Vegetarian Chilli Beans

Sometimes,

 I don't want to waste a lot of time in the kitchen cooking dinners

but am also not in the mood for chips or frozen pizzas

and that's usually a day when we end up

having a stew, a curry or a soup. 

A "one pot wonder", as those dishes can also be called 

if you wish to give them a fancier name.

Yesterday, I was craving a hearty, healthy dinner 

and as we are going on holidays soon, 

my goal is to empty the fridge within the next few days

without dumping what's in it. 

So I had a good look through the content of the vegetable compartment of the fridge

and thought, that the carrots, sweet potatoes, a pepper, garlic and onions

would make a nice chili bean stew.

If I added one or two tins of beans, obviously. 

So I gathered the stuff I wanted to throw into a pot

and to turn into our family dinner. 

Within 10 mins the prep work was done

and another 20 mins later, dinner was ready.

If you want to make this stew,

feel free to swap ingredients around 

or add something else you think would go well with beans.

I used:

-carrots

-two sweet potatoes

-a huge green bell pepper

-one onion

-one garlic clove

-1/2 tube tomato puree

-one tin of chopped tomatoes

-one tin of cannellini beans

-one tin of kidney beans

-500ml vegetable stock

-frozen sweetcorn

-frozen quorn mince

-ground coriander

-dried leaf coriander

-ground cumin

-smoked paprika powder

-some fresh, finely chopped chili

-sugar

-salt & pepper

Method:

Preheat some oil in a large pot.

Chop the onion and add to the oil and fry over a medium heat until softened.

Finely chop or crush the garlic, add to the onion.

Peel and chop the carrots and sweet potatoes into cubes and toss into the pot.

Wash, trim and chop the bell pepper and add to the veg mixture.

Stir occasionally to avoid burning.

Add the tomato puree.

Add the chopped tomatoes.

Add the stock.

Drain and rinse the beans.

Put into the pot.

Bring to the boil, reduce the heat.

Add the spices and chilis.

Let the stew simmer for about 10 mins.

Add the sweetcorn and quorn mince and bring to the boil again.

Simmer for another 10 mins.

 And add salt, pepper and a LITTLE sugar to taste.

I topped it with a few green jalapenos and served it with some 

pizza dough rolls and fresh garlic and chive butter.

You can keep leftovers in the fridge 

and reheat them a day or two later for a quick lunch.

YUM!

Enjoy cooking and let me know what you think!

Banana Courgette Curry

 

This is one of our favourite curry dishes.

I read about it in a book a few years ago

(I think, 2 girls who lived in Munich were getting it as a take away),

and even though I found the combination of banana and courgette a bit quirky

but am a rather nosy person,

I started to play around with ingredients

and after a few trials, this is the way I am cooking the curry now.

It's fruity and creamy,

sweet and sour,

spicy and flavoursome.

JUST GOOD!

And prepared in a very short time.

 

You need:

3 bananas

2 medium sized courgettes

1 onion

150g sour cream

50 - 100ml water

juice of 1/2 lemon

coconut oil (or any other frying oil)

curry powder

brown sugar

salt

 

 

Chop the bananas into disks, about 5mm thick.

Cube the courgettes.

Cut the onion into small cubes.

 

Heat frying oil in a pan until very hot.

Place the banana slices into the pan, reduce the heat to medium and

carefully fry the banana slices from both sides until slightly browned.

 

 

Take them out of the pan and set aside.

 

 

Put the courgette cubes and onions into the pan,

add a generous amount of curry powder

(mild, medium or hot... that's up to youself)

and fry from all sides by stirring regularly

 for about 10 minutes.

 

 

In the meanwhile,

mix the sour cream, 2 tbsp brown sugar,

lemon juice and salt.

If you like, you can add some dried or fresh

coriander leaves, too.

 

When the courgettes and onions are cooked,

add the bananas to reheat them.

 

Reduce the heat and stir in the sour cream mixture.

Be careful NOT to bring the curry to the boil

as it might curdle.

 

If the sauce is getting too thick,

carefully add water until you like the consistency.

Taste and season with salt, sugar or more curry powder if necessary.

 

Serve with rice.

Or Naan.

Eat.

 

 

Trust me,

it's GOOD!

 

Lena

Egg and Spinach Fritters

I love spinach.

So does Gerd.

Klara refuses to eat it.

Every time there's spinach for dinner,

she pulls a face as if I wanted her

to eat a decayed rat.

Alfie had no opinion of spinach at all.

We only presumed he wouldn't like it.

He is the picky one in the family.

As picky as can be.

Spinach is fuzzy fibrous.

Spinach is green.

And spinach doesn't taste like vanilla ice cream.

Therefore, we didn't give it to the little gourmet,
thinking he'd throw it around the place anyway.
He prove us wrong!

He LOVED them!
And while he gobbled down fritter after fritter,
his sister pulled a face.
As if Alfie was eating a decayed rat.
With mouldy worms.
She was disgusted.

But HEY!
They ARE nice, the little fritters.
And easy to make.
And... TADAAA!!!... Healthy!

Here's the recipe for you:

You need
300g frozen spinach
4-5 eggs
100g cottage cheese
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
ground nutmeg
salt
pepper
olive oil


Defrost the spinach, squeeze out any excess liquid and chop thoroughly.
Cut the onion into small cubes.
Chop or crush the garlic.

Mix spinach, onion cubes, garlic, eggs and cottage cheese.
Season generously with nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Over medium-high heat,
fry in small batches in olive oil until cooked through.

Enjoy hot or cold.
I don't know if you can fry and defrost them.
We ate them before I could find out.

 

I had them with some salad and Spanish goat's cheese.

 

Njummy!

 

Lena

Wholemeal Breakfast Pancakes

Who doesn't like pancakes for breakfast?

 I think everybody does.

And so do we.

But because Klara shouldn't have 

a lot of plain wheat in her diet

and because I try to feed my beloved ones

with rather healthy food than junk

I made pancakes from wholemeal spelt flour 

this morning. 

And everyone loved them.

Here's the recipe:

- 150g wholemeal spelt flour

(I used Odlums, bought at Tesco)

- 1 tsp baking powder

- ½ tsp salt

- 1 tbsp brown sugar

- 200ml milk

- 1 large egg.

- 2 tbsps melted butter or coconut oil, slightly cooled

-butter or coconut oil for frying

To serve:

- Maple syrup

- Nut Butter

-Fresh Fruit and Cream Cheese

-Jam, Chocolate Spread, Golden Syrup, Lemon Curd...

Sieve the flour and the baking powder,

add sugar and salt.

In a seperate bowl, beat the egg

and mix with the milk.

Add eggmilk and butter/oil to the flour and whisk.

Let stand for a few minutes.

Fry from both sides in a frying pan with a little butter or coconut oil until golden brown.

Now.
This is my favourite topping.
It's quite far away from being healthy.
So maybe you don't want to tell your kids
and eat this when they're in bed.
Or at school.
Or you tell them it's something only adults can have.
Like whisky or Guinness.
I don't know if that would work, though.
Anyway:
It's crunchy peanut butter,
chocolate spread
and Golden Syrup.
We call them "Snickers Pancakes".
Try this!!!

Lena

Fresh Cheese Strawberry Tart

Make a sweet short crust pastry dough.

I used THIS RECIPE and it turned out very well.

Roll it out and put it into a greased, round baking tin.

Bake in the oven until its edges slightly browned.

For me, it took about 20mins at 160 degrees Celsius

in the Fan assisted oven.

Let it cool on a rack.

In a small bowl,

mix 3tbsp cream cheese with

3tbsp fromage frais.

Add a tiny bit of Vanilla Powder

or any other vanilla flavouring you like.

And if you have a sweet tooth

add some sugar.

Wash a punnet of strawberries,

cut off the green bits

and slice or cube or chop them.

Whatever you like best.

Spread the cream cheese mix onto the baked, cooled tart base.

Toss the strawberries on top.

Slice.

Eat immediately.

Enjoy!

Lena



Baking Sourdough Bread

One thing I am really proud of are my bread baking skills.

German bread is different to Irish bread.
Its texture is firmer, its crust is thicker and really crunchy, its taste a lot more aromatic
and if you opt for a really dark, wholemeal, healthy Pumpernickel Style one,
it actually fills you for quite a long while and helps your digestive system to work more efficient..

When we came over to Ireland in 2007, the first thing I missed a lot was the German bread.
And nearly all of my German friends I met here over the last few years, are the same.

We nearly popped a bottle of bubbly stuff when "our" Lidl supermarket nearby extended its shop and announced, they were bringing German bakery products into the country. Boy was I thrilled!

And the bread was GOOD! Our favourite ones were a rustic rye bread and a triangle shaped wholemeal multi seed loaf. And OF COURSE these 2 where the first breads taking off the shelves again.

I am not a great fan of the Irish brown bread as I find its texture a bit to crumbly-cakey to be a bread I would like. The shop-bought ones. Homemade brown bread is different. I like that a lot. If someone bakes one for me.

I don't like white bread. Well... the odd slice here and there, warm, just jumped out of the toaster, a bit of butter... great. Sometimes. But every time we buy a whole white bread, two thirds of it don't get eaten, start to mould and end up in the bin. True story. (I KNOW!)
And as it turned out last year, Klara is intolerant to wheat and gluten and more than one slice of toast makes her very sick with bad tummy pains and diarrhoea.

So I made the decision to bake bread. I wanted to learn how to make my oh-so-much-missed sourdough loafs. And I interviewed my mom who gave me some recipes and I went to the health shop in town to buy different wholemeal flours.

My first trials did not go so well. I have to admit that I'm not the most patient person in the world and that reducing the time the starter needs to ripen from 3 days to 1 day might not have helped.

Waiting for the final dough then to "double its size" as it often sais in the recipes, wasn't one of my best talents, either.
And some of the recipes I have tried so far have maybe just not been for me. Dunno!
But I've learned. I know a lot more things now about making, "breeding" and storing the sourdough starter. I understood, how important it is to give the dough the time it needs to turn into the desired consistency, sometimes fluffy and airy, sometimes tough and chewy, depending on the type of the bread I am making.


And I love the breads now. I always batch-bake. To make sure there is an appropriate amount of bread, sliced and ready to be defrosted and eaten. For breakfast. Or for lunch or tea.
With butter and jam, with yummy mature cheddar or creamy brie. Accompanied bye a nice cup of coffee or tea or a glass of juice. 2 slices filled with salads and tuna or ham. As a very healthy sandwich variety.

The kids love it. For Alfie, I cut off the crust and he gobbles down little cubes of very dark bread even. Buttered. With a bit of jam. Or a bit of cream cheese.

And the SMELL of warm, freshly baked bread in the house!!!

Now! Look at these beauties! And DON'T tell me you're NOT jealous.

 

 

Very dark sourdough loafs.

Made from wholemeal rye and wheat flour.

With sesame, linseed, sunflower seeds and molasse.

 



 

Rustic, traditional sourdough bread.

Made from wholemeal rye flour..

A bit flat but still oh-so-good!!!!

 

 

 

Hungry now??!
You're welcome!

Lena

Healthy Food for Cati!

My "best blogworld friend"  Cati (aka BBF) asked me
if I would be so kind and share my experiences
on the subject of "Healthy Food for the whole family".
And because I am so very good and know a LOT about how to eat healthily
and how to satisfy your beloved ones by cooking them good, well-balanced, varied meals every day,
I am more than happy to reveal the oh-so-good recipe of today's afternoon dish.

You need:

50g unsalted butter + a pinch of salt
OR
50g salted butter

250g plain flour
4 eggs
500mls milk

a husband/boyfriend/partner/friend
kitchen cleaning solution
a cloth

Put the flour into a mixing bowl.

 

 

Add eggs and milk and

 

a pinch of salt.

 

Whisk!

 

Melt the butter in a small bowl in a microwave.

Make sure, to put the temperature on a high level

that the butter explodes during the melting process

and covers all the inside of the microwave.

 

 

Get your husband/partner/boyfriend/friend

to take the kitchen cleaning solution and a cloth

to clean the microwave.

 

 

CAUTION!!!

If you have NO husband/partner/boyfriend/friend to hand,

omit the explode-butter-in-microwave-step!

Just MELT it carefully.

 

While the microwave is being cleaned by someone,

melt 50g butter in a small pot on the hob.

At LOW temperature.

NO explosion needed this time.

 

(SKIP his step, if your butter-melting-task had ended successfully without a mess)

 

 

Add the melted butter to flour-eggs-milk-mixture and whisk.

 

"Paint" the bottom of a rather large frying, pan

with a bit of butter.

Wait, until the pan is hot enough.

 

 

 

Put dough into the pan.

NOT TOO MUCH!

Just enough to cover the

base of the pan with a thin layer!

If you don't have a fancy

dough spreader

 ( I don't!)

just carefully swing the pan around a bit

until the whole base is covered.

Just remember:

A THIN LAYER OF DOUGH IS ALL WE WANT!

 

 

Wait until the top of the layer of dough is dry

and firm and turn it over.

 

Put it onto a plate and spread chocolate spread

(spread spread spread)

over 1/4 of the whole circle.

Like that:

 

Now the origami part:

Fold...

 

...fold again and again...

 

...DONE!

 

 

Serve.

 

Eat.

 

Oh.... you said HEALTHY.

Um.... eeeerrrm...

Well.

 

There are super healthy nuts in the chocolate spread.

And milk. Milk is important.

The calcium and all... you know yourself.

 

See?

Healthy... satisfied family... I got it all covered.

 

You're welcome!

 

:-)

 

Lena

 

 

Why I don't run.

Everyone seems to run.
But they don't do it qietly and enjoy themselves doing it. No! They run and take photographs. Before, during and after running. And they post their photos on Facebook, share them on Instagram, tweet their results. ALL of them. So, there was me last year. Quite happy that the pregnancy went well, the baby was born and healthy, breastfeeding helped a lot losing the babyweight. BUT I didn't run. And for some reason, I wanted to run, too. So I bought a new pair of runners, downloaded fitness apps on my phone, got a fitness tracker and 6 weeks after Alfie was born, I put him into his pram, stuck my poor body into running gear and off I went. And it SUCKED. Man, did it suck... there was NO joy. I felt shite after the first time, after the second time, after the third time. Sweat ran into my eyes and made me cry. My face turned purple after the first few minutes running, sometimes, the baby got fed up and his face turned purple, too. It was NO fun. "It will get better! You will enjoy it, just stuck to your routine!" That's what the running friends kept telling me. It didn't get better. Well... I performed better after a while, but the whole running/sweating/muskle pain stuff just SUCKED. I cried. I so WANTED to join in the running hype. And I tried for about a month to discover any joy. I just didn't. It didn't make me happy, I even felt GUILTY not to be a happy runner. How SILLY.
Maybe pushing the pram while running didn't help. Maybe always running on my own didn't. Maybe my body had needed a longer break to put all the hormones back into their places. Maybe running was just not for me. I don't know.
I just gave up.
I went to the gym a few times. I liked it a lot more than running. But organising the day around my gym time was very stressful for me, too. And sometimes I was just too tired. So I gave up the gym. And I decided to focus on healthy eating, first. To lose the baby weight. Now... THAT worked a lot better.

And now I don't care any more. I was pregnant twice. I gave birth to my baby boy only 13 months ago. I'm always tired. My BMI tells me that my weight is "normal". I want to enjoy the time with my kids instead of heading to some fitness classes as soon as I find some time. I am happy with my body now. Some parts are a bit wobbly, there are marks and stripes, dents and creases. That's FINE! I'm NOT a model, Gerd loves me the way I am, and so do the kids. I wear size M or 10/12. My time to do some sports I REALLY like, will come. Some day.

But for now, I only want to be happy.
And I am happier if I DON'T run.

Lena


<a href="http://blog-connect.com/a?id=1989190923262271437" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.blog-connect.com/images/w/folgen4.png" border="0" ></a>

Sunday Impressions

After 2 crazy Birthday Party days Sunday came.

A really lazy one.

I couldn't be bothered to take down the decorations, the gift wrapping paper was still flying about, crumbs all over the floor, toys everywhere, the kitchen a mess... I didn't care.

Getting ready for this birthday, baking, organising, getting dressed up, then entertaining a little group of 5-6 year olds, feeding them, making them happy, dry tears, dance and laugh with them, moderate games, creep around the floor 3027 times to search for bouncy balls... (What a lovely idea, to let them play with bouncy balls in the house. Not.)

I was wrecked after all. It was fun, it was a beautiful day, the kids were lovely and happy but still... it was hard work, too.

So, Sunday came, I did NOTHING at all.

Klara put on her pirate costume again. Not very sunday-y but she was happy.

I fed them cake leftovers, sweets and crisps.

We played with the new toys. 

I nearly fell asleep on the couch around lunch time.

And then Gerd said, he would love to take his family for a walk.

To get a bit of fresh air.

To let Klara try her new scooter.

I really did NOT want to go. But I did go. Luckily, I did.

And I took the camera.

Alfie and I got a go on the scooter. Well... I just took it off her. Klara looks concerned there, because she thought, Alfie was to heavy for the scooter.
Poor Alfie... 

We found a wood gnome.

We breathed fresh, summery air 

and listened to all the singing birds.

We played with the camera settings.

We climbed a tree.

We found flowers.

We held hands.

We had fruit for dinner.

Well, before we had visitors.

Then, we served bags of crisps for dinner.

Just because we're so very, very hospitable.

And there was nothing edible left in the fridge.

That was Sunday.

A rather good one.

Lena