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Sunday Breakfast: Healthy Morning Bake

When I wake up in the late morning or almost afternoon I need something quick, tasty and preferably high-protein, like this morning bake. You need max 10 minutes to assemble all ingredients together, including calcium-rich and diet-friendly cottage cheese, always-adored vanilla and some fruits! While, it’s baking you have enough time for the morning routine. And don’t forget to prepare a freshly-brewed tea: English Breakfast or White tea is a good pairing for this healthy treat. Have a lovely weekend, guys! 🙂

Healthy Morning Bake

Servings: 2-3
Time: 30-40minutes
Difficulty: very easy
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Ingredients

1 egg, at room temperature

2 tbsp white sugar (or more to taste)

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon

180-200g tvorog (cottage cheese)

2 tbsp semolina

few tbsps of full-fat milk

1 large apple

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 large banana

1 tbsp brown or raw sugar, optional

1 tsp butter for greasing

sweet condensed milk or sour cream, for serving

Preparation method

Wash, peel (optional) and grate apple, drizzle with lemon juice and set aside. Slice banana.
In a small bowl, add semolina and some milk just to cover it, microwave on a high temperature for few seconds until it’s warm.
Beat or whisk the egg with sugar, vanilla and cinnamon for few minutes.
In a large bowl, smash tvorog with a folk to make it smooth.
Add semolina and beaten egg mixture into tvorog; stir to combine. Mix in grated apple.
Grease the baking tin. Arrange half of banana slices on the bottom, sprinkle with brown sugar (optional). Pour in tvorog mixture. Top with the rest banana slices and sprinkle with more brown sugar, if desired.
Bake in preheated 200C oven for 25-30 minutes.
Meanwhile, boil the fresh water and make a teapot of your favourite tea. Cut a good slice of the tvorog-bake and serve with a dollop of sour cream or drizzle with sweet condensed milk.
Enjoy!

Oven fries and homemade potato seasoning

Many of us like potato fries/chips, and I’m not an exception. 😀 Yes, I know that they are not healthy.. But if your diet is balanced and healthful most of the time, you can have one cheat day during a week or so. However, it’s certainly preferable to make your own homemade fries. And I mean roasted fries instead of those deep-fried and greasy. My secret to great and tasty fries is a special spice mix, that I prepare myself: for that you need to combine rosemary, turmeric, paprika and some other spices (look at the recipe below). This seasoning suits perfectly to both regular and sweet potatoes. Once tried, you might want to make a larger jar next time! 😉

Enjoy your aromatic snack!

Oven fries and homemade potato seasoning

Time: 1hr
Difficulty: easy
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Oven roasted fries

Sweet or regular potatoes

Potato seasoning

Olive oil

Wash and peel potatoes. Cut them into slices (or wedges if you like), put in a large bowl of cold water. Soak for a 20-30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 200C/400F.
Drain potatoes and pat dry on a kitchen towels (or use kitchen paper).
Put potatoes on a baking tray, generously sprinkle with potato seasoning and drizzle with a bit of oil. Spread into one layer.
Bake for 30 minutes. If you have a broiler – broil it for 6-7 minutes more.
Enjoy as is, or with your favourite sauce or as a side dish to chicken or meat.

Potato Seasoning

2-3 tsp dried rosemary (whole or crushed)

1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves, crushed

1.5 tsp turmeric

1.5 tsp coriander, crushed

1 tsp sweet paprika

1/3-1/2 tsp hot smoked paprika

1/2-1 tsp curry, optional

sea salt, to taste

freshly ground coarse black and white pepper, to taste

Happy cooking!

Sunday Breakfast: Savory bread pudding

During the week I’m trying not to buy an extra loaf of bread, if I still have some leftover. But when I see a freshly-baked croissants it’s so hard to resist.. And the poor leftover bread is lying and waiting to be used somehow. Though I use leftover bread and make breadcrumbs with herbs or croûtons for a soup-puree, but sometimes I simply do not need it. Several years back when I started being interested in various cuisines and tried to cook different recipes, I stumbled upon one English recipe – ‘bread pudding’. I was surprised how simple this dish is, and lately – how trendy it can be. It dates back to the early 11th century England and was a popular dish among poor classes, because leftover bread was used for this frugal meal. We have similar dish in Russian cuisine, which is called ‘grenki’ (fried bread); for that we just dip white bread slices into a mixture of eggs, milk and sugar, and then fried it. But what I like the most in English version, that I can bake it and even make it a night ahead. Plus there are endless possibilities for bread pudding: I can add soaked raisins, fresh peaches or any other available berries, vary the type of bread and even make it savory! And that’s what I did this time – I cleaned up my fridge and used not only bread leftovers, I added fried mushrooms with onions (have got some from a pie filling), some peas and cheese. Simple and tasty! 🙂

Savory bread pudding

Servings: 2
Time: 30mins
Difficulty: very easy
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Also tried to add some fried smoked bacon, it adds a nice smell and taste.

Ingredients

few white bread slices, cut into cubes

2 eggs

80ml full-fat milk

1/2 dried thyme

salt, freshly ground black pepper, to taste

fried onions+ mushrooms

a handful of peas (if using frozen, no need to defreeze)

50g feta or mozzarella cheese, cut into cubes

some grated parmesan, optional

1-2 tsp butter or oil, for greasing baking dish

Method

Preheat oven to 190C. Grease a baking dish, arrange bread cubes.
In a bowl, whisk eggs with milk and spices. Pour over bread crumbs, mix with your hands or a spoon.
Mix in fried mushrooms, onions and peas. Season with some extra pepper. Put in the oven for 14-15 minutes.
Take the dish out and top with feta or mozzarella cubes. Sprinkle with some parmesan as well, if using. Put back into the oven for 5 minutes more.

Serve immediately for breakfast! Enjoy!

P.S. Even if the bread is too stale, don’t throw it – go outside and feed birds! 🙂

Savory Bread Pudding with mushrooms and peas

Cauliflower couscous with shrimps

When I saw a cauliflower couscous recipe for a first time in a food magazine I didn’t pay much attention to it and dismissed it, and made another pan of creamy cauli soup. 🙂 But when I stumbled upon similar recipes again and again, I decided to give it a chance.

I red few recipes to know how to make a cauliflower couscous: the main thing is to pulse cauliflower florets in a food processor to get tiny bits, which reminds couscous grains and then you can mix it up with any your favourite ingredients. Thus, I came up with my own recipe. Even thou, I topped cauli couscous with shrimps, you may omit it and keep totally vegetarian. Whatever you choose, this dish is full of flavour! It’s a good alternative for a regular couscous, and especially for people with gluten sensitivity. Such couscous pairs well with roasted chicken or barbecued meat as well.

And you know what, now it’s my fav way to prepare cauliflower! When I served it for a dinner my husband couldn’t guess what was that – whether pasta or couscous, but he liked it. Because it tasted divine: buttery and aromatic! 🙂

Cauliflower couscous with shrimps

Servings: 2
Time: 20mins
Difficulty: easy
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You can also try to add: chopped walnuts or pistachios, raisins, goji berries, chickpeas..

Ingredients

Cauli’couscous

cauliflower 400g

baby onion 5-7, sliced

1 garlic clove, chopped, optinal

olive oil 1 tbsp+ butter 1 tbsp, for frying

lemon juice 1 tbsp

sea salt, black&white pepper to taste

chopped mint 1 tbsp

chopped parsley 1 tbsp

olives 6-7, stoned

extra virgin olive oil, for dressing

roasted slivered or flaked almonds 2 tbsp

Shrimps

medium shrimps 10 (or more if shrimps are small), cleaned

lemon juice 2 tbsp

1/3-1/2 tsp chilli flakes, optional

1 tsp sweet paprika

freshly ground sea salt and white pepper to taste

olive oil 2 tbsp, for frying

Method

Mix up all ingredients for shrimps marinade. Put shrimps in a bowl, pour over marinade. Cover with plastic wrap and keep in a fridge at least for 1 hour.
Wash and roughly cut cauliflower. Using a food processor, blitz cauliflower until breadcrumbs/couscous size.
In a frying pan, heat oil and butter. Add whole baby onions and fry over medium heat until golden. Add cauliflower and garlic if using, fry for 10-15 minutes or until cauliflower is ready. Add lemon juice and season to taste. Stir in chopped herbs and olives.
In a separate pan heat oil and fry shrimps for 2-3 minutes on each side over medium-high heat.
Arrange cauliflower couscous on a large serving plate. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with almonds. Top with shrimps.

Enjoy!

Sunday Breakfast: Cheesy Onion Cookies

Hello-hello! It’s been a kind of hectic week and I really didn’t have a time to post anything. But I can’t skip the Sunday breakfast series, so I decided to reblog one of my old recipes – savory onion cookies! I love this recipe: it’s quick&easy what especially valuable in the morning (ok, may be not that quick as a fried egg but worth any minute), and of course these cookies taste incredible! So, if you still haven’t tried them, click here to get the recipe. 🙂 These savory cookies combine many amazing ingredients, like a classic English cheese – Red Leicester or Cheddar, that adds a slightly sweet and nutty note to cookies, plus sautéed in butter leeks and some chilli flakes, which give you a nice and healthy jump start! 🙂 Enjoy!