Pancakes

One Saturday I woke up realizing that I have never made pancakes from scratch. I quickly went about changing that.

Using this recipe I whipped together 

1 egg, beaten fluffy

3/4 cup of milk

2 tbs of butter, melted

1 cup of flour

1 tbs of sugar

1/4 tsp of baking powder and

1/2 tsp of salt.

Using 1/4 cup at a time I poured the batter on a hot pan and in zero-point-nothing (Null Komma Nix) I had 6 and 1 half pancakes for breakfast.

They weren't quite as fluffy as pancakes usually come (I believe it has something to do with either too much or too little liquid in the batter). But with berries, maple syrup and whipped cream they were quite enjoyable.

Chicken-Vegetable-Roll with Coconut and Peanut Butter

I've made this recipe on a whim while talking on the phone with my parents. So I was distracted. I think I originally wanted to make something else and then some ideas got jumbled up.
The ideas were:

• I should make something with this left over filo dough to finally get rid of it and never buy it again
• I should use this coconut creamer that I bought last week.
• No one is eating that unsalted peanut butter that sits in the fridge, what could I do with it..?
• Chicken and coconut and peanut butter might be good together, I should look up some recipes
• ..that fish that I cooked in milk turned out quite yummy..
• Oh, half a butternut squash in the fridge!

The result was ok, if somewhat weird.

Ingredients
filo dough (or puff pastry)
chicken
coconut milk
peanut butter
butternut squash, cut in 1 inch cubes
zucchini, cut into half slices
carrot, cut into half slices
Cashews
Soy sauce
onion, cut into cubes
salt, pepper, turmeric, paprika
egg, beaten

Preparation
Preheat the oven to 425 F (220 C). Roast butternut squash in the oven.
Turn oven down to 375 F (390 C).
Mix coconut milk and peanut butter in a pot and cook chicken in it until tender.
Fry onion until translucent, add salt and spices, add zucchini, carrot and cashews and fry until almost done. Add some coconut milk and a splash of soy sauce and continue frying for a couple of minutes.
Mix chicken, butternut squash and vegetables from the pan together.
Place sheets of filo dough into an oven pan, brushing each sheet with oil or butter. Place chicken-vegetable-mix onto the filo dough sheets and place more on top to cover.
Brush with the beaten egg.
Bake until the top is golden brown.

Autumn Mac and Cheese

This recipe is basically the same as the Mac and Cheese recipe that I posted a while ago. Only I've added roasted butternut squash and zucchini :)

Ingredients:
elbow macaroni
butternut squash, cut into 1 inch cubes
zucchini, cut into 1/2 inch slices
olive oil
1/4 cup of butter
1/8 cup of flour
1.5-2 cups of milk
0.5-1 cup of stock
0.7 lb of cheese (I used medium cheddar)
turmeric
white pepper

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 425° F. Place butternut squash and zucchini in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil and stir until they are coated with oil. Place vegetables on a roasting pan and place it in the oven. Stir after 5-8 minutes and return to the oven for another couple of minutes until vegetables are almost done.

Cook the elbow macaroni in salty water until they are not quite done. Submerge in ice water to stop the cooking process. Drain. Combine with vegetables
Melt butter in a skillet, stir in the flour on low heat until the color becomes a light brown. Add the milk and keep stirring. Then add spices, stock and cheese. The cheese does not have to melt all they way.
Measure an equal amount of macaroni and vegetables and cheese sauce (e.g. 2 cups) and mix them together in an oven proof dish. Bake at 350 F for about 30 minutes.

Bagel Chips

Bagels go stale after a day or two.

To refresh them, you can dip them into water for a second and then bake them in the oven for 3-5 minutes at 325 F (160 C).

Or you can make bagel chips.

Cut them into slices and put them on a pan. Brush them with oil and add salt, pepper and/or other spices and herbs that you like. Bake at 375 F (190 C) until they are golden.  ..that happens quite fast, I almost burned my first batch as you can see in the picture :)

Serve with soup, salad or dips.

Apricot-Blueberry-yogurt Snack

Refreshing snack, perfect for summer.
..once summer comes around again..

Ingredients:
apricots
yogurt
blueberries

Cut apricots in half and take out the pit. Fill with yogurt of your choice (I used vanilla). Add blueberries.

Super easy zucchini salad

This salad is incredibly easy to make and very tasty!

Ingredients:
zucchini
garlic
olive oil
salt
pepper
roasted almond slices

Use a carrot peeler (or zucchini pasta maker) to cut zucchini into thin slices.
Heat up olive oil, fry the garlic and add zucchini, salt and pepper. Fry while stirring for about 5 minutes, not too long so that the zucchini doesn't loose all of its bite. Serve with roasted almond slices.

Mac and Cheese

The other day I volunteered in a kitchen and made Mac and Cheese for the first time. I didn't get to try our creation as our volunteer shift ended before the meal was baked. So I tried it at home.

I thought it lacked a bit of salt, maybe I didn't put enough of it in the boiling water of the elbow macaroni, maybe I didn't use the right kind of cheese. I'll experiment some more with this recipe in the future!

Ingredients:
elbow macaroni
1/4 cup of butter
1/8 cup of flour
1.5-2 cups of milk
0.5-1 cup of stock
0.7 lb of cheese (I used medium cheddar)
turmeric
white pepper

Cook the elbow macaroni in salty water until they are not quite done. Submerge in ice water to stop the cooking process. Drain.
Melt butter in a skillet, stir in the flour on low heat until the color becomes a light brown. Add the milk and keep stirring. Then add spices, stock and cheese. The cheese does not have to melt all they way.
Measure an equal amount of macaroni and cheese sauce (e.g. 2 cups) and mix them together in an oven proof dish. Bake at 350 F for about 30 minutes.

I also tried adding mushrooms and served the Mac and Cheese with broccoli.

Banana Chocolate Bread

I really enjoy reading the book BakeWise by Shirley O. Corriher and there are tons of recipes that I want to try out. Most of the ones that I have tried out so far have been incredible so I was exited to try the banana bread recipe. As always I used coconut sugar instead of white sugar and I added 1 cup of chocolate chips because. The original recipe uses baking powder as well as baking soda, so I substituted the baking powder with more baking soda (not one to one as baking soda is 4 times more powerful).

1 3/4 cups of flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups coconut sugar
1/2 cups canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
4 mashed very ripe bananas (about 2 cups)
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup whipping cream
Mix together flour, baking soda, salt and sugar.
In a second bowl, mix together canola oil, vanilla extract, eggs, buttermilk and bananas until well combined. Then add chocolate chips and roasted nuts.
Make a mold in the dry ingredients and add the banana mix.
In a third bowl whip the whipping cream until soft peaks form. Then fold the cream into the batter.
Bake in a 8 x 4.5 x 2.5 inch (20 x 11 x 6 cm) loaf pan at 375F / 190C for about 35 minutes until the center springs back when touched and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

As I didn't have a loaf pan I used an 8 x 8 inches square baking pan. The result was disastrous. After 35 minutes the batter was still very liquid and after another 30 hour the outside began to burn while a knife inserted in the center still came out smeared with uncooked batter.
So I took it out of the oven, cut it in half and tried saving it by frying it on the stove. The result looked very sad.
On the plus side it did taste quite good and was happily received as a sweet breakfast addition on our camping trip.

Next time I would still use my square baking pan but only make half of the batter. I don't know how all this batter can fit in a loaf pan and not overflow when it rises during baking!