Daily intake of vitamins

I am getting better and better with usage of my new juicer with Low Speed Technology System. Today my portion of juice contained: apples, pears, carrots, parsnip, pineapple, kiwi and of course wheat grass.

I will be away for the next couple of days, so see you next week. Cheers

Saying 'I love you' with a stack of pancakes

I just need to add here that the pancakes were with spinach and goat cheese, and one for a dessert filled with grilled apples, cinnamon and some strawberry syrup.

Rising your man

It is funny how me and my mum have different opinion on living in relationship. My mum and my granny both think that you need to treat man like a child and teach him everything what you expect him to do. That change in the mindset must have happened recently then. I see man and woman working together and doing things that just need to be done. It is not a rocket science to know that garbage bin needs to be emptied out sometimes, that dirty plates are not being magically transformed into the clean ones, and in order to have a clean clothes you need to use a washing machine.

I partially blame my mum for my brother's inability to figure out household duties by himself. Probably lots of men were raised in that way and this is the reason why so many women stay single nowadays. They are smart, independent, they know how to take care of themselves, why would they need a big child in the house waiting to be served a dinner?

Luckily not all men are like that :)

You don't have to buy

Because I have changed houses and flats several times over the last years, I know how much trouble packing, caring and storing books can be. Even though I love books, I have tried keeping their volume to a minimum, what became easier after I have received my last years birthday gift: Kindle.

Libraries were always my favourite places to spend an afternoon in. Surrended by books and all this knowledge, I was explorings one after another, not even knowing how quickly the time is passing and what is happening around me.

But lets cut the chase: today I have borrowed a travel guide for Tenerife from my local library. The trick was, that this book was ordered for me from other branch in Kingston. I didn't know that was possible. I have already started thinking, that I will have to buy a guide, which will later end up on the book shelf next to other travel guides that I haven't used again. I never go to the same places. I want to discover new. World is to big.

Something went wrong with my first bread

This Saturday I have tried baking my first bread. My friend has lent me a breadmaker, so it should be easier, however I think, I've messed up settings, because my bread didn't look quite as I was expecting.

I have tried baking Olive and Rosemary Bread with white flour. It is almost gone today, so it wasn't such a big disaster.

Gluten free apple pie

I have got one recipe for apple pie that I have used many times. Yesterday I have tried it with gluten free rice flour and it worked. The only thing that didn't go quite as it should, was that apparently apples didn't have enough juice in them, so the pie is rather dry. Banana ice cream fixed the problem though.

Seaweed and Tofu

This soup is a combination of Polish, Spanish and Japanese recipes. I started cooking just a generic vegetable soup, but then I added chopped celery sticks, courgettes, can of tomato, seaweed and tofu.

I don't use vegetable stock cubes as there are to many chemicals in them, but what seams to be working with each soup is something my grandma told me once. You need to chop the onions and fry them on the pan with butter allowing to change the colour slightly. The more butter the better the soup will be, but you know, too much may be too much :)

Tofu was prepared separately. I have used crushed garlic, ginger powder, sesame seeds and butter to prepare it. You can first prepare the marinade and toss in the tofu pieces for 10-15min, but I was rushing (had a date yesterday :) so didn't have time for that. I have melted a bit of butter (you can also use olive oil, the one for baking and roasting, NOT extra virgin) and added garlic, ginger and sesame seeds, and tofu. Stirring is very important as this ingredients can burn very quickly. When they are brown, they are ready. 

Seaweed was sprinkled on top of the soup just before serving as it doesn't have to stay in a bowling water for long, at least the version I have got.

Healthy fast food, impossible?

Possible :)

This easy to prepare chips are not only healthy, they are very tasty too. What you need to prepare them is celery, but not the popular celery sticks, just their roots. Unfortunately they are not easy to get in the UK.

Ingredients:
1-2 celeries
sweet ground pepper
spicy ground pepper
olive oil

Peal and cut celeries into long straps. Place them in a bowl and add some olive oil and spices. Mix everything together. Spread celeries on a pan and leave in the oven for about 20-30 minuts with temperature around 180C.

I have prepared two sauces to accompany my chips: garlic and pesto.

Garlic Sauce:
Crush 2 cloves of garlic and mix it with a bit of salt. Add 3 spoons of a yoghurt (I use a goat version) and one spoon of mayo. Mix together and serve.

Mind-blowing spicy sweetness

The friend of mine recommended this delicious chilli jelly when we were out for brunch yesterday. It is so good that I have found it today in Tesco and bought 2 pots of it. I have never heard of chilli jelly before, but now I think I should try to make it myself.

Motorbike and Internet

As a modern housewife ;) I am riding a motorbike. The other day I wanted to put some more petrol in my tank but I couldn't open it. It was so embarrassing. I had to drive away from the station with red petrol light on for last 20 miles. Luckily there is internet :)

I have found this forum: http://www.riderforums.com/z1k-z750-maintenance/60556-wtf-i-cant-open-my-gas-tank-anymore.html

I have tried my dry chain lube and it worked.

How people could live without internet once????

Inventing dishes

I always find more fun cooking creatively, that is how I call it. What means that I more or less know the recipe but I make things my way.

This time I just made that dish up, having in mind ingredients my body needs and what my fridge hides.

What you can see on the plate is:

1. rice - which I spiced up with turmeric and some nutmeg. You put some butter on a pan, wait till it melts down and add rice. Then add the spices and stir  for a couple of minutes. Ready.
2. grilled vegetables: grilled onion and peppers
3. salad: lettuce, avocado, olives, chopped walnuts, cherry tomatoes, olive oil and carrot for garnish

Easy, isn't it? and has got all the proteins, carbs and vegetables you need.

Few minutes out of my day

There is that saying: 'Man does not live on bread alone' so I thought that I will tell you about two youtube videos that I have been watching over and over, specially the first one. I am watching and excising :)

Of course we all want to be fit and look slim, but I realised that my metabolism is much slower now then few years ago, what unfortunately means, that if I want to keep my dress size 8/10 I need to be active. I managed to drop 3 kgs doing the below exercises, walking and eating mostly healthy food.

So proud

For the last two days, all our salad needs were fulfilled by lettuce from our garden. It is so great to be able to just grab some scissors and cut the required amount for a garden salad. Fresh, with all shades of green, as I sowed a selection of different kinds, and very crunchy lettuce reminds me times when as I child I was going to my parents garden and choosing what I want to have for a meal. Priceless.

Radish on the other hand is still not ready. The plants that were left in their places are getting stronger and bigger, but ones that I have to move to make some room for them to grow, will probably need more time. I am still waiting patiently.