Savoury Parmesan and Marmite Protein Bars

In the UK, you can't buy savoury protein bars, so I've been thinking about this for some time.  Sweet protein bars tend to use dried fruit as the 'glue', so I had to google for ideas as to what 'glue' to use for these savoury bars.  Quinoa seemed to be used quite a bit, which is of course also high in protein, so perfect here.

These do dry out quite well in the oven and become fairly crispy on the outside, which was the texture I was going for.

I think next time, I shall actually cut it into 10 bars instead of 12, which will give 146 calories, 8g protein and 4g dietary fibre.




Nutrition Information per bar (makes 12)
Calories: 122
Protein: 7g
Carbohydrate: 11g
Fat: 6g
Dietary Fibre: 3g

Ingredients
80g dried quinoa (cooked)
100g oats
40g hemp powder
20g salted almond kernels
20g salted pistachio kernels
30g milled flaxseed
50g grated parmesan
1 heaped teaspoon marmite (17g)
80g light soya milk

Method

• Cook the quinoa according to instructions.
• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• In a large bowl, weigh out the oats, hemp powder, flaxseed and parmesan.  Mix in the marmite with your fingers until it's distributed through the ingredients.
• Grind the nuts together in a blender and mix into the dry ingredients.
• Mix in the quinoa, and stir in the milk until the mixture forms a paste.
• Grease a 20cm non stick square metal baking tin, and press the mixture down well.  Score into 12 rectangles.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 mins until firm and browned (yes, you will actually be able to tell they've browned!).
• Remove from the oven, cut into bars, allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then cool completely on a wire rack.
• Wrap individually in foil, and store in an airtight box for up to a week.

Healthy Egg McMuffin

I don't eat much bread at all, but I like it occasionally.  In the UK, unless you buy bread rolls, bread comes in huge 800g (sometimes 400g) loaves.  This says a lot about how much bread is eaten as a staple in the British diet.  This is in contrast to Japan where bread is bought in packets of 3 or 6 impossibly thick slices (and only usually of white bread).  When I was living in Japan, after visits to the UK I occasionally brought back an 800g loaf of sliced wholemeal bread, and put in my freezer.

These days, I have a tiny under the counter fridge, with only an ice box to freeze things in.  Consequently, if I buy a loaf of bread, I'd probably eat a maximum of 4 slices before it went mouldy.

The other evening, I found myself googling microwave bread and came across a recipe from this website http://www.thelaundrymoms.com/trim-healthy-mama-bread/.  I came across other ones too, that I'll probably try sometime soon.  As I already had the ingredients for this one, I decided to try it.  The first time, I used a whole egg in the bread, instead of the powdered egg white and water, and ate it with ham, mustard and dairylea cheese.  Today, as I wanted to eat it with egg, I just used egg white in the bread.  This bread is very high in fibre, vitamin D and omega 3, 6 and 9, and also provides calcium, zinc and iron.  Although high in fat, along with the fibre this keeps you feeling full until lunchtime, and most of the fat comes from the omega fatty acids.  Taking only about 5 minutes to make, this is a very quick and easy breakfast, as well as being very low in carbohydrate and calories!

Ingredients
For the bread
1 x 5g sachet powdered egg white, made up with 7 teaspoons warm water.
4 level tablespoons (24g) milled flaxseed
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 - 1 teaspoon (4g) softened butter (I use spreadable butter and don't keep it in my fridge)
Herbs to taste

For the egg and cheese filling
1/2 - 1 teaspoon (4g) softened butter
10g low fat grated cheddar cheese

Nutrition Info
For the bread
Calories:  149
Protein: 8.5g
Carbohydrate: 1.78g
Fat: 12g
Dietary Fibre: 6.8g

For the egg and cheese filling
Calories: 117
Protein: 8.4g
Carbohydrate: 0.2
Fat: 8.9g
Dietary Fibre: 0g

Method

• In a cereal bowl, mix the powdered egg white with 2 teaspoons warm water, then mix with an additional 5 teaspoons warm water.  
• Stir in the milled flaxseed, baking powder, herbs and butter.  Flatten in the bowl.
• Microwave in a 750w oven for 1 and a half minutes.
• Turn out onto a baking rack to let the steam escape.
• In another cereal bowl, beat the egg with the butter, don't worry about any large bits.
• Microwave in a 750w oven for about 1 minute until set.
• Slice the bread in half, put the set egg on one half and sprinkle with the grated cheese.
• Sandwich with the other half and enjoy!
  

Notes

• If you don't have powdered egg white, then use a whole egg without the water.
• I buy milled flaxseed from Lidl or Aldi - it is much cheaper there than from a health food shop.
• You could probably cut down on the fat and calories more by reducing the butter in the recipe.

Baked Coconut Lentils

This recipe pretty much came from the Whole Foods recipe site and is given here http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/baked-coconut-lentils.  In its own right, it looked so delicious I generally followed the method, but substituted soft dried figs for the dates.  In pre-cooking the lentils in the saucepan before baking, I used enough boiling water to cover, and then added more water as necessary to ensure a cooking time of 30 minutes.The following are the ingredients I used for one person, and the corresponding nutritional information.  As usual, I used my LeKue steam case for the baking part, as it's so easy to wash afterwards!  The cooking smells were wonderful too, I'll definitely be making this again...

Ingredients (serves 1)
1 teaspoon coconut oil
50g chopped onion (I use frozen)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon ginger paste
3 soft dried figs, chopped
1 teaspoon soy sauce
50g brown lentils, uncooked
15g unsweetened dessicated coconut

Nutrition Info
Calories: 402
Protein: 15g
Carbohydrate: 53g
Fat: 15g
Dietary Fibre: 21g

Chard and Chickpea Stir-fry

Quick, healthy, flavoursome and colourful stir-fry!  Whilst it is very low in protein and fat, it's also very high in fibre and so is actually quite filling to balance a higher calorie meal in the day!





Ingredients
50g red chard
100g pak choi
25g carrot (about a 1/4)
10g ginger root
120g chickpeas (about 1/2 can)
1 tsp olive oil
juice of 1 lime
1 tsp runny honey
1 tsp soy sauce
tiny bit of garlic puree

Nutrition Info
Calories: 247
Protein: 8g
Carbohydrate: 40g
Fat: 6g
Fibre: 7.5g

Method

• Wash the chard and pak choi and use scissors to cut into smaller pieces.
• Peel the carrot into thin ribbons with a vegetable peeler.  Cut into bite size pieces with a knife.
• Peel and cut the ginger into small ribbons with a knife.
• Drain the chickpeas.
• Mix together the lime juice, honey, soy sauce and garlic puree.
• In a wok or frying pan, heat the olive oil over a medium-high heat.  Add all the ingredients and stir-fry for 3-4 minutes until piping hot, but the carrot should still be al dente.
• Serve immediately.

Smoked Trout with Beetroot and Creamy Rocket

And so, I think, starts an obsession with cooking rings...!  This was so quick and simple, yet had a delicious clean flavour and looked effective.







Nutrition Info (excluding puree)
Calories: 304
Protein: 15g
Carbohydrate: 15g
Fat: 21g
Dietary Fibre: 2.5g

Ingredients (serves 1)
Beetroot puree for decoration (www.creamsupplies.co.uk)
Sprig of dill
1 cooked (85g) beetroot
handful (30g) of wild rocket (rucola/arugula)
1 heaped tsp (30g) horseradish sauce
2 heaped tsp (28g) sour cream
50g smoked trout flakes

Method

• Pipe the beetroot puree onto a plate.
• Position an oiled cooking ring onto the plate.  Make a first layer of sliced beetroot.
• Mix the rocket, horseradish sauce and sour cream and press down onto the beetroot layer.
• Top with the flaked smoked trout, garnish with dill, and serve.

Chicken and Brown Rice Meatloaf

Nutrition Data (for whole meatloaf, serves 6-8 with a salad or vegetables)
Calories 1094
Protein 101g
Carbohydrate 112g
Fat 25g
Dietary Fibre 11g



Ingredients
400g minced chicken thigh
380g cooked (1 cup dried) brown rice
1 medium onion
1 stick celery
1 egg, beaten
100g non fat yoghurt
1 tsp nutmeg
good grating black pepper

Method

•  Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
•  Dice the onion and celery.
• In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients thoroughly.
• Pack well into a loaf tin; I use a silicone loaf tin, so don't need to grease it.
• Bake in the oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes until golden brown on top.  Drain off the fat and cooking juices.
• Let it stand for 10 minutes, then slice. Serve hot or cold.

Tips
This can be frozen.  Once the meatloaf is cold, finish slicing it and wrap the individual slices in greaseproof paper and put in a freezer bag.  Freeze on the same day.

Kimchi butter stir-fried cabbage with orange

 Ingredients
White cabbage
Broken-up orange, pith removed
kimchi butter for stir-frying (blend 1 quantity unsalted butter with 2 quantities kimchi)

Method

• Slice enough cabbage and put in a wok with some kimchi butter.  Stir fry for a few minutes, adding the broken orange pieces at the end to warm through.
• Serve immediately.

Kimchi buttter and blue brie croissant

Aaaggghhhh, I hear you cry!  That is just not going to work!  My initial reaction was the same when I read  in the Flavour Thesaurus about Momofuku Restaurant in New York selling a kimchi butter and sweet gorgonzola croissant.  Still, I was intrigued, and the more I thought about it the more I could imagine that the flavours could probably temper each other quite well.  So I attempted it and it was delicious!

Of course, there was the snag of obtaining sweet gorgonzola, otherwise known as dolcelatte.  You can relatively easily buy danish blue, gorgonzola and other strong blue cheese in Japan, I couldn't get dolcelatte.

I processed kimchi with some butter in my blender, and was astonished at the change in taste.  I love kimchi and will quite happily eat it from the jar, but blending it with butter amazingly transformed the tart spiciness into sweet tangy creaminess.  Hmmm, this could work, I thought!

With misgivings, I tried using regular gorgonzola, unsurprisingly it didn't work.  What I settled on in the end was Gerard Fromage Bleu which is like a blue brie, and available from Yamaya.  Delicious! If anyone tries this with dolcelatte, please let me know!


Ingredients
1 quantity butter
2 quantities kimchi
slices of blue brie
croissants

Method

•  Blend the kimchi and butter in a blender, putting it into the microwave for intervals of 10-20 seconds if the butter is too hard.
• Split the croissant with a sharp knife.  Spread both sides with the kimchi butter.
• Top with thin slices of blue brie and sandwich the two halves together.
• Enjoy! 

Tobiko and Soft Cheese Rye Bread

A straightforward snack!  Cut 3 slices of Delba Wholegrain rye bread in half.  Spread with soft cheese, and sprinkle a little tobiko on top.

Tuna and Avocado Flower

I had this stunning dish in a bar last night, and so wanted to recreate it quickly before I forgot... It looks so beautiful - it was a bar snack, but would be beautiful as a starter for a special meal.






Ingredients (serves 1)
5 very thin slices of daikon (mooli/Japanese radish)
1/2 ripe avocado
1/2 rounded tsp green pesto
about 20g very fresh raw tuna
a little red onion
about 2 tsp flying fish roe (tobiko)
a sprig of something dark green

Method

• Peel a small piece of daikon and slice it into 5 very thin rounds - you can use a knife or vegetable peeler for this. If it is thin enough you will see the veining on the daikon.
• Arrange on a small plate as a 5 petaled flower.
• Thinly slice a little red onion into slivers.
• Roughly chop the raw tuna into about 1cm cubes.
  
• Mash the half avocado with about 1/2 rounded teaspoon of green pesto. Mix in the tuna.
• Arrange the avocado mixture on the daikon petals, top with the slivers of red onion, and scatter the flying fish roe on top.
• Chop something green on top. I just chopped a bit of green salad leaves on top, but you could use basil or parsley.
• Serve immediately!

Cheesy potato marmalade balls

Ingredients (makes 5 or 6)
2 medium potatoes
50ml milk
honey according to taste
3 cheese slices (for melting)
marmalade for topping



Method

• Cut the potatoes into 1cm pieces and put in the LeKue steam case for 5 minutes in a 600w microwave. Carefully mash as much as you can and then microwave for another 3 minutes.
• Mix in the cheese slices, milk and honey. Microwave for another 2 minutes.
• Mix well, put spoonfuls onto cling film and twist and squeeze into balls.
• Unwrap and decorate with marmalade.
  

New Potato, Asparagus and Bacon Hot Salad

Ingredients
4 new potatoes
4 pieces asparagus
4 pieces of lean bacon or proscuitto ham
1 thick triangle processed cheese (I used processed mozzarella)
Black pepper

Method

• Wash the potatoes, but don't peel. Cut into bite-sized pieces.
• Wash and cut the asparagus diagonally into bite-sized pieces.
• Cut the bacon or ham into small pieces.
• Put the potato pieces into the LeKue steam case and into a 500w microwave oven for 2 minutes.
• Add the asparagus and bacon and continue cooking in the microwave for 1.5 to 2 minutes.
• Add the processed cheese and microwave for one more minute.
• Stir and add freshly ground black pepper to serve.
  

Orange Caramelized Onion & Potato Frittata

Nutrition Data (for the whole frittata, serves 4 with a salad)
Calories 800
Protein 42g
Carbohydrate 98g
Fat 25g
Dietary Fibre 14g


Ingredients
3 large onions, chopped
100ml orange juice
1 tablespoon marmalade
about 250g potatoes
5 medium eggs, beaten with a teaspoon of dill and a good grating of pepper
1 teaspoon olive oil for greasing the pan

Method

• Wash and scrub the potatoes and boil them whole in a pan of water until tender. Chop roughly into cubes.
• Meanwhile, boil the chopped onion in the orange juice and marmalade until brown. Right at the end of cooking time, as the orange juice has evaporated, stir well to get all the dark brown caramel to coat the onions.
  
• Beat the eggs.
• In a frying pan, heat the olive oil and coat the pan, making sure that the sides of the pan are oiled. Add the potatoes and onions and pour over the beaten egg.
  
• Leave on a medium heat for about 10 - 15 minutes without disturbing, until the egg is set.

Bite-Sized Pepper Steak

OK, the picture really doesn't do this justice... The beef isn't really burnt, but it's a really wet day today and the lighting on this photograph is terrible.

Although I've never been vegetarian (I like sausages too much!), my family and friends know that I eat very little meat as it is, but instead add smaller quantities (usually ham) to vegetable dishes.

As a child, I hated beef, and I still never choose it in restaurants because it's never cooked as I like it. Since I came to Japan, and discovered the sliced medium roast beef in the supermarkets, I now eat it every few months just as it is. It is still pink, but is actually cooked, and really melts in the mouth.

Today, I decided to make pepper steak for the first time - I don't think I've ever eaten it before. For this many mouthfuls, I used a 100g piece of steak.

Ingredients
100g piece of good quality steak
a lot of freshly ground black or mixed peppercorns
about 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
about 4 tablespoons of mirin
olive oil for frying

Method

• Cut the steak into bite-sized pieces.
• Grind the pepper onto a plate.
• Coat both sides of the steak with the pepper.
• Heat the olive oil in a frying pan, and add the steak pieces. Brown both sides.
  
• REMOVE FROM THE HEAT.
• Quickly pour in the soy sauce and mirin (exact quantities don't matter, just roughly 2 parts mirin, 1 part ssoy sauce). It will bubble vigorously and thicken a little. It will also produce an impressive flame if you forget to remove from the heat... Make sure that the beef has been coated in this sauce. Tip: use the sauce to cook the beef to your liking, rather than the browning stage - the bubbling sauce will quickly cook the beef through.
  
• Serve immediately.
  

Ham and Mustard Twice Baked Creamy Jacket Potatoes

I'm not going to give any measurements because you will need to use more or less depending on the number and size of the potatoes, and according to taste. If you can get baby new potatoes, they would be best.






Ingredients
Small potatoes
Mascarpone cheese
Dijon mustard
Proscuitto type ham, chopped
Salt and black pepper

Method

• Bake the potatoes until they are soft. (I have a magic baked potato setting on my oven).
• Take out from the oven and let them cool for about 10 minutes until they are cool enough to handle. Turn the oven up to 230C.
• Slice off the top of each potato and eat it to keep you going until the potatoes are ready.
• Using a teaspoon, carefully scoop the potato out of the little jacket potatoes into a bowl.
• Mash with the mascarpone, dijon mustard, salt and black pepper, stir in the chopped ham. Taste and add accordingly.
• Using a teaspoon again and your fingers, pile the mixture back into the potato skins, and press the skins back into place if you tore them. Grate lots of black pepper over the top.
• At this point you can wrap some of these up with cling film and keep in the fridge for a couple of days until you are ready to reheat.
• Bake the potatoes in the 230C oven for about 10 minutes until the mixture is hot.
  

Cod and Poached Egg on Wholemeal Toast

Now that was a delicious breakfast! I steamed some cod in the microwave for a couple of minutes, mashed it with some fresh dill, and piled it on one small slice of wholemeal bread. I put a poached egg on the other piece of wholemeal bread.

Lentil and Vegetable Gratin (improved!)

I originally posted this recipe as Lentil and Courgette Gratin back in September last year, when I didn't have an oven. Since moving house, I bought myself an oven and have been making this recipe a lot recently. I have made some amendments/improvements to the recipe, and am now even more happy with it.

It's a very healthy recipe: it's very high in fibre and low in fat, as the crispy base is not made from pastry but a combination of red lentils, oats and now also wheat bran. The wheat bran came into the recipe by chance, as I only had half of the amount of oats needed.

Nutrition Data (per portion)
Calories 313
Protein 21g
Fat 10g
Carbohydrate 37g
Dietary Fibre 14.5g

Ingredients (serves 4)
Crust

125g/4ozs red lentils (in Japan, sold on Rakuten or in some import food shops such as Nissin)
10ml/1dsp olive oil
1 onion, peeled & finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
15ml/1tbsp tomato purée
25g/1oz oat flakes and 25g/1oz wheatbran
10ml/2tsp of your favourite dried herbs

Filling
250g vegetables such as courgettes, leeks, broccoli or cauliflower (or a mixture), diced
2 eggs, beaten
15ml/1tbsp wholemeal flour
50ml/2fl ozs skimmed milk
pepper
50g/2ozs Cheddar Cheese


Method

1. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 5/375^oF/190^oC.
2. Cook the lentils in twice their volume of water for about 20 minutes, until they are fairly soft and the excess water has dried out. Beat well with a spoon.
3. Heat the oil in a pan and gently fry the onion and sliced garlic for about 6 minutes until soft and golden brown.

4. Remove from the heat and mix in the cooked lentils, tomato purée, oats, wheatbran and herbs. Season well. The mixture should be thick enough to hold together. If the lentils are a little wet, return the pan to the heat to dry them out.
5. Press the mixture into the base and up the sides of an 20cm/8″ flan dish. It is easier to do this with your hands than with a spoon. Pre-bake at 190C for 20 minutes until it is slightly dried out.

6. For the filling, lightly steam the vegetables for 4 minutes or until tender.
7. Blend the eggs with the flour, then add the milk. Stir in the steamed vegetables and season well.
8. Spoon the filling into the pre-dried flan case. Sprinkle with grated cheese.

9. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the filling has set.
10. Serve hot or cold with jacket potatoes and salad, or with soup.


Tips

• This can be taken out of the tin, cooled on a wire rack, then cut up and frozen in individual portions. Unwrap and reheat from frozen at 200C for 30 minutes.
• Finely grating the cheese makes it go further.
  

Flower Snacking Plate

I really need to improve the lighting for taking photos in this new house - they're coming out really insipid-looking...

This came from an idea I saw in a magazine whilst I was away.

Cut the crusts off 5 or 6 pieces of bread and roll each piece thinly with a rolling pin.

Arrange 4 or 5 pieces around the edge of a round metal tin and press the final piece into the bottom. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C for 15 to 20 minutes until the bread is crisp and browned at the edges. Leave in the tin for a couple of minutes and then put on a wire rack to cool.

Put the bread 'flower' on a plate and fill with ham/cheese rosettes, cooked vegetables, fruit and boiled eggs etc.

Melted Oozing Camembert with Toasted Walnuts and Brandied Raisins

It's taken me a couple of goes to get a photo of this recipe and so be able to add this post, I'm usually too hungry to hang around taking photos!





Nutrition Information
Calories: 325
Protein: 12g
Fat: 10g
Carbohydrate: 34g
Dietary Fibre: 7g

Ingredients
2 slices of rye bread (total 62g)
2 segments of camembert or brie (total 34g)
8g walnuts (4 halves)
3 teaspoons of brandied raisins

Method

• Roughly crumble the walnuts into a saucepan and dry fry until hot and toasted.
• Put the rye bread on a microwaveable plate, a piece of camembert on each slice, and sprinkle over the brandied raisins and the walnuts.
• Microwave for 40 seconds until the camembert is just oozing. Flatten the camembert slightly.
  
• Eat immediately!
  

Tofu and Wakame Miso Soup

It was about time that I put a recipe for my miso soup on here. Recently, a friend of mine gave me some homemade niboshi dashi which is a dried stock mixture of grated dried anchovies and grated kombu. It's best to use a fish stock for this recipe if you substitute, although I've used chicken gravy granules before successfully enough...

Servings for this recipe vary... I had it all for myself for breakfast, but depending on when you're eating it and what you're eating it with, it could probably serve up to 3 people!

Nutrition Data
The thing I would note most with this is that whilst miso soup is very healthy, and much healthier than many other food choices available, it is worth choosing low salt varieties of stock and miso. This nutrition data is only for the tofu and the miso, and with the assumption that you eat it all!
Calories: 146
Protein: 10.5
Fat: 7.2g
Carbohydrate: 10g
Dietary Fibre: 2g

Ingredients
400 ml of dashi stock (use the instructions according to your recipe)
6 pieces of wakame seaweed
150g silken tofu
1 heaped teaspoon of miso

Method

• I made the dashi by putting 2 rounded teaspoons of the homemade dashi in a saucepan with 400ml of water, and heating it to simmering point.
• Whilst it is heating, cube the tofu and add this, together with 6 pieces of wakame.
• Take out a tablespoon of dashi and mix the miso in this, then quickly stir it in just as the dashi is simmering.
• Serve immediately.

Note
If I was doing this properly or for other people, I would have strained the dashi before adding the other ingredients, but I don't usually bother when I'm being quick.