Another heartfelt hello from my kitchen

Hi, Yall!

You already know, I'm a huge fan of meals that are either prepped rather quickly, not very complicated or have only a few ingredients. And as I like to try new things (at least in my kitchen), I'll show you what's on our plates lately. 

Let's start with Saturdays' breakfast. Unlike in the US for example, we have the same breakfast any given workday: muesli, coffee and a small smoothie with various fruits, but on weekends our breakfast is more elaborate. On Instagram I saw pancakes with only three ingredients - banana, cinnamon, eggs. And that shall work??? Well, challenge accepted. Thus I smashed three ripe bananas, added four eggs and a teaspoon of cinnamon - rather liquidy situation... Anyway, let's dump it into a non-stick frying pan and put a lid on to get it quickly cooked without burning one side. Ooof, you have to turn them veeery carefully, but then you get little banana-sweet pancake-miracles. Add some fresh fruit and you're done! 

Meanwhile I made some amends to the recipe which means I usually a cup of oats and mix the whole thing with an immersion blender. Thus you get a smooth mix but still very runny. Surely you could add more oats, but I didn't want that. Due to the fructose the pancakes get rather dark although they are not burnt, even when they look like that: 

You could drown the pineapples in maple syrup but there's no obligation. The riper the bananas, the sweeter the pancakes. Really yummy! 

Let's stick with breakfast for a while. On Sundays we usually have eggs, and I wanted to serve them differently. Thus I chopped various ingredients (cherry tomatoes, ham, spring onions, mushrooms and put them into my muffin pan. Then mixed the eggs, poured them into the muffin tins and added some shredded cheese on top. Put that in the oven and afterwards try to meticulously peel the egg Mcmuffins out of the pan :-)

From a visual perspective there is room for improvement, but they are super for on-the-go, for a picnic or even on a burger bun with some tomato sauce. 

Little snacks are always a must-have: A healthy option may be a toast with curry cream cheese and mango slices. 

Or blueberry muffins without sugar but with rolled oats: 

If you don't have time (but some calories to spare) you might opt for store bought puff pastry. These cinnamon spirals are quick and easy and very delicious. 

In Switzerland they have a pretty popular dessert with pureed sweet chestnuts, but here in Germany you mostly find them roasted over open fire at the Christmas markets. However, you can buy them already cooked and I originally wanted to add them to a side dish with Brussels sprouts. But then I changed my plans, and the chestnuts patiently waited in the fridge to face their destiny. I put them into a cake dough with lots of chocolate chips and chopped hazelnuts. The cake was more on the compact side and not so fluffy but if you like a more rustic cake this one's definitely right for you. 

But I also want to add some dinner dishes - some with meat, some without. First thing is a boar filet. Although a boar is a large animal, the filet which was included in our last meat order from Grutto followed the more minimalistic trend... Suitable as a starter but not enough for two adults as main course. Therefore I wrapped it in minced meat and planned to wrap it in puff pastry as well - a wild filet Wellington, so to speak. But hubby is not very keen on puff pastry and then I wrapped the whole package in bacon strips and cooked it in the oven. That was something special, I can tell you!

Oh, and there is diced Gouda in the minced meat - not the baddest of ideas :-))) 

And while we're talking cheese... Here's is some deliciousness with cream cheese: Philadelphia chicken! Wrap chicken breast with bacon and start baking it in the oven. Then mix herbed cream cheese with cream and pour the mixture to the chickens. Let that sit in the oven for another 15 minutes and you're done. It's served best with rice or anything that can suck up the delicious sauce!  

Apart from that you can also make an awesome burger filling with chicken. Pulled pork is a staple but did you know you could also use chicken? Well, I chose a slightly simpler version than having the chicken in the smoker for hours. Instead I cooked a broth with chicken breasts, leek, carrots, celery and all. Afterwards I pulled the chicken apart with two forks. One part I put back into the broth and put that into my freezer. Now I have home made penicillin aka chicken soup in case we catch a cold. And the other part I mixed with a classic BBQ sauce (sweet, hot and smoky). Put that in a home-made bun, top it off with some tomato and a slice of Gouda  and you got yourself a delicious pulled chicken burger. 

For the right balance please find below a fish dish :-) Super simple but super impressive... First you slice up two zucchinis (carrots work perfectly too) and mix them with some olive oil and spices (in my case mostly thyme and rosemary). Put that on a lined baking sheet and add some salmon (skinny side down). Add two to three teaspoons of pesto (red and green work perfectly fine) on the salmon and place cherry tomatoes cut in half on top. After 25 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius it's ready to eat - low carb and pretty awesome looking! 

In case you are willing to spend some elbow grease, here is a recipe that takes some time, but is awesome when you have to cut out carbs. Cauliflower pizza crust! OK, this is not a yeast dough, sure. But hubs and I really liked it. In fact we liked it so much, that we made it again only two days later! 

First you have to shred the cauliflower - in a blender or food processor but you can also grate it manually. Then you have to blanch the cauliflower grains in boiling saltwater for five minutes. Then chill it with cold water, put it in a kitchen towel and squeeze out as much liquid as you can. The less liquid remaining in the cauliflower, the more crunchy the crust. 

Mix that "dough" with two tablespoons of grated almonds (or almond flour), one egg, 80 grams of goat cream cheese (or the normal one) and a healthy dose of thyme (or oregano). With a spatula spread that mass onto a baking pan and bake it for 40 minutes. 

If you google it, there are different variations of that cauliflower pizza crust: with flour instead of almonds, cauliflower pan-fried instead of blanched, shredded cheese instead of cream cheese. Except from the pan-fry method I didn't test any of that, but I guess, it's worth a try. 

Now it's time to put the toppings on the crust. I recommend not to load it but keep the toppings relatively thin, because otherwise it won't stay crunchy. (TBH: ours didn't stay crunchy, anyway.) In case you're not bothering, go for it! I topped it with tomato sauce, onion rings, bell-pepper and olives, and cheese, of course. 

That goes into the oven for another 10 minutes (or a bit longer) and then you can dig in! 

In case you got your mouth watered - you're welcome!!!