Recipes (Keep comments in a separate thread!)

Reporting back from the Food Expo:

Vegan-friendly spreads and seed crackers

What you'll need:

1 lb cottage cheese (I went with Tillamook this time instead of Daisy 😲)
1 cup Greek yogurt (regular yogurt or sour cream works fine too)
1 tbsp flaxseed oil or whatever oil you have on hand
A few slices of Kraft singles
2 slices of prosciutto
Red chili flakes
Salt



Whisk the cottage cheese and yogurt together until smooth—you can use a hand mixer or just toss it in a blender. Split the mixture into two bowls. In the first one, mix in some finely chopped prosciutto and a splash of flax oil. For the second bowl, stir in the crumbled Kraft cheese, a pinch of salt, and some red pepper flakes if you’re feeling adventurous 😁).



For the crackers:

Mix 1 cup of flaxseeds with 1 cup of water. Let them soak for at least 20 minutes, then stir in half a cup of sesame seeds and half a cup of sunflower seeds. Give it a good mix and season with salt, freshly cracked peppercorns, and any other spices you love (like cumin or turmeric)
.



Spread the mixture out onto parchment paper, flatten it out, and bake at 350°F until the seeds turn golden brown. (Keep an eye on them so they don't burn!) While it's still warm, slice it, and once it's cooled down completely, just break it into chunks. 🙂



(The bread is homemade too, but I'm just posting it here as a side note since I know not everyone is into the healthy cracker vibe.)

http://www.coolinarika.com/recept/quinoa-burger-/

I think this recipe is fantastic!

I usually swap in some vegan cheese, and instead of carrots, I grate in some zucchini. Then I just bake them for about thirty minutes on parchment paper—making sure to flip the burgers after the first 15 minutes.

Anyway, 🙏

http://www.coolinarika.com/recept/kostunjavi-namaz-/ absolutely delicious 😍

BARLEY 😁

- sauté some cabbage and carrots
- once they soften up, toss in the barley (make sure it's soaked and rinsed first) and let it all cook together for a few minutes
- then just pour in some water and let it simmer
- after about half an hour, stir in some tomato sauce, red pepper, and whatever other spices you're feeling
- boil it all for a bit longer and you're done... 🙂

(we usually do it a different way, but honestly, this version is much better)

Cod liver pate—basically a protein bomb.

I grabbed a 600g bag of frozen cod from Costco, used 250g for this.

Boil the cod for about 10 mins.
Add whatever seasonings you want (some ideas: vegan cheese—my favorite little trick is hiding vegan stuff in a dish 😁, an egg, olive oil—I used two tablespoons for this amount, plus salt, pepper, parsley, chives, garlic, pickles, pistachios, olives, capers... just play around with flavors until it works for you)
Mix 100 everything into a pate.

Finger-licking good, and incredibly fast.

My absolute favorite muffins

7 tablespoons rye flour
7 tablespoons spelt flour
100g amaranth
250g low-fat cottage cheese
1 cup yogurt
3 eggs
A teaspoon of baking soda
A pinch of salt
Cook the amaranth first. Then, whisk those eggs and fold in all the other ingredients.
Bake them for about 30 minutes at 350°F.

http://www.coolinarika.com/recept/va...a-s-tikvicama/

Making something kind of like this today. I don't have any zucchini or bacon on hand, so it’s just gonna be a chickpea and millet stew... 🙂

Light Quinoa Pizza

I made the dough using this recipe:
http://www.coolinarika.com/recept/quinoa-peciva/
But I made a few tweaks: I swapped out the white flour for all whole wheat, cut the oil in half, and used coconut oil instead.

After rolling out the dough, I topped it with tomato sauce, sautéed onions and leeks, zucchini, mushrooms, dollops of vegan cheese, and oregano.

Baked at 400°F for about 25 minutes. It was delicious... 😍
You could also add bell peppers, artichokes, or olives if you want.

Bolognese, Fitbit style.

A total game changer—heavy on the texture.
Grab 500g of lean ground meat (turkey or beef works fine) and sauté it in a pan with just enough water to cover the meat. Season it up—salt, pepper, some McCormick, paprika, and I usually toss in some garlic powder too. Throw in 3 or 4 carrots right away; chop half of them up finely and leave the other half whole. Let it simmer low for about 30 minutes, then stir in a bit of tomato sauce (I’m not a huge fan of the heavy stuff), and after another 15 minutes, pull out those whole carrots. Toss them into a blender with a splash of the cooking liquid and mix 100 until smooth. Pour that back into the meat. It adds this crazy thickness and a really refined flavor. Finish it off with a drizzle of olive oil and some parsley.

The husband eats it over pasta, but I prefer pouring mine over steamed cauliflower or broccoli.

You could probably swap the carrots for sweet potatoes. That's my next move.
In the first version I made, I added some finely diced celery along with the carrots. Honestly, it was just as good.

http://mamajacooks.blogspot.com/2008...-od-kelja.html

Looks delicious. I actually skipped the heavy cream and parmesan topping and just tossed in some ground turkey instead. 🙂

http://mamajacooks.blogspot.com/2009...blebijama.html This looks great too. It's next on my list—I really need to use up all this kale before it goes bad.😁

LENTIL, BUCKWHEAT, AND MILLET STEW

Made this last week and honestly... felt pretty good after eating it. I used green lentils—the box says they only need 25 minutes—but I soaked them overnight anyway just to be safe.

- Sauté some onion and carrots. Once they soften up, pour in about six cups of water and toss in half a veggie bouillon cube. Once it hits a boil, throw the lentils in.
- After the lentils have been simmering for maybe 15 minutes, add the buckwheat, then quickly add the millet, and just let the whole thing cook down.
- Keep adding water if you want it more like a soup or thicker.
- Throw in a bit of canned tomato and some roasted red peppers... I like my stews to actually have some color.
- Season however you want. I go heavy on the parsley because I love it, plus the green against the other colors is a nice little gimmick 😁...

I’m a sucker for spoon meals, so I’m always whipping stuff like this up. 🙂 Hope this helps if anyone's looking for ideas... 😁 Usually, I just follow the same basic formula and just throw in whatever happens to be in my pantry at the moment. 🙂

BUCKWHEAT BURGERS IN RED SAUCE

burgers

- 100g buckwheat
- 65g breadcrumbs
- 1 egg
- 3-4 cloves of garlic
- spices

Boil the buckwheat and let it soak up all the water. Once that's done, just blitz it with an immersion blender and mix in everything else—breadcrumbs, egg, garlic, parsley, red chili flakes, and pepper.

Shape them into patties and fry them up. They cook pretty fast...

sauce

- 1 cup
- 2 cloves of garlic
- tomato sauce
- water
- spices—parsley, oregano, salt, pepper, red chili flakes





Honestly, they tasted way better than they look in the photos...😁

Protein cheese dessert 🙂

I mix 100g plain cottage cheese with 100g low-fat quark from Lidl plus a splash of yogurt. Just keep mixing until it’s smooth.
Throw in a scoop or two of Stevia powder—whatever fits your sweet tooth.

That’s the base. So far, I've messed around with adding:
raspberry flavoring plus some actual raspberries
orange flavoring plus some zest
a tiny teaspoon of instant coffee and a few drops of vanilla extract (you gotta mix that one more, otherwise it just tastes like that coffee-flavored yogurt you grab at Lidl)

Right now, this is my go-to dessert 🙏
The little gimmick is using flavors that match the color—it looks killer that way!

Oatless "oatmeal" (inspired by Bodyrock on Facebook, with a few tweaks)

The Base:
1 egg
2 egg whites
1 Banana
A splash of milk—though I skipped it today and it turned out just fine

Today's toppings:
Shredded coconut
A spoonful of almond butter
A drizzle of agave
A hint of vanilla
Cinnamon

Just mash the banana, whisk it together with the eggs, stir in the rest of your ingredients, and simmer everything in a small saucepan—keep stirring until it reaches that perfect cooked oatmeal texture.
For toppings, feel free to get creative—fresh or dried fruit, some nuts... whatever you're feeling.
The original recipe calls for just the whites, but personally—I think it's much better with the yolk included.

Ingredients:
1 lb Swiss chard
9 oz low-fat cottage cheese
1 container liquid yogurt (6 oz)
2 eggs
3 slices graham flour
half a packet of baking powder
salt and spices to taste

Instructions:
Give the Swiss chard a good wash, trim off those stems, chop it up, and toss it into some boiling salted water for just a few minutes. Once it's tender, drain it well and give it a quick rinse under cold water.
In a bowl, whisk the eggs together, then stir in the yogurt, cottage cheese, and the flour mixed with baking powder. Finally, gently fold in the Swiss chard. Pour the batter into a pan (I personally used a round 10-inch pan) and pop it into a preheated oven at 350°F for about 25 minutes.
Enjoy! 🙂

Ingredients(makes 6 muffins):
8 large scoops of rolled oats (about 3 oz)
1 large scoop of coconut flour
5.3 oz Greek yogurt
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon honey
a pinch of ground ginger
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoons warm water
your choice of sweetener

Instructions:
Start by mixing together the oats, coconut flour, baking powder, and spices. Next, stir in the egg and the yogurt, then finish things off by adding 1-2 tablespoons of warm water. Fill your muffin tin about 3/4 full and pop them into a preheated oven at 350°F for about 25-30 minutes. Since every oven is a little different, I usually check them with a toothpick—if the toothpick comes out clean, they're good to go! Feel free to adjust the amount of sugar, stevia, or whatever sweetener you prefer. If you're feeling fancy, you can also toss in some dried or freeze-dried fruit, or even a few dark chocolate chips. 👍

FISH HEAD BROTH

- clean those slices
- toss the heads into salted water with a splash of olive oil and a bay leaf to boil
- let them cook until they're done—about 15 minutes or so

- while those are boiling, sauté some leeks in olive oil in a separate pot
- once the heads are finished, strain the broth into that second pot, stir in some grated carrots, 2.5 tablespoons of rice, parsley, and pepper... add salt if it needs it, then simmer until the rice is soft (another ten minutes or so)

doing the exact same thing today, just using fillets instead of heads🙂

Creamy Carrot and Kale Soup

Ingredients for about 1.5 quarts
-4 large carrots
1/4 head of kale
-1 small onion
-your choice of spices
-1/2 cup low-fat milk
-1 tbsp ginger

First, clean the carrots and slice them into rounds so they cook faster. Do the same for the kale and the onion. Toss everything into a pot and cover it with a liter and a half of water. I went ahead and threw in all my spices right away. A bit of salt, some Maggi, black pepper, cayenne, red chili flakes, curry powder, cumin (either whole seeds or ground works fine), dill, marjoram, thyme, and ginger. Honestly, just throw in as many as you can—the more variety, the better the flavor. 🙂 Once the veggies are soft, just use an immersion blender to smooth it all out. Pour in the milk and let it simmer for a minute or two. It’s seriously finger-licking good. 🙂

MEAT, QUINOA, AND MILLET STUFFING

- 1 lb ground meat
- half a scoop of quinoa
- half a scoop of millet
- 1 egg
- 1 onion, whatever spices you actually like, sesame seeds, and a handful of breadcrumbs

- Boil the quinoa and millet, mix everything together, then just let it sit for a bit...
- Form them into little patties, dust them in flour, and fry them up in some oil. Simple enough...

Back on the fasting grind again.😁




Egg and dairy-free cheese dip/spread

What you'll need:

8 oz of Milbona dairy-free cheese
A few spoonfuls of Greek (or plain) yogurt—you could even use sour cream if you aren't watching the fat content
2 large hard-boiled eggs
2 scallions
Salt
Pepper



Just mash those eggs with a fork, toss in the rest of the ingredients, and give it a good mix. If you want to make it more substantial, feel free to throw in some meat like turkey ham, dried pork, or prosciutto... As for spices, just go with whatever you're feeling—maybe some paprika or garam masala, totally up to you. 😁

I served this with some standard white bread topped with black olives.