Breakfast bars and energy snack

Breakfast bars and energy snack

 

These energy bars are good for breakfast instead of for instance a plate of oatmeal if you have little time. Also you can wrap one or two and bring in your bag as a snack when in a rush during the day. These are much healthier than the one´s you can buy in the store, since there is no sugar or artificial stuff added.

Ingredients:

6 dl oatmeal

2 dl flaxseeds/Chiaseeds (this is what I had today in my cabinet, but you can pick any seeds like pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, something of your choice and liking)

2 dl coconut flakes

2 dl dried fruit (for this I used dried pineapples and goji berries since it was what I had in my cabinet today, but you can pick whatever is your choice)

1 banana

4 tbs honey

2 eggs

Directions:

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Cut the dried fruit in small pieces, like the size of raisins. Mash the banana and blend with the eggs and the honey. Mix the dry with the liquid to a paste. Spread out in a baking pan covered with baking sheets.

Bake in the middle of the oven on 175 Celsius Degrees for 20 minutes.

Take out and cool off a little. Cut into pieces and pack each piece in sandwich paper when cooled off. The bars will than be ready to bring along.

Healthy dessert or breakfast smoothie!

A healthy dessert or breakfast smoothie!

Ingredients:

Rhubarb

Prunes

Water

Non fat natural Yoghurt

Oatmeal

Sesame Seeds
Coconut flakes

Chocolate

Banana

Last night I wanted to have some small snack as it was Friday night. I didn´t have fresh fruit at home but I found I had some frozen Rhubarb in the freezer. So I tried to think of some other way to use the Rhubarb than making a pie with pie shell that would mean butter and fats. I really wanted to make a healthy dessert and no sugar or fats added. Still I was thinking it is a bit sour with Rhubarb without sugar and sweetening. So I was wrecking my brain really. I even found I had some dried Prunes in the kitchen cabinet.

Thursday I watched a program with Gordon Ramsey and he made a dessert from Yoghurt and fresh fruits. So I decided to take the idea and try to make my own variation with the ingredients I had. I even had some oatmeal and sesame seeds, coconut flakes and some dark chocolate and some bananas.

I made a compote of the Rhubarb by boiling it with a little water. And for the Prunes I did the same thing. I boiled them until totally soft and the fruits kind of dissolving into a compote. I than mixed it with a mixer and let it cool off completely. Since the Prunes are a bit sweet I got both the sweet and the sour tastes in the dish. If I had had strawberries for instance, or some other berries or fresh fruits, I could have used that and made the compote of instead. After making the compote I made it cool off completely and put it in the refrigerator for a while to get really cold.

The oatmeal, coconut flakes and sesame seeds I roasted in a pan and also cooled off completely.

After cooling I arranged the dessert in tall wine glasses to make it a big fancy with layers of natural, nonfat Yoghurt, a layer of Prunes compote, a layer of Rhubarb compote, banana slices, roasted Oatmeal, coconut flakes and sesame seeds, to the top of the glass.  For the dessert I topped it with some slices of banana and a little flakes of dark chocolate to make it look festive. 

 

It came out as a really fresh dessert. A bit sour with the Rhubarb without sweetening and a bit sweet with the Yoghurt, the Prunes and the bananas, and a bit crunchy with the roasted oatmeal and sesame seeds, and the small chocolate chips on the top.

I had some left over in the morning and made a variation of a smoothie for breakfast. Just with the same layers, but no chocolate on top. 

  

I deliberately chose to make the compote without sugar, but if you want a sweeter taste, add some teaspoon of sugar to the compote when boiling, or honey or like for instance Agave Syrup. It would give a sweeter taste if you prefer, but also some calories, which I avoided in this one. And the sugar not needed since I intended to not preserve the compote, but use it at once.

Whole Baked Salmon

Whole Baked Salmon

Ingredients:

1 whole Salmon

Thyme leaves chopped

Sage leaves chopped

Ground cayenne pepper

Ground paprika

Baked Salmon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Place the whole Salmon in a baking tray. Sprinkle with sage, thyme, paprika and pepper and cover the whole pan with aluminum foil.

Bake Salmon for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until easily flaked with a fork.  This time is if the Salmon is defrosted or fresh (if frozen it needs longer in the oven and you have to check to see when it is ready).

Serve with steamed vegetables cut in nice slices. My healthy suggestions for vegetables are carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, mashed potatoes. For me I don´t eat the mashed potatoes on my diet, so the mash can be made of mashed cauliflowers and it will be delicious. Still if you make the dish for others who don´t avoid carbohydrates, you can make some side dish with mashed potatoes as well for them.

You can make a sauce for the Salmon if you prefer. A healthy sauce can be made of fish broth (if you get this in the pan when the fish is ready. And you can thicken it with some tapioca starch and season with salt and pepper. If you don´t have fish broth you can boil milk and season with cubes of fish broth and salt and pepper.

Serving place the whole Salmon on a nicely decorated tray. Decorate with salad leaves, nicely sliced tomatoes and cucumber and add some fresh chopped thyme on top.