Quinoa Patties

My sister gave me this recipe. I've been meaning to try them for a white but just got around to it last night.  I wish I had tried them earlier !!  They are sooooo yum.  One might be tempted to call them Quinoa Burgers but I have been forbidden to call anything not made out of beef, a burger !  Burgers are NOT made out of beans or grains or tofu or a fake substance pretending to be meat, according to my husband.  He'll eat whatever I put in front of him ... as long as I don't call it a burger, if it isn't !

I made a few changes to the original recipe ... here's what I did.

Made 15 patties using a 1/4 cup scoop.

2 cups cooked quinoa (instructions HERE if you have never cooked quinoa before)

3/4 cup shredded mexican cheese (or cheddar)

1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese

1 medium carrot, finely grated 

1 zucchini, finely grated

3 eggs

3 tablespoons wholemeal flour

2 spring onions,

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

Olive oil for frying

Mix all ingredients (except oil) in a large bowl.  Heat the olive oil in a fry pan over medium-low heat. Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, scoop up mixture and press firmly into measuring cup.  Carefully tip measuring cup upside down, shake out the mixture gently into the fry pan and lightly flatten to 1/2 inch thick.  Fry until golden-brown, about 4 minutes on each side.   

I served with sliced of avocado, sweet chilli sauce and greek yoghurt mixed with lemon juice, minced garlic and fresh chives.

DELICIOUS !!

Ranch Style Dip (with optional green extra)

So .... I wanted to make a dip that used greek yoghurt as the base. I found a few online for ideas and then combined them to make this. It was nice. You'll notice that the two photos are pretty different. I forgot to add the spinach until today (when I found it in the microwave where it was defrosting last night !!! ha ha) But ... it was good BOTH ways and next time I might not even worry with the spinach because it was kinda like ranch before the spinach went in !

Anyway, here's what I did ...

500g greek yoghurt
1/2 cup reduced fat feta, crumbled pretty small
500g spinach (optional - especially if you forget it !)
1/4 small red onion, finely diced
2 Tablespoons minced fresh parsley
2 Tablespoons garlic flakes
1 teaspoon dried dill
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients. Refrigerate for at least an hour so that flavors combine ! I served with carrot sticks, cucumber slices, red and yellow capsicum (bell pepper) strips, cauliflower and broccoli florets.

the mini-me ~ a bella russia original

last night we did pizza night with friends

it is tradition with these friends that you make your signature pizza on your first visit

so, last night ... it was Bel's first visit ... and she pulled off a ripper

THE MINI-ME

she calls it

You will need ...

Pizza dough
Tomato based pizza sauce
Kalamata olives, diced
Red onion, slivered
Feta cheese, finely diced
Broccoli, finely diced
Sun dried tomatoes, finely diced
Fresh parsley
Mozarella

Yogurt or sour cream
Garlic, crushed
Fresh chives, chopped

Here's how you make it ...

Mix yogurt (or sour cream) with garlic and chives to taste. Set aside.

From Bel ... and I quote "The key with the mini-me is the spacing and finely chopped-ness. It is a vegetarian dish from the backstreets of Florence. The recipe has been passed down through families over centuries and was initially dated back to some time near AD250."

Everything after her first sentence may or may not be fictional ....

Using your favorite pizza dough, spread it with a tomato based pizza sauce, evenly space all ingredients (as you will see demonstrated in the photo below). Top with a light sprinkling of mozzarella. Cook in pizza oven, BBQ or oven .... you decide.

Top with garlic chive yogurt ...

Yogurt Making

I've made a discovery...homemade greek yogurt is AMAZING. Bonnie got a wonderful little yogurt making machine and Aunt Kathy (AKA: AK) got one and was on her way to making our lives full of yummy yogurt! You can get yourself this lovely little toy at: http://www.easiyo.com/

There are yogurt making packets that can be purchased along with your EasiYo, but if you would like to make it from a yogurt start, here are AK's instructions:

Tools:

One tool I find indispensible is a candy thermometer. Other optional tools are a little whisk, a rubber scraper, and a plastic spoon or paddle of some sort for dishing up the done yoghurt (metal serving spoons break down the yoghurt. I use my rice serving paddle from my rice cooker, but largish and plastic are the operative words here.)

Ingredients:
1) A generous 4 cups of milk, any style…….my preference has become ½ cup half and half and then just over 3½ cups whole milk (my reference book said that if you use milk alone, that you should add some powdered milk to the milk….I’ve never tried this, but I will get you the amount needed if you are interested. You can use milk with less % of fat this way……….but I’m all about the fat!) You will understand what I mean about the generous 4 cups of milk after you have made several recipes.


2) Greek yoghurt to use as a start. I prefer Greek as it is much thicker, any type would really be fine, but…..MAKE SURE THE WORDS “CONTAINS LIVE CULTURE” APPEAR ON THE LABEL SOMEWHERE. I like Fage brand the best, however I can’t get that in my regular grocery store, and have recently discovered that Danon (or is it Yoplait?) has started carrying a Greek yoghurt with live cultures in the supermarket and it is quite acceptable, and that saves me a trip to the natural grocery store.

Process:
1) Put ~¼ cup yoghurt on the counter to come to room temp while heating the milk. I put it into a liquid measuring cup so it’s in a good container already for its next step.

2) Slowly heat the milk to ~195°. (I have tried stove top heating (on low at first and then medium heat at the end—hook the thermometer on the side of the pan and watch the temp go up) and microwave heating both, I prefer in the microwave.) To make sure it’s heated slowly in the microwave I heat it for these times 30 sec, 30 sec, 35 sec, 35 sec, 40 sec, 40 sec……..you get the picture…….I check the temp (can’t leave the thermometer in the microwave!) frequently, and just keep doing it twice at each length of time, increasing by 5 seconds, till it’s at the temp I want. The book I referred to while “inventing” my process said to not let it come to a full boil, but just to 195°-200°. This process takes me about 15 minutes in the microwave (the math doesn’t seem like it would, but it always seems to!)…..I can’t remember how long it took on the stove, but it was at least that long……

3) Remove from heat and let cool to 105°-110°. This takes about 30 minutes. I check the temp after 15 minutes, then watch it every 5 minutes after that. Be careful that it doesn’t get any cooler than that.

4) When it is cooled, move the skin to the side of the pan and take about ¾ cup of it and add it to the room temperature start in the cup and stir it till smooth (I use the whisk). Take the skin off and discard (I find a fork the best tool for this), then pour the cup full of start and milk back into the milk and blend it up well. Then pour this into the container and put on the lid.

5) Put 110° water into the thermos part. Use enough so that the warm water will come nearly up to the lid of the container when you put it in (this is more water and much cooler than the directions on the Easi-yo indicate). Put that red inner piece and then the container in the thermos, cap it off, put it somewhere where it won’t get jiggled, leave it for several hours. (I carefully check the water temp after about 10 minutes to make sure it hasn’t cooled down because of the temp of the yoghurt container sometimes being slightly lower). After 3 hours I carefully remove and then open the inner container and tip it a little, it is generally quite a lovely yoghurty consistency by this time. I think it could be chilled at this point, but I fix the water temp back to 110° if necessary and always leave it for another hour or so. Once it is thickened, the time spent in the warm bath is gradually making the yoghurt more tart. I have never left it more than 6 hours. (3-6 hours is what my reference book said was the period of time it could take to “yog”. I’m finding 4 hours what mine is taking lately.) You will find what you like….

6) Chill thoroughly before spooning out. It will thicken slightly more as it chills. (I didn’t read anywhere about chilling before serving, but it seems logical to me so I do it that way. If you ever serve any out while warm, let me know if it keeps its shape or gets watery as I am afraid of!)

7) Eat and enjoy!

8) When you get down toward the bottom, put aside the ¼ cup that will become your next start. I don’t know how many times you can use your own start like that, I often serve every last bite I have made, so find myself grabbing another store bought yoghurt to start the next batch…..I’ve only been successful at reserving my own start like 3 times in a row……..it was certainly good that long!

Serve yogurt with any of your favorites!

Examples:

Any berry (frozen or fresh)

Wheat germ

Granola

Agave

Vanilla sugar

Bananas

etc...

The yogurt can also be used to make smoothies or can be made into sour cream or cheese! :-)

Happy Yogurt making AND eating!

And for dessert ...

... mango 'ice cream' !!

Super easy.

Use a small tupperware of frozen mango ...
the one that you conveniently froze the night before.
Remove the tupperware and put the mango into your blender.
Add one banana.
And a couple spoonfuls of greek yogurt.

Blend.

This was so thick and creamy.

And sweet.

Rory's comment was "I think this one may actually be better than store bought ice cream" !

Ice Cream-ish

This is such a simple - healthy - yummy dessert.
I fix it for us often.

All you do is ...
Put frozen berries (or whatever fruit you fancy) into your blender.
Pulse to break them up a bit.
Add a couple scoops of greek yogurt.
Pulse a bit more.
Then blend on high for a little bit til it looks creamy.
Don't blend too long though or it will melt.

I've also done this with mango.

The leftover stuff we don't eat straight away,
I pour into the icy pole molds and put in the freezer ...

ps ... my blender will do this without any liquid,
if yours won't you might need to add a little fruit juice or even water to help it along.

Icy Poles

So ... it's summer here and I'm always looking for ways to do things healthier.
Well ... ice cream is not so healthy but it's so refreshing in summer.
So ... I went out and bought us some icy pole holders and I
have started experimenting with making different
frozen yogurts ... with some level of success !

These first ones were mixed frozen berries and greek yoghurt. They were ok. The second ones were fresh mango, greek yoghurt and a bit of orange/mango juice. They were the best ones. I did them again but added more juice ... didn't like that as well. But ... still, they were good ! Then yesterday I did fresh strawberry, mango, banana and greek yogurt ... with a dash of pomegranate/cherry juice. They were delish but the plain mango ones are still the favorite !! The beauty of it is that there are so many combos to be made up and you don't need any sort of recipe, you can just make them up ! The kids love 'em. We love 'em. They are refreshing. And healthy. Mission Accomplished !!

PS ... I just put everything in the blender and then pour it into the holders ... Easy !!!

Mexican Cous Cous

I made this up.
It was delicious.

I'll make it again ... on purpose next time !

Whatcha Need :

1 carrot, shredded
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, roughly crushed and chopped
1 cob of corn ... corn cut off, cob disposed of
1/2 a tomato that has been sittin' in the fridge needing to be used, chopped
3/4 jar of medium salsa (again ... needing to be used !)
1 can of black beans, drained
1 and 1/4 cup veg stock
1 cup cous cous
Salt and Pepper

Whatcha Do :

Using your favorite big cast iron skillet, on a med/high heat ... sautee carrot, onion, garlic, corn and tomato (seasoned with S & P) til done to your liking. Add black beans. Move all this stuff to the outter edges of the pan and pour in the veg stock. Bring to the boil ... it takes like 30 seconds to get there ! Add the cous cous. Stir everything together. Cover. Cook for a few minutes then add the salsa. Stir it all together again and just let the juices cook off. Again ...doesn't take long.

I served it with a dollop of greek yoghurt and steamed asparagus !

YUM !!

Chicken Souvlaki

I tried a new recipe tonight and it is FOR SURE going in my "tried and true" recipe binder!
Here is the original recipe from Cooking Light with my modifications in red.

Chicken Souvlaki

4 servings (serving size: 2 stuffed pita halves)

* 1/2 cup (2 ounces) crumbled feta cheese (I used tomato basil crumbled feta)
* 1/2 cup plain Greek-style yogurt (My favorite brand is Greek Gods)
* 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
* I added the juice of half a lemon to the dressing as well...gave it a nice zing!
* 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, divided
* 1 1/4 teaspoons bottled minced garlic, divided (I used fresh, minced garlic)
* 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
* 2 cups sliced roasted skinless, boneless chicken breast (I grilled boneless skinless chicken breasts on the BBQ, seasoned with coarse salt and freshly cracked black pepper.)
* 4 (6-inch) pitas, cut in half (There is a place in town that sells FRESH baked pita bread, SO yummy!)
* 1 cup shredded iceberg lettuce (I used a nice spring lettuce mix you can buy pre-washed and packaged at the grocery store.)
* 1/2 cup chopped peeled cucumber
* 1/2 cup chopped plum tomato
* 1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion (I omitted this as onions do not sit well with me in this pregnancy!)

Combine feta cheese, yogurt, dill, 1 teaspoon oil, and 1/4 teaspoon garlic in a small bowl, stirring well. (This is where you would add the juice of half a lemon, if you were so inclined.)

Heat remaining 2 teaspoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add remaining 1 teaspoon garlic and oregano to pan, and sauté for 20 seconds. Add chicken (Again, I grilled the chicken on the BBQ, sliced it thin, and then added it to the oil, garlic, and oregano) , and cook for 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Place 1/4 cup chicken mixture in each pita half, and top with 2 tablespoons yogurt mixture, 2 tablespoons shredded lettuce, 1 tablespoon cucumber, and 1 tablespoon tomato. Divide onion evenly among pitas.

This was absolutely tasty! I will be making it a lot this summer!