Teriyaki Pork, broccoli and rice dinner in 20 minutes

Simple, fast and delicious recipe.

You can get this dinner on the table in 20 minutes. What cam be better for a working woman? Only the dinner in 5 minutes, which would most probably be the oats:-)

Cooking Time : 15 minutes 

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Serves : 3 people

This teriyaki sauce may be used with pork, chicken or beef.

For teriyaki sauce: 

soy sauce- 1/2 cup

flour – 1 teaspoon

honey – 1 teaspoon

garlic powder – 1/3 teaspoon

ginger – 1 teaspoon

vinegar – 1 teaspoon

Meat:

pork- 1 lb finely chopped

In 1/3 cup of soy sauce mix honey, ginger powder and garlic powder, stir well, add vinegar and flour stir well.

Chop the pork in 1 in X 0.5 in chunks. pour the sauce in the wok pan, add pork and simmer on low heat until the sauce thickens. Don’t let the sauce become too thick, add water if necessary. I didn’t add the salt here as the soy sauce is saulty, but if you need salt, you definitely should add it here.

Broccoli:

1 lb of broccoli

Cut the broccoli flowers off,wash. put on a frying pan, add 1/2 cup of water, add salt and steam for 2 minutes.

Rice:

1 cup of white rice

Wash and roil rice until cooked (15-20 minutes).

Rinse with cold water, add 1 tablespoon of butter , 1 teaspoon of salt and stir well.

Your dinner is ready, serve warm and enjoy!

Love,

 

Top 5 holiday vegan dishes. Pick yours!

This entry is part 6 of 7 in the series Holidays

Christmas is when you spend a lot of time with your family, give a lot of presents and cook  a lot of food. Even if you have a vegan or vegetarian family member or friend there’s virtually million of dishes you can treat them with. I chose my 5 favorite Christmas vegan dishes for the holiday table.I y will have them on mine. If you have any other favorite dishes you want to share with me post the picture of the dish and recipe link below! Happy holidays!

Green beans with sesame seeds.

Simple, yet delicious, this dish is great for holiday table.Sesame seeds and olive oil give the dish rich taste and doesn’t matter if you are vegan or not, you will anyway enjoy it a lot!

Healthy and Easy Vegan beet salad with prunes.

Beets with prunes have sweet taste, if you add a little garlic the dish will be more  more salty and this contrast will be very appealing to your senses. In addition to this this dish possesses  many healthy benefits, so don’t leave it behind. Enjoy!

Read the recipe

 

Pickled eggplants with carrots, garlic and herbs

Goes well with mashed potatoes and with broccoli, with rice and beans. Great contrast dish, but takes time to prepare.

See the recipe

Delicious braised cabbage with raisins

Great as the main and side dish, sweet raisins and bell

pepper and salty cabbage go well together.

There won’t be too much of this dish it will vanish fast!

 

 

Read the recipe

Vegan spicy sautéed mushrooms in 10 minutes.

This is a very fast to cook dish chop mix and saute and you have a great dish in matter of minutes. It’s up to you to decide if you wanna make it spicy or not! I like it spice with saurkraut `and cranberries on the side. Read the recipe

Healthy and Easy Vegan beet salad with prunes!

This entry is part 9 of 11 in the series Salad

Beets are like Cinderella, we think that they are not as delish as they are, we  rarely cook them and generally, we think that this it is not essential for us. But in reality, there’s much more to it than we think.

Beets provide antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and detoxification support.In recent lab studies on human tumor cells, betanin pigments from beets have been shown to lessen tumor cell growth Beets also possess fiber-related benefit, so next time when you pass the beets in a vegetable aisle, grab couple for the salad or soup.


Cooking time: 1 h 20 min

Preparation time 15 min

Serves: 3 people

Ingredients:

2 mid sized beets

1/2 cup of pitted prunes(washed and chopped)

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 clove of garlic (optional)

1 pinch of salt

1 pinch of pepper

leaves of parsley (optional)

Preparation:

Wash and set to boil the beets. Boil the beets for an hour or for as long as it will take the to be cooked (soft inside, check with the knife)

Wash the prunes and finely chop them . If you don’t like the prunes you can use walnuts or you can use both it will be even more delicious.

Whet the beets are cooked, drain the water, let them cool down and then peel and shred the beets.

Mix the beet with prunes and add the pressed garlic (optional). Season the salad and add the olive oil. Mix everything very well.

Serve with the leaves of parsley (optional) to enhance the taste!

Enjoy!

***Tip from Helen*** If you want the salad to be more creamy and you aren’t vegan or vegetarian – then you can add some mayo instead of olive oil!

 

 

Mistakes to avoid when cooking holiday dinner

This entry is part 1 of 7 in the series Holidays

It’s almost turkey time and his means that a lot of newbies will attempt to cook a Thanksgiving dinner for the first time. I, myself, will be cooking a pumpkin cheesecake, the cake that I have never attempted to approach before. SO when cooking a Thanksgiving dinner, especially when cooking it for the first time, PLAN EVERYTHING AHEAD!

Tip #1. Write down all the necessary ingredients and plan where you will buy everything.

TURKEY:

Tip #2. When buying a turkey keep in mind “how long will it take to thaw it?” Remember, that normally, you won’t be able to thaw a turkey in 24h. You need at least 24h per 5lb. of turkey. So if you have a 12 lb turkey it may take up to 48h to thaw it in a refrigerator. It’s not recommended to thaw a turekey ourside of the fridge.

Tip #3. If you plant to marinade the turkey, give it up to 24 h for marinating! Don’t forget to turn your bird , so that it would be marinated from both sides!

Tip #4. NEVER! Stuff the turkey a night before cooking, this may cause food poisoning!

Tip #5. Cook your turkey at 350F, calculate the time according to the chart given below:

 

Weight Total

Roasting Time
8-12 pounds 2 to 3.5 hours
12-16 pounds 3 to 4 hours
16-20 pounds 4 to 5 hours
20-25 pounds 5 to 6 hours
25-30 pounds 6+ hours

Tip #6. It is suggested to roast the turkey for the first hour on its breast. This will ensure the even distribution of color of roast.

Tip #7. Check the temperature of the turkey in thickest part of the leg and breast. Use a meat thermometer for best results. When done, all parts of the turkey should be 165°F. (It is sold at Wal-mart , Target and doesn’t cost a lot of money)

Tip #8. Let your turkey rest for 30 minutes before carving, thus the juices will be evenly distributed in your bird and the carving will be easier.

Side dishes:

Tip #9.Prepare the inexpensive food for the side dishes: like corn on the cob, green beans, carrots and bean,devilled eggs, sauteed vegetables, stuffed mushrooms

Tip #10. Remember corn on the cob is in season now, but it tastes really delicious with mashed potatoes and other veggies, as well as with turkey. And mainly it doesn’t require a lot of efforts to cook, Just what you need!

Tip #11. Keep in mind that if you cook deviled eggs, they should be refrigerated at least 2-3 hours before serving. Find the simplest recipe here.

Tip #12 If you have a vegetarians in your family don’t forget to braise cabbage or  vegetable variety for them. It takes 5 minutes to wash and chop the veggies.

Pies:

Tip # . Prepare the dough in advance. You can store it in the refrigerator overnight. It is safe and saves you tons of time.

Tip #10. Use fresh stuffing of pumpkin and apples this will make your pie unforgettable.

Tip #11. If you have only 15 minutes for the pie preparation use this apple pie recipe and it will always be perfect.

Tip #12. When the pie is almost baked, Turn the heat off and let it sit in the oven fr additional 15 minutes. This the dough and the stuffing in your pie that rose will not fall.

Tip #13. To serve the pie warm put in in the oven 15-20 minutes before serving. (if it’s still warm after your turkey and pie adventures!)

Tip #14. If you wish to avoid dough this holiday, try and bake healthy apples with walnuts and honey recipe. You just need to core the apples and stuff them with walnuts mixed with nuts. The recipe is here.

Finally, cooking a Thanksgiving dinner for the whole family is challenging, but if you will plan everything in advance and split the responsibilities you will be done in no time and enjoy a great time with family!

HAVE A BLESSED HOLIDAY!

Helen

 

Button Mushrooms stuffed with minced meat with lemon basil and grapes.

This entry is part 2 of 5 in the series Fast and simple dishes

This recipe is really amazing and fast to cook, considering the fact that button mushrooms contain 17 different vitamins, the benefits from this dish increase dramatically.

This dish has a long history in my house, it was cooked without cheese and grapes, but I decided to add the sweet twist to it. THe bitterness of cheese and buttin mushrooms combined with sweetness ofgrapes and lemon basil make the combination very rich and the taste pallette wider.

Recipe serves: 2  

Cooking time:20 minutes

Preparation time :10 minutes

For the recipe you will need:

8 big button mushrooms

1/2 lbs of minced pork meat

1/4 of white onion peeled and finely chopped

1 pinch of salt

1 pinch of black pepper

8 leaves of lemon basil

grapes

2 pieces of provolone sliced cheese.

Step 1: Take the button mushrooms stalks away. Clean the mushroom from the inside peel the skin (optional), wash carefully.

Step 2: Chop the onion, mix with minced pork and seson very well.

Step 3: Take the washedbutton mushroom caps, put them near you, form the meatball out of the meat, put the meatball inside the button mushtoom cap.

Step4: Repeat with all 8 mushroom caps, set on a baking dish and set to bake at 350F for 17 minutes.

****Helen’s cooking tip*** Don’t forget to add water into the baking dish (1/2 cup)***

Step 5: While the mushrooms are baking take the cheese slices cut them in quarters and set aside. Take the seedless grapes,  cut it in slices and set aside. Wash the lemon basil leaves.

Step 6: In 17 minutes take your button mushrooms out of the oven, sover with cheese and set to bake for 3 more minutes.

Step 7: In 3 minutes, take the mushrooms out and decorate with sliced grapes and lemon basil.

Serve warm.

Enjoy!

 [amd-zlrecipe-recipe:4]

 

Top 3 Tortilla Recipes: 10 minute healthy recipes.

This entry is part 1 of 5 in the series Fast and simple dishes

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

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

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:-)

 

Puff pastry dough made easy!

This entry is part 3 of 5 in the series Cakes

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.

Deviled eggs with mustard, shrimp and basil.

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.

 

 

 

Sweet & sour chicken with pineapple, so simple and so delicious.

This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series Delicious Chicken

I love this combination for its rich flavor and tenderness, the dish melts in your mouth. I serve it with brown rice or mashed potato, both are good. It’s a very extravagant recipe with very ordinary ingredients.

Serves 4 people

For this recipe you will need:

1 lbs of boneless chicken breasts

1 onion

2/3 cup of pineapple chunks (raw or canned)

1 teaspoon of curry

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of black pepper

2 tablespoons of sour cream

2 tablespoons of mayo

2 tablespoons of cooking oil

Wash the chicken and cut the fillets in chunks about 1 in X 1 in  (length and width). Season with salt, pepper and curry and let the chicken marinade for 15 minutes (optional), if you don’t have time just throw them on a frying pan (add cooking oil before).

***Note from Helen*** If you don’t like curry, the dish tastes ok without it as well, so just omit this ingredient***

Peel, wash and chop the onion (1/2 of it)

Fry the chicken for 5 minutes, at max gas, then add the finely chopped onion and braise at medium heat for another 5 minutes. Add sour cream, mayo and pineapple and braise for another 5-7 minutes.

Ready!

Serve with brown rice or potatoes!