Spinach crisps, a healthy snack

This post is an idea instead of a recipe, because it is as simple as it gets. We bring you a suggestion for a very healthy snack, what I believe is a fantastic substitution for potato chips. It is spinach based and it tastes yummy. My son, who is just over one year old, loves them. It is a great way to make children eat spinach. We presented a similar idea some time ago, with the baked vegetable post. We are continuously looking for healthy snacks to have at home when you suddenly become hungry, to avoid eating processed food. This one is, no doubt, one of my favourites. 

For me, spinach is the perfect food. You can eat 2 tons and not be worried about your line, they have just 23 calories per 100 g and they have plenty of fibre. As any dark green vegetable, spinach is full of nutrients and it should be part of any healthy diet (we get worried too often about what not to eat, and we forget it is very important to choose wisely what we actually eat!) And well... I love it. Another dark green vegetable that has become fashionable these days is kale. It seems to be a superfood, but I haven't been able to find a recipe that I like using Kale. I already gave up, but I know I will try again! Spinach is a different story. It is so easy to make delicious recipes including them. And I think this is one of them. 

I cooked them with cumin, a flavour combination I have already used in the chickpeas and spinach cupcakes. 

So here it is. A very short video with a suggestion that I hope you like as much as we do. 

Click here to see the video

Quinoa salad with sushi flavour

One day I had a great idea for a recipe. It was kind of an "Eureka moment": I am going to cook sushi with quinoa. Then I googled it.. and I realized lots of people had the same eureka than me. There is even another blogger describing how she went through the same "Eureka process"! 

I just had to try it, so I decided to cook it. Everything seemed to be going fine until I had to cut the sushi rolls. That was a mess... and a disaster. Quinoa doesn't have the same consistency than sushi rice, is much less sticky, and at least for me... that was enough for the recipe not to work. I guess I didn't follow the right recipe, or maybe I didn't have the right quinoa... not sure. I have to confess that I ate the mess. And I really liked it! So I thought... why not to convert the recipe into a salad? And that's how this recipe was born. The good part is that being a salad convert this recipe in a very quick and healthy way to eat something that tastes like sushi, something that you could cook any... Tuesday? 

Quinoa is very fashionable these days among health concious people due to its nutritional value. Its protein content is quite high (including all essential amino acids) it has a relatively low glycemic index and a good part of its fat content is essential fatty acids. And what's best.. it tastes great. You can use to substitute rice in any recipe (that's where the idea of quinoa sushi came from!)

Nori seaweed is another superfood included in this recipe. Its main use is sushi making, but it can be use in many recipes. It has an intense sea flavour, and a high concentration of minerals, vitamins and fibre. 

The wasabi paste and the soy sauce give the final sushi flavour to this salad. We have used avocado, salmon and sesame paste because that's our favourite sushi combination at home. But you can try with any other combination that you fancy!

So click here to see the recipe. Enjoy it! 

Chickpeas with chicken, tomatoes and avocado

This is one of those recipes that started with something like...

- What are we having today?
- Let me check what we have.... 

And this is what we had: chickpeas, tomatoes, chicken and avocado. And it became a normal recipe at home. Sometimes we cook it with chicken wings ant its is really tasty too. 

So we are sharing it today with you... just in case you wonder: what are we having today? 

Strawberries bouquet

And finally, after a long holiday, we are back. And we do it with a healthy option, because after Christmas we couldn't think about anything else. We have to somehow try to compensate!

I personally like to put some fresh fruit in a buffet when we have people around. This is just an original way of doing it. We made a bouquet with strawberries and chocolate coated blueberries.

As long as you use a chocolate with a high cocoa percentage and a low sugar content this is a very healthy option. We can't forget that chocolate is full of nutrients, a fantastic excuse to eat it (as if we needed one!)

You already know we like doing easy things, and this presentation is not different in that sense. We remind you that we already made a video about how to make a rose with an apple.

We hope you like it. We will try not to disappear again for so long! so... see you soon!

Click here to see the new video.

Almond bread (grain free, sugar free)

We come back with another diet cake recipe. We go on pursuing our dream of eating cakes without compromising our shape or health! So today we cooked a flour free, sugar free almond bread. We have already published another almond bread, but it was more "cake-like". We have to admit that one tastes better, but we prefer to leave it for special occasions. 

We have used banana and sweet potato to make it sweet. It is not specially sweet though. If you prefer it, you can always add a couple of tablespoons of honey, and it will definitely make a difference. Because it is flour free, it is gluten free, it is suitable for paleo diet, so fashionable these days. 

As we commented in other diet baking posts we think that sugar and flour cakes are better than this kind of cakes. But once more, we think this is a decent substitute. 

Here is the new video. We hope you enjoy it! guilty free pleasure... 

How to make hummus if you don't have tahini

     Today we are coming back with a recipe we cook quite often at home: hummus. We don't always cook it with the recipe we are sharing though. Hummus is a popular dish in the middle east. It is a dip or spread made with chickpeas and a sesame seed paste called tahini. This paste is starting to be easily available, although it is not yet part of our daily food culture and therefore, it is not normally found in our supermarkets.

     You can make your own Tahini paste. It is quite easy and you can use it in other recipes, or even as a spread on its own. But if you don't want to make Tahini this is the perfect recipe to make hummus. You actually make the tahini in the process. 

     So! here is the video:

     And the recipe:

Vanilla oatmeal sponge cake with stevia

     Seven months ago I had a baby. I haven't been able to use my pre-pregnancy jeans yet, but I am actively working on it and getting closer every day. That's why our today's post is about diet baking. As we did when we talked about microwave baking (in our microwave instant cheesecake) we believe we are talking about substitutes of the real thing. They are nice, but never as nice as a good unhealthy sweet. If eaten in moderation they can be part of a healthy diet though. 

     As we did when we cook our oatmeal cookies we have decided to use whole oats. It is our favourite cereal and it has numerous proven health benefits. It is gluten free and it can be part of a celiac disease diet (although in this case you have to be sure the oats were not processed in the same premises than wheat or rye). To go a little bit further we cooked it sugar-free, using stevia, which is a very popular natural sweetener. We give the equivalent in sugar, just in case you want a "real" sweet. 

     So this is our new video, dedicated to people who are trying to get in shape, or simply stay healthy. 

And here you have the recipe:

Puy lentils salad with butternut squash and goat cheese

     We are still cooking summer recipes in Cuukinando. We love beans in general at home and in the summer we like eating them in salads. I tried this combination (lentils with butternut squash and cheese) in an Italian restaurant some weeks ago and I loved it, so I decided to do something similar at home. Maybe it is not exactly the same salad, but I would say it is every bit as good as that one was.

     We have roasted the butternut squash in the microwave, so it is a really fast dish to make. It is really colourful and full of vitamins and it tastes yummy. We will repeat for sure. Will you try it? Just check our video:

 

     This is the recipe:

Pasta-less Lasagna

     We come back today with a recipe that everybody loves: Lasagna. In this case, we have substituted the pasta for courgette, and we can guarantee that if you try it, you won't miss it! 

     If you prefer the conventional lasagna you just need to substitute the courgette for pasta. Our version is healthier and low-carb, but the flavour is just as good as the original one... believe us! We have used our microwave bechamel sauce in the recipe. 

     Cooking lasagna is always time consuming, but so much worth it. As you have probably already realized, in Cuukinando we believe that homemade is aaalways better. 

    We hope you like it! 

Crispy vegetables snack

    It seems that with the hot weather we are lowering our activity level in Cuukinando. To solve that we bring you a new recipe today. It is a healthy one, a good option for these days.

     They are a fantastic alternative to processed potato crisps and their taste is just as good as theirs (if not better!)

     We have used different vegetables with different cooking times. That means that the crispiness is not the same for all of them. We could try to be more exact and adjust the cooking times, but the truth is that the method is so simple and the result so good that at least for us... it is just not worth it! Be specially careful with the courgette, it is the first one to burn in our combination. We think that parsnip are specially good. 

     Use good quality olive oil and sea salt to cook them, you will see they are much better that way. 

     Will you try to cook them? Let us know if that is the case! 

 

Easy homemade yoghurt (without yoghurt maker)

     Hi there! We are back to show you how we prepare yoghurt at home without using a yoghurt maker. You will need a wide mouth thermos bottle though... but they are cheap, easy to find and they take much less room than conventional yoghurt makers (this is the one we use)

     If you haven't tried homemade yoghurt you will be surprised with its flavour!

     One of the biggest advantages of homemade products is that you can control the ingredients you use. In the case of yoghurt it is specially interesting to control the amount of sugar, since commercial yoghurt can have a substantial amount! We prepared it using no sugar at all. We like the natural flavour and we like adding some honey in the moment we eat it. If you prefer sweet yoghurt you just need to add sugar during the process, but we would recommend you to try it without sugar first. 

     The best starter you can use for your yoghurt is your own homemade yoghurt, so once you have the first one, go on using it for the next batch. There are some commercial starters that can be used as well, and you can even grow your own starter culture at home (we haven't tried that, but we want to try at some point! maybe a future video?) Just go back to commercial yoghurt or starter every 5-6 batches of yoghurt to be sure you are not growing any nasty bacteria. 

     The process is easy and you will have a cheap, healthy and yummy food. What else can you wish for? We hope to hear your experiences. Here is the video:

     Update: If you end up having a liquid with some lumps just whisk everything to mix them and leave it longer to finish the fermentation. 

Oatmeal cookies with banana, orange and honey

    Today we have decided to bring you a treat recipe, but a healthy one: oatmeal cookies. For all of you who have oats in your breakfast they are a good alternative to take from time to time, and if you don't, they are a fantastic way to increase your fibre intake.

     They are "chewy cookies" (kind of american type of cookie), maybe not everybody cup of tea, but if you like whole flavours we are sure you will enjoy them, and you could use them instead of the traditional porridge.

     The video: