Lemon and Cucumber Water

When the weather is crazy hot, like these days, and when I do not feel like drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day, which I never feel like doing, the best way to change it is LEMON, or LEMON and CUCUMBER WATER.

My husband makes fun of me drinking water with cucumbers in it, but he says if that makes me to drink more water and keeps my headaches away… well… “suit yourself, honey”   (two things he hates dearly: lemon and cucumber!!!)

Yesterday I added a few raspberries to my jar and the water was even better. 

The water is so refreshing I want to drink it all the time.

This water does not only taste great but it is very good for you, too.

Cucumbers contain vitamin C and caffeic acid, two antioxidant nutrients that can help protect the skin from sun damage. Vitamin C boosts collagen and elastin, which helps keep skin looking vibrant while caffeic acid protects skin cells from UV radiation. Cucumbers also have natural anti-inflammatory properties and help to prevent water retention. Cucumbers also contain silica, an essential component of healthy connective tissue.

Lemon water suppose to help you to kick the coffee habit, but I am not really fond about it, as I DO LOVE COFFEE and do not plan to stop drinking it anytime soon Although, I have noticed that drinking it I do not feel tired at all during the day. 

Lemon water helps boost immune system and control blood pressure. It balanced pH in our bodies, helps with weight loss (helps fight hunger cravings), clears the skin. There is many more benefits of lemon water…

My recipe is very strong in lemon flavor, and only slightly cucumber-ish.

Ingredients:

3 quarts water

2 lemons

1/2 English cucumber

10 raspberries (optional)

Directions:

Wash lemons and cucumber. Slice one lemon and the cucumber. Put them in a container with water. Squeeze the juice from the second lemon and mix it with water.

If you use more fruits you can smash half of them to release the juice and put the purée in the water altogether with the non-smashed fruits. Mix it well.

Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before using.

There is a tremendous amount of recipes for this water on Internet. Some are with mint. Some are with lemon zest. Some are with cucumbers without peels. Some with natural sweeteners… etc.

For me this one works the best. Has the right amount of lemon and cucumber flavor.

I hope you’re having a wonderful day, my friends.

Related articles

• 5 Reasons to Drink Lemon Water (eatdrinkthrive.wordpress.com)
• ~Spa Inspired Cucumber Water~ W (theclassyitgirl.wordpress.com)
• Health benefits of lemon water (naturalhealthezine.com)

Flax-seed meal pizza crust

 

Surprisingly enough, I rally liked this crust. It is such a unique and much healthier substitution for the regular one. 

I will make it again,

however next time I’m going to bake it for a bit longer in order to get rid of that slightly slimy texture of the crust. I am not sure if that can be done, though.

From this recipe I made pizza that had fed me and our daughter for dinner and lunch the next day. Husband wasn’t brave enough to try it. I spread the dough to about 1/2 inch thick and it took about 3/4 of 9×12 inch baking sheet. Next time I’ll try to make it thinner as it raised while baking.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 flax-seed meal

1 tsp. baking powder

2 Tbsp. fresh mint, chopped

2 Tbsp. fresh basil, chopped

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. sugar (or your choice of sweetener)

1/2 cup water

3 eggs, beaten

3 Tbsp. olive oil,

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 F

Mix well flax-seed meal, baking powder, basil, mint, salt, sugar. Add water, beaten eggs and olive oil. Mix util all ingredients are well combined. It will be very watery but that’s ok. Let the mixture rest for 15 minutes.

Spread the batter over a baking sheet layered with parchment paper (do not have to grease it, at least I didn’t and it worked just fine).

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. I baked it for 15 minutes but in my opinion it wasn’t enough. Next time I’ll bake it for 20 minutes.

Add your favorite toppings and bake for additional few minutes until the cheese is melted.

Enjoy.

Polish flat bread with onion, corn, flax-seed meal and fresh herbs / tzw Cebularz Lubelski

While this dish is very popular in Poland and you can find it in almost every single bakery I had no idea that it comes from Jewish culture and it is actually called “Cebularz Lubelski” after one part of Poland where it suppose to originated from.

“Cebularz” means something with onion… and in this case it doesn’t mean that the onion is incorporated into the bread. It is not an onion bread.

After reading many descriptions of this dish it seems like I should say that it is a wheat cake with onion. I’ve decided to call it a flat bread but it is not a bread. The dough is more like for sweet buns or dinner rolls.

There are many ways people prepare the onion and many recipes mention is should be prepared a few days ahead. I didn’t have that much time and I was really craving this dish so I simply fried the onion while the dough was in my bread machine. Originally the topping is made from onions and poppy seeds. I didn’t have poppy seeds and I’ve decided to make it more colorful and flavorful by adding different ingredients.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup milk

3 Tbs. butter, unsalted

2 tsp. sugar (any kind: white, brown, turbinado)

1/2 tsp. sal

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour *

1/2 cup bread flour +1Tbs (if needed)

1 tsp. instant yeast

1 egg, beaten

1/4 cup flax-seed meal (can be switched for chia seeds)

1/2 or 3/4 big purple onion, chopped roughly

fresh corn from one cob

2 Tbs. olive oil

1/2 cup fresh herbs (I used mix of cilantro and parsley)

cherry or yellow pear tomatoes (optional)

Fresh picked from our “buckets garden”

* you can use different amounts of bread and all-purpose flours. If you don’t have bread flour you don’t have to use it. I have never tried this recipe with whole wheat flour, but I think, it would be ok to incorporate it into the recipe as well.

Directions for bread machine:

In a sauce pan put together the milk, butter, sugar and salt. Heat it up on low heat until the butter melts. The mixture should be lukewarm not hot. Pour it into the bread machine, add flours and sprinkle the yeast on top. Set the machine on “dough” and turn it on.

During the second kneading open the lid and add the egg saving about 2 tsp for later use. Add flax-seed meal.

At this point you might need to add an extra 1 Tbsp of flour (all-purpose or bread). The dough should form elastic, soft and shiny ball around the kneading hook inside the bread machine.

Meantime chop the onion and cut the corn of the cob. In a frying pan heat up 2 Tbsp olive oil, add chopped onion and corn. Fry until the onion is soft. Add salt and pepper to taste.

When the dough is ready, take it out of the bread machine and divide into 6 balls. On a lightly floured surface roll them into a flat circles, about 5 to 6 inches in diameter.

Transfer them into a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Brush the edges of each piece with the remaining egg. In the middle of the flat bread put about 3 Tbs of the onion-corn mix.

Bake for 15 minutes in 395 F or until the edges are golden brown.

To make this dough without bread machine just follow a regular directions for making yeast dough by hand or Kitchen Aid.

Dissolve the  sugar and yeast in very warm milk and wait until bubbly. Add melted and cooled butter, salt, flours and knead. Add beaten egg and knead until the dough is not sticking to the side of the bowl and creates easy to work with ball. Transfer the dough to lightly oiled bowl, cover with a cloth or plastic foil. Leave in a warm place to rest until doubled in size. When it’s ready punch in in the middle, add flax-seed meal and knead a little bit more until everything is well incorporated. To finish follow the instructions above. 

Serve warm, topped with fresh herbs and cut into wedges fresh tomatoes.

You might also like:

• Bread Machine Challah (Chałka) (momphotographer.wordpress.com)

• Apple-Cherry Pizza and Sundried tomatoes Pizza on Mint-Basil dough (momphotographer.wordpress.com)

Marzipan and blueberries whole wheat pancakes with flax-seed meal

 

Back in the days my husband and I used to eat at iHop a lot. Almost every Saturday or Sunday we would go there for a breakfast and I would have a huge stack of pancakes, always a different flavor or whatever new they were having that time. 

One day while I was pregnant with our No. 2, as usual, we went to our local iHop for breakfast and we haven’t been there since. I have no idea if they have changed something or because of my pregnancy I was more sensitive but I hated the food there that day. On that day my love affair to their pancakes has vanished. For good!

Instead I’ve started making my own pancakes. For a while I had struggle finding a good, fluffy and flavorful batter.

Finally I found this recipe for buttermilk pancakes and I’ve used the batter for all kinds of pancakes since. It has never failed.

Ingredients:

dry ingredients:

1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour,

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder,

1 tsp. baking soda,

1 tsp. cinnamon,

4 tsp. turbinado sugar,

1/4 tsp. salt,

1/4 cup flax-seed meal,

wet ingredients:

1 1/2 cup buttermilk (homemade works great)

2 1/2 Tbsp. butter, melted, cooled,

2 eggs,

garnish/filling

1/3 cup fresh blueberries

1/4 cup marzipan paste (homemade or store-bought)

Directions:

Mix dry ingredients and wet in two separate bowls. Then mix everything together and let it sit for about 10 minutes.

Pour about 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake on hot skillet. Immediately top each pancake with a few blueberries and small pieces of marzipan paste. Fry until the top is bubbly. Flip over and fry for additional minute or until nice and brown. 

My husband eats them with maple syrup.

My daughter with strawberry jam or not…

For me, with all the flavors going on just inside those pancakes, plain are all what I need.

The marzipan is such a nice addition. It just pops out when you eat those pancakes. Of course you need to like marzipan in order to enjoy them like I do. My husband being not the biggest fan of marzipan likes it hidden like that although he prefers banana-blueberry pancakes.

 

Whipped Cream and Beet juice Sponge Roll

So here we are.

It is 4th of July and we are not going anywhere to watch fireworks tonight. My husband is not very happy about that but with our two little munchkins and him still recovering from his surgery it is what it is and being honest with you, I am happy about that. Although he really tried to convinced me into going out but as stubborn as I am and as hurting as he is, I won. We are not going and I have more time to blog as it’s my second post today

To make the 4th of July a bit special, though (just for him), for the first time in my life I made a roll cake.

Since I discovered this recipe I had looked at it several times thinking that it actually does not look like a very hard work to make a roll cake, and the recipe for a sponge cake is incredibly easy and fast to fix. I’ve changed the recipe a little by whipping the egg whites separately, adding a beet juice as a natural food coloring to the filling and using blueberries as a garnish.

Ingredients for the cake:

5 egg whites

5 egg yolks,

5 Tbsp. powdered sugar

4 Tbsp. all-purpose flour

2 Tbsp. corn starch

Ingredients for the filling:

(2 cups) half and half whipped cream

4 Tbsp. powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup fresh strawberries, cut into pieces

1 Tbsp. fresh beet juice (for coloring)

Directions:

1. Whip egg whites to stiff peaks. Add sugar and egg yolks and whip for additional minute.

2. Meantime sieve both flour and corn starch to a separate bowl.

3. With a hand whisk gently mix the flour with the egg and sugar mixture.

4. Heat the oven to 320 F. Line a 17×11 baking sheet (the deep kind) with parchment paper. 

5. Gently spread the batter over the baking sheet.

6. Bake for 25 to 3o minute.Do  not overbake as it will be crumbling and breaking as rolled into a log. It should be slightly brown and soft to the touch. Mine was done after 25 minutes.

It looks like the original recipe was made in smaller dish so it was thicker. I used 17 x 11 baking sheet and my cake was very thin and delicate but still easy to handle.

7. As soon as it’s baked move it from the baking sheet, keeping the parchment paper on the bottom.

8. Using new piece of parchment paper, very lightly greased, cover warm cake (the greased part touching the cake).

9. With the two layers of parchment paper and the cake in the middle roll the cake. The log should be rolled pretty tight and even.

10. Leave it for about 45 minutes to cool.

11. Meanwhile whip the half and half with powdered sugar adding only one tablespoon at a time and tasting it after each time. I used 4 Tbsp. of powdered sugar as in the original recipe and it came out too sweet as for my taste. Add vanilla extract and beet juice (you can use canned but I prefer using fresh). Beat until well incorporated. You can use more juice for deeper color but be careful not to add to much!

12. Unroll the cake, removing the top layer of the parchment paper. Spread the whipped cream and strawberries over the top. Leave some of the whipped cream for later. 

13. Roll the cake removing the bottom layer of the parchment paper as you roll.

14. Spread the remaining whipped cream over the top of the roll.

15. Garnish with fruits.

16. ENJOY:

My plan for this cake was a little bit different. I wanted to make it more “patriotic” by adding the beet juice to half of the batter and blueberry juice to the remaining batter. By doing so I would have blue and red roll with white filling. If I had done it, I think it would have looked pretty cool, but I remembered to do that when the cake was already in the oven. I totally, totally forgot about it even after my previous, 20 minutes fight with my blender to get the beet juice!!! ugh…

After that I’d decided to add the beet juice into the whipped cream and use the blueberries for a garnish. After all I think it came out great even without the colors I had planned.

The roll tasted great served immediately but chilling it in the fridge for a few hours made it WAY BETTER; moist and so soft. Next time though, I will use more strawberries. Biting into a piece of a strawberry gives it such a great kick of freshness! I really recommend this cake. Easy to make. Tastes great. Looks cool! and it has beets in it which you don’t taste at all!!!! you can go wrong with that

Chewy Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

I found this recipe on the package of Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips. I didn’t buy those chips for the recipe. It just happened that trying to come up with some ideas how to use the chips I looked at the package and read the recipe. I normally would use them for “Thick, Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies“ from Smitten Kitchen – our family’s all time favorite. Sometimes I like to add an extra sweetness to this original recipe using different kinds of chocolate chips. This time I thought about peanut butter and that’s why I bought them but when I read the recipe on the box I’ve decided to make them.

And by an accident I’ve discovered the new family favorite cookies!!! 

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup cocoa

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) butter, softened

1 cup white sugar (original recipe calls for 2 cups of white sugar)

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup peanut butter chips (or more)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 F.

2. stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Beat buttter and sugar in large bowl with mixer until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Gradually add flour mixture, beating well. Stir in peanut butter chips.

3. Using a rounded teaspoon drop the dough onto ungreased cookie sheet (I used aluminum foil). Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Do not overbake; cookies will be very soft. They will puff while baking and flatten while cooling. (the original recipe says to bake them 8 to 9 minutes but in my case 8 minutes was too short and the cookies weren’t baked inside)

4. Cool slightly leaving on the baking sheet; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

those cookies are almost like a tiny, thin brownies; crunchy on the outside and so moist and chewy inside. they are delicate to handle because they are really thin. I tried to make an ice cream cookie sandwiches but those cookies seemed to be too thin and delicate. They were falling apart too easily but I really, really enjoyed the flavor:

From this recipe I got about 45 cookies!!! And today, two days after I made them, they are all gone already… .

btw, Happy Birthday America!

Apple-Cherry Pizza and Sundried tomatoes Pizza on Mint-Basil dough

I have to admit, WE LOVE PIZZA. Whenever there is a pizza in the oven our two-year old always does her pizza song: “pizza, pizza, we eat”, and her pizza dance.

When my husband and I were dating I had surprised him with the skills of making pizza while he did the same eating it topped with a pineapple… .

These days we eat pizza quite often.

The base for my pizza dough is always the same. I have found the perfect one and I stick to it EVERY SINGLE time. I make mine in bread maker.

Recipe:

1 1/2 cups water

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

3 1/2 cups bread flour *

1 package (2 1/4 tsp) active yeast

1/4 cup chia seeds/flax-seed meal (or mix of both)**

* sometimes I use a few cups of all-purpose flour with a cup of bread flour. sometimes I use whole wheat flour with all-purpose flour plus a cup or half of bread flour. No matter what kind of flour I mix I always try to include the bread flour as it gives a nice crisp to the crust. and depends on how much of each flour is used the amount of water needs to be adjust as well.

** to add an extra twist to the dough sometimes I add:

a handful of chopped fresh parsley, mint or basil, or mix of these.

I’ll tell you, the moment you bite the crust filled with those herbs you’ll be in love!!!!!!!!

Directions for bread maker:

wet ingredients first plus salt and sugar, next flour and yeast on top. close the machine, set on “dough”. press “start”. During the second kneading open the lid and add herbs, chia seeds/ flax-seed meal. close the lid. after it’s done take it out, knead a few times on a lightly floured surface and let it rest for about 10 minutes, covered. Divide into 6 parts.

For deep dish pizza spread 1 part of the dough inside a pie pan. For New York, roll the dough thinner and put it on a baking sheet.

Refrigerate or freeze the rest of the dough.

Bake in 450 F.

For deep dish pizza for 15 to 20 minutes.

For thin crust for 12 to 15 minutes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My husband’s pizza is pretty much the same each time.

Cheddar cheese, tomato pizza sauce (homemade), chicken breast, pineapple (fresh or canned), corn (fresh or canned), green or red bell pepper (not always). Thin crust.

chicken pineapple pizza

Mine varies, but a few weeks ago I have found an all time favorite:

cheese (cheddar, jack or mozzarella),

apple (granny smith),

cherries,

corn,

and pineapple (optional).

I know that it might sound weird but this pizza is one of the best dishes I have ever ate.

I came up with this idea after eating a pear gorgonzola pizza at California Pizza Kitchen a few moths ago.

My last creation was pretty tasty, too:

Sundried tomatoes in olive oil,

mushrooms,

cheese,

red bell pepper.

Although I burned the tomatoes too much it still was delicious! 

I spread the olive oil from sundried tomatoes over the dough first. Not a lot, just a bit. Then went cheese, mushrooms, bell peppers and sundried tomatoes.

Next time I’m going to add the tomatoes a few minutes before taking the pizza from the oven. This way I won’t burn them.

Bread Machine Challah (Chałka)

Challah is a traditional jewish braided bread made on jewish holidays and Sabbath.

In Poland, challah is very popular and it can be bought in any bakery. Though, this baked goodie has no religion meaning. Many people don’t even know that this bread comes from jewish culture.

As a small kid I remember my mom buying it every Saturday. Each time we would sit at a kitchen table with her and gobbled it up, warm with some butter or jam on top, or just plain. Just the two of us. Fresh and warm challah is one of the best things ever.

The challah I remember was moist, sweet and very fluffy with not very crunchy (but soft) skin.

As I grew up the flavor and the texture of it have changed to something very hallow with hard and not very tasty skin. My mom and I didn’t really like it so we stopped buying it. Every now and then if I spotted a new bakery I would stop and buy one just to see if the bakery uses the old good recipe for moist and sweet challah but I had no luck.

I haven’t had challah for at least 5 years.

I’ve been looking for a good recipe for quite a while. Finally I decided to try the recipe from “Allrecipes”. I went through a many reviews under it and I made a few changes mentioned in one of them although I had to change it even more. At the end I ended up with totally different recipe but ah… still SO DELICIOUS !!!

After I took if out from the oven altogether with my daughter we couldn’t stop eating it.

I rolled the dough into three strands instead of four. Didn’t use any special way to braid it just the simple “hair style braid”. Because of that it came out a little flat. Next time I will invest an extra few minutes to learn the right way of doing it.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 room temperature water

1/2 cup sugar (the original recipe calls for honey but I didn’t have any)

2 Tbsp. olive oil

2 1/2 tsp. salt

1 egg, lightly beaten

3 egg yolks, lightly beaten

2 cups all-purpose flour *

2 cups bread flour

2 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast

1/4 flax-seed meal (optional)

* I guess, it depends on how big your eggs and yolks are but I had to add and extra 2/3 cup flour to the bread machine during the second kneading.

Directions:

Add to the bread machine: water, olive oil, beaten egg and yolks, all purpose and bread flour, sprinkle the yeast on top. Close the lid and set on “dough”. During the second kneading if the dough is really runny (like mine was) add and extra 1/3 cup of bread or all purpose flour, close the lid and wait for a minute or two. Repeat until the dough form a soft ball inside the bread machine. At the end add flax-seed meal.

Divide the dough into 3 parts and braid as you would make your hair

or follow this instruction for the right way how to braid challah.

Transfer the challah onto a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil or parchment paper, cover with light towel and let rest for about 60 minutes in a warm place.  

After it’s doubled (or tripled) in size preheat the oven to 375.

You can gently brush the top with egg white and sprinkle poppy/sesame seeds on top which I didn’t do. 

Bake for about 30 minutes. After 15 minutes if the top of the challah is dark brown you should cover it with aluminum foil to prevent from burning.

I baked mine for too long and I burned the insides a little too much.

The thing was that each time I checked the bread I was expecting to hear a hollow sound when I tapped it but each time it was soft and seemed not quite baked inside. Finally after 40 minutes of baking I had  decided to take it out and check the inside.

How surprised I was when it looked perfectly baked.

The entire house smelled like heaven

We ate it with blueberry jam on top. I mean, SHE ate it with the jam. I ate it plain. That’s how I like it.

 

Homemade Marzipan (Marcepan domowe roboty)

First of all today is my turn for a post to World Moms Blog. Please stop by the blog and join the discussion about breast-feeding in public.

As for my blog I’m talking about MARZIPAN!!!!!!!!

Who doesn’t know what marzipan is or who has never tired it… gosh… you don’t know what you’re missing, people

If you like almonds and sugar you will love marzipan because basically it’s an almond paste with some sugar and extra almond flavor from  almond extract (some people don’t add it, though).

I grew up eating Ritter Sport Dark Chocolate Covered Marzipan and to these days, when I see this chocolate in a grocery store, I can’t stop drooling. It’s really expensive, though, and only the price keeps me from buying it each time I see it. Finally about a month ago I decided to try to make it at home. Yeah… you see how long it takes for me to finally make something.

It took me 5 months to make a cheesecake from the day I had decided to make it. I have an excuse, though. I was researching for the best recipe and this kind of research takes time  

The same was with the marzipan. This time, though, I haven’t found any recipe that would suit me, I just got the idea of how to make it. If you google for “marzipan recipe” you will find many of them starting from very simple ones with only two ingredients to very fancy ones. Some call for rose-water, corn syrup or egg whites. Mine recipe doesn’t have any of those, although it has sugar syrup which I made myself.

It takes quite a bit effort to make it at home but IT’S SO REWARDING when you eat it homemade and it tastes just like the store-bought or even better.

From what I read the quantity of used almonds and sugar should be 2:1 (2 cups almonds, 1 cup sugar), and a few extra ingredients like egg whites or corn syrup to help the paste to stick together.

The thing is that after the paste is made you can actually adjust the amount of sugar to your personal likes. Just like I did.

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/2 cup blanched almonds, whole

1 cup powdered sugar, plus more for shaping the paste (I made my own by blending regular white sugar until the sugar turned to powder)

2 Tbsp sugar syrup, (I made my own sugar syrup as a substitute for corn syrup), honey can be used instead 

1 Tbsp almond extract

DIRECTIONS:

In a high-speed blender or food processor grind the almonds until they turn into almond meal. In my case I used high-speed blender and those almonds didn’t turn powdery/floury. They created a sticky paste that my blender couldn’t work with anymore or I would’ve burned its engine if I continued to work with it. That’s why you can see small pieces of almonds on the picture above. That doesn’t bother me at all. It gives an extra texture and doesn’t change the flavor at all.

After the almonds are all blended move the paste/almond meal into a sauce pan and add powdered sugar. Turn the heat to medium, and stirring constantly with wooden spoon, cook the paste until all the sugar melts. Mix in sugar/corn syrup and stirring constantly cook it over medium high until the mixture starts sticking together into a ball around your spoon. It might take 15 to 20 minutes. Close to the end add almond extract.

You can always taste it and adjust the amount of sugar and almond extract to your likes.

Here I will quote one comment I have found under a marzipan recipe at Smitten Kitchen:

I mix everything first in the sauce pan, then apply moderate heat while continuing to stir until the mass sticks in one ball. The trick is to heat the mixture enough to draw the oil out of the almonds while stirring. Too much heat will evaporate too much moisture causing the paste to get crumbly. Try to rescue by adding more water again after turning off the heat and then let it sit in a cool place (‘fridge) for a day or two.

I did not wait a day or two. I waited until the mixture turned cool and then I portioned into 5 parts. Using an aluminum foil sprinkled with a small amount of powdered sugar I rolled each part into a long log, one inch wide.

Shaping is your personal preference as well. The paste could be shaped into small balls, rectangles, squares, what ever you like. I roll it into a log as it was easy to store.

My recipe doesn’t have eggs in it so the marzipan could be stored in a room temperature. I keep mine in a fridge so it doesn’t get too soft. Whenever I want to eat it I just cut a small piece off of the log and put it back to the fridge.

For the purpose of this post I cut one log into a small pieces

and ate them one by one while taking pictures

the remaining two logs I cut into pieces and covered into dark chocolate

and they tasted like heaven! just like the Ritter Sport brand that I used to eat in Poland.

It wasn’t any fancy special chocolate. I simply melted over water bath 3 oz of regular dark chocolate and pour the it over the cut pieces of marzipan. I didn’t care much about the look. It was all about the flavor and it was PERFECT.

Btw, the recipe is at some point approved by husband… and that is AMAZING he ate half of the chocolate covered piece and the next day he gobbled up 5 whole wheat pancakes with marzipan pieces in them.

Have a great evening, my friends.

You might also like:

Whole wheat blueberry marzipan pancakes

Leftover brown sugar-cinnamon oatmeal smoothies (4 recipes)

These days my family is in a stage of eating hot oatmeal for breakfast. On weekends we are more likely to have pancakes for breakfast but during the week we eat oatmeal.

Many times while I get busy with morning chores my oatmeal gets cold.

I don’t like cold oatmeal.

Many times when my daughter is not in the mood she won’t even touch her bowl. It doesn’t happen very often but when it does and I end up with two bowls of cold oatmeal.

So a few weeks ago I had an idea how to re-use that cold oatmeal and not to throw it away (because I really don’t like to throw out a perfectly good foods).

My recipe for oatmeal:

2 cups whole milk 

1 cup oatmeal (quick oats or old-fashioned, it works with both). 

3 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Mix everything together and cook on medium high until the oatmeal is cooked and thick. 

We eat it hot topped with sliced bananas, fresh blueberries or strawberries (or nothing )

As for the smoothie, so far I made four kinds based on this leftover oatmeal:

1. Strawberry-banana-oatmeal

2. Strawberry-oatmeal

3. Apple-banana-oatmeal

4. Orange-grapefruit-oatmeal

Here are the recipes:

1. Strawberry-banana

1 cup leftover oatmeal

1/4 cup plain yogurt

1 cup frozen strawberries

1/2 banana

1/8 tsp almond extract

2. Strawberry-oatmeal

1 1/2 cup leftover oatmeal

1 1/2 cup fresh strawberries

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp honey

3. Apple-banana-oatmeal

1 cup leftover oatmeal

1 banana

1 granny smith apple, with the peel

2 Tbsp flax seed meal

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

4. Orange-grapefruit-oatmeal

1 cup leftover oatmeal

1 small orange

1 small grapefruit

3 tsp honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

Personally I  really like grapefruits. I always have. Grapefruits are my mom’s favorite fruits and I grew up watching her eating them without any sugar or any other topping. She always would eat them like oranges. These days I do the same which always surprises my husband who is used to people eating grapefruits with a spoon and sprinkled with sugar (bleh… , btw)

I think I liked the last smoothie the best. It had really great and unique flavor. The thing is that to make that smoothie the “right way” requires a very good blender. Something like Blendtec, Ninja or Vitamix. With regular blender the smoothie won’t get the “smooth” consistency without strings of orange or grapefruits here and there, and that is the key when it comes to making smoothie with those fruits. The strings don’t taste good and they always destroy the good flavor and I think that’s why people don’t like to use them in smoothies (or use only juice). 

Have a great day, my friends