Zucchini salad with blue cheese

Preparing some grilled meat or fish and in the need of a simple but tasty salad? How about sliced zucchinis with crumbled blue cheese?! 

Indeed, another easy recipe ready in 5 minutes. A salad which doesn't only bring some fresh colours to your plate but also a great, crunchy taste. A combination of raw vegetables with warm toasted pinenuts and the strong flavour of blue cheese. As there are already plenty of tastes and texture, this salad / side dish goes best with a simple dressing to keep it all natural.

Spicy pork fingers

I have to admit, I was suppose to prepare spicy chicken fingers but instead of taken a batch of chicken breasts out of the freezer I took pork. So as an alternative I have been preparing spicy pork fingers ;-). It is as tasty as chicken but if you would like to turn those 'pork fingers' into a real finger food dish, you will have to cut the strips into bite-sized bits.

 

Breaded meat is one of our favourites but as you can tell from the ingredient list and the proposed dipping sauce, we like this dish a bit spicy. Most of the time we serve it with a nice salad to make us feel less guilty that this has been fried in oil. Of course they can also be oven-baked.

I have added paprika to the bread crumb mixture, it doesn't do so much for our taste buds but it definitely helps us to eat with our eyes. After frying these pork fingers, golden brown, they all have this reddish, healthy, colourful look! 

Of course you can fry them straight after they have been prepared but if you would prepare them several hours in advance and would place them in the fridge to chill, the crumbs will stick even better to the meat and become even more crispy after frying.

Fried rice

Not so long ago I have posted a chicken stir fry. Of course a plain basmati rice would be brilliant to go with that but even better is this fried rice. It does require a bit more planning as I usually cook the rice the night before. Frying the rice when it is chilled, keeps it nice and crisp otherwise it would become more mushy.  

In just no time you can turn plain white rice into something so delicious, with just a few simple ingredients, offering a different texture and a nice blend of the different flavours, soaked up by the rice, while frying.
This dish can easily prepared in advance and reheated in the microwave or oven.

Red bell pepper pie

Is there anything more easy than this warm appetizer? I have been wanting to post this for so long but I never came round to do it. It just seemed too easy. Hardly any ingredients but the taste of the slightly warm pastry with the warm, soft but sweet red bell peppers, a hint of garlic and olive oil, is all you need.

Recipes with very little ingredients are usually my favourites. Time nowadays, is the biggest issue, so if we can prepare something delicious in a minimum of time, I will always prepared to try it out!

This little red pepper pie is lovely in small parts as appetizer but here in France it is more often served for lunch with a fresh, green salad on the side. A great balance between something buttery (with a certain amount of calories) and some fresh greens with just a dash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Feels like spring is in the air!

French toast

'Breakfast or dessert?' French toast or 'Pain perdu' is an old recipe. It was used in former days, when sliced bread was becoming stale, they would soak it in eggs, fry it, basically give the bread a second life. It would become soft and filling, due to the egg mixture. It was definitely an economical solution.

Nowadays, you will find it in certain restaurants on their dessert list, even here in the South of France. They want to represent home cooking and aim to play at long lost memories from people's childhood. Of course they add different flavours to the egg mixture to give it a more fancy taste and turn this old fashion recipe into a funky dessert.

I have used white toast bread but you could use any sliced bread of course. Simple, quick, topped off with a nice jam or just some plain brown sugar and a bit of fresh fruit, served with a hot, steaming cup of coffee, the newspaper and some light jazz music in the background. A great start of the weekend with a nice treat in front of you! 

Chicken stir fry

A stir fry is an excellent way to eat lots of crunchy vegetables with plenty of vitamins retaining their original texture and flavour. The preparation might take up some of your time but the cooking time is very short as all the vegetables are sliced thinly, as is the meat and it'll all be cooked in no time.

Every time I prepare this dish, it varies. I open my fridge and use whatever I have available at that moment.

Most of the time I use beef but this time I have used chicken, the taste remains great. It is more easy as you can prepare it in advance and just reheat it during a few minutes in the microwave or oven. A great dish when you have some friends over for dinner, the only remaining thing to do, once they get there, is to cook the rice ;-).

St Valentine! Decorative chocolate hearts

St Valentine is almost there. I know it is such a commercial event, that is why I prefer to prepare something myself. Like this I can say 'it came from the heart'.

As the 14th of February is on a Tuesday this year, it doesn't leave us, women, too much time to prepare something special. I was thinking of just making some decorative chocolate hearts. Even by making the simplest cake or serving ice cream as dessert, it could be decorated with these little hearts. 

It's rather fun and creative to make these little, decorative sweets. They even can be made a few days in advance and kept in the fridge until the big day!