Summery avocado chickpea salad with chicken skewers

   It's summer, so you might want to try a light dinner. I have the perfect idea! It's a new recipe from "Yum and yummer" recipe book written by Greta Podleski. Super healthy and super nutritious! I love all Greta's recipes! :) 

Here it goes:

Ingredients for 3-4 people:
Salad:
- 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1 1/2 cups peeled, diced cucumbers
- 1 1/2 cups halved cherry tomatoes
- 1/2 cup minced or thinly sliced red onions
- 1 medium avocado, diced
* my addition: a can of corn (God knows how much I love it :D)

Dressing:
- 2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 Tbsp olive or sunflower oil
- 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 Tbsp minced fresh dill
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp pure maple syrup or liquid honey
- 1/4 tsp each sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Skewers:
- I bought marinated chicken skewers from Lidl, but you can marinate your own with chicken thighs or chicken breast

Steps:
1. In a large bowl, combine all salad ingredients, being careful not to squish the avocados.
2. Whisk together all dressing ingredients in a small bowl or measuring cup.
3. Pour over salad and mix well. Taste and add more salt and pepper if you like.
4. Grill your chicken skewers.
5. Serve immediately. Bon appetit! :)

Sour cherry brownie bundt

   What do you first think of when I tell you ”sour cherry dessert”? My answer: always a brownie. I just love love loooove chocolate desserts so it's understandable why I chose to bake this for International Chocolate Day a few days after I had picked my own sour cherries :D 

   I found this recipe online on a Romanian blog I follow quite often for new ideas. It always delivers and I'm never disappointed. Today I chose to bake this brownie in a bundt pan because I wanted a smaller quantity and I also wanted it to be pretty. So? Shall I tell you how to make it? Don't worry about the many steps, it's actually quite easy to make, trust me! :D

Ingredients 

*I used half of the original recipe for this bundt, but if you want to bake a whole rectangular 35 x 25 cm pan, double the quantities

- 3 eggs

- 100g sugar

- 25g dark chocolate

- 25g butter 82% (and some butter for the bundt pan)

- 15g cocoa

- 40g of flour

- a pinch of salt

- 1 packet of vanilla sugar

- 300 g pitted sour cherries

Steps:

1. First of all, preheat the oven to 170C with ventilation (medium stage for gas ones). Then melt the chocolate and butter on bain marie (bowl placed over the pot in which the water boils). Leave to cool.

2. Separate the eggs. Beat the egg whites well with a pinch of salt. (You can use an electric mixer like I did.)

3. When the foam is hard, add 100g of sugar and continue beating until you get a hard, dense and shiny foam (if you turn the bowl over your head, the foam doesn't fall on your head :P).

4. Mix the yolks separately with 100g of sugar and vanilla sugar. Mix until you get a foam. 

5. Add the melted chocolate and butter (which has cooled a bit and no longer burns) and mix until smooth.

6. Sift the flour and the cocoa through a sieve. It's very important to do this if you want a perfect, fluffy brownie.

7. Add the flour and cocoa over the egg yolk and chocolate mix.

7. Then gradually add the egg white foam and mix lightly with a spatula. Be careful not to crush the egg whites. 

8. Spread butter all over the inside of the bundt pan so that your brownie won't stick when it's ready.

9. Pour the composition into the bundt pan and smooth with a spatula.

10. Place the sour cherries on the dough one by one. Mix them with the dough slowly, using a spatula. If you don't want sour cherries in your bundt, you can leave them on top. I like mine to be all over the brownie when I bite into it :D

11. Put the bundt in the preheated oven at 170C (heat up + down + ventilation) respectively the middle stage in the gas ovens. Bake the cake for 25 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 150C and bake it for another 15-20 minutes.

12. When it's done, let it cool for a bit, then turn your bundt upside down and ta-ra! Here's your cake!

13. Serve with ice cream! Yummmmmm! 

Bon appetit! :D

Oreo Chocolate Strawberry Cake

   You know that moment when you see videos of uber delicious recipes online that you drool at by just looking at them and then you dream them at night until you put them into practice. This recipe is one of those :))

   I think I can pretty much sum it up into: Oh My God! I haven't tasted something this good in a while! I really expected it to only look good in a video and that's all, but this time it also worked wonders in real life too. Might have helped that I followed this recipe closely so I used good quality chocolate and the exact amounts as specified. Either way, YOU GO TRY IT! It's Dana approved!:D

Ingredients for 10-12 servings:

Crust

330g Oreo cookies

110g butter, melted

Chocolate Filling

200g milk chocolate

100g bittersweet chocolate

200 ml heavy cream

Topping

300g fresh strawberries

chopped nuts (almonds, pistachios, etc) - optional

Steps:

1. Place oreo cookies into the bowl of a food processor and blend until crumbs form. 

2. Add melted butter and pour over the crushed cookies. Process until evenly moistened. 

3. Press cookie mixture with the back of the spoon and your fingers where necessary  into the bottom and edges of a rectangular 5x14 inch (12 x 36 cm) tart pan or a regular round tart pan. 

4. Freeze until you prepare the filling, just for few minutes.

5. In a small saucepan, place cream over medium-low heat for a few minutes to get hot. No boiling or simmering needed. 

6. Remove from heat, pour over chopped chocolate and let rest for 1-2 minutes. 

7. Stir until dissolved.

8. Pour chocolate filling over oreo crust. 

9. Top with fresh strawberries and chopped nuts.

10. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight before serving.

Bon appetit! :)

Beer honey chicken with oven-roasted potatoes

   This recipe was recommended to me by a friend a loooong time ago and it's heaven on a plate! The chicken is sooo moist, the sauce is very flavourful because of the beer and honey combination and the potatoes are crunchy on the outside but soft in the middle. I'm telling you, you need to try this recipe! One of the best dishes I've eaten lately! :D

Ingredients for 2 people:

- 2 chicken thighs

- 250 ml beer

- 2 Tbsp honey

- 3 Tbsp water

- 4 Tsp soy sauce

- 1 Tsp grounded mustard seeds

- 1 big onion julienned

- 8 - 10 garlic cloves, minced

- 4 medium potatoes, cut into cubes

- salt and pepper to taste

- oregano to taste

- sunflower or olive oil for coating

Steps:

1.  Preheat the oven at 200C. Cut the potatoes into cubes, then put them in a pan and add salt, pepper, oregano and oil. Mix well. Cover with tinfoil and put them in the oven for about 30 min then take the tinfoil off and leave them for 15 more minutes to get crispy on top.

2. Heat a large pan over medium-high heat, Add oil, then place the chicken thighs in the pan. Season them with salt and pepper, cover the pan with a big metal bowl and let the chicken cook for 3 minutes on each side. Then put the chicken on a plate.

3. To the same pan add the grounded mustard seeds and the minced garlic and stir a little.

4. Add in the julienned onion. Stir fry until translucent.

5. Add soy sauce, the water, the beer and the honey to make a sauce. Mix well.

6. Put the chicken back in the pan and cover again. Let the sauce reduce to half on medium-high heat (it will take at least 10 min, 5 min on each side). Check the thighs from time to time and don't forget to baste them.

7. Add more water if the sauce is too reduced before the chicken is cooked through. Also reduce the heat if you do this :)

8. Once cooked, transfer to a plate, take the potatoes from the oven and enjoy your dinner! 

Bon appetit! :)

Looneyspoons veggie pizza with pesto, mozarella and feta

Hey!

Tired of too much meat in your meals and you feel like switching it up? Then this veggie pizza with yuuuummy cheeses will make your world go round! The original recipe is taken from The Looneyspoons, an all-time favourite book written by Janet and Greta Podleski. There it's called "It's a little pizza heaven" and the title doesn't lie ;) Of course, I tweaked it a bit, like I always do :))

By the way, I decided to go wild and I made my own pizza dough so I'll include the recipe for the dough too, just in case you wanna make your own.

Let's get started, shall we?

Ingredients for 2 pizzas:

Thin and flavourful dough: *recipe from chef Adrian Hădean
- 3 cups of 650 flour
- 1 1/2 cups of warm water
- 10g fresh yeast or 3g dry yeast
- 1 tbsp warm milk
- 2 pinches of sugar (used separately)
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 tsp dry oregano
- 1 tsp dry basil
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

OR 2 pizza doughs from Lidl ;)

Topping for 2 pizzas:
- 2 tsp olive or sunflower oil
- around 6 sliced mushrooms (put a variety of them if you can)
- a haldful of broccoli florets cut small
- a medium zucchini
- 1/2 red bell pepper thinly sliced
- a small red onion thinly sliced
- 1/2 jar Barilla pesto sauce
- 1/2 jar pizza sauce or any tomato based flavored sauce (I used Barilla Napoletana)
- 2 tbsp freshly grated Parm cheese
- aprox. 150g mozarella di bufala balls
- around 60g shredded feta cheese
*my addition, optional: corn (as much as possible :P)


Steps:

Making the dough:
1. Mix the flour and water.
2. Add a pinch of salt and sugar.
3. Dissolve the yeast in the milk and a pinch of sugar, then add to the flour mix.
4. Add the oregano, basil and olive oil.
5. Knead the dough for about 15 min by hand or with an electric mixer (I used the second option) until it's soft, elastic and it comes off easily. You might need to adjust the water/flour combo.
6. Let it rise for about an hour close to a source of heat.
7. Separate it into 2 doughs for your two pizzas and work it like a true Italian pizzaro until you fill your 2 trays of pizza:

Adding the topping:
1. Tomato sauce (I added too much and the pizza ended up soggy, so make sure you don't add too much)

2. Cooooorn

3. Add Parm cheese :)

4. Add the sauteed veggies coated in pesto - In a big pan or a wok over medium heat add the oil and all the cut veggies. Cook and stir for about 6 min until they are tender, then take them off the heat and add in the pesto. Mix well, then spread on top of the pizza.

5. Add the mozarella balls, yummm!

6. Final step: Add the shreded feta :)

And this is how the pizza looks before going in the oven for about 10 min if the dough is fresh or 8 min if the dough is store bought and thawed. Bake it at 230C until the crust is lightly browned and cheese is melted.

7. Final product:

Bon appetit! :D

Guacamole Egg Toast

Hey, friends!

Lately I've fallen in love with this simple yet absolutely addictive breakfast recipe. So much so that I keep craving it every other day! Since it's mouthwatering, healthy and super easy, I thought I'd share it with you! ;)

So here goes:

Ingredients for 2 toasts:
- 1 ripe avocado
- 1 medium tomato
- 1 small red onion
- a bit of lime or lemon juice
- salt and pepper
- 2 eggs
- 2 slices of bread
- Chipotle flakes or Chilli flakes

Steps:
1. Make the guacamole by peeling the avocado, then mashing it down with a potato masher. Then dice the tomato and the onion, add the lime juice, salt and pepper and mix everything.
2. Poach your eggs or simply put a bit of water in a pan then add the eggs and cook them like a regular sunny side up. Season with Chipotle or chilli flakes.
3. Toast your bread.
4. Assemble: toast, guacamole, egg.

Eggcelent breakfast, I'm telling you! Bon appetit! :D

Creamy roasted red pepper and sun dried tomato pasta

   Hi, pasta lovers!

   Today I want to present to you my new discovery! If your mouth is watering when you hear about roasted red peppers and you loooove sun dried tomatoes because they remind you of Italy, then read on! 

   I found this recipe shared on Instagram by a Romanian influencer who made it at home. She also took it from servingdumplings.com, a blog I've never heard about before. BIG mistake! If you take a glance around you'll instantly feel hungry and you'll become a follower! Yep, that's what happened to me too! 

   Now, you know that I usually love to improvise and tweak recipes to make them my own and I did that with this recipe as well. I decided not to blitz the roasted peppers and sun dried tomatoes into a sauce because I wanted to feel their texture and I skipped the tomato sauce and the lemon because I added Pesto Rosso from Lidl. Other than that, I decided to made my own pasta from scratch. Why not? Fresh pasta is always better, right?

   So here's how I did it:



Ingredients for 2 people:

250g pasta (or make your own from here)

3 red bell peppers

100 g sun dried tomatoes, oil drained but reserved

50 g grated parmesan

200 ml milk

1 shallot or small onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

1 jar Pesto Rosso from Lidl

salt + black pepper

1/2 tsp crushed dried chili

+basil and grated parmesan, for sprinkling



Steps:

1a. OPTIONAL: Make the pasta yourself.

1b. Place the bell peppers on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Turn on your broiler to 250°C and if you can, place the peppers on the highest rack, close to the heating element (in my case it was the second highest because the tray wouldn't fit on the first one). Roast for about 5 minutes or until black spots appear, flip the peppers and continue to roast until all sides have been charred.

2. Place bell peppers in a plastic bag. Seal and let steam for about 5 minutes. Pull off the skins and remove the seeds, then dice them. Dice the sun dried tomatoes as well.

3. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Boil the pasta until al dente and then drain.

4. In a medium pot, heat the oil and add garlic and shallot. Cook over low heat until soft, for about 5 minutes. Stir in the roasted bell peppers, sun dried tomatoes, pesto rosso and Parmesan. Pour milk, 50 ml oil from the sun dried tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil.

5. Toss with pasta. Adjust chili, salt and black pepper to your taste and serve immediately with Parmesan and fresh basil.

Bon appetit! :)