Light chicken quiche for picnic days

Although I live in the city of unpredictable weather, once in a blue moon we have picnic days. Those days as as rare as enjoyable and if you are so lucky to see them you will realized that even the hangover go out into the sun as soon as it shows up.

Those days trust me I am not gonna stick around the kitchen but for the minimal time required, but you gotta get feed and if you do it outside chances are that you are gonna get lots of temptations, so the best option bring your own food. I prepare this super simple quiche between coffee and shower and I promise you it is delicious warm or cold and it is easy to bring around in a container.

INGREDIENTS 

• 2 cooked Chicken breast pieces ( I got mine form some grilled chicken I made, but you can buy cooked ones too)
• 1 onion 
• 3 eggs 
• 6 tablespoons of fat free formage frais 
• nutmeg, pepper and salt
• reduce fat cooking spray ( this time it is not optional)
• Add to your list in case you dont have baking paper and springform 

HOW TO 

Gather your ingredients and preheat the oven at 240C/ 475F 

Chop the cooked chicken breast and the onion in chunky pieces so they will show in the mix, I rather my ingredients to be abundant and visible but if you prefer less and less visible feel free the taste doesn't change that much.

In medium bol add the three eggs. I suggest to crack them in a small cup and then add it ti the bol just in case the eggs are no good. Them mix them with a whisker if you have or a fork if you don't. 

Then add the formage frais and and whisk again.

The mix will be complete when you add the nutmeg, which give it a really distint flavor, the salt and the pepper. I would use black pepper as it is my preference but any pepper would do.

Mix your eegs with the rest of the ingredients. It should look something like this.

Now get you baking paper and cut it to fit your mold. As I said before I recommend you use one of the springforms that you can remove the walls of the mold and keep the botton but if you dont have one as I didn't before you could use a silicon one and I works just fine.
Add the paper to the botton of your mold and spray it with the low fat cooking spray you don't need much.

Finally put the mix in the mold and put the mold on the oven, set your timer for 20 min, check at the end just to make sure it is as done as you like. Make sure that the sides are cooked that would be your indicator that the quiche is done.

And it is that simple, I hope you are having gorgeous weather and you can go out and enjoy a lovely summer, and till we see again,  

ENJOY :)

Have a break, have a diet muffin

There are some things I really hate, only a few, but the one that i hate the most is the daily, weekly task of cleaning, it never ends. However I found a way to make it more bearable ( it's that the right word?!) and it is give myself a treat after. So... at least I have something to look forward to. My treat this week ... muffins!!! who said girls on a diet don't have fun???

INGREDIENTS

Makes about 8 nice size muffins, and last up to 3-4 days if you can refrain yourself

• 4 large egg whites , 5 if medium 
• 8 tablespoon of oat bran
• 4 tablespoon of fat free formage frais
• 3 tablespoon of powder sweetener
• 1/2 tablespoon of coffee powder
• 1/2 tablespoon of cinnamon 

HOW TO

Gather your ingredients and preheat your oven at 180C (or 350 F)

I always start by beating the egg whites till stiff, and what do I mean by stiff? I mean that you can put the egg whites over you head and the wont fall out, that stiff we are talking about, so take your mixer and shake it baby.

Then in a deep plate mix all the dry ingredients, be careful they tend to try to leave your plate and make a mess all over the counter.

When mixed add the cheese and remove again until it gets a stronger consistency and it well incorporated 

Then it is time to add it to the stiff egg whites, that is tricky, you should incorporate all mixture but carefully and mixing it slowly with the spatula so the mixture would keep the smoothness, do it slowly it doesn't take that long. 

Now it is time to prepare your tin and muffin cases, I do spray them with cooking spray but that is totally optional. This muffins do not grow much do you can fill it up to 3/4 of the case or even a little bit more.

Let it bake for about 25 min depending on your oven, mine works out about 23 min and I let then cool down a bit inside the oven for about 7 min before I take them out. I find they are delicious with milk as they are a bit dry, but it work great as afternoon and breakfast treat.

Let me know how it goes for you and 

ENJOY :)

Aubergine Surprise (a meaty one)

This week I am startting my birthday celebrations and for me there is nothing better than a delicious dinner with the people you care about and the fact that I am dieting is not going to stop me from celebrating.

INGREDIENTS 

This recipe is enough for two people and a bit for your little poppy 

• 1 aubergine 
• 1 pepper 
• 2 shallots 
• 1 zucchini 
• 250gr of lean mince meat ( beef or turkey works too)
• can of chopped tomatos
• 1 egg
• salt, pepper and garlic powder 
• some cooking spray ( optional)

HOW TO

Gather your ingredients 

Start by slicing the aubergine in two

Remove the inside of the aubergine like so 

Boil some water and add the peel of the aubergine, boil till soften

Then start cutting the vegetables into smal pieces, including the aubergine insides

The last step before getting to the pan it is to prepare the meet, you should add some salt, pepper and garlic powder to the mix, when incorporate it make a volcano in the mix and add a raw egg that will help you to get consistency. Then mix it all, i normally do it with my hands.

Now it is the time for cooking, get a big pan, I am using a wok but a normal pan would do just fine. I normally start by adding some cooking spray, this is optional but I found that it keep the mixture from burn, if you decided not to do that you should be removing the vegetables all the time to prevent burning. I add it in order, first shallot, then peppers, zucchini and aubergine. Then add the meat, it would make it juicy and blend the rest of the vegetables together.

The final step is to add the canned tomatoes, I added pealed full tomatoes as I didn't have the chopped ones, so I had to smash it with my wooden spoon. 

The only thing left to do at this point it is to fill your cooked aubergine peels with the mixture and eat, and I can promise it is delicious

As always I added some fat free formage frais, but  it is fine on its own, if you are not as obsessed about as I am. Let me know if you liked it and feel free to leave a comment below as always 

ENJOY :)

Fromustard: the simplest ever sauce

I dont know you, but I eat looooots of boiled chicken since I am on the diet. It is because is simple. And you must think "simple, yes, but... it isn't the most tasty thing ever" and I agree. I have perfected the way to boil it many different ways to give it flavor, but the simplest still water and a bit of sal. But what I do is using this super simple sauce to give it some taste and it really works for me and takes no time whatsoever. Let me introduce you to the Fromustard Sauce:

INGREDIENTS

You get lots out of it... but I think would be enough for two people 

• 0% Formage frais 
• Dijon Mustard
• Whole-Grain Mustard

HOW TO

Gather your ingredients:

Add three table spoons of formage frais ( I love this ingredient works with everything). You can not really keep it for long so just keep it enough for your meal.

Then one tea spoon of Dijon mustard.

I add two tea spoons of whole-grain mustard because I like the texture so much but I guess one will be enough if you are not sold on the texture like me.

And then ... well... shake it baby, shake it... and you are done!

I know it is not a great pic (but what can I do with an almost ten years old digital camera) but the sauce it is fantastic so I hope you

ENJOY:)

Tip- If you don't have fromage frais you can always use 0% greek yogourt.

Green Lovers Soup

Although Mach is supposed to bring warmth to this lands, here in Ireland still quite cold, at least for my taste and there is nothing better than a soup to warm you up and also to give you the extra vitamins your body needs to look as beautiful as you do. Let me present you the Green Lovers Soup:

The good thing about this soup is that you can eat it warm it you are freezing like me or cold if you are in a warmer weather ( I envy you for that)

INGREDIENTS

• Broccoli floret 
• half zucchini
• some mushrooms ( I add about 6)
• three leaves of celery
• sal and pepper to taste
• optional some fat free formage frais

  INSTRUCTIONS

As you know we are following the Dukan diet  so we only will used allow vegetables. First gather your vegetables

I start by cutting the Brocolli . I cut only the small florets and dimiss the rest, you can cook it if you want to but it would take a bit more to get tender so bear it in mind if you decide to add them.

Then cut the zucchini in half and proceed to cut it into small pieces, they do not need to be really small because we are going to smash it later but still it helps to go faster.

Next step, do the same with the celery. The celery help to give your soup a refreshing taste. To be honest I am not a fan of celery myself but I love the touch that gives soups. I use just three leave because otherwise it overcomes the taste of the broccoli. 

Then it is the turn of the mushrooms. I use quite a bit because it gives a nice consistency to the soup and you don't want it to be super watery.

Next step put some water to boil on the kettle and add all you ingredients together in a pot. Add enough water to cover the vegetable but not more we want it to be thick not watery and turn the heat to the maximum. This is the time to add some salt if you want, I normally add it at the end but that goes on taste.

Let it boil for over 20 minutes, we want most of the water to evaporate and the vegetables to be as tender as possible, then it is time for the blender. I have a hand one but you can use whatever you have.

You have to blend it until it is consistent and smooth. If your blender is awful as mine it can take some time if it is a good you will have it in minutes.

Finally it is the time of pepper and fat free formage frais, you can skip this step but a love the contract in textures, I do not want to think that I am on a diet, I want to think that I am eating great tasty food and those little details help me

And that is it, fool proof soup. Get a plate and prepare to have a fantastic tasting experience.

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ENJOY ;)

Cheesie chili con carne recipe

Being on a diet doesn't mean you can not eat great meals. As you know I am following the Dukan diet and I love to eat allowed but tasty meals, among my favorite one is this delicious Cheesy chili con carne:

The recipe is so tasty and so simple, it severs one hungry one or two not so hungry people.

INGREDIENTS

• 250gr of lean beef mince
• two shallots
• two big mushrooms 
• two canned plum tomatos 
• garlic powder
• sal
• chili powder 
• fat free formage cheese
• optional cooking spray 

INSTRUCTIONS

Get you meat, make sure it is lean, less than 10% fat otherwise it would be too greasy

Chop your shallots in small pieces, not too small or it would disappear an you wanna taste them

   

Then the same thing with the mushrooms, remember not too small, I use two for the flavor but feel free to add more if you fancy 

I normally I add some cooking spray, just two touches which the package claims is 2 cal., however you can skip this step if you wanna keep the rules strictly

Add the shallots first let them get toasted: just a BIT or they will get burn, remember we are not using oil, and even with the cooking spray they will be burn in no time. Then Add the meat. The meat goes plain into the pan do not add anything to it will have time to add stuff later. Cook the two things together  until the meat gets pinkie.

Then add the mushrooms and keep cooking it till they are almost done. how do you how they are almost done? the white mushrooms change to beige color (which for guys it is light brown). It is at this point that you should add a bit of salt, the garlic powder  and chili to taste. I normally add a lot of garlic powder, beware if you wanna kis someone and little chili, but that is just me.

The final step is to add the plum tomatos, I normally add two. You can use natural or canned ones I used the canned ones for confort but make sure if you do that they do not have anything added to them. 

Smash the tomatos with the spatula, give a five minutes a medium heat and you are good to go. (Some times needs a bit of water if it is too dry.)

Finally, As I am not gonna eat any rice with it and on itself the chili con carne seem very ... how can I say this?... Alone. I set the plate with some fat free formage frais on the botton and the chili con carne on top of it. The contrast is absolutely fabulous and becomes a light gourmet dish.

Let me know if you liked it and please don't forget to subscribe to be notify of our news and recipes 

ENJOY ;)