Kale and roast veg lasagne

Today's dinner was a rather successful veggie lasagne. Relatively quick to make, too, as I roast the vegetables last night. It tasted nice and creamy, and had a bit of kick.

KALE & ROAST VEG LASAGNE

1 onion, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 large aubergine, roughly diced
1 courgette, sliced
A few mushrooms, quartered
1 red pepper, roughly diced
6-8 tomatoes, halved or quartered depending on size

Place in a greased ovenproof dish and drizzle with olive oil, dried chili, oregano, a bit of pepper, flake salt and a pinch of sugar. Roast for about 40 mins on 200C.

Kale
Lasagne sheets
Passata
1 tub of crème fraîche
Parmesan

In the meantime, rinse and shred kale. I used 6 large leaves. Grease a lasagne dish. Find lasagne sheets (I used fresh, I would pre-cook dried ones) and crème fraîche. Grate parmesan cheese.

When the roast veg are ready, layer like this in the lasagne dish: Kale, roast veg, a bit of passata, a few dollops of crème fraîche, lasagne sheets. Finish with crème fraîche and parmesan. Place back in the oven for another 15-20 mins.

Mmmmm... Raw chocolate with peanut butter filling

I'm trying to cut back on sugar, and am thus making chocolate myself. Sweetened with agave nectar, yacon syrup and Sukrin (erythritol). Today I filled my chocolates with peanut butter mixed with a bit of virgin coconut oil and yacon syrup, in order to avoid the "dryness" of pure peanut butter. And it turned out to be an excellent combination!

My raw chocolate recipe at the moment is as follows:

3-4 tbsp cacao butter
1 large tbsp virgin coconut oil
1 large tsp yacon syrup
1 large tsp agave nectar
3 tsp powdered Sukrin
Approx. 3 tbsp raw cacao powder
A pinch of salt
A pinch of vanilla powder

For the filling I simply mixed 3 tbsp home made peanut butter (place peanuts in a blender with a few tbsp peanut oil, a pinch of salt and some sort of sweetener if you like it sweetened) with about a tablespoon coconut oil (melted) and a large teaspoon yacon syrup.

Laundry room

We've been hanging shelves lately. In the laundry room and in the storage room in the basement. And thus we've created two functional rooms, albeit not very pretty. A huge improvement from the messy piles that were there before. The pictures are from the laundry room. The storage room is not very photogenic.

Little penguin

It only took a year... I started this penguin suit in size 1 year in September 2009. Now, in September 2010, I finally finished it, in size 2 years. It fits my girl perfectly, and is so cute!

Scandinavian style wholemeal waffles

Being home with a feverish child, I wanted something yummy for lunch. So I finally managed to put together a wholemeal waffle recipe I'm happy with.



WAFFLES

3 eggs
5 tbsp Sukrin (erythritol)
2 dl wholemeal wheat flour
2 dl wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cardamom
approx. 2 dl milk
100 g butter, melted

Beat the eggs and Sukrin until fluffy. Mix in half the flour, the baking powder and the cardamom. Then add half the milk. Repeat with the rest of the flour and milk. Lastly add the melted butter. You should end up with a slightly runny batter. Bake in waffle iron.

Breakfast pancakes

These have become a favourite with us. I make the batter in the evening and leave it in the fridge overnight. That means the bran goes soft, but it still tastes great. I've tried without roasting the bran, but it's not qute the same. The pancakes are also popular in my daughter's daycare lunchbox. I found the recipe on a Norwegian forum a few years back, and hereby translate and share it.

WHOLEMEAL BANANA PANCAKES

2 tbsp honey
80 g oat bran

160 g whole grain rye flour
2,5 tsp baking powder
A good dash of brown flax seeds (I use about a handful)
Cardamom
3 dl water (approx.)
2 tbsp rapeseed oil or other neutral oil
1 (very) ripe banana

Melt the honey over medium heat in a non-stick frying pan, then add the bran. Roast until it smells nutty and turns golden brown.

In the meantime, mix the dry ingredients and mash the banana. Add the bran to the dry mixture and stir well. Add water and oil, and mix until you have a thick batter. Add the banana and mix again.

Fry in a dry non-stick pan without grease.

Living in fear

I haven't really considered the fact that fear is something I struggle with quite a lot. I've just watched the second half of a documentary called "My Breasts Could Kill Me" with Dawn Porter. Her mum died of breast cancer when she was in her thirties, and Dawn had cameras following her as she went through various exams to check her own risk and met cancer pasients, cancer survivors and their next of kin. And it scared me shitless. My gran had breast cancer when she was in her thirties, and though she didn't die from it, she had a mastectomy. Later on she had four (or was it five?) more rounds of cancer as it spread throughout her body. She died when I was 6, and she 62. She had cancer of the brain. Rather a few of her nine siblings have also had various types of cancer. My mum found a breast lump when she too was in her thirties. It turned out to be benign. But still...

The thing is, though I've been aware of my fear of cancer before, it only just hit me today how deep that fear is. I'm absolutely terrified of finding a lump, and thus don't really check myself. Even more so now that I have a child. What would I do if i found something? What if I die? It's probably quite irrational. But I do need to follow in Dawn Porter's footsteps. I need to find out.

Soup for sore throats

Soup is perfect when you have a cold. It slides down easily. Particularly this one, which has a silky smooth texture when blended. It's based on this recipe (in Norwegian), but I made some adjustments, as always. I'm unable to follow a recipe without changing it.

CARROT AND PARSNIP SOUP
500 g carrots
400 g parsnips
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
A good inch of fresh ginger
800 ml vegetable stock
200 ml orange juice
Lemon juice and more ginger to taste

Scrub or peel carrots and parsnips and cut into chunks. Chop onion and garlic, peel ginger. Fry the onion in a bit of oil for at least ten minutes, until it's fragrant. Add a pinch of salt to keep it from browning. Add the garlic and let it fry for a minute or two, then add carrots, parsnips and most of the ginger. Pour over vegetable stock and bring to a boil, then cook for 15 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked through.

Place the soup in a blender and blend until smooth. Place back in the pan and bring it back to a boil. Add orange juice, some more ginger and a bit of lemon to taste.

I made puff pastry cheese swirls on the side. Roll out a sheet of ready-made puff pastry, drizzle one half with finely grated cheddar and press the other half over. Slice into strips and twist them. Bake on 180C for about 10 mins.

Lunch for the poorly

Celery with hummus.

HUMMUS
1 can chickpeas (200 g)
1 large tsp tahini
2 cloves of garlic
2-3 tbsp olive oil
A large splash of lemon juice (about half a lemon)
A pinch of cumin seeds
A pinch of paprika
A bit of salt

Combine the ingredients in a food processor until smooth and creamy. Eat with a celery stick.

Wish list

I'm home with a cold today, and thus have a bit too much time for surfing. So I am making a Christmas wish list for myself! It's nice to be ahead, right? ;)

Christmas wish list

Le Creuset Dutch Oven/French Oven. I'm not quite sure about neither size nor colour, but I quite fancy the orange one. I also want it to be relatively large, so that I'm able to use it for roasts.



Zyliss mandoline. My mum used to have one, and it's really handy. Particularly because I get a rash from handling various starchy raw veg, such as potatoes and carrots.



Harry Potter boxed set. I love, love, love Harry Potter and am also a sucker for proper books. So I like to have my favourites in good quality hardback versions.



Diamond studs... Something like these:



A cashmere/silk pashmina in a particular shade of purple that I've yet to find. Never a good idea to decide what one wants before actually having seen it IRL...

Chocolate banana cupcakes

These are based on Julie Goodwin's Lemon Diva Cupcakes, but with cocoa powder and banana instead of lemon zest.

CUPCAKES
100 g butter
165 g sugar (I use Tate&Lyle caster sugar)
A splash vanilla extract (e.g. Nielsen-Massey)
2 eggs
200 g flour
1,5 tsp baking powder
3-4 tbsp cocoa powder
100 ml milk
2 very ripe bananas, mashed

Beat butter, sugar and vanilla extract. Add the eggs one by one and mix well. Mix flour, baking powder and cocoa, then stir in about half into the egg and butter mixture. Add half the milk, then the rest of the flour mix and the rest of the milk. Lastly stir in the mashed bananas. Divide mixture into lined muffin pan. I got 10 cupcakes out of this recipe. Bake at 180C for 18-20 mins.

ICING
60-70 g chocolate, 70% cocoa solids
25 g butter
2-3 tbsp icing sugar
50-100 ml single cream

Melt chocolate, butter and icing sugar together over low heat, then add cream until the mixture emulsifies. Leave to cool.

Never quite tidy enough...

... but today I give you a peak into our living room anyway.



The orange sofa is "Emma" from L.K. Hjelle, the black one is a sofa bed that we got from a friend of my grandmother's and then reupholstered. The coffee table is from Naver Collection/Aksel Kjersgaard, and the ottoman is Norway Says' "Boy". The corner table consists of a wire drawer rack and a kitchen cabinet door, both Ikea. The rug is also from Ikea, and is called "Strib".

Who am I?

I'm my husband's wife.
I'm my daughter's mother.
I'm my parents' daugher.
I'm my brother's sister.
I am a student.
I am an employee.
I am 5 feet 10 inches tall.
I weigh a bit more than I like.

And the list goes on. I have no difficulty defining myself by others and by external factors, but lately I've been thinking a lot about who I am. My true self, so to speak. After my daughter was born, I've been struggling with a postpartum depression, and it has shaken me. Though things are looking up and I'm feeling more than "myself" than I have for nearly two years, I still don't know who or what that "myself" is. It's all very philosophical, I know. And I'll probably never truly find out. But it is an interesting journey.

Language swap

For a while now I've been thinking about changing from Norwegian to English in this blog. With English being my "A2" language (using an IB term) it falls quite natural for me to both write and speak English, but with few English-speaking friends around and fewer visits to the UK than before I miss practicing the language. Thus I've come to the conclusion that my blog shall be my English zone.

This is NOT an attempt to broaden my audience, I've no intention of making this blog into more than a creative outlet for my dabbling with sewing, knitting, cooking and baking. It is strictly the result of me wanting to keep my English skills alive.

Mmmm, nydelige cupcakes!

Dagens lille bakeprosjekt (eller roteprosjekt, utfra hvordan kjøkkenet ser ut nå) var Julie Goodwins "Lemon Diva Cupcakes". Nyyyydelige! Og selve cupcake-oppskriften er meget mulig den beste jeg har prøvd. De hevet fint, fikk pen farge, og - ikke minst - forble saftige etter 20 minutter i ovnen. (Self-raising flour bytter jeg ut med mel blandet med bakepulver og evt litt natron, avhengig av oppskriften forøvrig.)

Sitronvarianten ble herlig friske. Husets lille kaketester klarte å få dratt krakken sin et par meter bort til komfyren for å få knabbet seg en cupcake mens de sto til avkjøling, og hun gomlet ivrig i seg hele saken. Ergo må de sies å være barnevennlige. Hun likte glasuren, også, men hun hadde ikke så stor tro på kombinasjonen av cupcakes OG glasur.

Dagen forøvrig har blitt brukt til latmannsliv, tømming og spyling av blomsterpotter med sommerblomster, litt småplukk på oppussingsfronten og litt yoga. Herlig søndag!