Buddha Bowls

Hi everyone I don't know if you have seen any Buddha bowl, but I loved the idea when I saw it on Pinterest. Since it has some rules it is easy to make a dish that has all the micro and macronutrients that you need, so I think it is a very good idea to keep healthy eating habits without having a lot of knowledge about nutrition. In theory Buddha bowl should be vegetarian, because lots of Buddhists are vegetarian, but I think that since vegetarians have veggie burgers... why don't we meat eaters can have Buddha bowls :p That's why today I'm going to show you how to make three different Buddha bowls so you can get some ideas to make your own or make the same that I make, I hope you like it!

Recipe #1 Mexican meaty Buddha bowl

Ingredients (1 Person)

• 100 grams of lean beef
• 1/2 cup of corn
• 1/2 cup of cooked black beans
• 150 gr of white button mushrooms
• 1/2 Tomato
• 1/4 Onion
• 1/4 Avocado
• 50 grams of yogurt
• Chopped cilantro
• Lime
• Salt and pepper to taste

Process

• The first thing we are going to do is to wipe the dirt off of the mushrooms using a paper towel,
  let's remove the roots, and now cut the stem and the mushroom into 4 pieces. Stir fry the
  mushrooms until they are cooked and a little golden brown.
• Let's prepare a pico de gallo, in a bowl put together some chopped tomatoes, chopped onion and cilantro, add some salt and pepper and something to spice it up, I used some cayenne pepper.
• Since I didn't want to add more fat I didn't used oil to cook the meat. I just placed it in the grill
  at high heat to get a nice crispy crust. Then I cut it so I could eat it without using a knife.
• Process together the yogurt, avocado, cilantro, little bit of lime juice and a pinch of salt and the dressing is ready!
• Time to place everything in the bowl. First the black beans, the corn, the mushrooms, the pico de gallo we made, the meat and of course the dressing.
• This bowl is kind of a mix of a lot of things, it has fresh and earthy flavours so is the best of both worlds hehe. In this case I didn't use a grain per se, but it was because corn and black beans already have complex carbohydrates so I thought it was redundant to add another source more.

Recipe #2 Earthy Buddha bowl

Ingredients (1 Person)

• Half medium sweet potato
• 100 gr of chicken breast
• 1/2 Cup brown rice
• 150 grams spinach
• Half a zucchini/Courgette
• Romesco Sauce

Process

• Put the sweet potatoes in a pot with plenty of water and cook them, do the same with the chicken breast.
• Prepare the brown rice.
• Cut the zucchini into cubes. In a sauce pan put a little bit of oil and stir fry the zucchini until it is soft but not too soft, we want it to be firm.
• Remove the zucchini and in the same saucepan without adding any more oil add the spinach,
  and cook it until it gets wilted.
• The sweet potatoes should be ready by this time, so peal them, cut it in half and then into
  chunks. You can cut the chicken breast into slices or as I did here into cubes.
• And now we just need to assemble our Buddha bowl. Finally I added a Romeo sauce, this sauce is made with nuts, tomato and olive oil and it's delicious and compliments really well this dish.

Recipe #3 Easy Vietnamese flavoured Buddha Bowl

Ingredients

• 3/4 Cup of basmati or jasmin rice
• Pickled daikon and carrots (if you don't have this you can use just fresh carrots)
• Half a cucumber
• Mint leaves
• Cilantro leaves
• 1/4 Cup roasted cashews and pistachios nuts
• Hoisin Sauce

Process

• Here I used basmati rice since it has a floral fragrance, then add some pickled daikon and carrots if you don't have this just use fresh julienned carrots.
• Add a bunch of cubed cucumber they will add a lot of juicy freshness to this dish.
• In this case the source of proteins and healthy fats comes together in the form of nuts, some roasted cashews and  pistachios
• To make it more fragrant I added some mint and coriander leaves.
• Finally I added two tablespoons or so of hoisin sauce, you can find this sauce in any oriental market. If you can't find it you can use peanut butter and maybe reduce a little bit the nuts.
• This this is all about crunchiness, freshness and fragrances.

Half-buried eggs

Hi everyone! I hope you are having a great week, I've been really busy this week, that's why I didn't upload anything yesterday (I'm sorry), better late than never, right? Today I'll show you a vegetarian dish that has a lot of things that I like a lot, veggies, mashed potatoes and eggs hehehe, lets see how to make these half-buried eggs.

Ingredients (for two)

Mashed Potato

400 Potatoes
Butter
Milk
Salt to taste

For the veggies

1 Cup cubed zucchini
1/2 Cup diced carrot
1 Small diced onion
1/2 Cup of green pepper
1/2 Cup of green peas
1/2 Cup of corn
1 big or two small minced garlic clove
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tsp Italian seasoning
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

1 Egg!

Process

• First we are going to peel the potatoes and then cut them into chunks. In a pot at high heat cook the potatoes with enough water to cover them and a little salt.
• Now let’s prepare all the veggies, since the carrots need to be peeled lets do that first. Then cut the carrots, the zucchini and the green pepper into sticks and then dice them. Also chop an onion in small pieces.
• By this time the potatoes should be soft, remove the excess water and then mash the potatoes, then add some milk, butter and salt to taste. I know that in America you make your mashed potatoes with a light consistency, but try to make it denser.
• In a skillet, add some olive oil. Once it’s hot add the onion, and stir fry it a little bit and then add the minced garlic. Stir fry until it is translucent and then it’s to add the carrots. Stir fry for about 1 minute, and then add the pepper, stir fry a little bit and then add the zucchini, once it is soft, add the corn and the green peas. Stir fry until everything is soft and now we are finally going to add the some extra flavours. I used some tomato puree, Italian seasoning and black pepper and salt, but you can use whatever you want of course. Mix everything together and then add half a cup of water.
• In an oven safe dish add the veggie mixture and spread it evenly. On top of that add the mashed potatoes, and spread it along the dish, in the centre of the dish make a hole and this is why I told you to make it denser, because if it’s too light you will not be able to make a hole. Once your hole is done, put and egg inside it. And now to the oven it goes at 180 ºC until the eggs are done. Let it cool for about 5 minutes and its ready to be served.

Oven Baked Falafel

Hi everyone, so lately I’ve been trying to eat less meat and I thought I could make some falafel, but I don’t really eat deep fried things, so I made this falafel recipe in the oven, adjusting the ingredients a little bit.

Ingredients

• 1 Cup home cooked chickpeas.
• ¼ Cup chopped cilantro
• ¼ Cup chopped parsley
• ⅓ Cup chopped onion
• 2 Big or 3 small garlic cloves (minced)
• ¼ Tsp cumin powder
• ¼ Tsp Paprika
• Salt to taste
• ½ Tsp baking powder
• Little Olive Oil

Process

• Chop the cilantro in tiny pieces and do the same with the parsley and the onion.
  Divide the cup of chickpeas in half and place one of the halves in a bowl and the other half in a food processor.
• Process the chickpeas with a little water to form a paste similar in consistency to hummus.
• Using a fork, smash roughly the chickpeas we placed in the bowl (we don't want this to be a paste, we want it to have texture). Add the minced garlic, the cilantro together with the parsley, the onion a little cumin powder, paprika, and the baking powder and some salt. Mix everything together and add the chickpeas paste and mix very well until it’s very well combined
• Now form six equal balls using your hands and place them on an oven plate covered with oven paper. Flat the balls, if they lose their shape, shape them like a patty.
• Finally brush them with a little olive oil. Bake the falafels on a 190 ºC preheated oven for about 10 minutes. After those 10 minutes, remove them from the oven, flip them over (they might stick to the paper, so if you want to use wax paper, or something better go ahead!), brush them again with a little olive oil and return them to the oven and bake for another 10 minutes.
• You can eat them just like this together with a salad for example, or you can make a falafel sandwich using pita bread, onion, tomatoes, lettuce and a delicious yogurt sauce.

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 ;)

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.

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.

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.