chia

Babka understands…

/ lolitabopaa / Leave a comment

Processed with VSCOcam with f2 preset

When things go wrong, just stop and make a babka. She understands. She makes all the bad things go away. And even if it won’t turn out like the prettiest babka in the world, it will still be the best one you had in a million years.

Just go for it!

Dough

  • 100 g wholegrain spelt flour
  • 200 g wheat flour T400 + for dusting
  • 1 egg and 2 egg yolks
  • 15 g fresh yeast
  • 15 ml milk
  • 70 g softened butter
  • 40 g agave syrup or honey
  • ⅓ tsp salt
  • 1 Tbsp rum
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 egg for brushing

Filling

  • 4 Tbsp chia seeds
  • 100 g fresh blueberries
  • 100 g fresh raspberries
  • 150 g blueberry or strawberry jam (I used ISIS sugar free jams)*

* avaliable at Vita Care

Preparation:

  1. Prepare the yeast: mix 15 ml warm milk, tablespoon of agave or honey and fresh yeast. Let double in size.
  2. In a big bowl mix both flours and salt.
  3. In a seperate bowl mix softened butter using a hand mixer. Gradually add egg and yolks, agave syrup, vanilla and rum.
  4. Add the yeast and the egg mixture to flours and mix with wooden spatula. When the ingredients start to combine, dust te work surface, transfer the dough and start kneading. Knead for 10 – 15 mins. Starch needs some time to soak up. It will be a bit messy at the begining, but when it strats to come together, you should form a compact silky dough ball.
  5. Cover and let rise until doubled in volume (be careful not to overdo it).
  6. In the meantime mix chia, fresh berries and jam.
  7. Transfer the dough to work surface and roll to 0.5 com thick.
  8. Spread over the fruit mixture.
  9. Roll and cut lenghtwise. Twist the strands to form a plait.Transfer to a baking tin and let rise.
  10. Brush with egg wash and bake in preheated oven at 210 °C for 10 mins. Turn the tin around and bake for another 10 mins. After that, lower at 180°C and bake for 10 more minutes.
  11. Let cool. Or don’t let cool. Eat.

Rainy days and misty mornings…

/ lolitabopaa / Leave a comment

fig chia pudding-5

Autumn. It has really started now. You know it for sure, when there’s no sun in the morning. Just gray mist flowing above the city. And rain. Gray, misty, humid. And calm. No kids runing around and playing on the street. Nothing exciting, noting worth getting up actually. I could easily stay in my bed for the rest of the day. With a good book and a cup of tea, listening to the rain touching the ground…

But I have to get up… First thing: coffee. Second thing: breakfast. I always take time for my breakfast. And coffee. It’s a ritual and the most important meal of the day. It starts the engine so it really has to be something good for the body and the soul (I mean for my eyes).

fig chia pudding-2
fig chia pudding-4

In the morning your body needs energy. Lots of it. So eating fruit in the morning is the right way to start the day. Fresh figs. They’ve been collecting the sun rays all the summer to rejoice with their sweetness in the fall.

There are bananas and there are frozen bananas. I’ve been going mad for banana ice-ceream this summer. It’s basically just mixing frozen bananas in food processor until they turn into a smooth and creamy ice-cream.  With a spoon of peanut butter and coconut you’ve got yourself a pure sugar free magic! But that’s for some other time…

And last but not the least, with this rainy and much colder days ahead, you need to boost your body and prepare it for the winter. A spoon of bee pollen a day makes miracles. And brings the sunshine to your day!

Be good people and start your day the right way!
xoxo

fig chia pudding
Chia pudding with coconut and frozen banana

Ingredients

chia pudding:

  • 500 ml plain yogurt
  • 2 frozen bananas
  • 4 Tbsp ground coconut
  • ½ vanilla pod
  • 8 Tbsp chia seeds

to garnish:

  • handful of frozen raspberries
  • 2 figs
  • 2 tsp bee pollen

Preparation:

  1. Finely grind coconut using a coffee grinder.
  2. Mix yogurt, vanilla, chia seeds and coconut. Let sit overnight in the fridge.
  3. Peel bananas and let freeze overnigh in the freezer.
  4. Next day, mix bananas and chia yogurt by using a food processor, blender or hand mixer.
  5. Divide in glasses, sprinkle with frozen raspberries, fresh figs and bee pollen.

Strawberry galette

/ lolitabopaa / Leave a comment

jagodna pita-9

It’s been three years since I’ve started my balcony garden. It had its ups and downs. Tomatoes, cucumbers, paprikas, herbs and spinach all worked well, but there were some serious fails with pumpkins and artichokes. And strawberries weren’t any success either so far. I wasn’t even planing to plant them this year but something was telling me I should…

jagodna pita

And it turned out to be a good decision, because this year I indeed have strawberries growing at my balcony! They are absolutely delicious, and to be honest, they went straight to my yoghurt in the morning. I would not dare to cook them. But they did inspire me to make this strawberry galette.

jagodna pita-5
jagodna pita-3
jagodna pita-2

jagodna pita-8

jagodna pita-11
jagodna pita-10

Ingredients

crust:

  • 60 g rolled oats
  • 50 g wholegrain spelt flour
  • 80 g shredded coconut
  • 45 g cold butter
  • 1 Tbsp agave syrup or honey
  • 1 egg yolk
  • pinch of salt
  • 30 ml cold water (or more if needed)

filling:

  • 300 – 350 g strawberries
  • 3 Tbsp chia
  • 1 big Tbsp strawberry jam (I used 100% fruit content jam)
  • 1/2 of vanilla pod
  • 1 – 2 Tbsp stevia or sucralose

Preparation:

  1. Grind rolled oats and coconut in coffee grinder to obtain flour consistency.
  2. Mix all the flours and salt, than add cold butter and mix evenly. Add agave syrup or honey and egg yolk. Mix and add water as needed. Form a ball, wrap it in plastic foil and let sit in the fridge for 30 mins.
  3. Cut strawberries in half. Mix all the ingredients for filling.
  4. Take the dough out of the fridge. Roll it out in between two sheets of baking paper. Put all the filling in the middle and fold the ends inwards.
  5. Bake for 25 – 35 mins at 180ºc.
  6. Sprinkle with mint leaves. And yes… vanilla ice cream is always a good idea!

jagodna pita-12

Oeuf cocotte and gluten free walnut buckwheat bread

/ lolitabopaa / Leave a comment

oeufcocotte-8

Oeuf cocotte, a french classic and probably one of the easiest things to do. I won’s say you don’t need the right technicque to get it cooked to the point where the egg white hardens and the yolk stays liquid, but one way or another, I should have this more often, because it’s soo good and easy to prepare. Choose whatever topping you like, but mushrooms go perfectly with buckwheat.

Gluten free bread is a story on its own… I tried number of recipes, but no matter what flour I used and no matter how much oil I added, it always turned out too dry. So I did my homework and found a solution: psyllium seed husk.

Psyllium seed husk contain soluble and insoluble fibers. It is probably one of the nature’s most absorbant fibers, so this means it will bind all the ingrediends together and will prevent the bread from drying out. Plus, it is really good for digestion.

oeufcocotte

Oeuf cocotte with mushrooms

Ingredients (serves two):

  • 4 eggs
  • 150 g mushrooms
  • 1/3 tsp garlic
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 3 Tbsp liquid cream or crème fraîche
  • 1 tsp butter
  • salt
  • pepper

Preparation:

  1. Finely chop the mushrooms. Sautee on a tablespoon of olive oil. When the liquid starts evaporating, add garlic, season with salt and pepper and cook for anothe couple of minutes.
  2. Grease the molds with butter. Add mushrooms and reserve some for garnish.
  3. Add two eggs in each mold, top with some cream and the rest of the mushrooms.
  4. Put the molds into a baking tin filled with hot water that rises to the middle of the molds.
  5. Bake at 170ºc from 6 – 10 mins. Keep an eye on it: ideally the egg white should harden and the yolk should still be liquid.
  6. Season with salt and pepper.

Buckwheat bread with walnuts

Ingredients (makes 4 buns):

  • 70 g buckwheat flour
  • 70 g corn flour
  • 20 g corn starch
  • 12 g fresh yeast
  • 1 tsp honey or agave syrup (for yeast)
  • 20 ml milk (for yeast)
  • 250 – 300 ml milk or water
  • 15 g flax seed
  • 40 g walnuts
  • 25 ml olive oil
  • 20 g ground chia seed
  • 20 g psyllium seed husk
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Preparation:

  1. Prepare the yeast: mix 20 ml of warm milk (not hot), fresh yeast and tablespoon of honey or agave syrup. Let double in size.
  2. In a big bowl mix the flours, corn starch and salt. Add flax and walnuts.
  3. Using a cofee grinder, grind chia (you can also grind psyllium, but that’s optional). Than mix chia, psyllium, olive oil and milk or water. Let soak at least 3 mins.
  4. When the yeast and chia mixture are ready, add both to flour mixture.
  5. Mix with wooden spatula until all ingredients combine. Add flour if too sticky or water/milk if to compact. Keep in mind that psyllium soaks up a lot of liquid. Flour the working surface and kneed into a ball. Dough should be soft, but not sticky. Let rise.
  6. When doubled in volume, knead once again to let rise for the second time. If you prefer little buns, now’s the time to divide the dough.
  7. When second rise is done, cut the crosses on the top of the buns. Bake in preheated oven at 220ºc for 30 – 40 mins. The bread is done when it sounds hollow  if knocked on the bottom side.
  8. IMPORTANT: always put some water into a baking tray underneath the  bread rack to create steam. This is how you will get a moist inside and crunchy crust.

 

This recipe was created as a part of a project for Spar Slovenija and their magazine Dobro zame.

Hello sunshine!

/ lolitabopaa / 7 Comments

IMG_0914

This morning I woke up with the smile on my face. I pulled up my window blinds and let the sun come in. It was bright and the colours were amazing. Birds singing. Not cold at all… Almost as if it were spring already. I went to the kitchen and made myself a cup of coffee. Cozy. I couldn’t be happier! Then I realised that a glorious morning deserves an equally glorious breakfast. I took my time. And a second coffee. I had coconut chia with roasted blood orange compote.

IMG_0916

IMG_0903

Ingredients (serves 1):

  • 4 big Tbsp chia seed
  • 1 big Tbsp finely grated coconut flakes
  • 100 – 150 ml coconut milk (depends on the consistency you prefer)
  • sweetener of your choice (I used sucralose)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 blood oranges
  • 1,5 Tbsp rum
  • 1 tsp bee pollen

Preparation:

  1. Peel and cut oranges. Preheat oven at 170ºc and bake 30 – 40 mins. Turn once in between. Let cool.
  2. Mix chia, coconut milk, sweetener of your choice, vanilla extract and coconut flakes. If necessary, grind coconut flakes in a coffee grinder. Let sit. If after 10 mins the mixture does not have the consistency you prefer, add some chia, coconut flakes or milk.
  3. Using a fork, mash the cooled baked oranges, reserving one or two pieces for garnish. Add rum.
  4. Assemble in a jar, putting the compote on the bottom, topping with chia pudding and garnishing with a piece of orange and some bee pollen.
  5. And you can always multiply the ingredients and prepare couple of jars for your next breakfast (or late night snacks and desserts as I did 🙂 ).

Red DETOX smoothie

/ lolitabopaa / 1 Comment

IMG_2862

After a busy end of the year and all that feasting and festivity the time has come to start a new chapter. New year – new beginnings, they say. And to start well, mind, soul and body need to be free. And clean. So, for the last couple of weeks I’ve been trying to detoxify my body, do more sports and just breathe that fresh winter air. I left out a party or two and switched from wine to smoothies. Since I’ve got this diabetes thing I learned how important it is to listen to my body. Once you do that, you start acting differently and you feel great.

This smoothie has been replacing some of my breakfast lately. It’s really boosting and nourishing. In the morning I sometimes mixed it up with oats and hemp seeds and it was definitely my favorite 5 o’clock thing.

Beet is a great source of folic acid and potassium. It also contains high level of antioxidants and supports detoxification. It has a slightly higher level of carbs than other vegetables (5g carbs/75g), but that’s not much of a problem since it is also a good source of fiber. It can be eaten raw or cooked. Also, and that is something I did not know, leaves were highly appreciated in ancient times. That’s no surprise since they contain up to 25% magnesium. They can be prepared the same way as spinach. Superfood.

Carrot A, B, C, E, K. Nuff said.

Orange is the best winter fruit. I’ve got an orange tree in my apartment and it just started blooming (don’t know how that’s possible), but the smell…it’s amazing. Of course, a super source of vitamin C that will boost your immune system in those harsh winter months and hydrate your body. Just make sure it’s heavy when buying. That means it will be really juicy.

Strawberries are a good source of antioxidants, folic acid and vitamins B and C. They have a high water content and are beneficial for digestion. They also have low glycemic index, so go for it!

Green tea is said to have more health benefits than the black tea which is most widely used. This is due to un-oxidation process which retains more antioxidants and vitamins.

Chia seed has high fiber and slows down digestion. It’s also rich in omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, minerals like potassium, calcium and iron. It has high protein content so it is perfect for balancing fruit or vegetable smoothies.

Ginger is a good source of vitamins and minerals. It is considered a medicinal plant in alternative medicine. It’s said to have beneficial effects on digestion, respiratory system and nausea, but its recommended daily amount is between 3 and 10 g. It has a nice lemony, but very sharp taste. When grated and used with fiber it will gradually become even sharper. If you want milder taste, use squeezed (grated) ginger juice only.

IMG_2857_2

Ingredients:

  • 1 carrot
  • 1 beet (raw or cooked)
  • 100 g strawberries
  • 1 orange
  • juice of 1/2 lemon
  • 2 tsp grated ginger
  • 2 Tbsp chia seed
  • 1 cup green tea

Preparation:

  1. Make 1 cup of green tea and let cool.
  2. Wash and peel all the fruits and vegetables and cut into bigger pieces.
  3. Put all the ingredients into smoothie maker and blend on the highest speed.