Easy, Nutritious, Courful and Delicios Lunch Salad For On The Go

Just like most of you I am also a working girl and even though I love cooking, very often I just do not have the time for it. Eating healthy and delicious is super important for me, but not easy at all, especially during the week. I recently started taking some time to plan my meals for the week and doing some shopping and prepping, but even this sometimes does not help.

However it is now a year and a half that I have not bought lunch at work and I am super proud of it. The lunch options that you have here in my office are quite a few, however non of them is what I am looking for. They are either too salty, too oily, too tasteless or too expensive. Everything past this is pastry, pizza or burgers. Now imagine how all these cons can damage your organism. This is why as soon as I moved in an apartment with a kitchen I started cooking and I have never felt better before. (In fact I am thinking of a whole series about how to eat healthy and delicious at work, but this is whole other story.)

Yesterday for example I was planning to make some beans soup, however I was also craving something bright, fresh and nutritious, like salad. The truth is that a salad will never fill me up for long, so I had to come up with an idea how to help it a bit. And then it hit me! I remember watching youtubers like Clean&Delicious and Vssaurbeauty who had shared some very similar and bright salads, featuring different kinds of beans. This inspired me to take a look at what I have in my fridge. freezer and pantry ant to come up with the most colorful salad ever. It is full of fiber, healthy carbs and fats, also it is packed with protein, which means it is not only super pretty, but also lite and nutritious, so it will keep you full for longer and you will not feel heavy after lunch.

Here is what you will need:

Red beans - canned or just cocked with water

Chick peas - canned or just boiled

Green beans - fresh or frozen

Corn - canned or frozen

Red onion

Red pepper - bell pepper or any other sweet pepper

Parsley

Lemon juice

Salt

Olive oil

 I have not given any quantities as you can use whatever amount of product you like. I used about a cup of each beans, a head of onion and 3 red peppers. The beans and corn need to be cooked in advance. I used canned red beans, frozen corn and green beans that I just steamed for a few minutes, while I was chopping the rest of the items. The chick peas I had cooked and froze in my fridge, so I just added them to the steaming veggies to defrost.

All you need to do is to chop the parsley, onion and pepper, rinse and drain the canned beans, steam a bit the fresh and frozen ones and mix everything together. To them you need to add some salt to taste, some olive oil and the juice of one lemon for brightness and mix well again. This salad is super delicious once you make it, but it is best if you prepare it overnight and eat it the day after.

You can also add to the salad some cherry tomatoes, olives, chicken and even tuna to adjust it to taste. It will be as good even if you add cilantro or dill instead of parsley, vinegar instead of lemon juice and even garlic. It is super versatile and it is easy to be prepared to taste.

As I am blogging from work today, when I was actually having this salad for lunch, I forgot to take a picture of it before eating (oops.. I was so hungry and exited for it) . Luckily I have prepared the salad before, with a little adjustments, like the one on the picture (with tomatoes,no chick peas and no green peas) which is still amazingly delicious. But this also shows how easy you can mix it to taste and with basically whatever you have at home.

Mess Free Energy Crackers

We all love some crunch from time to time and often run to the store for chips or crackers and I make no difference, Especially when it is summer and I would really love to have something salty to compliment my beer or if I am super bored/hungry at work. This is why I decided to develop a recipe that comes together in no time, is mess free, super easy, simple and delicious. So here it is - the energy crackers.

What you will need: 

1 cup of mixed raw seeds - I used sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sunflower seeds and chia seeds. 

1/2 cup of regular white flower

1/2 cup of graham flower

1 tee spoon baking soda

1/2 tee spoon salt

2 tbs, oil

1 tee spoon vinegar

water 

The preparation is super easy. All you need to to is to mix all dry ingredients together first. I used my handy-dandy chopper for this purpose. Once mixed well I added my oil and vinegar and mixed again. As my mixture was a little too dry I started slowly adding water to it just until a ball of dough is formed - for me it was about 50ml. You want the dough to be nice, soft and pliable and not sticky. If it gets sticky just add some more white flower, until you can work with it.

Once it is formed you can divide it into sections so it will be easier to work with, As I said it is a mess free recipe so I rolled my crackers directly on the backing sheet, that I was about to put in the oven, however I decided that I want to make my little snacks into circles so with a glass I cut the shapes and transferred them to another sheet. Then I put them in my preheated oven on 200 C until they slightly changed color and got crispy - lets say - 6 -8 min. But your oven might be different, so just keep an eye on them.

As the dough is so forgiving I didn't have to use any additional flower to roll it and form it. I usually use some non stick black foil that I found in LIDL. The foil is reusable, so when you are done with backing you just wash it with some dish soap and let it dry, so it is nice and ready for the next time. It really saves me so much hassle as it is sooo much easier to use than regular backing paper.

The babies you see above are now ready to enjoy. My favorite way to do it is by spreading some cheese (white, cream, cottage, curds, everything works) on top of them - and devouring. But you can also serve them with some garlic butter, or something sweet like honey or jam -  They are supper filling and do not contain any excessive amounts of salt and preservatives. Everything took me an hour - including the "cleaning" afterwards and I have an amazing snack, that I am totally getting to work tomorrow!

I hope you will give them a try and let me know how you like to eat them.

Simple Lemony Citronade

Summer just stepped in and the temperatures here are so high, I can only think of something refreshing, as drinking a lot of water starts to get boring. So why not create a new blog dedicated to what I love most – cooking, and a super cold and fresh lemonade. It is not too sweet and not too sour and the best part is that you can make hot or warm and enjoy it all year round.

Before I get to my recipe let me please just share a little about myself. Recently I have been on a healthy kick trying to loose weight and look amazing. This is why most of the recipes here will be on the healthier side – low in sugar and sodium, well balanced and made from scratch.

My lemony citronade is actually a lemonade with a little twist because why use only lemons when you can add a whole lot of yummy citrus like lime – oh I looove lime, and oranges. I am using a blender, however this drink can be made without it – right into the pitcher and then in the fridge to chill. Now lets see how it’s made

Ingredients for 1,5 liters (lets say 6 cups)

1 lemon

1 lime

1 orange

1 table spoon of honey (or more, to taste)

mint

brown sugar

2 cups of ice

3 cups of cold water

Let me talk a bit more for the fruits. I will be using both the juice and the zest of all of them because I have grown them myself and I know that mine are not treated with any chemicals. If you do not have organic fruits just use the juice of the ones you have. Mine were super plumped and when I squeezed them I got about a cup of liquid. If you wish you can use more fruit.

In my blender I added the juice and zest of my citrus with my honey and let it blend for a minute until the honey is dissolved. If you are not using a blender just stir it for a while. After that I added my ice, mint and water and blended it all for a minute until the mint and the zest are tiny pieces you can drink, but not completely blended. The mint can be fresh or dry – both work just as well. In the one on the picture I have used dried mint as I was out of fresh. If you do not use a blender just make sure that your mint and zest are not in to too large pieces.

And you have it – super refreshing minty lemonade you can serve over ice or as it is. And you might wonder what to do with the brown sugar. If you do not find it sweet enough the brown sugar is the way to go – you can sprinkle some of it over the top as it goes so well with the lime and mint, reminds me of mojito.

Absolutely Delicious Energy Bites

Trying to live healthy is not easy, especially when it comes to avoiding sweets. Lately I do crave sweets at work and I just cannot handle myself on that chocolate bar whispering my name from the cafe. I have always thought that those energy bars everyone is so hipped about are really not that good. I have tried Roobars and to be honest they are not anything special. I am not a vegan or raw eater, but I loved the idea of a non processed sweet treat packed with energy, healthy fats and deliciousness, that would not spike my blood sugar. And this is what I came up with.

The bites are coming together in no time at all as basically all goes on your chopper or food processor. Here are the ingredients:

A cup of soaked dates

Half cup raw cashews

Half cup roasted almonds

A cup of coconut shreds

A pinch of salt

A tbs.of the water the dates were soaking

+ some coconut shreds and cocoa powder for rolling, ones the bites are done. This step is optional.

I made some of the mixture chocolate by adding cocoa powder and a tbs. espreso to the rest of the ingredients

This is how it goes: You put all of the above goodness in your machine and let it bled until you have the consistency you like. I left my a little bit chunkier as my chopper was having difficulties blending it completely. The consistency you are looking for is playable and sticky, so you can roll it into balls or put it into a pan lined with plastic wrap.

What I did was I put some of the coconut sheds in a plastic bag and add to it the bits, shook them until they are completely covered and transferred them into a container, that I put in the fridge. For the chocolate ones I really wanted to make them really luxurious and covered them with cocoa powder so they remind truffles.

About the salt and coffee – you cannot taste them at all. In such small quantities they are just taste enhancers and nothing actually tastes salty or like coffee.