Sundried tomatoes and black olives bread

Today, finally feeling better from my enteritis, I decided that, should I become ill again, I would at least have some tasty bread to eat.

So, inspired by my sister's recipe, I put my bread machine to work, and ended up with a black-speckled, orange-y, and tall loaf of bread that smelled so good I could not wait for it to be out of the machine!

1 1/4 cup water
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
3 2/3 cup unbleached white flour
1 1/2 yeast
5 sundried tomatoes preserved in oil
1 tsp, each, oregano and basil
Addition: 1/2 cup chopped, pitted olives

Cycle: French (or Basic) 

Miso-Maple-Ginger marinated salmon

Quick dinner idea, for a meal ready in 30 minutes flat.

1. Ask spouse to thaw salmon during the afternoon (that is, if spouse is at home, and if you forgot to take the salmon out of the freezer in the morning).

2. When you come home, mix 2 tbsp. light miso, 4 tbsp. maple syrup and a generous tablespoon of finely grated ginger. Add the salmon portions and let marinate for about 20 minutes.

3. While the salmon marinates, clean spinach and place them in steamer.

3. Light up the gril and, when it is very hot, start cooking the salmon. Meanwhile, steam the spinach. Everything should be ready about at the same time.

Enjoy! (and we did!)

Notes to self:
1. That makes a lot of marinade - enough for probably 6 portions.
2. The marinade is quite sweet, almost candy-like - next time, I'll use a bit less of maple syrup.
3. Leftover cooked salmon is great in a green salad dressed with a lemon-olive oil vinaigrette. 

Easy, summery salads

With the heat wave - and smog alerts - we had last week, salads were in order.

Here are two of the ones we enjoyed... Quantities are to taste.

Green salad with apples and walnuts



Lettuce, torn in bite-size pieces
Green apples
Thinly sliced onion
Thinly sliced celery
Roasted walnuts

Vinaigrette:
Walnut oil
Apple cider vinegar
Dijon mustard
Salt, pepper

Avocado-Apple salad



Avocado
Granny Smith apple
Thinly sliced onion
Zereshk (a Persian dried, very tart fruit - can be replaced by cranberries)
Fresh tarragon
Olive oil
Apple cider vinegar
Salt, pepper

Fruity crêpes

 
A great kick-off to our weekend...

The crêpes recipe is from Nigella (125 g flour, 1 egg, 300 ml milk, 15-30 g melted butter).

To make it fun, and to complement the vanilla flavour of the crêpes (I used vanilla soy milk), I spread vanilla yogurt on the crêpes, before adding a mix of chopped strawberries, kiwis and pears, rolling the crêpes, and garnishing with the leftover vanilla yogurt (it was just for M. and I), and drizzling with maple syrup.

This is company-worthy... want to come over for brunch? ;-)

  

Muffin-size Finnish apple pancake

This recipe is taken form Dieticians of Canada's Cook Great Food book.

I had a lot of fun making it this morning, which gave me the chance to try my new silicone muffin pan - which I love, by the way.

The recipe can be found on my French blog, Pâté chinois et Cie, at Pâté chinois et Cie.: Douceurs du dimanche matin - Flans aux pommes
arrosés de sirop d'érable

Fish filet sandwich

I made this for lunch today, and I'm really glad that my stop over at the supermarket on my way home ended up with healthy food, rather than all the junk I'm prone to buy when I'm there and I'm hungry.

I used Pita Break rye pitas, wich I garnished with a filet of sole breaded with a mixture of equal parts Engevita yeast and wheat germ, then cooked in a non-stick pan, and topped my sandwich with arugula and sundried tomatoes. I even created 'healthy mayo' by mixing plain yogurt, grainy mustard and chopped capers.

All in all, my lunch was very healthy. Too bad for M., who was not hungry. He missed a darn good sandwich! 

Happy Birthday M!

Here is what he woke up to this morning... lucky birthday boy!

His birthday breakfast menu consisted of:

Mimosas
Whole grain toast with homemade hazelnut spread and peanut butter
Mango
Coffee

His gifts? A cookbook on pasta and a pasta maker... A real surprise (and now he looks forward to making ravioli)!