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

Blueberry smoothie -Superfresh!

Oooooh mama, this was fresh! Probably the best tasting smoothie I've made for awhile. Just as a side-note, my father always says that every time he makes fish-soup, it's his best so far. I figured I can start my tradition here with this smoothie.
Smoothies are nice and easy to make for those lazy days when one just doesn't feel like starting to cook before she is starving. I want to say, I think a lot of human relationships would thrive much better if people would just nourish themselves before they get hANGRY(=hungry+angry)... So, if you have pushed yourself too far (too long without food) it's better to make one of these and then continue to cook some real food when your moods=bloodsugar levels are back to normal.

Preparation time: 1-5 minutes, depending on your tiredness/hangover/hunger etc.

Ingredients:

2 dl apple juice
2 dl Turkish yogurt (or any other yogurt, you can make it healthier with less fat, but in my opinion some fat is very good for a vegetarian and the Turkish 10% yogurt is delicious!)
1 dl frozen berries (blue berries in this occasion, but you can substitue with any other sweet berry)
1 banana

Everything in and then just pulse once or twice and blend for a little bit to ensure you crushed all those berries. I garnished the drink with 3 whole frozen berries, but as my husband thought they looked like little pices of poop, you don't have to do that!

PS. Making smoothies has gotten me to miss my magic bullet (courtesy of my step-mom-in-law). I had to leave my super-handy bullet behind when we came back to Finland from America. In May we shall be reunited, and maybe I'll tempt you to get one of those for yourself as well!
PPS. Sad update: My magic bullet was brought to Finland. During the flight my new gel polish got all over it and it did not work in Finland with a regular electric converter. Sad, sad story of a dead Magic Bullet.

Mozzarella salad - My kind of after-ski!

For once in my life, I thought ahead of time, and I’m extremely proud of myself for that! I knew that by the time I’m done skiing from 3pm til 8pm, My tiny vegetarian stomach is gonna be roaring! With little time (as usual), I went for this simple, beautiful and delicious salad that I prepared right before leaving and just left it in the fridge with this cool silicon top I got -check it in the end of the post (if you don't own one, you can use plastic wrap)

You absolutely need: (for one hungry vegetarian or 2 people with regular appetites-amount are very approximate;))
10 leaves of Lettuce
2 Tomatoes
1 ball Mozzarella

It’s nice to have at least some of these for a dressing:

1-2tbsp Olive oil
2-3 tbsp Balsamico (if you don’t have the others, at least get this!)
Black pepper
Salt

(Garlic, minced-I usually skip it bc of bad breath problems:P)

Cut everything to pieces-for fancier display you can have a big plate and make a ring of tomato and mozzarella slices aroung the edges and have the lettuce on the center.

Any kind of lettuce works, i used ice-lettuce which is a crunchy kind. After you have all your ingredients in some sort of bowl or plate, drizzle the dressing ingredients over everything, concentrating especially on mozzarella.

As an easygoing cook, one of my goals is also to have as little dishes to do as possible. So even though you can mix the dressing in a separate bowl, I have found the results to be fairly similar if you just add  ingredients one by one straight to the salad.

Now, if you thought ahead of time like i did today, it’s great to let the mozzarella marinate in the fridge with your balsamico dressing (with that great top I'm so excited about;)) If you are like me most the time and need to eat right now, you can eat the salad right away and the taste is almost identical!

Ps. Here is the silicone top I have been obsessing about-thanks mom for getting this for me! It's originally meant to be used on top of your pots or pans while cooking (saves you money as it's a one solution fits all... But be cautious and only lift it from handle, not slide from edge-otherwise you'll burn yourself). It's handy for covering everything and being used instead of wrap. One last thing-it's perfect for ramen noodles-just pour hot water on a bowl over the noodles and cover... Again less dishes!