Holiday Appetizers, 4 Ways

Hello everyone, so I have a big cold atm, I can't upload anything since I can't speak properly (I have a man voice hahaha) so I'll write the blog post. December has been a weird month for me, I quitted my job this month because of several reasons and now I'm focusing on other things like my YouTube channels and I'm starting a programming course on January... so as you can see I've been busy haha. I'm full of ideas and project I hope I can figure a way to do everything I'm planning xD Anyway, I thought I would be able to upload this video before Christmas but it was impossible but better late than never, right? So let’s go to the recipe!!!

Bread with toppings

Ingredients

• Bread
• Topping of your choice

Process

• Using a stencil or a cookie cutter, cut the shape that you want from a piece of bread (you can use any type of bread).
• To decorate them just use your imagination, I used some mashed avocado, cheese and tomatoes to decorate the trees. Cream cheese for the snow flakes and some cilantro sprigs. For the boots I made two versions one sweet and salty with jam and cheese and other salty using chopped tomatoes and cheese. These festive appetizers are really simple to make and look nice and you can use the idea for a baby shower or another special occasion.

Artichoke and Spinach Dip

Ingredients

• 1 Small Onion
• 5 Artichoke Hearts
• 150 gr Spinach

Process

• Chop the onion and the artichoke hearts in tiny pieces and the spinach roughly.
• Stir fry the onion, once it is translucent add the artichoke and spinach, stir everything together and cook until the spinach has soften.
• Add the Greek yogurt and stir, finally add the mozzarella and the parmesan cheese.
• This dip is actually pretty healthy it has a lot of veggies, and I didn't use any cream, I tried to keep it on the low fat range.

Jam and cheese pinwheels

Ingredients

• Puff Pastry
• Jam
• Cheese

Process

• Cut a sheet of puff pastry into smaller squares (I made mine of 15 by 15 cm squares but they were hard to work with, so I suggest you to make them bigger).
• In the center of the squares put a piece of brie cheese, then make four cuts from the corners to almost the center. Then grab one of the sides of the triangles and place it in the center, on top of the brie piece (since mine where little I had to put a toothpick in the center to keep the shape).
• And that's how you make a pinwheel, then put them in the oven, just follow the instructions of the package.
• Let the pinwheels cool down and finally add some jam on top.
• This appetizer is really cute and also delicious, the combination of cheeses and jams is endless, I used tomato jam and it matches perfectly with the brie, although If I had known I would have used an stronger cheese in this case, since there is more dough than cheese, so the brie flavor gets a little bit lost, but they were good anyway.

Plantain and Guacamole

Ingredients

• Plantain
• Guacamole
• Cilantro leaves

Process

• Cut the tips and then make a cut along the plantain, then remove the skin with your hands
• Cut the plantain into pieces of 2 centimeters long.
• In a saucepan add a drizzle of vegetable oil, and fry the plantain until it is soft.
• Flip them over so they can cook evenly.
• Once they are still warm smash them softly with something flat.
• After smashing them all, place some of your favorite recipe of guacamole on top, then just to make it fancier add a cilantro leave, and that’s it.

Mock Risotto: Three different ways

Hello everyone, when I was just married my husband and I had some "issues" with the food hehehe. Since I'm the only one who cooks, he had to get used to my ways… I was used to eat white rice without anything, that’s the way my mom cooked, but his mom was all about adding some veggies to the rice, so he just got used to what I had for him, otherwise I would give him this look ¬.¬ hehehe,. Anyway a long time has passed since then and I have got a lot better in the kitchen, a few year ago I discovered risotto and I felt in love with it, normally I don’t cook real risotto, mostly because I don’t eat a lot of white rice (TMI I gets me constipated) but I enjoy creating mock risottos that can be done using brown rice. Anyway I don’t want to bore you so here are three mock risotto recipes.

Ingredients

Pumpkin and Mushroom

• 150 gr Rice (regular or brown)
• 5 Mushrooms
• ½ Onion
• ½ Cup of pumpkin purée
• 2 Tbsp Greek yogurt
• 2 Tbsp Parmigiano Cheese
• Salt and pepper to taste

Process

• Peel and cut the onion in tiny pieces.
• Using a paper towel wipe the dirt off from the mushrooms. Then cut them into cube pieces of 1 cm.
• Add some olive oil to a pot and sauté the onion, once it is translucent add the mushroom and cook them.
• Once they are soft add the rice and mix, add a pinch of nutmeg and now add the water just to cover the rice.
• While the rice is cooking, mix some pumpkin purée with greek yogurt and grated parmigiano cheese, mix everything together and set aside.
• Once the rice is fully cooked, add the pumpkin mixture, mix everything together and serve. This risotto is just perfect, add some basil on top and you will know what heaven is.

Tomato, basil and caramelized onion

• 150 gr Rice (regular or brown)
• ½ Onion
• A little honey
• 1 Garlic
• 1 Tbsp tomato paste
• 2 Tbsp Parmigiano Cheese
• ½ Tbsp meat extract (I used Bovril)
• ¼ Cup Greek yogurt
• Basil

Process

• Peel and cut the onion in pieces of 2 by 2 centimetres.
• In a pot sauté the onion, put the heat on low and sauté until the onion is golden brown, once it is golden brown add little amounts of water and stir occasionally until the onion has a brown color, finally add some honey to caramelize it.
• Remove the onion from the pot and set aside.
• In the same pot add a little bit of vegetable oil, add the minced garlic and stir fry it lightly. Now add the tomato paste and the meet extract and mix everything together.
• Add the rice, mix and add water just to cover the rice. While the rice is cooking it will lose water so we are going to be adding more when needed.
• Cut the basil into tiny pieces and set aside.
• When the rice is fully cooked add some yogurt to add creaminess and a touch of sourness and also if you like you can add parmigiano cheese
• Now that the rice is fully cooked, add the chopped basil and the caramelized onion, mix very well and there you have it another delicious mock risotto.

Artichoke and Eggplant

• 150 gr Rice (regular or brown)
• ½ Onion
• 4 Small to medium artichokes
• ½ big or 1 small eggplant
• ½ Cup White wine
• ¼ Cup Parmigiano Cheese

Process

• Cut the stem of the artichokes, and remove all of the leaves, then cut the heart in half and then remove the choke or beard, remove it using a knife carefully.
• Then put the hearts in a pot and add some water to cook them. Once they are slightly soft cut them in tiny pieces and set aside. Remember to save the water in which we cooked the artichokes.
• In another pot cook the eggplant until it is really mushy, remove the excess water and set aside.
• Cut the onion in tiny pieces. And then sauté it with a little olive oil.
• Once it is golden brown add the artichoke and sauté it a little.
• Then add the rice, the cooking water from the artichokes, the white wine and water just to cover the rice and cook until it is done. Add some salt to taste
• In a blender or food processor, purée the eggplant and then add it to your rice, if you want you can also add some parmigiano cheese, and it's done.

Overnight Oats

Hello guys, how is it going? Lately I've been loving foods in season, right now persimmons and pomegranates are in the groceries, so I've been eating them a lot. I use persimmons as jam, because the texture is similar and also because they are 100% natural :). Pomegranates are not my favourite, not because of their flavour but because of the time you spend getting the seed out of the fruit, so I don't use them that much. When I made this recipes, figs were also in season unfortunately these fruits are expensive in comparison to apples and bananas, so I can't eat them as much as I would :( but anyway maybe you are lucky and can get them more often. I hope you enjoy this combinations and try to make them at home :)

Ingredients

• 1/2 Cup of rolled oats
• Milk (any kind) to cover the oats
• 2 Tbsp of yogurt (regular, Greek, soy yogurt, coconut yogurt, etc.)
• 1 Tbsp Chia or flax seed

To give your overnight oats more flavour add whatever you want, I usually add chopped pineapple, banana, apple or any fruit that I like/have. Also some spices like mint, cinnamon, vanilla extract can  be added. To sweeten it up you can use whatever you prefer, sugar I you don't mind it or some natural alternative like honey or maple syrup of you are like me just use artificial sweeteners.

Procedure

• You can make this on a jar or a bowl, that's up to you.
• The night before you eat your overnight oats, put half a cup of rolled oats in a container.
• Then pour some milk over the oats just to cover them.
• Add the yogurt and the chia or flax seed.
• Give it a good mix or a good shake if you are using a jar (of course don't forget the lid).
• Next morning add your favourite fruits, some classic combos are: pineapple and dry shredded coconut, apple or banana and cinnamon powder. The options are endless :)

Banana Pancakes

Hello everyone I hope you are doing great this week, today I'll show you how to make some really easy to make banana pancakes, enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 Mashed banana
• 1 Egg
• 1/4 Cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 Tsp cinnamon powder
• 1/4 Tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 Tsp baking powder
• A splash of milk or water if necessary

Process

• Mash the banana really well
• Crack an egg in a bowl and whisk it.
• Add the mashed banana and mix it with the egg.
• Add the whole wheat flour, mix until everything is well combined.
• If you want to add a little bit more of flavour add the vanilla extract and the cinnamon powder.
• Depending on the size of the banana and the egg you will need to add a splash of milk to adjust the consistency, the consistency should similar to the one of normal pancakes.
• Finally to get a more spongy pancakes add the baking powder.
• Using a paper towel spread the oil through out the pan.
• Add some of the batter to the pan and when the bubble start to pop on the surface then it is time to flip the pancakes over.
• Then wait about half a minute and remove it from the pan.
• Finally you can add some fruit and maple syrup on top.

How to make Narutomaki

Hello everyone, I'm not a big fan of fish, I used to analyse fish at my previous job so I had enough fish, I didn't eat it but I had to smell it and work with it... so yeah not a big fan. The only time I'm happy to eat fish is when I eat ramen, one of the most iconic ingredients of ramen is a fish cake and it's called Narutomaki (that round think with a pink spiral in the middle). Unfortunately finding this ingredient can be challenging, so as I am a resourceful woman I thought... if I can't find it I'll make it!! And that's how it began hahaha, I made my first narutomaki with a traditional recipe, but I didn't like it, it wasn't like the industrial narutomaki... So I did some research and found more recipes I tested them and the one I liked the most is this one, I hope you like it

Ingredients

• 200 g fresh white fish
• 6 g salt
• 6 g sugar
• 6 g mirin
• 1 egg white

Procedure

• Remove the skin of the fish and any fat
• Rinse the fish under cold water.
• Squeeze the fish with your hands to get rid of any excess water.
• In a food processor or something similar, put the fish, together with some salt, sugar, mirin and an egg white.
• Process  everything together until an homogeneous paste is formed.
• Divide the paste in two.
• Use one of the halves and spread it over plastic wrap to create a 19 by 15 cm rectangle.
• Then with some pinkish red food coloring, dye the other half of the paste (you can use some beet juice to create this color).
• Put a second layer of pink paste over the first layer, leaving one centimetre at the bottom and at the top of the rectangle free.
• Roll the fish cake, roll it carefully but tightly so you don't get air pockets.
• Put the roll into a steamer and steam it for about 15 minutes.
• Let it cool.

Here you have the video

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Hello everybody I hope you are having a wonderful week, this week I'm doing overtime at work so I'll upload another recycled video from my other channel (A pinch of star). I always go back to this recipe when I want to have something satisfying, warm and full of flavour. This recipe is delicious but also pretty healthy, it has quinoa which is a grain with a fair amount of protein and almost no fat, veggies (onion and peppers) which have lots of vitamin C and some lean meat for more protein. Anyway I hope you like it.

Ingredients

• 3 Red bell peppers
• 2 Garlic cloves
• 1 Onion
• 1 Carrot
• 2 Tbsp italian seasoning
• 1 chicken stock cube
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 Cup of cooked quinoa
• 1 Can of crushed tomatoes
• ½ Kg of lean beef
• 1 Tsp tomato paste (optional)
• Parmesan cheese (optional)

Process

• Clean and cut the peppers in halves, remove the seed and the inner White meat.
• Put the peppers in a pot, with hot water and boil then until soft but firm.
• Peel and cut the onion and the carrot in tiny pieces
• In a saucepan put a Little bit of vegetable oil and sauté the onion until translucent.
• Add the carrots and then the beef and mix.
• Add the chicken bouillon and break it so it can be mixed well.
• Add the minced garlic, the salt and pepper to taste and the Italian seasoning, mix everything together and stir fry until the beef is fully cooked.
• Add the pureed tomato, mix well and stir fry 5 minutes.
• To add a little bit more of taste you can add concentrated tomato
• Finally add the quinoa and mix everything together.
• In an oven plate putt he pepper halves and putt he filling inside. Don’t be shy put as much as you can.
• You can put some parmesan cheese on top before putting the pepper inside the oven.
• Put the peppers in the oven at 190 ºC with both burners on for about 15 minutes until the cheese is melted and golden brown.

Here you have the video

Healthy Pizza

Hello everybody, today is a holiday here in Spain and it's raining so I'm thinking about drinking a cup of tea right now hehehe. Today I ate some lentil stew and for dessert chia pudding, you can see a photo on Instagram if you like: https://www.instagram.com/tinyhealthykitchen/

Anyway today I'll show you how to make a healthy pizza!! Pizza can be healthy if you use a dough made with some whole wheat flour, add veggies, add proteins, don't get crazy with cheese and eat the right portion, everything is about the balance :). Let's go to the recipe!!

Here you have the pdf to download it and print the recipe: Healthy pizza

Ingredients

Pizza dough (for four medium size pizzas)

• 300 gr White flour
• 300 gr whole wheat flour
• 11 gr active dry yeast
• Warm water
• 1 Tsp salt

Basic ingredients for a margarita pizza

• 2 Tbsp. Tomato puree/paste/sauce
• Olive oil
• Parmesan cheese
• 60-70 gr Mozzarella cheese
• Few basil leaves

Other toppings

• Whatever you like

Process

• In a bowl put together the two kind of flours add salt and mix.
• Dissolve the yeast in warm water and mix very well until completely dissolved.
• Pour the yeast mixture on top of the flours, mix everything together with the spoon and then with your hands.
• Knead the dough for at least 10 minutes.
• Let the dough rest for about 3 hours in a warm place to double or triple in size.
• If you want to frost the dough divide it four, wrap each portion with plastic wrap and put it in the freezer. Defrost it 4 hours before eating or overnight in the fridge.
• Use your hands or a rolling pin to stretch the dough.
• Put a layer of tomato puree/paste/sauce on the dough, then a drizzle of olive oil, some parmesan cheese, the mozzarella, the cherry tomatoes and the basil
• You are free to put whatever you like on the pizza.
• Cook the pizza in a preheated oven at 220 ºC for 7 to 10 minutes.

Here you have the video

Shrimp and veggies stir fry

Hi everyone! If you know me you would know that I'm a big fan of Asian food, I love everything about it and I enjoy making Asian recipes by myself, doing so I learn a lot about these so different cultures and the different and "weird" ingredients they have. One of the thing I really like about Asian food is that it is healthier than the food we find in occident, it has a lot of veggies and lots of different and complex flavours. When I first started to dive into the amazing world of Asian food I went to this little Thai restaurant here in Barcelona and I'm gonna be honest maybe it is not the most authentic Thai restaurant but I love their food, specially a shrimp and vegetables stir fry. The original recipe has added sugar, but I don't put any because the pineapple is actually sweet enough to sweeten this delicious recipe. Of course you can skip the shrimps if you are vegetarian or vegan, so this recipe is for everyone out there who loves veggies and flavourful meal. Enjoy!

Here you have the video for this recipe:

Here you have a pdf link to download it and print it: Shrimp and veggies stir fry

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp minced garlic
• 2 Tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce
• 3 Tbsp tomato sauce/paste
• White pepper to taste
• 1 Cucumber
• 14 Cherry tomatoes
• 200 gr shrimps
• 150 gr Peppers
• 170 gr Pineapple
• 1 Onion

Procedure

• Cut the pepper and onion in pieces of approximately 2x2 cm.
• Peal the cucumber and cut it in slices of 0,5 cm thickness.
• Cut the cherry tomatoes in half.
• Cut the pineapple in small pieces.
• In a saucepan stir fry the garlic, then add the shrimps and stir fry together with the garlic.
• Add the onion and the peppers and stir fry for one minute.
• Then add the cucumber together with the cherry tomatoes and stir fry for half a minute.
• Finally add the pineapple and mix everything together.
• Add a little water if you see that the saucepan is dry.
• Add the oyster sauce, the soy sauce, the sauce or paste of tomatoes and the white pepper to taste.

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

Hello lovelies!! Autumn is finally here to stay and I'm so excited to make all those recipes I love from this season!! Here in Catalonia we eat a lot of sweet potato and chestnuts during autumn and since we don't have this ingredients available the rest of the year I put them in a lot of my recipes, so basically I become a sweet potato and chestnut lover during this season!! The problem with sweet potato is that it's too dense and in some recipes it works greatly but in others I prefer to use pumpkin, pumpkin has a similar taste to sweet potato but it's lighter. When I started to think about this smoothie I was tempted to make it with sweet potato, but then I changed my mind and I finally came up with the recipe I'm going to show you now, I hope you like it!

Ingredients

• 2/3 Cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 Cup rolled oats
• 1 Cup milk or substitute
• 1/3 or 1/4 banana (depending on the size of the banana)
• 1/2 Tsp cinnamon powder
• 1/8 Tsp vanilla extract
• 1/8 Tsp ginger powder
• A pinch of salt
• Sweetener

*Depending on your ingredients (homemade or canned pumpking pie for example) the smoothie might be too thick, adjust it by putting more milk.
*Don't skip the pinch of salt when I tried it,

Procedure

• It can't be more easy than putting everything inside a blender and pushing the button hahaha!

Here you have the YT video:

Health Haters

Hello everyone :D I hope you are having a wonderful week! So I've noticed a while ago that with all this healthy movement of course there are some health haters. I really don't understand haters if you don't like something why to bother thinking about it? I mean... is your life so boring that you have to think about something that you don't like and make other people happy? Why not spend your time thinking in what makes YOU happy and leaving others alone? Anyway, I don't understand haters but especially those who are health haters, why you may ask? Because healthiness is not about a trend, it surely is a trend right now but it's not about it, if you are healthy you lower the risk of having several diseases and feel better, how can that be something bad? Of course people who push healthiness to the limits are annoying, but aren't we all obnoxious when we are obsessed with something?

I really believe that having a healthy lifestyle doesn't mean that you have to eat fruit and veggies all the time or go to the gym every day. Everything is about a balance, you can't control everything you eat and how much calories do you burn... a healthy lifestyle must consider a healthy mind as well as a healthy body, and most restrictive diets mess up with your mind, our brains love to have everything under control and counting calories is somehow fun for our brains (stupid brains).

Something that people don't realize is that having a decadent meal like pizza or a cheese burger once in a while (let's say twice a month) is also healthy, maybe not for your body, but for your mind! And if you have a healthy lifestyle that food won't have the same impact as if you are a sedentary person and have shitty food all the time.

I really believe that having a healthy lifestyle is about making smart decisions, eating the right foods, I've found that a lot of people eat wrong because they don't know anything about nutrition, not because it is expensive to buy healthy ingredients but because they don't understand how their bodies work, just think about it... we only have one body for the rest of our lives, let's eat smart and take care of our bodies by giving them the right nutrients, this way we will feel better and be more happy :)

Mexican salad

Hello everyone and welcome to the first entry of this blog :) I'm starting with a mexican salad, not like a real traditional mexican salad, it's just a salad with Mexican flavours. This salad was meant to be a light dinner with everything you need to finish your day. It has a base of lettuce, and then typical mexican ingredients such as corn, black beans, avocado, onion and tomatoes. Black beans provide us with carbohydrates, proteins and fats, while corn only give us carbohydrates and avocado good fats. If you want to add more proteins then add a water canned tuna, just remember to drain the excess water. The salad dressing is just a combination of lemon/lime juice and olive oil, some cumin powder and salt and if you like spicy food you can add a little bit of cayenne pepper or tabasco. This recipe is really easy to put together so you don't have to expend a lot of time preparing it, I hope you like it!

Ingredients

• Lettuce
• 140 gr Corn
• 1 Cup of cooked black beans
• 1 Avocado
• Some cherry tomatoes
• 1 Chopped onion

Ingredients for the dressing

• Lime or lemon juice
• Olive Oil
• Cumin powder
• Pepper
• Salt
• Optional: chilli powder or tabasco

Procedure

• Cut the lettuce with your hands, or if you prefer with a knife.
• Chop the cilantro into medium size pieces.
• Put the cilantro inside the bowl with the lettuce and then add the corn, and then the beans.
• Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and add them to the salad.
• Add the chopped onion.
• Cut the avocado in half, and remove the seed by hitting it with a knife and then twist the knife to loosen the seed from the meat. Now, just cut the avocado horizontally and vertically and then scoop the meat with a spoon.
• In a bowl, squeeze a lime or lemon. Then add some olive oil, some salt and pepper to
  taste and some cumin powder, you can also add some pepper and chilli powder or tabasco if you like spicy food. And that's it there you have this delicious Mexican salad.

Let's begin!

Hello people!! I'm Giselle I'm starting this little project called Tiny Healthy Kitchen. I love food, I love eating but I also love being healthy! To me food is one of our greatest pleasures, not only because is a human necessity but also because we enjoy the flavours, the smells, the textures and the environment where all this food magic happens. Food is always present in important moments of our lives such as birthdays, marriage, Christmas, New Year celebrations, you name it! food is always there. Food get people together around a table, around a barbecue the list is endless, there is no doubt that food is an important aspect of our society and that’s why it’s a good target for business. I am by no means and activist or a hippie, but I do believe that the food industry is what make us fat, but is not entirely their fault, the actual guilty is us, humans. The way our bodies are build makes us crave sugars and love fats, that’s why that orgasmic combination between fat and sugar in a delicious cheesecake drive us nut! The food industry just takes advantage of it, they sell more adding more sugar and fats simply as that, they don’t care about our health, they care about the money.

As I said before I love food and also being healthy, so you may think I’m a crazy woman who spends hours at the gym… and the answer is NO, I’d rather be experimenting in the kitchen than lifting weights and doing push ups hahaha. I go to the gym but only three times a week. What I do to stay in a healthy weight is to eat the most healthy way I can when I’m at home and when I go out I eat whatever I want, of course I don’t eat fast food every time I go out, Asian, Moroccan, Lebanese food is way more delicious and nutritious than fast food.

Healthy doesn’t mean to eat a lettuce for breakfast, lunch and dinner, healthy is to eat a fruit smoothie full of all the nutrients you need to start a day, having some snacks (nuts, fruit, yogurt) to keep you rocking through the day, having a delicious lunch and dinner with your favourite recipes but an improved and healthier version of them. And that’s why I started this project, lots of people ask me what I do to keep a healthy weight, well… through this project I will show you how. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Cy!