Ramadan series: Yummy Healthy Salad

by Camy

After a whole day of fast, we need a healthy meal that will fill all of our body's needs. Ramadan is as much about purifying our mind and soul than our bodies to me! Anyways, here is a salad I love to make. It's light but also fills you up and is only composed of ingredients that are super good for our bodies and brain! ;D

Ok so here it goes !

Ingredients - and their health benefits!

• Quinoa - Full of protein for the muscles, magnesium to relax your muscles and blood vessels, fiber to ease the elimination, maganese and copper to get rid of dangerous cancer and disease-causing substances.
• Red or black beans - Full of protein and iron (like meat but low in fat and cholesterol-free!) and antioxidant (they have one of the highest antioxidant rating of all foods) to reduce risk of cancer and heart disease
• Corn - Full of fiber and vitamines!
• Tomatoes - Full of anti-oxydant, lycopene to reduce cholesterol and protect the heart, vitamine C to protect you from immune system deficiencies, cardiovascular disease, prenatal health problems, eye disease, and even skin wrinkling, vitamine A to improve vision, vitamine K which is essential in blood clotting and controls bleeding, potassium to maintain nerve health and iron
• Avocado  - Full of fiber, vitamine A, C, E, K, B5 and B6 for your eyes, your imune system, your heart, to prevent inflammations, for blood sugar regulation and to prevent cancer
• Green and/or Yellow and/or Red pepper (I like to put different types to add colours to the salad. In the end I like to put circa 1/4 of a whole peper.) - Full of vitamine A, C and K and antioxydant to prevent cancer and diseases relating to aging, support immune function, reduce inflamations, asthma and arthritis, decrease cholesterol, boost immunity, and reduce the risk of stomach ulcers.
• Garlic (a couple of cloves) - A natural antibiotic
• Onion - For your heart and to fight cancer
• Cilantro (or coriander, however you call it!) - A powerful natural cleansing agent, helps remove heavy metals and other toxic agent from the body, aids stimulate digestion (it also helps relieving stomach gaz... well it helps you stop farting!!)
• Lime or lemon - Full of vitamine C
• Olive oil - Full of anti-inflamatory agents, helps reduce cardio-vascular problems, helps the digestion, supports bone health, improves the cognitive functions, helps prevent cancer.
• Cumin powder - Reduces cholesterol and helps prevent diabet
  
• Salt

 

Step 1:
Put the quinoa to cook: for one cup of quinoa add one and a half cup of water in a pot. Put it to boil, then reduce the flame and let the quinoa cook until there's no water left in the pot. (It takes aproximatively 20 minutes.)


  
Step 2:
While the quinoa is cooking, drain the corn and beans and chop the rest of the veggies and the cilantro. Mix together. Add the cooked quinoa to the salad.

Step 3: The Sauce!
Add the juice of a lime to 4 table spoons of olive oil. Add 2 pinch of salt and a tea spoon of cumin powder. Mix well and add to your salad.

Step 4:
!!!Enjoy!!! :D

Of course you can add things up or remove ingredients you don't like and change the recipe to your liking! :D

Eat with a variety of other fruits and veggies for an even more balanced diet! :)

How to: Make a Messy, Yummy, Crazy Pizza!

by Camy 

!WARNING! THIS RECIPE IS SO AWSOME, IT'S COPYRIGHTED. PLEASE DO NOT COPY WITHOUT PERMISSION!

Ok, to make a Messy Yummy Crazy Pizza you will need:

 

  A friend too ashamed of the end result to appear on here
The smallest, tiniest oven you can find
Pizza dough
Tomatoe sauce
Cheese.... Looooads of cheese!
An olive

Step 1:

 Unroll the pizza dough on your table. Add the tomato sauce and the cheese... All the cheese...
...
Aah cheese... How could we live without cheese?...

 Anyways, back to buisness!

 Step 2:
Fold the dough in half and make the edge all cute using your fork

Make sure you look properly at this picture, it's the only nice one you'll see in this post.

Step 3:
Use a book to shove your pizza in the tiny teeny weeny oven. If it wrinkles/make wholes in your pizza/breaks it, good! That's what it should do.

Step 4:
At some point, your pizza should leak, and the cheese and tomatoe sauce should burn on the bottom of your oven. That's perfect. It's now time to take your pizza out of the oven. I recommend not using a book for this step, I think a wooden board would be more appropriate.
This step is pretty tricky because the MOST IMPORTANT thing is to let your pizza fall into a dish. Try to spill as much as you can on the table, on the floor and on yourself.

 
My advice as a wellknow gourmet would be not to eat what has spilled on the floor... I'm not sure it would be very good anyways.

Hmmmm! Looks yummy, right?!

Ok, now, put the "pizza" back in the oven and let it cook for some more minutes. How long? Well, you know, until it's eatable!


Step 5:
When your "pizza" is ready, it's time for you to decorate! I mean, you don't serve a piece of art like the Messy Yummy Crazy Pizza like any standard home failed pizza! Remember that olive I was telling you about at the very begining of this post? Well, it's time to take it out and make good use of it! With a gentle gesture, carefully put the olive on top of the "pizza". There. Perfect!

Not only does it look yummy but GOORGEOUS too!

Step 6:






 Eat, Laugh a lot, Enjoy!

Carrot Juice - a delightful harmony

By Za, 

I learnt to make this carrot juice from my mum (may god be pleased with her). It's very simple, straightforward aaaaand healthy! :3 


The are no specific measurements or portions to be followed in this recipe. It's really entirely up to you. You play with the quantity of the ingredients to create your favourite consistency, and you decide how sweet you'd like it to be! 






Zee ingredients:


About 10 medium carrots! properly washed, peeled and finely chopped into (round) slices - as shown in the picture above. 
Sugar: 1 medium class. 
3 tbsp of lemon juice. 
2 pots of yogurt (normal Peach yogurt) .. I repeat, PEACH! ( NO apricot , strawberry or anything else.) 
2 glasses of water.




Zee Method: 

1. Put the sliced carrots to steam. 
2. Once done (I usually insert a fork to check they are proper soft), transfer them into a big bowl (or container) and add the sugar on top. Cover the bowl with a lid or a cloth, and let the sugar melt for a while (3 minutes roughly). 
3. Add the lemon juice, a glass of water and blend everything. (you could use a hand blender or a speed blender, up to you)   

When you feel the mixture is colder (warmer), add the peach yogurt and bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeend more and more and more and .. ok.. just enough so everything is liquified, - add the other glass of water or just enough water to get the consistency you like. (I like it thick, like a milkshake) 


Bellow are some pictures to illustrate the process: 

Steamed carrots + sugar melting 

+ lemon juice and blend 

+ a glass of water and blend more 

+ Peach yogurt and blend 

This is what some carrots made! a1anda1/2L bottle of juice :3 




Bsahatkom - Enjoy - Bon appetit. 

The Algerian Couscous - Kseksou

By Za, 

^^^^ ** Teaser ** ^^^^

"To be continued mwahahaha"

Thick Norwegian Salmon soup

By Reem, 

This is my sisters recipe which she learnt from a friend and she said she changed few bits. Dont know which. 
Can be eaten with white rice, wholemeal bread or if u fancy on its on as a soup.

Meal for 4
Ingredients:

 
2 small pieces of salmon fillet.
1 big potato
3 carrots
Half a courgette
1 small onion
Half a leek
3 bits of garlic.. Dont know what the small piece are called.
2 tea spoons of tomato puree or 2 table spoons or canned peeled tomatoes.
Salt, black pepper, thyme and oregano.

Milk 1.5 mug

Method:

Chop all the veggies (meduim)
Galric (mash up)
- In little olive oil fry the onions and garlic.
- Add the carrot, leek, potatoes. (in that order)
- Add the tomatoes puree.
- Add the salt, black pepper, thyme and oregano.
- Stir and stir and let them cook. Add a lil water when they get dry and let it evaporate.
- Add half a mug of milk and let them cook nice and slow.
- Add the courgettes
- Add the salmon (make sure it's skinned)
- Stir, add the remaining milk and wait 5 mins before you cover it for 20 mins on low heat.
(((note that the smell at all stages do not reflect the taste... Thankfully the taste is better, so keep tasting to make sure everything is cooking and not overcooking)))
-Enjoy it.

Courtesy of Rania Hamid

PS: Also add more of the humble spices before putting the lid on for 20 mins if u fancy. 

Hope you like it inshaAllah

PS:  Good thing about this is that it doesnt require so much salmon ;) 

Enjoy :) 

Pasta bake with veggies - Yemeni Hands

By Reem 

This is a simple recipe for pasta and cheese lovers.

I just followed instructions on the pasta sauce jar.

Cooking time: 40 mins, serves 6

Ingredients:

1. Pasta (i used wholemeal) 3/4 of a medium pack.
2. Cheese (i used mozzarella and cheddar).
3. A generous amount (depends on u).
4. Pasta bake ready sauce (whole jar) I will upload the pic of it.
5. A whole medium red onions
6. A carrot
7. 1/4 green pepper
8. 1/4 orange or red pepper
9. Salt and black pepper.

Method:

Preheat the oven on the highest.

Boil your pasta (salt and olive oil)

Fry the chopped veggies in a bit of vooking olive oil. Start with the carrots, onions and peppers. 

When the pasta has cooked fully, drain it and add it to the pan which has the veggies.

Cook together for 3 mins and add salt and black pepper.

Pour the sauce jar into a deep-ish oven tray.

Add water (not boiled( to the empty jar, shake it and add it to the pasta mixture.

Put the pasta mixture into the oven tray.

Mix it all up.

Put it in the oven.

Take it out in 20 mins.

Can add more black pepper at this stage.

Add half the cheese into the pasta. Make sure it goes all in and everywhere. It will be melting. Yummmy.

Sprinkle the rest on top and back in the oven until the cheese on top is golden brown.

Serve hottt and enjoy.

Here are some picture illustrating the steps: 

1

2

3 

4

                                                                          :) 

Shtit'ha Batata: Potato Dance

By Za, 

All right, this looks nothing like a dance!.. more like worn-out potatoes. 
Sometimes you get home after a long day of running errands all over the country (well ..at least that's how it feels).. and the first thing you want to do after changing your clothes and washing is EAT! (that's if you haven't already thought of grabbing a take away meal on your way, or you're too broke to opt for a home delivery meal) 
Then you find yourself in that awkward moment when you hit the kitchen and find out you're run out of groceries because you didn't realise sooner that it was the end of the week. yeah.. cr** 
But then your eyes spot the brown-beige-ish color of something hiding in a bag you've started to wonder where on earth it came from.. so you----- piercing the air like an arrow. (your kitchen feeling larger all of the sudden) on to attack the vulnerable confused bag (that suddenly looked so big in your eyes it convinced you it contained of a least about 20 potatoes) only to realise you're crouching with a huge bag in your hand *tight grip* with only 1 potato in it! and another medium one of which half's gone rotten. .. .. 
But you don't despair (you're starving you've started thinking about all the poor hungry people and orphans around the world, and you're now cursing the governments, famine, greed and so on) so your next automatic reflex is to open the fridge. And you're there standing in front of it. It's full of boxes, bags and bottles that aren't edible. they're empty too. (yea, I have this habit of returning bags, packs, bottles, cartons, tins, jars ..etc to the fridge after using the last bite/drop.. i'm working on getting rid of it, but well). You spot the eggs carton- it looks empty- so you decide to chuck it (so you remember next time to buy eggs on your way home and not be fooled by the presence of a carton) anyway, you grab the thing to throw it away when you realise it feels heavy on the other end! your heart beats fast! could it be... *ba dum tsss* !!!! AN EGG !!!!!!! now you remembered there is a god and you don't know or when but you're thanking him like forever. 
So here we go, a potato (and a half) and an egg! what to do? cook them duh!
Except, the issue is not whether to cook them or not. It's is about WHICH cooking method is faster! (with nice results! goes without saying) you don't want to wait for other 20minutes to go! if you can think of way to cook everything ready in 19mins and 58 seconds you'd opt for it. 
the issue's become a dilemma, and your stomach has taken over your brain, you can't think straight.. Alright, that's it..time to use your 3 lifelines. 
The 50-50 seems useless at this point.
The audience opinion is out of the question.. 
You're left with the "call someone"! hell yeah! 
You spin around and run to the phone, unlock, go to contacts, look for M! yesss MUM! *calling* 
You get frustrated .. why isn't she picking up!! only to hear the line ringing for the first time. 
As you're speaking on the phone - Indian drama - you catch sight of some garlic and you welcome the idea of adding that on today's Menu. 


Found it. (thanks to lifeline #3) the quickest and easiest way to get this "bunch" of veggies ready is to lead them straight to the dance floor. The POT! 

Peel and cut the potatoes (into big pieces) 
Grate the garlic (or press it/crash it) 


In the pot, heat 2tbsp of vegetable oil, add the garlic and stir well. 

Add the potato pieces and mix. Add your favourite spices. ( I used Paprika and mixed spices, a small leaf of bay (stir))  and warm water (1 glass and a half) 


cover the pot and go busy yourself with something distracting. (facebook, twitter, TV..anything) by the time you come back, the food will have cooked. 

Don't forget the last surviving egg you found by accident! USE IT! 

Break it on the ready potatoes in sauce, and close again. Let it simmer for 2 mins or so until you see the egg pouched. mix.. do whatever you like with it.. but just make it quick and serve it on a dish! 

PS: you can add a bit of tomato pasta if you've got any. 

Bsahatkom - Enjoy - Bon appetit

Croquet: got Marbled

By Za, 

This croquet is very similar to the original one I had previously posted. 
So, I used: 

A

• 2 eggs
• 3/4 mug sugar. (the typical British mug) 

mix well until cream. 

• 1/3 cup of oil. 

Mix more. 
1/2 tsp of Vanilla 

B

Take some of the mixture out separately and add 2 tbsp of cocoa to it. Mix well until you get something like a chocolate cream, then, start adding flour ( and 1tsp of baking powder) to it to turn it into a dough. See picture ===> 

do the same to the other half. Add flour and baking powder and make a dough out of it. 

you'll end up with two small doughs, a black and a white one. 

Mix them however you like. Bring the two doughs together to mingle. what I did was, I spread the white dough and shredded the chocolate one inside it. Then, I closed the white dough and kneaded it one or twice to make sure it doesn't open. So, I got this result. 

Flatten the dough on a dusted baking tray. Grease with egg yolk and scratch with a fork. Then put it to bake! 'Tadaa'! 

Bsahatkom - Enjoy - Bon appetit.