Smoked Trout Spread with Pumpernickel bread and Daikon / Radish

First one of the appetizers I made for my father's birthday and it was off to a pretty good start. I apologise before hand that the pictures of these are not going to be the greatest, since I was kind of surrounded by a ravenous family, so couldn't really take the food away for a photo shoot. :P
This is fairly healthy as party appetizers go and will probably be tasty to anyone with a love of a good schmear. I used a combination of soft goat cheese and sour cream as the base for this spread, since basically I forgot to buy cream cheese, but the choice is completely up to you. I think both ways would work equally well. For me the best way to eat this was first the pumpernickel, then a slice of the daikon (a big white winter radish) and then the spread, but if you're not a fan of pumpernickel or want it even healthier, you can use just a slice of daikon. Kids probably would like this on some crackers though. The recipe for this comes from one of my favourite newly discovered food blogs foodwishes, link below.

Appetizer/Snack - 1 big bowl (about 14oz/350g) - 1000cal - 15min

(58g fat; 89g carbs and 77g protein)

Banana Eggy Pancake

1 banana + 1 egg = Happiness

So, like any warm-blooded person, I love pancakes once in a while. But since we're trying to eat healthier it doesn't seem like a viable option right now. Though I've definitely had some impressive cheat days these past few weeks with Easter, my father's, my brother's and a friend's birthday. I'll be posting recipes that I've made for those occasions soon as well. :) But I haven't had pancakes in a good long while now and I had a craving. Thus came in this awesome fake banana pancake. I've made these before when I had leftover very ripe bananas and didn't feel like a smoothie, but they're surprisingly healthy. It's just an egg, a mashed up (ripe) banana and optionally a little honey or other sweetener, and no it doesn't taste exactly like a pancake of course. It is after all just a banana-y omelet, but it settles my cravings and might do the same for you!

Breakfast/Lunch/Snack - 1 'pancake' - 200cal - 10min

(9g fat; 25g carbs and 7g protein)

Carbless Sin - Mini Aubergine / Eggplant Pizza with Chorizo and Parmezan

Sometimes being too lazy to go to the store results in something wonderful like this. I started with a wrinkly eggplant/aubergine I'd forgotten about and this happened. *so happy*
These are mini eggplant/aubergine pizza's with a 'raw' tomato sauce, some leftover chorizo and a bit of parmezan, which had hardened which made it very hard to grate, so I just put little cubes on them, and it was wonderful, you guys. Maybe it was because I was a bit desperate to put together without going to the store, but honestly it was. I have since these made another version of these (actually following a recipe) at home with my family, but that one had a sauce that was more work, and without the chorizo, but with mozzarella. But the original leftover version of them was better imo (in my opinion)! Chorizo really made this magical. The leftover rucola was a nice touch, if I may say so myself. And I'm definitely making this super-easy raw tomato sauce again for other things. Let's get on with the recipe of these awesome 'leftovers' eggplant pizza. First version of the recipe will be the extended one, with reasoning behind everything. And then there's a short one at the bottom which you can use while cooking.

Lunch/Snack/Appetizer - 1 eggplant ~ 12 pizza - 650cal - 30min (without salting)

(45g fat; 44g carbs and 22g protein)

Mexican Hash - Butternut, bell pepper, chorizo, spinach and eggs with guacamole

 

I can't take any credit for this one, but I thought I'd quickly share this one so more people can enjoy it. This is a Mexican inspired hash made from chunks of butternut with red bell pepper, chorizo, spinach and some tasty eggs. This lovely recipe comes from a blog I'm planning on exploring further called 'every last bite'. I did make some minor adjustments, so you just decide which suggestion you want to follow. ;) I changed some amounts and cooking times I think and I switched out the spicy pepper by just a sprinkling of cayenne, since I don't do spicy well (I also used mild chorizo). I've made this twice now, for my sister and for friends, and most of them were big fans as well. 

On the original blog it's advertised as a breakfast food, but I've yet to try that, seems a bit heavy to my tastes. I made it for dinner both times and my sister took leftovers to work the day after and successfully reheated it in the microwave (without the egg, just bake one separately, or go without).

Here's quick overview with photo's as to what to do, but definitely go to the original blog for even better photo's! (I just have my camera phone :p)

Dinner/Lunch and apparently Breakfast - 3 portions - 450 cal (with guac) - 50min

(35,4g fat; 29,6g carbs and 18,5g protein)

Ultimate Salad with a poached egg

Salad loaded with goodies and extremely filling.

Alright so I have a bit of a confession to make. This was mostly just a 'I have a bit of leftover salmon and avocado' situation. Smoked salmon and avocado are my go to staples to buy whenever I go to the store. I might have a teenie weenie obsession, but that's okay, it's the least worrisome I have. ^^
This salad turned out pretty good, though I'm not a 100% sure on my decision to caramelize the onions, kind of missed the sharpness of a bit of raw onion, but you can decide for yourself.
These kind of recipes are just more as an inspiration to draw upon if you need it. It was also just an excuse to experiment a bit: my first poached egg ever, turned out pretty neat if I do say so myself. Though to be perfectly honest I did lose some of the white since I had no idea on how to go about it.

Salad - 1 serving - 300cal - 20min

 (19g fat, 3g saturated; 18g carbs and 19g protein)

Butternut Pumpkin Soup with Sour Cream and Roasted Seeds

The Butternut is back, bitches! Sorry, just enthusiastic. This time in the form of a comforting soup. It was a bit of an experiment since I read somewhere that for a lot of pumpkin kinds you can leave the skin on as long as you make sure it's soft enough by cooking/roasting/...! This seemed like a game changer, since removing the peel of a pumpkin is just so much work, especially if you don't have a decent big knife like I do at Uni... :( Plus it would means wasting less, so I'm all for it. I'm also roasting the seeds to add to my soup as a crunch at the end, so I literally used the whole pumpkin! I wanted to make it more an oriental tasting soup, but didn't have any ginger and I'm already adding coconut milk to my dinner. But I'm thinking an excellent version of this soup would be with ginger, maybe some lemon grass, definitely a bunch of coriander and coconut milk. I did end up adding a bit of (light) sour cream to cut through that comforting, slightly sweet pumpkin flavour. Since I wanted some more colour and thought it would go well I added some (frozen) parsley and of course my toasted pumpkin seeds.

I decided to back to the two tier recipe format. I thought it unnecessary with 'easy' recipes, but honestly I like having the room to give you all the tips & tricks that I can which makes the recipe a little chaotic so it really does seem handy to have a shorthand version of it. Plus I have no doubt that most have little interest in my ramblings and are just looking for some recipe inspiration. If anyone has suggestions on how to make the recipes more readable/useable, be sure to let me know. Do you prefer them with photos at various steps? Plus I made a nice picture for you guys this time even! So I might do a little plating section again. Consider this my wintry valentine soup. Look at me, being all topical. This is another recipe of my own design so I might update this if/when I perfect/improve this.

Soup - 6 or more servings -  120cal/serving (800cal/whole pot) - 30min + 40min cooking

 (4.7g fat, 1.2g saturated; 19.3g carbs and 3.2g protein)

Smoked salmon, cream cheese, avocado and veggie Wrap

Okay, I tried to hold off for a while, but the need has become too strong, the need for a delicious wrap with smoked salmon and avocado, but I added a few more veggies to my usual version of it, so hopefully I won't need two of them to fill me up (I don't really, but it was so delicious I really want one!). This is a super simple recipe and surely no big revelation for most of you, but if you don't have too much experience with eating other things than just bread for lunch, this might be new to you. Trust me, this thing is fucking DELICIOUS. I do adore both smoked salmon and avocado so I might be biased, but it really is, friends and my sister agree. ;) Obviously as you can see it is not as low calorie than the recent recipes I've posted, since it does contain carbs and slightly fatty foods. Most of the calories come from the wrap (200cal), so if you use a less calorie heavy wrap, or convert this into a salad, it would be healthier. Unless you're actively doing a heavy diet, this is still a pretty good lunch (if you just eat one), it has lots of veggies and healthy fats from the avocado and salmon. Since one wrap contains half an avocado (and half a tomato, half a shallot), it does tempt you to make another one, but leave it for tomorrow or share with a friend! Rub the remaining half an avocado with lemon juice so it doesn't turn brown.

Lunch - 1 person - 500 cal - 15 minutes

 (28g fat, 7.3 saturated; 48g carbs and 16g protein)

Savouring Simplicity - Salad with cucumber and smoked salmon with a dill-yoghurt dressing

Yay, another day, another attempt at being healthy. I'm going home today so pretty sure it's going to become a lot harder pretty soon. Not only is my mother an amazing cook, and my father is a big wine nut, but just having delicious fresh bread around is going to be temptation enough...
But for now I've got one more easy, simple, healthy recipe to share.

Sorry for the not so pretty picture again, but this one is for on the go. All the goodies I've mixed together at the bottom and put all the lettuce on top (slightly shifted them aside so you can see) so the crisp lettuce doesn't get soggy when I'm ready to eat it. This salad is perfect to take to work/school/uni, all you need to bring is a fork to mix everything and eat it all up. Since this does contain salmon I would recommend keeping it refrigerated until you leave, and if possible again at work/school. But if your smoked salmon is fresh it should be fine to eat even if it's been out of the fridge for the whole morning. Trust me if it's not safe to eat any more, you'll smell it! :P
It's super-healthy (only 100 cal!) so go ahead and double everything if you find/think this doesn't fill you up for lunch. Or if you want, eat some bread with it. As I said I'm going home today, so will probably eat my fill later, so just taking this with me to eat on the way home.

Lunch - 1 person - 100 cal - 15 minutes 

Surviving Healthiness - Recipes

I've very recently (like 3 days ago) decided to start trying to eat more healthier things, cutting some carbs down and all that rot, so I could doubly enjoy the days where I cook delicious meals and treats. So I'm no longer buying snacks or crisps/chips and trying to eat less carbs and more fruit and veg basically. It's going fine so far, I still enjoy eating, thank goodness!
I also started going for a run (if you can call it that :p) in the morning, I'm hoping I'll keep it up once classes start up again, but not sure, I definitely can't say I'm enjoying it just yet...
Last thing I'm doing is keeping track of how much water I drink and make sure it's enough. For that I use this 0.5 l (2 cups) bottle that filters the water while I drink, and make sure I drink at least 3 of those during the day. I'm peeing a lot more I've found, but I'm hoping that evens out soon, or all the doctors are wrong and we're not supposed to drink this much water. :p
Right now I'm drinking a glass of skim milk, and surprisingly enjoying it very much! Unfortunately it's also 60cal or something, why?! But at least it's healthy calories, unlike the 3 oreos (160cal) I had earlier... ^^

Anyway I thought I'd share some healthy really basic recipes I'm using doing this. Sorry for the not so pretty pictures, since the recipes are so simple and meant just for yourself and not at all to impress anyone else, I'm not really bothering with plating them nice or watching the light... I'm really just snapping a picture at my desk before I dig in. If you really would like prettier pictures, comment below, and I might take the time next time. ;) Also, do you like recipes clumped together like this or would you rather I make separate posts for them?

Salad with melon chunks, feta crumbles, bacon bits and a honey vinaigrette

This is one of my favourite super easy salads to make. It's delicious, filling and so satisfying. It's not THE healthiest salad out there, but since it's so filling, no need to eat any kind of bread with it, though you can if you want. I've gotten quite a few complements from people (served as a starter) and make it all the time when I'm staying at my sister's for lunch. I've made many versions and variations of this recipe, which I will elaborate in the extended version of the recipe. Like last time I'll do a short and a long version of the recipe. Whenever I make a new recipe I tend to read it through at least once completely before I make my shopping list and do the actual shopping. Even while just reading through it and writing down the ingredients, I'm thinking on what kind of variations I want to do to better suit my tastes, or in the case I can't find one of the ingredients. And before I get down to cooking, I generally write down a shorter version of the recipe to use while cooking. So that's basically my reasoning behind this two levels of recipe in case you were wondering. :) Anyway, let's get to it. This recipe is also great for those who generally don't like salads, or kids, because it contains so many fruits! It's basically a hearty fruit salad! It can be made ahead if you want to take it with you for lunch, and it stays delicious. If you're using a lettuce that gets 'soggy' easy, keep it separate from the rest and just mix it in before eating. Besides the melon, I think you have a lot of freedom in what kind of fruit you want to put in. I'll put all the ones I use in the extended recipe. In the short recipe I put my standard choices.

4 portions - 30 minutes