My parents have always been very health conscious. They like to eat healthy food, and they like to cook their food from scratch.
One thing they always made from scratch was granola. And I know why. Not only is homemade granola usually cheaper, it is also much healthier and it tastes a lot better than it’s commercial counterpart.

I found this recipe at kiss my spatula and have adapted to suit my family. That’s another wonderful thing about homemade granola. You can personalize it!

Ingredients:
- 4 cups organic rolled oats
- 1/2 cup chopped or slivered almonds
- 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
- 1/4 cup sesame seeds
- 3 tbsp ground flax seeds
- 1 cup shredded coconut
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup sunflower seed oil (or 1/3 cup applesauce)
- 1/3 cup good honey
- 1/3 cup apple juice or apple cider
- 1 cup raisins and chopped dates (or other dried fruits. The original recipe calls for cranberries)

Heat oven to 350º. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the oats, nuts, seeds, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.

In a small pan, gently heat the honey, add the oil and juice, and stir until combined. (Don’t cook the mixture)

Pour the liquid mixture over the oat mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until all the oats and nuts are coated. Spread onto a large sheet pan lined with parchment paper.

Bake, stirring occasionally with a spatula, until the mixture turns a nice, even golden brown, around 30-40 minutes, depending on oven.

Remove granola from the oven and allow to cool completely, stirring occasionally. Add dried fruit.

Store cooled granola in an airtight container.

Serve with milk or yogurt. My children love it and it makes for a very quick and nutritious breakfast!

Serve this soup on cold autum days, along with some crusty bread or toast. The coconut milk and chilies give this basic soup it’s exotic note.

Ingredients

- 600 grams potatoes (wax)
- 1 onion
- 2-3 Tablespoons oil
- 800 ml vegetable stock
- 3 celery stalks
- 2 green chilies
- 300 grams white fish fillets (cod, pollock…)
- juice from one lime
- salt, pepper
- 4 tomatoes
- 165 gr coconut milk (I use the whole 400 ml can. We like it!)

Peel, wash and dice potatoes.
Peel and chop onion.
Heat oil in a soup pot. Saute onion and potato cubes in the hot oil for a few minutes. Add stock and let the soup simmer for 30 minutes
Clean cellery stalks, cut off and save leaves and chop stalks in 1/2 cm slices.
Slice chilies lengthwise, clean, seed and slice. Add to the simmering soup when it’s half way through.
Wash and pat fish fillets dry. Season with lime juice, salt and pepper, and cut in bite sized pieces.
Skin tomatoes by dropping them into a pan of boiling water for a minute, and then running them under cold water. The skins will slide off easily.
Chop the tomato flesh, discarding the seeds, into strips.
When the soup is almost done, add coconut milk. Add fish and tomato strips to the hot soup and let them poach for five minutes.

Season the soup with lime juice, salt and pepper.
Serve immediately.

If you love chocolate, and you want to be healthy, you will like this recipe. Try having only one!

Ingredients
- 1/3 cup melted butter or margarine, or oil
- 1/3 cup buttermilk or nonfat yogurt
- 2 eggs, or 1 egg and 2 egg whites if you want to cut down further on calories and fat
- 1 1/4 cup sugar (we cut it down to 1 cup)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup wholewheat pastry flour

Preheat oven to 350 f (175C).
Grease a 9×13 inch cake pan or two small pans (I make mine in two small round cake pans)

Melt butter or margarine, or pour measured oil into a large bowl. Add yogurt and sugar and mix well.
Add eggs and egg whites, beating well after each addition.
Stir in cocoa powder, vanilla and baking soda, and mix well.
Add flour, and beat the mixture until it’s homogenous and satiny.
Pour into prepared pan(s) and bake for 20 minutes. Watch closely after 15 minutes. Depending on your oven, they may get done faster. You want them to be moist, but done.

Enjoy!

Although the orginal recipe labels them light, I wouldn’t exactly classify these brownies as diet food. Just a much healthier version of a much-loved yet very unhealthy dessert!

This dish combines the high-quality protein of chicken legs or thighs with healthy, low GI chickpeas (that are also a very good source of protein), tomatoes, onions, garlic, herbs and spices. Drizzled with olive oil for flavor and a boost of satisfying healthy fat. A wonderful, satisfying dish served with brown rice.

Ingredients
1 can of chickpeas (260 gr. drained)
1 large tomato,finely chopped
1 large onion,finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon dry oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 chicken thighs or legs without skin
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon paprika

Preheat the oven to 200C

Combine the chickpeas, tomato, onion, and garlic in a casserole dish or a baking dish. Mix oregano, salt and pepper, and sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of this over the chickpeas.
Rub the remaining herb mixture into the chicken. Arrange the chicken on the chickpea mixture and drizzle all with the oil. Sprinkle the chicken with the paprika.
Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake for 15 to 20 minutes more, until the chicken is cooked through. Serve hot, with a side of brown rice.

The chickpeas are delicious with onions and garlic,cooked under chicken!

Recipe source: Denise Austin slimming program

Last week our supermarket was selling reduced fat, mixed pork and beef mince at the very good price of €1.22 for 400 grams. The meat is supposed to have no more than 13% fat. You can tell the difference when you are browning it in a skillet without oil!
On the day I went to stock up on meat, I also got some bargains from the produce section, among them was cabbage.
I bought one, knowing the children are not that keen, but I planned on feeding hubby and myself the cabbage and let the children have something different if they just wouldn’t eat it.

I made a nice German cabbage and mince casserole. It is very filling and tasty!

Ingredients

- 1 Cabbage (1-1/4 kg)
- 40 grams butter
- 125 ml water
- 400 grams mince
- 1 Broetchen or 2 slices of bread, crusts removed.
- 3 onions
- 1 egg
- pepper
- salt
- cumin
- mustard
- buttered breadcrumbs.

Remove tough and dry leaves off cabbage. Cut off the stalk. Section and slice as finely as possible, or shred in a food processor.
Place sliced or shredded cabbage in a pot, with the water and butter cut into pieces. Add a dash of salt and a dash of cumin. Cook on medium heat, covered, until cabbage is tender, for about 10 minutes. Uncover and let water evaporate, or drain. I didn’t want to drain the butter off, so I let the water evaporate instead (keep a close eye on the pot so you don’t accidentaly burn the cabbage)

Preheat oven to 200c.

While cabbage cooks, soak Broetchen or bread slices in water and squeeze out as much water as possible, and break up with fingers. Mince one small onion very finely. Mix meat, egg, moist bread, minced onion,salt, pepper, and 1 tsp. mustard together.

Prepare buttered crumbs by melting some butter in a pan (about 2 T), and adding 1/2 – 3/4 cup dry breadcrumbs, sirring until all crumbs are buttery. They shouldn’t form clumps or be too buttery.

Chop the other two onions coarsely.

Place half of the cooked cabbage on the bottom of a casserole dish.
Spoon meat mixture on top, and spread evenly, pressing down with a spoon.
Spread the rest of the cabbage on top.
Sprinkle with chopped onion and buttered breadcrumbs.

Bake in preheated oven until the breadcrumbs are golden.

It’s been a long and rainy week here, and having all three children at home all day, every day, has been a challenge.
One day I took them out to our local shopping center, on the bus. I took the boys over to the indoor play center, and went off to the supermarket to see what nice foods I could find.
I’d never had spaghetti squash, not that I remember, and they had some there among all the other pumpkins, so I bought one to try out.
You can read about the squash, which one to buy, and how to cook it over here

I brought the squash home and decided I’d try doing it with some meat and tomato sauce. I had a carton of chopped tomato with italian herbs, and decided to use that on some low-fat pork and beef mince.

Cutting the squash in half was not fun. I think next time I’ll pierce it and bake it, then cut it! I was afraid I’d chop a finger off or something.

The recipe couldn’t be easier. Make the sauce while the squash bakes.

Sauce:

- Heat a heavy skillet and brown the meat in it. Add onion and garlic if you wish. I didn’t. I was feeling very lazy.
- Pour tomato chunks with italian herbs over the meat, rinsing the carton with a little water, which you add to the sauce.
- Taste sauce for seasoning. I added some salt, pepper and oregano.

When the squash is soft, comb strands out of it with a fork, pile them on plates and serve topped with the sauce and a little grated cheese if you like.

A very light faux pasta dish!

My 5 year old ate it well, my 4 year old very carefully avoided all the squash strands…

There are many recipes for me to share with the world wide web, many very healthy ones too, but you got to start somewhere!

It’s cold and rainy outside.  The kids are home for two weeks and were nagging at me for something “special”.  I thought some chocolate would be nice, so I went to Google to find the recipe for chocolate cake in a coffee mug.

I’ve made the cake before and wasn’t very impressed.  Too spongey and dry, and not enough chocolate flavor!  So I was prepared to do some tweaking.

I followed the recipe from Recipezaar, and made a couple changes.

You will need:
- A bowl and a fork or whisk for mixing the ingredients (I didn’t bother mixing dry in one, wet in another)
- Two coffee mugs or one large one.
- A microwave.

Ingredients

- 4 T. Cake or all-purpose flour (not self rising)
- 4 T. Sugar
- 3 T. Cocoa powder
- 1/2 t. Baking powder
- 1 Egg
- 3 T. Milk
- 3 T. Oil
- 1/2-1t. Vanilla (I used about 5 gr. vanilla sugar)
- Chocolate chips or nuts (we didn’t have any, so I left those out)

Oil both mugs.
In the bowl, beat egg, add other liquid ingredients and mix well. Add dry ingredients and mix very well so there are no lumps left. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts, if using.
Pour batter into the prepared mugs, trying to get the same amount in both.
Microwave on high for 2.5 minutes for two cakes, and 3 for one in a large mug. I microwaved mine for 2 minutes, and there was a little raw batter left at the bottom. It kind of served as sauce, and tasted yummy, but if you want it cooked through you’ll have to let them cook a little longer.

Next time, I think I’ll add a pinch of salt and some chopped chocolate, and let the cakes cook a little longer.

About 1/3 of that cake was enough to satisfy the craving. It is definitely not the one to make for yourself if you are on your own!

I made it with the salt and some white chocolate bits. The chocolate tends to settle on the bottom, but it makes a wonderful sauce…. yummy…

Hello!
Do you cook every day, or are you the one responsible for feeding more than just yourself, and don’t get paid for it?
Are you planning balanced and varied meals that will satisfy those in your care, and getting little more than an occasional thank you for your efforts?
Are your cooking skills constantly subject to criticism from those who take your hard work for granted?

You have arrived at the right place on the web! You are an Unpaid Chef!

Welcome to my kitchen, where I will share with you recipes that have passed the test of my four very picky eaters (maybe not all of them at once!). This site is a work in progress. I will be adding recipes and photographs on a weekly basis, so check back. I welcome any good recipes and will be happy to try them out and post them, or even just go by your word and give you the credit!