Weekend and icecream

I love to get out from the city for the weekends and spend a nice and quiet time with friends and family somewhere outside. I really love the city, but my love for rural places is bigger.

So good friends of ours just bought a boat and invited us to share their first trip on it, yay! It was really cool. We brought this adorable dog with us, Koko. Poor dog....he was so afraid and lost during the whole trip. Here he is:

Look at his huge eyes (you can see the fear in there)

And me:

And my husband, Aleks:

If you are still here, I'd like to share not only the weekend pictures but also the one of the best ice cream recipes I've ever tried. Its not just super tasty, it's extremely quick. There is a downside though: to wash the blender...it sooo not my thing. I'm totally Ok with washing dishes, but not the blender. However in this case, it's totally worth it.

Banana Ice cream:

-4 ripe bananas, chopped and frozen

So the first step of this super complicated recipe would be to peel the bananas, cut and freeze it for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Once it's frozen (the next step) put it in the blender until you have a creamy and silky consistency. It takes about 3-4 minutes depending on the blender.

Add your favorite fruits or flavors. DONE!

I added frozen raspberries to one and cacao powder with hazelnuts to another one.And that's basically it. No ice cream machine, no huge list of ingredients needed, paradise.

Snack choice: Granola

Granola was on my to do list for a pretty long time. Everyone cooks it. Everyone raves about it. Everyone says it's very easy to make. OF COURSE I kept it in mind and was dying to try to make my own.

And finally I made my first batch of granola! Yay!
Now I can't stop eating it. Aside of the fact that it is homemade and obviously healthy, it is also crunchy, sweet, salty, chewy, yummy....in one word: addicting.

There are tons of homemade granola recipes. You can adjust them to your liking.
Here is how it works:
oats, nuts, dry fruits, shredded coconut (dry ingredients)  + oil, sweetener like honey or agave, almond butter or PB and water (wet ingredients) -> bake -> do not touch and let it cool completely =  nom nom nom!
I like my granola chewy and refrigerated.

 I keep experimenting so I can find my perfect granola formula.
You can add fig jam for sweetness, or substitute honey with maple syrup if you like it really sweet.

Homemade Granola:
Dry ingredients:
1/2 cup oat flour (blend oats in the blender until you get flour consistency)
1 1/2  cup oats
1 1/2 cup nuts (almonds, pecans, walnuts, cashews, you pick) sliced or crushed
2 cups dry fruits (apricots, cranberries, raisins, apples, pineapple, etc)
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chia seeds (optional)
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Wet ingredients:
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup almond butter
4 tbsp raw honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp water

Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a big bowl mix all dry ingredients.
In a small saucepan melt coconut oil, butter, honey and vanilla together. Make sure it is all well combined and melted. You don't need to boil it.
Pour wet ingredients over the bowl with dry mixture. Mix it all together.
Line a baking sheet with a parchment paper and spread your future granola on it.
Bake 25-30 minutes, until nice golden color.
Let it cool completely before cutting into bars.
You can refrigerate them, or just keep it in your snack jar, it wont last long anyway :-)

Baked berries with banana

You might have already noticed that I am a fan of different sorts of "healthy" or at least "not that bad for you" desserts. Which is kind of ridiculous because we all know that to make a really good cake, cookies, or desserts, most of the time, you have to use real ingredients: sugar, white flour, full fat cream, good butter and so on.
No substitutions, precise measuring, attention and patience.

I hope one day I'll get to that point: I will eat very little, but very real and buttery desserts.
Meanwhile, I am proposing for you to enjoy this warm and crispy fall dessert (no sugar, etc, etc).  It is sour-sweet with crunchy notes and very comforting.
The best way to enjoy this dessert is sitting on the deck (even if it is an imaginary one) covering in your favourite blanket (it is cold and might be even rainy outside) and drinking hot tea. That's my scenario, of course yours might be completely different (but let's just say that hot Miami beach won't be the best option here, as the dessert is actually warm).

Original source HERE. I made few little adjustments though.
Baked berries with banana:
1 cup any fresh of frozen berries (you will get more syrupy result if using frozen berries)
3 ripe bananas, sliced to rounds
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp honey (use the raw honey, its the healthiest one)
1 cup shredded no sugar added coconut (I used 1/2 coconut flakes and 1/2 regular shredded coconut)
1 1/2 cup any nuts and seeds you'd like (walnuts, almonds, pecans, sunflower seeds, etc)
1 tbsp chia seeds
1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
Place berries and bananas in a baking dish.Sprinkle with the cinnamon.
In a saucepan on a very low heat melt the coconut oil. Add honey. Do not let it boil. Add nuts and seeds, shredded coconut, vanilla (if using). Stir for approx. 3-4 minutes.
Place the honey and nuts mixture on top of the bananas. Bake for 25-30 minutes until nicely golden color.

The author of the original recipe suggests to serve it with whipped coconut cream on top, which you also can find on her website. I didn't add anything to this dessert, as it felt completed by itself.  

Rich Dark and Nutty Brownies

If you are a fan of a dark chocolate you  will probably adore these  brownies.
I am more on the milk chocolate side though, but I felt like dark chocolate one day (you know...there are some days when you know particularly what you want. Precisely.  Like: Celery and Hummus today! Or a Brie day!).
So few days ago was a dark bitter chocolate day.

I found the ingredients pretty cool: no white flour, sugar, 5 eggs though...(but you can substitute some with egg whites, as it says in the comments), and no chocolate (good quality unsweetened cacao powder instead)

The texture and consistency of this brownies was rich, like a cake, moisturized enough,  not wet as the original source claims. Very-very-very dark chocolate  flavour with the  little walnut bits.

I used the honey as a sweetener instead of maple syrup. I also tend to add half less than it says in the recipe. So I ended up with really not sweet, but bitter chocolate taste.  And it wasn't bad at all!
Unlike my husband's statement, which is: "All desserts should be sweet".  I think my lovely husband just can't accept the fact that his wife is a genius in the kitchen (hahaha) and creates something genuinely new (or dumb).
So to make sure I am right, I brought my brownies to work, to ask for my boss's opinion and (not surprisingly at all) he fully agreed with me regarding the nice and rich taste of this dessert.

For the topping I used chilled nonfat Greek yogurt, which I gently mixed with vanilla. And fresh berries on top.
After you refrigerate brownies,  the whole thing becomes even better!

This is the gluten-free, sugar-free recipe click here. I didn't make a lot of changes (just added crushed walnuts), so please reference to the recipe in the original source.

I REALLY hope you enjoy these brownies! But make sure that you make them on you Dark Chocolate Day! :-) 

Cottage cheese cookies

These cookies are a healthy option for a snack or even a dessert. They are not too sweet (however you can adjust the sweetness to your taste), thus it would be a perfect company to your afternoon tea.
These lovely cookies won't leave the "heavy" aftertaste in your stomach, which is pretty common after you had a piece of cake, for example.

Cottage cheese cookies
makes approx. 35 cookies

3.5 cups of non watery cottage cheese ( I used 3 blocks of farmer's cheese)
2 ripe bananas (add more if you like your dessert sweet)
1 tsp of vanilla
lemon zest from 1/2 lemon

1/2 cup any nuts you have. I had walnuts, pecans and almonds, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup dried apricots,coarsely chopped (add more if you want it sweet)
4 tbsp of flax/chia seeds
1/2 cup of quick oats, blended into a flour consistency
1 cup shredded coconut (no sugar added)

Optional: 3 tbsp of honey for sweet desserts lovers

Gently mix the cottage cheese with  bananas, vanilla, lemon zest and honey (if using it).

In a different bowl mix all the dry ingredients: oat flour, 1/2 cup of shredded coconut, nuts, flax/chia seeds and apricots.

Combine two mixtures together. Refrigerate for an hour.

Once ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F. Place a parchment paper on your baking sheet.

Using an ice cream spoon, scoop the cottage cheese mixture and form  cute little balls, dip each of them in the rest of the shredded coconut, and bake for 10 minutes.

Let it cool and refrigerate before serving.

Mascarpone & Ricotta Cake

On Mother's day I decided to bring something sweet, while visiting my parents in law.
This cake recipe was chosen at the last minute (strike one!). If you decide to make it, make sure you have at least half the day, or ideally a day in advance, for the cake to become its best shape and taste.

Here is the source I originally saw the recipe Click here Seems pretty easy, right?
However with my intention to make simple things super complicated, I wasn't even sure If I should bring it to the guests at the end.
My strike two was that being in rush or distracted I didn't pay enough attention to the ingredient list. I'm not sure if that would make any difference, but I add a regular heavy cream (light version) instead of heavy whipping cream, which I suppose was meant to be in this recipe. Anyway, I added the regular cream (which wasn't whipped at all, it looked like a milk).

Also, knowing the cake may melt, I added a gelatin to keep it in a shape. As has happened a few times, I brought a cake which looked like a melted ice cream with fruits (long story).

So, if you decide to make this cake after all,  here is the recipe. It's actually very easy to make and it has this silky creamy texture, which is really good!

Mascarpone & Ricotta Cake
-4 cups of ricotta cheese (I used part skim)
-2,5 cups mascarpone
-4 tbsp raw honey
-1 package gelatin/ or stripe
-1 cup crushed toasted nuts
-2 tsp vanilla extract
-1,5-2 cups dried fruits (I had prunes, apricots and nectarines)
-dark/shredded chocolate for decoration
-1 tbs orange extract (you can omit it if you don't have it)
-6 tbsp of heavy whipped cream (as I mentioned before I used a regular heavy cream, which wasn't whipped)
-sugar added shredded coconut for decoration
-cheesecloth

First of all take a damp cheesecloth and put in on the cake pan so you can cover the whole cake once its ready.

Mix mascarpone and ricotta cheese with blender, add honey. Make sure the cheese has a smooth texture, we do not need any lumps.
In a meantime, in the separate bowl prepare the gelatin according to the instructions on the package. Set aside.

And here it is: Whip the cream! If you are lucky enough and your cream is whipped (to tell you the truth I'm not even sure if it should be whipped..) add vanilla, orange extract, nuts and dried fruits to it.

Mix cheese with the rest of ingredients. Gently put it in a cake pan. Decorate with chocolate and shredded coconut. Cover with cheesecloth.Let it refrigerate at least 5 hours or more.

The moral of the story: learn how to whip the cream, pay more attention to the ingredients.

Healthy cookies

Quick, easy, healthy and yummy!

Here is the trick: I didn't add sugar, because bananas and dry fruits are sweet enough. Instead of flour we have oats here.

Oatmeal cookies:
-2 ripe bananas

-1 cup uncooked oats

-1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

-1/4 cup chopped toasted walnuts and almonds (or any other nuts you have)

-1/4 cup chopped dry apricots

- 1/3 cup dry cranberries (no sugar added)

-1tbsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Mash bananas with a fork. Add oats and other ingredients (well...I should have written: combine all ingredients in a bowl, to make it simple).

Place a parchment paper on a cookie sheet.

Make little balls from the "dough", you can use an icecream spoon.

Bake your cookies for about 15-18 minutes. Let it cool before serving.

Enjoy with a morning coffee for breakfast and snacks during the day!

Идеальный и быстрый дессерт для себя любимой

Как я уже упоминала раньше, в нашей семье не едят сахар так же, как и  белую муку и сливочное масло. Есть очень много полезных заменителей этих продуктов.

Но если по чесноку, то я должна признаться, что миллиардное колличество моих искренних попыток сделать "полезную" замену неполезным ингредиентам увенчались большим провалом  (например мои первые almond cookies получились красивыми только на вид, так как в них небыло сахара ни а каком виде).
И вообще я считаю, что настоящий добротный дессерт или выпечка от, например французских, кондитеров  не может быть без хорошего жирного масла или обычной муки, как не изощряйся. Поэтому я нашла временный выход- не есть дессерты :-)

А пока я не ем дессерты (или по крайней мере делаю вид), я нашла идеальный для себя вариант дессерта- фруктовый салат. Как оригинильно!- подумаете вы. Мой ответ- зато полезно. Хотя так как  я ем его почти что ведрами,то врятли.
Рецепт очень прост: режете все свежие фрукты,которые есть в наличие в бооооольшой тазик. Лично я не люблю очень сладкое, поэтому смешиваю сладкие фрукты с кислыми,чтоб присутствовал  некий быланс. Обязательно добавляю семена чиа и льна(много), 1-2 столовых ложки обезжиренного греческого йогутра без всяких добавок (самый обычный), немного орешек,которые можно заблаговременно припечь в духовке и готово!
Замечательный полезный перекус во время просмотра любимых теле-передач.