primavera risotto

Half a bunch of asparagus

Sugar snap peas

1 zucchini

50 g butter

1 tbsp bouillion

4 dl Brown rice

Parmesan

Basil

Chives

Salt and pepper

Cook the veggies for a couple minutes in a big pan with oil

Fry the rice in oil until transparent color appears. Add boiling water and the bouillion little by little

At the end add spices and butter

My breakfast today: homegrown tomato, strawberries, basil and free range but not homegrown eggs, sunny side up!

Yummy:) besides igredients mentioned above, I seasoned with salt and pepper and the mini-salad got some Olive oil and balsamic. Now happy and fullfilled off to work I go!

What is the best Pizza base part 1. Quinoa pizza

The series starts with quinoa-crust, which is kinda crooked, as I am planning on putting a regular thin-crust wheat-pizza base recipe here as well. I don't have any other reason for doing this except that these are pictures I happened to find in my archives and today felt like a great time to start blogging again! I am proud of myself too, as I thought it's been an eternity since my last posting, but it's really only been about a month! I keep taking pictures but have a hard time finding the time to write.

As is fairly obvious, you can decide on the toppings, this is just what I happened to have in the fridge at that moment. I DO highly recommend trying feta-cheese on pizza though, it's obnoxiously good.

See the Michigan oven-mitten for added beauty and size comparison

Quinoa-crust is easy to make, but requires thinking ahead, as you have to soak the grains overnight before putting it into your mixer. What makes the recipe appropriate for EASYGOING Cook is the fact that you only need quinoa for the crust, nothing else (ok, herbs and spices make it taste better, but are just for extra)! So, if you did not visit the store (for a while), you can still make this and just use whatever you have on hand for the toppings. That's how Italian mama's originally started making pizza anyhow, just putting what was available on top of a simple crust. (I realize that this comes with an assumption that you have quinoa on hand at all times, which I didn't even have myself just half a year ago.... But I really recommend making this an item that is always found in your cupboard for 3 reasons: healthy, tasty, trendy)

Makes 2 small pizza's=4 servings, prep time: gotta start night before, but really you only use about half and hour in the action

• 1½ cups or about 3 dl quinoa, soaked overnight in water
• ½ cup or about 1.5 dl  water
• 1 teaspoon dried Italian herb blend
• ½ to 1 teaspoon sea salt
• ¼ teaspoon granulated garlic
• black pepper
• toppings: I like having a base of ketchup and top everything off with cheese
• 
  
• - Soak quinoa in water overnight
• - Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.  
• -Drain the soaked quinoa. Rinse well with fresh water. Place quinoa in a blender with the ½ cup water, dried herbs, garlic, salt and pepper. Puree until smooth, the batter should be thick,  kind of like pancake batter. Set aside until oven is hot enough.
• -Put  two two 8-inch (That's about 10 cm) cake pans to heat up in the oven for 5 minutes. Take out, add plenty of olive oil and tilt to cover all over. Pour batter in, even it out and put into the hot oven and let bake for 15 minutes.
• -Remove the pan from the oven and turn the crust over. Place back in oven and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes, or until set
• -Add the desired toppings to the crust and place back into the oven for 5-10 minutes or until the toppings have heated through. Remove from oven and let cool slightly before cutting into wedges. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Here is the original source for the recipe at Henry Happened Blog: http://www.henryhappened.com/gluten-free-quinoa-pizza-crust.html

Spinach Pancake Appetizers -

For this beautiful Saturday, I offer you a truly Finnish, truly original dish created by a hungry Anna craving for something fast but yet good. 

Spinach pancakes (and also blood pancakes, which I prefer to stay away from) are a traditional Finnish school lunch food, that is actually SUPER POPULAR with kids.I remember we always had competitions on who could eat the most of the green pancakes with apple-jam. I still love them cooked that way!

So in Finland, you can get spinach pancakes as a ready made meal. If you want to try this and you are not living in a country with such an interesting specialty, go ahead and make regular mini-pancakes and add some pureed spinach into the dough. As we all know, by adding spinach to anything, you will grow strong like Popeye.

This spinach dish can make a full lunch, but I would think they are kinda pretty and extraordinary also for appetizers. It is an adult twist to the traditional kids meal.

Here is how to make them:

prep time: 3 minutes servings: 1 full meal or appetizers for 4

10 spinach pancakes

about 10 teaspoons of basil pesto, I made these with basil-lemon pesto, which was really great!

leafy greens for decoration, I used lettuce, but it would look even better with Fresh basil!

Cut pancakes in fourths, spoons some pesto on them, decorate with greens! Voila:)

Midnight snack-toast with poached eggs and scallions

Me and hubby have started getting this weird 2 am craving for eggs (and in his case bacon). This was how crafty I got one night when we gave in to the craving once again....

It's poached eggs on top of some really buttery toast and spring onions. Sprinkle of salt and pepper made it perfect! Are you wondering how to make poached eggs? I am not really an expert as mine always kinda break into pieces, but the idea is to break eggs into boiling water, which gives them a perfect texture, something between boiled, sunny side up and scrambled: as the yolks stay gooey, whites feel boiled and are not greasy, but still the messiness of this all reminds me of a scramble...

That is all for today, hope you enjoy!

Twisted Good Mediterranean Salad

While listening to the Cannabis-debate in Finland, I decided to make this new recipe I found on Pinterest (link below). I don't know why I always have to do something simultaneously with cooking, usually it results in at least some water boiling over and making a huge mess! Anyhow, today I managed to do three things: listen to a lady who's been smoking weed since the 70's, cook, and listen to my husband pondering about why I am interested in the marijuana conversation to begin with, as we do not smoke.

Continues and goes into a political rambling....

Yes, why would I ever be interested in something that does not directly involve me? Personally I may not be affected much when the talk is about drugs, gay marriage and their adoption rights, and heck, let's say whether muslims are or are not able to build a mosque in New York City. But I think as a society we should be concerned on how we treat minorities, even if we personally belong to the majority.

But, enough politics, lets cook!

The salad on my new tablecloth;)

• Time: 20 min, Serves: 4
• 0.5 cups or about 1 dl quinoa + double the water for boiling
• 1 little box of cherry tomatoes or 3-4 regular tomatoes
• 1 small red onion
• 0.5 cups or 1 dl olives (black, kalamata, whatever you like)
• 0.5 cups or 1 dl feta (just put however much comes in your package)
• 1 can chickpeas, drained
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons olive or artichoke oil (could also use the sun dried tomato oil if you have that left over)
• Herbs: anything Italian for example: oregano, basil, garlic
• salt and pepper if you wish

1. Boil water, add quinoa, let boil for 15 min. 2. Cut veggies into little pieces while waiting for quinoa 3. crumble feta and drain chickpeas 4. put everything to a large bowl, mix quinoa in as well (I noticed you didn't really have to let it cool down)

PS. If you have a sensitive tummy as I do, you might want to consider cooking the onion a bit before putting it on, or using spring onions, or not using onions at all. 

It's modified version from Closet Cooking blog, here is the link http://www.closetcooking.com/2014/01/mediterranean-quinoa-salad.html#_a5y_p=1163528

Fried Rice with Mushrooms and Scallions- Yummily Yum!

What's really yummy, is junk Chinese food, the kind you order from a restaurant in AMERICA... And that's exactly what this is - BUT when you see the ingredients that make this deliciousness, you will be surprised, as it is not that bad for you (well, I guess we might have different standards on what is healthy, but that's besides the point... Taste is what matters).

So without further re-due, I bring to you Slim but not so Shady Fried Rice!

2 servings, 20 minutes to prepare
1 dl or 1/3 cup olive oil
1 small can of sliced mushrooms
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
1 large egg
2 dl or 3/4 cups cooked  rice ( I used jasmin, but if you wanna be really healthy, you can use brown, it doesn't really matter)
2 1/2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil- if you have it, Again I did not
2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds- if you have it, I did not
4 green onions, thinly sliced

First cook the rice. Once the rice is cooked, set it aside.

While cooking rice, grate ginger and either mince the garlic into super-tiny pieces using a nice sharp cooks knife, or try what I did today- I grated that too! Lastly you can always use a garlic squeezer if you wants to, but Jamie Oliver does not recommend it... (I don't remember why, but it stuck with me). Anyhow, now is also a great time to open and drain the mushroom can, take out everything else you need for the recipe and slice 'em green onions.

When you have the pan empty and rice ready, heat up a bit of that olive oil on medium heat and cook the mushrooms with ginger and garlic. Take that out and set it aside.(Tip: if you are lazy and don't want to dirty a bunch of dishes, you can just use one dish for all the things that need to be set aside, and lastly use that same dish for serving, at least if you are not having super-fancy guests coming over.) Now add some oil and then break the egg to the pan and stir it real good, so that it becomes kind of a scrambled egg that's just in really tiny pieces. Empty the fried and scrambled egg-thing on your plate as well.

 It's time to fry the rice: oil in the pan again and coat the rice with it. Then lay the rice flat on the pan and let it sit there for about 1 minute over high heat. Turn the rice and give it another minute, at this point you should start seeing that beautiful fried color: light brown. Keep turning until the color is nice, but be careful not to burn it!

Add all the rest of the ingredients, starting from soy sauce and ending with the scallions, remember to mix well every time you add a new ingredient. At this point you can turn the heat off and just keep your pot on the stove for a few moments to ensure that everything warms up evenly.
Yum yum yum, eat immediately!!!!

Modified from a recipe by Cookie and Kate, link here: http://www.howsweeteats.com/2014/01/30-minute-portobello-fried-brown-rice/#_a5y_p=1245404