Fall is coming...let's welcome it with Aubergine meatballs

Sigh...Fall is quickly coming in southern Spain as well!

We can already feel chill mornings and evenings, although we are still blessed by warm days!

Did you start decorating your house with fall themes? I might use the same table decoration I used last year :) it's been a success on Pinterest!! {do you use Pinterest? Why don't you follow me there? I also opened a twitter account! make sure you follow me :) }

Last week my company organised a treasure hunt around Gibraltar! We had so much fun - my company is quite big and this was a nice opportunity to know people from other depts in a friendly environment!

People in Gib also had lots of fun when they saw all these people walking around with GPS tablets and taking weird pictures...

I got the best team number......

The trolley-dollyes! This is how we went around in Main Street :)

my blonde self at the company afternoon BBQ --I look good right?--

my office team :) I'm glad they didn't make weird faces at me

and the winner is......Not us! but we are happy with our wooden spoon prize!

These pictures are courtesy of FotoPedroCano - Pedro is a good friend of mine; check out his website, he is a very good photographer :) {you can also find him on Facebook!}

..I also won a bottle of Prosecco!


As some of you may know, I absolutely love aubergines - they are my favourite vegetable!

After all the activities of the treasure hunt, I felt I could find an excuse indulge myself in some tasty aubergine meatballs and I am very proud of the outcome:

Very easy to make!

::Ingredients and Proceedings::

350gr of minced meat
1 medium aubergine
2 eggs
2cups of bread crumbs
2 spoons of parmesan cheese
marjoram
salt
sunflower oil (for cooking purposes only)

Slice the aubergine and cook it on each side in a pan with a teaspoon of oil. Once all the slices are cooked, mince them in a small kitchen robot (or cut them in tiny pieces).

In a bowl, mix all the ingredients together (except for the oil!) until you get a soft mixture that can easily be manipulated into a ball. If the mixture is too liquid, just add a bit of bread crumbs.

Heat the sunflower oil in a pan and gently place the meatballs in the pan. Let them cook on all sides for a few minutes: the meatballs are ready when they are golden/brownish.

NOM NOM

Enjoy!

Until next time,

Daniela

GMF 2014 & Poached Salmon with Lemon and Parsley

Last weekend I had the opportunity to take part at the Gibraltar Music festival as a VIP {woo-ooh} and enjoy a nice afternoon/night with my partner and free food & free drinks {I admit the free drinks literally got to my head}!

I had the chance to see Tony Hadley and Roger Hodgson play Live -- it was fantastic! 

I wanted to share some of the pictures with you, before I get on with the recipe of the day {Yes, it's fish again - next time I'll post about DIY, if I manage to finish the tray I'm painting without messing it up.....}:

We are thinking about joining next year as well - we particularly liked the nice athmosphere and everything was so well organised!

In order to clean my conscience, I decided to cook something low calories and even though I'm not a big fan of fish (sea food doesn't count) I went for Salmon...

We had some salmon fillets in the fridge and I didn't have much time considering I have been working until midnight this week, so I decided to make a simil poached salmon in the oven that doesn't take much of your time!

::Ingredients and Proceedings::

4 Salmon fillets

1/2 cup white wine

1 lemon, cut in slices

2/3 sprigs of fresh parsley

1 tablespoon of fresh choppes parsley

2 tablespoon of olive oil (EVO) (1 for the salmon seasoning and 1 for the baking pan)

Salt and Black pepper

Pre heat the oven at 200°.

Rub both sides of the salmon fillets with olive oil, salt and pepper and place the lemon slices in a baking pan with some sprigs of parsley and olive oil. 

Now arrange the fillets in the pan and scatter some chopped parsley on top and add the white wine. Cover the pan with foil and let it bake for 20 minutes.

The salmon is ready when you can flake the salmon with a fork - it has to be very tender.

Enjoy!

Untile next time,

Daniela

"Hot" weathers & Cod fish with tomato sauce and black olives

It's September!

Seriously, where have the months gone? I will soon need to swap all my clothes and shoes...and that is going to take a whole day! I am really NOT looking forward to it, but I'll do it and I'll make sure I write about it here :)

In the meantime, the weather here is still scorching hot and we have experienced some restless nights last week - my dog and cat slept on the balcony getting all the fresh air {lucky them}! If I wasn't so scared of mosquitos (and people watching me), I would have slept in the garden...

Taking advantage of the good weather, I started cycling to work which is way quicker and healthier - if cycling 18 km per day doesn't help me lose few pounds I will give up!(and Stefano, don't you dare say I only cycled 2 times because that's not true and you know it!! :P)

Healthy benefits apart, cycling in the morning suits me pretty well - the air is chill and fresh {except when I cross the fishing port -meh!-}, everything is quite and calm, the scenary is gorgeous!

I have taken the below pictures with my mobile:

Playa de Sobrevela

Playa de Levante - Atunara

Eating healthy instead, is proving to be hard when Stefano doesn't stop buying Nutella and I don't stop eating it, but I am trying to focus my energy in healthy lunch and dinner plates.

Yesterday I have prepared Cod fish with tomato sauce and olives - it's very easy to make and a delicious plate that will make you forget you're on a diet.

:: Recipe and Proceeding::

4 Cod fish fillets
300 gr tomato sauce (passata)
1 garlic clove
Capers
Black olives
Oregano
EVO oil
Salt

Add some olive oil in a pan let the garlic clove golden for a minute. Add the tomato sauce, salt, the capers and the black olives previously cut in half. Stir for a few minutes.

While the sauce is cooking, cover the cod fillets in flour and place them in the pan with the tomato sauce. Make sure to turn the cod fillet so it is well cooked on both sides.

When is ready, add the oregano and serve :)

Enjoy!

Until next time,
Daniela