Friday 29 July 2016

DAY FIVE - Oats Pancakes (Only five Ingredients)



Happy Friday!

The week is almost finished and today I was thinking on breakfast… Breakfast time, the best meal of the day. Normally many of us ignore how important it is to start with our days. Most of the times, going to work, the school, the kids, the dog or any other thing, let us without time to sit in peace and eat something nice, is even common that the only days of the weeks that the family sit together to have breakfast is on the weekends, but there’s many quick and easy options that I have been discovering through this week, as I’m a person that hates to eat every day the same.




For me the food is all about variation, I think very badly that it's not healthy for your psyche to get used to the same cereal with milk every morning. That’s why today I will use this post to share some ridiculously easy and delicious ideas to have a nice breakfast in any situation and of course, I will give you the recipe for these Pancakes made with only five ingredients that will blow your kitchen up with the sweetest smell. I topped them with this non sugared raspberry jam and a spoon of cream cheese for a little indulgence. I also made them in as crepes by adding a little bit more milk** and served them with fresh Strawberries and Honey.



Here is a list of the nicest breakfast that I had this week:


  • Apple and Banana Slices with Peanut butter and Chocolate Chips. It’s simple, delicious and the kids also love it!
  • Greek yogurt topped with a few spoons of the Crust from my Cherry Crumble and some Frozen Blueberries. (I made the Crust apart and stored in an airtight container as I mentioned in the post, it was the best idea I ever had)
  • Poached eggs with ham and avocado. If you are a more salty kind of person, this is your kind of deal.
  • Bush-berries and Cucumber Smoothie with Muesli. Fresh and crunchy, it will bring some fiber to make that belly work it out!
  • Veggies and Cheese Omelet. Keep bringing proteins to your life with this one.
  • Tuna salad Lettuce roll ups. I proved that Lettuce doesn’t have anything to envy to a piece of bread, it’s great!
  • Gaby’s Oats Shake (straight from my mom’s imaginary recipe index). Make it in the blender with Ice, ¾ c Oats, 1 c Milk, 1 tbsp. Vanilla extract and 2 tbsp. Honey. Yummi!



All these options will bring you back on trail only by adding some good stuff to your mornings. Give them a try and if you even have a little bit more time, you always can add 30 minutes of work out before the breakfast so you burn the bad and bring the Godies on!



Now, back to the Pancakes, make them for breakfast or for lunch, you won’t ever notice that some common things are not in there ;-). I like to spice my pancakes a little bit always with some Nut Muscade and Cinnamon but you can just leave them on the basic version. The only thing I will beg you, please don’t forget the pinch of salt! It’s the only thing that never can change, in the sweet universe you are always going to need a balance, acid, salty, crunchy… And this bit of salt might be a Pinch Salt for the pancakes but a Big difference on flavor for the Desserts of the World. (Sorry I couldn’t help the joke xD)




Let’s get the Pancakes Party started!



DAY FIVE - Oats Pancakes.
(5 Small Pancakes or 5 Crepes)




Ingredients


1 c Milk**
1 ½ c Oats
1 tbsp. Honey
1 tbsp. Vanilla Extract
1 Egg

Pinch of salt


Optional Additations

1 tbsp. Sesame Seeds
Pinch of Cinnamon
Pinch of Nut Muscade.


Procedure

Add all the ingredients to the blender and blend until the oats its fine and the mix is homogeneous.

In a Pancake pan (preferably) preheated on medium temperature and oiled with canola oil, pour the mix in (portions and let it set until the surface has little bubbles).

Flip the Pancake and let it toast for a few seconds, then take it to a plate. Repeat the process until the mix is over.





Raspberry Jam

Ingredients

1 c Frozen Raspberries
¼ c Water
2 tbsp. Honey
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract

Procedure

Add the raspberries and the water to a pan and heat it to medium high temperature until the juice came out and started bubbling.

Break the structure of the fruit with a fork and let it bubble for around one minute to reduce the juices but not too long.

Turn the heat off and add the honey and the vanilla. Mix well together and it’s ready to pour over the pancakes or in a very clean glass jar to be eaten later.




**If you are going for the crepes, light up the mix with ½ c more of milk. Then make sure you spread it in the pan at the moment of cooking to make it be thinner.

Thursday 28 July 2016

DAY FOUR - Decadent Cherry Crumble I’m One year in Belgium!!





Hi everyone!


I wanted to make something special, this time not only for you dear fellows, but also to celebrate two very important things that have a place today. One is that today is the fifth day I haven’t eat any refined carbohydrates and I feel great! I thought I couldn’t make it but, yes, I wasn’t so impossible I only had to work for it and not give up, it’s only two more days to go but it doesn’t look difficult to get there anymore, I still have a lot to learn from this kind of life. Which takes me to the Second reason to celebrate this day, one year ago my dream of coming to live in Belgium and create this beautiful family with my FiancĂ© started to come truth. We had to work so hard for it! But here we are, ready for more and now everything seems to be so normal, like it would have been always just pink and flowers... But it hasn’t and we even got to think that it wouldn’t be possible.



And what do I do best when there is celebration? Yeah baby is baking time!



Today I decided to make something significatively more special than the other recipes of this week, as normally I have been posting easy treats that can satisfy you quickly when you are about to jump into the Nutella jar. But the recipe from today is something that even when is not too complicated, it takes more procedure and requires that you have more than a few minutes to dedicate yourself to the kitchen and blow that dust off of the oven. (no, of course in my oven there’s not dust but you know, I’ve seen cases…!)




The Cherry Crumble was just a Go-to too ‘Go-to’ to be ignored, really. First, it’s cherry season! And second, come on, cherries are just delicious, beautiful and they were in my fridge, what else can I say? In fact, is the first time I ever buy cherries and I only tried them once before but I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them from the first moment and finally today the planets aligned on the Cherry favor! Something else about Cherries is that they are actually ideal for any kind of diet as they are full with the whole story about the fiber, vitamins and all those wonderful things I’ve been talking about so much. In fact, I found this to detail it much better for you. Ain’t I a sweetheart?? ;-) hehehe… You don’t have to answer that.



My words are always be too short to describe this creation. Oh Sweet Gooey! It was FANTASTIC!!! I didn’t expect it would come out in so perfect but it was, and more than that. Sweet, as the beautiful cherries I used, I didn’t need much to enhance their flavor and the smell coming out of that pan was just heaven, who said house aromatizers? I make Cherry Crumble at home… It was juicy and intense, but topped with that crust made with almonds, oats and sesame that elevated the texture and cut the sweetness. Everything just worked.


The magic of this recipe was the best part of everything. The cooking of the cherries released the pectin in the peels and everything became in a delicious jam in cuestion of minutes, all this with the addition of only a few tablespoons of honey, at the time that the crust, could have been baked apart perfectly and be kept on an airtight container for breakfast of craving times, it’s delicious and crunchy, but on this occasion I opted for add it to the cherries while it was still raw, so part of it would absorb the juices of the cherries while the top got gold and crispy.




Oh no, I can’t believe I keep talking!! I better stop torturing you and pass to the recipe right away…



One more thing, don’t be shy to leave your comments as you pass by… I want to know what are you thinking about the Dessert Challenge!! And if you really like what you read over here, you always can Subscribe to my Newsletter so you get everything straight at the security of your your Mailbox ;-). Soonish there’s many nice surprises I want to share with the world, make sure you are around to enjoy them too!




Cherry Crumble - 6 portions 8’’ mold


Cherry Jam


Ingredients


5 c Cherries (Cut in half and without seed)
4 tsp. Honey
1 tbsp Vanilla extract
½ tsp. Lemon grated zest


Procedure

Cut the cherries in half and make sure you take every single seed out of it. (you don’t want to break anyone's teeth) After a few patience minutes of cutting, pulling and some red nails I ended up with this this.



Place the Cherries in a pan with the honey and cook on a medium hight temperature removing constantly until the cherries release their juice and starts to reduce. (about 10 minutes)

Turn the heat off and add the vanilla and the lemon zest. Set aside to chill.



Crumble Crust

Ingredients

1 c Almond Flour
¼ Oats
2 tbsp. Sesame Seeds
2 tbsp. Honey
2 tbsp. Olive Oil
1 tbsp. Vanilla extract
Pinch of Cinnamon
Pinch of Salt

Procedure

Place the almond, the cinnamon, the oats and the salt in the food processor and give it a few pulses until the oats gets a finer texture.

Place it together with the rest of the ingredients and combine with a spatula. or with the hands, the consistency should be a certain paste, similar than cookie dough but doesn’t hold together so good.

At this point, you can convert this crust on a pie crust by smashing it in the bottom of a pie mold or simply bake it like this on a baking sheet to get the snack I was talking about.


Assembling

Place the cooled cherry jam on a oven safe mold.

Make little balls of the dough and break them over the cherries leaving some spaces without cover. This is where subjectivity show off, you can add as much or less as you like it, I like it with muuuuuch, but I wanted to make it look pretty, so I baked the rest on the baking sheet and added it when serving.

Serve warm, it makes a beautiful match with Vanilla Ice Cream or with English Custard. All possible into the challenge options ;-)

I hope you end up with a plate like mine!







Wednesday 27 July 2016

DAY THREE - Cheeky Bosvruchten Ice Cream



Hello there!
   God bless Europe and the -18 freezers! There’s certain things that for culture and for money, I didn’t get to know in Venezuela. There, the common way to freeze something is by a occupying a freezer that normally is combined with the normal fridge, and works on certain temperature that allows to freeze but not overreacting at all! Said that, is here in Belgium where I saw my first -18 monster and I fell in love at the first sight. I always knew that such a thing would be solving half of my life in any moment, but is for sure on these days of heat when I’m happier than ever by having it!





   Today I was preparing my daily post about our mentioned Challenge, for which one I have so many recipes to develop yet. But remember that I’m going soon to the beach and I can’t be eating more than one treat by day or else I wouldn’t be worst than before with so many nice things!! Therefore, every day, I carefully think and organize one sweet recipe for me and for you to enjoy and the one for today was an experiment with a marriage in between Chia Seeds and vanilla Pudding that on a first taste wasn’t too bad, but at the end of the counts, I decided that this blog is for good and I wasn’t completely convinced with the idea of frog eggs floating on a milky substance to be posted…


   Worried about making something up that I wasn’t planning and worst, looking at the fact that I already ate at fondum the failed Chia, I felt almost hopeless realizing that If I made something else I wouldn’t be able to eat it today.. But there’s where normally the magic happens, in those kind of moments where the light seems to go off. So I decided to combine another amazingly convenient food of this week and by using two of my favorite things at home I came out with Ice Cream. Yes, ‘Bosvruchten’ to be more specific, and what is that? Mmm… It’s just the Belgian way to say berries I guess, and also sounds kind of fancy for me. ;-)


   And why Cheeky? Well, just because of the very tricky way that I solved this mess I became on today. So Bushfruits Ice cream, let me say something about it, D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S! I think is the best I ever ate, seeing that is made basically by fruits and the taste is so powerful that I only can remember the most famous Italian Creamery at home, with such an intensity of flavors and colors, all decorated that beautifully that you never could really choose for one. But my favorite back them always was the Berries Ice cream, intense and passionate always.


   The best of all was that it took me literally 5 minutes to make it before let it cool in my fabulous -18 a little while as the other reason why I love Europe so much is that the fruits you can purchase already frozen in the shop, so they are available for you the whole year around, isn’t it convenient? Because as you know, once you mix them being frozen, the ice cream is almost completely textured and ready to eat.


   As we are in the Losing-weight wave this week, I combined the fruits with yogurt that was already sweetened, but if you like the adrenaline, better go for same amount of Greek non sugared low fat yogurt and add honey before you pulse it. For a last note I want to say, YES!! I couldn’t resist to put it in a cone hehehehe, it was so pretty! but of course I won’t eat that cone, for that I have specialized teeths around that will appreciate that crunchy cookie dipped in the Ice Cream. But believe me, you won’t miss it at all, the rich flavor of this Bushberries version will keep you happy by eating it straight from the container.




Cheeky Bosvruchten Ice Cream

Ingredients

2 c Frozen Raspberries
2c Frozen Blueberries
2 c Frozen Strawberries
2c Yogurt*
2 tbsp. Raw Honey


Procedure

Place all the ingredients in the food processor and mix without mercy until the fruit pieces disappeared and you got an homogeneous sorbet.


Pour the sorbet into an airtight container and let it rest in the freezer until is hard, with -18 you will only need around one hour, but there’s cases of cases, I know about it very well, then is probably better to let it rest overnight... ;-)

Serve and use any delicious topping that has fiber enough, like toasted almonds for example or tossed peanuts.




** If the yogurt is sweetened like mine, with the honey of the recipe is enough for my taste. If you had time to get Greek Unsweetened Yogurt, then you can add from ‘4 to 6 tbsp of honey to power up the sweetness.

Note for myself: Come on Patricia! It’s about time to get an ice cream scoop!... -.-’


Tot ziens! (Until Tomorrow…)


...

Tuesday 26 July 2016

DAY TWO Dessert Challenge - Chocolate/Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies




Hey, hey, hey dear fellows!
(Yeh, sounds weird but it reminds me the movie The Clockwork Orange xD)

This is the day two of the Dessert Challenge, but for me is the fourth day of eating low carb, Low sugar and Low fat and I’m already starting to see the progress! It’s magical, and delicious too! I swear that from the struggle of the first day I haven’t been suffering anymore by re-discovering ingredients that I always knew about but didn’t have an idea of how good they were and that many options I had to use them on a healthy way.




But you didn’t think I would be posting tea the whole week, didn’t you? Of course not!!!


So, a question that must be killing many of you… What am I actually eating? Well I’m not a salty food blogger but if you also want to follow this challenge for your own belly to be flat, then don’t worry, I won’t let you alone. Beside of my daily dessert recipe I will guide you with your normal meals for you to stop worrying about that too. For example today I followed this plan that I made out myself:


  1. Detox Morning Tea
  2. Brekfast: Yogurt with Musli
  3. Lunch: Microwave Grated Aubergine (that looks like this) the difference is that I use the Microwave on the Grill setting and takes me literally 10 minutes before they are deliciously in my plate.
  4. 4pm: At this time I needed something nice and before falling into temptation I made one of my tricky sweet recipes, which I could eat with 0 Guiltiness, for example the cookies from today.
  5. Dinner: I took Chicken-Guacamole wraps that probably looked like this ones and got me full for the rest of the night.


As you saw, the most difficult part for me is the craving issue… Yes, I’m a person that is used to take a bite everywhere, in any moment, and following diets never has been really my thing. But if I wanted to be success I needed to control myself, the question is 'how did I suppose to do this when I really neeeed a Gooey to chew??. I really got surprised about the power of certain combinations that I will be showing you and that you will also love, at the time that with only one bite your lion hungriness for unnecessary foods will go away without hypnosis but by actually eating something really nice.


Here is see a list of my favorite ingredients that I have Re-Discovered this week

  • Peanut butter
  • Avocado
  • Cocoa Powder
  • Chia Seeds
  • Honey
  • Oats
  • Coconut
  • Cinnamon
  • Almonds
  • Olive Oil

It’s incredible how you can transform this ingredients to fit in wonderful desserts as a avocado-chocolate mousse or a Chia Seeds Pudding, or even This delicious Chocolate-Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies that are the best for the craving, don’t have any butter, flour or sugar and the best, the peanut butter is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, Is full of protein, vitamins and fiber and it taste so good! Seriously, I will tell you that when I found out that if I want to eat something overnight and I don’t have anything healthy around, you can perfectly take a spoon of Peanut Butter and lick it, I was the happier woman in the planet. Peanut butter changed my life hehehe...

Once you make this cookies, you will have a source of happiness stored in your pantry, and better, it will help you to burn the fat and with only ONE bite you will feel truly satisfied. So let’s jump to the recipe right now please!









Chocolate-Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies
For 30 halfs - 15 Sandwiches



Ingredients

1 c Almond flour
1/2 c Oats
1/3 c Cocoa Powder
6 tbsp. Raw Honey
5 tbsp. Olive Oil
1/2 tsp. Baking powder
Pinch of salt
Pinch of Cinnamon
Peanut Butter to fill up


Procedure

Preheat the oven to 170 C°

Combine the almond flour and the oats on the food processor and give it a few pulses until the oats is finer.




Add this mix in a bowl and pour over the powders all the rest of the ingredients and combine with a spatula.

Scoop the mix with a teaspoon (remember they are bites and will be eaten from two to two). You should end up with around 30 cookies. Give them round and flat shape, as they don’t have any butter to be melted in the oven, they will keep the shape you give them.




Bake for around 8 minutes and let cool into the oven for more crispiness.

Assambling

You know, this doesn’t have science. Take the peanut butter with a spatula and spread it in one half, then take another half and complete the sandwich. If you want to get technical, you also can use a pastry bag to pipe the peanut butter on the cookie.

Take a bite and burn that fat on the most delicious way…

Last Details

Make sure you don’t eat the whole batch of cookies in one hour, share it with your kids and your hubby or storage them in a airtight container, better if is glass.


Note: Is important to mention that taking a challenge like this is not signing a contract to a whole new rabbit life without other option. What I’m trying to get with this is to open my mind to a whole new world full with possibilities. It doesn't mean I wont ever make a cake again, but certainly, if I already was getting sick of eating the same bread roll all the time, now I will think on it better and I will have many other ideas that will make me feel as good or even better. I also do this in support to many friends that live with allergies or diseases that conditions them to stay in the margin as the options for them are sometimes limited. So it doesn’t have anything to do with the cakes, ok? As you know, I am a cake lover and a Classic cake with flour, butter, sugar and milk always will be my love…