Red kuri squash baked with Camembert !

When you see a good move, look for a better one.

Emanuel Lasker


Ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 1 small Red kuri squash
– 120g Camembert
– the crema di balsamico and olive oil for serving
– salt, pepper

Method:
1 Divide squash into 4 parts and bake for 40min at 180C
2 Sprinkle with salt, pepper, cover each squash piece with camembert slices
and bake for another 10 min
3 Sprinkle with crema di balsamico & olive oil and serve!

Simple and Healthy Soup with Broccoli and Meatballs !

Courage is found in unlikely places.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Soup with broccoli and meatballs

Vegetables etc. ingredients (4-6 servings):
– 12 small (8 medium) potatoes
– 10 carrots
– 1 broccoli head
– 1 tsp salt
– chopped parsley for serving

Meatballs ingredients:
– 400g minced beef
– 2 eggs
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 4-6 tbsp millet powder
– 2 tbsp floor for dipping meatballs

Method:
1 Peel and cut vegetables and put aside
2 Mix meatballs ingredients and form meatballs with hands, dip each meatball in flour and put on the plate
3 Boil 1.5-2l water, add 1 tsp salt and meatballs: cook for 20min, medium heat
4 Add vegetables to the soup and cook for another 20min, medium heat
5 Serve with chopped parsley !

Spinach Pancakes for lunch !

Her heart did whisper that he had done it for her.

 Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Pancakes batter ingredients (7-8 pancakes):
– 115g fresh spinach
– 2 eggs
– 300ml milk
– 200g all purpose flour
– 2 tsp sugar
– 1/4 tsp salt
– 1/3 tbsp sunflower oil for frying

Serving ingredients:
– 150g smoked salmon
– 100g cream cheese
– fresh dill

Method:
1 Wash and dry spinach leaves
2 Put in blender all pancakes batter ingredients: mash until smooth
3 Preheat a skillet, add 1/3 tbsp sunflower oil (needed only in the beginning)
4 For each pancake pour 1 ladle of batter on the skillet – fry at medium heat until bubbling, turn the pancake over and cook until golden
5 Serve pancakes with soft cheese, smoked salmon and fresh dill ! Enjoy !

Quick and healthy Salmon and Vegetables soup!

I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.

Jane Austen

Ingredients (4-6 servings):
– 320g salmon
– 1 head broccoli
– 6 medium carrots
– 8 medium potatoes
– chopped dill for serving
– salt to taste

Method:

1 Peel and cut/chop vegetables
2 Cut salmon in pieces
3 Put chopped vegetables and salmon in the saucepan, add water to cover the vegetables and salmon pieces, add salt to taste
4 Cook for 20-25 minutes after boiling, serve with fresh chopped dill!

Salmon-Kohlrabi soup: simple and healthy

When I am not reading Kafka I am thinking about Kafka. When I am not thinking about Kafka I miss thinking about him. Having missed thinking about him for a while, I take him out and read him again. That’s how it works.

László Krasznahorkai
Salmon-Kohlrabi soup

Ingredients:
– 200g salmon
– 1 Kohlrabi
– 4 medium potatoes
– 4 medium carrots
– 1 red onion
– dill for serving
– 1 tsp salt

Method:

1 Pill vegetables, chop vegetables and salmon into 1-2 cm cubes
2 Put vegetables and salmon in a pan, add water to cover + 1cm more, add salt: cook at medium heat 18 minutes after boiling
3 Serve with chopped dill !

Healthy Banana-Oatmeal Pancakes: quick and delicious breakfast !

Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?

J.R.R. Tolkien
Healthy Banana-Oatmeal Pancakes

Ingredients:
– 180ml Kefir
– 1 large ripe banana
– 1 cup (200ml) oatmeal
– 1 egg
– dash of salt
– 1/3 tsp cinnamon
– sunflower oil for frying

Method:

1 Preheat a skillet, add some sunflower oil
2 Combine grated banana with Kefir, oatmeal, an egg, salt and cinnamon: mix well until smooth
3 Pour 1 tbsp of batter for 1 pancake, fry until golden both sides, medium heat
4 Serve with fresh fruits and enjoy !

Warm soup in the pot with red bell peppers, carrots, beef and pearl barley !

花より団子

Japanese saying

Ingredients (6 pots):
– 400g minced beef
– 3 red bell peppers
– 5-6 carrots
– one large red onion
– 1 glass (250ml) pearl barley
– 2 tsp salt
– 5-6tbsp tomato puree (pure tomatoes, not salted)
– 300-350ml water in each pot

Method:
1 Grate carrots; chop bell peppers & onion
2 Combine vegetables, 1 glass not boiled pearl barley, tomato puree, salt: mix well
3 Preheat the oven to 190C
4 Distribute minced beef equally in the pots
5 Distribute vegetables & pearl barley mixture in the pots equally, over the minced beef
6 Add 300-350ml water in each pot
7 Cover the pots with lids and put in the oven for 60 minutes at 190C
8 Enjoy delicious soup!

Warm Tuna Toast with Carrot !

For he would be thinking of love
Till the stars had run away,
And the shadows eaten the moon.

W. B. Yeats 
Warm Tuna Toast with Carrot

This is a quick and healthy snack – just what one needs for a working break along with a cup of strong black coffee and inspiring thoughts! But what I am talking about – Love is all we need! 🙂

Ingredients (4 toasts):
– 4 slices of wholegrain bread
– 2 boiled carrots
– 140g canned tuna
– 3 eggs
– 2-3 tsp mayonnaise
– chopped dill
– 2 tsp butter

Directions:
1 Boil carrots and eggs until ready
2 Tuna salad: combine grated boiled carrot & eggs, canned tuna, mayonnaise, chopped dill: mix well
3 Put the tun salad on the bread slices
4 Melt butter in the frying pan and toast bread slices one-side for 2-3 minutes
5 Serve warm with a cup of black coffee and enjoy your day !

Sweet potato chips – quick and healthy snack !

Ah, Nothing is too late, till the tired heart shall cease to palpitate.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Sweet potato chips

Sweet potato chips ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 3 large sweet potatoes
– 0.5 tbsp olive oil
– dash of salt

Sauce ingredients:
– 100g sour cream
– 80g blue cheese
– chopped dill

Method:

1 Sweet potato chips
1.1 Preheat the oven to 190C
1.2 Pill and cut sweet potatoes into strips
1.3 Mix potato strips with salt and olive oil and transfer on the baking paper
1.4 Bake for 30 minutes at 190C
2 Sauce: combine sour cream, blue cheese and chopped dill – mix until smooth and put the sauce in the fridge until the chips are ready
3 Serve hot sweet potato chips with a sauce from the fridge !

Simple and wholesome lunch: potatoes, parsnip and carrot baked in cream with salmon !

О чем я думаю? О падающих звёздах.

Vladimir Nabokov

Ingredients (4 servings):
– 6 medium potatoes
– 4 medium parsnips
– 6 medium carrots
– 360g salmon
– 300ml 33% cream
– 120ml water
– 125g grated Grana Padano
– 1/2 tsp salt
– bunch of fresh dill

Directions:

1 Preheat the oven to 190C (374F)
2 Wash, peel and slice vegetables
3 Cut salmon in 1.5cm cubes
4 Combine salmon and vegetables in the baking form (~25cmx25cm), add salt, 33% cream, water and mix well: make sure that all vegetables and salmon pieces are covered with liquid
5 Bake for 40-45 minutes at 190C (374F) and serve with fresh dill!

Quick and healthy lunch: pasta with gorgonzola, zucchini and dill !

Bien sûr je te ferai mal. Bien sûr tu me feras mal. Bien sûr nous aurons mal. Mais ça c’est la condition de l’existence. Se faire printemps, c’est prendre le risque de l’hiver. Se faire présent, c’est prendre le risque de l’absence. C’est à mon risque de peine, que je connais ma joie.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 250g full grain penne
– 200g gorgonzola
– 100ml 33% cream
– 1 small zucchini
– bunch of dill for serving

Method:

1 Start simultaneously boiling penne (2) and making sauce (3)
2 Boil penne al dente in salted water
3 Pour cream in the skillet, add gorgonzola cut in 2cm cubes and cook at medium heat for 5 minutes, then add grated zucchini and cook for another 5 minutes
4 Drain water from penne and add penne to the sauce: mix well and cook for another minute
5 Serve penne with fresh chopped dill and enjoy !

Healthy Breakfast – Cottage Cheese Zapekanka with Homemade Cherry Compote !

The centuries will roll by, and schoolboys will yawn over the history of our upheavals; everything will pass, but my happiness, dear, my happiness will remain, in the moist reflection of a street lamp, in the cautious bend of stone steps that descend into the canal’s black waters, in the smiles of a dancing couple, in everything with which God so generously surrounds human loneliness.

Vladimir Nabokov, Selected Letters
Cottage Cheese Zapekanka with Homemade Cherry Compote

Zapekanka ingredients (4 servings):
– 500g cottage cheese
– 2 eggs
– 2 tbsp flour
– 2 tbsp semolina
– 2 tbsp sugar
– 1/2 tsp baking soda + 1/2 tsp vinegar in the same teaspoon

Cherry compote ingredients (4 servings):

– 300g frozen cherries without stone
– 1 tbsp cornstarch
– 50-70ml water

Serving ingredients (4 servings):

– 200g sour cream
– fresh mint leaves

Method:

1 Zapekanka
1.1 Preheat the oven to 190C
1.2 Batter: combine cottage cheese, eggs, flour, semolina, sugar, baking soda and vinegar: mix well with a fork until smooth
1.3 Transfer batter to the buttered baking form and bake for 30-40 minutes until golden at 190C
2 Cherry compote
2.1 Transfer in the skillet washed cherries, water and cornstarch: mix well and cook for 5-7 minutes at medium heat
3 Serve Zapekanka with warm cherry compote and cold sour cream ! Enjoy ! 🙂

Quick and healthy Banana Chocolate Mousse !

Glück gibt es nur, wenn wir vom Morgen nichts verlangen und vom Heute dankbar annehmen, was es bringt – die Zauberstunde kommt doch immer wieder.

Hermann Hesse
Quick and healthy Banana Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 2 ripe bananas
– 2 full tsp cocoa powder
– 300g natural 3.5% yoghurt
– 100g fresh raspberries
– fresh mint leaves

Method:

1 Combine and mash with blender: bananas+cocoa+yoghurt
2 Transfer banana mousse in glasses
3 Serve with fresh raspberries and fresh mint leaves!

Cannelloni baked with Chanterelles and Leek !

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.

Lao Tzu
Cannelloni baked with Chanterelles and Leek


Notes: inspired by Jamie Oliver Mushroom Cannelloni

Cannelloni & filling ingredients (4 servings):
– 200g cannelloni
– 250g leek
– 250g chanterelles
– 1 onion
– 1 tbsp butter
– 3/4 tsp salt

White sauce:
– 500ml milk
– 100g cheese
– 3tbsp flour
– 1 tbsp olive oil

Method:
1 Filling:
1.1 Wash, peel and chop chanterelles, onion and leek
1.2 Pre-heat the skillet with butter and fry onion 3-4 min, add chanterelles and cook for 10 min
1.3 Add chopped leek, salt and cook for another 10 min
2 White sauce:
2.1 preheat olive oil in the skillet, add 3 tbsp flour: mix well
2.2 Pour milk to flour & oil: cook 2-3 min until smooth constantly stirring, add grated cheese and cook for another 2-3 min: sauce is ready!
3 Cannelloni:
3.1 Preheat the oven to 190C
3.2 Fill cannelloni with filling (I used chopsticks for that)
3.3 Transfer filled cannelloni in the baking form and pour the white sauce over them
3.4 Bake cannelloni for 30-35 min at 190C until golden & serve with fresh greens!

Baked Meatballs with Italian Herbs served with Red & White Sauces !

Easy, take it easy! Is there anything to eat? A few meatballs, perhaps? Or a little cream cake?

Astrid Lindgren, Karlson Flies Again
Baked Meatballs with Italian Herbs

Meatballs ingredients (4 servings or 24 meatballs):
– 400g minced beef
– 2 eggs
– 4 tbsps flour
– 1 tsp salt
– 1 tsp Italian herbs

Red sauce:
– 100g cranberry jam

White sauce:
– 200g 10% sour cream
– 3 grated garlic cloves

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 200C
2 Combine minced beef with salt, eggs, Italian herbs and flour: mix well until smooth
3 Form meatballs with your hands and put them in the baking form (no oil needed!)
4 Bake meatballs for 40-45 minutes at 190-200C
5 White sauce: mix grated garlic with sour cream
6 Serve meatballs with red & white sauces and enjoy ! 🙂

Quick and Simple Fresh Corn-Potato Soup !

It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.

Lewis Carroll

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 3 fresh corn cobs
– 9 middle (~6cm length) potatoes
– 1 tsp salt
– 400-500 ml water
– bunch of green onions for serving

Method:

1 Wash corn cobs and wash & peel potatoes
2 Cut corn kernels off cobs with a knife
3 Cut potatoes in 2-3cm pieces
4 Cook potatoes & corn kernels for 15-20 minutes in salted water
5 Evacuate 3-4 tbsp corn kernels for serving on a separate plate
6 Mash the rest of soup with an immersive blender
7 Serve the soup with chopped green onions and boiled corn kernels!

Healthy Cold Summer Soup with Bell Peppers, Cucumbers, Garlic and Feta !

Многоточие – это следы на цыпочках ушедших слов

Vladimir Nabokov
Cold Summer Soup with Bell Peppers, Cucumbers, Garlic and Feta

Ingredients (3-4 portions):
– 3 cucumbers (270g)
– 1 small red bell pepper (200g)
– 1 small yellow bell pepper (120g)
– 700ml tomato juice unsalted
– 2 garlic cloves (10g)
– 100g wholegrain rye bread pulp
– 20ml virgin olive oil
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 100g Feta for serving

Method:

1 Wash and chop cucumbers and bell peppers
2 Peel, wash and grate garlic
3 Mash with a blender 2/3 chopped cucumbers and bell peppers+bread pulp+olive oil+tomato juice+grated garlic cloves+salt until smooth
4 Serve the soup with the remaining chopped cucumbers & bell peppers and with crushed Feta cheese
5 Enjoy – it’s a perfect soup for a hot summer day !

Summer time – time for early breakfasts in the balcony: yoghurt, blueberries, toasted oats and almonds !

I think it is all a matter of love; the more you love a memory the stronger and stranger it becomes

V. Nabokov

Ingredients (for 2 persons):
– 400ml natural yoghurt
– 400g fresh blueberries
– 100g oats
– 40g chopped almonds

Directions:
1 Toast oats and chopped almonds ~2-4 minutes until golden at medium heat (no oil, no butter)
2 Sprinkle washed blueberries over the yoghurt
3 Sprinkle warm toasted oats and almonds over the yoghurt
4 Enjoy and have a great day !

Notes: it was 6 AM in the morning and the day seemed to be starting wonderfully

Turkey with Apricots, Tomatoes and Cinnamon in Moldovan Style !

O, soare balcanic, revărsat peste văile şi dealurile moldave, o, acele iubiriscurte, scînteietoare, istovitoare, cît de mult aduceţi voi în scurta noastră trecere pe acest pămînt, şi cît de mult luaţi cu voi pentru a nu le mai întoarce niciodată…

Ion Druță, Frunze de dor
Turkey with Apricots, Tomato and Cinnamon in Moldovan Style

Ingredients (4 servings):
– 750g turkey breast
– 12 apricots
– 6 tomatoes
– 2 red onions
– 1 tsp paprika
– 0.5 tsp cinnamon
– 1 tsp sugar
– 1 tsp vinegar
– 0.5 cup water
– 2 tbsp water
– 250g golden millet

Method:
1 Cut turkey in 1-2cm cubes
2 Peel and chop onion
3 Wash and slice tomatoes and apricots
3 Preheat two skillets and melt 1 tbsp butter in each: put turkey cubes on one skillet and chopped onion on another, cook for 5 minutes
4 Add to onion: chopped tomatoes, sugar, paprika and cinnamon – stew for 5 minutes at medium heat slightly stirring
5 Add to turkey: onion-tomatoes-spices mixture – stew for 10 minutes at medium heat
6 Add to turkey & Co: apricot slices, vinegar, water and salt: stew for 10 minutes at medium heat – done!
7 Serve turkey with cooked golden millet and enjoy!

Spring Salad with Chicken, Prunes, Walnuts and Cucumbers !

No one’s serious at seventeen 
When lindens line the promenade.

Arthur Rimbaud
Chicken Salad with Prunes, Walnuts and Cucumbers

Ingredients (4 servings):
– 300g chicken breasts
– 2 eggs
– 3 cucumbers
– 70g walnuts
– 14 prunes
– 2 tbsp mayonnaise
– 1/2 tsp salt

Method:

1 Boil chicken breasts until ready and chop
2 Boil eggs until ready and chop
3 Wash and chop cucumbers, prunes and walnuts
4 Combine chicken, eggs, cucumbers, prunes, walnuts and season with salt & mayonnaise: serve !

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