Zucchini Lasagna

I have seen this dish on other blogs very often so I thought that I really need to try it for myself! So here it is my version of a zucchini lasagna and it was delicious!

The recipe for 3-4 persons:

Fall Vegetarian Stew

Last weekend was all about relaxing. The week had been so tremendously hectic at work that I really needed some time for myself. It was perfect and I am now also charged at allfully charged for a new week at work. Also, I had the time to prepare some blogs for you guys so the frequency will finally go up again! Because I didn's have to do anything I had time to cook. So I decided to make a stew including pumpkin and sweet potato, veggies typical for autumn

The recipe for 3 servings:

Fall Pancakes

It's Sunday and that means #pancakesunday on Instagram haha. But autumn has also started in the Netherlands. This weekend is a bit weird weather, it is much warmer than normal, but nature is ready for autumn, the leaves fall from the trees and the wind whips up more and more. If we are to believe the predictions for next week it will get a lot colder and rainier. Really autumn weather. So that means fall type dishes like my stew from yesterday which will be up on the blog tomorrow, but today we start with my favorite banana-egg oatmeal pancakes with warm apple and banana from the oven. Perfect for fall!

The recipe for 1 large portion (9 small pancakes):

Cheesy Sweet Potato Frittata (V)

After a busy weekend I could work from home today! Now that's luxury and perfect because I have a lot of work which needs to be done. Since I ate a lot of bread last week I didn't feel like having it again, nor did I felt like having I salad. So I decided to use some ingredients that I found in my fridge and stock and make this delicious well-filled frittata!

The recipe for 1 person:

Pizza Party!

You might already know this but I just love pizza! And since I started my healthy journey I really miss them. Of course I have a recipe for a healthy pizza base made with spelt, but this is a lot of work and I just don't always have the time. But last week I discovered these super fast tortilla pizza's. I liked them so much that I decided to make them again but with different toppings. Of course, if you prefer a regular base you can use the same delicious toppings as I used here. The recipe for the pizza crust can be found here.

The recipes:

Now on to the recipes for these three delicious tortilla pizza's. Of course the preparation is the same.

Rice Paper Rolls

Yesterday we had a tapas style dinner date with the girls from Bootcamp. Everybody brought something so I  decided to make these delicious rice paper rolls. Recipe is originally from a friend.

The recipe for 6 rolls:

Couscous with Grilled Vegetables

Friday is left-over day! I think it's a waste to throw away any foods and it also saves me money. Today I decided to make a vegetarian couscous with grilled vegetables because I liked it a lot last Wednesday and again, it was delicious!

The recipe for 1 person:

Chocolate Fudge Bars

This weekend I saw these amazing chocolate fudge bars passing by on one of my favorite Instagram pages: Healthy Always. So you can imagine, I had to make these! Although I must say that I finally have used very different proportions then the original recipe but they were absolutely amazing! It's hard to don't eat them all at once.

Don't forget, get the Dutch version of all my recipes by clicking here!

The recipe:

Lasagnette

One of my favorite meals at my parents is Lasagnette from a Knorr packet. Yeah I know, cheat because it comes from a packet, but my parents always eat it and it's so damn tasty! This past week my mom made it again when I had dinner at their house, so I figured that their must be a way of making this by myself so it's more healthy and fitting to my lifestyle. And yes it worked !! However, it turned out to be a vegetarian version because I was stupid enough to forget minced meat in the supermarket, but nevertheless delicious.

The recipe for 4 persons:

Stuffed Vegetarian Egg Plant

Time for a delicious recipe for dinner. It takes a little longer than you are used to from me, but it's 25 minutes in the oven, so in that time you can do other things! What then? Well I've vacuumed and hang the laundry, haha not so exciting.

Duration: 35 minutes

The ingredients for 1 serving:

• 1 egg plant
• 1 onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 red paprika
• 1 tomato
• 1/2 ts cuminseeds 
• 1 ts sweet paprika powder
• 1/4 ts chili powder
• Salt & Pepper
• Olive oil

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius. 
2. Chop the onion and fry it along with 2 crushed garlic cloves in a splash of olive oil over medium heat. Cut the eggplant in half (lengthwise) and scoop out the flesh into 1cm from the edge. I used a melon scoop to do this. Put the pieces of eggplant with the onions in the pan along with the spices and cook for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, cut the paprika and tomato into small pieces and fry briefly. 
3. Place the aubergine boats in a greased baking dish and spoon in the vegetable mixture. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with grated cheese or feta cheese. Bake about 25 in the oven until the cheese is melted and begins to brown.

Enjoy!

Vegetarian Enchilada's

Tonight I made a variant on an oldy but a goody. I love me some wraps with cheese from the oven and today I decided to make a vegetarian version with beans and it turned out so good!

The recipe for 2 persons:

Hello Fresh: Pumpkin Curry with Spinach and Cashews

If you follow me on social media than you know it already, I am trying out a Hello Fresh 5-day Original box this week! So far I really like the first three dishes of the box! The recipes are owned by Hello Fresh but I could post one recipe and I choose this super tasty curry! All recipes are also available on http://www.hellofresh.nl/ (only in Dutch).

The recipe for 2 persons:

Pearl Couscous Beetroot Salad (V)

At my work is now widely known that I eat healthy and have a blog full of delicious recipes. In that context, I was chatting with a colleague and she told me about pearl couscous. I had never heard of it so she took some with her for me so I could try. It really looks like little pearls and is really delicious! It has a very different structure compared to regular couscous and it also takes longer to cook and needs more water. It is similar in texture and taste to pasta and as you know I really like pasta, so perfect! It is made from durum wheat, not quite according to what I normally eat, but occasionally I don't find this a problem.

I had cooked beetroot in the fridge and I bought some carrots and beans to go with it and put a tasty summer salad on the table.

Duration: 15 minutes

The ingredients for 1 serving:

• 75 g pearl couscous
• 100 g cooked beetroot
• 100 g beans
• 100 g carrots
• 50 g feta cheese
• 1 tbs pumpkin seeds
• extra virgin olive oil

What you do:

1. Cut the carrot into slices and cook together with pearl couscous for about 12-13 minutes in water with some salt. Meanwhile, cut the ends of the beans, cut them in half and cook 7-8 minutes in the same pan as the couscous and carrots. 
2. Meanwhile, cut the beetroot into pieces and the feta cheese into cubes. 
3. Mix with a little bit of extra virgin olive oil when the couscous and carrots are tender and serve with the pumpkin seeds sprinkled over it.

Enjoy!

Mozzarella Salad

Time for a new salad! Yesterday, my father installed their old five-burner stove in my kitchen. I'm super happy with this! So it had to be used straight away! Namely to grill the leftovers of the eggplant afor in my salad today. Not the most exciting type of cooking, but okay. This week, the stove will also not be used that often because today it's my Grandma's birthday, so I'm going to eat there. And Tuesday, Thursday and Friday I will eat leftovers from the freezer. Why? Point 1: to reduce costs; my laptop is broken and needs to be replaced. Point 2: My freezer really needs to be defrosted and before that I need to eat the containers in it.

Duration: 15 minutes

The ingredients for 1 serving:

• 1 head mini romaine lettuce
• 1/3 egg plant 
• 8 cherry tomatoes 
• 1/2 cucumber
• 3/4 mozzarella
• 1 tbs roasted pine nuts
• dressing: 2 tbs extra vierge olive oil and 1 tbs balsamic vinegar
• Olive oil
• Pepper & Salt

What you do:

1. Cut the eggplant into thin (but not too thin) slices. Put on your work surface and cover with a thin layer of olive oil and salt and pepper on both sides. Put a grill pan over high heat and when the pan is hot grill your eggplant for about 5 minutes per side. Beware that it does not burn and turn around before they are black. 
2. Meanwhile, cut all the other ingredients and toast the pine nuts. Mix the dressing in a small bowl and add all together if you're going to eat.

Enjoy!

Healthy Mulberry Cake

Last Sunday I went to train in the studio I move for health together with Charlotte. It was a good training and Charlotte suprised me with two pieces of her freshly baked and delicious mulberry cake!

Duration: 50 minutes

The ingredients for 1 cake:

• 125 gr oat flakes
• 125 gr almond meal
• 150 ml Macademia milk
• 4 eggs
• 2 bananas
• small tbs baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• Handfull mulberries
• 1/2 apple finely grated
• 1/2 pear finely grated (I used apple and pear left in my slow juicer after making juices)
• Coconut oil to grease
• Optional: a ts hennep proteinpowder, hazelnuts or other nuts, cacao nibs or a ts chai. 

What you do:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grab a cake pan/tin and grease it with coconut. Mix the eggs, almond flour, banana and macadamia milk with a pinch of salt in a large mixing bowl with hand mixer or in your blender. Put the mixture into a large bowl and stir through the oats, mulberries and baking soda.
2. Bake in a preheated oven for 40 minutes. Check after 30 minutes with a toothpick, if it's dry and no cake sticks to it the cake is already done (Every oven is different so keep an eye on the cake).

The cake is perfect after a good workout with a bit of quark, but also alongside a cup of tea/coffee or as a healthy snack during the day. 

 Enjoy!

(French) Oven Pans

I actually don't know if this is the correct term for the small oven pans with lit I used today. In Dutch I just call it 'ovenpannetjes' or 'stoofpannetjes'. After a search on google I found the terms french oven and oven pans. But, in short, today I had 3 absolutely delicious dishes from the oven. Mushrooms grated with cheese, mussels grated with cheese, and an Italian fish stew. It took me 15 minutes to prep and the time in the oven is a bit different, just see below. For each dish the oven needs to be preheated to 175-180 degrees of Celsius.

I served it with a couple of slices of bread and homemade herb butter.

Homemade Herbbutter

The ingredients:

• 75 g butter on room temperature
• 1 garlic cloves
• 2 tbs finely chopped parsley
• Salt & Pepper

What you do: 

1. Simply mix the butter with the finely chopped parsley and one crushed garlic clove. Season with salt & pepper. 

Mushrooms grated with Cheese

Duration: 15 minutes in the oven

The ingredients for 2 oven pans:

• 150 g mushrooms
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 small white onion
• 100 ml vegetables stock (made of a stock cube)
• 1 ts homemade herb butter
• 1 tbs freshly chopped parsley
• 2 tbs grated 30+ cheese
• 2 tbs grated Parmesan Cheese
• Olive oil

Bereiding:

1. Heat a dash of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and bake 1 clove of garlic for 1 minute. Meanwhile, quickly cut the mushrooms into wedges and the onion in small pieces. Put this with the garlic in the pan and cook for about 5 minutes. 
2. In the meantime, you can make the vegetable stock and do not forget to stir the mushrooms. 
3. Put after 5 minutes 100 ml vegetable stock with the mushrooms in the pan and cook over a high heat for 3 minutes. Keep stirring well. 
4. Grease 2 oven pans with olive oil and divide the mixture between the two pans, stir 1/2 tbsp parsley through each pan and divide the herb butter over the pans. Sprinkle each pan with a tablespoon of grated cheese 30 + followed by a tablespoon of grated Parmesan cheese. 
5. Bake uncovered for about 15 minutes in a preheated oven at 175-180 degrees.

Enjoy!

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Italian fish stew

Duration: 25 minutes in the oven

The ingredients for 2 oven pans:

• 1 pangasius fillet 
• 300ml chopped tomatoes 
• 1 serving spoon leek 
• 1 clove of garlic 
• 1/2 sweet paprika 
• handful of fresh basil 
• olive oil

What you do:

1. Cut the leeks into pieces and fry about 1 serving spoon in a little olive oil with 1 crushed garlic clove  for about 3-5 minutes. 
2. Grease 2 oven pans with olive oil and cut the fish and paprika into pieces. Put this in the pans. Add the leek and 150ml tomato cubes per pan. Tear some fresh basil and stir through. 
3. Put them with the lid on for about 25 minutes in a preheated oven at 175-180 degrees Celsius. Check whether the fish is cooked because then they are ready.

Bon appétit!

Mussels au gratin with cheese

Duriation: 15 minutes in the oven

The ingredients for 2 pans:

• 100g cooked mussels (from the freezer - thawed) 
• 2 serving spoons leek 
• 1 clove of garlic 
• 100 ml vegetable stock (from a stock cube)
• 1 tsp homemade herb butter 
• 2 tbsp grated 3-+ cheese 

What you do:

1. Fry the leek with 1 crushed garlic clove in a little olive oil for about 3-5 minutes. Then add the vegetable stock and cook for 3 minutes. 
2. Grease 2 oven pans with olive oil and divide the cooked mussels over the pans. Pour over the leek mixture with the remaining broth. Sprinkle with grated cheese and place, uncovered for 15 minutes in a preheated oven at 175-180 degrees Celsius.

Yum!

Charlie's 3 favorite pasta's

In this guest blog you will find the 3 favorite pasta's from Charlotte from Charlie's Kitchen!

Charlie's Tagliatella 

First up this delicious tagliatella! 

The ingredients for 2 servings

• 200 g kamut tagliatella
• 250 gr minced chicken
• 1 shallot
• 2 garlic cloves
• 3 tomatoes
• 2 tbs oatcream
• 2 handfuls wild spinach

What you do:

1. Cook the kamut tagliatella as indicated on the package. 
2. Bake the minced chicken along with the cloves of garlic and shallot in about 8 minutes or until tender. After a few minutes add the spinach. 
3. Put the tomatoes in a blender along with 2 tablespoons of oatmeal cream and mix until it has become. a smooth sauce.
4. Then put the tagliatella in a large pan or wok with the sauce and minced chicken and let it stand for 5 minutes on low heat. 

Yum!

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Red Curry Chicken Pasta

Duration: 25 minutes

The ingredients for 2 servings

• 250 g spelt pasta
• 1 chicken breast filet
• 1/2 yellow zucchini
• 10 olives
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 ts red curry powder
• 1 can tomato puree
• Handful of fresh chives
• 2 sprigs fresh basil
• 2 tbs grated Parmesan cheese
• Coconut oil

What you do:

1. Cook pasta as directed on the package. 
2. Cut the chicken into cubes and fry until golden brown in a little coconut oil. Meanwhile, cut the zucchini into strips and olives in half. Put that with the chicken in the pan and bake until everything is done.
3. Drain the pasta and add to the pan with the chicken. Press 2 garlic cloves over it, cut the bunch of chives finely and add the can of tomato puree and a teaspoon red curry. Stir well and let it sit for 2 to 3 minutes. Serve the pasta with fresh basil leaves and a little Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.

Enjoy!

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Pasta di Gorgonzola (V)

Picture will follow

This is definitely my favorite cheat meal!

Duration: 20 minutes

The ingredients for 2 servings:

• 250 g spaghetti
• 1 piece of gorgonzola
• 50 g lean bacon strips
• 2 handfulls of arugula

What you do:

1. Cook pasta as directed on the package. Drain the pasta, put the pan back on the heat and add the gorgonzola . Stir until soft and then add the bacon so that there is a creamy cheese sauce. Let this simmer for about 5 minutes. 
2. Put a handful of arugula on each plate and spoon the spaghetti on top.

Enjoy this delicious cheat meal!

Summer Egg plant risotto (V)

Yesterday I went walking with a friend through Amsterdam. We had a fun time and to end the lovely summer day I made us a delicious egg plant risotto! Perfectly light and fresh of taste.

Duration: 30 minutes

The ingredients for 3 servings:

• 300 g risotto rice
• 200 g chestnut mushrooms
• 1 large egg plant
• 1 large of 2 smalle white onions
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 chicken stock cube
• 125 ricotto cheese
• 2 tbs grated Parmesan cheese and more to taste
• Fresh basil
• 1/2 lemon
• Olive oil
• Salt & Pepper

What you do:

1. Heat a splash of olive oil in a frying pan on medium-high heat and cook over a liter of water in the kettle. Meanwhile chop the onion. Put the onion together with 3 crushed garlic cloves in the pan and fry for about 3 minutes. Add the rice and fry along with the onion for another 1 to 2 minutes until the rice is translucent. Crumble over the stock cube and add a dash of hot water. Stir well until it is absorbed by the rice. Reduce the heat and add another dash of water (not too much at a time) and continue until the rice is tender. This takes about 20 minutes, stirring frequently.
2. Meanwhile, cut the mushrooms into quarters and the egg plant into cubes of your desired size. Drizzle over some juice of the lemon over the egg plant so it doesn't turn brown. When the rice is cooking for about 10 minutes, heat up another splash of olive oil in a frying pan on medium to hight heat. Add the mushrooms and egg plant and cook 5 to 7 minutes until tender.
3. Meanwhile, torn a large handfull of fresh basil leaves. 
4. Turn of the heat when the rice is cooked and stir through the ricotto, Parmesan cheese and torn basil leaves. Stir the vegetables through and leave the lid on the pan for 3 minutes.
5. Serve with some extra freshly torn basil leaves and parmesan cheese sprinkled over it. 

Enjoy!

Fast & Budget Meal: Couscous

Tonight it was time for a couscous. A quick meal and this time also very budget because I have used ingredients that I had lying around in the fridge. But by adding some garlic and fresh herbs is always a tasty meal! Personally, I always use spelt couscous. And good news, it is now readily available at the AH (a dutch supermarket) on the shelf with the rice! Ideal and I am glad that the good and healthy products are also becoming more accessible to the general public!

Duration: 10 minutes

The ingredients for 1 serving:

• 100 g spelt couscous
• 1/4 zucchini
• 1/2 sweet paprika
• 1 white onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 50 g feta cheese
• 4 dries spanish figs
• fresh basil leaves
• olive oil
• extra vierge olive oil
• piece of butter
• salt & pepper

What you do:

1. Cook the couscous as directed on the package. The one I use is super fast and ready in just a few minutes. When the couscous has to wells at the end I always stir in a small piece of butter for extra flavor and that also makes it nice and smooth. 
2. Cut the onion and zucchini into small pieces and fry for about 6 minutes over medium-high heat in a little splash of olive oil with the crushed garlic cloves. Season with salt and pepper. Cut the paprika and put it in the pan with the zucchini after 2 minutes. 
3. Dice thefeta cheese and figs and tear the basil leaves. 
4. When the vegetables and couscous ready you mix it along with 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
5.  Serve with feta, basil leaves and figs sprinkled over it.

Enjoy!

Enjoy!

Spinach Quiche (V)

After more than two years it was finally time to use my quiche form for the first time. I never used it before because quiche usually is made with puff pastry, and I try to eat this as little as possible. But when I was gaining inspiration in my cookbooks, I found the recipe for the dough in a Dutch cookbook from Amber Albarda.

I found her recipe for the stuffing a bit too complicated, too much work with too many ingredients.  So I have made my own filling based on her recipe. It does take some time to make the dough but that's just because you have to make it from scratch, but it's worth it! Soon I ill try other variations. Do you have a request? Leave a comment and who knows, maybe yours will soon be in de making!

Diuration: 45 minutes preparation + 50 minutes in the oven

The ingredients for the base: 

• 50 grams of oat flakes 
• 3 tbsp sesame seeds 
• 160g wholemeal spelt meal
• 1/2 tsp baking powder 
• 1/2 tsp (Himalayan) sea salt 
• 1/2 tsp black pepper 
• 80 ml olive oil 
• 80 ml of water 
• Flour 
• Butter for greasing 

The ingredients for the filling: 

• 1 tbsp of butter 
• 1 white onion 
• 1 small zucchini (250g) 
• 300g fresh spinach 
• 3 cloves of garlic 
• 1 tsp chilli powder 
• 1/2 tsp (Himalayan) sea salt 
• Handful of fresh basil leaves 
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves 
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar 
• 250 g ricotta 
• 2 eggs 
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar 

Just before the quiche is going into the oven

What you do:

1. Grease the quiche form with butter. 
2. Toast the oats and sesame seeds in a frying pan without oil or grease for about 5 minutes. Put them together with the spelt meal, baking powder, salt and pepper in a food processor and grind finely. Put it in a large mixing bowl. Pour the olive oil into a measuring cup and then add the water. Pour into the mixing bowl with the flour and use a hand mixer with dough hooks to make dough out of it. Do you have a food processor that is equiped to make dough, then you can also use this. Is it mixed? Then knead a bit more with your hands. 
3. Roll out the dough on a floured surface to a round piece and put it in the quiche form on the bottem and the sides. Put the form in the refrigerator and preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius. 
4. Know it's time to make the filling. Chop the onion and cut the zucchini into thin slices which you then cut in half. Heat a tablespoon of butter in a frying pan or wok and add the 3 crushed cloves of garlic with the chili powder. Fry the onion and zucchini for about 10 minutes. 
5. Meanwhile, put the spinach into your food processor in small pieces (my food is not so large) and grind finely. Place in a bowl and stir in the ricotta cheese and white wine vinegar. Chop the basil coarsely and put it together with the thyme leaves in the bowl wit the spinach. Beat 2 eggs and also stir through the spinach. When the zucchini and onions are ready you sprinkle it with salt and put it in the bowl and stir well. Divide the spinach mixture on the bottom of the quiche. Bake the quiche for 45-50 minutes in the oven.  Allow to cool before you cut the quiche. 

Enjoy!

Putting the dough in the quiche form