Pumpkin soup

The Fall is right around the corner and they have started selling pumpkins in the grocery store. The other day I found a pumpkin that was cut into four pieces which  made a perfect piece for me to bring home and make this deliciouse soup. Just look at the colour!!!

1,3 lb/ 600 g pumpkin
0,50 lb/ 250 g peeled potatoes
3-4 gloves of garlic
1 onion, chopped
2 tbsp oil
2 tsp curry
1 tbsp fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 big tomato, chopped in dices
2 1/2 cup/ 1/2 l vegetable broth

lime juice
salt and pepper
chives

• Peel and chop the pumpkin and potatoes in small dices. Chop garlic and onion.
• Heat 2 tbsp of oil (your choice) in a larger saucepan, gently cook onion and garlic with the curry for a couple of minuttes. Then add potatoes, pumpkin, ginger and tomato and gently cook them another five minuttes.
• Poure the vegetable stock into the pan and lett it simmer for  about  30 minuttes.
• Pureè stock and vegetables with a hand blender.
• Taste the soup with lemon juice, salt and pepper and decorate with chives for a nice green touch.

Serve it with home made bread.

Enjoy!

 

A new school year has started and a lot of lunch boxes to make - were do  I go for inspiration to make my lunch box more exciting and not borring?. To make my lunch box exciting with so many restrictions that my diagnose gives is a every day challenge. A month ago a new challenge was
thrown at me, I am now also lactose intolerant, this makes my repertoire even smaller.
 

On a nice sunny day at the lake I was laying on the pier and reading magazine and I found an article about a book that main purpose are to give parents new inspiration and ideas for the kids lunch boxes.

I fell in love with the book right away (I  must admit that I am a book lover, I have more books than I can count, especial cook books ) I decided that this is a book I need to have. I dont have any kids yet, but I thought that this book can give me some inspiration. A couple of days later I

,began my quest for the book, I went to all the books stores close in my visinity without any luck (I dont like to ask for help, so I went home empty handed), when I got home  I made some research on the internet and found out that the book was not  out in the stores yet, the release date was 3 weeks away. So the "long" and cruel wait started.

 

 

In the  mean time I began my search for the perfect lunch box. The kids at work have had a lot of fun lunck boxes from a Norwegian designer that is called Blafre, I have always loved these boxes because of the fun designe, but I have never wanted one myself. Mostly because they are kind of "childish" as they main target are children. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I wanted one myself, beause they remind me of my childhood and they room a lot of small boxes and food. I bought this retro style with colours that reminden me of my Old Daycare center I went to in the 80s.

 

 

 

 

I bought these small boxes when on holiday this Summer, they are perfect for left overs from dinner, fruit, veggies and other good food.

 

Because of my diet I bake all my bread and rolls myself, I had 

 just made a batch of fresh rolls the other night that  I cut in half and freeze. Every morning while in the shower I heat them in the oven. This way I have fresh rolls every day. I just HATE stale bread/rolls.

 

I just love my little birdie that eats the little red berries.

When pigs fly!

How to give a lady in her Golden years a good laugh........

Tonight after finishing a card for a Wedding  I am attending in the Berkshires, MA next weekend I had so much inspiration left so  I made this fun card. This fun "when pigs fly" card is for one of my favorit persons in the States, even in the whole wide world.

I especially liked this pattern since it reminded me of a bread company with yummy bread in The US that I have enjoyed on numerous occasions with this great great great person! So it acctually reminded me of her and I know she will get a good laugh when she gets this card when I have left  after a 10 days stay at her house in Boston.

This is the final result. Simple, but fun! Love you my dearest Auntie!

Homemade tomato soup with chicken

It is a long time since I made this soup so this was not planed other than I bought the tomato juice in the store with this soup in mind. This soup is low on fat, easy and tasty. The base of this soup is chicken broth, tomato juice, chicken, kidney beans, onion and garlic. Today I added beets, chili and basil leaves. Other ingredients I use can be corn, red pepper, zucchini and other vegetables I have in my kithcen.

1 red or yellow onion
2 garlic cloves
4 cups/1 liter chicken or vegetable broth
2 cups/5 dl tomato juice
1 can  kidney beans
1 chicken breast filet in thin slices

1 beet cut in cubes
1/2 chili with seeds
some basil leaves

Have the broth and tomato juice in a large casserole and let it heat up while cutting the other ingredienses. Add the onion and garlic and other veggies and let it boil for 5 minutes. For the last 5 minutes add chicken and kidney beans. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve this with white bread or pasta like macaroni

Enjoy!

Fat redused basil pesto

 

 I LOVE pesto, I used too use it to every thing, with salmon, pork, chicken, pasta, on soup bread, pita, ON burgers, IN burgers and on my sandwiches. After I started on the diet, store bought pesto was banned from my kitchen. For the last three years I have tride to make the perfect pesto with as little parmesan, pine nuts and oil ( I use MCT oil, which my body can break down without turning it in to poisen) as possible, but I have never been able to make it as I want it. Now I have come up with a pesto that is okey, you get used to make sacrifices on taste when you have to follow a strict diet as I have to, only 6-10 g fat a day. Off course the pesto from the store or the one Jamie Oliver makes taste fantastic, but they use like ten times the amount of parmesan, pine nuts and olive oil as I do.
So today I will share my "perfect" basil pesto:

0,10 oz pine nuts (3 g)

0,17 oz parmesan cheese (5 g)

1/2 clove of garlic

2 cups basil leaves (4dl)

1 tbsp MCT oil (use the oil your diet allows)

1/2 tbsp lemon juice (just to get the pesto more moist)

 

Lightly toast the pine nuts to get the nice creamy taste rather than a nutty taste when you toast them until they are brown.

 

 Then use a morter to ground the garlic, parmesan and pine nuts.

When this nice mix of great flavoures are ready, put it in a larger mixing bowl together with the basil and the oil.  Use a electric blender to to mince it all toghether or use a food processor and puls it all together.
Look at this nice and fresh green colour and the smell of parmesan and basil is just amazing. My mouth is watering as I writte this.

As I wrote  above I use pesto on almost every thing, last night I had pasta and chicken with pesto.
I had some left over and brought it to work the day afer, my co-workers was like hmmmm that smells nice, is it pesto?

 

Enjoy!

Fat free muffins with berries

I have spend a lot of time in my kithcen trying to find a good recipe on fluffy and moist muffins. A couple of weeks ago a god friend of mine brought a recipe of low fat muffins with a lot of berries. With a few adjustments with what I had in my cupboard they turned out perfect. You can use the kind of berries you have on hand or like the most. We used blueberries, cloudberries and raspberries. Rhubarb is also a delicious fruit to use in muffins.

8 egg whites (or 4 whole eggs)
3/4 cup sugar (1,5 dl)
2 cups flour (4 dl)
1tsp baking powder
1 1/2 - 2 1/2 cup of assorted berries (3-5 dl)
1 1/2 cup of fat free yoghurt with vanilla (3 dl)

Sift together the flour and baking powder in one bowl and mix the berries and yoghurt in another while you use an electric mixer to beat the egg whites and suger until it is light and fluffy.  When the egg whites and the suger are fluffy, gently fold in the flour mix and the berry mix before you spoon the batter in a  muffin pan/muffins forms. Fill it up about 2/3.

Heat the oven to 350 F/ 200 C and let it bake for about 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Red wine fondue with my favorite vegetables and fruit

A couple of times a year the five women I work with get together and have an evening with good food and wine and exellent company. A couple of months ago we were sereved red wine fondue with chicken and smoked ham with a great variety of vegetables, salads, cheese and foccacia. This dinner was a relevation for me, I can actually make an adult dish with a little style that is so low in fat that it is ridiculous. The chicken that got this nice dark red/brownish colour after it was cooked in red wine was so tender that you can cut it in two by a faint blow.
This dish can be served with a lot of different vegetables, fruits, bread, both fat free or with fat as everyone can pick and choose what they fancy the most.
So for Christmas one of my whishes was to get a fondue pot, and guess what I got for Christmas from my Mum! Yes, a fondue pot in black iron casting, I was so thrilled. Last weekend I invited a good friend of my over for dinner, red wine fondue.

Here is a list of many things you can serve along with the Chicken, ham, or beef :

Zuccini
tomatoes
cucumber
mushrooms
orange and red onion salad ( oranges slices in thin slices with thin slices of red onions)
pineapple
sugar peas
water chestnuts
asparagus
mini corn
paprika of all colours
whole garlic in a jar (water not oil)
olives
feta cheese

I also served home made foccacia with mct oil. ( I will post the recipe later on)

You will a need a bottle of red wine, not the expensice kind. My colleauge  let the wine boil for a while to be sure the alcohol evaporated, since one of us was pregnant. I know that children might not appreciate the taste of red wine, then you can use vegetable or chicken broth instead.

It is so nice to sit around this fondue pot eating, drinking and having a good time. I think I also will use this  dish when I am alone, since it is perfect for a low fat diet and it is really healthy also.

Enjoy!