Amanda's Grilled Cheese Sandwich With a Twist

My lunch company these days are Bella since Noah usually naps during that time. Today Bella wanted a grilled cheese sandwich and fruit for lunch and I made my sandwich with raw salsa, spinach and avocado something I learned from Amanda who I work with.

2 slices whole wheat bread

a couple of slices of cheese

1 tbs salsa

A couple spinach leaves

1/8 avocado in slices

2 tsp butter

Heat a frying pan on medium/hight heat. Place cheese, salsa, spinach and avocado between the two slices of bread. Spread butter on each outside bread slices. Cook in frying pan until golden on each side and cheese has melted.

Chickpea Patties

Making bean patties or burgers can be difficult because they have a tendency to get dry or hard to keep from falling apart. These chickpea patties are super easy to make and they are easy to shape into a patty or burger. 

1 small yellow onion, peeled and diced

2 tbs canola oil

1 can chick peas, drained and rinsed

1/2 bouillon cube, crumbled

1/3 cup corn starch

Black pepper  and salt to taste

Heat 1/2 tbs oil in a frying pan and fry onions on medium heat for 3 minutes. Place onion, chick peas, bouillon, corn starch and pepper and use either a hand held mixer, blender or food processor to mix it all to a dough. make smaller patties. heat remaining oil on medium heat in a frying pan and fry patties few minutes on each side.

Guest Cook and Guacamole

We were so lucky and had a friend made tacos for us last night. They were delicious and nothing taste better than a side of guacamole. 

2 garlic cloves

2 ripe avocados

1/2 large tomato chopped

A squeeze of lemon juice

2 tbs cilantro, minced

Salt to taste

A few drops of Tabasco sauce

Preheat oven to F350 and bake garlic cloves for about 5 minutes, until they are soft. Mash the avocado and lemon juice together to prevent darkening of the avocado. Combine with remaining ingredients and mash together really well. 

Tomatoes, Tomatoes and Bruschetta

My tomatoes are taking over the garden and on top of that our neighbor gave me some of her tomatoes and jalapeno pepper she had too much of too. So yes now we're eating tons of tomatoes here and I love it!!! For an evening snack I made spicy tomato bruschetta, mmmmmm.

1/2 jalapeño

1 large tomato, diced

1 large basil leaf, minced

1 tbs extra virgin olive oil

1 tbs balsamic vinegar

Salt & pepper to taste

A good crusty baguette

Grated cheese

Preheat oven to F400.
Roast jalapeño pepper over open flame until skin is black and blistered. Place plastic bag for a few minutes and then remove skin. Mince pepper and remove seeds. In a bowl blend peppers, tomatoes, basil olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Let the mix rest for 5-10 minutes to develop flavors. Slice bread and place a good amount of mix on top. Sprinkle some cheese and bake for 5 minutes in oven.

Warm Potato Salad

After a long day at the beach we were all so tired so I made a warm potato salad and served with a bean salad. I don’t like regular potato salads with mayo but I do love warm potato salads.

1 cup cooked potatoes, diced

1 cup cooked sugar snap peas, diced

1 cup cream

1 tbs Dijon mustard

1 tsp dried basil

½ tsp ground paprika

Salt to taste

Combine cream, mustard, basil, paprika and salt in a small saucepan. Bring to boil. Reduce to a simmer for 2 minutes. Fold in the potatoes and sugar snap beans and serve warm along some BBQ or bean salad.

Mocked Bacon Sauce

It was a fairly rainy day so we spend most of our day either shopping or playing inside. For lunch I made a very simple creamy sauce with vegetables and mocked bacon and served it over bulgur. I think it would have been better served over pasta.

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 garlic clove, grated

6 medium white mushrooms, sliced

½ cup yellow pepper, diced

½ cup carrots cut into very thin coins

½ cup mocked bacon, diced

1 tsp. yellow curry powder

1 tbsp. sweet and spicy chili sauce

½ cup cream

½ cup almond milk

Bragg’s liquid amino or light soy sauce to taste

10 small cherry tomatoes cut in half

Heat oil in a skillet on medium heat. Sauté garlic and mushrooms until mushrooms are browned. Add yellow peppers, carrots, mocked bacon pieces curry powder, and chili sauce, cream and almond milk. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Add Bragg’s or soy sauce. Simmer until carrots and peppers are el dente. Add cherry tomatoes and serve!

Avocado and Red Onion Salad

This little simple but yummy salad I saw being made on a cooking and decoration show popular here in Sweden. It just sounded so good that I had to make it and we ate it with BBQ.

I'm amazed I actually can cook or blog right now because I'm so sleep deprived. Noah is struggling with jet late is up middle of the night party and then cries himself to sleep for awhile. We have tried everything and nothing works. He is totally opposite of his sister who had two bad nights and then she was over it. Off course this makes him so tired during the day so he whines a lot and wants to be carried around not walk or sit in the stroller. It's hard when we try to fun things everyday outside. Poor little guy!!!

3 medium avocados, cubed

1 small red onion, mined

1 tbs good quality olive oil

1 tbs lemon juice

1 tbs honey

Salt & pepper to taste

Combine avocado and red onion in a bowl. Pour the lemon juice, olive oil, honey and add salt and pepper. Carefully fold everything a couple of times to blend well.

Thyme Tofu Patties

The days just seems to last forever here in Sweden and many thanks is due to long daylight. We spend so much time outside having fun. Most lunches are eaten out but dinner we have at home. Yesterday I made thyme tofu pattie and we ate them with mashed potatoes, peas and broccoli. 

1 package extra firm tofu

1 tbs dried thyme

salt to taste

pinch of pepper

1/4 cup spelt flour

1 tbs canola oil

Mash the tofu until it's a grainy mash. Add thyme, salt, pepper and flour and blend well. Let the mix rest in fridge for 10 minutes. Form into 10 small patties or a fewer larger ones. Dip patties into some flour to coat them on each side. Heat oil in a frying pan. Fry patties on medium heat until golden brown.

Sweet Pinto Beans

Pinto beans are among our favorite beans we cook and eat. I have to admit that I do not cook pinto beans very often because they take long too cook (1,5 hours). But yesterday when I saw that I had a bag of them I decided to bite the bullet and make a version of Boston baked beans. The kids really dig the sweet flavor of baked beans but I like to make them a little spicy as well. 

2 cups dry pinto beans, soaked overnight and rinsed well

1 large onion, chopped

4-6 garlic cloves, grated

2 bay leaves

6 cups vegetable broth

2 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. dried thyme

1 tsp. sea salt

2 tbsp. maple syrup

2 tsp. Annie’s Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp. cornstarch mixed with 1-2 tbsp. water.

Combine in large saucepan pintos, onion, garlic, bay leaves, and broth and bring to a boil. Skim of any foam that is developed during the cooking process.

Turn heat to medium/high. Add the cumin and thyme. Maintain a gentle boil for about 1-1 ½ hours, until beans a tender. Stir once in a while. Add more water if necessary.

Add salt, maple syrup, Worcestershire sauce and lower heat to a simmer. Stir often but be careful not to break beans and end up with mashed beans. Reduce liquid by 1/3 and then add cornstarch mixed with water and stir. Continue to simmer until leftover liquid is thick like syrup. 

Nectarine and Berry Green Smoothie

I’ve been enjoying eating tons of nectarines lately since it’s our seasonal fruit right along with strawberries off course. We have a few strawberry plants in our garden and thanks to my dear friend's dad who gave me some advice on how to care for them, this year they’ve been producing a lot of berries.  Both kids really enjoy walking into the garden, gathering fresh strawberries for a smoothie or a snack.

For snack time I made a nectarine and strawberry smoothie with an extra bonus of greens in it. Smoothies are a perfect food to “hide” vegetables in and especially Noah loves his smoothies.

2 cups ice cold almond milk

1 tbsp. honey or maple syrup

2 small nectarines, peeled and chopped

A handful of strawberries, tops off and cut in half

1 small handful of greens of your choice (today I used broccoli greens)

1 tsp. spirulina powder

Combine and blend everything in a blender for a minute or more until everything is completely smooth. Enjoy right away!

Buckwheat Neatloaf With French Flavors

We loved neatloafs in this family and my favorite neatloaf recipe for sure is this buckwheat one. It’s so easy and fast to make compared to other neatloafs so it’s a perfect one to have on hand when you’re in a rush. We ate our neatloaf with rosemary roasted potatoes and large leafy green salad made with lettuce from our neighbors garden.

1 cup creamy buckwheat cereal such as Bob's Red Mill

1 cup water

½ cup sundried tomatoes

½ cup dried mushrooms, I used chanterelles

2 tsp. dried French herbs

2 tsp. salt

½ tsp. black pepper

¾ cup grated cheese

Preheat oven to F400.

Heat water and soak the sun dried tomatoes and dried mushrooms in it for 30-60 minutes. Place soaked mushrooms, tomatoes, the soaking water in blender and mix for 20 seconds. Combine this with buckwheat cereal, French herbs, salt and pepper in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring often. Keep cooking on medium heat while stirring until it thickens. Pour batter into a greased small loaf pan. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until the loaf solid and stiff so you can cut into it. 

Chickpea burgers

These are one of my favorite bean burgers because they are easy to make, they stay together during cooking and they appeal to both kids and adults. Bella loves to eat them with BBQ sauce while Noah just loves to eat them as fast as possible and as many in his mouth as.

Big eating big baby boy:)

1 cup cooked chickpeas

¼ cup water

½ cup of Ste Martaen olive flavored cheese (or substitute with other cheese)

1 tsp. Herb salt

¼ tsp. black pepper

1 tbsp. cornstarch

Place everything in a high-speed blender or food processor and mix until completely combined. Add more water if it comes out too dry or more cornstarch if it’s too wet. Place chickpea dough in fridge for at least 30 minutes before shaping them into burgers with wet hands. Cook them in a non-stick skillet until slightly browned on each side. 

Sauteed Beans and Mushrooms

When we do Sunday lunch I love to serve a lot of small dishes which tons of vegetables. Most of the time the food all comes from the farmers market. Serving this way reminds me of Sunday lunch at my mom’s house.  One of the dishes was sautéed beans and mushrooms and it was a great addition to the BBQ seitan we also ate.

1 pound beans, tops and bottom cut off (I used yellow and purple beans

2 tbsp. olive oil

½ pound shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and sliced

¼ cup yellow onion, minced

Salt & pepper to taste

Steam the beans until el dente. Heat oil on medium heat in a skillet. Cook onions and mushrooms for a few minutes until mushrooms are browned.  Add the steamed beans, salt, pepper and cook another 3 minutes. 

Sautéed collard greens and mushrooms

On Friday I tasted the best kale and mushroom sauté I ever tasted while shopping at People’s Coop. I know it sounds not like one of those wow dishes but it was. Since then I’ve not been able to get it out of my mind so today I made a version of it. I had used all my kale for juicing but had collard greens instead and oyster mushrooms all pushed at the farmers market yesterday. We ate this for lunch along with roasted butternut squash, homemade tortillas, seitan chorizo and steamed fava beans from our garden. OMG it was a lunch to live forJ

1 cup oyster mushrooms, chopped

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 cup chopped collard greens

1 tbsp. lemon juice

½ tbsp. Bragg’s liquid amino’s or other mellow soy sauce

2 tbsp. yellow onion, minced

Salt & black pepper to taste

Heat oil in a pan over medium heat.  Cook the onions for 1 minute, and then add and brown the mushrooms. Add collard greens and cook for about 5 minutes. Pour in the soy sauce and lemon juice and toss. Combine with salt and pepper as needed. 

Sweet potato and quinoa cakes

When I was out walking the other day I walked passed a new restaurant. I did a quick glans at their menu and my caught a dish with sweet potato and quinoa cakes. It sounded so wonderful that I made me go home and start thinking about a recipe for it. Today I finally made then and although not a hit with either kids who might just have been too over tired to appreciate them James my husband absolutely fell in love with them. They taste great as is or on the side of black bean salad and mixed green salad.

50g quinoa, rinsed

250ml vegetable stock

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 large sweet potato, peeled and grated

1 cup kale, stems removed and chopped

¼ cup yellow onion, minced

1 garlic clove, grated

½ tsp. ground coriander

1 tsp. ground cumin

Salt & pepper to taste

Combine the rinsed quinoa and vegetable stock in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer for about 20 minutes, until all liquid is gone. Heat oil in a skillet and cook onion and garlic for 2 minutes. Reduce to medium/low heat and add sweet potato and kale. Cook until potatoes are soft. Add a couple of splashes of water when it gets dry. Fluff quinoa with a fork and combine quinoa with sweet potato and stir in coriander, cumin, salt and pepper.  Place in fridge for 20 minutes to get “stiff”. Preheat oven to F400. Shape dough into cakes and place on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the cakes are golden and crispy on top. 

Farm fresh tomato and fennel salad

As I said previous posts Saturdays are when we go to the farmers market to buy our fruit, veggies, cheese and eggs for the week. Therefore Saturday lunch is usually a farmer’s market fresh lunch. Yesterday James and Bella headed out for some daughter and daddy fun while Noah napped. They brought a picnic so I was one my own for lunch. I made a huge tomato salad with shaved fennel and cheese over. I ate it with cooked fava beans from our little “farm” (vegetable garden) and homemade seitan chorizo. I ate this while reading a book in garden. It was just picture perfect in my opinion.

2 cup ripe cherry tomatoes

½ medium fennel bulb

2 tbs dill like fennel greens, minced

Lemon juice

1 tbsp. olive oil

Salt & black pepper to taste

Grated cheese

Slice tomatoes in half and place on a plate. Use a cheese slicer to shave the fennel thin over the tomatoes. Drizzle the oil over and squeeze lemon juice over. Sprinkle salt, pepper and the fennel greens and let the salad rest for 5-10 minutes to develop flavors. Sprinkle grated cheese over before serving. 

Raw Collard Green Salad With A Quick Pickle

Our neighbor Peter and Linda are so kind and generous and drop of a bag of green goodies weekly for us. They get a box delivered from a local farm with organic produce but I guess they don’t eat it all so they give it to us to enjoy instead.

This week there were lots of collard greens in the bag so took the opportunity to make a huge raw salad that I ate at lunch with a raw corn tortilla roll up. I like my salads with a lot of colors and this was definitely the case in this salad.

½ cup red onion, sliced very thin

1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar

½ cup hot water

4 cups collard greens, stems removed and chopped

1 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. orange juice

1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar

½ tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. grated orange zest

1 cup grated carrots

1 cup grated golden beets

1 cup red cabbage, chopped fine

½ cup chopped sun dried tomato, soaked in warm water for 10 minutes

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbs hemp seeds

3 tbs raw pumpkin seeds

Combine red onion and apple cinder vinegar in a small bowl and pour the hot water over. Leave for the onion to be pickle for 15 minutes. Place collard greens, salt, orange juice, balsamic vinegar, garlic powder and orange zest in a large bowl and use your clean hands to massage all the flavoring into the greens and for the greens to soften. Add carrots, beets, sun dried tomatoes, red cabbage, pickled red onion and oil and toss well. Sprinkle hemp and pumpkin seeds over. Done!!!

Balsamic Baked Asparagus

I’ve not had asparagus in long time and craved it today. I wanted to make something that would pair well in a salad with quinoa so baked seemed like a good way to prepare them and the sweetness of balsamic vinegar goes with most vegetables so that how I flavored them.

1 ½ pound fresh asparagus tops, ends removed

2 tsp. olive oil

½ tsp. salt

3 tbsp. balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp. Dijon mustard

½ tbsp. agave nectar

2 tsp. dried Italian herbs mix

Preheat oven to F400

Place the asparagus in a baking dish. Combine olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard and agave nectar in a bowl and then drizzle this over asparagus. Sprinkle salt and Italian herbs over. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until lightly browned. 

Fennel & orange salad

Fennel is one of those vegetables that either you love them or hate them. I love them raw and cooked and yesterday I made a very simple orange and fennel salad that is super fresh and light.  It’s not a main meal but works well as a side dish.

1 medium fennel bulb, sliced very thin

3 oranges, peeled and sliced

2 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. olive oil

Black pepper to taste

Sprinkle salt over the orange slices and set a side for 10 minutes the salt to draw out the juice. Blend fennel and orange slices on a plate and drizzle oil over. Sprinkle black pepper over.

Bean and Mango Guacamole.

The weekend so far all about healing my sick poor little family. Bella and James both have bronchitis and Noah a high fever and he’s teething at the same time. My poor little man is still a happy go little guy but sometimes he just gets frustrated because he’s not feeling good. I’m still healthy and feeling that I might have escaped this curse….knock-on-wood J

Yesterday when I went grocery shopping I was in such hurry that I accidently picked a couple of avocados going on the over ripe side. My checkout girl brought this to my attention and told me I can pick out new avocados and as well as keep the over ripe ones. That’s what I love about Whole Foods in Hillcrest San Diego, always great service. Anyway so suddenly I ended up with a lot of avocados and some that needed to me used ASAP so I made veggie tacos with a bean and mango guacamole. 

3 ripe avocados

A squirt of lemon or lime juice

¼ cup red onion, minced

2 tbsp. cilantro, minced

1 roasted green jalapeno pepper, minced

Salt to taste

Chili pepper to taste

½ cup ripe mango, diced

2/3 cup cooked or canned beans (I used pinto beans)

First take the whole jalapeno pepper and roast it in either the oven or on top of gas burner until the pepper skin gets slightly black and blistered. Slice pepper in half and remove seeds. Mince the pepper. Mashed the avocado with the lemon juice. Stir in red onion, cilantro, jalapeno pepper, salt, chili pepper, mango and beans.