but I left out some ingredients to make it more affordable!

Duration: about 50 minutes

Amount of servings: 3 persons (6 small ramekins)

The ingredients for the main filling:

• 1 onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 2 carrots
• 1 celery stick
• 1 tin organic diced tomatoes
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 sprig sprig rosemary (If you don't have this substitute with 1 ts dried rosemary)
• 1 sprig fresh thyme (same as for the rosemary)
• 1/2 ts dried marjoram
• 1 tin (310 grams) of lentils
• Salt & Pepper to taste

The ingredients for the mash:

• 1/3 head cauliflower
• 1 (big) sweet potato
• 1 small leek
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 ts dried parsley
• 1 tbs olive oil
• Splash of coconut cream (save the rest in a bag in your freezer if you don't use it in the next two days)
• 1 ts agave syrup
• Salt & Pepper to taste

What you do:

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees of Celsius. 
2. Start with your filling. Chop the onion and garlic cloves and sauté in the olive oil. Meanwhile finely chop the carrots and celery. After a couple of minutes add the chopped carrot and celery to the pan and season with salt and pepper. Cook the mixture until the vegetables are tender (test with a fork). Then add the tin of tomatoes, bay lead, lentils and the chopped herbs to the mixture and leaf to simmer for about 10 minutes and everything in warmed through. After 10 minutes make sure to taste your seasoning and add some more salt and/or pepper if needed.
3. When your filling is shimmering, slice the sweet potato (with skin on!) and the cauliflower into smaller pieces and steam the sweet potato for about 6-8 minutes and the cauliflower for 10-12 minutes (both need to be tender, not to soft!).
4. During the steaming of the vegetables, wash and chop the leek and sauté with 1 crushed garlic clove and the dried parsley in a small frying pan until translucent in colour. 
5. Once the leeks are translucent and the cauliflower is steamed put both in a blender or your food processor and pulse until just mashed with a splash of coconut cream. In a seperate bowl mash the sweet potato by hand and then add it to the food processor and pulse the mixture of leek, cauliflower and sweet potato until combined. When the mixture seems to dry just add another splash of coconut cream and season with salt and pepper. MIx in the agave syrup and set aside. 
6. Then first put the filling (lentil-tomato mixture) into 6 small ramekins (or one big pie dish).Top with the mash mixture and put a sprig of fresh thyme on top of each ramekin. 
7. Bake in the oven for about 35 minutes on 180 degrees op Celsius.

Variation tip: After 30 minutes in the oven sprinkle some grated cheese on top of the pies and put back for the last 5 minutes. 

Enjoy!

Colorful Beetroot Salad (V)

I really like to vary in my vegetables but as most people you can get stuck in buying the same vegetables every week. So at first I had the rule that every week I needed to buy a vegetable that I've never bought or eaten before. This work perfect for me when I started eating healthy but now I'm at the point that I've tried almost every vegetable. But there are vegetables that I don't eat very often for no particular reason. Beetroots are one of these vegetables so I try to eat them once every month. And this beetroot salad is one of my favorite recipes. You may think once a month isn't that much, but every week I need to incorporate a vegetable in my meals that I don't eat that often and for me this works perfect!

The ingredients for the salad:

• 3 pre-cooked beetroots
• Couple of radishes
• 1/2 yellow pepper
• 1/3 cucumber
• handful of cherry tomatoes in different colors!
• some feta cheese
• some fresh basil leaves
• 2 spring onions

Ingredients for the dressing:

• 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbs balsamic vinegar
• Pepper & Himalayan sea salt

What you do:

1. Just cut up all the vegetables and mix them in a bowl.
2. Then mix the ingredients for the dressing and sprinkle over the salad. Top it off with some fresh basil leaves and crumbled feta cheese.

Variation tips: You can use any colorful vegetable you have left in your refrigerator or pantry. You can add carrots, pumpkin, corn, green pepper, sweet pepper etc. The feta cheese can be substituted for cottage cheese or pecorino. 

Enjoy!

Coconut Meal Pancakes

Today I made this amazing clean pancakes for lunch. They are made of coconut meal so gluten, dairy & sugar free! Coconut meal is lower in calories compared to almond meal but you can't just replace almond meal with coconut meal in recipes. The main difference is that coconut meal is highly absorbent and you only need a little bit of it to produce delicious recipes. For example, if you need 300 grams of almond meal, you only need about 1/3 to 1/2 of coconut meal. However, the amount of eggs in recipes of coconut meal is higher! This is because the meal is naturally dry, so you need eggs and water (or for example coconut milk, almond milk etc.) to make sure that your recipes isn't that dry. If you see recipes with coconut meal they almost always say that it's important to mix the batter really well. This is because coconut meal clumps strong. The best way to avoid this is by using an electric hand mixer. Some benefits of coconut meal include that it contains high levels of proteins, fiber and good fats so it fills u up pretty good. Therefore it's a perfect lunch for after a morning workout, or a delicious breakfast that keeps your blood sugar levels stable during the morning!

Duration: 20 minutes

The ingredients for 8-10 small pancake:

• 25 gr coconut meal
• 100 ml water (or coconut milk)
• 2 organic eggs
• 1/2 tbs apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 ts himalayan seasalt
• coconut oil

The ingredients for the topping:

• 1 tbs greek yoghurt (leave it out if you want to have a dairy free meal)
• handful of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries & some banana slices (use any kind of fruit you like!)
• If you're a sweet tooth you can add some agave syrup.

Directions:

1. Mix all the ingredients for the pancakes until it's smooth and let it sit for 10 minutes so the coconut meal can absorb the water.
2. Heat up a little bit of coconut oil in a skillet and make little pancakes (if they are to big they will break)
3. Then bake the pancakes on medium heat for about 2 minutes, turn them (gently) and bake for another minute on the other side. 
4. Put them on your plate, add 1 tbs of greek yoghurt in the middle and fresh fruit on top and your delicious, clean pancakes are ready to be eaten!

Enjoy!