Meringue, Chocolate and Almond Cookies

Hey Guys,
This recipe is one of those “4 ingredients+20 minutes=Amazing Almond Cookies”! That’s math I wouldn’t mind doing any day! The making time is short, BUT, as you know if you ever tried making meringue, baking time is up to 2.5 hours. So make sure you got your time line well planned. OK, here goes:

Ingredients:
(Makes about 40 cookies)

• 3 egg whites
• 3/4 cup ground almonds
• 1 cup (100 gr) dark chocolate, broken to cubes
• 1 cup sugar

Directions:

1. Heat oven up to 220 F (100C). If you got the Turbo option, turn it on, it will allow you to bake the whole quantity simultaneously.
2. Put the egg whites in the mixer bowl, whip in a high speed for 5 minutes, until a very stable foam is formed.
   Add 1\2 cup sugar and continue mixing for 1 minute. Add another 1/2 cup sugar and almonds, mix together in “folding” motions.
3. In a pot, heat up 2 glasses of water. On top of it place a second pot. Make sure it’s not in contact with the water. Put Chocolate inside top pot and melt while mixing, until all pieces are gone.
4. Dip a teaspoon in chocolate mix and pour “chocolate lines” on top of foam. Using another teaspoon, place spoonful of chocolaty foam on baking dish, 1.5 inches apart (3 cm).
5. Put in oven and bake between 2-2.5 hours. Every now and then check the center of a cookie: if it’s dry - the cookies are ready!

Keep in a sealed container, up to 3 weeks.

Aren’t they GOOOD?? Enjoy,

Nitzan 

Great Baked Peppers Stuffed With Goat Cheese

Hey all,
This is one of those amazingly quick, amazingly easy recipes, which will produce really nice, light and tasty brunch food - in under 20 minutes! Could be perfect for a lazy Saturday morning… just try it.
So lets get started, all you need is:

Ingredients:
(For 4 dishes)

• 6 small red peppers
• 1 cup soft goat cheese
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 stem thyme (or 1 tablespoon dried thyme)

Directions

1. Heat oven up to 400 F (200 C)
2. Using olive oil, oil a baking dish
3. In a bowl, mix cheese, egg yolk and thyme together. Add some salt and pepper.
4. Wash peppers and cut in half lengthwise. Loose all the seeds and white parts.
5. Stuff each half of pepper with 2 tablespoons of goat cheese. Arrange peppers in baking dish, cheese side up.
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until peppers are golden brown. Serve while still hot.

That’s all folks, ENJOY!

Nitzan

10 Must Follow Tips For Us “Salad Eaters”

There’s no diet without salads included in the the menu, although a salad is not always the lean food we think it is.
A salad can contain vegetables and fruits together with cheese, chicken meat, fish, nuts, eggs, legumes, cereals, dry fruits, croutons, tofu, edible flowers and what not. The contents and the quantities give us a large variety of dishes.

These dishes can be considered as a whole meal, a satisfying one and rich with essential nutritional substances.  For example, in vegetables and fruits there’s a high water percentage, and they are rich in vitamins and minerals essential to your body. On the other hand, there are a few things you need to know about salads, a couple of “dark secrets” you need to be aware of, in order to maximize the contribution of eating salads to your diet and health:

1. Don’t eat too much of it!
Although it’s true that a green salad is low on calories, it’s not good to accustom your stomach to such a big volume of food, because the volume of the stomach and fullness are connected: sensors located on the stomach wall are adapted to the volume and pressure produces by the liquids and food. This means that the next time you’ll eat you’ll need the same food volume in order to feel full, only now it won’t necessary be lettuce any more…

2. Hungry AGAIN?!
A salad made of vegetables and fruits alone will make you feel full for a short period of time. That’s because fruits and vegetables are made mostly of water, which is digested very quickly in your stomach.

3. What are you adding to your salad?
A combination of salad toppings of cheese, red meat, chicken meat contributes to a long lasting fullness, thanks to their long digestion process in the stomach. These toppings may also be high in energy, which will cause an innocent looking green salad to become a high calorie, not so lean salad.

4. Keep it down with the oil
A salad Vinaigrette sauce is usually made out of 3 things: oil, vinegar / lemon juice and different spices. The higher the oil quantity is (even if you’re using olive oil!) - the higher the calorie amount in the sauce!

5. Don’t give up on the salad dressing
A good salad dressing is usually very healthy and contains a substantial amount of vitamins and minerals secreted and melted out of the fruits and vegetables.

6. Dark green leafs are good for you
Don’t throw away those dark green lettuce leafs, put them in your salad. They contain much more minerals and vitamins than those lighter ones!

7. Finely chopped or roughly sliced?
The pieces size and the thickness of vegetable and fruits slices have a direct impact on the conservation of the vitamins and minerals they contain. When the surface area of the slices is bigger (which happens when you create smaller pieces, thinner slices), the loss of the nutritional components will be bigger.

8. Keep the peel on!
Avoid peeling your fruits and vegetables as much as possible. The peel has a high concentration of those all mighty vitamins and minerals.

9. Dressing - only close to eating
Pour the salad dressing as close to eating as possible. This way your vegetables will keep their “character” and crunchiness.

10. Frozen is also O.K!
 Frozen vegetables contain a large portion of the vitamins and minerals of fresh vegetables, and can be a good solution for having those vegetables that are not available all year round, such as peas, beans etc…

Bon appetit!

Nitzan

4 Great Basic Sauce Recipes That Will Spice Up Every Meal

Hallo everyone,
You know how it is, sometimes you want everything on the dish to be home made -  just because…
This time lets go back to basics, and learn how to make basic, good home made sauces.
These are the recipes of sauces which are in constant use in most kitchens, and will upgrade the taste of numerous dishes.

Vinaigrette sauce
Mostly used: as Salad dressing

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup vinegar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 2/3 cup oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons mustard
• 1 tablespoon honey

Directions

1. Whisk vinegar with salt and pepper (you could shake it in a jar)
2. Add the oil, mustard and honey and continue whisking until texture is smooth.
3. You can keep in the fridge up to a week. Give it a good shake before using!

Home made Mayonnaise
Mostly used: as what ever you feel like adding it to! Home made Mayo is more tasty than any mayo you could buy on stores, BUT - can’t be kept for long in the fridge.

Ingredients:

• 2 egg yolks
• 3 tablespoons vinegar
• 1 tablespoon mustard
• 1 1/3 cups oil
• some salt and pepper

Directions

1. In a bowl or in a food processor, scramble egg yolks with vinegar and mustard.
2. Add oil slowly while constantly mixing, until a thick mayo is formed.
3. If it’s too thick, you can add a bit vinegar.
4. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Keep in the fridge up to 2 days.

caramel sauce
Mostly used: on desserts, ice-scream topping especially.

Ingredients

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/3 cups cream

Directions:

1. In a small cooking pot, heat sugar up until it caramelises in the middle and the edges.
2. Add cream and cook on medium flame until all chunks dissolve.
3. Could be served warm or cold
4. Keep in fridge up to 3 days.

Strawberry sauce
Mostly used as dessert topping

Ingredients:

• 1 2/3 cups strawberries
• 1 lemon worth of lemon juice
• 1/2 cup sugar

Directions

1. Wash strawberries and dry up.
2. Put all ingredients in blender or food processor and blend for about 1 minute until a red beautiful sauce is formed.
3. Taste it and add more sugar if needed.
4. Should be served cold.
5. Keep in the fridge up to 3 days.

5 Tips for Keeping Those Pounds You Lost - Lost!

We all know the vicious sickle of diets: it’s come to a point that the pants won’t zip up, the mirror is becoming less and less friendly to you, and one day - usually Monday - you decide to go on a diet.
Some of us find not eating what ever we feel like, too hard after a couple of days. The strong ones keep it up for a few weeks or even months and actually lose weight and slim up. But as days go by we tend to slack off: “well, it’s mom’s birthday, I must taste that cake”, or  ”It’s not that often that we go out! Pass that pork chops!”, and slowly but surely the pounds start creeping back at you… Sounds familiar??

Is it possible to lose a significant amount of weight and keep it that way? A new research conducted in the U.S.A found the reasons for the “yo-yo” dieting effect. The researches tested 1310 Americans ages 20-84, who used to be over weight, lost a significant amount of weight and were done with the process at least 1 year earlier. The researchers focused on those who managed to keep their new weight steady. This is a summary of the reasons, so they say,  for their success:

1. The 10% law

A weight loss of 10% of your original body weight significantly reduces the chances for heart diseases, diabetes and more. It also works well in the matter of keeping the weight loss. It is significant - but not too drastic. Research subjects who lost 10%-15% of their original body weight did better in preserving their new weight then those who lost 20% and up.
Conclusion: As your first target go for 10% weight loss. Go slowly but surely!

2. Time is on your side

You’ve lost weight and you’ve kept it that way for more than 6 months? It still doesn’t mean anything. Not even 2 or 3 years. As it turns out, only a 10 year period is an indication that you succeeded in your mission. If you’ve gone for 10 years without gaining the weight back, you’ve doubled your chances of staying the way you are in comparison to a 2-5 year period of time.
Conclusion: The battle is not over until a decade has gone by…Life changes are not an easy thing, your body and mind need time. Remember this and don’t give up!

3. Enough with being passive

Did you notice how lazy we get as technology becomes more and more advanced?! Since we got cars - there’s much less walking, since we got elevators - we don’t use the stairs any more… And of course it only takes pressing “send” to order take away. Most of us lead a very passive life style, which doubles the chances of gaining all those pounds back.
Conclusion: Start moving around. We’re not talking about starting training for the up coming marathon, just add more active house cleaning, stair climbing, dog walking into your life. It works.

4. Cut down on small screen hours

I know, it’s going to be hard. Well, they say life is hard sometimes…Every time we sit in-front of your TV, or sit  in general instead of being active, ruins it for us.  By the research, 4 hours of TV and up a day, doubles your chances of gaining the weight you lost, in comparison to only 1 hour a day.
Conclusion: There’s no way to go around this one, just try and prioritize and cut down on TV and Internet time.

5. Integrate a daily physical activity routine.

It’s been said a thousand times before: the importance of physical activity in our life is immense. By the world health organization, the recommendation for the general population is 30 minutes of moderate activity 5 times a week, or alternatively 20 minutes of intense activity, 3 times a week.
Conclusion: Even if you’re very busy, you must insist on those 3 meetings a week with a V.IP you some times unintentially neglect - yourself.
You should try all kinds of sports and activities, and pick up the ones you liked and will be able to keep doing for long. Don’t start too intensively, give your self time to get used to the change. And just between you and me - what is 20 minutes of fast walking around the neighbourhood for you..?

Wishing you good luck, success in achieving your goals, and most importantly - Have Fun With It!

Nitzan