FoodBlogSwap: American Pancakes

The FoodBlogSwap is a swap between bloggers from the Netherlands. This month I had to pick something from the blog Mammatje van Alles, which is a blog about mommyhood. The blog of course also has a lot of recipes. I had 3 recipes in my pre selection, but I decided to go back to basics and choose for American Pancakes. I have a lot of pancake and fritter recipes on the blog, but I seem to skip the basic recipes. The original recipe had blueberries in them but Nick doesn't like them, so we went all natural. Sadly the pancakes that we made aren't as thick as the original either. That is just our skill I guess. We need more practice. The taste was delicious though and that is all that matters in the end.

American Pancakes:

- 250 gr wheat flour
- 250 gr wheat meal
- 700 ml milk
- 6 eggs
- 1 tsp salt

Separate the eggs. Clean a bowl with a paper towel and some lemon juice. Beat the egg whites stiff until they have peaks. In another bowl mix the flour, meal and salt. Add the egg yolk and milk. Stir through. Lastly add the egg whites carefully in 4 parts. Heat some oil in a frying pan. Bake small pancakes golden brown on both sides. 

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Slow Cooker: Sweet Sauerkraut

I have never posted a sauerkraut recipe on the blog before. And this is because I absolutely don't like it. At least not prepared in the regular way how my mom used to make it. Everything sour and bitter I don't like. But Nick loves sauerkraut, so when I saw a recipe by Jay Bee on the slow cooker Facebook group, I thought, why not give it a try? The verdict? Even though I don't expect sauerkraut to be my favorite, I liked it enough to finish my plate.

Sweet Sauerkraut: (serves 2)
- 1 package of sauerkraut
- 150 gr dates
- 1 apple
- 1 coffee cup of apple juice
- 1 tbsp curry powder
- dash of black pepper
- mashed potatoes for serving

Place the sauerkraut in a colander and rinse it. This way most of the sour taste gets washed away. Remove the pits from the dates and cut them. Peel the apple and cut them in to cubes. Put everything in the slow cooker and cook for 3-4 hours on low.

We served it with mashed potatoes. I often add the potatoes in the slow cooker as well for a mashpot. However with sauerkraut this is a bad idea because of the sourness from the cabbage, the potatoes will not soften.

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Typical Dutch: Mashpot Blote Billen in het Gras

This is a recipe that I loved to eat as a child and still have on the menu now. It is a mashpot with white beans and green beans. In the Netherlands we call this naked bums in the grass mashpot. I am sure you can understand why ;) Mostly when we make mashpot we use milk and butter, but in this mashpot I always use some creme fraiche. Because it just gives it a little extra flavour. The recipe is really easy and because you don't have to cook any fresh veggies, it is a quick mashpot too.

Mashpot Blote Billen in het Gras: (serves 2-3)
- 500 gr potatoes
- 1 jar (680 gr) white beans and cut green beans combination or about 350 gr of each
- 125 ml creme fraiche
- pinch of salt and pepper

Peel, cut and boil the potatoes. Rinse the beans in a colander. Then put them in a bowl and warm them in the microwave just before the potatoes are done. Drain them in the collander onces more, or else you will get too much fluids in your mashpot. Drain the potatoes and make a mash of them with the creme fraiche. Stir the beans through the mash and season with some salt and pepper.
We served them with some cheese sticks. But you can serve them with vegetarian sausages too.

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On a Budget: Greek Tomato Rice

This rice dish is so tasty that I am craving it while typing this post. We made it twice, once for dinner and last week for the bento. This is a dish that tastes good, warm or on room temperature. While for lunch this is for sure more expensive than just making a sandwich, it is a good budget option for your evening meal. The recipe I got from Flair at Home, but I adapted it to vegetarian.

Greek Tomato Rice: (serves 2, or 4 for lunch)

- 150 gr rice
- half a leek, in small pieces
- 330 ml tomato frito
- 250 ml vegetable broth
- 1 spring onion, in rings
- 2 bell peppers, in cubes
- feta
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp parsley
- pinch of pepper
- pinch of garlic powder

Heat some olive oil in a pan and bake the leek, spring onion and bell pepper for 3-4 minutes. Add rice, broth and frito, mix well. Let this simmer for about 20 minutes until the moist is vaporized. Stir occasionally. Add the spices about half way. Crumble some feta and stir through the dish before serving. 

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Slow Cooker: Indian Dahl

Ever since I have my slow cooker I have been eating a lot of Indian dishes and curries. They are just so tasty to make in the slow cooker. I never made dahl before because I am not a huge fan of lentils, or so I thought, but it also seems that it is a bit of an acquired taste to me. In the slow cooker they turn out really soft. I still think they taste a bit boring on their own, so I try to mix them up with veggies and spices. This dish is based on a recipe from the book 500 slow cooker meals by Carol Beckerman. But I made some adjustments. btw, dahl isn't a curry but an Indian thick soup. The dish is very budget friendly, especially when you have the spices in your pantry already.

Indian Dahl: (serves 4-6, 3.5L Slow cooker)
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil
- 1 tbsp kerrie or curry powder
- 1 tbsp turmeric
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 1 tbsp comun
- 1 tsp chilli powder
- 1 tsp fresh ginger, chopped
- 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 400 gr dried red lentils, rinsed (other lentils work too, we used brown ones here)
- 1150 ml vegetable broth
- 350 ml coconut milk
- 1 potato, peeled and in small cubes
- 1 red bell pepper, cubed

Heat the oil in a skillet and bake garlic shortly together with the ginger, curry powder, turmeric, paprika, cumin and chilli powder until the scents from the herbs are freed. Then add this mixture together with all the other ingredients in the slow cooker. Put it on low for 6-7 hours. But start tasting it at about 5 hours. It depends on the kind of lentils that you use, how long it is taking.
You can serve the dahl with flatbread or chapatis but we served it with a dollop of Greek yoghurt. Omit the latter when vegan.

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Slow Cooker: Vegan Spaghetti Sauce

I love myself a good pasta even though I know it is not very healthy. Still I have it about once every week. The recipe I am sharing today is from My Whole Food Life. She presents it as a one pot meal, including the spaghetti in the last 20 minutes. I tried it that way, but the spaghetti became one mushy clump. So this week I made it again, with only the sauce in the pan and cooked the spaghetti separately. This works way better and this sauce is a good basic tomato and bell pepper sauce.

Vegan Spaghetti Sauce: (serves 4, 3.5L slow cooker)
- 2 bell peppers (I used two red pointy ones, but use whatever colors you want), chopped
- 0.5 onion, minced
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 125 gr mushrooms, sliced
- 800 gr canned diced tomatoes
- 2 cups of water
- some fresh basil
- spaghetti for 4 persons, for serving

In a pan, bake the garlic and onion shortly in some oil. Then add it to the cooker together with all the other ingredients except for the basil and spaghetti. Put it on high for 2 hours. Cook the spaghetti in a pan for the last 20 minutes of the cooking time and serve them together with some basil.

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Best Breakfast: Peanut Butter Granola

I hardly ever have breakfast with sandwiches any more, which is the norm in Dutch culture. Ever since I switched to granola with vanilla yoghurt in the morning, my digestion has been better in general. But because eating the same granola over and over gets boring as well, I tend to make the same one only two times in a row, and then try something new. While this isn't the most healthy one I posted, it is the easiest one and the most low budget one so far. For a lot of granola recipes I go to a speciality shop so I can weigh the exact amount of nuts and seeds that I need so I am not over paying because nuts and seeds are kinda expensive. For this recipe I don't have to go to the speciality shop, so it is really easy if I don't have much time for the extra trip.

Peanut Butter Granola: (Makes about 5 cups)
- 5 cups oats (about 450 gr)
- 0.5 cup peanut butter, maybe a bit more
- 0.5 cup honey
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- some chocolate pieces to taste (dark or milk)

Pre heat the oven to 140 degrees. Put the oats in a large bowl. Combine the peanut butter and honey and place it for about 45 seconds in the microwave until the peanut butter starts to melt. Add in the vanilla and stir through. Cover the oats with the mixture. Now you decide if it needs some more peanut butter. It depends if you can get everything covered.

Place the granola on a baking tray covered with parchment paper. Make sure that the granola is in a single layer. I always have to bake mine in two batches. Bake for about 20 minutes. Then stir and bake for about 10-15 minutes longer. Let it cool completely before adding the pieces of chocolate.

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Imbolc: Condensed Milk Cake

Today it is Imbolc and as always I try to share a related recipe for the feast. Milk is the main ingredient that is used for Imbolc cooking. So today I share a very basic cake, but with condensed milk. The cake has no added sugar, but of course the condensed milk is used as a sweetener here. The taste was a bit between a cake and a cheesecake so that is nice. But this cake doesn't keep that well and tastes best on the same day. The recipe is from Dr. Ola's Kitchen.  I am sorry for the weird color that the cake seems to have. The days here has been really gloomy and the daylight lamp I use sometimes does weird things to the pictures.

Condensed Milk Cake:
- 400 ml can condensed, sweetened milk
- 4 eggs
- 150 gr flour
- 0.5 tsp baking powder
- 50 gr melted butter + 1 tbsp for brushing the spring form

Pre heat the oven to 170 degrees. Grease the sides of your spring form and lay some parchment paper on the bottom. Anywhere between 18-22 cm spring form is fine for this cake.
Mix all the ingredients together with an electric mixer until smooth and pour them in to the spring form. Bake in a pre heated oven between 40 and 60 minutes. Use the toothpick test to see if it is done.

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Slow Cooker: Veggie Tikki Masala

One of the best thing to make in the slow cooker have to be curries. I actually am dipping a lot in the Indian style kitchen atm. I made this easy curry last week and it was also great in a bento. That is another thing I love about curry, it also tastes great cold. Next week I have more Indian dishes planned like bombay potatoes and soup. So those will be on the blog eventually. But back to the dish of today: Tikki Masala. It is budget friendly and tasty but I am not sure how authentic this recipe is. It doesn't really matter to me, as long as it tasted good :) The recipe I used is from Simply Life.

Veggie Tikki Masala: (serves 4, 3.5L Slow cooker)
- 425 gr canned crushed tomatoes
- 1 small can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tsp garam masala
- 0.25 tsp ground coriander
- 0.5 tsp curry powder
- 3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 1 cup of frozen peas
- naan to serve

Heat some oil in a pan and fry the onion, tomato paste and garlic for a bit. Transfer to the slow cooker and add every ingredient except for the peas and naan. Put on low for 4.5 hours. Add the peas for the last half hour. Make sure your peas are defrosted before adding them to the slow cooker.  Serve with naan.

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On a Budget: Kisir

Kisir is a Turkish bulgur salad. Next to couscous salad, this is one of my favorite salads. I first tasted it in the Turkish bakery nearby. But they don't serve it anymore. So that was the reason why I went looking for a recipe. There are a lot of recipes for kisir. Some use pomegranate juice or pepper paste. I found this very basic recipe on Oh my Foodness that I made several times. It comes really close to the one in the bakery. Sometimes I add a bit of cucumber as well. The reason why I blog the recipe now, is because I made it again for this weeks bento. It holds up really well on room temperature.

Kisir: (serves 4, as lunch)
- 150 gr bulgur
- 150 ml boiled water
- 2 spring onions, in rings
- 1 tomato, in small cubes
- lemon juice
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- fresh chives, parsley and dill, chopped (if you don't have all, just use what you have)
- salt and pepper

Put the bulgur in a bowl and pour the water on top. Cover the bown and leave it until the bulgur has absorbed the water. Stir it loose with a fork.
Heat some oil in a pan and bake the spring onions shortly together with the tomato paste. Add this mixture to the bulgur. Stir through so all the bulgur gets a red color. Then add the tomato.
Now from this point on it is all about the tasting. Add the fresh herbs, a bit of each and some lemon juice. Stir and taste. Also add some salt and pepper, if desired. The lemon juice makes all the difference, because it brings the flavours to life.
Place the salad in the fridge and leave it there for a few hours so the flavours can develop.

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Luxury Lunch: Turkish Potato Salad

Potato salads have the image of being unhealthy because of all the mayonnaise involved. Since last year I have been dipping into the Turkish kitchen and on one of the blogs I follow was this recipe for Turkish Potato Salad with yoghurt. I tried it for the bento this week and both Nick and I loved it. It holds up well but is best at room temperature and not directly from the fridge. The recipe is from Mijn Mixed Kitchen and this is my go to blog for Turkish recipes. The original recipe also uses dill, but dill is one of the herbs that we doesn't use often and it just wilts away, so we left it out.

Turkish Potato Salad: (serves 4)
- 5 medium potatoes
- 3 spring onions
- 1 piece of cucumber
- Turkish yoghurt

Peel and cube the potatoes and boil them. Cut the spring onions and bake them shortly in some olive oil. Remove the core from the cucumber and cut it. Make sure your cucumber is drained well. You don't want a soggy salad. Mix everything together and add 2 tbsp Turkish yoghurt to cover everything. Maybe some more is needed. Cover your salad and leave it in the fridge for at least 2 hours before serving. But serve the salad at room temperature. The salad keeps for 2 days in the fridge.

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On a Budget: Low Carb Tuna Burgers

As you could see two days ago, I took these tuna burgers with me in a bento. I wanted to share the recipe fairly quickly because it fits this time of year perfectly when everyone is picking up healthy eating habits. These tuna burgers are low carb, budget friendly, easy to make and most important: delicious. They are tasty even when they are cold so therefore they are an excellent choice to take to work or school for lunch. The original recipe is from Koolhydraatarmrecept.nl.

Low Carb Tuna Burgers: (makes 8)
- 1 can of tuna, drained
- 1 egg
- a bunch of fresh chives
- 0.5 tsp paprika
- 1 heaping tbsp grated cheese
- pepper and salt

Make sure you drain as much fluids from the tuna as you can. You will have about 100 gr tuna leftover. Mix all the ingredients. Heat some oil in a pan. Shape 8 patties from about 6-7 cm. Bake the burgers for 5 minutes on each side until they are golden brown on medium heat.

You can eat the warm or cold. If you want some dipping sauce I can recommend garlic yoghurt or tzatziki.

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On a Budget: Indian Tomato Soup

The December month is expensive enough as it is, so I thought I would share a recipe with you for a starter for your Christmas meal. This soup is delicious because of the herbs used and it sure tastes different from classic tomato soup, so it will be a nice surprise for your guests. This recipe is especially cheap to make if you cook Indian on a regular basis because then you probably have all the spices you need already. However, even if you don't, it is an one time investment that is not really expensive. I found this recipe on Bonbon Break. We ate it as a main course a couple of days back with some bread. It would also be a great soup for lunch.

Indian Tomato Soup (serves 4 as a starter, 2 as a main)
- 800 gr canned crushed tomatoes
- 0.5 cup thick yoghurt
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 0.5 tsp ground cumin
- 0.5 tsp ground cardamom
- 0.5 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- fresh cilantro for serving (if they have it)
- dash of salt

Heat the olive oil in a large soup pan over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, salt, cardamom, cumin and cayenne. Bake for 10 minutes or until the onion is soft, stirring frequently. Keep a close watch at this point, you don't want your spices to burn.  Add the tomatoes and their juices. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add yoghurt and lime juice. Blend the soup until smooth. Garnish with cilantro.

I made it in the slow cooker myself so here is the slow cooker version too.
Just punt everything except the yoghurt and lime juice in the slow cooker. Put it on low for 4 hours to let the flavours develop. Then transfer the soup from the slow cooker to a pan, add the yoghurt and lime juice and blend the soup until smooth. Garnish with cilantro.

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Heartwarming Soup: Creamy Spinach Soup

The idea to make spinach soup started in a restaurant. I had a small portion of a delicious spinach soup at Tapas restaurant 't Zusje. And this was so delicious, that I wanted to make my own spinach soup at home. I found several recipes for all kinds of different spinach soup, and I think I will try out more recipes in the future. But this is a very tasty, basic and budget friendly spinach soup. I also had a bowl for lunch the next day and it was still just as good. The original recipe is from Hobbykok Pluis

Creamy Spinach Soup (serves 3)
- 450 gr frozen spinach
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, minced
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 3 tbsp flour
- 500 ml vegetable broth, warm
- 100 gr cream cheese
- 3 boiled eggs

Defrost the spinach and make a puree with a handheld blender. Heat the olive oil in a soup pan and glaze the onion, garlic and oregano on low heat. Add the flour and stir through. Add 100 ml of the broth and bring to a boil while stirring. Add the rest of the broth and let the soup simmer for 5 minutes. Then add the spinach and bring to a boil once more. Add some water if the soup is too thick. Let the cream cheese melt in the soup and serve with 2 egg halves on top.

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Vegan Mofo: Roasted Garlic Mushrooms

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with stuffed mushrooms because I love the stuffing but I dislike the fact that the mushrooms often come half raw out of the oven. From now on I will be using the method from this recipe for all the stuffed mushrooms recipes in the future.

Even though technically these aren't stuffed mushrooms, I can still bake the mushrooms in the pan beforehand, preventing them from coming out raw. I have made this dish two times already. The first time as a side dish and a 2nd time as an evening snack. I really love the flavours of this classic combination :) The original recipe is from Cakes Cottage.

Roasted Garlic Mushrooms: (serves 2)
- 16 mushrooms, stalks cut level
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
- 2 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
- 0.5 tsp garlic powder
- 5 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
- 1.5 tbsp lemon juice

Pre heat the oven to 200 degrees. In hot oil, fry the mushrooms, cap-side-down, for about 3 minutes. Line the mushrooms in an oven dish with the caps down. Mix together the thyme, butter, garlic, garlic powder and lemon juice. Cover each mushroom with a bit of the garlic butter and press some breadcrumbs on top. Bake for about 15 minutes, or store them in the fridge to warm up later.

Greta on it's own as a snack, or serve them with some baked potatoes and a meat replacement like above to make a meal.

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Vegan Mofo: Corn Soup

So for my second recipe for Vegan Mofo, I choose to share a corn soup. Corn is in season over here so I thought it would be a nice thing to try because I never made it before.

This soup is very easy to make when you don't have much time to cook and budget friendly. The only thing is that we didn't like the texture of the soup, so when we make it next time we will sift the soup after we blend it. Then it would be a perfect sweet soup. The original recipe is from The answer is food.

Corn Soup: (serves 2)
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 1 yellow bell pepper, in chunks
- 400 gr corn
- vegetable broth
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp coriander
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- fresh parsley
- 1 tbsp sunflower oil

bake the onion in hot oil for about 3 minutes. Add bell pepper and garlic and let it bake for a couple of minutes. Add the corn and also some broth until everything is under water. Add all the spices except for the parsley. Bring to a boil and let it simmer for a short while. Use a handheld blender to puree the soup and pour it through a sift, then add some parsley and maybe some of the other spices to taste. If the soup is too thick, add some water.

Serving suggestion: with cherry tomatoes and nacho chips.

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Lunch with Leftovers: Rice Salad with Strawberries

This is the last salad for now. I have to think up what I will publish from my backlog next. But today there is one more salad that I made. I used all kinds of leftovers I had in my fridge. The only think that I bought new were the strawberries. This recipe is great to use up some leftover rice from the day before.

Rice Salad with Strawberries: (serves 2)
- about 1 cup basmati rice
- some feta
- about 1/3 of a cucumber
- handful of cherry tomatoes
- about 10 small strawberries
- mayonnaise
- fresh basil

Cook the rice if you haven't got any leftovers. Let it cool down for about 10 minutes.
Cut the cucumber into cubes, the strawberries into slices and the cherry tomatoes in half. Add in a bowl with the rice.
In a small bowl, place a heaping tbsp of mayonnaise. Thin it with a tiny bit of water. The mayonnaise will shift in the beginning but keep stirring. Then chop some basil and add this to the dressing. Stir the dressing through the rice. and crumble some feta into the salad.

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Summer Special: Mexican Bean Salad

This has got to be my favorite from the salad recipes that I tried in the past weeks. I think this could be easily a new summer favorite for the super hot days, because you don't have to spend time behind the stove at all. The original recipe is from Oh My Foodness. I left out the raw red onions, but otherwise I didn't change that much. The lime juice makes it extra refreshing.

Mexican Bean Salad: (serves 2)
- 3 kinds of beans, 400 gr in total (I used mixed beans from HAK which had white beans, kidney beans and brown beans)
- 100 gr corn
- 1 avocado
- 2 tomatoes
- tortilla chips
- sour cream
- black pepper
- lime juice

Place corn and beans together in a colander. Rinse and drain the veggies until the water is clear. Make sure that as much from the fluids are drained as possible. Cube the tomatoes and avocado. Place everything together in a bowl and mix. Add some sour cream with lime juice and a dash of black pepper and stir through the salad.
In a deep plate, place the tortilla chips on the edges and lay the salad on top.

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On a Budget: Potato Salad with Chilli Yoghurt Dressing

Sometimes you get the best ideas when looking in your fridge. I posted a tuna salad yesterday, and I made this salad the day after I made the tuna salad. I used a lot of the same ingredients because I has leftovers, but this salad tasted completely different. It is fun to find out how you can make a completely different dish while changing very little.

Potato Salad with Chilli Yoghurt Dressing: (serves 2)
- 200 gr small potatoes
- some cherry tomatoes
- 1/3 of a cucumber
- Few hands of lettuce
- 1 cup of Greek yoghurt
- 0.5 cup of sweet chilli sauce

Bake the potatoes. Meanwhile cut the cucumber and cut the tomatoes in half. When the potatoes are done, toss everything in a bowl. Add some hands of lettuce. Mix the chilli sauce with the yoghurt for the dressing and coat the salad with it. Enjoy :)

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Fabulous Fish: Basic Tuna Salad

I don't get the chance to eat tuna a lot, because Nick doesn't like it. But he wasn't home and I wanted to make something easy but tasty. I actually made this Tuna Salad for lunch but I also had it for dinner that same night. There are several versions of basic tuna salads, but most of them have capers and raw onions in them. Both tastes are too strong for me and I really don't like them in my salads. I loved the simple tuna salad on Voedzaam en Snel, but I left out the onions and I served the salad in a wrap.

Basic Tuna Salad: (serves 2)
- 1 can tuna
- cucumber, 15 cm
- some cherry tomatoes
- rocket lettuce (or other lettuce to your taste)
- 2 tbsp yoghurt
- 1 tbsp mayonnaise

Drain the tuna well and place it in a bowl. Cut the cucumber. I sliced it and then cut the slices in 4. Half the cherry tomatoes. I used yellow ones this time, but you can use any tomato you want. Toss in some rocket lettuce or other lettuce to your liking.
Mix the yoghurt with the mayonnaise for the dressing.
I served the salad in a wrap but you can serve it on its own as well.

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