Quick dinner plate : Lemon Chicken fillets!

You know the days when you don't want to cook even if your fiancé promises to buy you a new pair of shoes?
Well, if you, like me, don't want to miss out on a new pair of shoes, you must will cook something good and quick. {I would never ::ever ever ever:: miss an opportunity to get a new pair of shoes} (Did you sang Taylor Swift song while reading that? 'Coz I totally did)

If I happen to be in the above mentioned situation Iwill always cook one of the food products that never miss in my fridge/freezer....... Chicken Breast Fillets!

I promise, I always have chicken breast fillets at home - they are a permanent fixture in my grocery list.

The below recipe of Lemon Chicken  fillets is quick and absolutely tasty - I also recommend it for a last minute dinner with few friends at home!

:::Recipe:::

400gr Chicken breast fillets
1 egg
Maizena flour - the needed amount for coating - (or any flour you prefer, but Maizena makes a nice cream;) )
1 Lemon (for juice and 3/4 slices for decoration)
salt
pepper
olive oil EVO

Whisk a egg in a bowl with salt and pepper and pour some flour in a plate. Dip the chicken fillet in the egg mixture and then in the flour - make sure that the flour is attached at the fillet by shaking the fillet a bit (the lose flour will fall back in the plate).

When all the chicken breast fillets are covered in flour, pour some olive oil in a pan and keep the flame at medium level. When oil is hot, place the fillets inside - cook them for 2 minutes each side and add the lemon juice of a lemon.

Before switching the gas off, cook 3/4 slices of lemon for 2 minutes and add them to the plate.

This was the plate before....

...and this is after 10 minutes!

Enjoy!

Until next time,
Daniela

How does sugar affect your life? I tell you about my "no sugar" experience..so far {+ delicious chickpea burgers recipe}

3 weeks ago I went to a nutritionist as I was not getting the results I expected with my diet and sport.

I always worried that my metabolism was not good enough but turns out, my metabolism is perfect and the real bugger here is sugar (no, I'm not diabetic). As we all know, sugar is not the healthiest thing we eat and it actually affects woman hormones...a lot.

So, I challenged myself and decided to completely detox from added sugar for 10 days- the only sugar I got was from natural source ( fruits, nuts..etc..) + I used to snack only on fruits while now I combine them with nuts (protein), so my sugar intake is more balanced.

Worst thing to do? drink espresso without sugar..... it took me 4 days to get used to the flavour!

from pinterest

I used to take coffee with two teaspoons of sugar, so you can imagine what a shock it was for me to taste it black for the first time :)

But you know what? Persistance is your best friend and, not only I got used to drink it black, but I am loving it.

More importantly, I feel good. The spots I used to have on my chin have disappeared and for the first time in my life, I had no PMS and got my period on time {didn't even realise it!}.
This is a huge step forward for me. I always suffered from PMS, never had my period on time and the pain I had "before and during" was very intense.

So, if you ask me.... give this "no sugar life" a try! or simply, be aware of it and limit sugar as much as you can - you can even use substitute like stevia for example.

Added sugar is everywhere, so try and make things yourself instead of buying ready meals and make it a habit to check the nutrients and ingredients of the things you buy, so you have an idea of the added sugar you are going to put in your body if you buy that item.

You can also compare products and buy the one that has less added sugar in it.

***

I will start experimenting with food (especially cakes), because...if I can limit sugar intake in desserts...why not do it? I will be posting about my adventures!

I also want to increase my protein intake and I started messing with chickpeas :)

A few days ago, I have been playing with chickpeas and came up with some delicious burgers.

You can use eggs or flaxseeds in this mixture, depending if you eat eggs or not ;)

If you decide to give flaxseeds a try, remember to rinse them with a bit of water for 10 minutes, they will swell a bit and their consistence is sticky...perfect for burgers ;)

The recipe I will share today  is pretty easy but the result is fantastic! Chickpea burgers were tasty and even my meatlover fiancè loved them (and licked the plate clean).

:::Recipe:::

This makes about 9/10 burgers

2 cans of chickpeas (400 gr)
1 red onion
1 small tomato
1 egg or 2 tablespoon of flaxseeds
Salt and Black pepper
Optional: half zucchini

Squash the chickpeas with a fork or food processor in a medium bowl.
Slice the onion and the tomato is thin pieces and add them in the bowl. If you want to add zucchini, you will need to slice or grate them in the mixture.
Add black pepper and salt according to your taste. Now add an egg or two tbspoon of flaxseeds {rinse flaxseeds in water for 10 minutes}.
Now combine everything together and start making small balls that you will flatten to make a burger form.
Cook them in some olive oil and...enjoy!

PD: We have eaten them with an avocado and fennels salad :)


Until next time,
Daniela

Farfalle pasta with Taleggio cheese and mushrooms

I hope you all spent a happy Easter day with your loved ones!

We had a BBQ at home with friends and we have officially opened the garden for Spring/Summer season!

We had originally planned to have a BBQ by the beach, but weather forecast was not optmistic so we moved the location to our home -- turns out the forecast was wrong and the weather was amazing on Easter Sunday....but at least we had an excuse to finally clean the garden  which looked like a jungle after Stefano refused forgot to mow the grass during winter time.

On a more positive note, Mozzichino-the Cat thought he really was a tiger and that was the perfect exploring & hunting environment for him {poor snails}.

We had tons of food which basically consisted in BBQ meat, aubergines, ham and artichokes pie and my attempt to make some goat cheese& ham samosas... {I managed to get a samosa shape with the last 4 pieces only...better luck next time I guess}

Dessert mainly consisted of chocolate eggs and italian "colomba" - this is a traditional easter cake shaped as a dove (if you haven't guessed it yet, colomba means dove in Italian). Didn't take a proper picture I'm afraid, I barely managed to take this snap before we devoured it :: it was white chocolate and pistacho flavoured - we couldn't resist it ::

Did I mention we also had pistacho cream to spread on the cake slices? mmmmhh

Since I didn't bake/cook anything special that day, I will share with you a dish I prepared few weeks ago..and have to repeat soon, because it was delicious and I can't resist melted Taleggio cheese!

"Farfalle with Taleggio and Mushrooms"

::ingredients::

Farfalle pasta (400gr for 4 pax)
250 gr mushrooms (sliced)
75 gr taleggio cheese
Milk or cooking cream
Parsley
Olive oil
Onion
Black Pepper

Boil some water and let the pasta cook according to timing you find on the box (I like pasta to be "al dente").
Melt the Taleggio cheese in a pan with some milk/cooking cream on low heat. In the meantime, brown the sliced onion in olive oil and add the mushrooms. Cook the mushrooms for 15/20 minutes and add parsley for flavouring.

Drain the pasta and pour it in the same pan where you have been cooking the mushrooms. Add the melted Taleggio and stir for 4 minutes.

Plate you dish and sprinkle some black pepper on it :)

Buon Appetito!

Until next time,
Daniela

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

Back on track...with a tasty Focaccia Barese

Hello everybody,

I am aware that I haven't been posting at all since beginning of the year.

I had somehow lost the energy I wanted to put in this blog and since I always give my best in the things I do, I didn't want to write a blog without putting my 100% energy in it.

Since then, my friends, family and partner have encouraged me to keep my posts up and after a long time I feel I want to start blogging again, and keep sharing a piece of my life with you.

Let's start with the past weekend (the weekend of "Ferragosto").... The 15 of August is a big Bank Holiday in Spain and in Italy, and many people have been organising their weekend out and enjoy few days at the beach or countryside. We have rented a nice place in Costa de la Luz and planned to spend the weekend on the beach with few of our friends....

Everything we've done that week end hasn't happened the way we planned it!

Thw wind was so strong we almost got blown away from the beach...


From Pinterest

But we had so much fun! We couldn't play beach volley {and almost lost the ball} since the wind wouldn't allow it, but we ate tons of food and I had the chance to take many beautiful pictures.

playa de los alemanes - Zahara de los Atunes

We all cooked something to bring with us on the beach. We had pasta salad, sausage rolls and my tasty Focaccia Barese!

The Focaccia Barese is the best Focaccia you will ever taste in Puglia, my hometown region - people from Bari also cut the focaccia bread in half and eat it with mortadella and cheese: the result is spectacular!

::Recipe and Proceedings::

Focaccia
500 gr Flour 00
200 gr Strong Flour
500 gr Water
40 gr EVO oil
1 tea spoon of Sugar
30 gr of salt
100 gr boiled potato
1 cube of Yeast

Topping
15 cherry tomatoes
oregano
EVO oil
Salt
black olives


We need to mix the "liquid" ingredients first and then add the "solid" ones.

In a bowl, pour  the water, the yeast (previously melted in some water), the boiled potato and the olive oil. In order to melt the yeast just pour some warm water on it in a glass and mix it with a spoon (1). The potato has to be smashed before pouring it in the bowl (2).

melting the yeast

smashing the boiled potato

After you've mixed the liquid ingredients you can pour the flour, sugar and salt. Mix everything together until the compost has blended together perfectly. Please note that the texture of the focaccia dough is different from the pizza one. The focaccia dough contains more water and therefore the dough is not solid - it should be watery, but it shouldn't form a proper ball (3).

ready to rest for 2 hours

Let the dough rest for 2 hours - cover it with a tea towel and a heavy blanket ( I used a beach towel) (4 -5) to keep it warm!

tea towel

beach towel

Spread olive oil in a baking pan - loooots of olive oil! - pour the dough in the pan and spread it with your hands (6 - 7). Add the condiments: cherry tomatos cut in half, oregan, salt, olives and a bit of olive oil (8).

olive oil in the pan

waiting for its topping

almost ready for the oven

Suggestion: you can mix the cherry tomatoes in olive oil already and then place them on the focaccia. This will make a good mixture of olive oil and tomato sauce to put on top of the focaccia before it goes in the oven(9).

suggestion for topping

Let the focaccia rest for 45 minutes (so it can rise a bit more) and switch the oven at 200°.

Put the baking pan in the oven for 30 minutes.

Let the Focaccia cool down and cut a slice....ENJOY!

Special thank's to my friend Barbara for the tips she has given me :)

Until next time,
Daniela