Healthy Salmon and Spinach Quiche

 As part of the healthy yummy food section of this blog, I’m proud to present this great quiche, plus a bonus - some nutritional facts per dish. It’s easy, it’s healthy for you, and most important - it tastes great!

Ingredients

Amount: 8 dishes

• 2  pound (1 kilo) spinach
• 2 cups (250 g) Ricotta cheese
• 3 tablespoons sour cream
• 1 tablespoon Onion soup powder
• 1 tablespoon rising flour
• 3 separated eggs
• 1 garlic tooth
• ground salt and pepper - amount by taste
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 2 cups (200 grams) fresh salmon, chopped to small cubes

Directions

1. Hit oven to 350 F (180 C)
2. Rinse spinach leafs, put in a bowl (if it was frozen - heat up in microwave for 5 minutes first)
3. Add into bowl: Ricotta, sour cream, egg yolks, flour, soup powder, garlic, salt and pepper. Mix well together.
4. In another bowl mix egg whites for about 1 minute, until a soft foam is formed. Add foam to spinach using gentle stirring motions.
5. In a pan, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and fry salmon cubes for 1 minute, until lightly golden brown.
6. Add salmon cubes to spinach mix, and stir well.
7. Oil up a deep baking dish with 1 teaspoon of olive oil.  Pour mix in.
8. Bake in oven for about 30 minutes, until lightly golden brown.

Nutritional facts for 1 serving:

Calories:             150
Protein:               13 g
Carbohydrates:  7 g
Fat:                      8 g
Calcium:              340 mg

Enjoy and Keep It Healthy!

Nitzan

How to Identify and Buy Healthy Food Products

Over the course of the past few years, the food manufacturers realized that a product sells much better if it’s package screams “I’m healthy”. That’s the reason why we get all those endless health assurances on the packaging. There are a few basic things you should check before deciding to buy a food product, based on those assurances:

1. “Healthy!”- But contains high Sodium levels

Many types of foods self proclaimed as healthy, don’t mention next to the health assurances the fact that they are full of
Sodium - or as we know it: Salt. The salt is one of health’s biggest enemies, because it makes blood pressure go way up, as it does for the chance of heart and vascular disease to occure.  In the past it was advised that a normal diet should contain up to 2.5. grams (0.09 oz) of sodium a day. Today dietitians talk about 1.5 grams (0.05) a day. So if you find out that the healthy snack they’re trying to sell you has 0.5 grams (0.02 oz) of salt in it - which is a third of the recomanded daily intake - you should reconsider the purchase…

2.  “Cholesterol free!” - But contains Trans fats

Trans fat is vegetable oil, that during an industrial process becomes a partially hardened fat. During the years it was discovered that this kind of fat causes high cholesterol levels in the blood, lowers the level of “good cholesterol” (HDL) and raises the risk of heart disease. Over the past few years it was taken out of margarine but is still being widely used is pastries, cakes and cookies. Since the nutritional facts labels in some of the countries don’t mention trans fat content, you should try and find the partially hardened fat instead (hydrogenated fat), and try to avoid it…

3. “Sugar free!” - But contains sugar alcohols

When one is looking for a sugar low food product, he’s actually looking for a product low in carbohydrates. That’s why you should actually check the carbohydrate content in the nutritional facts label that’s on the package. Additionally, you should be aware that there are 2 kinds of sugar replacements: the first kind has a very low calorie value and no carbohydrates at all. The second kind is known as sugar alcohols. This kind acts similarly to the way carbohydrates act in your body, and although it contains half the calories carbs would, it wasn’t proved that using it improves blood sugar levels. Sorbitol, Mannitol, Xylitol- these are the ingredients you should avoid, or at least know they’re very similar to carbs in some ways.

4. “Cholesterol free!” - But contains tropical vegetable fats

Saturated fats, which mostly came from foods from animals, increase blood cholesterol levels (in addition to trans fat). In nature, there are only 2 examples of vegetable oils that contain a high level of saturated fat: coconut oil and palm oil - often called tropical oils. In a food product that contains tropical oils, it would be Ok for it to say “cholesterol free” and “vegetable oils” (since vegetable oils don’t contain cholesterol). The thing you should be looking for on the nutritional facts label is the numbers on saturated fat, because it’s possible for a product to contain tropical vegetable fats, rich in saturated fats, although it is cholesterol free…

5. “Diet” or “Light” - But contains lots of calories

According to the health department regulations (which vary from one country to another), a food product can be described as “light” when it’s been reduced to two thirds of the calories a similar non light product would have. In other words, if a regular product contains 300 calories per serving, the similar “light” product must contain no more than 200 calories per serving - which is still an amount of calories a person on a diet must think about before happily consuming… You should always check the nutritional facts label for the exact calorie amount and not rely on those tempting titles.

Happy shopping everyone,

 Nitzan

Oatmeal and Coconut Cookies

This recipe is very easy to follow. The outcome is delicious healthy cookies, a bit like those energy bars you can buy, only you know exactly what’s in it. Goes great with your morning / after noon coffee.

 Ingredients

Amount:  Makes about  30 cookies

- 1 cup (100 grams) ground coconut

- 1 cup sesame seeds

- 2.5 cups (250 grams)old fashion Quaker Oatmeal 

- 1\2 cup brown sugar 

- 1\2 cup white sugar 

- 2 cups all-purpose flour  

- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

- 2 egg yolk

- 1 teaspoon baking soda

- 1/4 cup honey

  Directions 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (180 Celsius).
2.  In a bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients: flour, coconut, sesame seeds, baking soda, oatmeal, brown sugar, white sugar. Set aside.
3. Place butter in a small pot and stir until it melts. Then add the honey, stir a bit more and  take off flame.
4.  Add butter and honey mix to dry ingredients bowl and mix well together (it comes out not very sticky, don’t  worry about it).
5. On a large baking sheet, place a nonstick baking mats or parchment paper
6. Place mix on baking sheet and tighten evenly using hands.
7.  It’s oven time:  Bake until lightly golden brown, about  15 minutes.
8.  While still hot, cut to small cookie size pieces. Let cool on sheet completely.
9.  Keep in an airtight container at room temperature.

Enjoy,

Nitzan 

Sausage and Home-Made Potato Crisps

This is a short easy one for lunch or dinner your kids would love

 Ingredients

Amount:  3 nice size dishes:

-5 medium size potatoes

-2 onions

-5 sausages (your favorite kind will do great)

-2 raw eggs

- Coarse salt and ground pepper

 Directions 

Preheat your oven to 350 F

1.       Peel up the potatoes

2.       Cut the potatoes to very thin slices and place them on a well oiled baking dish.

3.       Cut the onions to half, and then cut them to thin rings. Spread the rings over the sliced potatoes.

4.       Cut the sausages into 4 even pieces each and spread on top of the onions.

5.       Season with salt and pepper.

6.       Put into oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the potatoes become soft (you can poke them with a toothpick to make sure J)

7.       Break the eggs on top of all the ingredients, bake  for  5 more minutes until the eggs are cooked.

8.       Divide between 2 plates (You can top with cheese).

               serve immediately

Enjoy,

Nitzan