Cauliflower salad

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

This salad is rich and creamy and very nutritional. Cauliflower is one of my favorite ingredients to work with.

It’s nutritional benefits are as follows: low in fat, low in carbs but high in dietary fiber, folate, water, and vitamin C. Almost perfect vegetable!

I love it when dieting or when fasting (which occurs more often than dieting:)

This recipe doesn’t require a lot of time, but  you have to be very careful when cutting the flowers of cauliflower, because they are very jumpy and  tend to “jump  out of your knife and onto the floor” (I am serious here:-)

I normally cut 1/4 of one average cauliflower for a salad for two, so make your calculations.

For the salad you will need:

Cauliflower – 1/4 of it

White onion – 1/2 pcs.

Tomatoes- 2 pcs.

Salt, pepper – according to your taste, I put 1/2 teaspoon of each

Mayo – 2 tbsp.

Preparation time: 10 minutes.

Serves: 2 people

Preparation:

Carefully cut the flowers of cauliflower. Chop the onion and slice the tomato. Cutting the caulflower will take most of your time. Try to cut is to medium sized chunks approx 0.5 X 0.5 in

Season you veggies, add  2 tablespoons of mayo and stir well.

Serve! Goes well with mashed potato, rice and even noodles.

 

Vegan spicy red cabbage

This entry is part 7 of 7 in the series Delicious fried veggies

I hope you love the colors of this dish: it’s so autumn and bright! My family members call this dish “weird braised cabbage”:-)

To me the red cabbage tastes absolutely different, than the ordinary green one. It’s more flavorful, tender…. mmm, it’s more autumn!

 

For this recipe you will need:

1 lb of red cabbage (shredded)

1 onion

1/2  red bell pepper (or yellow one for the color)

1 chili pepper (small)

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

1 pinch of salt

Serves 4 people.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Shred the cabbage carefully, peel, wash and chop the onion, wash and chop the red bell pepper.

Chop the chili separately.(you will throw it in 3 minutes before serving).

Season the cabbage and squeeze it , so that it would be more juicy!

***Tip from Helen*** You can add 1/4 of shredded carrot if you would like to. I sometimes do.***

Start braising the cabbage with onions, then add peppers after 10 minutes of braising and 3 minutes before taking your cabbage off the stove throw in the chili.

*** Tip from Helen*** be careful with chili , wash carefully your hands and don’t touch your eyes when just worked with chili. Wash the knife and your cutting desk very well.

If you need during the cooking add some salt as well, I don’t as I don’t like too much salt in my food.

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:-)

 

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

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!

Easy 30 minute ready potato “sails” with turkey ham, onion and cheese

This is a very simple recipe that was cooked for decades in mountainous part of Ukraine.

It’s cheap, fast to cook and very simple dish, but surprisingly it’s amazingly delicious. Some dishes should be complicated, some are simple. Honestly, even your kids can cook it. Just boil potato for them in advance and… by the time you are home – they have themselves a nice dinner.

So, for the dish as you already know you will need:

Potatoes (I take 3-4 per person)

Any meat (turkey, ham, bacon)

Onion (optional) . I do put onion in it gives different flavor to the dish, If you don’t like the onion – then don’t put it.

Tomato (optional) it should be firm, so that you could slice it))

Herbs (parsley, dill, basil)

Mayo (6-12 teaspoons)

Step 1. Boil potatoes until soft and cooked. You can boil them in the evening so, that the next day you could cook this dish after work in 10 minutes. (I don’t peel potatoes, just wash them very carefully. Potato skin is very useful and has a lot of vitamins)

Step 2.  Cut potatoes in halves lengthwise. Then put you potato halves on the microwaveable dish (or baking dish), season: salt-pepper-oregano, cover each potato half with thin layer of mayo. Then put onion, tomato, meat and cover with cheese. (On each half you should put a slice of onion, a slice of tomato, a slice meat (ham, bacon etc.), a slice of cheese.

*** Tip from Helen: The slices of onion, tomato should be very-very thin. I use deli (turkey, bacon, ham) and cheese that were sliced at the store, the slices are thin. You can use any cheese you like except for American cheese :-) ***

Step 3. When you covered all the potato halves put it to bake (I put it in microwave for 5-10 minutes).

Serve warm, with homemade tomato sauce or without.

These potatoes will taste good even when cold!

Enjoy!

Pizza from scratch in 30 minutes!

Normally when we cook pizza we think it should take an hour, I saw some recipes where cooking pizza took 4 hours. I bet it comes out as a delicous masterpiece, but… guess what… we normally don’t have 4 hours to fix the pizza. It’s good, when we have 30 minutes. That’s why I decided to share my recipe of fast pizza  with bacon, ham nad vegetables. The stuffing can be pretty much any… the dough here, that’s what important to know how to cook.

For the dough you will need:

2.5 cups of flour,

2 tablespoons of olive oil (vegetable will also be good),

0.25 oz dry yeast,

1 teaspoon of baking powder ,

1 cup of hot water,

1 teaspoon of salt and

1 teaspoon of sugar.

Mix flour, yeast, baking powder,salt & sugar.Add warm water and vegetable oil(olive oil). make a dough.

Put it in a stove for 5-10 min (put the bowl with hot water under the dough).

Cut everything you want for you stuffing :

I did ham, bacon, onion,red bell pepper,corn,tomato, 2 cheeses.

 Roll out the dough. Should be 1/4 inch thin. Add: tomato sauce+oregano+salt+black pepper->cheese (1 type) -. then all the ingredients. preheat the oven at 375F. Bake the pizza for 15 min.

Take it out add the second cheese -> bake for additional 5-7 min. DONE!

 This amount of dough should make you 3 pizzas. (or 1 pizza and a bread loaf).

Remember: you can’t store the dough in fridge so you have to use it in 1-2 days…

Enjoy!

Tomato and avocado salad

This entry is part 7 of 11 in the series Salad

This salad is my #1 summer salad. I can eat it every day 3 times a day.

It’s very fast and simple to cook and as we all know avocado is very good for your health, so I try to eat it as much as possible.

For this salad you need:

2 tomatoes

1 avocado

½ white onion

Pinch of salt

Pinch of pepper

2 teaspoons of olive or sunflower oil

Pinch of dry oregano

 Chop the veggies, season, add olive oil, stir well – DONE!

 

 

Quick and delish omelet with squash, tomato and onion (and with lemon basil, of course).

This entry is part 1 of 6 in the series Breakfast fast!

So this is my favorite Saturday morning breakfast/brunch meal.

It’s very fast to cook and you can add pretty much any vegetable you like and it will be gorgeous.

For this one I added:

3-4 slices of snow white squash you can use zucchini);

½ of white onion;

4 eggs;

½ tomato;

Lemon basil leaves;

Pinch of salt;

Pinch of pepper;

At first peel, wash and finely chop onion.

Wash and cut in slices, then chop squash (zucchini)

Preheat at medium heat and add cooking oil, start frying onion with squash, until soft, but still crunchy. Add the eggs and fry until cooked (5—7 min @ medium heat).

To all this beauty add tomato cut in slices (or chopped, you choose) and then add basil leaves. Fry for 2 min (so that tomatoes will be slightly soft, but not braised).

You can add cheese on top of your omelet.

And enjoy!

***Tip from Helen*** you can also add bacon or ham with squash, mushroom, it will be delicious***

 

Tomato, Onion and Lemon basil vinaigrette

This entry is part 3 of 11 in the series Salad

Fast salad for dinner or lunch.

Minimum ingredients and maximum delight:-)

Will taste best with mashed potato and meat, or rice and fish. Something not s picy and not sour.

Preparation time: 0h:10m

Ingredients:

2 tomatoes

1/2 white onion

1/3 cup of herbs (dill, parsley, basil: any)

1 pinch salt

1 pinch black fresh ground pepper

2 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil

                                                                                                                                                                                                        1 teaspoon vinegar (any)

Peel the onion. Wash onion, tomatoes and herbs.

Cut the tomato in halves, then cut the half in two and cut in thin slices.

Slice 1/2 of onion (very thin slices).

Finely chop herbs.

Vinaigrette sauce:

Mix: vinegar with olive oil add salt and pepper.

Pour into your salad and mix very well.

Enjoy!

 

 

Simple fast salad with romaine, tomato and pickles

This entry is part 1 of 11 in the series Salad

This is simple and fast dinner salad.

The key to it are pickles, which make it sour and not bland.

You’ll need:

1-2 lettuce romaine hearts

5-6 cornichons

¼ white onion

1-2 tomatoes

2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp. basil, lemon basil

pinch of salt

pinch of fresh ground black pepper;

Peel the onion. Wash the onion, tomato, and romaine hearts.

Cut 1/4 of the onion, tomatoes in slices and romaine hearts in mid-sized pieces.

Cut cornichons in slices.  Mix veggies and pickles.

Add chopped lemon basil, salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil.

Your salad is ready!

Enjoy!

****Tip from Helen**** Add some dry/ fried bread to your salad (small cubes) and your salad will have absolutely new taste! ****Tip from Helen****