Spinach and ricotta layered potatoes

An alternative to the usual spinach and ricotta lasagna.

Ingredients

5 medium potatoes
400g frozen spinach
1 ricotta pack (or "requeijao" cheese)
half medium onion
2 garlic cloves
olive oil
salt, pepper and nutmeg to season

Preparation

Defrost the spinach and drain it as much as you can. It is important to have little water. Dice the onion and the garlic and stir fry for a few minutes in a drizzle of olive oil. Add the spinach and let it cook in low heat for about 10 min.Season with salt and pepper at your taste. Stir once in a while so the spinach doesn't burn, add some water if needed, but once again, be careful to keep the spinach quite dry.
Meanwhile, wash well the potatoes and slice them thinly, with peel (although you can take it off if you wish). Reserve.
Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees.
Add the ricotta to the spinach, stir well, and add the ground nutmeg to taste. Bring it to a quite boil and turn off the heat.

Arrange the potatoes in baking tray until you cover the bottom, and alternate with the spinach and ricotta layers (add some salt on top of the potatoes before the spinach layer!) as if you where doing a lasagna. It will make about 3 layers of potatoe and 2 layers of spinach (finish with potatoes).

Bake for about 40min to an hour, or until the bottom layer is soft. You can add some grated cheese on top when the dish is nearly done, and let it melt.

This dish takes a while to make, but it freezes perfectly, so it is well worth, and you can save it for another day!

Grilled Mushroom and Cherry Tomato Salad

Ultra quick and easy to make, a great option for a light tasty meal.

Ingredients

portobello mushrooms
cherry tomatoes
dried oregano
black pepper
sea salt
olive oil

To serve

rocket
avocado
rye bread



Pre- Heat the oven to 180 degrees (although we'll use the grill, if the oven is already hot the vegetables will cook better).
Cut the mushrooms into chunks and the tomatoes in halves. Place them in a foil square. Season with some grated black pepper, oregano, salt and a drizzle of olive oil. Turn the oven heat off and turn the grill on. Let the veggies cook until soft. And that's it! Let it cool down and serve with avocado chunks, rocket salad and some toasted rye bread.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Cake...THE BOMB!!!

So this time this is NOT a healthy recipe, not even close to that, but it is the most amazing chocolate cake you can get!


Ingredients

300g chocolate (75% chocolate bar)
300g sugar
200g margarine
8 eggs
2 tbl spoons all purpose flour
1 small glass of milk

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease and flour a baking tray.

Melt the chocolate with the butter. Beat the egg yolk with the sugar and mix it with the chocolate until you get and even consistency. Add flour and milk and stir in. Beat the egg white until stiff and add to the chocolate mix, with slow movements from bottom to top.

Set aside on a bowl 1/3 of the dough and let it cool down. When cold, reserve in the fridge.
Pour the remaining batter on the baking tray and bake for about 30 min. Check regularly so you make sure the cake don't get too dry. It will be done when you stick a in the center and it comes out with some bits of cake still. This is a really moist cake, so it doesn't need much cooking.

Let it cool down and pour the batter you reserved in the fridge on top. You can do this on the all cake, or individually in each slice!

ALTERNATIVE
You can also bake the all batter, it will only make a bigger cake!
In this case it is nice to serve it with some fresh mango, vanilla ice cream or flambe strawberries!

Savory oat cakes

Perfect with humous, cheese or any dip, or just on it's own as a light and healthy snack.

Ingredients

1+½ cup of oats
2/3 cup of oat flour
1 tspn of sugar
1 tspn of salt
1 tspn of baking soda
4 tbl spoon of olive oil
2/3 cup of lukewarm water

In a large bowl, stir in the flour, oats, salt, sugar and baking soda. Add the olive oil. Start rolling the dough with a wooden spoon, adding water slowly until you get a consistent but slightly sticky dough. Use your hands to mix all ingredients together for a better feel of how the dough is behaving to water. You might not need to use all the water (if you use too much by mistake just add a little more flour!) Let it sit for a few minutes while you pre-heat the oven at about 180 degrees.



Roll the dough into small balls and flatten them into biscuit. Place them in a non-sticky baking tray or line a normal one with foil. Cook until they're crispy and golden.




Suggestion:
You can add seeds and nuts to the cookies for a crunchier version!

Chickpea, red pepper and goat's cheese salad

This is a quite heavy salad but the seasoning with oregano and lemon help giving it a summery taste.

If you're doing it only for you, a good measure is a cereal bowl to mix all the ingredients together.

Ingredients:

half bowl of chickpeas
1 small red pepper, roasted or chargrilled (you can by the jar ones)
1 small fresh goat's cheese (it has to be a bit hard so you can cut it in cubes) or feta cheese
oregano
lemon juice (about 1 tbl spoon)
olive oil (1 to 2 tbl spoons)
garlic (small clove)
black pepper
salt

Rinse the chickpeas, slice the peppers into thin stripes and then in halves, cut the goat's cheese in small cubes, finely dice the garlic. Mix all together. Add the lemon juice salt and pepper and mix. Serve cold with wild rocket salad for extra freshness!

Vegetable Kebabs

Simple and tasty. It takes a while to grill, but it is worth waiting a little. You can make them with any vegetable combinations,but here is my suggestion:

Ingredients

cherry tomatoes
courgette
mushrooms (choose your favorite. Portobello mushrooms cut in quarters or closed up chestnut mushrooms work very well)
red onion

oregano
olive oil
lemon juice
salt
pepper

Preparation

mix the olive oil, oregano salt and pepper in a small glass. Set aside.

Slice the courgettes and cut the slices in half. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and the portobello mushrooms and onions in quarters(or smaller). make the kebabs altering between the different ingredients. Season with the olive oil sauce while you cook.

Serve with rice and salad. Enjoy... perfect for a summer evening!

Broccoli and leek pie

A healthier version of the classic pie with oat flour dough and a veggie filling.

Ingredients:

Dough:

1 cup of oat flour (you can use any flour, but that will make more dough. The oat flour doesn't grow much)
1 egg
2 tea spoons of baking soda
small glass of milk
a pinch of salt
3 tbl spoons of olive oil

Filling:

1 small broccoli head (about 400g) cut into tiny pieces
½ leek in thin slices
1 small carrot, greated
½ red onion
1 natural soya yogurt
Olive oil
ground nutmeg
salt and pepper


Preparation:

Dough

Mix the flour, baking soda, slat and egg. Add the olive oil and mix it trough until you get some consistency. Add the milk slowly until you get a nice dough (you don't need the all milk) soft and slightly sticky to your hands. (The amount of milk varies cause it depends on the size of your cup of flour and of your egg too).
Flat the dough and put it onto a non sticking baking tray (you can line the baking tray with foil or baking paper if you don't have a non-sticky one).
Pinch the bottom with a fork so it doesn't bloat.


Filing

Pre-heat the oven while you cook the filing.
Dice the onion and fry it slightly with some olive oil and water. Add the broccoli and let it cook slowly for about 5min, adding water when needed, just enough for it to don't burn and cook evenly. Add the leek and carrot and let all ingredients cook until very soft, almost dissolved. Season with nutmeg salt and pepper. Add the natural yogurt and stir trough.


Oven

Cook the dough by it self for about 10min at 180 degrees. Add the filling and cook until the dough edges get crispy and the filling is a bit more consistent.

You can eat it hot or cold. Serve with a nice mixed leaf salad!