Helen's Cooking

Top 3 Tortilla Recipes: 10 minute healthy recipes.

2011-10-09T19:47:36Z

Tortilla is a unique ingredient: every dish you incorporate it in is simple, easy to cook , yet very delicious.

These 3 recipes are my favorites when I am on the run and the family needs to have a snack.

Fried tortillas with beef

It’s good to take with you if you decide to go camping or travel by car at the long distances.

You can also cook this dish with fruit, berries, I sometimes use bacon and cheese, whatever you want.

For this dish you will need

Meat ( in my case beef) for 4 tortillas I used ½ pound

1 small onion

1 egg

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper Read full recipe

Apple hot pockets:

Apple hot pockets are a great fall breakfast for a weekday. with Tortillas you can cook them in minutes in the evening and reheat in the morning.

For the recipe you will need:

4 medium apples;

4 tortillas;

2 tablespoons of sugar;

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil Read more

Burrito with sausage, cheese, tomato and basil.

Burritos should be spicy and meaty, but as my family loves burritos and doesn’t loce them too spicy I decided to invent mine.

(Honetly there’s nothing to invent) Just throw in together the delicious vinnagraitte of saucage, tomato, cheese and onion with herbs. Read more

Healthy Fall Dessert: Baked apples with walnuts, honey and cinnamon.

2011-10-03T21:48:09Z

This recipe is as easy as it can only get. I think the hardest part is to take the apples’ seeds out, so that the apples would be intact.

I am cooking these apples since the time I remember myself cooking. My Daddy cooks these apples in red wine, but, let’s not get too crazy here. I’m on a quest for a healthy, kid-friendly dessert.

You will need:

9 apples (you can take more, you can take less. 9 apples are good for 3 people)

1 cup of walnuts

1-2 teaspoons of cinnamon powder

2-3 tablespoons of honey (depends on how you like them: too sweet or not so sweet)

¼ stick of butter.

I don’t use sugar, caramel or anything unnatural in this dessert. It’s sweet, delicious healthy. Your family members will LOVE this desert because combination of the ingredients is amazingly delicious.

You will like this dessert, because it is healthy and doesn’t involve sugar.

Step 1: Wash and take the seeds out of the apple as shown in the picture.

Step 2: Crush the walnuts, add some honey, cinnamon, melted butter and honey. Mix very well.

Step 3: Preheat the oven at 350F. Put the stuffing (walnuts with honey, cinnamon and butter) inside the apples, place in a deep baking dish, add some water.

Step 4: Bake for 25-30 minutes and serve warm.

Enjoy!

***Tip from Helen*** I prefer mid-sized red apples for this dish, but green will also be fine. Just they shouldn’t be too firm. Yellow apples won’t taste as good, because they will be too sweet and soft ***

Homemade hot pockets with apples. (healthy breakfast in 10 minutes)

2011-10-09T01:06:57Z

This is a great weekday breakfast. It’s very easy to cook, it’s healthy and very delicious autumn treat.

If you like the cinnamon, you can add it as well, walnuts will also taste amazing in this simple dish.

When I cook it , sometimes, they don’t “live” till morning family members hunt for them in the evening and at night.

(please note that the pockets in the picture are made of the homemade flour tortillas, so these are a little bit different looking)

For the recipe you will need:

4 medium apples;

4 tortillas;

2 tablespoons of sugar;

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil;

Wash the apples, peel them, then chop into mid sized chunks (take out the apple seeds ptip to chopping the apples).

Mix the chopped apples with sugar( add walnuts, cinnamon at this stage if you want to).

Preheat your oven at 375 F.

Take the baking dish, grease it with 1 tablespoon of oil.

Take your tortilla, put the apple mix on one half of it, cover with the second half and press firmly (BUT DON’T SQUEEZE TOO HARD).

Put your hot pockets on a baking dish, brush tortillas with the vegetable oil (optional), and set to bake for 10 minutes.

Your dish is ready in 10 minutes. (the tortillas will be crispy and light golden).

Enjoy!

Burritos with sausage, cheese and tomato. (10 minute ready healthy dinner)

2011-10-09T00:12:45Z

Burritos should be spicy and meaty, but as my family loves burritos and doesn’t loce them too spicy I decided to invent mine.

(Honetly there’s nothing to invent) Just throw in together the delicious vinnagraitte of saucage, tomato, cheese nd onion with herbs.

Yes, I know it’s not traditional burritos , but who told we should be traditional?

WE eat what we love and what is delicious and healthy.

So for my healthy Burritos you will need:

4 flour tortillas (homemade is even better!)

1 sausage

1 big tomato

1/2 lb. of cheese (shredded or shred yourself)

1/4 onion

1/3 lemon basil chopped

1 pinch of salt

1 pinch of black pepper

1 pinch of red pepper

Wash and chop into mid-sized chnks the tomato. finely chop the onion, season and mix in a bowl. Slice the sausage. And now let’s gather the burrito:

Put the slices of sausage in the middle, add tomato and onion, put on top a lot of cheese and lemon basil.

Roll it in!

Press it all together. Repeat with the other 3 torillas and set to bake at 375F for 7-10 minutes.

Ready!

Enjoy your burritos:-)

Vegetarian pizza (with zucchini, mushrooms, red bell pepper,carrot, garlic and onion)

2011-10-07T17:02:56Z

This pizza is a “sister” of my “delicious 30 minute pizza.” It’s cooked from scratch in 30-35 minutes and I just Love this combination of veggies. You can use your combination, but this one is good for me!

The dough is the same:

2.5 cups of sifted flour

1 cup of hot water

0.25 oz. dry yeast

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of sugar

Filling:

1 zucchini;

1/2 small can of mushrooms;

½ carrot (medium);

½ red bell pepper (medium);

¼ of onion (medium);

½ lb. cheese (shredded);

1 teaspoon of tomato sauce

1 teaspoon of mayo

Pinch of salt, pepper and oregano.

Sift the flour; add sugar, salt and yeast. Pour in hot water and olive oil, Mix well.

Put in the oven for 10-15 minutes (the oven shouldn’t be turned on)

Put on the shelf below the dough a bowl with hot water.

Chop the veggies: zucchini should be midsized, slice the mushrooms or use canned, finely chop the onion, red bell pepper and garlic. (Garlic should be very well chopped, almost in crumbs)

Take out your dough. Divide into two parts. From this amount of dough you can get 2 pizzas and 5-6 hot pockets with apples or anything you like. (Read about the hot pockets- in my next post!)

Roll out one part of the dough cut it to the size of your pizza form.

Put it in your pizza form and cover the dough with mayo and tomato sauce. Spread it evenly over the dough, season with salt, pepper and sprinkle oregano on top. Put the half of your shredded cheese on top of the tomato-mayo layer, and then add your veggies one by one.

Set to bake in a preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. (The oven should be preheated to 375F)

Before taking the pizza out cover the pie with another cheese layer.

Take out in 3-5 minutes.

Enjoy!

Beef Cutlets Easy

2011-10-04T16:52:05Z

This recipe is very popular in European countries: in Austria it’s called schnitzel, in the US it’s called a cutlet. We cook cutlets with beef and pork, even with fish and chicken. The main thing the fillet/ or loin has to be thin.

It’s a great dish for a weekday dinner, 5-10 minutes to cook if the meat is ready to work with (not frozen)

For the family of 4 you will need:

1 lb of thin sliced beef

1 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons of flour

1 egg

Wash and tenderize the meat with meat tenderizer.

***Tip from Helen*** Cover the meat with the clear wrap and then use the smooth shaped side of the ”hammer” to tenderize the meat.***

Season the meat with salt and pepper, cut into medium sized slices 6-7 inch long and 2-4 inch wide. (Or if your meat was cut before then leave as it is)

Pour the flour in a disposable plate.

In a separate deep dish beat the egg. (you may add 1 tablespoon of water for it to be beaten better and evenly). Season the egg mix with salt and pepper.

Run the cutlet through the flour, then egg and then put on a hot frying pan (add the cooking oil just before putting your cutlets to fry).

Fry the cutlets on each side until golden brown.

Serve warm with mashed potato, rice or grilled vegetables.

Enjoy!

Lemon Victoria Sandwich Cake with Raspberries, Strawberries and Clotted cream

2011-10-07T17:01:21Z

The last day of September is a double Birthday Day in my family. So I was looking for a cake that would be simple, fast and that wouldn’t require a lot of time in the kitchen.

My Facebook friend Dor from La Difference Catering offered me to cook a Classic Victoria Sandwich, so I improvised and changed couple ingredients, as well as added couple of new.

This is how the ready cake looks like. It’s a shame I didn’t get a chance to picture it when cut.It looks amazing inside too, but it vanished too fast.

Preparation time: 30 minutes (Total with cream and decoration)

Cooking Time: 25 minutes

Total time needed: 55 minutes to 1 hour. (It’s better that the cake stand in the fridge for at least 2-3 hours, but it’s not critical)

For the batter:

1 cup of sifted flour

1 cup of sugar

4 eggs

2 teaspoons of lemon zest

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla sugar

1 teaspoon of baking powder

To decorate:

Coconut shred (optional)

1/2 cup raspberries

1/2 cup strawberries

(Or you may use kiwis and bananas)

Batter preparation:

Mix sugar with eggs gradually, then add lemon zest, vanilla sugar and baking powder; after that start gradually add sifted flour.

Preheat the oven to 350 F; preheat a tin, where you will pour the batter.

Grease the tin with butter or margarine, pour the batter in it and bake for 20-25 minutes until the toothpick comes out of the cake clean.

While the cake is baking let’s cook the cream.

Clotted Cream recipe:

1 cup of milk

3 tablespoons of sugar

3 tablespoons of flour

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla sugar

1/3 cup of condensed milk

Step 1. Divide the milk into 2 halves. Mix 1/2 cup of milk with eggs, flour and vanilla sugar. Set aside.

Step2. Mix 1/2 cup of milk with sugar. Put on medium heat, stir constantly until starts to boil. Por the 2nd part of cream (with eggs and flour in) and stir constantly, until it starts to boil again.

Step 3, Take the cream off the gas and add the condensed milk after it cools off a little.

Your cream is ready.

Decorating:

When the sponge cake is baked and cooled off a little take it out of the tin and cut the sponge into two parts lengthwise. Now when you have two sponges choose one which will be the best for the “foundation” and cover it with your clotted cream.

Take the raspberries and put it on the first layer of your cake. I put one or two circles (one inside another) on the first layer. Put the second sponge on top of first, press a little, cover the first layer with cream and decorate with coconut shred. Put the berries on top of the cake: raspberries and strawberries will be good or bananas and kiwis will be nice as well.

Put the cake in the refrigerator for 1-3 hours (optional).

The cake tastes better when cooled off.

Enjoy!

Puff pastry dough made easy!

2011-10-03T21:56:50Z

I love puff pastry, do you? You can create literally hundreds of recipes with it and it’s ready in 15 minutes: Apple strudel, croissants, puff pastry baskets and puff pastry fish pie and much more. The recipe of this dough will help you create a lot of awesomely delicious dishes in minutes.

For the dough you’ll need:

2 sticks of frozen butter (unsalted), no margarine.

1 cup of water

3 cups of flour

1 teaspoon vanilla sugar

For the filling:

2-3 apples

½ cup of sugar

1 teaspoon of cinnamon (optional)

½ cup of finely chopped walnuts (optional)

The batter prep takes some time and effort, but then you’ll be able to freeze it and use for 2-3 weeks easy.

So, Take your butter, cut the sticks in halves and put in the freezer for 15 min.

Mix: water, flour and vanilla sugar.

Put the batter in a freezer for 10 min.

Take out of the freezer ½ stick of butter and the batter.

Put the clear wrap on the surface you are gonna work on, using the dough roller roll the dough out until 1 inch thick. Shred the butter on the rolled out dough and fold in triangle. Put in a freezer for 10-15 minutes (cover it with clear wrap when putting in the freezer). In 15 minutes take another ½ stick of butter, take out the dough, and put the clear wrap on the working surface (the same you used before or new one). Roll out the dough until 1 inch thick; shred the butter, fold in triangle, put for 15 min in the freezer (cover with clear wrap). Repeat the same procedure with the rest 2 halves of the butter sticks. This dough takes some time and effort, but it really is delicious and the best. But, if you don’t have no time for messing with this dough, just buy the ready puff pastry dough. I normally cook this dough over the weekend, because then I can relax roll out my dough go watch TV then repeat, you know… just enjoy this dough preparation procedure…:-))

The dough is ready, when you shred the last 1/2 stick of butter and put it for 15 minutes in the fridge: take it out cut in 3-4 pieces. Use one piece to roll out your dough for the strudel , the other two you can use for the croissants:-) Keep the other parts of the dough in a freeser for as long as you ned. It’s a great dough to fix quick dessert or pie, or cakes, or roll…

But strudel is my favorite. Ususally it doesn’t live for more than 3 hours in my house, croissants may last for 24 h the most.

Enjoy and share with me your ways of using this recipe of dough.

Pumpkin crème-soup with shrimp, cream cheese and basil.

2011-09-28T17:30:24Z

It’s autumn and it means that it’s time for a great pumpkin soup with shrimp that I just LOVE cooking.

It doesn’t require a lot of effort but it comes out perfectly smooth, bringing in the autumn flavors and colors into your kitchen.

I tasted this soup long time ago in Europe, brought it into my kitchen and my family just loves it. Hope, you will too.

For this recipe you will need:

2 pound of pumpkin;

1 cup of cream cheese;

1 carrot;

½ cup of shrimp;

1 teaspoon of fresh ground pepper;

1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning mix;

½ mid-sized onion;

2 teaspoons of salt;

½ cup of fresh basil;

1 red bell pepper;

Boil in a saucepan (4 qtr.) ½ onion, 1 carrot (peeled), 1 red bell pepper, sliced pumpkin until soft. When the veggies are ready, take them out, don’t drain the stock, let them cool a little and blend them together with cream cheese. ***Note from Helen*** I peeled the pumpkin after I boiled it, because it was too hard to peel. All the other veggies should be peeled (and washed) before boiling.’’’’ Add the blended mix to your stock (you should have 3-4 cups of stock). Season the soup with salt, pepper. Simmer at the minimum heat for 10 minutes and then add shrimp. (***Note from Helen*** the shrimp should be washed, peeled and boiled in salt water separately. It takes only 3-5 minutes to cook your shrimp if it’s raw.***) When you added the shrimp, boil your crème-soup for additional 3-5 minutes. Serve warm and add basil just before serving!

Enjoy.

Deviled eggs with mustard, shrimp and basil.

2011-09-26T18:37:43Z

This recipe is inspired by classic deviled eggs plus spiced up by the deviled eggs seen on Food network.

It’s my combination of delicious deviled eggs that conquered the hearts of my family members.

I would be happy to see what your favorite deviled eggs recipes are.

You can submit the recipes by creating your profile ans choosing the button Recipes to submit your recipe.

I will be happy to try your deviled eggs recipes.

The preparation of the dish is usual.

You will need:

4 eggs

2 tablespoons mustard (yellow)

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon of pepper

1/3 cup basil

2 tablespoons of mayo

1/3 cup of shrimps

Hard boil the eggs. Then, take out the egg yolks, mash them and then add the shrimps (small, boiled in salt water), yellow mustard and mayo.

Mix everything very well, add pepper and salt.

Fill in your egg whites.

Voila!

Your delicious deviled eggs are ready. Decorate with basil and put in the fridge.

You can try these deviled eggs with Dijon mustard, I had yellow mustard at the time when I invented these and they were just fine.

***Tip from Helen** Deviled eggs should be served cold. So after preparing, put them in the fridge for an hour or two. The deviled eggs should be eaten within 24h.