Eggies in a basket revisited!

This is a version of the English recipe for eggs in the basket. Makes perfect breakfast or lunch at work :)

Time you'll need to make this: 15 minutes
Difficulty level: easy!



Ingredients (for 2 eggies):

- 2 eggs
- 2 slices of brown bread
- 2 slices of ham
- olive oil
- vegetable butter
- salt
- pepper
- oregano
- veggies of your choice as sides, here I picked baby spinach


How to cook it:

1. Cut out circular (or any other shape you prefer) holes in the middle of the bread slices.
2. Heat a bit of olive oil (enough to cover half the bottom of a small pan) and throw in the slices when the oil is hot to toast them a bit, for a minute.
3. Crash the eggs inside the holes. Season with salt and pepper. Let them fry on medium heat, and turn them to fry on the other side as well (this might get a bit messy, but it's okay, it all goes down the stomach! You're not going for a beauty contest, you're making a quick meal!). Don't forget to season the other side!
4. When the eggs are nearly ready, add a rich spoon of vegetable butter and fry them in the butter for another minute or two, flipping to both sides.
5. Remove your eggies in a basket, season with oregano and add the slices of ham in between the two breads. Keep the bread "lids" aside to dip in the egg yolk as you nom

Princesstårta // Princess cake

Swedish classic. Easy to make. Soft & light, one delicious cake for any celebration.
Perfect for tea time even with a queen. :)
''Princessstårtas week is in September 20 to 26. The original recipe was made in the 30's in teacher's Jenny Åkerström home, where princesses Margaretha, Märtha and Astrid were students.''

Ingredients:

Bottom:

• 4 eggs
• 2 dl sugar
• 1 dl flour
• 1 dl potato flour
• 2 coffee spoons baking powder

Pasta with cream, bacon and mushrooms

The other day, we decided to make vegetarian pasta with Henrik. :) Sweden gives a lot of options when it comes to vegan and vegetarian food, and trying to replace animal products whenever possible for the sake of sustainability and animal welfare has become important to me. I use foods from four brands: Oatly, Hälsans Kök, Quorn and Astrid och Aporna. For this recipe, I used cooking "cream" from Oatly, which was incredibly delicious and tasted like a rich cooking cream. For bacon, I used Hälsans Kök bacon pieces, which feels more like ham, and has amazing texture and taste. I don't exaggerate, as I am quite demanding with the taste of what I eat! :D

If you want to cook it using animal products, use cooking cream and ham or bacon of your choice in the same manner used in the recipe :)

Time you'll need to make this: 30 minutes
Difficulty level: easy

Ingredients (for 2 portions):

- half a packet of pasta of your choice (we mixed gnocchi and penne, and I always prefer whole wheat)
- 2 packets of Oatly cooking cream
- 2 small cans of mushrooms, or fresh mushrooms, if you'd prefer
- 1 packet of Hälsans Kök bacon, or 500g ham or bacon of your preference
- olive oil
- half a big yellow onion
- one veggie broth
- salt
- black pepper
- oregano
- one glass of rosé wine

Layered salmon and veggies

Another version of salmon with veggies, for all the lovers of fish and vegetables out there! :D With dressing by Henrik :)

Time you'll need to make this: 40 minutes
Difficulty level: easy

Ingredients (for 2 portions):

- 4 salmon fillets
- 500g baby spinach
- 2 tomatoes
- 300g frozen veggies (I picked green peas and carrots)
- olive oil
- salt
- lemon pepper
- oregano
- some fresh dill
- mayo
- lemon juice

Fried rice

Mmmmmm, fried rice with chicken, tuna or plain veggies! Using just veggies, or canned tuna, you reduce the cooking time significantly, from 1,5h to 30 minutes :)

Time you'll need to make this: 1,5h
Difficulty level: easy

Ingredients (for 2-3 portions):

- 300g chicken leg fillets or 2 cans of tuna or a packet of wok veggies of your preference
- basmati rice (use the portions indicated on the box)
- one small bowl of frozen veggie mix with corn, green peas and red pepper
- 3 eggs
- olive oil
- 4 small yellow onions, or 1 big
- salt
- black pepper
- grill mix spices
- nutmeg, ground
- curry powder
- 1 broth cube, either chicken, veggie or fish, depending your main ingredient

Drunken chicken

I tried making chicken with a tomato and red wine sauce, and it turned out pretty darn tasty, so here you go :D You can use what you like for sides, in this case I added some quickly made mashed potatoes, green peas and carrots. Fits nicely also
with fried or baked potatoes or rice!

Time you'll need to make this: 1h & 15 minutes
Difficulty level: easy

Ingredients (for 2 portions):

- 2 chicken breast fillets
- olive oil
- dried thyme
- half a packet of tomato sauce
- powdered or fresh onion and garlic (depending how strong you want their flavor to be)
- salt
- black pepper
- powdered paprika mild
- 1 chicken broth cube
- 3-4 shots of red wine

Thyme lime chicken

Here's a simple and quick recipe for chicken with potatoes. Had some leftover lime juice and thought I should see how it mixes with chicken :)

Time you'll need to make this: 1h & 15 minutes
Difficulty level: easy

Ingredients (for 2 portions):

- 2 chicken breast fillets
- 10 medium-sized potatoes
- one cup lime juice
- salt
- black pepper
- dried thyme
- olive oil
- powdered garlic

Superfast pizza

I had spare ingredients at home so I said, what the hell? Let's combine them and and make a quick pizza! This is the result! :D

Time you'll need to make this: 15-20 minutes
Difficulty level: easy

Ingredients (for 1 pizza):
- 1 large slice of whole wheat pita bread (or 2 medium slices, you'll be making 2 small pizzas). I used Polarbröd Havretrippel, turned out very tasty, plus pre-sliced ;)
- half a carton of tomato sauce
- 2 cloves of garlic
- powdered onion
- mild paprika
- black pepper
- olive oil
- oregano
- half a veggie broth cube
- melting cheese of your preference (1 packet should be enough, depends how cheesy you want your pizza)
- topping of your preference - I used soy bacon, but you can add anything you like, peppers, mushrooms, bacon, ham, olives, anything you use on a regular pizza

Cheesy spinach toast

I tried this combination for a quick sandwich that goes well as a snack or a light dinner, and it turned out so damn good :D So here you go:

Time you'll need to make this: 10 minutes
Difficulty level: easy

Ingredients (for 2 toasts or one big):
- 2 slices of pita bread or  (I used the swedish polarkaka - if you're using the classical greek, pick 4 slices)
- mayo (1-2 spoons)
- melting cheese of your preference
- powdered onion
- oregano
- 10 cherry tomatoes
- 100g spinach

Oven potatoes - overall

So I decided to re-write the recipe that I had called "baked potato bites", as this is currently the official and only way I ever make "fried" potatoes - I make them in the oven. Let me make a statement here: I love potatoes. No, I LOVE POTATOES. That's more like it. I make them mashed, boiled, cooked in a sauce, in the oven the traditional way (ie with some water, olive oil and spices, so that they get cooked), and I love, love, love fried potatoes.

But I hate, hate, hate the tons of oil needed to adequately fry potatoes, and I don't own and never want to own a deep fryer. I have posted several recipes with potatoes "fried" in the oven, with lots of different ingredients (peppers, ham, plain etc), but here I'll just write the basic recipe to get really nice potatoes made in the oven and, in time, I'll add all the different spice mixes that I use.

An appropriate photo will be uploaded soon. I had these potatoes today with salmon and spinach, but they disappeared before the thought of writing this hit me :D

Time you'll need to make this: 50 minutes
Difficulty level: easy

Ingredients (for 2 portions):
- 12 small potatoes
- olive oil
- salt

Currrrrrry mustard chicken bites

Here's a chicken with curry version I came up with today! Very fast and easy to do. :) Serve preferably with fresh salad mix, or rice!

Time you'll need to make this: 50 minutes
Difficulty level: easy

Ingredients (for 2 portions):
- 2 chicken  breast fillets
- lemon juice (1 lemon)
- dijon mustard
- salt
- curry powder
- lemon pepper
- powdered onion or half a fresh onion (I use powdered cause it's softer for my stomach)
- whole cumin seeds
- olive oil
- fresh salad mix of your preference

Creamy salmon

Inspired by Maja's very tasty recipe for salmon, I tried to make something similar just with a different sauce, following an idea on the Knorr fish broth carton. Simple as hell, but I promise you it's tasty as hell too!

Time you'll need to make this: 45 minutes
Difficulty level: easy

Ingredients (for 2 portions):
- 2 pieces of salmon fillet
- 8-10 small potatoes
- half a packet of frozen veggie mix (I used corn, red pepper and peas)
- 1 carton (2,5dl) of cooking cream (I use 15% fat)
- 1 fish broth cube
- olive oil
- lemon juice (one lemon)

White tuna sauce

You can use this sauce to make some really yummy pasta! Fits nicely with pasta like penne or fusilli.

Time you'll need to make this: 20 minutes
Difficulty level: easy

Ingredients (for 2 portions):
- half a packet of pasta
- 1-2 cans of tuna
- olive oil
- lemon pepper (or plain pepper, if you don't have any)
- salt
- dried parsley (4-5 spoons)
- 2 big cloves of garlic
- lemon juice (half a lemon)
- cooking cream (1-2 cartons, depending how saucy you want your pasta to be)
- 1 veggie or fish broth cube

Saucy chicken and beans

I tried an adaptation from a recipe from http://www.kronfagel.se/ that I found on a bag of chicken leg fillets. Smells great, tastes great (for me) and it's kind of a protein bomb :) You can make a longer, more-homemade version if you don't want to use any canned products, which I refer to right after the recipe.

Time you'll need to make this: 60 minutes
Difficulty level: easy

Ingredients (for 2 portions):
- 400gr chicken leg fillet
- 1 can of white beans in tomato sauce
- 1 cup of crushed tomatoes
- 1 chicken broth cube
- olive oil
- grill spices mix
- salt
- pepper
- powdered garlic
- powdered onion
- dried thyme

Pita souvlaki

Before I moved to Sweden, I already knew that I would not be able to find a specific pita wrap we make in Greece, called "pita souvlaki", or "souvlaki", depending on where you live in Greece. Other countries seem to offer the alternatives of "gyro" and "gyro wraps" or "kebab" or plain souvlaki without the pita. As by request of all friends abroad who have visited Greece and loved pita souvlaki as much as Greeks do, and because I can't live without this, here is my recipe for pita souvlaki!

Time you'll need to make this: 90-120min
Difficulty level: easy


Ingredients (for 2 wraps):

-2 slices of pita bread - in Sweden, I buy something very similar called "Polarkaka Original". You will most certainly be able to find pita bread (or something very close to it) at a big store. I will post a recipe for homemade pita bread in the future, once I get to experiment on it.
- 2-3 chicken leg fillets. Alternatively, pork meat or soy meat (vegetarian version) can be used.
- one plate of any type of potatoes you fancy - for this time, I used frozen, chopped potatoes and had them done in the oven, because pita souvlaki is supposed to be a "fast food", and you shouldn't need to spend too much time preparing it, but I would recommend homemade potatoes, if you have the time to do it. You can use this recipe of baked potatoes, but remove the skin and cut them longer and thinner instead.
- salt
- pepper
- grill spices mix
- powdered garlic
- oregano
- olive oil
- mustard
- mayo (not light, just this once!)
- curry
- one tomato (optional)
- one onion (red or yellow, according to your preference, optional)
- baking sheets (4)

Kladdkaka

I decided to try a Swedish dessert after being prompted by Henrik, so here is my own version of the famous "kladdkaka". I followed the wonderful recipe from Susanne's recepten.se, and made some changes to fit my own tastes, or correct some mistakes throughout the making. Henrik, being a fan of the dessert, verified that it was very tasty, so I trust his opinion! Here's how it was done:

Time you'll need to make this: 40-60 minutes
Difficulty level: easy

Ingredients (for 6 small portions):
- 2 medium sized eggs
- 100g butter (I use vegetable butter) - and if you feel it's not enough while you make the cake, have some olive oil aside (4-5 spoons), it works great as a substitute
- 2,5dl brown sugar (I would go for 2dl, even)
- 1 spoon vanilla sugar
- 3 spoons cocoa powder
- 2dl all-purpose flour
- 1 packet of whipped or double cream
- 1 packet of frozen raspberries
- 1 spoon of powdered sugar

You will need a cake form - as it is suggested in Susanne's recipe, it should be about 20cm in diameter. I only had a round one with a hole in the middle available (used most often for other sorts of cakes), but I baked it there without an issue.
I also found it necessary to have an electrical mixer, but I suppose you can manage it with mixing it yourself, and get some good arm exercise at the same time :D

Tuna spread sandwich

Of all the fish spreads, I love tuna the most. Makes great sandwiches or wraps for lunch, light dinner or a snack during the day or at work. This is a really quick tuna spread, where you use canned tuna. I recommend the tuna in water, so that you can add your own, healthier oil in the mix instead. You can add veggies of your preference, but I think lettuce and cucumber are the best choices with tuna!

Time you'll need to make this: 10 minutes
Difficulty level: easy

Ingredients (for 2 sandwiches):

-2 whole wheat, flat pita breads
- 1 can of tuna in water
- 2-3 spoons of olive oil
- salt
- pepper
- oregano
- powdered garlic
- 2 big spoons of mayo light
- 3-4 lettuce leaves
- 1 cucumber, sliced
- 1 boiled egg (optional)

Lentilballs - revised!

Recipe updated after I tried a different mix! Also, reduced cooking time by 30 minutes, and requires no frying!

If you're looking for another way to cook the very nutritious lentils, are vegetarian or simply want to try a healthy alternative to meatballs, then you've reached the right recipe :D I had seen mentions of "lentil meatballs" on the Internet, but never tried them. As usual, I don't follow recipes as they are, so I made my own version, which turned out very good (for my tastes, at least). This needs some time to make, so make it on a day that you have spare time. I promise it's worth the try!

Time you'll need to make this: 1 hour
Difficulty level: medium

Ingredients (for 16 lentilballs):

- brown lentils (half a packet)
- salt
- 3 laurel leaves
- 3 cloves of garlic
- olive oil
- tomato juice (half a packet)
- black pepper
- veggie broth (1 cube)
- oregano
- breadcrumbs (2-3 spoons)
- ground parmesan (optional)
- melting cheese (optional - I use gouda light) - 4 slices, cut in pieces of 4 each
- water

Sponge cake with chocolate buttercream {Dobos torta}

''Dobos torte or Dobosh, a Hungarian sponge cake layered with chocolate buttercream and topped with caramel was invented by the famous Hungarian confectioner Jozsef C. Dobos in 1884, who aimed to create a cake that would last longer than other pastries in an age when cooling techniques were limited.'' Source-Wikipedia

Kinder cake (the best cake ever) :)

This is one of my all time favorite cakes. Easy to make, rich in taste, creamy and really nice. Not too sweet. Perfect combinations of ingredients. I changed original recipe that I got from my mom and adapted it very well to my taste :) and that means basically less butter, less sugar.
The cake is big, 12 pieces at least. Baked in 26 cm cake mold.