I have bronchitis and I can't exercise.

I hate being sick. I just hate it!
As it happens, I have gotten bronchitis and it hurts to breathe in the cold air outside.
I drink a lot of water every day, but I need solid food too. Unfortunately, nothing tastes good these days. It's like my mouth has dried up and my taste buds went numb. It's a food bloggers nightmare!



I spent today at a university and we had lunch at the univerity cafeteria. First I bought pasta with a spicy tomato sauce, but then it turned out the tomato sauce had sausages in it. I was hungry so I moved the sausages to one end of the plate and tasted the pasta with just the spicy tomato sauce on top, but the sauce was so spicy it set my mouth on fire.

So I switched to a salad with falafel. The falafel tasted great, and that was fortunate because they didn't have any vinagrettes and I can't stand the creamy stuff - so I ate my salad bare.
The salad itself tasted nothing. I guess my numb palate couldn't pick up the flavors from the shredded carrots, the corn, cherry tomatoes and cucumber, but the falafel itself rocked. I guess garlic is the cold curing spice for a reason.

I can't wait to be over the bronhitis and getting back to my normal cook-and-eat mode.

Stale bread with tomatoes....or Panzanella if you want.

The Italians have an amazing way of making the most boring food taste like it was made to please your palate. Take stale bread, for instance. Most of us will throw away the last slices of three days old bread. Not in Italy. Not only do they transfer it into something new, they even dare to call it a salad. Or Panzanella, if you want.
I love this dish but make sure you use day old bread and the best tomatoes you can buy. It makes all the difference!

4 slives of stale bread, cut into cubes
1 T garlig oil
4 T canola oil

1/2 red onion, sliced paper thin
1 lb tomatoes, cubed*
1/2 cucubmer, cubed
fresh basil
salt and pepper to taste

Dressing:
4 T canola oil
1 T balsamic vinegar

Preheat ove to 300F.
Place cubes bread in an oven proof dish.
Mix 4T canola oil and 1T garlic oil in a small cup. Sprinkle oil over bread and toss gently afterwards. Let the bread dry in the oven for about an hour. Let cool.

Mixt the ingredients for the dressing in a cup.
Then mix tomatoes, cucubmer and onion in a large bowl. Add the dried bread cubes, sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle the dressing over the bread and vegetables. Sprinkle basil leaves ontop and toss lightly.

I'll never grow tired of pasta salads

There is nothing fancy about pasta salads.
But if you ask me, I think that the community of pasta salads haven't gotten the credit they deserve. They are often a great way to add more vegetables to the table and if you don't use too much dressing, it's actually healthy too.

But, this blog is not about health, it's all about taste.
This pasta salad is one of the few I've had that doesn't use a vinaigrette, but a yogurt dressing. The yogurt adds a zing to this dish that makes the pasta less boring.
You can basically add whatever vegetables you want to this salad, but do not omit the spring onions, the cashew nuts or the rucola. Those three ingredients are definitely necessary for the flavor.

To make this pasta salad, you'll need:

1/4 pounds of pasta (any short pasta will do)
4-5 spring onions
1 cup champignon mushrooms
8-10 red cherry tomatoes
1 bunch of green asparagus
3 tablespoons unsalted cashew nuts
a handful of rucola
2 tablespoons of canola oil

For the dressing:

1/2 cup unflavored yogurt
1 tablespoon chili sauce (I used Heinz chili sauce)
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon of sweet paprika powder
salt and pepper to taste

Cook pasta according to package.

Mix the ingredients for the dressing and set aside.

Chop the spring onions, quarter the champignoins and cut the asparagus into 1/2 inch pieces.

Heat a couple of tablespoons of canola oil in a pan. Add the onions, the asparagus and mushrooms. Saute over medium heat for 8-10 minutes. Add tomatoes and cashew nuts and saute for another 5-6 minutes.

Drain the pasta in a lolander. Mix the sauteed vegetables with the pasta in a big bowl. Add half of the rucola and the salad dressing. Mix well. Sprinkle the rest of the rucola on top just before serving.

Potato salad for warm days

It's been too hot to cook lately.
But after several days of iced tea and salads, I started craving some real BBQ food.

I made grilled salmon, as salmon on the grill takes just a few blinks compared to a T-bone steak. (It was so hot I could hardly bare the thought of standing next to a hot grill!)

I served the salmon with potato salad and buttered corn. Not that buttered corn and salmon is a great combination (not by any stretch, really), but corn with butter is almost as good as chocolate, and have you ever heard anyone say that you can't serve chocolate with anything?
Because you can. ;-)

Anyways, here's the recipe for the potato salad:

2 pounds cooked potatoes, cooled and cut into cubes
2 tablespoons mustard
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup sunflower oil
8 raddishes, sliced
1 red onion, sliced
1 tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

I usually boil the potatoes a day ahead. I keep them in the fridge overnight so they will 'set'.

Mix mustard, honey and lime juice in a bowl. Add the oil little by little while whisking all the time. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Mix cubed potatoes with the raddishes and onion in a separate bowl. Fold in the oil, mustard and honey dressing.
Sprinkle chopped oregano on top.

(If you want, you can add 8 slices of fried bacon to the salad. Fry the bacon and let it cool till room teperature. Chop the bacon roughly before adding it to the potato salad. NB! Watch the salt if you are using bacon. The bacon is salty and you will need a lot less salt in the dressing.)

Vegetable pita sandwich

Last year I bought three beautiful bikinis on sale. They are the prettiest bikinis I've ever owned!
The only problem is, they are one size too small. Or rather, they are in the size *I* should be! *LOL*

With summer just around the corner, I have decided to loose the extra pounds, because I really want to get into these bikinis. Not because I love using bikinis. I don't think I have used one since 1993!
But I love a challenge, and I think that exercising and eating more healthy will be good for me.

This morning, I made myself a vegetable pita that tasted wonderful. It was an easy start on the "new" me!

Vegetable pita sandwich

1 pita bread
5 to 6 slices of cucumber
1 medium tomato, sliced
1 tablespoon toasted pine nuts
2 to 3 tablespoons tatziki (Greek yogurt sauce).

Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan. Transfer to a small bowl or plate when done.

Toast the pita bread in a hot oven or a toaster. When done, cut the top of the pita almost off, and fill it with sliced vegetables, toasted pine nuts and tatziki.

You can buy tatziki at most stores, but it's easy to make your own:

Tatziki
2 cups Greek yoghurt OR make your own from regular plain yoghurt
(put plain yogurt in a big coffee filter in a big strainer/colander, set it in the fridge and next morning it has drained off the water and is wonderful and thick like Greek yogurt)

1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeded and finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon fresh dill, finely chopped (optional)

Sprinkle the chopped cucumber with a generous pinch of sea salt and let it drain for a few minutes Avoid using a food processor to chop the cucumber since it will then have to be drained in a strainer)
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl. Keep in the refrigerator until served.