Butter nut squash and carrot creamy soup

Delicicious and fit

Half term at English schools means automatically less time for parents and that is exactly what happen last week to us. We had all week full of exiting things to do. So not too much time for cooking. One of the delicicious and very quick meals we had was butternut squash and carrots and onions soup with a gentle cumin seasoning and balsamic glaze on top and nice crispy ciabatta.

Recipe is simple as that:

Ingredients:

• half of Butternut squash
• 2 carrots
• half of onion
• pinch of salt, tsp of cumin,
• oil, water

Preparation:

1. Cut into chunks all vegetables and gently fry on medium heat with a tsp of oil.
2. Pour water over vegetables till they all cover with water and add spices,
3. Boil until soft around 15 - 20min and blend properly so that you don't have any lumps
4. Toast your ciabatta, you can of course use any bread or roll of your choice.

      ENJOY!

VEGETABLE PANCAKES MADE FROM GRAM/BESAN FLOUR

Right..after busy weekend comes busy week!
My children have half term holidays..both at home 24/7 till Sunday yaay;)
I'll have to get creative and think about some activities.Any suggestions?? (they 4 and 2 by the way)
Anyway...let focus on food. I had this inspiration on Saturday as a quick lunch option. I hope you are going to like it!

VEGETABLE PANCAKES MADE FROM GRAM/BESAN FLOUR  (Besan is a chickpeas flour).

Preparation time: 15min

Cooking time:  it depends what size you are going to fry the smaller the longer. I would say 30min on average.

Serves: 3 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of gram/besan flour,
• 1 cup of plain flour,
• vegetables nicely chopped (I used simply what I had in my fridge) half of red onion, 3-4 cm long slice of courgette and the same size of aubergine - peeled, handful of fresh coriander, and a half of fresh tomato(optional)
• salt, 1 tsp of garam masala seasoning
• water for batter
• oil for frying

Method:

1. Mix both flours in a clean bowl,
2. Add chopped vegetables,
3. Add garam masala and salt
4. Add water, try half of the cup first and mix it properly with a spoon. The consistency can't be too watery.
5. Warm up a teaspoon of oil on a frying pan and off you go with the frying.
6. They are ready when they nice and golden brown;)

I serve them with Greek yoghurt but you can also use crème fresh or normal yoghurt.

ENJOY!

HAPPY PANCAKE DAY!
Yaay;)
Pancake Tuesday is a day in February or March preceding Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent), which is celebrated in some countries by consuming pancakes. In others, especially those where it is called Mardi Gras or some translation thereof, this is a carnival day, and also the last day of "fat eating" or "gorging" before the fasting period of Lent.This moveable festival is determined by Easter.(source: Wikipedia).
But let's go to recipe, right?
Prepare any ordinary tea cup and then mixer and some container that you can mix everything.(I'm using measuring dish/cup)
Now the ingredients:

• 1cup of plain flour
• 1 1/3 cup of milk
• 1 egg
• teaspoon of sugar
• pinch of salt

And that's it.
Mix everything and mix with a mixer for about 1-2 minutes.
Then when batter is ready fry on non stick frying pan. I don't use oil on mine but you can use a little drop. Up to You.
ENJOY!
P.S. That's the photo of ours but you can post in comments yours;)

Late night delicicious crime .... 

WARM PEAR AND WALNUT SALAD WITH GORGONZOLA 

So.. i had this craving for the past couple of days  (no I'm nor pregnant lol) for warm pear and walnut salad with Gorgonzola salad.

Because it was busy weekend for us I only manage to make it today...late evening.

Even though as we all know eating late is not good for you.

Anyway I made it and it was heaven in my mouth.

Usually when I have that inspiration to prepare some dish i like to check few similar recipe's either on internet or in my books. I've done that today but they all are making this cheese sauce or Mayo sauce with it and i didn't fancy anything like it.

So I made it like that....

Ingredients that you need:

• 2 slices of lettuce or portion of other crunchy salad (size depends of your hunger really, I used two around 1cm slices of lettuce)
• one pear - i love Conference pears, they don't look the best but if you buy it it's worth to keep it for couple of days until they ready, fabulously sweet and juicy!
• handful of  walnuts (you will have to toast it on dry frying pan for few minutes keep styring until you will see they get darker colour)
• croutons - I made mine from toasting slice of brown bread in a toaster and then cut it into small cubes)
• piece of Gorgonzola cheese (around 100 g)
• tea spoon of butter and oil ( i used sunflower oil)
• olive oil, balsamic glaze, salt, pepper, oregano  

that's how it looks like #nofilter

Preparation:

• wash your salad and cut into smaller pieces
• toast your walnuts and set aside
• prepare your croutons unless you have ready one
• slice your pears in half then de-seed it and cut into thin slices, you don't have to peel it, after that warm up your frying pan and melt butter and oil on medium heat, and fry gently your pears until soft
• now: pour a teaspoon of olive oil and teaspoon of balsamic glaze to your salad and add oregano and a pinch of salt and toss it together
• put slices of your warm pears on top of your salad nicely and evenly 
• crumble quickly with your fingers Gorgonzola cheese on top of warm pears so it can melt a bit
• and at the end sprinkle everything with your croutons and toasted walnuts
• e voila! ready to eat!

ENJOY!