Stuffed Spaghetti Squash

I LOVE Spaghetti Squash, but making it the same way all the time is just kind of boring. 

My niece was here from Switzerland so we tried something different with the Squash. Here is the recipe:


1 medium Spaghetti Squash (Cut in half)
1 lb ground beef or turkey/chicken/pork whatever your preference is
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
Parsley, handfull chopped
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
Olive Oil or Butter for browning
1 large egg
1 cup grated cheese

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees, sprinkle the Squash with a little bit of olive oil, set on a baking sheet and bake it until it is almost done (around 30 minutes). While the Squash is in the oven, in a large pan, add the olive oil, add the finely chopped onion, cook until translucent, then add the garlic. Let that sweat a little, but make sure it's not too hot, because you don't want to burn your garlic.

Once you smell that delicious garlic aroma, add the ground meat, season with salt, pepper and other spices to your taste. Just at the end add your chopped parsley (if you don't like it, you can leave it out).

Let that mixture cool down, then mix it with the beaten egg and the cheese. Set aside until your Squash is almost done.

Remove the Squash from the oven, and stuff the meat/egg/cheese mixture into the hollow part. Sprinkle with some more cheese and put it back in the oven for another 20 minutes or so until the cheese is melted.

Remove from the oven and serve! You can actually cut this in slices or just in quarters and serve. Makes 4 portions!

Enjoy!

Easy Delicious and Nutritious Banana Bread

So there is someone in this household that always asks for Bananas..... and it then drives me Nuts (or Bananas) that this same person won't eat them. But I love baking so the best option is making Banana Bread. 

I went to find a basic cake recipe and then modified it the way I like it and also trying to make it a bit healthier. So here it goes:

You will need:

4 ripe bananas,

2 table spoons raw Cocoa Nibs (DivineOrganics.com)

2 tablespoons Easy Cook Oats

2 tablespoons chopped nuts (I used Walnuts)

2 tablespoons slivered Almonds (extra for the top)

115 gram /1 stick melted Butter 

150 gram Brown Sugar (white will work too)

2 large eggs

200 grams Flour (substitute from sweet rice flower, from KodaFarms.com)

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

PreHeat the oven to 350 FH / 180 Celsius

Butter a Loaf Pan 8.5 by 4.25 (or similar)

In a bowl mash the ripe bananas (I just used the mixer),

add the sugar and the eggs and beat until nicely incorporated

add the melted Butter and the dry ingredients

(I do this a little at the time)

Mix until all is well combined, make sure you don't beat it to death,

that will make the bread all gummy.

Fill the batter in the prepared LoafPan and sprinkle some Almonds on top, 

then bake for about 60 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and let cool. Or eat a warm piece! 

Super yummy any time of the day! 

Cold Lithuania Borscht aka the "Pink" Soup!

While living in London from 97 to early 99, I made some great Lithuanian friends Ilona and Mantas! At the end of my stay I was in a bit of a bind and needed some friends and distraction. Ilona and Mantas where there for me and helped me out tremendously.

We've spent the days working, Mantas tattooing his clients, just as he does today at www.mantas-tattoo.com and Ilona as a waitress, while I was still a personal trainer.  The evenings we spent at their Apartment in London, drinking wine, listening to music and eating delicious food. I especially loved Ilona's traditional Lithuanian Borscht!

This dish is fantastic for Summer! And if you love yogurt, cucumber and beets.... the more the better.

Cold Lithuanian Borscht is fantastic for those hot summer days, where your are hungy but you want to keep it light and fresh! A cold "Soup" that can be enjoyed alone or like Ilona served it with roasted rosemary potato wedges! YUM! Ok let's get to it!

You will need:

1 lb of beets cooked finely chopped
(I use cooked beets from the grocery store and I chop them with rubber gloves on, as not to stain my hands for days)
1/3 English Cucumber, diced
3 hard boiled eggs diced
1 small bunch of green onions (about for stems, finely chopped)
1 bunch of dill (finely chopped), keep some twigs for garnish
4 cups buttermilk or kefir
1 cup sour cream
1 cup water

Grab a big salad or other bowl, add the beets, the cup of sour cream, cucumber, eggs and stir carefully. Then add the chopped spring onions, the dill, the buttermilk (or kefir) and the water, stir and  season with salt and pepper to taste. Chill in the fridge until you are ready to eat!

Once your ready serve in bowls and garnish with a slice of cucumber, a dill twig and the half of a hardboiled egg if you have extra!

If you are on Keto Journey, this is a fantastic meal for Summertime!

If not, you can serve it with boiled or oven baked rosemary potatoes! If you don't feel like doing potatoes it's delicious also with a crusty slices of fresh bread!

ENJOY!!

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Gluten Free Lime'n'Blackberry Cake / Recipe

Like I promised, I made my Lime'n'Blackberry Cake again to make sure the recipe works. And boy did it work, the second time around the cake came out just as nice as the first time and I even left out the Xanthan Gum. I read up on the "Gums" and apparently they make a lot of people feel sick.

So no gums in cakes for me!


Here is what you need for this deliciously moist cake:

2 Limes or 1 big Lemon, finely grated zest and juice
200 g soft unsalted Butter (or unsalted margarine)
200 g fine Sugar
4 large Eggs
200 g Flour Mixture (50 g Oat, 50 g Quinoa, 100 g Rice)
1 Tsp Baking Powder
1 container Blackberries (any berries really)
3 Tbsp powdered Sugar
Lemon/Lime juice


In a mixing bowl cream the soft butter until you see it forming little peaks, mix in the sugar, add the lime/lemon zest and juice and then mix in the eggs one by one.

Combine the baking powder with the flour mixture and using a rubber spatula fold it into the butter/egg mixture. Do NOT use a mixer for this, your cake will come out rubbery.

Then place half of the batter into a buttered loaf pan, take the blackberries and add about half of them to the batter. Cover with the remaining batter and then add the rest of the blackberries pushing them into the batter a little.

Place in a pre-heated 350 F oven and bake for 75 minutes or until wooden pick comes out clean. Cover the cake with Foil after about 60 minutes so it doesn't get too dark.

Let cake cool slightly. In the meantime, make a glaze with some powdered sugar and lemon/lime juice (it should have a thick syrupy consistency). Poke little holes in the cake and brush with the glaze while still warm. This way, the cake will absorb some of the syrup and that will add to the nice lemony aroma.

Cool completely and ENJOY!

Tip: you can make this cake with any berries you like, or any other small fruit like cherries!

Gluten Free Lime'n'blackberry Cake

Lemon Drops (Lemon Meringue Bites) - Naturally Gluten Free

This recipe is super easy and these delicious light and airy Lemon Drops are made really really quickly. You only need 3 ingredients and you can use the same recipe for chocolate meringues.

You will need:

2 egg whites, beaten very stiff
100 g / 3 oz sugar, divided
1 lemon, zest and a little juice only

Beat the egg whites super stiff, then mix in half of the sugar until smooth and shiny. Mix in the remaining sugar and lemon zest/juice slowly with a spatula.

Fill the mass into a pastry bag with a star tip and spritz little mounds on cookie sheets that have been lined with parchment paper. If you do not have a pastry bag, you can just form little mounds with two teaspoons.

Bake in a oven with the temperature set at about 100 C / 200 F for about 70 to 100 minutes. The oven door needs to be open just a little bit. The cookies dry more than they bake.

Tip: You can make these in many variations, for a chocolate version, just leave out the lemon zest and switch it out for 1 oz of cocoa powder,  for coffee flavor use instant coffee powder, or switch out the lemon zest for orange zest and orange aroma. You could even take two of them and then join them by sticking them together with nutella, jelly or butter cream. Color them with food color or a couple drops of beet juice.. The possibilities are endless!

Spicy Turkey Burgers with Almonds (No Gluten)

Like I said in one of my previous posts, we eat a lot of turkey and I'm trying to play with flavors and textures to avoid getting bored with them. So this time I tried something I hadn't done before. I actually added chopped almonds to the burgers.... and it was yummy! The almonds gave the burger a little bit of a crunch and the flavor was fantastic.

And all my GF friends can make these too, because there are no breadcrumbs in this recipe.

Here is what you need:

1.5 lbs of ground turkey
3 gloves garlic, finely chopped
1 handful parsley, finely chopped
1 handful slivered almonds, chopped roughly
1 tsp hot paprika
1/4 tsp  ground cumin
1/4 tsp  onion powder
1 dash of worcestershire sauce
1 egg
2 tbsp grated parmesan
fresh ground pepper, as much as you like
salt

To start mix all your dry ingredients in a large bowl, so all the spices are well combined, then add your ground turkey and the egg, combine with your hands or a spoon so spices and egg are nicely incorporated into the turkey. Shape into patties and either fry in the pan or grill until cooked through.

Serve with a nice side salad, potato salad or whatever your heart desires! Bon Appetit!

Linzertorte "Gluten-Free" made with Rice and Quinoa Flour

I love sweets and "Linzertorte" is one of my favorites, it's nutty, sweet and not difficult to make. Lately I've been trying to remake some of the goodies that are very typical for my Austrian and Swiss heritage and "Linzertorte" is definitely one of them. And it is obviously named after the capital of Upper Austria, LINZ!

Here is what you need:

150 g butter or margarine  
150 g sugar
1 sprinkle salt

1 egg

1/4 tsp Cinnamon
150 g ground almonds
75 g rice flour
75 g quinoa flour

your favorite jam or fruit preserve (I like apricot, but the original recipe asks for raspberry)

If you are not GF, you can just use regular all purpose flour.

9 inch spring form pan


In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter until small peaks form, mix in the sugar and salt, then add the egg and mix until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Mix all other ingredients, then slowly mix with the butter and sugar mixture until you have a nice soft dough. Then cool in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Roll 1/3rd of the dough onto the bottom of the spring form pan. The from the second 3rd form a roll and place on the edge of the form to create a rim. Roll the rest of the dough onto a piece of parchment paper and into 2-3 mm plate and chill.

While the remaining dough is chilling in the fridge, generously cover the crust with your favorite jam. Cut out little shapes from the remaining dough and decorate. Then brush with egg and put on the ring of the spring form pan.

Bake in the middle of the pre-heated 400 degree oven for about 35 minutes. Remove let cool and enjoy with a nice cup of coffee!


Tip: If you can, and don't need the "Linzertorte" right away, wrap tightly in aluminum foil or plastic wrap and let rest for a few days or so in the fridge. I'll be even better as it gets a bit soft.

Cherry Cake

As you all know by now, I always love to cook and bake with whatever I find in my fridge. So over the weekend I got some nice ripe cherries and I remembered a cake my Grandmother used to make. She'd make a basic pound cake and drop cherries into it. We'd call it the "SpuckKuchen" loosely translated that would be "Spitcake", because she never pitted the cherries and you'd spit out a mouth full of cherry pits after a slice of cake. LOVELY!

Anyway, I thought I thought I'll do something like that but to spare everyone biting in a pit or having to swallow cherry pits as not to be rude, I removed the pits beforehand. Below you'll find what you need for this cake.


100g Butter
100g Sugar
125g Flour
2 medium Eggs
1/2tsp Baking Powder
1 medium Lemon
sprinkle Salt
100g Cherries, pitted
Serves: 8 -10
Preparation Time: 30
Cooking Time: 35
Oven Temperature: 180C/350F


Step 1: Cream Butter with Sugar, Eggs and Lemon
In a bowl whisk the soft butter until you can see little peaks form, mix in the sugar and a sprinkle of salt, add the eggs, one after the other until the mixture is lighter in color and fluffy, add the finely grated zest of the lemon and 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice.

Step 2: Add Flour
Sift the flour and mix it well with the baking powder. Add the flour little by little to the creamed butter mixture with a rubber or silicone spatula (mixing it in with a mixer will make it rubbery).

Step 3:
Prepare two 11 cm / 4.5 inch spring form pans or one 9 inch pan 

Fill half of the batter evenly into the two pans, then add half of the cherries, maybe pushing them down in the batter a little bit. Add the remaining batter on top and add the rest of the cherries.

Bake in the lower half of the pre-heated oven for about 35 minutes, or until wood pick comes out clean.

Let cool and enjoy!

Cherry Cake

Tiramisu

I got some small spring form pans today and decided to make some Tiramisu . I always make a very easy version, non of that separating eggs stuff... throw the egg in the mascarpone just like that and mix. Comes out like magic every time.

The delicious little things are now in the fridge cooling and setting up for a bit. Tomorrow, they'll go into work with me to get their cute little pictures taken, so I can show them to the world, before they'll get eaten.

It's tough to be a Tiramisu!

Here's how I made it (for two 4.5 inch spring form pans or you can just use one 8 inch):

1 container of Mascarpone (8 oz)
1 egg yolk
1 package ladyfingers
(use Schar Gluten-Free Ladyfingers if you need to be GF)
1 cup coffee
Amaretto to drizzle
1 Tbs Vanilla
2 Tbs Sugar

1/2 cup hot Water
1/2 packet of Gelatin

Cocoa Powder

Layer the ladyfingers on the bottom of the spring form pan, so that most of it is covered, drizzle with coffee and some amaretto, so that they are soft but not completely soaked. Set aside.

Mix the mascarpone, egg yolk, vanilla, sugar and a little bit of amaretto until it's nice and fluffy. Dissolve he gelatin in the hot water and stir for a few minutes until completely dissolved and it's cooled down a bit. Slowly mix with the mascarpone mixture a little bit at a time. Once mixed in, pour half of the mixture over the ladyfingers.

Then add another layer of ladyfingers, drizzle with coffee and amaretto as before, then add the remaining mixture on top to cover.

Put in the fridge for about 3 to 4 hours or overnight. Remove from the forms and cover with Cocoa powder. Decorate and serve.

Bon Appetit!

Inside Out Peppermint Patty CupCake

So, finally yesterday I got around to making the cupcakes I've been talking about. Somehow I got derailed every evening and just didn't get to it, may it have been Movie Night, Dinner or just working late.

I decided, to do something a little bit different and, because I like "After Eight" mints and "York Peppermint Patties", I felt I could incorporate those flavors in a cupcake. To work I went with just a basic batter recipe.

Here is what you need to make 12 delicious "Inside Out Peppermint Patty" Cupcakes,



For the batter:
125 g butter (unsalted), soft and cut in small cubes)
125 g flour (sifted)
125 g sugar
125 ml milk coffee (latte)
2 Eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 Tbs coffee (ground)
2 Tbs cocoa powder
1/2 cup mini dark chocolate chips
Splash of Amaretto or Rum




In a medium size bowl, whip the butter until it is soft and creamy, slowly add the sugar and the egg, while continuing to mix on high speed (you can use a hand mixer or a stand mixer). Then start mixing in flour and milk coffee, little by little, so the batter gets nice and smooth, once all that is added, add in the cocoa powder, the ground coffee and a couple splashes of Rum or Amaretto. Finally mix in the dark mini chocolate chips.


Fill the batter in the prepared cupcake pan. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 25 minutes. Cool on a rack. While the cupcakes cool down you can prepare your frosting. I used a ready made "Pillsbury" Vanilla Frosting for this, but you can make your own. I just didn't have time to do it this time.


For the Frosting:
1 tub Vanilla Frosting
1 Tbs Peppermint extract


Mix the vanilla frosting well with the peppermint extract, so you have a nice creamy texture. Fill it in a pastry bag. Take a skewer and poke a little whole in the bottom of each cupcake, then pipe some of the frosting inside each cupcake. Change out your nozzle to a star nozzle and pipe remaining frosting on the cupcakes.
Decorate cupcakes with a mint leave and half and "After Eight". You could also just use chocolate sprinkles or thinly shaved dark chocolate.


Enjoy! 

Fat Free Orange Almond Cake

This is a very light, fluffy cake without any fat, well almost, the only fat in this cake is from the almonds, but we're not adding any butter or oil, so this one is really light! Obviously it will contain sugar and a little bit of flour but really this is one that you can easily serve to someone that's health conscious.

You will need:

150 grams of sugar
4 egg yolks

2 oranges,  zest only
2 - 3 drops of bitter almond extract

4 egg whites
1 pinch salt
1 knife tip of backing powder

2 tabelspoons of sugar

125 grams almond meal
5 tablespoons flour

Mix the sugar and the egg yolks until light yellow in color and very fluffy, add the orange zest and the almond flavor and mix in. Set aside.

In a clean bowl mix egg whites, salt and baking powder until peaks form, then add the 2 tablespoons of sugar and beat quickly for about another minute. Set aside

Mix the flour and almond meal evenly, then alternating with the egg whites fold gently into the egg yolk mixture with a rubber spatula. Fill in a prepared, well buttered and floured 8 inch/22 cm ring mold.

Bake on the lowest rack of a preheated 350 degree oven for about  35 - 45 minutes (depending on the mold).

Glaze:

150 ml Orange Juice
4 tablespoons of powdered sugar
if desired 2 tablespoons Grand Marnier or Cointreau

Mix well, then remove the cake from the pan, poke a couple of holes in it and drizzle with the glaze. Let cool and keep cool until ready to serve.

You can decorate the cake by peeling one of the oranges you zested.  Cut it in thin slices and layer on the cake evenly to make a nice pattern, then do the same with a banana. It looks nice and gives it an additional layer of flavor.

Serve and enjoy!

ChocolateCoffeeCake with Chocolate Glaze

Today I felt like making something sweet that reminded me of home and my Grandmother at the same time. My Grandma used to make a cake we called "Black Chocolate Cake" and she made it for me everytime we came on vacation. The other sweet I remembered was a piece of cake we used to buy at a bakery in downtown Schaffhausen called Aschinger. It was called "Studentenschnitte" which loosely translated means "Students Slices". It is a slice of chocolate cake with a bit of crunch in it, that is covered with a chocolate and powdered sugar white glaze.

My hubby went out with friends so I got to work. I grabbed my Grandma's recipe and went to town, measuring and calculating ingredients. So I pretty much mixed the things I remembered together.

For the cake batter:

2 eggs (separate egg yolk and egg whites)
100 g unsalted butter
160 g flour
50 g ground almonds
50 g bread crumbs
300 g confectioners (powdered) sugar
4 Tbs cocoa powder
3 Tbs ground coffee beans
250 ml milk coffee
Splash of rum or amaretto
Splash of vanilla essence
1 Ts Cinnamon
14 g baking powder


Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prepare round cake pan so cake won't stick. I butter it first and then pour some bread crumbs in it, swing it around and bread crumbs will stick to the butter. Shake off the excess and set aside

Separate eggs and beat egg whites until little peaks form, you can tell it's ready when you can turn the bowl upside down and the egg white doesn't come out.

Mix bread crumbs, cocoa, ground coffee beans and ground almonds in a bowl and set aside. Then mix butter, egg yolk and sugar until fluffy, add in rum/amaretto and vanilla essence. Little by little add flour, baking powder, liquid and bread crumb mixture. Once all ingredients are mixed gently fold in egg whites.

Pour into prepared cake pan and bake in pre-heated oven for about an 50 minutes to an hour. You can test if the cake is done by sticking a wooden skewer in it. If it comes out clean the cake is done.

Before applying the glaze I covered it with apricot jelly. To spread it better you need to thin it out a bit and maybe you have to put it through a sieve to get an even consistency. So just take a couple of tablespoons of apricot jelly, a little bit of water and heat in the microwave, stir until combined then pour on the cake and let dry for 15 minutes.

Now you're ready to glaze your cake. You can use a store bought chocolate glaze or you can make one. Mine was very easy

150 g dark chocolate
50 g unsalted butter
50 g powdered sugar
1 1/2 Tbs water

Melt chocolate, butter, sugar and water in a thin walled bowl over a pan of barely boiling water (don't let the bowl touch the water). Once it smoothly runs over a turned spoon it is ready to go on the cake.

Just pour on the cake and tilt cake from left to right to cover cake evenly. Do not use a knife or spatula, it will prevent the cake from being shiny. Let dry and then serve with some whipped cream and a nice cup of coffee!

YUMMY!