Showing posts with label Breakfast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Breakfast. Show all posts

Sunday, 8 February 2015

MINDFUL EATING

Has it ever happened to you that you're so hungry that you just start chomping on things and gulp them down, without even tasting them? Or, at least, not for the first half of whatever you're eating?

Or has it ever happened that you were so focused on the movie you were watching that, when someone asked you "How is it? Salty enough?" you suddenly realised that you didn't know?

Well, to me it's happened like, five minutes ago, and it was a real shame, cause it was really awesome. I was having my 4o'clock snack while reading a book, and I was so into it (it being the book) that it took me some 4 spoons to realise that I cannot do two things at the same time.
Well, that might be a bit harsh towards myself, there are things I can do at the same time. For sure, there are.. well, but the point is, sometimes you shouldn't. Because doing to many things at a time makes you actually more stressed and less efficient, and it doesn't make you taste your coconut milk.

Mindful eating is actually one of the first meditations you should try when you approach mindfulness.
It all start with a grape and an alien (you).
You have to pretend to be an alien, and pretend you're seeing a grape for the first time in your life and, therefore, eat it as such.
You should first touch it, analyse its shape and its texture, and the way it feels on your skin. Then you should smell it. Shake it next to your ear.
Only now you can put it in your mouth, and run over it with your tongue, feel its weight.
And then chew it, and feel the sweet explosion you were not expecting.
And so on.
Slow? For sure.
But some things are so delicious that they really deserve all that time. And if they don't maybe you shouldn't eat them at all.

Well, my 4o'clock snack was definitely worth putting the book aside.

You'll need:
  • banana
  • coconut milk
  • oats
  • raw cacao nibs 
All you need to do is to blend together half a banana and two or three (very generous) spoons of coconut milk. Pour your mixture over half a cup (or more. I guess it just depends on how hungry you are) of oats and sprinkle it all with raw cacao nibs.

It's really five minutes. (If you knew where your blender was, I'm sure it would be even less).

It's gonna take - i hope- much longer to eat it than to make it.

Wednesday, 5 March 2014

THE COOKING CURE

Spring is finally coming!
I've just had a lovely terraske (word that deisgnates the act of having a beer in the sun), and I wanted to share that with you today.
The warmth of the sun, the freshness of the beer, the loveliness of my garden.
I only thought that, as much as I'm totally fine in having my terraske in between my garbage bags, maybe that's something someone might want to keep for herself.
And for all the neighbours that are sharing the same frontyard with her.
We still didn't take on to the proverbial Spring Cleaning.
Beer first.
So, saving outside image poetry for cleaner days, there is something else worth talking about: "the cooking cure".
Quoting from The Kitchn, the cooking cure is "four weeks of assignments to help you get fresh inspiration and build some new habits with the goal of three home-cooked meals a day".

Even though I have a 45hours-per-week job I always cook my meals at home, and I'm still pretty satisfied with my food. For the moment I'm still far from being tempted by the work canteen.

I really don't need any cure.

Or, maybe I'm in just in phase 1. DENIAL.

Maybe frozen pizza and canned beans are signals that I shouldn't underestimate.

Phase 2. ACCEPTANCE.

And I subscribed for the cure. I'm ready for phase 3. TURN YOUR BREAKFAST INTO AN AWSOME BREAKFAST.

After writing a list of your breakfast habits and setting new goals, the task of today was finding 5 new breakfast recipes.

Here are our 5 winners:
 
CHOCOLATE ALMOND SMOOTHIE - from Love and Lemons
 
 
from What should I eat for breakfast today
 
 
 
from What should I eat for breakfast today

 
from What should I eat for breakfast today

 
 
 
 
I'm honestly super excited about this project.
Please subscribe and share your actual misery and plans of awesomeness with me.

Thursday, 19 December 2013

CLOSED FOR MOVING. BIG RE-OPENINGS AND FAIRY TALES.

And, yes, we are still living a sort of camping experience, getting our clothes out of boxes in the cellar and finding the baking paper in the toilette but, finally, we moved!
It all sounds like a Disney story, a good mix of magic and drama and, in our case, I would say a mix between Cinderella and SnowWhite.


So, once upon a time, there were two girls forced to endlessly clean a house (that would be us), with an evil stepmother calling every half hour to yell that they had to do it better and faster (and that would be the landlady) and, yes, we even had our own midnight magic.
Although in our case, sadly enough, there were no gigantic pumpkins in the living room, just our cat that, at midnight o'clock, gracefully peed right in the middle of our parquet.
Yes, the last evening was quite a nightmare.


And even though now we've moved to the land of Far Far Away, the evil witch is still part of our story, holding our deposit hostage since a month. So,we just baked our poisonous apple into some delicious, end of the season's apple muffins.

So, that's basically the very same recipe I used for the apple cake you've never seen. Of course with halved measure, just because this time I didn't need 45 muffins but, well, you see.
Anyway, what happened is that this time I forgot to marinate the apples in lemon juice and cinnamon.


So, pity for the lemon, but I really needed the cinnamon: so what I did was mixing some cinnamon and some sugar, and topping the muffins before baking them.
So, pros: when baked the muffins had this crunchy, sugary, cinnamony top that was just so nice.
Cons: I think the topping kinda prevented them from rising as puffy as they could have been.
Still, I would say: success.

For directions, it's seriously the very same as for this cake, but with half the ingredients. I really just wanted to publish the pics.





Friday, 25 October 2013

Apple cake, or WHY WE LOVE AUTUMN

Well well.
To keep the pace with all the people that were singing the praises of autumn long ago, when it actually arrived, I also had my 
"welcome, autumn!" 
post.
I had all these pictures of beautiful berries on the weirdest tries and in the weirdest colours taken at the weirdest times of the day. A really nice project, I have to say.
And then the disgrace happened: our camera vanished. I really prefer to believe in magic, even though obscure magic, and believe it disappeared in a glittering cloud rather then to think that someone actually stole it (which, for the boring and sad non-believers, given the circumstances, seems to be the most probable option.)
Well, that's why in this post there are no pictures. Good thing is that you don't really need to see an apple cake to imagine how fragrant and inviting it might be.

So, before starting I have to tell you a little something 'cause, if normally I'm not really precise with measures, well, this time it went even further. Apparently something went wrong during the measuring process -although I feel like saying that wrong is not at all the right word. I mean, if you planned to bake one delicious apple cake, and at the end you find yourself with a lot more, something went definitely magic, not wrong.- So, as I was saying, something went magical and, what was supposed to be one normal-size cake turned out being: 
one normal side cake,
 three mini-size-cakes, 
one overflowing muffin.
So, I suggest you carefully follow the instructions only if you're planning to eat a lot, of apple cake.
By the way, to compensate the lack of pictures, I tried to make this post visually appealing anyway. I hope you appreciate the effort. 
I could also do colours but, honestly, that really felt too much.


Here is, just in case you're not funny and you didn't like my polifontic previous version, an easier-to-read one.



Well well.
To keep the pace with all the people that were singing the praises of autumn long ago, when it actually arrived, I also had my

"welcome, autumn!"

post.

I had all these pictures of beautiful berries on the weirdest tries and in the weirdest colours taken at the weirdest times of the day. A really nice project, I have to say.

And then the disgrace happened: our camera vanished. I really prefer to believe in magic, even though obscure magic, and believe it disappeared in a glittering cloud rather then to think that someone actually stole it (which, for the boring and sad non-believers, given the circumstances, seems to be the most probable option.)

Well, that's why in this post there are no pictures. Good thing is that you don't really need to see an apple cake to imagine how fragrant and inviting it might be.

So, before starting I have to tell you a little something 'cause, if normally I'm not really precise with measures, well, this time it went even further. Apparently something went wrong during the measuring process -although I feel like saying that wrong is not at all the right word. I mean, if you planned to bake one delicious apple cake, and at the end you find yourself with a lot more, something went definitely magic, not wrong.- So, as I was saying, something went magical and, what was supposed to be one normal-size cake turned out being:

one normal side cake,
three mini-size-cakes,
one overflowing muffin.

So, I suggest you carefully follow the instructions only if you're planning to eat a lot, of apple cake.

1 + 2/3 cups flour
4 apples
1 + 1/2  cups sugar
3 eggs
75gr butter
1 glass of milk
1 + 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 lemon

1- Peel and slice the apples, then let them marinate in the juice of one lemon and a couple TBS sugar

2- In the meanwhile, beat the yolks with the sugar. In a separate bowl, beat the whites until stiff.

3- Add to the yolks-and-sugar-batter: the sifted flour, baking soda, the butter that you had previously taken out from the fridge (and that you have also reduced in small pieces) and the milk. Mix everything well and, at least, add also the yolks, paying attention in stirring them gently and from down upwards.

4- Fold in also the apples, but keep aside enough to cover the top of the cake.

5- Pour the batter in a greased an sugared form, then get creative and decorate it with the apples you kept aside.

6- Bake for some 40 minutes at 180°F

NOTE: If you make drawings with your apples, check your cake properly before taking it out from the oven: being covered might make baking times a bit longer. If you don't feel creative and you were not in the mood to draw, leave it anyway in the oven for 40 minutes. If you think the top is getting brown a little too fast, cover it with some aluminium.

Monday, 16 September 2013

BLUEBERRY MUFFINS


Just so you know, I thought I had leftovers of blueberries, so this idea of making muffins with them popped up and acted on me before I could actually analyse it properly.
Just so you know, I kinda regretted it the very moment I cracked the eggs, and started eating blueberries on their own.
I regretted it in the first place because, if you eat half of your blueberries before folding them into your blueberry muffin batter, than it seems a bit less appropriate to bake -or at least to call them- blueberry muffin. And, in the second place, because oh-gosh-i-so-wanted-to-eat-them-all. When you get plump, sweet blueberries, you should really think twice about using them as an ingredient and not as a main.
While you think what's best to do, I suggest you start eating them already.
Don't get me wrong though, these muffins were really, really good.
Really good.

INGREDIENTS:



- 3 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 TBS baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 6 TBS / 3/4 stick / 90gr butter
- 1 + 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 egg + 2 yolks
- 1 cup milk
- a lot of blueberries

DIRECTIONS
1- Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.

2- In a second bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs and then, alternating, the flour mixture and the milk. - For some reason it seems you should- make sure you always begin and end with flour.

3- Fill you muffin tins and bake at 180° for about 30 minutes.

As easy as that.




Tuesday, 10 September 2013

COMFORT CERTANTIES and Blueberry Pancakes

Everyone has his little comfort certainty, that tiny thing that you’re sure you make better that anyone else –or at least in a decent way- that goes reinforcing your selconfidence when you need it.
You might draw beautifully, you might be able to speak while burping, you might moonwalk for kilometers.
As for myself..well, nothing really comes to my mind now but, at least, I thought I was able to cut an onion. Not in any artistic way, like, I cannot carve a caravell out of a watermelon, but still, I though I could at least cube it properly.
Turns out I cannot.
Well, I couldn’t, you all please be jelous.
After denying me even the tiniest certanty of knowing how to cube an onion –seriously, was I asking so much?- at least Gordon taught me how to do that. No, of course I’m not gonna share it with you, keep wandering in oblivion.
Nevertheless, I’m gonna share with you his recipe for a wowbreakfast.




INGREDIENTS:
125g flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 TBS sugar
2 eggs, separated
100ml milk
125g ricotta
100g blueberries



DIRECTIONS:
Sift the flour, baking powder,
salt and sugar in a
       bowl and mix together. Add the egg
       yolks and, gradually, the milk, whisking slowly.  When everything is well combined, fold in the ricotta and the blueberries.
In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites  until
stiff. 
      You should be able to turn the bowl watchin
       your egg whites miraculously defying gravity.
      At this point, add them carefully to the batter.
Heat a non-stick frying pan and melt in it a knob
      of butter with some oil. Cook the pancakes
      using 2 TBS 
      of batter each, 2 minutes per side until golden.

Gordon suggests to serve them with Greek yoghurt 
      and honey, which must be divine. We had them with a sprinkling of brown sugar. Also divine.


Wednesday, 30 January 2013

MONTHLY ROUND-UP JANUARY. CAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW.

Well, it might have been that, of those only three posts that were published this month, you missed one.
And that would be a real tragedy.
Because it's when things gets rare that you realize how amazing and essential they are.

Ok, truth is that I got I new job and, together with it, a new life.
This new life implies abandoning my old one in favour of my office. In other words, abandoning my life. Period.
Then I don't have much time anymore, which is a shame, cause Baby is growing and she is really healthy, if you were wondering.
Nevertheless, even if I don't have any time to write about it, I still have time to eat -most of the times- which is reasonably good.

So, in case you missed it:

 we started with a kicking breakfast, on the  day in which you need it the most.
The basic recipe for pancakes, that I keep on forgetting, so I thought you might as well. I know you do.
And them some burnt home-made granola. Yummy!
And some do-I-need-to-describe-it home-made bread.
Wait for the Baby version!







Happy february and happy eating.

Tuesday, 8 January 2013

THE "I'M-GONNA-BE-SELF-SUFFICIENT" WAVE


Lately i got totally into this "I'm-gonna-be-self-sufficient" wave. So, anything I can avoid buying, I decided, I will.
It requires way more time and efforts, that's for sure but, besides from the obvious thing that it's a lot healthier, do you really wanna compare a quarter of hour queue at the bakery with having your house filled with the scent of baking bread?
To the joy of opening the oven and seeing your puffy, golden brown, crunchy-at-the-outside-soft-in-the-inside loaf of bread? I don't know, I get kind of maternal feelings when it comes to food. fEspecially food that gets all puffy, I noticed.
By the way, this is not about home-made bread.
Sorry.

Well, granola, we said. Or, we wanted to.
Then, granola. Mine got bunt. Just a tiny bit, but I took pictures of it so, even though that was the first plan, I can’t deny I did. But if you wanted to use this as an argument in favour of bought granola, my answer would be “C’mon, I know you can do better than this”. And this said, wonderful thing of home-made granola is that you can just choose anything you want. I actually got into it because I had this crazy craving for some almond-honey-coconut granola, and I just couldn’t find it anywhere. So that superdangerous loop for which the more you can’t find something the more you want it started, and I was just getting crazy over almond-honey-coconut granola.
And then, I just made it myself.


INGREDIENTS:
  • 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup shredded coconut
  • 1/2 cup silvered almonds
  • 1/4 cup ligh-brown sugar
  • 2 TBS honey
  • 2 TBS (28gr) unsalted butter

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a saucepan melt together butter and honey over low heat. Then add sugar and stir until it melts completely in butter. Remove from the fire and add 2 TBS of water.

2. In a alarge bowl, stir together oats, coconut and almonds and spread the butter mixture over it. Stir everything until evenly combined.




3. Spread the granola mixture on a baking sheet and put it in the oven pre-heated to 325F°/160C°. Bake stirring frequently until golden brown, say 25-30 minutes.







4. Store in a supercute mason-jar. (No idea of ho
w long you can actually keep it, we finished it in two days.)











Tuesday, 1 January 2013

GO PANCAKES


HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
How did your celebrations go? Has a proper stuck-up wannabe, I feel like saying that of course I hate all the expectations about it, I love glitter but I hate clubbing, I love the 80’s but I hate stinking like smoke.
BUT, what  I do love about New Year’s Eve, is that it’s THE excuse to have lovely –and too abundant- dinners with your friends. After herb-cheese filled mushrooms, pasta, a mozzarella and zucchini quiche and chocolate mini cakes with a melting heart, we are now left with some chili con carne and tandoori chicken.

GO BREAKFAST!

Or, as an alternative for the delicate stomached, go pancakes.




INGREDIENTS (Makes about 7):
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
1 egg
50 grs butter
2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
TBS sugar (Optional)
Cinnamon (Optional)

DIRECTIONS: 
In a bowl mix together all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt and the optional sugar a nd cinnamon) and the melted butter. Stir and stir.
In a second bowl, whisk together milk and the egg, then add –always stirring- to the dry ingredients.
Grab the pan in which you have previously melted the butter. And put more butter. Yess. When melted, pour a ladle of batter and let cook for a few minuts. Turn on the other side when you see borders are ready.
Start your 2013 with a proper breakfast.
Because sometimes, easy, fast and satisfying is the only combination.
Especially on the 1st of january.


Wednesday, 12 December 2012

OATMEAL, MARMALADE AND FRESH MINT



 Oh yes, you saw it right.
That's oatmeal. And you know why we’re gonna try a new version of oatmeal? Because… it’s almost Friday!!! That is my slow breakfast day, hence, oatmeal day!
Yes, I know it’s actually just Wednesday, but the hope for Fridays is one of the few things that keep me alive, so, let’s try not to be to strict about it.

So, oatmeal!

This version is as easy as the other one, but this time I gave it a fresh twist with some freshly picked mint.
So, basic steps for oatmeal:
1 glass oatmeal = 2 glasses water 

This is the golden proportion. And remember that one glass of oatmeal is enough for two people. 
Well, or for a really hungry one.
This time no sugar: the reddish thing on top of the oatmeal, the one looking like marmalade, it’s actually marmalade, which is already really sweet.
So we said, for a reeeeeally creamy oatmeal pour it into the water before it’s cooking, and leave it on the fire –stirring from time to time- until it has soaked it all. Otherwise, for a medium creamy oatmeal, wait for the water to be boiling and pour the oatmeal just then.
Then it’s all about splashing it in your favourite bowl, choosing your favourite marmalade (I went for a superclassic: strawberry) and mix them together. Don’t forget to add some fresh mint for the real wake-up taste.
Quick, easy and healthy. I couldn’t love it more. 

And now, if you will excuse me, i'll go dreaming of breakfasts.


Friday, 23 November 2012

THE HEALTHY BREAKFAST FOR THE LAZY DAYS - OATMEAL AND CRUNCHY APPLE BITES

So I called it “the healthy breakfastfor the lazy days”, and that’s how it looks like.

It’s healthy, it’s yummy, and it’s slow.
It feels like a personal challenge to wake up every morning a minute later than the morning before, to see if even this time I can make it, to run there before the metro arrives, to feel the thrill..
Well, it’s not, there’s no thrill but the one I feel at 10 in the morning, break coming closer, when I realize that I will finally eat - because of course I didn’t have breakfast. Therefore when I left  there was no real rush to brush (fake, I constantly am in the urge to brush, but) since there was no food to brush away, which is the explanation of me going around with a toothbrush in my pocket at work.
All of this said, let’s go back to marrier thoughts: slow breakfasts.
There is one day per week in which I go to work in the afternoon, and in this magical day I get the crazy combination of sleeping more AND having breakfast. Heaven.
So, the only day in which I can have breakfast, I want a nice one.
OATMEAL AND CRUNCHY APPLE BITES
Ingredients:
There’s not much you need for this take on oatmeal and, considerning that these are among the most autumnal ingredients I can think of, you could have it even right now.
So, here we go – for two people:
-          Oatmeal – 1 glass
-          Water – 2 glasses
-          Apples – say 1 or 2
-          Sugar – 1 TBS
-          Cinnamon – a lot
Directions:
1-      Well, really important to remember is that, exactly like rice, oatmeal is going to soak all the water you give it, basically doubling in its amount. So, after figuring for how many people you’re going to prepare breakfast –or, after deciding how many times you want to have it- put the double amount of water in a pot and start cooking it. Now, if you want a really creamy oatmeal, you might put it right away with the water and leave it there until it soaks it all, taking care of stirring it from time to time. Otherwise, wait for the water to be cooking and pour the oatmeal in just then: you’ll get a creamy oatmeal, but that still maintains its basic structure.
2-      In any case, put a spoon of sugar in the water. Of course optional, but with slightly bitter apples I could use one.
3-      For the apples, same concept as for the oatmeal: if you want them really soft, put them in the pot together with the oatmeal while it’s cooking, if you want them crunchy, just add them when the oatmeal is ready. (I did half and a half. Yum.)
4-      If you like it, add a spoon of cinnamon (seriously, if you like apples of course you also like cinnamon) and eat it!
Wish you all a happy, slow breakfast.

FIOCCHI D’AVENA (ANCHE SE L’OATMEAL RIMANE L’OATMEAL) E PEZZETTI DI MELA CROCCANTI
Ingredienti:
non c’è molto di cui avete bisogno per questa versione di oatmeal e, considerato che questi sono fra gli ingredienti più autunnali che mi vengano in mente, volendo potreste anche prepararvelo adesso.
Quindi, per 2 persone(doveva essere solo per me ma ho sbagliato le dosi, quindi):
-          Fiocchi d’avena – 1 bicchiere
-          Acqua – 2 bicchieri
-          Mele – facciamo 1 o 2
-          Zucchero – un cucchiaio grande
-          Cannella: tanta
Procedimento:
1-      Innanzitutto è importante ricordare che, esattamente come il riso, i fiocchi d’avena assorbiranno tutta l’acqua che ci metterete, diventando praticamente il doppio (io per esempio ho un po’abbondato. Troppo, abbondato). Quindi dopo aver fatto mente locale sul numero di persone per cui dovete preparare la colazione – o dopo aver deciso quante colazioni volete fare voi medesimi in quella stessa mattina – mettete una quantità doppia di acqua in una pentola e fatela bollire. Dunque, se volete un oatmeal veramente  cremoso, potete metterlo direttamente in pentola con l’acqua e lasciarcelo fino a che non l’ha assorbita tutta. Altrimenti aspettate che l’acqua bolla, e aggiungete i fiocchi d’avena solo allora: in questo modo otterrete on oatmeal cremoso, ma in cui i fiocchi mantengono la loro consistenza.
2-      In ogni caso, aggiungete un cucchiaio di zucchero all’acqua. È chiaramente opzionale ma, con delle mele un po’acidule secondo me ci stava bene.
3-      Per le mele vale la stessa idea dei fiocchi d’avena: se le volete morbide morbide, mettetele in pentola insieme ai fiocchi d’avena e lasciateli cuocere insieme altrimenti, se le volete croccanti, aggiungetele alla fine quando l’oatmeal sarà pronto. (Io ho fatto metà e metà. Yum.)
4-      Se vi piace, aggiungete un cucchiaio di cannella (seriamente, se vi piacciono le mele ovvio che vi piace anche la cannella) e magiatelo!

Buona lenta colazione.


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