EGGS in SHELLS

I am sure some of you know this dish. I felt in love with these long time ago and I have been making them nearly every Easter. I am not sure how to call these cuties so I will use expression used by me and my family. If the name sounds funny, please let me know your ideas... :)

EGGS in SHELLS  / Makes about 9


INGREDIENTS:

• 4 organic eggs
• chive
• sea salt
• clarified butter

METHOD:

Boil water with salt (it will prevent egg shells from cracking). Hard boil 3 eggs. Pour out hot water, pour into cold water and leave for few minutes on the side. Then, when cool use knife to cut the whole egg as on the picture above (first break a shell around using the sharp top of knife, then cut the whole egg along this line). That is my way so if you know any others, let me know :)

Take out whites and yolks gently using a teaspoon. Mash them with a fork and cut some chive. Transfer everything into a bowl. Crack one raw egg into the bowl too, add salt and mix well.

Transfer egg mixture into all shells using teaspoon. If you do not have enough, you can use each twice or even more if you do not break it.

Melt clarified butter on a frying pan. Put prepared eggs on the hot butter on flat side first. Fry for few minutes on that side, then reverse and fry on another side for few more minutes covering pan with lid.

Serve with some toasted homemade bread or with toasted buckwheat or even quinoa. 

RICOTTA CHEESECAKE with ALMONDS

...Easter... I do not feel that lovely atmosphere as I am spending this time away from home this year. There is no delicious traditional food and... no snow, can you believe?! (everyone wanted white Xmass - it did not happen; so there is lots of white powder at Easter ha ha ha). 

I made only amazing cheesecake to celebrate this special time and nice egg dish for breakfast (in the next post).

RICOTTA CHEESECAKE with ALMONDS


INGREDIENTS:

• 180 g crashed amaretti biscuits, finely crashed
• 50 g coconut oil
• 1 TBS real vanilla extract
• 500 g ricotta
• 250 g mascarpone
• 80 g coconut palm sugar
• 100 g ground almonds
• 2 TBS potato flour
• 2 eggs
• lemon zest (how much you like)
• almond flakes

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 170 C. Line a round baking tray (20-24 cm) with parchment paper.

Melt coconut oil and mix with  crashed biscuits. Spread mixture evenly on the baking tin and place into the fridge for about 15 minutes.

In the meantime, place the rest of ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. You can use food processor to do that. 

Then pour cheese mixture on the prepared earlier base, sprinkle with almond flakes and bake for 45-55 minutes or until lightly golden brown on the top. When ready, turn off the oven and leave cheesecake inside to cool slowly down leaving the oven door ajar.

Then place the cheesecake in the fridge for minimum 2 hours or overnight. 

Enjoy!

* Next time I will not use any sugar when using amaretti biscuits (they are very sweet).
** I used square baking tray when making that cheesecake. 

RAW SALAD

RAW SALAD

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 carrots
• half celeriac
• 1 apple
• some walnuts
• lemon juice

METHOD:

Peel and wash carrots, celeriac and apple. Then grate them or use food processor with right blade. Cut walnuts into small pieces. Put everything into medium bowl, squeeze some lemon juice and mix well. Serve freshly prepared!

JUICE III

Spring is coming very slowly this year. I decided to help a little and put some sun into my jar :)

JUICE III

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pineapple
• 1 orange
• few blueberries

METHOD:

You know what to do, don't you? :)

JUICE II

JUICE II

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 celery sticks
• half broccoli
• 1 apple
• half lemon

METHOD:

Wash fruits and vegetables. Peel the lemon (when using citrus fruits with skin, the taste will be slightly bitter). And make a juice :) Sit down and enjoy drinking by small sips (that is the right way).

LEMON & COCONUT LOAF with BERRIES

I have not had any cake in a while so I decided to make a very nice one. Last time I made simple lemon loaf like in the original recipe. It was a little too sweet and sour for me. And this time I did not make lemon glaze, I used less lemon juice and I added some berries which nicely balanced the sour taste.

LEMON & COCONUT LOAF with BERRIES

// Recipe adapted from Sprouted Kitchen //

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 organic eggs
• 1/2 cup olive or rapeseed oil
• 1/4 cup coconut milk
• 1 TBS freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 TBS lemon zest
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup coconut palm sugar
• 1 cup wholegrain spelt flour
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1 TBS ground flaxseeds
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 1/3 cup blueberries
• 1/2 cup raspberries

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 175C and line baking loaf pan with parchment paper.

Whisk eggs with sugar with electric mixer for few minutes. Add coconut milk, lemon zest and juice, vanilla extract and mix well. Mix all dry ingredients in a medium bowl and then add to egg mixture mixing well. At the end add berries and gently stir them in.

Pour the mixture into prepared loaf pan and bake until cake tester inserted into the cake comes out clean, about 40-50 minutes.

BUCKWHEAT SOBA NOODLES with SESAME & VEG

BUCKWHEAT SOBA NOODLES with SESAME & VEG

INGREDIENTS:

• handful of buckwheat soba noodles
• 1 carrot
• small leek, only white part
•  1 clove of garlic
• napa cabbage
• scallions
• enoki mushrooms
• toasted sesame oil
• olive oil
• tamari soy sauce 
• sea salt
• pinch of brown sugar or agave syrup
• white & black sesame seeds

METHOD:

Boil noodles in accordance with the instruction on the pack.

In the meantime, wash all vegetables. Then chop scallion, peel and grate carrot, cut leek in small pieces, cut cabbage and slice garlic. Heat olive oil on the large skillet or wok. Stir fry all vegetables and mushrooms for few minutes. Add salt, soy sauce, sugar, some sesame seeds and mix well. Taste and add more if required. At the end add noodles and toasted sesame oil. Serve sprinkled with more white and black sesame seeds.

CLARIFIED BUTTER

Clarified butter is pure butter fat. It is healthy and very well absorbed. It is also well tolerated by people with lactose intolerance and milk allergy (such butter does not contain milk solids). It is very good for sauteing as it has higher smoke point than normal butter. Also, it has much longer shelf life - about a month at room temperature, couple months in the fridge or you can freeze it for six months or more.

It is quite easy to make your own clarified butter at home.

I would like to mention one more important thing before going any further. So far commonly used method of clarifying butter is not working any more. For those who are not familiar with the subject, i.e. melting tube of butter in a saucepan and pouring clear butter out - without white froths. The reason is that nowadays there are advanced methods of production used for making all kinds of spreads.

Below you can find a recipe. 

CLARIFIED BUTTER


INGREDIENTS:

• 3-4 tubs of unsalted butter (min. 82% fat)
• 1 & 1/2 l water

/ These two photos show freshly made clarified butter, in liquid form /

METHOD:

Place butter with water in a large saucepan. Cook on medium heat for about half an hour stirring occasionally. Put on the side and leave it to cool and then refrigerate. The mixture will be separated into 3 layers:
- on the top - solid clear butter fat;
- in the middle - vegetable oil;
- on the bottom - water with some white solids.

Remove the first layer (butter) to 2-3 glass one litre jars. Pour boiling water into them, set aside to cool and refrigerate again. When ready, take out from the fridge, make a small hole in the first layer and slowly pour out water with some white milk solids from the bottom. Put clear butter in clean pan again and melt. Then add for example cold pressed extra virgin olive oil (6 TBS per 3 tubes of butter), pour to glass jars or glass containers. 

* This method was invented by dr Grażyna Pająk.

/ This photo shows clarified butter solidifying at room temperature /

JUICE I

I bought my juicer after watching movie of Food Matters called Hungry for Change (there is still 9 days left to register and watch this fantastic documentary for free!).

Additionally, I have taken part in few workshops about juicing and raw diet, and I would never go back! I think you need to try and feel the differences how your life change.

JUICE I

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 medium carrots
• 1 apple
• half broccoli stem
• 3-4 celery sticks

METHOD:

Wash fruit and vegetables. Just process them through juicer and enjoy! So simple :)

OVEN BAKED SALMON with LEEKS & SPINACH

Listening to your body is very important as it tells you what it needs at the moment. I am sure all of you have times when you eat certain foods only, maybe in different variation but it is mainly one thing. That symptom can be a sign that your body is lacking some nutrients which such food you crave contains. That is why you want to eat it.

I am not talking about sweets as some of you can think about. If you crave such, that means your diet is not balanced.

Today I feel like eating salmon. I have some leeks and spinach so I have made something really delicious.

OVEN BAKED SALMON with LEEKS & SPINACH


INGREDIENTS:

• 1 medium salmon fillet
• 1 large leek, cut in pieces (not too small as they will burn)
• 3 cups of fresh spinach
• 2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
• extra virgin olive oil
• sea salt
• lemon juice
• small mozzarella ball

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 190-200 C. 

Wash salmon fillet, sprinkle with salt and lemon juice. Place it on the ovenproof dish and sprinkle with olive oil. Cover pieces of leek in olive oil and place around fillet. Put to the oven for about 15 mins (do not overcook it). 

In the meantime, warm up some olive oil on a pan and saute washed spinach. Then add some garlic, salt and shred some mozzarella. Warm up everything and when the salmon is ready, place on the top of the fillet.

SCRAMBLED TOFU

I think I cannot say that every meal I post on my blog is my favourite. I will simply generalise that I eat what I like the most. All photos show my ideal choice of foods. 

Scrambled tofu is great breakfast as well as dinner option!

SCRAMBLED TOFU

INGREDIENTS:

• 125 g organic natural tofu (GMO free)
• 1 sliced portobello mushroom
• enoki mushrooms
• spring onion, white parts cut in medium size pieces
• handful of spinach
• 2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
• 2 tsp nutritional yeast
• tamari sauce

METHOD:

Melt coconut oil or mild olive oil on a pan. Add mushrooms, garlic and spring onion. Cook on medium heat until soft. Crumble the tofu into the pan using fingers and stir fry until it is warm. Then add nutritional yeast, tamari sauce and mix well. At the end add spinach and cover the pan for a minute so spinach will be ready. Serve by itself or with nice slice of homemade toasted bread.  

* You can also use carrots, bell peppers (I like red ones), red onion and other spices like turmeric. 

BEETROOT & LENTIL SALAD

I am really impressed how good salad I made few days ago. I would have served it with goats cheese but I had been cutting out dairy lately so I made nice refreshing dressing instead. 

BEETROOT & LENTIL SALAD / Serves 2


INGREDIENTS:

• 3 beetroots
• rapeseed oil
• 1/2 green lentil
• chive
• celery leaves
• pink salt

dressing:

• 2 TBS lemon juice
• 2 TBS olive oil
• 2 TBS honey or agave nectar
• 1 TBS nutritional yeast *without this dish would be gluten-free

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 190-200 C.

Peel off and slice beetroots (about 4 mm thick), cover in rapeseed oil (I use hands to do that), place on the baking tray and roast till they are tender (about 30-40 mins). In the meantime cook green lentil in salted water for about 20 mins. Then strain grains and leave to cool down a little on the side. 

Shred celery leaves and cut chive, add to lentils and mix. In a small bowl mix well all dressing ingredients in and add to the lentil mixture when beetroot are ready. Place beets on a plate, then add lentil with herbs and dressing, sit and enjoy!

SUPER NUT BITES

I had some ground almonds left after making almond milk so decision has been made. Today it is time for a treat. It is so easy to make and it tastes amazing. I do not have to even mention how healthy it is. The best thing about these super-mini-nut-balls is that there is no need to use the same ingredients every time you make them. There are many recipes, but you can use your imagination and ingredients you like the most. Dates and nut butter make the mixture sticky, so that is the base of the recipe. 

And that is how I made mine :)

SUPER NUT BITES / Makes about 14


INGREDIENTS:

• 4 TBS ground almonds
• 2 TBS raw almond butter
• 16 − 20 finely chopped dates (you can use food processor)
• 16 finely chopped pecans (again you can use food processor)
• 1 tsp raw cacao powder
• cinnamon (I love cinnamon so I use a lot)
• pinch of sea salt

METHOD:

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix well using your hand. The mixture should be sticky so then you tear some of it and shape small balls. Try to be gentle and do not press too hard when making shape. They will become more solid after placing them in the fridge for minimum one hour. 

* I sprinkled mine with more cinnamon.

RAW ALMOND MILK

One of my favourite bloggers is Sarah Britton - her blog is called My New Roots. Sarah is amazing person, great cook and holistic nutritionist. Is it not too much? Definitely not! She is one of people who should be your inspiration.

I was very curious what would be the taste of non dairy homemade milk. I had been buying soy, almond or hemp milk for years but I was sure that homemade one had to be different. And at the same time much healthier. 

First I made plain almond milk. It was delicious, a little frothy with delicate flavour. The second time, I added some maple syrup for more taste. You can also substitute maple syrup with dates, agave nectar or vanilla extract. So many choices!

And here you can watch 'My New Roots' video how to make nut milk.

RAW ALMOND MILK

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup almonds (or any other nuts)
• 4 cups filtered water (I use 3 cups because I prefer more intensive flavour)
• pinch of sea salt (optional)
• 2 TBS maple syrup

METHOD:

1. Soak almonds for 8 hours or overnight. 
2. Drain, rinse and place in high speed blender. 
3. Add water and male syrup.
4. Press the button to start and blend until smooth. 
5. Take a big bowl or jug, line with nut milk bag or cheesecloth.
6. Pour the mixture from the blender and squeeze.
7. Pour milk into a glass jar or bottle.

* You can keep it in the fridge for up to 4 days. 

** Ground almonds (that what is left in nut milk bag) can be used for baking or you can add them when making pancakes, smoothies or use as garnish.

MY HEALTHY JOURNEY

I have been interested in healthy lifestyle for quite long time. My healthy journey began when I started being aware how not well I was feeling, both in my body and my mind.

My first step towards health was starting yoga practise. I felt in love with it and I am not going to stop doing it as it is big part of my life now. I am more aware of my body, of myself, it makes me stronger physically as well as physically - I feel great!

Furthermore, I began researching, reading books and during last few years I educated myself how and what to eat (I did not know about wholefoods, superfoods). I was trying different things to find out what worked for me the best. I changed my 'diet' and as a result I got rid of my health problems nearly in 100%. 

In the meantime, I found so many fantastic people living healthy and fully. And my desire to live like that has been growing stronger and stronger.

Also, I realised how important is nature to me. Nowadays, people are coming back to live in accordance with the law of the nature. I think we should have never gone away from it as nature is so amazing, it gives everything what is the best. I am really thankful that I was born in a lovely place near mountains. However, I had to go away to appreciate it more.

Coming back to the topic I would like to write about...

My healthy lifestyle had been more or less successful (mostly because I love desserts) until two weeks ago when I joined '21-day-challenge'. It was set up by a lovely girl from Portugal and the aim of it is to eat healthy, be active and no cheating is allowed. I have to mention here that both of us had a weakness at the beginning of that test, but only once. It turned out that it made us only stronger for the rest of our short journey to be as perfect as possible.

The most important is the fact that we have experienced how beneficial it is for us, how much better we feel and now we are sure we will continue it much longer than we thought. '21 days' that is only the beginning!

That challenge changed my approach for food. I started checking what ingredients I am using, what I am putting on my plate, observing how I feel after eating certain foods, finding the most nutritious foods for myself, being more active - not finding excuses not to do some exercise, etc. Besides, I am so close to my inner self I have never been in my life.

Simply saying, I am looking after and treating myself as I am my very best friend :) And I recommend that to everyone!

And finally, I will dedicate most of my posts to my healthy journey from now on. Unfortunately, I will not write in Polish any more as I would have to spend all my time writing the blog (which actually would be very enjoyable). There is 'translate' option on my blog now so you can read it in any chosen language. 

Let's be healthy!

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in Polish

Chciałabym poinformować, że odtąd blog będzie tylko w języku angielskim. Powodem do tego jest brak wystarczającej ilości czasu na pogodzenie wszystkiego co teraz robię. Możliwe, że się to znowu zmieni.

Po prawej stronie znajduje się opcja 'TRANSLATE', która pozwala na przetłumaczenie bloga na wybrany język (to przede wszystkim dla moich ukochanych i wiernych czytelników z rodziny ;) ).