Halloween Chestnuts

Today is Halloween, and we are going to cook chestnuts especially for this occasion.

According to our tradition on October 31st. we celebrate the Chestnut’s day. It is normal to find street stands grilling chestnuts and also sweet potatoes. It is typical to buy chestnut sachets and eat them while walking when they are still warm. And also after lunch or dinner as a snack.


I cook them in a different way which goes as follows:

First we crack the chestnut as showed in the picture. After that we have to put them in a pot and put it on to heat. We have to add a salt tablespoonful and keep them on the stove about 1 hour, adding more water when boiling if necessary. In this way they tenderize.

After, we take them from the stove and put them in the oven and we will bake it for 1/2 hour, as we want to get them dried.

Once finished we can eat them warm or wait until they get cold. I prefer to eat them warm, especially when it is cold.

Lékué steam case

Kitchen tools are also quite important for us while cooking, that’s why we are going to highlight those tools we find useful or helpful in the kitchen. This is the case of the Lékué steam case. It is a great idea. It makes cooking easy, healthy, clean and quick. We discovered it  4 years ago and we can’t stop using it! It’s really a good thing. We usually use the steam case with meat or fish (raw). We add some vegetables to it (whatever: onion, egg plant, carrot, zucchini, green pepper, tomato, even potatoes) and a pinch of salt and about 1 tbsp. oil spread around. We have tried it cooking only vegetables and they are also delicious. After adding the ingredients you like, you just have to put it in the oven or microwaves, having a look from time to time to control how is it going and wait until it is done.

PROS: It is very healthy, quick and clean…

CONS: just one, the size of the steam cases. We are a couple and we noticed that the steam case recommended for 2 people is not big enough for the quantity we use to eat. For this reason we bought the one sized for 4 people.

Pincho de choricitos (spicy sausages snack)

Sausages are quite typical in our area, you can find hundreds of different types. We use to take these sausages as a snack or appetizer, together with a cold drink. To prepare it you may need spicy sausages (obviously) and white bread slices. You have to cut the sausages in 5cm. (2 in.) pieces and fry them in a pan with oil (1 tblsp).

Eventually if the sausage is quite fatty you can boil it first with cider, and after fry it with oil (cider will give a special flavor to it).Meanwhile, cut the bread in slices. You may need the same number of sausages and bread slices. When the sausages are done, put each piece on a bread slice and prick both with a toothpick (that's what we call pincho).

Meat croquettes

Traditionally we use the stock mixed meat to cook this recipe. When you finish preparing meat broth you have to separate meat and broth. You use the broth as a soup and you can reuse the meat for different recipes.

This is one of them, it's not a healthy dish, this is not either an easy dish, but it is a cheap, and this is a good reason to include it to our list of dishes.

You may need:
- Beef, pork and chicken meat
- 1 Onion
- 3 tbsp Flour

So, you take the cooked meat and make little pieces of meat and take off the bones.

Once you have the meat ready, cut the onion in small pieces and put them in a pan onto the heater with olive oil (5 tbsp). When you notice that the onion is already tender, then add the meat in the pan and wait until it is fried, and add progressively tablespoons of flour to it. You may notice that the mix turns into a kind of homogeneous pastry; it means that it is ready.

After that you have to put it in a container and leave it to stand in the fridge until the day after. Next day, you take the pastry with 2 tablespoons and shape the pastry like a croquette.

When you finish, beat one egg (or two, depending on the number of croquettes), take a big container and add breadcrumbs. Cover the croquettes with egg and then with breadcrumbs. Once you have the croquettes ready, you can give them a proper shape and after, you just have to fry them.

They are really delicious and very cheap, as you have used the same meat to make a complete course (broth and croquettes). We eat them with white bread and you may take it also as a snack. However, we have to admit that this is a quite a laborious dish to prepare.

Mixed Meat Stock

It is a quite simple recipe cooked specially in winter, as it is a warm dish. You may need different types of meat to carry it out.

Ingredients for 2 people:
- 2 Chicken empty carcasses
- 225 gr. (1/2 lb.) small pork T-Bone
- 225 gr. (1/2 lb.) Beef rib
- 150 gr. (0,33 lb) Fatty salt pork

Preparation is very simple. First of all try to move the fat away the meat (except in the case of the fatty salt pork), then wash the meat with water and put all the parts in a pot; fill the pot with water (not completely, but until the water gets over the meat). Then add a pinch of salt and put the pot on to the heat.

You will have to wait until it comes to the boil, and after that try it often (add salt if it needs so) until you notice it is done. The whole process may take about one hour. Once it is already done, you will have to separate the meat and the broth. The meat may be also useful for other delicious dishes (but we will explain them on another occasion).

You may notice that there is broth enough for some days. We put it in 500cl (17,6 oz) containers and freeze it, so we have broth for several days (very useful when it is cold).We heat it and take it as a hot beverage or we heat it and when it boils we add little pasta pieces like angels hair or smaller.
Once the pasta is cooked it is ready.

Vegetables lasagna

This is not an easy dish and either a quick dish, but it is very healthy and delicious too. The whole cooking process may take about one hour.

You may need any type of vegetables. I took those which are basic...
(For two people)
- 1 medium onion (or 1/2 big Onion)
- A clove of garlic
- 200 gr. (0,44lb) of champignons
- 1 squash
- 1 big eggplant and a half
- 1 tomato

First of all put your oven on and cut an eggplant into slices. Put them in a tray, spread oil on it and salt the slices. When the oven is already warm, put the tray in and select a temperature of 200º, and have a look at them frequently.

After that, cut the onion into little pieces and put the pan in the heater with 10 tbsp. of oil in. Cut the garlic, the squash and the tomato and the remaining half eggplant into little pieces as well. When you realize that the oil is warm, add gradually the veggies you have in the pan until you have it all. Add the champignons (in the case they are fresh must first be washed and then heated in another pan) too. And when you have all the ingredients in the pan, add a little bit more oil (3 tblsp)and salt them.

Then cover the pan and turn the heater temperature down. In the meantime the eggplants may have been tender (at least for one side) before you finish with the veggies mix. You'd have had to turn them over and leave them back in the oven for a while.

Once all that is done, you only have to wait for the eggplants to be tender on both sides. When they are ready, put them in another tray, as they were the base of the lasagna, and cover this base of veggies. And repeat the operation: put another layer of eggplants and cover them with the remaining vegetables.

And that's it. I suggest you to take some white bread and dip it into the remaining yummy juice you got.

Lentils with spicy sausage

This recipe is specially recommended for those winter days when it is very cold, and the body asks for calories and energy. The dish is quite strong, restorative and healthy, although it contains sausage and salt pork. It may take longer than other recipes we've mentioned, but not much, maybe half an hour.
You may need (for 2 people):
- Lentils, about
- 150 gr. (0,33lb) of a spicy sausage
- 50 gr. (0,11lb) of fatty salt pork
- 1-2 bay leaf
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- Half green pepper
- 1 medium onion
- 1 clove of garlic
- 2 teaspoons of smoked paprika in powder
- 450 cl. (34 oz.) of Water

First chop the onion, the garlic and the green pepper into pieces, then put a pot in the heater and add the 4 oil tbsp. Once the oil is hot, add the onion, the garlic clove and the green pepper in the pot together and fry it. Take care and stir it often to avoid burning it.

In the mean time, cut the lard into small pieces and the sausage too. When you notice that the onion is already tender, add the fatty salt pork, the bay leafs, the paprika teaspoon and the lentils to the pot and stir it for 2 minutes.

After this add the water, the rest of the smoked paprika and the spicy sausage. Stir it for a while and put the lid on the pot.

After that you may have to wait about ½ hour and taste it, In case the lentils are not tender enough, wait again 15 minutes and try it again.

It is really delicious, even in a lunch box and eaten for lunch the day after :)

Broccoli with bacon

This is another easy and quick dish to prepare. You just need some broccoli and bacon to carry this out. Quite simple, isn’t it?

For two people you may need:
- A broccoli
- 5 slices of bacon

Firstly, wash the broccoli and cut it into pieces, after that boil it for a short time (5 minutes is enough) adding a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of oil to the pot.

In the meantime, cut the bacon into small pieces and fry it in a big pan adding a tbsp of olive oil to it. When the broccoli is ready, strain it and mix it together with the bacon in the pan. And that's it, easy to cook and healthy.

Olive oil

Olive oil is a very important ingredient in our diet. Olives and oil are traditional products from the Mediterranean countries, so you can easily find it in these gastronomies. We are used to cook using olive oil, as it provides a characteristic flavor to our dishes. If you want to try it, I suggest you use it in salads as dressing, and specially when frying eggs. It intensifies the flavor of the eggs and turns them into something delicious.

From the health point of view, it has been proved that oil consumption is healthier than other type of oils. It is beneficial for the body in several ways, for instance, favorable effects on the heart and cholesterol levels (further information about that topic on the Wikipedia site).

Prawns with garlic

We use to eat this dish as an appetizer. I can imagine it together with a cold beer and some other snacks in summer when it is so hot...Yummy. This dish may be not so healthy, but sometimes may be healthier to enjoy a tasteful meal than obsess you with a weight loss program.

Anyway, the recipe is really easy. For two people you need:
- 5 tbsp olive oil
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 10 prawns (medium)

Add some olive oil in the pan and put in on the heater. After that, chop the garlic cloves in slices. When you finish add the prawns and do them for each side. You will notice that the oil is changing color from golden to red. Then, add the garlic slices. The garlic together with the oil will give the prawn a characteristic taste. Now it can rest on a low heat. 

All the process may not take longer than 10 minutes, but if you like the prawn well done, then you can heat it longer. After that, you can put it on a plate and eat it. Don't forget to take some white bread to dip it into the oil together with a cold beer to enjoy it completely.

Water

Water consumption is very important for the health. Not only when you are following a weight loss diet, but also in your normal life. It is beneficial to health as it removes toxins of the body, it helps metabolizing the eaten or stored fat, and if you are trying to lose weight it helps reducing food craving, since it fills you.

It is recommended to drink about 2l (70 oz.) of water daily and even more in case you practice sport, or in summer when the temperature is higher.

Spinach and Mushrooms omelet

You arrive late at home, you are not in the mood to start cooking French haut cuisine...You need to cook something quick and easy, without getting the whole kitchen dirty. This is your dish.

Ingredients for 2 people:

- 1/4 kg. Spinach

- A can of mushrooms

- 4 Eggs

You take the spinach (either frozen or fresh, frozen is quicker) and put them on a pot with water and a pinch of salt. Heat them until they boil. In the mean time you beat the eggs in a container adding a pinch of salt as well. Make sure that the container is big enough for the eggs, the spinach and the mushrooms. After that open the can and empty the mushrooms in a colander, wash them with some water and wait until the water is strained. Then add the mushrooms to the colander. When the spinach is ready, put it in the colander too and wait until the water is gone (you have to insist pushing it with a slice as spinach keep a lot of water). Then you mix it together with the eggs and the mushrooms. 

 Put a fry pan on to heat and add a tablespoonful of oil on it, wait until it is warm and spread it over the fry pan. Then, add the mix of eggs, mushrooms and spinach and wait until you think that the lower part is done. After that you have to turn the omelet. Use a plate to turn the pan and add again the omelet the other way round. Wait until you think it is ready, and here you have...

It may not take longer than 20 minutes.

Black olives and onion

Olives are a popular product in our diet and even in our culture. We eat them as a fruit (olives) and also as a dressing (oil) in most of our dishes. A simple snack is made of olives, black olives with onion is an example.

Ingredients:
- Olives
- Onion
- Oil

Directions:
Put the olives in a container. Chop the onion into small pieces and mix it with the olives in the container. Add a teaspoon of oil into the container and mix it all.

We take often it as a snack together with a drink before lunch.

Presentation

The main target of this blog is to share our food knowledge since we became independent from our parents. Once we started our professional careers we were forced to change our food habits from those we had previously acquired at home. After some time we suffered from an important overweight and also from high cholesterol rate and all that before our thirties. For this reason we decided to change radically our food habits and look for a proper diet, which could be adapted to our present needs (sedentary jobs).

At the very beginning due to professional reasons we had to have lunch every work day in a restaurant, which was a very easy way, but as the time went by, it caused us an important overweight. After getting a new job we were able to have lunch in the office, so we started preparing lunch boxes. We could control what we ate, but we didn't. It is a hard task to be done daily, so we prepared easy recipes like pasta, rice, meat, etc., easy meals but containing many calories (at least too many for our sedentary jobs).

At any given time, we decided to change our nutritional routine, improve our diet and our health at the same time. The new diet involved a drastic reduction of several products, such as meat, fish, sugar and carbohydrates. We didn't intend to turn it into a vegetarian or vegan diet, as we are not determined to dispense with some food, as cured ham, or the star product of our meals: olive oil.

As a result of this initiative, we feel better physically, as we have lost weight (almost 20 kg. and by now we are reaching our "ideal weight") and we are improving our health. We didn’t have to use any kind of medicine, or follow a diet stated by a nutritionist.

After what we consider as a success, we have decided to share our experience and the knowledge we have acquired during this time. In this blog you will find different information such as recipes, comments, opinions and tips, among other. You will also find not so healthy recipes such a snacks or what we call “tapas”, as we think that sometimes it is necessary to take a break and eat not-so-healthy food to feel psychologically better. So that is what you are going to find here, any information we consider relevant other people.

We hope you’ll enjoy it and we encourage you to place comments or questions. They will be welcome.