A WEEK IN MEALS #11

what a week, and for some reason I'm still managing to post this only one day late (and not on thursday like last week, huh) so I have to say I'm quite proud of myself. I'm in that phase now where everything is just going wrong that can possibly go wrong and I'm just trying to somehow stay normal and manage my things as much as I possibly can. I have work to do and I have an exam coming up on wednesday which I have been studying for the last couple of days (as you might have been able to tell by my crazy science tweets). but the weather has been nice and I've managed to spend a crazy rainy afternoon with my girls so it hasn't all been bad. 

food wise I've obviously been a little lazier than I usually am, I still love to cook even when I'm busy because it makes me relax, but I just lack a lot of creativeness which means I'll end up standing in the kitchen looking in the fridge, looking through the cupboards and ending up eating a piece of bread with a piece of cheese. luckily for you and for me, I did manage to make some proper meals too, so you won't be seeing pictures of bread and cheese every single day.

I started monday with some nuts and prunes to keep my energy levels up while working. then I had the glorious idea to make this lovely cauliflower garlic soup which managed to make me really happy. I seem to be loving soups lately.

tuesday was the last day of lectures in uni for me which made me kind of sad as I won't be going to any more lectures in september of course. I went for a bit of an austrian brunch (here's the slice of bread I've been talking about) with same jause: extrawurst, pickled chili peppers and tomato. this managed to keep me going while doing work so did it's job and tasted yum. later on I had some more of my cauliflower garlic soup along with a greek salad with extrawurst a weird combination but truly beautiful.

after complaining to my mum in the morning that I didn't want pasta, I ended up making pasta. that's how it goes sometimes. I made a lovely spinach pesto which I shall be blogging about soon.

thursday it was my mum's turn to cook and she made lovely roasted liver which I served with some buttered cauliflower. perfect. I now want cauliflower with everything.

friday was 'I want to feel like I'm on holiday' day and my mum made souvlaki with greek salad and tzatziki. I could honestly eat this every (other) day during the summer. I actually posted a souvlaki recipe the other day which you can find here, it's super easy and you can make them without a BBQ.

on saturday I was revising the whole day which kind of made me forget to make something to eat, so luckily my mum came to the rescue and made some Kaiserschmarn (basically pancake dough in little bits with raisins). in the evening and way too late but I was hungry, I made myself a greek salad with chicken bits which was just the right thing to do I believe.

so yesterday I kind of got back into normal mode, still revising for my microbiology exam for most of the day but I managed to make this lovely berry banana and prunes smoothie which I will be posting a recipe for tomorrow or the day after. and then again I made a lovely chicken stew which I can't get enough of lately. you will find this in last week's a week in meals post aswell.

so that was another week full of lovely and sometimes boring working and exam stress food, but it was nice and I hope your food has been good too. also, how has your week been? hopefully not as stressful and weird as mine, but if yes, then let's all hope that this week will be better shall we.

Magdalena

#42 SUMMER SOUVLAKI

now, if you're not greek, haven't been to greece or spend some time studying the menu of a greek restaurant you might be asking what are souvlaki? souvlaki are basically skewers made of mostly not-so-lean pork or other meat and grilled. the original version doesn't contain anything other than lovely meat, a bit of olive oil and spices. however, when we make them (as in me and my mum, or just me) we add some vegetables and sometimes even bacon (if we're cheeky). this is something I love to eat in summer especially because it just gives me that holiday BBQ feeling and when I eat it with some tzatziki it keeps me from missing the beach and the mediterranean. at least for a little bit.

if you don't have a BBQ in your flat (if you do, you shouldn't) then don't be afraid, you can most definitely make them in the oven, they won't have the lovely BBQ flavour (naturally) but they'll still be amazing, trust me, we don't have a BBQ here either.

another thing that I love about them is that you can of course eat them with potatoes or other lovely side dishes, but if you're trying to reduce your carbs you definitely won't miss them if you just have one or two skewers with a lot of tzatziki which is just yogurt, garlic and cucumber and also very healthy. also, I always use lean pork mainly because I don't particularly like the taste of fat anyway. to add another healthy side dish, I love to have it with greek salad, which will definitely not leave you hungry.

 something else that makes it the perfect thing is that you practically spend no time in the kitchen, you can prepare them and leave in the fridge and then simply chuck in the oven for when you want them.

Souvlaki with Vegetables and Bacon

and Tzatziki

for two

300 g pork (ideally tenderloin, pork chops or similar)

2 red peppers

2 onions

approx. 16 slices of streaky bacon

greek/full fat yogurt

1/2 cucumber

1 clove garlic

olive oil

you'll start by preparing the skewers, ideally use metal skewers as it's easier to get the meat of those, if you don't have any then wooden ones will be fine if you put some olive oil on the first.

cut the meat into chunks whatever size you want them to be, then cut the veg into equal chunks. take your skewers and arrange meat and veg on the evenly.

you can now either put them in the oven straight away, or cover them with a bit of olive oil and herbs and keep in the fridge wrapped in tinfoil. if you put them in the oven, make sure it's pre-heated to about 180°C.

while they're in the oven/fridge you can make your tzatziki; simply pour your yogurt into a bowl and add the minced garlic and a bit of olive oil. grate the cucumber onto a plate and add salt, this will take some of the water out of the cucumber and keep your tzatziki from getting too watery instead of creamy and yum. simply press the water out of the cucumbers and add to the mixture. all done. you can now keep it in the fridge until your skewers are done.

once the souvlaki are done, serve with some tzatziki and your side dish of choice and enjoy a bit of mediterranean holiday feeling.

I could definitely use a bit of real holiday at the moment, but as I won't get that kind of holiday I'm happy with some food that reminds me of it. how about you? what's your favourite holiday feeling food and where will you be going this summer?

Magdalena.

A WEEK IN MEALS #10

so this should have been up sunday but very clearly it's not sunday today so I'd like to apologise again, but as I mentioned in my last post my life has been rather busy lately, and unfortunately this always comes along suddenly, making me unable to schedule posts which means I have been neglecting my blog lately. I have hope that it will all get back to normal eventually, but this won't happen before next week so bare with me until then.

lately I have been feeling the need to eat croissants whenever possible, they're just so yum. my dinner on monday was inspired by this recipe by the lovely trina, I shall be doing a post about this seperately if I find time.

having some chicken and potatoes left over I made some chicken chunks with spinach potatoes and for dessert I had a berry cake with tea that I took home from a party on saturday, cheeky.

wednesday was pizza day, and you can clearly tell that I had more time for food last week than I do this week, wish I had pizza now, was delicious!

thursday life started getting busier so I didn't have the time for a proper meal, just picked up some lovely truffle tortellini, my go to ready meal, sounds posh but I'm really not. just love truffles.

friday I was invited to my dad's for dinner to celebrate my brothers birthday, as you can see this dinner is not pictured here as it would take up a whole lot of space, and I'm going to do a whole post about it when I find time. so here you can see my breakfast, a watermelon.

saturday I was at my dad's again as there was a little celebration going on in the little village where he lives. before going we had a lovely plate full of grilled vegetables which is one of my favourite things ever. at the party I had grilled courgette and salads as well as the biggest plate full of dessert ever.

sunday morning my mum found herself on the way to the bakery buying me a croissant, because I just can't live without it and a cup of tea. she also made dinner that day which was amazingly fresh trout with herbs and rice, I do love fish I do.

so that was another week full of food. I apologise once again for the lack of blogging on my part, I hope you'll keep coming back though and I promise I'll try my best to post a bit more regularly. 

Magdalena.

#41 CAULIFLOWER GARLIC SOUP

I would like to apologise once again for being very very absent at the moment. it's not that I'm not in the mood for blogging, but I have so many things going on in my life at the moment and after all of that I simply don't have the energy to blog as much as I'd like to. but hopefully a lot of things will be sorted out soon and I will be able to get back to my usual schedule. 
speaking of schedules, I do have a week in meals post lined up which was supposed to be up sunday but as I was working all day I couldn't get around to doing it. I hope you don't mind me posting it sometime during the week.

today however, I'd like to share with you a little recipe. I've realised that the last recipe I shared was a soup aswell and now here I go posting a soup again and you'll probably think I'm weird as it's july now. but I do love a good soup as it gives me the energy I definitely need at the moment and it fills me up for not too much money.

also, the lovely Becci from Only Becci - a little bit of everything told me yesterday that no matter what I make I'll have to post the recipe to it, and of course I can't not listen to a lovely lady like her.

be warned, if you don't like garlic you won't like this soup! (or you'll make it without garlic as it'll still be yum)

Cauliflower Garlic Soup

for four people (or to keep in the fridge for a day)

1 - 1 1/2 L vegetable stock

(or vegetables to make it yourself)

2 carrots

1/2 head of cauliflower

4 cloves of garlic

salt

first you'll have to decide whether to make your own vegetable stock or not, I kind of did and mixed it with some powdered one aswell. if you're make it yourself, leave it to simmer at low heat for about 30 minutes.

while it's simmering, take the cauliflower and tear it apart a little bit and wash it.

then you can decide whether you'd like to leave the carrots in the soup for pureeing it (the soup will be a little more orange) or you can take them out. then add the cauliflower and leave to simmer for a further 10-ish minutes.

if you've decided to take out the carrots, you can cut them into tiny pieces and use in your soup once it's ready.

then, take your cloves of garlic and mince it or cut it into tiny pieces and add to the soup, leave to simmer for another minute or so. you can then go along and puree your soup, add some salt to taste and you're ready to go. (don't forget to add the carrot)

you can add some cream or milk if you like, but I think it's really creamy and lovely as it is.

hope you're having a good start of the week!

Magdalena