"Food is, actually, very beautiful in itself"

I should write a lot of reviews but because time is running away almost as quickly as my memory I'm just gonna sum up the last three months (since the baby appeared) of various food adventures in twelve photos. Enjoy.

A colourful farfalle at Kro Bar by Piccadilly Gardens, one grey and tired Sunday afternoon. Kro is spacious so it works well in terms of a pram. The atmosphere is relaxed, prices reasonable and the food decent, although on this occasion a little poor. The beer was better.

Jon had penne and mushrooms and was even more let down. 

Someone said to never eat out on Sundays because restaurants use their worst chefs. Maybe that was the explanation for our disappointment.

Coffee and sandwich at Pret A Manger, hats, sunglasses and summer in the air. What a lovely Saturday.

That evening I made caramelised onions and peppers, butter fried broccoli, quinoa and veggie patties. A really good meal indeed.

The day after at The Wharf in Castlefield, with lots of people optimistically dressed for summer and a lot of cold breezes, nuts and drinks.

A lovely vegan stir fry at Teatime Collective, one sunny Tuesday afternoon with the mother in law. Baby life doesn't always allow for proper preparations so you've got to seize the opportunities while you can and go running, so half an hour after the meal that's what I did, and had to stop and nearly throw up after a mile. Not so lovely.

A visit to a baby crowded Teacup. Herbert was the loudest, in a mainly happy way. 

Asparagus, new potatoes, poached egg and hollondaise, like a dream.

Jon's food. Very British if you ask me.

And the not-quite-so dreamy cake. There just wasn't much flavour to it at all. Not what you'd expect in Teacup.

Finally, another vegan stir fry at Giraffe at Manchester airport. Giraffe is really nice, baby-friendly, good prices and delicious food.

And that was about three months of eating.

Green Gold and Roasted Potatoes

Firstly I had been dreaming of ice cream, a Daim cone more precisely, and as I have this idea that I should eat whatever I feel like (within reason) during my months of breastfeeding I went to the local shop to satisfy my craving. When I got there however, I changed my mind and wanted roasted new potatoes instead. I left with a bag of mixed leaves, a lemon and a bottle of red.

Secondly, I had been on Twitter, where I found a recipe of melted butter and lemon juice drizzled on top of roasted asparagus. My brilliant mind immediately put one and one together and I ended up with a bloody delicious meal.

Roasted new potatoes in olive oil, thyme and salt
Roasted asparagus (no oil)
A beetroot bake with goat's cheese from Asda - and let me tell you that I've never enjoyed their frozen ready-made veggie selection as much as now
A bed of mixed leaves and edamame beans
Topped with parmesan and a dressing of melted butter and juice from half a lemon

Who said you should be happy with just seven a day, hey?

Scrambled Egg Burritos

One Saturday afternoon, after a long walk with Herbert around Alexandra Park, I decided to make burritos. Simple, delicious and kind of nutritious.

It really doesn't have to be more pretentious than this; tortilla bread filled with scrambled eggs, mixed leaves, red onion, yoghurt, grated cheese and salsa topped with black pepper.

Enjoy.

Pepper, Feta Cheese and Green Olive Quiche

My attempt at making quiche actually turned out ok. It could have been better balanced - less milk in the egg mix, as well as less feta cheese - but I was rushing. I also forgot the tomatoes. I also ended up using plain flour, as opposed to wholegrain, simply because that's what we had. Oh well, good thing I've always considered improvement an important part of everything I do and I'm excited to make this better next time.

Funny also how both me and Jon thought that it tasted nicer cold the day after. Perhaps I should always let it rest in the fridge for a day before serving?

Pepper, feta cheese and green olive quiche

Serves 2-3 
Prep time: 25 min
Cooking time: 20-25 min

Pastry
125g butter
3 dl flour
2 tblsp water

Egg mix
3 eggs
2.5 dl milk
Black pepper
Chilli powder

Filling
1 small onion
1 packet of feta cheese (200g)
1/2 red pepper
1/2 green pepper
10-15 green olives

Mix the flour and butter, and work it thoroughly using your hands to make sure there are no lumps of butter left.
Add water and work the mix into a dough, and leave it in the fridge for 10 min.
Meanwhile, heat the oven to 200C and start preparing the other ingredients.
Mix the eggs, milk and spices in a bowl.
Chop the onion, feta cheese, peppers and olives into cubes, or whatever shape and size you prefer.
Flatten out the pastry on an ungreased oven tray about 25 cm in diameter, and make sure the pastry covers about 2 cm up the edges.
Put the filling on top of the pastry and finish by pouring the egg mix over everything.
Top it with some black pepper and basil or any other spices you like.
Place it in the oven for 20-25 min.

 

Adapting to baby life and a messy pasta

Although life is undoubtedly better with a newborn in the house, everything else in life has had to take a step back. Sleep and food in particular. I'm not complaining though, actually the opposite. I love the feeling of an added purpose, one somewhat more important than my latest run or the sort of beans I'm using in tonight's stew.

But while sleep has been almost non-existing over the last weeks, I've managed the task to eat at least every day (hurrah!), and quite often one in particular quick and easy meal. I wouldn't exactly recommend that you eat this about three times a week like me, but to anyone without time and inspiration on their hands, it's a meal that isn't completely lacking in nutritional value. I decided to let this dish go by the glamorous name: fresh pasta with stuff.

It's basically a choice of fresh pasta (that takes about three minutes to cook), in this case ravioli filled with basil and pesto, but for us it's more often tortellini filled with various cheeses, spinach, herbs or tomato. The rest of the dish is a colorful mix of whatever you've got at home, just make sure that there's at least one source of protein except from cheese. In this case soy pieces and green peas. Other stuff in this picture; halloumi, onion and red pepper. Throw it all in a pan with olive oil, add some black pepper, salt and herbs and it's done in less than ten minutes. Simple and quick, and therefore baby-friendly.

For Christmas I got two cookbooks, which I haven't really been able to skim through yet but I hope they will inspire me to cook more proper food. Like tonight, when I'm a little sick of messy pasta and gonna attempt to make quiche with peppers, feta cheese and olives instead. I must be crazy, but I've already planned every single step and know where I can take breaks in the process to fulfil certain baby needs. Yeah, it's all new and exciting - it really is - and sometimes doomed to fail. Fingers crossed this will work.

Baking accomplished and two celebrations

No, the headline is not about the gingerbread biscuits that I decided I wanted to make 1.5 weeks before Christmas; the Swedish carnations still haven't arrived. I guess they'll come when they come, there's nothing I can do about it.

It's about the bump. I wish I could have the same relaxed approach to it as to the dried flowers but my patience is being put to test at the moment, and I'm not even overdue. But this baby is ready-baked, an incredible milestone if you knew more about my medical history, and I want it here now.

I'm not doing a summary of December as I was tired all the time and crap at both cooking and blogging. Pot noodles and ready-made pizzas pretty much sums it up.

But Christmas passed and although I didn't make a majestic dinner, I did make lentil balls. And instead of cheddar and oregano I put in feta cheese and fresh coriander - a really good move. Highly recommended. Just change those two little details in the original recipe and let yourself be blown away. You're welcome.

Apart from that, I made boiled potatoes with butter and salt, a salad with roasted beetroot and red onion and fresh feta cheese, walnuts and a bit of lettuce. Dip-wise I made a Swedish Christmas must-have - 'rödbetssallad' - with 3 tbsp mayo, 1 tbsp yoghurt, 2 chopped beetroots, 1 peeled and grated apple and 1 tsp of black pepper. Simply delicious.

Yesterday was New Year's Eve and I ate like a hungry horse. Maybe my body is starting to load for labour, or maybe it's just unconscious greed as I know this is soon gonna be over...?

In the afternoon I went for a walk and when I came back Jon asked if I wanted to go for another walk and I said yes. After a nice crisp promenade to Castlefield we ended up in The Knott, one of Manchester's best pubs with their highly impressive beer selection. Oh, I'm looking forward to a pint now.

We weren't intending to eat but after seeing and smelling some of the other guests' orders we couldn't resist our temptations.

I ordered a grilled halloumi and wild mushroom burger with spiced wedges (£5.50) and Jon had a falafel wrap with hand-cut chips (£5.50). Although I am a little stunned about the amount of Manchester places serving veggie burgers of this sort, I was happy with the flavours, especially the green pesto. The salad was dressed in a nice dressing as well and wedges just spicy enough.

Halloumi and mushroom burger with wedges

We both agreed that my dish was the highlight of the two but Jon's worked well as an afternoon filler too.

Falafel wrap with chips

Later in the evening we had salad, carrots, five dips, nine veggie snack things, three cheeses and four different crackers and crispbreads. How I can even move today I don't know but apparently I can as I just started the new year by doing squats and core exercises. Hello desperate uterus stimulation and happy new year.

My Christmas menu and the tastiest tofu in town

Christmas is getting closer and a few weeks back I had some vague idea about becoming more active on the blog. People have asked me for green Christmas recipes and this would have been a great time to share some ideas.

Unfortunately I am much too tired to put my mind to anything but extremely simple and monotonous food, let alone writing about it. I don't want to just pick any recipes for the sake of it but try them out first and then share them. If they're easy and tasty, they're suitable for my blog, and if not, I simply wouldn't share them.

However, I can tell you what I'm personally going to do this year for Christmas (same as last year) in case I don't get a final energy boost from heaven and urge to try out new stuff.

Remember the Lentils Burgers with Oregano and Cheddar I posted back in October? Last year I made them in meatball-form instead of burgers and that was a success. When you make them a little smaller they get more compressed with flavour so the only thing to keep in mind is to not add too much chili.

Last year's lentil balls in the making

I'm also considering making these Kidney Bean and Walnut Burgers, perhaps also ball-shaped. I'm not sure about it. Just because I'm Swedish and see meatballs as an essential part of the Christmas menu it doesn't mean that the entire plate has to consist of balls so I don't know.

Baking-wise I'm going to make Swedish Gingerbread Biscuits, if my spice arrives on time that is. I've been looking around for dried carnations in Manchester but couldn't find them anywhere. In Holland & Barrett they looked at me as if I was from outer space when asking about it and I realised that I better just ask my mum to send some over from Sweden. She went to the nearest shop in the village and sent them the day after so hopefully they'll be here soon.

Apart from all that I'll be having the usual; sprouts, other veg, beetroots, potatoes, cheese, eggs, and crispbreads. It's my first Christmas in UK so I'm a little bit excited but also a little bit sad thinking about my family (and new nephew!) on the other side of the North Sea. But there is just no chance that I'll board a plane with less than a month until the baby is due.

Out for a walk in wintery Sweden, 2012

Our house, 2011

Other than that not much is going on in life except from sore hips, baby baking, swimming and the occasional cafe visit.

Yesterday I went back to Teatime Collective for a catch-up with a friend and to check out their expanded seating area. The converted container fits around 15 more people and was warm and cosy. Perhaps a little too warm for a woman already on the edge of boiling from various hormones, but that's a different story.

I had a really tasty Ciabatta with 'Steak', Mustard Mayo, Gherkins and Salad (£3), all completely vegan of course. The 'steak' consisted of the tastiest tofu I've ever eaten. Along with gherkins and the hint of mustard it was simply brilliant. Next time I have to try their vegan steak and cheese sandwich.

Toasted ciabatta with vegan steak, mustard mayo, gherkins and salad

Here's their full menu.

Tons of food and a bigger bump

November somehow disappeared from the Earth, mainly because of sleepiness. Half sleeping for consecutive days makes life just fly by. However, my brain still seems busy as I have the craziest and at times scariest dreams ever - a common side effect of the hormones that are currently occupying my body.

Between sleeping I've not only tried my best to cook and eat, but also document some of my culinary adventures. Let's have a look.

Breakfast; by miles the best meal of the day. One with wholegrain walnut buns and one that was actually more like a dessert. I'd already had yoghurt as a first meal, peanut butter toast a few hours later and then this. It's just how it goes when you wake up starving three times throughout the night.

I was given a bag of homegrown Jerusalem artichokes and learned some new useful stuff. I grated a couple of them to use in potato cakes and roasted the rest with potatoes and lots of garlic. Interestingly they were really gluey, but tasty. Highly recommended.

And yeah, I made that soup again and served it with homemade bread. I just can't get enough.

One nippy Sunday afternoon I went to a charity shop in the Northern Quarter and finished the journey at my favourite restaurant. Apparently they've got a new menu that I just have to check out. Something to add to my imaginary postnatal to-do-list.

Stir fry is exactly the kind of food that's suitable for a sick and nauseous stomach, therefore I ended up having it more than once during this month. Though on one of my better days I finally managed to make a good whole wheat pizza dough, which has been a rather long and sweaty process. I've experimented and failed on a couple of occasions so the satisfaction level was like: enormous.

I paid my neighbour Teatime Collective a visit and had a gorgeous dark chocolate flapjack. Another day I went to another local cafe and had another sort of dark chocolate. The sort of luxury you can allow yourself when you're on maternity leave and not asleep.

One Friday Jon made a dinner of roasted beetroots, sweet potatoes and halloumi with butter fried asparagus and a beetroot dip. Oh, love. And finally, last Saturday we had tacos. Every single time I have it I wonder why I don't eat it more often. Many years ago back in Sweden, when I used to visit my family over the weekends, it was always served on the Friday of my arrival. A very nice tradition if you'd ask me.

Although it's impractical at times (and bigger than the photos tell) I'm slowly starting to become one with this bump. I've also entered a much more relaxed mental phase of the pregnancy where most of the troubles and worries are blown out the window. Finally I can enjoy it to its full extent and grasp what that wonderful blooming is all about.

Grains and Lentils with Caramelised Vegetables and Quorn

While this dish may not exactly look the part, I promise, it's really tasty. I mean; caramelised vegetables, does it get any tastier than that? Just the smell of it makes my mouth water.

It's also highly nutritious as it contains green lentils and quinoa, both are great sources of protein. Quinoa is actually one of few vegetarian complete proteins, which means that it contains all the essential amino acids. If you haven't tried it before, this gives you a good reason.

Also, don't leave the pearl barley out as this gives the texture a nice round edge. Together with quinoa and lentils it works perfectly.

Quinoa, pearl barley and green lentils with caramelised vegetables and quorn

Cooking time: 20 min
Serves 2

1 dl quinoa
1 dl green lentils
1/2 dl pearl barley
6 dl stock from 1 vegetable stock cube
1 large red pepper
1 large red onion
1 quorn fillet
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil
Salt

Bring a pan of 6 dl water to the boil, let the stock cube dissolve and add the quinoa, lentils and pearl barley. When it's boiling again, stir, lower the heat, and leave it to simmer under a lid for about 15-20 min.
Chop the pepper and onion and put them in a low to medium hot pan with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Add the quorn fillets to the pan and sprinkle a tiny bit of salt on them. Leave it for 15 min.
When it's ready, mix everything in one of the pans and stir. Make sure that the grains soak up flavour from the oil and vinegar.

Noodle Stir Fry with Soy Mince and Egg

My weekend didn't just consist of a visit to Teatime Collective (which has just added American Pancakes to the menu by the way!!!) but also a little trip up town to what could be my favourite food place in Manchester; Home Sweet Home. A review will come up later in the month so keep your eyes open, this is a place you most definitely don't wanna miss.

Unfortunately, after sunshine comes rain. After activity and a lot of food comes a day on the couch with a bucket. I'll leave the rest to your imagination.

Days like today, I'm certainly not up for anything heavy, greasy or advanced, but I still want something tasty. A non-oily noodle stir fry with vegetables, soy mince and egg is an excellent and simple dish. You can add and/or remove anything you like, but here's mine...

Noodles, leek, brussel sprouts, asparagus, pepper, soy mince and egg

Cooking time: 15-20 min
Serves 2

100g egg noodles (wholewheat if it's available)
1 leek
6 brussel sprouts
3 large asparagus
1 pepper
1 dl soy mince
1 egg
1/2-1 chilli
2 tsp curry powder
2 tsp chilli powder
Soy sauce
2 tbsp olive oil 

Bring a pan of water to the boil and add the noodles.
Chop all the vegetables into small chunks and put them in olive oil in a medium hot pan. Add all the spices, soy sauce, soy mince and egg, and stir.
When the noodles are ready, drain and add them to the mix and stir more.
Lower the heat and leave the mix under a lid until it's got the softness and flavours you desire.

Roasted Peppers Filled with Quinoa, Chanterelles, Spinach and Parmesan

Due to pregnancy insomnia, I'm totally lacking in motivation. Nobody told me that lack of sleep would begin a couple of months before the baby pops out. Ah well, I guess it's a good warm up.

Things I've done instead of updating this blog lately: sleep, try to sleep, eat, try to write, and play Wordfeud and Ruzzle.

However, yesterday I made some nice roasted peppers filled with quinoa, chanterelles, spinach and parmesan. It is super simple and beautiful to serve with roasted potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes and lots of garlic. Here's how I did...

Roasted peppers filled with quinoa, chanterelles, spinach and parmesan

Cooking time: 35 min
Serves 2

2 peppers
1 dl quinoa
1 dl chanterelles (any mushrooms will do)
1 onion
1/2 dl spinach
1 dl grated parmesan
1 tbsp olive oil
Chilli pepper
Black pepper

Preheat the oven to 175 C.
Bring a pan of water to the boil and add the quinoa.
Chop the onion and put it in olive oil in a medium hot pan. Add the chanterelles, spinach and spices. Stir regularly.
Take the mix off the hot hob and stir in the parmesan.
When the quinoa is ready, stir it in with the mix.
Remove the stem and seeds from the peppers, then chop them in half and fill them with the mix.
Place them in the oven for about 20 min.

Roasted Pepper and Green Lentil Tomato Soup with Feta Cheese Dip

Here's another one of those dishes that pretty much cooks itself. I guess you've figured out how much I like being lazy sometimes, or just busy with other stuff than cooking.

This soup requires about 5 minutes of preparation, 30 minutes of cooking and another minute to plate up. So simple, yet even more delicious.

Potato, red pepper and red onion

Roasted pepper and green lentil tomato soup

Prep time: 5 min
Cooking time: 30 min
Serves 1 (hungry)

1 small/medium potato
1 red pepper
1 red onion
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tin (400g) peeled plum tomatoes
1/2 dl green lentils
2 dl stock from 1/2 vegetable stock cube

Preheat the oven to 180 C.
Chop the potato and pepper into cubes and cut the onion into wedges, and place them in an oven tray. Cover the vegetables in olive oil, stir and place in the oven for about 30 min, until they've gone a little brown and soft.
Pour the tomatoes into a hot sauce pan and mash everything into the sized chunks you want, and add the lentils and vegetable stock. When the mix is boiling, lower the heat and leave it to simmer under a lid.
When the vegetables are ready, mix them with the tomatoes and lentils.
Plate up with the feta cheese dip on top (recipe below).

Feta cheese dip with chilli flakes

Feta cheese dip

3 tbsp yoghurt
50g feta cheese
1/2 tsp chilli flakes 
1/2 tsp black pepper

In a small bowl, mix the yoghurt, chunks of feta cheese, chilli flakes and black pepper, and stir. Keep it refrigerated until the soup is ready.

Roasted Pepper and Green Lentil Tomato Soup with Feta Cheese Dip

Whole Wheat Pizza

Making your own whole wheat pizza isn't the easiest thing in the world, yet it's far from the hardest. I've seen other food bloggers suggest that it's just as easy as ordering a take-away, which is just really silly. Of course it's not!

I've said before that my cooking and recipes aren't that precise, but when it comes to bread and rising doughs, it's a different story. But don't let that put you off, there are loads of benefits to making your own dough.

Just use your hands if you don't have a roller

It is actually quite simple as most of the process involves just leaving the dough to rise. It's a lot healthier and much, much cheaper. I also find it tastier and it fills me up quicker than dough made of white flour.

Another plus is that there is no limit to what toppings I can choose. As long as they're available in the supermarket, they can go on my pizza.

This one has a spicy homemade tomato sauce (recipe below), spinach, fresh tomatoes, fresh basil and mozzarella. Plain and simple, yet full of flavours.

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

Prep time: 2 hours
Baking time: 12 minutes
Serves 2

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
2,4 dl (1 cup) warm water
1 tsp sugar
5,2 dl (2 and 1/4 cup) whole wheat flour, plus a little extra for dusting
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Boil half of the water in a kettle and mix it with the other half cold from the tap. In one bowl, mix yeast and water. Leave it to dissolve for a few minutes.
In a different bowl, mix 4,7 dl (2 cups) flour and sugar. Make a well in the center. Add yeast mixture and olive oil.
Stir until the dough comes together. Knead, either by hand or in a mixer, for about 5 minutes. As you knead, add the remaining 0,5 dl (about 1/4 cup) flour in small doses.
Shape dough into a ball, place it in a bowl and make air proof with a plastic clingfilm covering. Let rise at room temperature for 1.5-2 hours.

When there's about 15 min left of rising time, preheat the oven to 250 C and start preparing your toppings.
Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and punch it down. Flatten it out, using your hands or a roller, to the desired thickness. Place the dough on a lightly greased oven tray.
Add your desired toppings and bake for about 12 minutes, or until crust is lightly brown and cheese is melted. Let it cool for a few minutes and serve.

Tomato Sauce

2 chopped garlic cloves
1/2 chopped onion
1/3 chopped chilli
1 tsp oregano
Olive oil
1/2 tin of peeled plum tomatoes

Put the olive oil, garlic, onion and chilli in a medium hot pan. Stir for a few minutes.
Add the oregano and tomatoes, lower the heat and leave under a lid for 15 min.

Vegetarian Pasta Carbonara

When I cook, I'm generally not very precise, and that goes for my carbonara. Sometimes I add broccoli or asparagus. I've even included beans on occasions and if I haven't had quorn fillets in the house I've added similar protein, or just left it out. Likewise, it doesn't matter what pasta you use. If you listen to one famous TV chef, he'd tell you to use penne, whereas restaurants often serve their carbonara with spaghetti. I like fusilli and tagliatelle, but any wholegrain pasta will do.

There are, however, a few holy ingredients without which my vegetarian carbonara wouldn't be complete. These are green peas, halloumi, red pepper, black pepper and parmesan. I'd also like to say natural yoghurt but if you really can't live without cream, I guess I would allow an exception. At the moment I don't use egg yolks for this dish, but if you want it, go ahead. Just add it at the very end.

Vegetarian pasta carbonara

Cooking time: 15 min
Serves 2

100-150g wholegrain pasta
75g halloumi
1/2 dl frozen peas
1 quorn fillet
1 red pepper
1 onion
1/3 red chilli
1 dl grated parmesan
3 tbsp natural yoghurt
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp black pepper

Bring a pan of water to the boil and add the pasta.
Put olive oil in a medium hot pan. Chop the onion, red pepper, halloumi and chilli, and add them together with the peas and quorn to the pan.
Add half of the black pepper to the mix, and stir regularly for a couple of minutes, until it gets some colour.
When the quorn is soft enough, separate it into smaller pieces.
Add the parmesan to the mix and stir until it's melted.
Turn off the heat but leave the pan on the hot hob and add the yoghurt to the mix.
Lastly, add the pasta and the rest of the black pepper, and stir.