High nutrition patties

Oats

Oat patties

No, this is not a cookie. This is a very healthy snack or part of your meal since it is filled with nutrients that are vital for any body.

Oats are heavy on the iron, magnesium, and all those important minerals, and since we’ll be adding some veggies, herbs and cheese, it will basically cover most of the food groups. I like to make a nice batch to put in the fridge, so that whenever I’m hungry, but don’t feel like cooking, I can just slap a bit into a skillet and have myself a pattie. You can eat them bare, or add some lettuce, or whatever else topping you feel like. I use the oats that you buy for oatmeal, not the raw ones, those will take forever to be edible. If you're doing gluten free, replace the flour with chickpea flour, or buckwheat flour.

Use a cheese of choice, Gouda, Mozzarella, Cheddar…whatever you prefer as long as it melts.

Serves 4-8

Oats: 1 ½-2 mugs

Chickpea flour: ¼ mug

Flour: ½-1 mug

Egg: 2

Cheese: ½ mug

Milk/cream: ½ mug

Onion: ½ mid size. Chopped

Leek: 3-4 inches. Chopped

Red pepper: ½. Chopped

Garlic: 2-3 cloves. Minced

Cherry tomato/sun dried tomatoes: (optional) 4-5. Chopped.

Paprika: 1 teasp.

Salt: 1-2 teasp. (to taste)

Pepper/cayenne: 2-4 turns. (2 knife points)

Sugar: ½ teasp.

Olive oil: 1 tablesp.

The following herbs are dry, if you go for fresh, which is always better, triple the amount.

Parsley: 2 teasp.

Oregano: 1 ½ teasp.

Basil: 2-3 teasp.

Thyme: 1 small pinch (fresh too)

Rosemary: 1 pinch

Chives: 2 teasp.

There is no wrong way to put these all together. Basically toss all the dry ingredients together, stir them, and then add the dairies (strangely enough I prefer milk for this one, but if you’re going for high nutrient, you might pick cream), egg and whatever you have left until you’ve got a nice paste going. If you think it’s too sticky, add a little extra flour.

Warm a skillet, either with oil in it or butter on medium heat. Get two big tablespoons and a nice big spatula. Scoop up your gooey paste with one spoon, then use the other to slide it off and into your skillet. Spread out until it’s about hamburger size, half an inch thick at most. (Be careful that you don’t make it too thick otherwise your oats won’t be done.) Bake, using the spatula to press it down occasionally, both sides to a nice golden crisp then consume warm, or serve with food of choice. This amount should give you around 8 patties and if you took the upper ranges of the ingredients 10.

Enjoy!

Training food

Nutritional value

At the moment me and big brother and training, meaning that we need to stock up on protein, vitamins and minerals if we want the “iron pumping” to have any effect. What you’re going to get now is one of my favorite ways of getting in egg (not my favorite) and lentils (also not my favorite) into your system, providing a high nutritional value meal that for me works well as breakfast, or lunch, or both. I tend to make big batch that’ll last for at least two meals…hopefully three.

This dish has high levels of iron, B12, and all the vitamins you can imagine. Add a couple slices of bread for your carbs and your all set. If you miss a meal afterward, who cares, you got in the daily dose at the very least.

Most veggies are optional, but my basic is the combination that hasn’t got optional with it. It works.

Serves 2-3 people twice.

Lentils: 450 gr (2 mugs) boiled.

Eggs: 4-6

Milk/cream: ½ mug

Carrot: 1 sliced

Cauliflower: 3-4 flowers. (optional) Chopped

Leek: 6 inches. Chopped

Onion: 1, mid-size. Chopped

Garlic: 1-2 cloves. Minced

Red/yellow pepper: 1. Chopped

Zucchini: ½ cubed

Sweet corn: (canned or frozen) ½ mug

Peas: (frozen or fresh) ½ mug

Green beans: (frozen or fresh) ½ mug. (optional) Chopped

Sweet chili sauce: 2 tablesp.

Olive oil: 3-4 tablesp.

Oregano: ½ teasp.

Basil: 1 teasp.

Parsley: 1 teasp.

Paprika: 1 knife point

Pepper: 3-4 turns. (2 knife points)

Salt: 1-2 teasp. To taste

Sugar: 1 teasp.

Heat the olive oil in a big skillet or wok, throw in your carrots, leek, onion and garlic if you opted for the latter. Bake for about 3-5 minutes on high heat. Add the drained lentils (rinse them well before using them in your mix) and bake for another five minutes with the salt, sugar, chili sauce and pepper. Add the herbs and spices, and then the remainder of your veggies, leaving the corn and peas for last. Bake for about five minutes, until the zucchini starts to turn a bit glassy and soft.

Break your eggs on top of the mix, and add the milk and/or cream. Keep baking on medium or low heat until there’s no more moisture in your pan, just vegetables and egg.

Serve with bread, and some cheese if you like.

Fried Rice

Rich Rice

Personally I am a big fan of parboiled rice, but it’ll work with basmati, or any other rice you prefer. Just make sure that you boil it with a little less water than normal. You want your rice done, but on the dry side. I like to work with a mild curry mix for this one, but you can pick whichever mix you prefer. If you’re into spicy, go for spicy, if you like mild, go for mild. Have fun with it. If it is a little more spicy than expected, serve with fresh cottage cheese, or yogurt with a little of dried cumin and coriander powder through it.

Nutty Fried Rice

 

2-4 persons

Rice: boiled. 500-750 gr. (3-4 big mugs)

Onion: 1 mid size. Chopped

Garlic: 1-2 cloves. Minced.

Coconut shavings: 2 tablesp.

Mustard seeds: 1 tablesp.

Peanuts: 4 tablesp. Chopped

Peanut butter: 2 tablesp. (Optional)

Milk: ¼ cup (only if you use the peanut butter)

Olive oil: 3-4 tablesp.

Parsley: 1 teasp. (dried. If fresh, 1 tablesp.)

Sugar: 1 teasp.

Salt: 1-2 teasp. (to taste)

Pepper: 2-4 turns. (2-4 knife points)

Curry mix: 1-2 tablesp.

Sweet chili sauce: 2 tablesp. (Optional)

Sweet soy sauce: 2 tablsp. (Optional)

Heat your olive oil in a wok or big skillet, with your mustard seeds in them. Mid heat, low if you’re afraid it gets too hot too fast. Add the garlic. Stir. Then your spices (curry mix) coconut shavings, and peanuts. Bake for a few minutes, until your mustard seeds start to pop (a little like popcorn). Add your onion. Keep stirring and increase the heat a little if you feel it is not baking properly. Wait until your onions are nice and yellow from the spices before you add, pepper, salt and sugar.

Toss your rice (rinsing it before use will make the grains less sticky) on top and start stirring it all together until it’s all equally yellow.

If you opted for the chili sauce or soy sauce, or both, now is the time to add it.

Same goes for the peanut butter and milk. Open up the center of your rice until you see the bottom. Drop in the peanut butter and milk and start stirring that center, gradually pulling in more and more rice until it is all equally dispersed.

Bake it all a little longer…small crusts make it even better…and then serve with vegetable(s) of choice.

Cauliflower on the side

Cauliflower

I am a big fan of cauliflower; there are such diverse ways of preparing it that it is definitely one of my favorite veggies…now don’t start thinking that you don’t like the smell, I have several recipe’s where you won’t smell “that” smell at all, so don’t worry. Added to the fact that I love the taste of it, it is also extremely healthy (lots of vitamins) and very good for people who feel the need to watch their carb intake...cauliflower is often considered a potato replacement.

The recipe I’m going to put down is fast (about fifteen minutes of actual baking time) yummy, and it will serve well with boiled or baked potatoes, rice (boiled or fried) or even pasta if you opt to make it with a cheese sauce.

Fresh garden herbs today. If you don’t have them, go with a dried basic Italian or Sicilian herbal mix, or use the individual dried herbs (amounts of the herbs need to be quartered in that case).

Green herb Cauliflower

Serves 3-4 as a side dish. 2 as the main course.

Cauliflower: 1 mid-size. Small parts.

Onion/Leek: ½. Chopped

Tomato: (optional) 2. Quartered

Bell pepper (optional) ½. Chopped

Garlic:  (optional) 1 clove. Minced

Butter/Olive oil: 1-2 tablesp.

Cream/Milk: ½-1 mug

Sweet chili sauce: (optional) 1 tablesp.

Salt: 1 teasp. To taste.

Sugar: 1 teasp.

Pepper: 1-2 turns. (1 knifepoint)

Basil: 3 tablesp. Chopped

Oregano: 1-2 tablesp. Chopped

Parsley: 3 tablesp. Chopped

Chives: 3 tablesp. Chopped

Thyme: (optional) 1 small branch. Just the leaves. Chopped

Rosemary: (optional) 1 small branch. Just the leaves. Chopped

Heat your butter or olive oil in a skilled, or better yet, a wok…if you opted for garlic, bake it for a minute prior to the cauliflower. Throw in your cauliflower and keep the heat high, stirring frequently. Add your onion and herbs and salt. Keep stirring. When the cauliflower start to soften and crust a little add your cream or milk and the pepper and chili sauce. Then, if you opted for either the bell pepper or tomato, add that now, too.

Keep baking until you can easily “spear” the vegetable with a fork…al dente (hot and barely softened…so just a little baked so it isn’t raw anymore) is nicest.

Serve with the staple food of choice and add a salad and/or meat for a full meal.

Enjoy.

Broccoli on the side

Broccoli

Broccoli delish.

I’m a big fan of Broccoli, not because I’ve always been a Broccoli fanatic…in fact I used to hate the stuff because I just didn’t like the taste…but because I’ve found a way to prepare it that I actually love the darn stuff that has changed drastically.

Added to that I’ve discovered that it is ridiculously healthy, and so easy…well, it just deserve a spot or two in this cooking blog. Forget simple steaming, or cooking…seriously, there is a reason why kids usually hate broccoli, guys. Get out your frying pan and give this a whirl. Should take you about fifteen to twenty minutes and if you’re feeling lazy you can just eat it as the main course and leave out the rest. Hah

Usually I serve this on the side of a pasta fungi or baked potatoes, though, but it’ll do fine with another veggie side dish with some rice, or other staple food of choice.

Tender Broccoli

2-3 persons

Broccoli: (preferably fresh, frozen optional) 1-2 trunks (700gr). Small. Similar to the picture.

Onion:  1 mid-size. Chopped.

Leek: (optional) 3-4 inches. Chopped.

Butter: 1 tablesp. (Olive oil, margarine or coconut butter will work, too)

Cream (or milk): 1/3 mug (150 ml)

Basil: 2 big tablesp. Chopped.

Parsley: 1 big tablesp. Chopped.

Salt: 1-2 teasp. To taste.

Sugar: 1 teasp. (honey if you don’t like sugar)

Pepper: 1 pinch (1 knife point).

Heat your butter or oil in a wok or skillet. Toss in the broccoli, keep the fire medium to high, stir occasionally. Add the onion and leek, your herbs and salt and sugar. The broccoli should become a brighter green within just a few minutes. Once they’re shiny and green, turn the heat a little lower. Keep stirring. Add the cream or milk and keep baking until the liquid is almost completely gone. Your Broccoli should be slightly beyond al dente and delicious with your main dish. Enjoy.