Mixed Spice Yoghurt Bars / Пряные Йогуртовые Пирожные

These tender, light and delicious yoghurt bars can easily be adapted for different seasons, depending on the flavour you choose. Instead of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves....you could just use vanilla and decorate with fresh berries for a nice  melt in your mouth summer dessert.

For the dough

60g melted butter

4 eggs, separated

125g sugar

vanilla

pinch of salt

100g flour

70g cornflour

10g baking powder

150g small almond cookies

150g small meringue cookies

Wisk egg whites until stiff, adding sugar gradually. Add salt and vanilla and beat in yolks, flour and cornflour. Pour melted (and cooled) butter.

Line baking tray (30x20cm) with baking paper, pour half of the batter into it and bake at 175C during 15 minutes, until done. Cool on a wire rack. Repeat with another part of batter, but before baking it, arrange almond cookies on top of the batter (to add some crunch).

Cream

400g very thick Greek yoghurt

250g whipping cream

200g vanilla powdered sugar

3tb.s. mixed spices

1 1/2 tb.s. gelatine powder

Whipp the cream until stiff, adding powdered sugar gradually. Add spices and yoghurt and stir well. In a small bowl heat small amount of water with gelatine powder, until it is dissolved. Add this mixture to yoghurt cream. Stir.

Line the same baking tray with plastic film, place one plain layer of sponge cake. Pour the cream over it (same a little bit for top). Cover with another layer of sponge cake (the one with cookies in it). Using the remaining cream glue small meringues to the cake top.

Refrigerate overnight. Remove from the tin (lifting the plastic film). Cut into portions.

Berry Basil Wine Sorbet / Ягодно Базиликовое Сорбе с Вином

During summer months I can practically live on sorbets alone, feeling fresh, chilled, light (after dropping a kilo or two) and happy as a summary of all above.

This sorbet is a little bit fancier than what I would usually make. Besides dominating strawberry taste and pleasant notes of white wine, basil definitely can be tasted too, despite it being discarded after cooking.

Here is a recipe of this lovely summer-y (and sugar free!) dessert.

500g strawberries
3 very ripe bananas (frozen)
small bunch of basil leaves
stevia sweetener to taste
200ml wry white wine (I like dry wine, semi sweet fruity one will also do)

My strawberries were frozen 2 days prior cooking, but that does not matter, fresh berries can be used. Place strawberries, basil leaves and wine into a pan ans let the mixture boil. Set the pan aside and let it cool completely and all the aromas infuse. Discard basil leaved. The mixture can now be sieved, but I skip this step very often.

Place frozen bananas into a food processor and pulse until creamy, add strawberry-wine compote and pulse until all is smooth. Freeze in an airtight container during several hours or churn in an ice cream maker.

Enjoy!:)

Banana Coconut Cupcakes (flour, sugar, diary free) / Кокосово-Банановые Капкейки (без сахара, муки, масла)

With Easter approaching I had some ideas of light, healthy, springe-ish desserts on my mind. And I came up with this banana coconut cashew cupcakes, a dessert that I actually will eat myself. And I did so! In the first day only I ate three of these on my own:) So.....

The cupcakes are a bit more dense than usual cupcake. But I kind of like it. I did not use any sugar, flour, diary or fat/butter in this recipe. Enjoy these healthy little treats!

 And Happy Easter to everyone!

Coconut Banana Cupcakes

2 bananas, mashed
1 egg
160g coconut flakes
vanilla essence
1 t.s. baking powder
sugar substitute (I did not add any sweetness, if you like things sweeter, add some)

In a blender combine bananas and egg, blend until smooth, add coconut with baking powder and blend again.

Divide the dough between 12 slightly greased cupcake forms. Bake at 175 C during 15 minutes. The cupcakes will rise just a little. Let them cool.

Cashew Cream

1 1/4 cup raw cashew nuts
water
vanilla essence
1tb.s. honey
some food colouring

Soak cashew nuts in room temperature water overnight. Drain water and blend nuts with vanilla, honey and food colouring until the mixture is really smooth.

Using piping bag frost the cupcakes.

Enjoy them and don't feel too guilty about it:)

Healthier Carrot Oat Cupcakes / Морковные Капкейки (полезные)

Finally, April just arrived! We greet it with traditionally spring time carrot cupcakes. I made them low fat and quite healthy....apart from some sugar and some butter in frosting. You could easily substitute sugar for another sweetener though.

The texture of these carrot oat cupcakes is surprisingly quite light and fluffy. So, I am very pleased with the result! The frosting is also full of protein. A very child and diet friendly recipe:)

Carrot Oat Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups cooked and mashed carrots
1 cup oat flakes
1 cup ww flour
2 tb.s baking powder
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 tb.s canola oil
vanilla and rum essences
1 to 2 t.s. cinnamon

Mix dry ingredients. Combine with wet ingredients and make sure there are no lumps. Transfer the dough into greased cupcake forms (will make around 18-20).
Preheat oven to 175 C. Bake during 15-17 minutes. Let them cool.

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

200 g low fat cottage cheese
70 g butter
1 cup vanilla powdered sugar
1 tb.s. concentrated orange juice
citrus essence

Process cottage cheese in blender until really creamy. Add butter and beat until incorporated, add powdered sugar, juice and essence. You could add colouring, if you like.

Frost already cooled cupcakes. Store in the fridge in an airtight container.

Pistachio Layered Cake (flour less, light) / Фисташковый Торт (без муки, легкий)

We had a mild winter this year and it seemed that spring would arrive very early and rapidly...but first week of March has passed and it does not look very promising. We will hope for the best:) But for now this cake brought us into spring mood. I went a little crazy with colours, but kids loved them:)

This nutty cake is flourless and it's frosting is made of light cream cheese and light vegetable shortening. This was also a reason for the cream to be slightly more runny than normal, But let the cake stand in the fridge overnight; the frosting will set.

The cake is moist and very fragrant: coconut, pistachios, poppy seeds, hazelnuts... The cream is light, with distinct pistachio fragrance. The cake was my favourite part, the frosting- fav of my kids. Also, this cake stays fresh for days.

The Cake

160 g coconut flakes
100 g poppy seeds
50 g hazelnuts
50 g pistachio nuts
10g baking powder
pinch of salt
125g sugar
vanilla to taste
6 eggs, separated

Blend all nuts and seeds to create nut flour. Add baking powder.
Beat egg yolks with sugar until pale and fluffy. Add nut flour to the mixture.
Beat egg whites until strong peaks. Carefully fold the egg whites into the dough.
Preheat oven to 170C. Grease baking paper and cover 23cm baking pan with it.
Pour the dough into the form and bake during 35 minutes, until ready.
let it cool, then slice into 2 layers.

Light Frosting (adapted from here)

300 g cream cheese (light)
200 g lighter butter
300 g powdered sugar
vanilla to taste
2 x 90 g pistachio powder pudding
green food colouring

Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add powdered sugar and pudding mixture. If you like, add food colouring.

For Decoration

100ml heavy whipping cream
1-2 tb.s. vanilla powdered sugar
red food colouring
pistachio nuts for decoration

Whip cream until peaks form, add powdered sugar and continue beating, add food colouring and vanilla.

Have a great week!

Coconut Orange Marshmallow Cake / Кокосово-Апельсиновый Торт с Маршмеллоу

Driving down the hill from our home to the city I noticed a lot of new flowers on fruit trees and when I saw that mimosa trees are in full blossom it just made my day!

Mimosa flowers are associated with my childhood. Every year aunt of my grandmother who lived in the south of France  would send small dried mimosa branch in an envelope. It was such an excitement for me as a child living in Soviet country:) Yeah...

So, inspired by bright fluffy yellow flowers and a lot of sun I made a cake...which actually would taste great on Easter table. Refreshing orange and coconut combination and a thick and fluffy marshmallow cream. The cake layers are on the dense side though, but tasted delicious.

Hope you enjoy it!:)

Cake

225 g soft butter
2 cups sugar
vanilla
1 t.s. salt
2 1/2 cups cake flour
10 g baking powder
1 cup yoghurt
5 eggs

Beat butter with sugar until fluffy. Add buttermilk and eggs. Mix well. Now add flour, salt, baking powder and vanilla.

Grease 2x20cm springforms with butter and sprinkle with flour. Pour the batter into them and bake at 175C  for about 50 minutes. Cool completely. Cut each cake into 2 parts horizontally. Trim the top. Drizzle each cake layer with coconut liqueur.

Marshmallow Cream

4 egg whites
drop of lemon juice
2 cups sugar
100ml water
50ml runny honey or syrup
 pinch of salt
vanilla
1 shot of coconut liqueur + more for the cake layers
grated coconut

Beat egg whites with lemon juice until soft peaks.

In a large pan combine water, sugar and honey. Bring the mixture to boil on hight heat, whisking often. Cook during 4 minutes.

Continue beating the egg whites and carefully pour the hot syrup into the whites. Add vanilla and liqueur. Beat until the cream is cooled a little (5-7 minutes).

Orange Curd

4 egg yolks
80ml orange juice
150g sugar
zest of 1 small orange
60g butter
some vanilla
1 t.s. gelatine

Place yolks, juice and sugar into a metal bowl over the simmering water. Cook, whisking often until the mixture thickens (about 10 minutes). Set aside. Add butter, zest, gelatine and vanilla. Let it cool.


Spread orange curd on the first layer of cake. Cover with another cake layer and spread marshmallow cream over this one. Cover with third cake layer and spread orange curd on top. Place the last cake layer over the rest and cover the entire cake with marshmallow frosting. Sprinkle with some remaining curd over the top of the cake , sprinkle with grated coconut.

Enjoy!

similar cake from three years ago here.

image taken from here

Cranberry-Raspberry Meringue Cake / Клюквенно-Малиновый Торт Безе

This is another take on meringue cake....I just remembered that last year we had Pavlova for New Years....so I am repeating myself again.

This roulade cake is adapted from here. I added raspberry to it, because cranberries are not exactly favourite berries of my kids. And I am glad I did, it became very aromatic, a very tasty cake indeed.

The cake is light with crispy-chewy meringue layer and fluffy cream with berries and nuts. Not too sweet. Extremely easy to prepare also. Enjoy!

4 egg whites
pinch of salt
1 t.s. lemon juice
150g vanilla powdered sugar

200ml whipping cream
100ml very thick Greek yoghurt
3tb.s. powdered sugar

100g dried cranberries
about 80-100ml orange juice
sugar to taste (I added 2 tb.s.)
a pinch of cinnamon
150g frozen raspberries
1 tb.s. potato/corn starch
some crushed walnuts

Beat egg whites with lemon juice and salt until thick. Add powdered sugar in 3 batches, continue beating until stiff picks.

Preheat oven to 160C. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Draw a 23x32cm rectangle. Transfer egg white batter onto the baking tray, level well. Bake during 15 minutes. Let it cool.

Whip cream and some powdered sugar and vanilla. Add yoghurt and whip again. Set aside.

In a small pan combine cranberries, orange juice, sugar and cinnamon. Cook on medium heat until cranberries soften. Add raspberries and cook for a couple of minutes more. Add starch, dissolved in some orange juice and let the mixture thicken. Set aside to cool completely.

Spoon prepared berry compote onto meringue (use only 2/3 of it). Now spread whipped cream on top. Sprinkle with some walnuts.

Beginning with a short end roll the meringue carefully into a roulade, pulling onto paper beneath the meringue. Transfer onto a plate and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Enjoy!

And I hope everyone had joyful Holidays:)

Coconut Snaps / Кокосовые Козинаки

This is just a super easy and quite healthy, but very sweet snack, mostly for the kids. My girls really like to make and to eat them and treat their friends too!

It's really handy to keep them in fridge. Chewy, sweet and very fragrant candy.

3/4 cup runny honey
1/2 cup milk powder
1 cup sesame seeds
1 cup shredded coconut
pinch of salt

Grease bread tin with butter. Mix coconut, sesame seeds, salt and milk powder. Heat honey until it begins to boil. Pour over the dry mixture. Stir well. Press this mass onto prepared tin. Refrigerate for an hour or longer. Now cut into cubes. Children will love it!

Watermelon Cheese Salad / Салат из Арбуза и Сыра

A very easy and refreshing late summer salad, when watermelons are everywhere in abundance:) Especially here in Turkey.

Use sweet and preferably seedless type of watermelon, fresh young cheese and herbs to get a light and healthy snack.

Recipe adapted from Macro magazine
for 6 portions

1 kg watermelon
250g white young cheese or your favourite
small bunch of mint (or use dry mint leaves)
small bunch of parsley
45ml balsamic vinegar
10ml runny honey
60ml olive oil
salt and black pepper to taste

Scoop watermelon with melon scoop. Cut cheese into cubes. Place watermelon balls and cheese cubes onto plates, add fresh leaves and sprinkle with oil, vinegar and honey. Season to taste. Very quickly!:)

Lemon Poppyseed Cheesecake {light} / Лимонно-Маковый Чизкейк (облегченный)

I haven't baked for a while, which is uncommon for me these past years. Maybe because of the heat, maybe some travel stress, or first attempts in home schooling my oldest girl...or everything together. But I am glad I found time to make this wonderful treat.

This cheesecake is absolutely divine, light, sweet with tangy notes of lemon. It is very much to my liking. Even my chocolate obsessed kids gave it their approval:)

I used labne (5% fat) and Greek yoghurt (3% fat) for the cheesecake part, which made this cake lighter. For the base I used basic sponge recipe (halved the recipe). Tender and smooth lemony curd made this dessert just perfect.

Sponge recipe (adapted from here)

2 eggs

120g sugar

120g flour

3g baking powder

120g soft butter

Grease 24cm spring form with butter. In a bowl beat eggs and sugar, add flour, baking powder, butter. Do not overbeat.

Pour the batter into prepared springform and bake at 170C for about 20 minutes. Let it cool a little.

Lemon Poppyseed Cheesecake (inspired by this here)

600g labne (or strained and slightly salted yoghurt)

250-300ml Greek yoghurt

6 eggs

200g sugar

vanilla to taste

rind of 1 lemon

2 tb.s. lemon juice

3tb.s. flour

150g poppy seeds

380g condensed milk

Very easy. Basically beat labne and yoghurt well, add sugar and eggs one by one, add lemon rind, juice, condensed milk and some flour. Now add poppy seeds and mix everything well.

Pour prepared mixture onto baked sponge. The mixture will get until the rim of the spring form. Carefully place the form into preheated to 160C oven and bake for 60 minutes. Check with a skewer, it should come out clean. Cool completely.

Lemon curd

juice and rind of 2-3 lemons

3 eggs

100g sugar

100g butter

Melt butter and sugar in a pan until dissolved. Take it away from fire and add eggs one at a time, whisking the mixture. return to fire and whisk all the time. Pour lemon juice with zest into buttery mixture. Heat and whisk until the curd thickens. Set aside and strain. Place curd into the fridge until needed.

Serve chilled cheesecake with lemon curd on top. Mmmm

Chicken, Grapes and Blue Cheese Salad / Салат с Курицей, Виноградом и Голубым Сыром

This is just a well known great combination of tasted and textures. Sweet fruit and sharp cheese dressing, juicy pieces of chicken meat, crunchy walnuts. I love these fruity salads so much! Hope I've inspired you to make it. Give yourself a treat!:)

200g roasted chicken meat, sliced
1 medium red apple
2 handfuls red grapes, cut in half
handful toasted walnuts
rucola (enough for 3-4 people)
some parsley leaves

2 egg yolks*
1 large garlic clove
about 100ml olive oil
about 80g blue cheese
1-2 t.s. lemon juice

Place rucola leaves into a salad bowl. Add chopped grapes, sliced apple and toasted walnuts.

Beat egg yolks, adding gradually olive oil into the mixture. Add lemon juice and crushed garlic. In the end add blue cheese and continue beating.

Divide mixed salad between dishes, place sliced chicken on top of every dish and sprinkle with blue cheese dressing.

* If children are going to eat it, I would not add egg yolks. The dressing will be just as delicious without them.

Enjoy!

Cheesy Risoni with Chicken Meatballs / Ризони с Сыром и Куриными Тефтелями

A very easy and quite healthy chicken meatballs with cheese and garlic and creamy risoni pasta.
The meatballs are not fried in oil, but instead boiled quickly in chicken stock, which makes them tender and delicious, cuts on calories too. Original recipe called for much more butter. I used just olive oil which was good.

Serves 4

250g risoni pasta
1-1,5 l chicken stock

2 large chicken breasts
4 pieces of stale bread (about 90g)
2 eggs
70-80g parmesan or sharp sheep cheese will also be good + some for garnishing
small bunch of parsley
1 t.s. dried thyme
black pepper and salt to taste
2 garlic cloves

olive oil

Begin by blending all ingredients for the meatballs in food processor. Now make small (about half a table spoon) sized balls. I got 24.

Pour chicken broth into a large pot and wait until it boils. Drop meatballs in three batches into chicken broth and cook during 8 minutes approximately. Take them out.

When all meatballs are ready cook risoni in the same broth until done. I found that adding garlic to the pasta will make the dish even better.

Serve risoni with some olive oil, garlic, chicken meatballs and cheese. Enjoy!

Frozen Mango Yoghurt Pops/ Йогуртовое Мороженое с Манго

I hope everyone enjoys sunny and warm weather these days! To cool off a bit and to refresh I suggest this little fruit treat:)

This is just a very quick and refreshing summer treat. Be sure to use ripe mangoes.

2 ripe mangoes (around 400g)
200g powdered sugar with vanilla
250ml water
100ml lemon juice + 1t.s. lemon zest
2-3 cardamom pods
200ml very thick yoghurt

Cook water, cardamom, lemon juice and zest and powdered sugar until it boils and continue simmering for about 5 minutes.
In the meantime blend mango flesh in food processor. Add sugar syrup (without cardamom) and blend until well combined. Wait a little until it cooled off a bit and add yoghurt. Pour into forms and freeze (overnight). Enjoy!

Makes 12 x 60ml pops.

Eastern Carrot Coconut Soup with Grilled Chicken/ Восточный Морковно-Кокосовый Суп с Курицей

Delicious and so easy to make soup! My family loves soups, but to tell the truth, I often don't want to make them just because they go down so fast and everyone is hungry soon again:) Yeah, I know, it's bad. But if I do make a soup it at least would not take a lot of time to prepare.

This eastern carrot coconut soup is in that category. Takes less than half an hour and it is filling as well. It has mild taste, little spicy and not dull at all. Try it and you'll like it!:)

Serves 4 (adapted from Dutch cooking magazine)

750ml water
400ml coconut milk
500g carrots, peeled and chopped
2 tablets of chicken stock
2 chicken breasts, cuts lengthwise into stripes
olive oil
salt, black pepper
some chili pepper to taste (for chicken and soup)
2t.s. cumin powder (one for chicken one for soup)
1t.s. dried mint
flat bread to serve

Into a large pan place carrots, coconut milk and water. Add crushed chicken stock tablets and bring to boil. Cook on medium low for 10 minutes. Add salt, pepper to taste. Blend with hand blender and return to fire to cook for 10 more minutes.
In the meantime, grill or fry chicken seasoned with pepper, salt and cumin powder.
Pour soup into plates, sprinkle some dry mint on top and add chicken. Enjoy !

Watermelon Strawberry Coconut Slush / Арбузно-Клубничный Лед

This fruit ice is a very handy finding for our hot summers!
We love being in Istanbul, enjoying every day here. Especially summer period...I wish it was summer all the time:) Thick curtains or window blinds on windows is a must here, it's not like it used to be in our Dutch apartment ..we had..nothing on our windows and so we enjoyed every ray of sunshine whenever the sun visited us:) But no, the weather in the Netherlands is not that bad actually. It just changes quickly.

Summers in Istanbul (really warm and pleasant weather lasts from mid April and lasts until...almost begining of December, but summer is baking) can be really hot, but luckily quite dry. And sometimes the only thing you can eat is a piece of fruit. You are actually mostly thirsty than hungry. So this kind of *food* is indeed a finding! Plus - watermelons are so cheap!:) I eat it at breakfast or throughout the day any time. It's delicious and filling and beautiful!:) So yeah...if you feel like losing some weight...come and stay with us for the summer!:)

Makes about 6 servings.

1 cup strawberries (or almost two handfuls)
2,5-3 cups cubed watermelon
2 medium sized bananas
100ml coconut milk

Place watermelon cubes and chopped banana into an airtight container and freeze (overnight).
When ready to make this ice:  take frozen fruit from the freezer. Transfer into a blender and whiz until smooth. Add fresh strawberries and whiz again. Now pour coconut milk and mix until incorporated.
Serve immediately and enjoy!

* It delicious as soft serve, but also can be frozen entirely and eaten at sorbet, if you like

Spicy Carrot Dip / Пряный Морковный Дип

I love hummus, but I rarely can eat it, because beans are too heavy for my stomach. But I found a really tasty alternative! Carrots, garlic, chili pepper, tomato... creamy and aromatic. Very healthy as well! And easy to digest!:)

Makes one medium sized bowl.

200g carrots
salt to taste
2 garlic cloves
1/3 t.s. cinnamon powder
1/2 t.s. dry mint powder
1 t.s. chili pepper flakes
1 tb.s. tomato paste
2 tb.s. olive oil

Boil peeled carrots until soft. Pour the remaining water out. Add to the pan with carrots mashed garlic, mint, pepper, cinnamon, salt, tomato paste and olive oil and blend with hand blender until creamy. Add more oil if you like. But 2 table spoons were enough.

Try it with any bread, raw vegetables, or chips even!
Enjoy!!

Strawberry Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting/ Клубничные Капкейки с Кремом

First of all congrats to all Dutchmen for a new king Willem-Alexander! I didn't prepare anything orange though...but I was close:)

These light and fruity cupcakes do their task very well- they bring summer into your house:)  High percentage of strawberries makes them really moist and very fragrant. I reduced butter content in the dough and added some Greek yoghurt instead, which made this dessert even lighter in terms of calories. Frosting is rich, tangy and has a hint of this nice and fresh strawberry flavour.

50g butter
50g Greek yoghurt
125g flour
10g baking powder
125g sugar
vanilla
2 eggs
4 tb.s. milk
200g strawberries
zest of 0,5 lemon

Oven 200C.
Mix butter and sugar until creamy, add eggs one by one, yoghurt and milk. Stir in flour and baking powder with vanilla and lemon zest. Carefully add cut into chunks and slightly rolled in flour strawberries.
Divide the dough between 12 cupcake forms lined with paper. Bake during 15 min. Chill them completely.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

500g cream cheese
300g vanila powdered sugar
2tb.s. strawberry jam, blended
50g soft butter

Beat cream cheese and sugar powder until light, add soft butter and jam one spoon at a time. Make sure there are no lumps. Chill before piping.
This frosting is enough for 12 cupcakes and 8x60ml ice cream pops. It makes really good creamy frozen dessert for the kids. If you don't need that, just use only half of every ingredient to frost the cupcakes.

Skinny Strawberry Ricotta Clafoutis/ Диетический Клафути с Рикоттой

This is my piece of dessert:) Of course, it's not really original, but still a very tasty strawberry pudding...full of protein and low on fat and carbs. Since I'm trying to avoid fast carbs and also I am on very low grain % diet for several weeks already, this dessert is right for me:)

The texture here is slightly different than original creamy version, but the whole result was surprisingly good .. It's light, juicy, fruity and pudding like smooth. Summer is near:) Knowing that this dessert is kind of healthier makes it extra good for me:) Hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did!

400g strawberries
2-3tb.s. liquer/cognac...
250ml milk
vanilla
pinch salt
3 eggs
sugar substitute in powder (to taste)
250g ricotta
70g buckwheat flour


Oven 175C. Mix berries with alcohol.
Heat milk with vanilla.
Beat eggs with sugar sub and salt, add milk, carefully add ricotta and flour. Using hand blender smooth the batter out. Pour this batter into lightly greased tart form  (around 25cm) and scatter berries with their liquid over the top. Bake clafoutis during 35 min. Eat warm or cold.

Roasted Plums Salad+ / Салат с Печеными Сливами+

Today I am sharing two recipes actually. It was our brunch:) The recipes are so simple yet so very tasty and healthy that I am just putting them both in one post today.
Healthy food is tasty and so pretty, actually. Well, I agree, a healthy cake...I am not sure how it would look though...

So, our breakfast took 25 minutes to prepare, approximately. It was actually one ingredient two ways. Roasted plums. In a refreshing fragrant salad with cheese and crunchy toasted almonds and in a healthy creamy chocolate yoghurt dessert/dip.

For two people you'd need:

Healthy Chocolate Yoghurt:

6tb.s. drained Greek yoghurt
2tb.s. cocoa powder
powdered sugar or substitute to taste

Mix well drained Greek yoghurt with sugar powder or substitute and cocoa powder.

Roasted Plums Salad with Cheese:

9 small plums, halved, stone removed
1-2 tb.s. runny (flower) honey
1tb.s. rose vinegar or balsamic
2tb.s. olive oil
bunch of fresh ruccola
handful of almonds
app.50g sheep cheese
black pepper, salt

Place fresh ruccola on each plate. Toast raw almonds on dry frying pan. Preheat oven to 200C. Place plum halves into a small baking dish, drizzle with honey and roast for about 15 minutes, turning half way.
Place several roasted plums on top of your salad. Add small pieces of sheep cheese. Sprinkle with toasted almonds.Drizzle with rose vinegar, olive oil and honey. Season with pepper.
Add some plums to the chocolate yoghurt and drizzle with honey if you wish. Take your time to enjoy your breakfast!:)

Chicken Mushroom Loaf with Cheese/ Запеканка из Курицы с Грибами и Сыром

This loaf is so easy to put together and it is one of my favourite dishes. I must say I could eat the entire thing in one day...I just have to stop myself all the time:)

It's juicy, full of flavours, low on fat and carbs and with a lot of different vegetables. My kids eat this stuff every time I make it, it's a 100% success. It's also easy to take with you on a trip/picnic, if you slice it cold and make sandwiches. Very convenient:)

500g chicken breasts, minced
1 large red onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
2 garlic cloves
250g mushrooms
small bunch of dill
2 eggs
3-4tb.s. flour (I use WW)
salt, black pepper

sheep cheese/parmesan for grating on top (not too much)
a couple of spoons of ketchup or spicy tomato sauce


On olive oil cook half of the onion and carrots until they begin to get golden. Add chopped mushrooms and cover with frying pan the lid. Cook, stiring a couple of times for about 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 175C. Brush baking dish (rectangular for baking bread) with olive oil.

Mix minced chicken with another half of chopped onion, chopped garlic and tomato. Season to taste. Add chopped dill, eggs and mushroom mixture. Regulate thickness of the mixture by adding more or less flour. Don't make it stiff though.

Transfer everything into prepared baking dish. Spread some ketchup over the top. Cover with aluminium foil and bake 30 minutes. The remove foil, sprinkle with grated cheese and bake for about 15 more minutes. Enjoy it warm or even cold.