martes, 21 de febrero de 2017

Veggie Cupcakes

Veggies on cupcakes? You might be thinking... this girl went nuts hahaha, I love to use vegetables in baking, because... why not? Beets are actually sweet like carrots and carrots have their own cake, why not beets? I was a little bit disappointed though… in my mind I saw these beautiful red and bright coloured muffins coming out of my oven, and what did I find? Brown coloured muffins… I know I used whole wheat flour... I know that red coloured things normally get brown in the oven… but I’m a dreamer and I dreamed about my red and bright muffins!!! Anyway I must say that even though this muffins are not the sexiest, they definitely are beautiful on the inside, they are very very moist and I think if you add some tablespoons of cocoa powder you will have an amazing chocolate cake batter.


Ingredients
  • 1 Cup whole wheat flour
  • ½ Cup coconut Oil
  • ½ Cup Milk
  • 2 Eggs
  • ½ Cup honey
  • 1 Tsp baking soda
  • 1 Tsp cinnamon powder
  • 1 Tsp vanilla extract
  • ½ Cup of grated vegetables (cucumber, beets or carrots)
  • 100 grams of apple purée
  • 50 grams of chopped walnuts
Process
  • Mix all the dry ingredients together (whole wheat flour, baking soda and cinnamon powder).
  • Put the eggs in a bowl and whisk them with energy. Then add the rest of the wet ingredients (coconut oil, milk, honey, and vanilla extract).
  • Combine the dry ingredients mixture and the liquid mixture together. Then add the apple purée and the chopped walnuts, mix very well and divide the preparation into 3 equal portion.
  • To each portion add the three different veggies.
  • Bake at 190 ºC for 15 to 20 minutes.
  • Let them cool and eat them ;)

miércoles, 15 de febrero de 2017

Artichoke Pie

Hi everyone today I wanted to share with you a vegetarian meal I tried last week,I found it in an old book of recipes and it was really good. I have to warn you though, if you don't like artichoke nor cauliflower this is not your dish. But if you like them then definitely try it!


Ingredients
  • 12 Artichokes
  • 1 Cauliflower
  • ½ Cup of dry shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
  • 1 of Olive Oil
  • 1 Cup of white sauce (béchamel)
  • Salt to taste
Process
  • Lets start by removing the leaves of the artichoke, this can be a little tedious so if you want
    to use canned artichoke hearts that's fine.
  • Remove the green bottom part of each artichoke.
  • In a pot add enough water to cover them, put the heat o high and cook them until they are slightly soft.
  • While the artichokes cook, let's prepare the cauliflower, cut it in half, and then remove the core, then break it into pieces of big size.
  • Put them in a pot, add water and cook them until they are soft, the softer the better.
  • Strain the water from the artichokes and let them cool, so you can cut them without scorching your hands.
  • Do the same with the cauliflower. With a spoon, remove the centre of the artichoke, in theory we should eat this part, the texture is hairy and not that appealing.
  • Then cut the artichokes into slices.
  • In a skillet add some olive oil, and stir fry a minced garlic, then add the artichokes and stir fry them until they are slightly brown.
  • Now lets prepare the cauliflower cream. Using a blender or something similar, process the
    cauliflower until a cream is formed, if you want you can add some salt.
  • By this time the artichokes should be slightly brown, put them in a pie dish. Flat them and now add the cauliflower cream. Spread the cream evenly and then add the white sauce on top, spread it evenly and finally add some shredded parmesan cheese on top of the pie.
  • Place it in a preheated oven at 180 ºC until the surface is golden brown.
  • Let it cool a bit and it is ready to be served, if you want to cut slices that keep their shape you will need to let this it for a while, maybe a day in the refrigerator and then reheating it.

miércoles, 8 de febrero de 2017

Zucchini Stew

Hi guys! At least here in Barcelona the weather has been quite good the last days, yesterday we even had 17 ºC, but you know... I'm still in the mood of comfy food... so I made this recipes that my grandma used to make for me. It's a chilean recipe called "guiso de zapallo italiano", guiso is stew and zapallo italiano is one of the spanish words for zucchini or courgette. One thing that I have noticed at least in the occidental countries is that in times of shortage, people tended to save everything they had, and of course one of those things was bread. Nowadays we toss dry and hard bread leftovers, but it wasn't an option back then. Many recipes such as the Spanish "migas" or this zucchini stew were made in those times... and frankly they are really good! specially if you combine the essence of these dishes together with the ingredients we have on hand nowadays. Last year I uploaded this recipe on my other channel and I though it would be nice to share it with the English spoken world :) So here it is, I hope you like it as much as I do.


Ingredients
  • 1 Chopped Onion
  • 1 leftover bread
  • 400 gr of minced beef
  • Milk or water
  • 5 medium size Zucchini or Courgette
  • Salt and Pepper
Process
  • Rehydrate the bread using either milk or water, the amount depends on the bread, just make sure it rehydrates completely.
  • In a pot stir fry the chopped onion until translucent with a drizzle of either vegetable. Then add the minced beef and stir fry until it is cooked. Add some salt and pepper to taste.
  • Add the thinly slices zucchini, turn the heat to low and put a lid over the pot.
  • Wait 10 minutes and check if there is still water on the bottom of the pan, if so put the lid back on.
  • Wait another 10 minutes, by this time the volume of the zucchinis should have reduced by half, mix the zucchini together with the meat until is well combined, and cook it until the zucchinis are mushy.
  • Add the rehydrated bread and one egg, stir everything together and that’s it.
    Serve with a little cheese on top.

domingo, 5 de febrero de 2017

Week Meal Plan #1

Hi guys! I love to do week meal plans, this saves you time, money and stress, so I'll be sharing with you my own week plans. I know that there are a ton of week meal plans on YouTube, I like to watch them but the problem is that I don’t like some things about them. For example some of them make the same meal for every day of the week and I am a person who gets bored easily so I can't do that. Another thing is that some recipes are not good reheated, or they can get spoiled in a few days, for example reheated risotto is disgusting.


So, what I’m planning to do is to give you some recipes that are just as good as when they were made (or even better) and also some tips to help you save time, you won't have ready to go meals, but you will only spend 20 minutes to cook your dinner after that long day at work.

Here is a pdf with the week meal plan, organized by the days of the week. The ingredients, the step by step recipes and also son tips to storage your food. And also some pictures from my Instagram ;). Week Meal Plan - PDF

And here is the video where I explain the week meal plan in detail.

miércoles, 1 de febrero de 2017

Sandwich: 3 Delicious ways

Hello everybody!! Following with the series of three recipes, today I'll you one 3 of my favourite sandwich. All of them have different flavours and are delicious! Sandwich is my go-to meal, they are easy to make and you can use almost anything to make them, so I just look inside my fridge and pantry and put whatever I have in the bread.


Let's start with the most easy of the three sandwiches, this one has salty and sweet notes, it
is fresh an crunchy and also smoky thanks to the smoked salmon! It has a quite exotic taste, even dough it's really easy to make.


Ingredients
  • 2 Slices of bread
  • Coleslaw
  • Pineapple
  • Mayonnaise or Greek yogurt
Process
  • To the coleslaw add the pineapple, some mayonnaise or Greek yogurt and mix everything together.
  • Put a good amount of the pineapple coleslaw on the bread and then on top of that put the slices of smoked salmon.
  • That's it!!.
Next we are going to prepare a tuna sandwich! This one has a sea and citric taste and I go back to
it every time I want a tuna sandwich. As you can guess by the ingredients this one is very refreshing.


Ingredients
  • Can of tuna
  • Mayonnaise and/or Greek yogurt
  • Julienned Onion
  • Cilantro
  • Lemon or lime juice
  • Lettuce
  • Half an avocado
Process
  • Add some mayonnaise and/or Greek yogurt to the tuna, mix and set aside.
  • Smash the avocado into a purée and set aside.
  • Add some chopped cilantro to the onion, then add some lemon or lime juice and a little bit of salt and then set aside.
    Now assemble the  sandwich. Spread the mashed avocado on the slice of bread, then to the same with the tuna, on top of that add the onion and finally some lettuce of your choice, and that's it there you have.
I've saved the most delicious sandwich for the end, this one is more time consuming, but it is
worth it by all means.This one is amazing, I was actually drooling while I was editing the video java, so yeah it is really good, all the ingredients come really well together the soft taste of the brie cheese with the sweetness of the chili sauce is awesome, the onion and meat contribute with their unique flavours and the bitterness of the spinach gives it a little touch of I don't know what... but I believe the sandwich is a whole with the presence of spinach.


Ingredients
  • 600 gr of Beef
  • Onion
  • Spinach
  • 1 Minced garlic
  • Brie/camembert cheese
For the marinate
  • 1 Tbsp Soy sauce
  • 1 Tsp Sesame oil
  • 1/2 Tsp Worchester sauce
  • 1 Tbsp Sweet chilli sauce
  • 1 Minced garlic
Process
  • First we are going to thinly slice the meat across the grain, to that we are going to add some soy sauce, sweet chili sauce, sesame oil, and a little bit of Worchester sauce and also minced garlic. Mix everything together, the best way is to make this with your hands. Now marinate the meat for an hour.
  • While the meat marinates slightly caramelize the onion, in a sauce pan add a drizzle of vegetable oil, add the julienned onion, and cook it until it is slightly caramelized, with this I mean it has to have a brown colour but still be crunchy on the inside, basically this is done by stir frying the onion at
    high heat.
  • Remove the onion from the pan and add the meat, cook it until it is done.
  • Remove and cook the spinach, don't forget as I did to add a little amount of minced garlic, stir and cook until the spinach is soft.
  • Now lets assemble the sandwich, first add some brie or camembert cheese, you can add as much cheese as you like, the more the better actually. Then add the meat, once again as much as you like, on top of that put the onion, and then the spinach. Finally if you like sweet chili sauce add some
    on top.
This one is amazing, I was actually drooling while I was editing the video java, so yeah it is really good, all the ingredients come really well together the soft taste of the brie cheese with the sweetness of the chili sauce is awesome, the onion and meat contribute with their unique flavours and the bitterness of the spinach gives it a little touch of I don't know what... but I believe the sandwich is a whole with the presence of spinach.