So I decided to give a go in this "famous" bread that is invading Pinterest and cooking blogs...the cloud bread.
First of all this bread contains lactose as it takes cream cheese. I am trying to find something to replace this cream cheese but it will take me a while I guess, although I am sure that I will be able to replace it...I hope :)
I have to say that since I am in low carb high fat diet, bread has been the biggest challenge and I had almost given up because all my breads or are too dry or too moisture and sweet because of the flours. Basically most of my bread trials were not really amazing...hahaha!!
However I have to say that this cloud bread made me to get courage again as it turned out pretty well.
Ingredients:
3 large eggs at room temperature (separated)
3 Tbsp of cream cheese
1/2 baking powder
Let's do it:
Preheat the oven to 200 C. Line a baking tray with parchment paper
Separate the eggs yolks from the whites
In one bowl mix the egg yolks with the cream cheese until it gets smooth
On another bowl whisk the whites with the baking powder until you reach the white pick (basically you have to whisk them until the whites become fluffy and if you turn the bowl upside down they will not fall)
Fold the egg yolk mixture into the whites. Mix them really carefully because you just want to envolve both mixtures without removing the stiffness of the whites.
With a ice cream scoop or with a sauce spoon, pour the mixture in the tray in small batches separated each one more or less 3 to 4 cm
Take them to the oven for 25 minutes or until browned
*Note*- you can add salt, black pepper, oregano, rosemary, garlic, thyme, etc to the mixture. You can play a bit with the mixture adding something to create flavour as the bread is a bit flavourless :)
We had the bread for dinner with guacamole and some raw veggies and grilled halloumi.
And people may ask how can I eat it if I am lactose intolerant, right? First my lactose intolerance improved a lot since I started to be under this diet but if I want to eat something with lactose I tend to take lactase probiotics before meals to help me digest the food. However I discovered based in experiences, that some things causes me bigger reactions than others.
I came across with Paul Kelly through my boyfriend and I got in loved by his music.
Paul Kelly is an Australian songwriter and singer, he plays the guitar and harmonica...it's so lovely.
The music that I am posting today is related with Australian history, although I am not able to explain it but I like the song and the melody is so sweet.
This video clip is a tribute to Paul Kelly from different Australian bands that got together.
I never liked milk and I really never had milk or cheese, and when my mum thought that I was being a spoiled child that was all the time crying because I had to drink milk, later she realised that I was intolerant and that my stomach aches and cramps were not faking...On the 80's in Portugal there was not a lot of people speaking about lactose intolerance.
So I believe that I grew up hating even the smell of milk, until today I really don't like it. Few years ago I tried oat milk and was really good with some oats and fruit inside but then I removed all the carbohydrates from my diet and so oats and oat milk were removed.
What I realised with this diet is that there is all the time a way to find alternatives and I started to make my own almond milk.
Most of the milks that you buy in packs have preservatives, or a bit of sugar and even the fact that comes in a pack doesn't look really healthy.
Recently I heard some friend saying that this is not almond milk, is nut juice :) Is not wrong though but it looks like milk and works as milk.
For this recipe you will need a nut milk bag. Is something really easy to find, although in here I had to order from Amazon. So if you don't find a nut milk bag where you live, you can order in Amazon and they are pretty cheap.
Ingredients:
1 cup of almonds
2 cups of water
4 dates pitted
1 tsp of vanilla extract (optional)
Let's do it:
In a container put 1 cup of almonds and soak them in water overnight. I usually soak them for at least 12h.
After soaking, remove the water and rinse the almonds with running water.
Pour the almonds in a blender with 2 cups of filtered water and add 4 dates. Blend it in maximum speed for 1 minute. Shake a bit the blender and turn it again in maximum speed for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
Place the nut milk bag inside of a bowl
Pour the mix into the nut milk bag in small batches. With your hands squeeze it until all the milk comes out from the bag
Pour the milk into a glass bottle. Is very important that you use a glass bottle to help to preserve longer
Some people prefer to throw away the leftovers of the almonds as most of the nutritive part of the almond is on the milk, but as I don't like to waste food I found several ways to use them. As a base of a cheesecake, to pour on the top of a crumble, to spread on the top of salads like bread crumbs, to add to smoothies. You just need imagination to use it :)
So with the leftovers of the almonds place them in a parchment paper and take them to the oven to lose the moisture, to dry and roast. After this process allow the roasted almonds to cool down and keep them is a airtight container. You can keep them for over 1 month.
*Note* - If the almonds leftovers don't get well dry and roasted and if you close them in a container that will get some mold. So make sure that they lose all the moisture before you keep them.
Time of preparation: 12h to soak almonds + 5 minutes of preparation of the milk Quantity: 2 cups of milk.
*Note* - You can keep the almond milk in the fridge for about 5 days. I would not recommend to make more than 2 cups of almond milk if you are not sure that you will actually consume it. I prefer all the time to do 2 cups and if I need more, I just do fresh almond milk again.
For today I leave you an Australian band that I recently discovered.
I think the world is blessed with so many good Australian bands that unfortunately are a bit unknown in the rest of the world. Lately I listen a lot music made in Australia, since rock&roll, indie music...you just name it. They have it all... The Waifs is a rock folk band. I really like it...please listen.
I like Indie music bands with female voices so I am suspicious :)
I have been called cookie monster since I remember...I am totally fine with that because I know that is because of the cookies addiction and not because I am fury and blue :)
I love cookies...COOKIES!
However I made a big detox when I started this diet and I realised that cookies are really addictive and I remember that I couldn't even pass in the cookie section in the supermarkets because it was painful as I craved so much oat cookies or cinnamon, let us be honest...any type of cookies that did't had cream, I never liked cookies with cream.
This week while I was searching some inspiration in "Women's weekly" and Australian magazine, I discovered this recipe, but it was made with crunchy peanut butter.
As we don't eat peanuts because they are too rich in carbohydrates, I thought...hummm, let me try with almond butter! And it works perfectly, maybe they don't get crunchy as if you do them with crunchy peanut butter, but for me they turned out perfect.
However I believe that in the future I can improve somehow the recipe to get them more crunchy but for now I will share it as I made and if one day I discover how to make them more crunchy I let you know :)
Ingredients:
250 grams of raw almond butter (organic without sugar)
1/4 cup of honey
1tsp of baking soda
1 egg
Let's do it:
Preheat the oven to 180 C. Line two oven trays with baking paper
In a bowl combine the almond butter, the honey, the baking soda and the egg slightly beaten
Mix well with a spoon. In here you will have the opportunity to work a bit your biceps :)
Drop 1 Tbsp of the mixture onto trays with more or less 4 cm apart
Bake the cookies for 15 minutes or until lightly browned
You can keep these cookies in a airtight container for about 1 week.
In here they didn't lasted 3 days but I am a cookie monster for some reason, right?
Time of preparation: 30 minutes
Quantity: 17 cookies
I leave you today Cat Stevens, I love this song because of the lyrics. Is such an amazing song full of meaning :)
"You can do what you want
The opportunity is on
And if you can find a new way
You can do it today
You can make it all true
And you can make it undo"
Just do what you want guys...life is only about it! Don't wait until you get old to make your dreams come true :)
In Australia I discovered the famous Woman's weekly magazine. This magazine has loads of recipes, most of them I don't eat but they also have low carb and sugar free editions. Is the first time that I came across with magazines focused in a low carb, high fat, sugar free diet.
I found this recipe in one of the magazines and what makes me like it so much is that these bars are so similar to that chocolate "Bounty", but they are much better because they are sugar free and without almost any carbs.
Regarding to the dark chocolate I advise everything more than 70% dark chocolate.
I already made this recipe with a 70% dark chocolate and now I made it with a 99% dark chocolate and both turn out really well.
I found out that using this 99% chocolate you really need to like dark chocolate as it gets a bit bitter which is good in my opinion but on the other hand you don't feel the coconut flavour as with the 70%.
Honestly is up to you or you can do as me, the first time I tried with a 70% dark chocolate and now I tried with a darker one and I can see the difference and chose what is the one I like most.
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cup of shredded coconut
2 tsp of stevia
2/3 of coconut cream
2 tsp of vanilla extract
100 gr of dark chocolate bar (I used 99% sugar free chocolate from Vivani, that you might find in health food stores)
50gr of butter
Let's do it:
In a bowl combine shredded coconut, stevia, coconut cream and 1 tsp of vanilla extract. Mix well.
With your hands divide the portion in small bars, squeezing the mixture with your fingers while making the bar.
Place the bars in a tray covered with parchment paper. Freeze for 1h30.
In a saucepan place the butter and chocolate in pieces and one tsp of vanilla extract. In slow heat mix well until the chocolate and butter are melted and smooth. Allow the mixture to cool down for 10 minutes.
Dip the bars, one at a time, into the chocolate mixture to evenly coat. Place them again in the tray and allow them to refrigerate for 45 minutes
Place them into a airtight container and you can keep them in the fridge up to 1 week...if they last until then :)
*Note* - Stevia comes from the leaf of a plant, so is promoted asa natural sweetener. Is is processed into a white powder that can be used in a similar way to sugar. It has a minimal effect on blood glucose levels.
Time of preparation: 30 minutes to prepare and 1h30 in the freezer
Quantity: 17 bars
Today I leave you Nina Simone.
There was a time that I was all the time listening Nina Simone and Aretha Franklin. I recently watched a documentary about Nina Simone and was really interesting how she faced and supported all the anti-racism and civil rights causes in the US on the 60's and 70' and how that behaviour damaged her career and her life. She was a special one...
I like especially this song that was about how the black community on that time, was a community without roots or background, somehow ashamed for being who they were. Nina Simone tried to bring to them value, soul and proud of being black.
Please listen the lyrics and see how beautiful they are when we understand the full meaning.
Be proud of who you are, of where you came from, proud of your roots.
We are unique and special as everybody in the world.
Religion, colour, country, borders, politics should not be allowed to change this.
For dinners I opt to make them as much vegetarian and light as possible, especially during the week. However is nice to have an improved dinner once in a while.
For today I leave you a light option with prawns and super veggies as kale.
Kale is nothing more than a green leaf cabbage but is considered the top of the superfoods as it has a nutritional powerhouse packed with antioxidants such as vitamin C, beta-carotene and so on...One thing I have to tell you...kale cooked in olive oil and garlic is super yummy :) is a bit Portuguese style I have to say!
Broccolini is a natural hybrid from broccoli that has smaller florets and longer and thinner stalks which makes them perfect for stir frying in olive oil and is really rich in vitamin C, E and A, as also iron and potassium.
Sometimes you might look to my recipes and think...oh I don't need a blog to do this, and you are right, sometimes my recipes are straight forward and if I have the capacity of "inventing" them, so do you.
However I think that sometimes with the rush of the day we don't have time to have ideas and we end up doing all the time the same things. For this reason some of my recipes are only ideas of healthy meals with good fats and no carbs.
In Oman I tend to buy all my fish in Al Meera, although Muscat is faced to the sea, some supermarkets are able to sell really bad fish. I don't know why!
When is the prawn season, this supermarket has these massive prawns that in Portugal it would cost a fortune and in here, even if they are not super cheap they are quite affordable.
I like these big, fat prawns, full of meat :)
Ingredients:
Prawns (already pealed)
8 garlic cloves
Bunch of kale
Broccolini
Butter (grass fed) or ghee
Olive oil
Salt
Chilli (optional)
Let's do it:
In a frying pan put the butter and 4 garlic cloves sliced and a small chilli
When the butter is already melted add the prawns and a pinch of salt. Fry them and in low heat.
Turn the prawns several times, while they are cooking to make sure that they cook both sides.
They are ready when they get a bit harder and browned on each side. Depending of the prawns, it can take until 10 minutes.
In another large frying pan pour the olive oil and the other 4 garlic cloves also sliced. When the olive oil starts to be slightly hot pour the broccolini first and then the kale (already trimmed) and spread a pinch of salt on the top.
While stir frying you have to mix the kale quite often until it gets tender. You don't want the kale and broccolini overcooked, you want them crispy. It takes around 5 minutes to cook them.
Time of preparation: It takes around 10 to 15 minutes to prepare everything
Quantity: I bought 12 prawns and was enough for 2 people
This is a recipe matches perfectly with a easy going, chilled dinner and I leave you the perfect soundtrack for that :)
Diana Krall doesn't need introduction I believe. In this video she makes a nice cover from "Fly me to the moon" of Frank Sinatra.
I watched her concert in Muscat in the Royal Opera House and was an amazing concert I have to say.
Enjoy the dinner and I totally advice you to open a nice bottle of red wine and enjoy the time alone or with someone else, but just enjoy the time that has been given to you :)
I love to change my breakfasts but because of my morning yoga practice during the week I try to avoid eggs for breakfast and I eat instead a smoothie, muffin or low carb bread. However I like to have them on the weekends...yummy breakfast!
This breakfast was created by my boyfriend as he has eggs for breakfast most everyday and I am a bit of a zero preparing omeletes.
I learned how to do them with him, but let us be honest, if he does them so well, why should I bother to prepare them? :)
This recipe aims to appeal to your creativity for breakfast.
We tend to be stuck to that typical continental breakfast of milk or yogurt with muesli or bread, and beside the fact that high carb meals are not good for us, we start to crave food after two hours of having breakfast.
As Tim Noakes explains in his first book, "Every gram of carbohydrate that we consume must be burnt immediately, as a fuel, or it will be stored in the body, either as fat or glycogen. The problem is that, because of our genetic makeup, all humans have a different degree of insulin resistance. And the more sever the insulin resistance, the more difficulty the body has in processing carbohydrates. As a result, high carbohydrates diets lead to increase of insulin resistance that will inevitably lead to the metabolic syndrome, obesity and diabetes". http://realmealrevolution.com
When we start to have a full and complete meal for breakfast with good fats our metabolism doesn't need so much food as slowly we stop craving food.
Ingredients:
3 eggs
1/4 of sliced spring onions
100 gr of Smoked trout
2 cups of raw baby spinach
Black pepper to taste
Cappers
Nuts
Grass fed butter or ghee
Let's do it:
In a frying pan put some butter or ghee and stir the spring onions
In a bowl whisk the eggs and when the spring onions look browned pour the eggs to prepare the omelete
When you turn the omelete spread the baby spinach on the top while the bottom is cooking
Transfer the omelete to a plate and serve it with smoked trout and nuts
Season with black pepper and spread some cappers on the top of the trout
This is just an idea of a really nutritive breakfast that will help you to make through all morning until lunch without cravings.
We really like smoked trout, we actually prefer it to smoked salmon and you can easily find it in Oman, which is awesome considering that sometimes we struggle hard to find few things.
Time of preparation: 10 minutes maximum
Quantity: The list of ingredients serves 1 person
For today I chose an amazing band from Norway, Kings of Convenience, and they are in my top list of bands.
I watched once their concert and I remember that it was pouring rain on that day, but was totally worth it :)
And this song has a mix of amazing singers, Kings of Convenience with Feist...perfect combination. This videoclip was in a concert in the famous Bataclan....long live the music.
I hope you love it as much as I do.
Find peace in yourself and you will no need to make any wars. Love yourself but never forget the value of others in your path.
I recently discovered that I really like muffins and they are a nice idea for that "grab and go" breakfast.
A muffin and a smoothie has been working really well for us and is a nice snack to have in the mornings before workout or Yoga. One muffin and a coffee :)
Is really cool to be able to have muffins for breakfast, free from all the bad things that usually we find in the muffins that we can buy outside. These muffins are healthy and nutritious.
Nothing is better than the food that is prepared by us.
This recipe is good for the ones that don't really like coconut, and I love these muffins because they take the best ingredients ever...apple and cinnamon :) I devour everything that takes apple and cinnamon.
Ingredients:
2 cups of almond flour
1 tsp of baking soda
pinch of salt
2 tbs of ground cinnamon
1 large apple grated
Juice of half lemon (approximately 2 Tbsp)
Zest of 1 lemon
3 eggs
2 Tbsp of raw honey
3 Tbsp of butter or ghee (melted)
Let's do it:
Pre-heat the oven to 200 C
Combine dry ingredients in one large bowl
In another bowl place the grated apple, lemon juice and zest and mix. Add the eggs (previously whisked), the butter or ghee and the honey. Mix well
Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ones
Grese the muffin tin with coconut oil, butter or ghee, what you prefer. I used coconut oil.
Scoop the mix to the muffin tin
Bake for 25 minutes. In the end insert a toothpick and it has to come out dry.
These muffins are not too sweet which makes me like them even more, but you can adjust it to your taste with more or less honey.
Time of preparation: 10 minutes to prepare the batter + 25 minutes baking
Quantity: It makes 12 muffins
Today I leave you Beirut as a soundtrack. Is a Indie-rock band from America.
The first album for me was the best but in a general way they have really amazing songs. I especially like the combination of all instruments, the orchestra style.
I remember that few years ago, in a friends wedding, this was their song, I just loved it and I was probably one of the few people that was singing it loud and crying off course...I think I cried in all my good friends weddings....I'm such a girl :)
Enjoy these muffins and let me know how it went. Meanwhile sing and dance :) Life is all about being happy!
This is a perfect soup for this autumn and winter season, although I am living in Oman, I got so much used to the temperatures that now with 25 degrees I feel that is winter :) I even wear a jumper and socks at home!
The idea of living in a country with winter again just freaks me out, I really don't like cold. I like it around Christmas because is part of the spirit but 2 or 3 weeks of pure winter is fine for me.
This just to say that this is a soup that reminds the winter soups full of flavour and thick consistence. I tried this soup for the first time at friends place, she has a natural talent in the kitchen, with amazing and innovative recipes...I love when I go there for dinner, is all the time wondering what will be the dinner :)
She gave this recipe and I confess that I still prefer her soup to mine.
One good thing of being an expat is the opportunity to meet lovely people from all over the world and the interchange of knowledge, opinions, recipes, experiences...
Ingredients:
1 onion
4 cloves of garlic
600 gr of butternut pumpkin
400 gr of orange sweet potato
1 tsp of tarragon (optional)
6 cups of vegetable stock (organic) or 6 cups of water
Salt and ground pepper to taste
Olive oil
Let's do it:
Dice the pumpkin and the sweet potato and place then in a ceramic tray with olive oil and roast them in the oven until browned. It takes around 30 minutes
Heat 4 tablespoons of olive oil in a large sauce pan on on medium to low heat
Slice the onion and the garlic and add them to the saucepan. Cook it until softened. Takes about 5 minutes
Add the pumpkin and sweet potato to the sauce pan
Add the tarragon and then the 6 cups of vegetable stock or water and season with salt and pepper
Bring to simmer for more or less 20 minutes, or until the pumpkin and sweet potato are breaking apart
Blend the soup. At this point you can add more water if you don't want a thick consistency.
Bring it to low heat for more 5 minutes
Transfer the soup to bowls and add fresh basil and pine nuts
This soup is really filling so is perfect for a dinner. Sometimes we just have this soup for dinner with some grilled halloumi.
The good thing of this soup is that you can freeze it as it keeps the flavour and consistency. Is nice to have some frozen soup to emergencies :)
I really like butternut squash.
I do it quite often roasted in the oven with salt, thyme and coconut oil...you should try it. The coconut oil intensifies the flavour of the pumpkin and is divine.
Today I leave you Devendra Banhart that is a Venezuelan-American singer. Born in Houston but grew up in Venezuela.
I think that the super moon of yesterday had some influence in my bad night of sleep. I woke up like a zombie with a kind of "special" mood...not the best one I have to say.
So I decided to do some yoga by myself at home and just go with the flow. I put a nice playlist that I prepared for my yoga practice at home and naturally I made a Vinyasa flow with amazing backbends, twists and heart openings...I just feel great now :)
This is what yoga makes to my life...turns the night into day :)
I decided to have a light and nutritious smoothie after the yoga practice. And easy to do also.
Ingredients:
1 cup of almond milk
100 gr of frozen blueberries
1 tsp of almond butter
Shredded coconut
Let's do it:
Mix all the ingredients in a blender and blend it in maximum speed for about 1 minute
Pour into a glass and sprinkle some shredded coconut on the top
Today I leave you with Cat Power.
Cat Power is an American singer, songwriter and she made really good albums.
Lately I think that she got "lost" as the last album was not so much into the music style that we were used to listen from her.
Chicken is for me one of the best meats but is important to make sure from where are we buying the chicken.
Chicken farms fowls are horrible with all the chemicals and injections that they give to the poor animals to make them grow faster and then in the end the final consumer will ingest all the chemicals....bahhhh!!
For me chicken and eggs need to be organic, if not they don't enter in my kitchen.
I grew up having all the time organic chicken raised by my grandparents or by my dad and I never realised how spoiled I was on that time. We just take it for granted.
Then I came to Middle East and the chicken was flavourless, with a weird texture and I just realised that this was how a farm fowl chicken tasted....horrible. I stopped to consume it until the day that organic chicken started to appear and I decided to try one and yes...that was how a chicken should taste.
You may think that I am maybe a bit fundamentalist but please be aware of all the produces that you buy and even when they are organic, make some research about the producer and farm to make sure of the used farming techniques.
So now that I found a good supplier of organic chicken I do quite often roasted chicken and is a nice dish when you have friends coming over or when you want leftovers for the next day...which is all the time helpful!
The trick of this recipe is the mix of few ingredients and rub the chicken at least 15 minutes before going to the oven.
Ingredients:
Salt
2 tsp of paprika (powder)
2 tsp of masala (powder)
1 tsp of turmeric (powder)
1/2 tsp of grounded ginger
4 Tbsp of olive oil
1/2 cup of white wine (or chicken sock)
Fresh rosemary
Let's do it:
Pre-heat the oven to 180 C or in gas to Mark 6
The first thing to do is to season the chicken with salt, so with your hands rub some sea salt around the chicken
In a bowl mix the olive oil, paprika, masala, turmeric, ginger and rosemary. Mix well all the ingredients and after pour the mixture in the chicken and once again with your hands, rub the mixture around the chicken. Note that you have to pour a bit of the mixture inside of the chicken. Let the chicken stay like this for 10-15 minutes, is usually the time of the oven to reach the desired temperature
After the 10-15 minutes, pour 1/2 cup of white wine in the bowl where you made the previous mixture and gently pour it on the top and inside of the chicken
Place the chicken in the oven for about 1h30 minutes, but in every 25 minutes open the oven and use a spoon to spread a bit of the sauce that will be in the tray, on the top of the chicken. In this way she will not get dry and the skin will be more tasty
If you have a meat thermometer you can verify when is ready, as the chicken is cooked around 165 C
I made this chicken this weekend as we had some friends coming over. They really enjoyed it. I have to say that I prepared two chickens because boys tend to eat more than girls :)
As a side dish I prepared a nice salad and I roasted some sweet potatoes, with olive oil and rosemary...I love roasted sweet potato.
If you never tried it, you can make like this:
Wash the sweet potatoes (I use the orange one), and cut them in half. This one was so big that I have to cut in 4 halfs
Place them in a oven dish and make small cuts along the potato. Spread some olive oil on the top and some rosemary leaves
Take it to the oven for 30-40 minutes in 180 C. The orange sweet potato a bit more time to roast but I find them really taste because I like when the potato is really smooth
It took me about 2 hours in total to prepare the entire dinner.
I started to prepare the chicken that took me 15 minutes but then I had to wait more 15 minutes before placing it in the oven and then roasting for 1h30.
While the chicken was in the oven I prepared the sweet potatoes as they need also around 40 minutes. After placing the sweet potatoes in the oven, I prepared the salad.
Time of preparation: 30 minutes to prepare the chicken + 1h30 in the oven.
2016 has been a weird year, with some bad worldwide political decisions, with never ending wars and refuges, bomb attacks in the name of religions that should aim the peace and not the war, and the lost of big musical icons, David Bowie, Frank Sinatra Jr, Prince (even if I didn't like him, he was a reference) and now Leonard Cohen.
Sometimes we look to all the world events and we feel powerless and small, really small and although we cannot change the course of the things we can try somehow to make our bubble a better place to live. We should be teaching kindness instead of greed and power, teaching equality among all, teaching that although religion is part of a society it not who we are, we should be free of thought and free of judgment.
I got really sad when I heard about Leonard Cohen death but what makes him such a big song writer and musician is the fact that he will be immortal as so many others.
Today I leave you one of my favourite songs. This song as a really nice version made by Jeff Buckley but nothing is good as the voice and soul of the greatest Leonard Cohen.
"...I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but
Hallelujah"
RIP Leonard and thank you so much for all the good music, for all the good lyrics and for all the soul that you put in your art.
In this recipe I added 1 Tbsp of chia seeds directly in the jar and mixed it well and let them stay overnight. In morning I just poured some strawberries, laminated almonds and sunflower seeds.
As you can see I reuse all the glass jars, since jams, to coconut oil, nut butter and so on...they are handy to do these morning jars and you can even take them to the office for snack.
Before recycling let's try to reuse :)
This is my perfect breakfast before my Yoga practice.
I usually try to eat 3 hours before especially if I will practice Asthanga and I never feel really hungry. If I start to feel that hungry sensation I have one bliss ball before the practice to give a bit of a energy boost.
Today I leave you another amazing band from Iceland, Sigur Ros. They have a kind of nice melancholic, experimental music with classic melody mixed with some rock...hard to explain though. Better to listen.
And I love this videoclip as it has one of my Yoga inspirations Dylan Werner performing a perfect Vinyasa flow under this Sigur Ros song, Gong.
Please listen and watch the harmony between the flow of the movements and the melody of the music.
For me this is nothing more than pure perfection.
Have a nice day :)
Be in peace with yourself and grateful for your path until now. You are were you supposed to be !!
Lately few people asked me to teach them how to prepare salads and I found it funny because in my head salad is that easy thing of chopping everything that you want to a bowl, but is a fact that if you don't have imagination or time salads can be boring. That green salad with the typical lettuce and tomato is pretty boring.
For me salad has to be colourful. I have the idea that if the salad has different colours it means that also has different nutrients and vitamins, which is good.
Something that I also learn when I started this diet is that you need to had good fat to the vegetables if you want your body to absorb the vitamins if not, nothing stays there. Comes in and comes out.
And before I had all the time my salad without any dressing and nowadays I try to invent different dressings to salads or use the typical one of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, that works perfectly.
Today I leave you a salad with oven-fried salmon in coconut oil.
For the salad I used:
Cherry tomatoes
Yellow pepper
Orange pepper
Cucumber
Red cabbage
Pomegranate
Mint leaves
Sesame seeds
Chop all the ingredients and mix them in a bowl.
For the dressing I used:
2 Tbsp of olive oil
1 Tbsp of balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp of balsamic raspberry vinegar
For the salmon you need some salmon fillets with skin
Pre-heat the oven to 150 C.
Meanwhile in a fry pan pour 4 Tbsp of coconut oil (or olive oil) and turn the heat on.
Season the Salmon fillets with black pepper and thyme.
When the oil gets a bit hot put the salmon fillets and fry them for 3 minutes each side.
After frying both sides, pout the frying pan inside of the oven already at 150 C and let the salmon be there for 7 minutes.
It looks a exact science of time but it works fine as the salmon gets a nice crust outside and perfectly cooked inside without getting dry.
Time of preparation:The salad took me about 10 minutes to prepare and the salmon took me 13 minutes :)
For today I leave you some Rock&Roll because in few hours will be weekend in here.
The Kinks is a British band from the 60's. These were golden years in terms of Punk Rock, Rock and Blues.
So many bands that I like from these times.
I still find nice music nowadays but sometimes I feel that nothing gets better than the 60'6, 70s and 90's. Don't get me wrong I still like to discover new bands and is amazing how so many new bands, especially Indie music, are popping out in some countries but in terms of good rock&roll I still go back to the past.
Enjoy the rest of the week and weekend! Have good fun!
In here there is some good forecast for kitesurf and surf :) Happy days!!!
This last weekend as we were on working and study mode, I decided to make some energetic balls to boost the brain and to give us a bit more energy and motivation as we were not enjoying in full the weekend.
I have to say that is impossible to not love these balls, the big challenge is trying to not eat them all in a row...trust me is hard, but in the end they are free from gluten, lactose and they only have natural sugar from dates.
The first time that I had one of these balls was in Noosa in Australia. That place is really cool, nice beaches and really cool cafes. Noosa is similar to a paradise but with too many people.
Back to the balls, they are really blissful full of nutritive foods and good oils from nuts, coconut and seeds.
For these type of recipes I use the dates that have a bit more "meat", meaning, the ones that have a bit more consistence and that are not so dry as we need consistence. In Oman I buy the Khudri dates as they are good and relatively cheap.
Living in Middle East has some benefits like the amount of different dates that we can choose at reasonable prices.
I realised that a lot of bloggers tend to use the Medjool dates. I honestly don't understand this preference considering that they might be even more expensive comparing to others.
So I will leave the type of dates to your choice, just make sure that they have enough "meat" :)
This recipe was adapted from one of Naturally Ella.
Start by placing the almonds, walnuts, chia seeds, flax seeds in a food processor and pulse it for 1 minute until the mix looks a bit like a granulated powder
Then add the remaining ingredients (except the shredded coconut) but please don't forget of pitting the dates before. Pulse for 1 minute more until the if forms a sticky dough
Use your hands to make small balls and evolve each one in shredded coconut
Place them in a bowl or airtight container and keep them in the fridge for few days (if you can resist to have them all in the first days)
It's easy right?? :)
Time of preparation: 15 minutes
Quantity : This time it gave me 28 bliss balls but it depend of the size of the balls that you do. I tend to do them smaller, in this way when I eat 2 I feel that I already had 2 :)
For today I decided to leave you a classic of rock, jazz, electronic music...what you want to call it. Bjork is one of that singers that I remember to listen since I was a young girl. I still remember of the videoclips on a music show the used to pass on Saturdays in Portuguese television, Top+. Oh my god...is funny how music bring us memories.
For me music is food for the soul
Please danceeeee...dance and sing as if you were a child. You will see how your day will be much better :)
After several years without eating red meat I recently started to eat beef. The reasons that made me stop eating meat were not related with fundamental animal rights but related with the fact that I really don't like the flavour of red meat. However I think that cattle production should be controlled under natural conditions, free range and keep it organic as much as possible, avoiding the super production, but this issue is too controversial and I don't want to develop it in here.
As I recently started to eat beef I had to find ways to eat disguising the taste, or with sauces or cooking it with herbs.
This salad was inspired in some Thai beef salads that I had in Muscat, although I changed it completely because I avoid spicy food and Thai food can be really super spicy.
One thing that I really like in this salad, is the presentation. As we say, the eyes also eat, and is always nice when we have a plate full of colour and with a different presentation.
Ingredients for the beef preparation:
6 beef steaks (thin ones)
1 red onion
2 red peppers
4 garlic cloves
Fresh thyme
Chilli (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
3 to 4 Tbsp of olive oil
Ingredients for the salad preparation:
Red cabbage leaf (2)
Lettuce
Avocado
Pomegranate
Tomatoes
Sesame seeds
Balsamic Vinegar or Balsamic glaze
Let's do it:
Season the beef steaks with salt and pepper, fresh thyme and chopped garlic and chilli (optional) for about 10 minutes
Meanwhile prepare the salad, chop all the vegetables (except the red cabbage leafs) to a bowl. Season only with balsamic vinegar or balsamic glaze if you have and sprinkle some sesame seeds. Set it on the side
Prepare 2 red cabbage leafs and place them in plates
In a pan pour the olive oil, the sliced onion and the sliced red peppers. Stir it well until the onion is smooth.
Fry the beef steaks and as they should be thin, will not take more than 5 minutes to have them ready
Remove them and cut them in stripes
Pour salad in each red cabbage leaf and cover with beef stripes, onion and red pepper. If you like chilli you can add some chilli sauce to the beef
This is really easy to do and is a really nice idea when you have friends coming over for lunch or dinner.
Just give it a go. You can do this salad with beef, chicken or with everything that you might prefer.
Time of preparation: 15 minutes
Quantity: It serves 2
For today I leave you Lou Reed. He was definitely an amazing singer and writer.
Is hard for me chose a song from Lou Reed or from Velvet Underground. For really long time Velvet Underground was one of my favourite bands.
So because today is Sunday I decided to leave you two songs...oh my god so crazy...two songs!
Enjoy life guys because life can be awesome despite all the winding roads that we go through :)
This is one of my favourite dishes I have to say, because you can stuff with whatever you want.
This time I stuffed with mince beef but sometimes I only use veggies or mushrooms. Eggplant is a vegetable that allow us to be creative as much as we want. Is also a nice dish to stuff with left overs :)
I started to prepare eggplants like this when I was living in Portugal and I usually stuffed with some vegetarian sausages that I could find in the supermarket there. In here I started to use mince beef as I recently started to eat red meat again.
After several years without eating red meat, I find this recipe a nice way to eat beef without tasting the strong flavour that red meat has.
Ingredients:
2 eggplants
300 grams of mince beef (already prepared in your favourite way)
Half can of organic peeled tomato or 2 ripe medium tomatoes
3 tbsp of olive oil
1 medium onion
1 tsp of dried thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese (optional)
Let's do it:
Pre-heat the oven to 150 C, gas Mark 6
Wash the egg plants and cut them into half. Gently remove the inside of the eggplant as much as possible. Pay attention that if you try to remove until the edge of the skin, it would break after cooking
To a pot chop the onion and pour the olive oil. Bring it to medium heat and simmer until the onion is smooth
Add the peeled tomato and the dried thyme
Cut in pieces the eggplant that was removed from the skin and add it to the pot. Turn the heat to minimum. Add salt and pepper and let it cook until really smooth, almost falling apart. If it starts to be dry you can add 1/3 cup of water or white wine (When I have white wine I prefer to use it as it increases the flavour)
When the eggplant is soft, use a hand blender and blend it until puree
Pour it into a bowl and add the mince meat (previously cooked). Mix it well
Pour the mix into each half of the eggplant and cover it with grated parmesan (optional). I use parmesan as it is a hard cheese with low concentration of lactose
Place them in the oven for 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the skin of eggplant is soft
Serve it with salad or some roasted vegetables. I usually use the heat of the oven to roast some veggies while the eggplant is cooking. Makes it easier
Note - If you want any advice of how to prepare mince beef, just let me know because is pretty simple and I can help you.
Bon apetit :)
Time of preparation: 45 minutes (30 minutes preparing the eggplant + 25 minutes in the oven)
I am considering that the mince beef was already prepared, if not you can prepare it while you prepare the eggplant, it doesn't really take long time
A perfect album to listen while preparing this dish is Massive Attack. Is a band from UK that started is late 80's and is still going on. They have cool albums and for me the best ones are Blue Lines, Mezzanine and Heligoland.
Is hard to chose one song as I like several.
Have a nice day and remember that today is a perfect day to be happy :) so go for it!
