Smoothiemania

Long time no writing, I hope I can justify it by being lazy but the truth is darker than that :P I just lost my 2 phones (one lost and the other decided to stop working) and all the food pictures there gone, so I had to wait until I have the time to re do all the recipes again.

AND since it is beginning of summer I am not  keen in making food that much, I still LOVE food but I find myself more into eating light stuff like oats with nuts or cottage cheese all day with smoothies. so I decided why not share my crazy smoothies recipes, and they are crazy because basically I put in there whatever I have around nothing fancy or precise it just matching things according to their taste.

Powerhouse Smoothie

Today I returned from jogging and I was planning to go later to gym as well, still I didn't feel like eating before the gym but I need to get some energy, so immediately after my jogging (withing the 45 min rang) I had 200g of cottage cheese and made my powerhouse smoothie, and it is crazy because I just put every super food I had in the fridge in there :D good idea to have all nutrients you need with 0 effort.

Ingredients:

1 Banana

1/2 Avocado

5 Strawberries 

1/2 cup diced Pineapple

1 Kiwi

2 tablespoons frozen Spinach 

1 teaspoon Flex seed

1 tablespoon Honey

1/2 cup Ice

Directions:

In strong blender or smoothie maker put all ingredients and blend for 3 mins until completely smooth.

Recipe makes 1 serving of 450g

Calories per serving 417 calories, Saturated fat 4.3g

This recipe good for you because:

• No cholesterol
• Very low in sodium
• High in dietary fiber
• Very high in manganese
• High in vitamin B6
• Very high in vitamin C

Note:

I hate to add milk or yogurt to my smoothies and as well I hate it when it is too thick so I added ice here otherwise usually I freeze my fruits and I don't add  ice at all. In this one I only added the ice because avocado and banana already too thick.

The Hulk smoothie  

This one I stole from my sweet friend Ieva, she was so generous to share her smoothie one morning with me, and I loved it but when I made it myself I added my personal touch by making a slight adjustment to it, she makes it with banana instead of mango which taste really good too but for me I like to add mango because it is very fragrant and overcome the spinach taste completely and I think it adds lovely sweetness to the whole thing which makes it really hard to believe it has spinach in there.

Ingredients:

1 Avocado

1 Kiwi

1/2 cup frozen Mango

1/2 cup frozen Spinach 

1/2 tablespoon Honey

Directions:

In strong blender or smoothie maker put all ingredients and blend until completely smooth.

Recipe makes 1 serving of 400g

Calories per serving 562 calories, Saturated fat 8.3g

This recipe good for you because:

• No cholesterol
• Very low in sodium
• High in dietary fiber
• Very high in vitamin C

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Breakfast smoothie

This one is my all time favorite smoothie for breakfast, when I am not in the mood for food and have no time to eat, I just blend this put it in my gym cup and hit the road and it taste AMAZING and still keep you full all morning.

Ingredients:

1 Avocado

1 cup frozen Strawberries

1/4 cup Oats

1 tablespoon Honey

Directions:

In strong blender or smoothie maker put all ingredients and blend until completely smooth.

Recipe makes 1 serving of 400g

Calories per serving 601 calories, Saturated fat 8.5g

This recipe good for you because:

• No cholesterol
• Very low in sodium
• High in dietary fiber
• Very high in vitamin C

Eggs Waffle

By now, anyone who reads this blog or know me at all knows that I am crazy about waffles, it is just the easiest thing to make and yet taste heavenly. So last week I wanted to eat waffle but not real waffle so I decided to fool my brain by making eggs in waffle iron to just give my brain the illusion it needs to satisfy my craving for a waffle, and guess what it worked pretty well :D

I just made simple olive omelette and cooked in the waffle iron, for some reason the waffle iron makes the eggs rise and become so fluffy so I started to use the iron more often to make omelette.

Egg Waffle - My Little Healthy Twist 

Ingredients:

2 large Eggs

1 teaspoon Milk

50g black Olives

50g green Olives

50g Broccoli seeds

1 Tomato

1 teaspoon Olive oil

Directions:

Pre- heat the waffle iron.

In a bowl mix eggs and milk well, slice half of the green and black olives and add to the egg mixture and pour into the waffle iron, cook for 2 min. Slice tomato transfer eggs to plat and assemble the dish as desired, drizzle with olive oil and serve hot.

This recipe makes 1 serving of 161g

Calories per serving 156 calories, Saturated fat 2.6g

This recipe good for you because:

• High in selenium
• High in Protein 
• Very high in vitamin C

Summer Salad

This lunch officially gonna be my summer lunch for almost everyday, I loved the idea so much that I am making it everyday since last week with slight changes.

Again I mainly stole the recipe from Kornelia my food buddy, I asked her if I can make changes to it and put it in here and she agreed.

I made few changes to this one to even make it healthier and I think I managed to do that, instead of the wheat she used I used whole buckwheat and added few stuff to add more flavor.

Summer Salad - My little Healthy Twist 

Ingredients:

1 cup Buckwheat
1 Avocado
200g Tuna steak
80g Black Olives
40g Green Olives
50g grape tomato
100g Sun-dried Tomato
50g Basil
1 1/2 teaspoon Olive oil or flavored Omega 3 oil



Directions:

Cook the buckwheat as directed in the box, and grill the tuna as desired, chop the olives, tomato and basil to chunks and leave a side. Let buckwheat and Tuna cool down when they are room temperature cut Tuna to small pieces and mix with buckwheat and other ingredients and oil.

Note: I usually add instead of olive oil here my balance oil in Lemon flavor it goes very well with tuna and add tons of Omega 3 and fatty acids but you can add olive oil instead.

Recipe makes 2 servings of 395 g

Calories per serving 499 calories, saturated fat 6.2 g

This recipe good for you because:

• Low in cholesterol
• Low in Sodium
• Low in sugar
• High in niacin
• High in selenium
• High in Omega 3

Orange Chicken

Sometimes I have this urge to cook something so fresh even if the weather is so cold, and since as usual I don’t have enough time to cook I had to come up with really quick fix meal that require 15 min to cook. It was pretty good , it just needs to marinate overnight.

Ingredients:

Orange Chicken - My Little Healthy Twist

 2 halves chicken breast

1 Orange

1 Red Pepper sliced

1 Yellow Pepper sliced

1 Green Pepper sliced

2 Cups white button mushroom sliced

¼ cup fresh Coriander roughly chopped

1/4 Teaspoon salt 

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

1 Teaspoon black pepper

Directions:

Season the chicken breast with salt/pepper and orange juice (use the juice for the marination and the zest for garnish) for overnight.

Heat your electric grill or grill pan on medium high and grill the chicken for 10 mins or until cooked through.

Heat a non-stick pan to medium add the oil and then mushroom and don’t let it cook without stirring until the mushroom is caramelized on one side then stir and allow to caramelize, this way you will not have to add extra oil to the pan. When the mushroom half cooked add peppers and cook until soft enough, season with salt, pepper  and half of the orange zest and serve hot and garnish with Coriander and half of the orange zest.

Recipe makes 2 servings of 935 g

Calories per serving are 576, saturated fat 1.2 g

This recipe is good for you because:

Very low in saturated fat

Very high in niacin

High in phosphorus

Very high in selenium

High in vitamin A

Very high in vitamin B6

High in vitamin B12

Very high in vitamin C

Tune Steak

Since I moved to Poland I was craving Tuna, but never had the luck to find anything good, but once when I was at Biedronka for my surprise I found a good looking Tuna steak. I had my doubts eventually I wouldn't count so much on the quality of food there because it is cheap super market so I decided to make Tuna steak without too much of spices or anything to be able to judge the quality of the Tuna, and I have to say I was very surprised. The Tuna was pretty good but unfortunately I didn't see that Tuna again in Biedronka :/

Ingredients:

Tuna Steak - My Little Healthy Twist

 250 g Tuna steak

1 Avocado

½ Red Pepper sliced

½ Yellow Pepper sliced

½ Green Pepper sliced

¼ Cup fresh Coriander roughly chopped

1 Teaspoon grounded Cumin

1/4 Teaspoon salt 

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

1 Teaspoon Cayenne pepper

1 Teaspoon orange juice

Directions:

Season the Tuna with 1/8 teaspoon of the salt and ½ teaspoon of Cumin.

Heat a non-stick pan and add 1/2 the tablespoon oil on Medium high and sauté the Tuna 4 mins in each side, remove the tuna add the rest of the oil and the pepper sauté until tender but didn't lose the color, add the rest of salt and cumin and turn off the heat.

In a bowl cut the avocado into medium cubes and season with little salt and the orange juice.

Serve hot, layer half of the peppers, then half of the avocado then the tuna steak and again half of the peppers and the avocado and garnish with fresh coriander.  

Recipe makes 2 servings of 693 g

Calories per serving are 982, saturated fat 13.1 g

This recipe is good for you because:

·        Low in sugar

·        High in niacin

·        High in selenium

·        High in vitamin A

·        High in vitamin B6

·        Very high in vitamin B12

·        Very high in vitamin C

Chocolate Pancake Hearts

It is not Valentine's , but I wanted a beautiful delicious breakfast, so what a better option than to start the morning with pancakes but since the regular pancakes never fill my craving I had to come up with equally fulfilling and healthy recipe and that result was cute.

Ingredients:

Chocolate Pancake Hearts - My Little Healthy Twist 

1 2/3 Cup fine Oatmeal

2/3 Cup quality Cocoa powder

1 Cup Soy milk

1 Large Egg

2 Tablespoons unrefined brown sugar

1/4 Teaspoon salt 

1 Teaspoon intense coffee

1 Teaspoon baking powder

1/2 Teaspoon baking soda

Directions:

Mix all dry ingredients and add all wet ingredients and mix (nothing fancy) don't mind if the batter is not smooth enough just don't over mix.

Heat a pan on medium low and use heart shaped spring form to make the heart shaped pancakes, spray the pan and the form with little oil and pour the batter into the spring form, leave it to cook around 1 min remove the spring form and flip the pancake carefully without distorting the heart shape. Repeat until all the batter is gone.

Recipe makes 2 servings of 8 pancakes.

Serve with fresh strawberries and banana <3

  

Calories per serving are 456, saturated fat 3.9 g

This recipe is good for you because:

·        High in dietary fiber

·        High in iron

·        Very high in manganese

·        High in magnesium

·        High in phosphorus

·        High in selenium

·        Lactose free

*Tips: Try to find high quality Oats so you make sure it is totally gluten free because                  some of the cheap oats are processed with other grains and might have small                percentage of gluten.

Pumpkin bites

I love desserts but they come with high price, lots of empty calories, sugar and fat and I really don’t feel good eating them. And for me eating healthy dessert is just cheating, either to eat something totally decent or not at all but I recently changed my mind because of the amazing healthy desserts recipes I managed to try and this definitely one of them.

Ingredients:

Pumpkin Bites - My Little Healthy Twist 

1 cup Cashew

1 cup oats

1 cup pumpkin puree

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

Directions:

In a food processor pulse the cashew and oat to have small pieces transfer to a bowl and add spices, pumpkin puree and maple syrup.

Roll to bite size balls refrigerate for overnight and keep in the fridge until you want to serve.  

Recipe makes 4 servings of 136 g

Calories per serving is 346, saturated fat 3.5 g

This recipe is good for you because:

• No cholesterol
•  Very low in sodium
• High in manganese
• Very high in vitamin A

Grilled Chicken Carrot Salad

Sometimes I just get bored of eating healthy and I go on a crazy food hunt, you name it and I will eat it but of course after that I feel horrible, since my body is not used to this I get this annoying feeling of being intoxicated so my solution for that a 3 days detox program, I design it according my mood, resources and season of course. One of my favorite salads for such program is my grilled chicken carrot salad. It is just the perfect lunch for any carrot lover, give it a try.

Ingredients:

Grilled Chicken Carrot Salad - My Little Healthy Twist 

4 big carrots grated

2 chicken breasts

1/8 cup orange juice

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon Paprika

1 teaspoon Cumin

Orange zest

Directions:

Rub the chicken breasts with cumin and paprika and marinade for a night.

Heat the grill and grill until thoroughly cooked.

Place the grated carrots in a bowl and add salt orange juice and olive oil top with the chicken breast and orange zest.

Recipe makes 2 servings of 342 g

Calories per serving is 416, saturated fat 1.1 g

This recipe is good for you because:

• Low in saturated fat
• Very high in niacin
• High in phosphorus
•  Very high in selenium
•  Very high in vitamin A
• Very high in vitamin B6
• High in vitamin B12

Mexican Tuna Salad

My friend and I have this arrangement for lunch at work, since we both like to eat healthy we agreed to take turns in making food. One morning I woke up and forgot totally that day was my turn, when I was about to leave the house I remembered I should have prepared something so I thought about something quickly to make with the ingredients I have around and all I could find a can of Tuna, red beans, pepper, avocado and other veggies so I decided to make Mexican tuna salad and I am soooo glad I did. My friend loved it so much and I did to, was so refreshing and tasty too and kept us full until we got home.

Not only you can put this salad together in no time but it contains really healthy ingredients that you will feel good having them anytime whenever you have no time to cook or feel just lazy to stand in the kitchen to cook a decent dish. I really hope you enjoy it ;)

Ingredients:

Mexican Tuna Salad - My Little Healthy Twist 

1 can of Tuna in water

1 red pepper

1 yellow pepper

1 avocado

1/2 cup red beans

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 spring onion

1 lime juice

Directions:

Just cut all veggies in bite size cubes, add avocado the last sprinkle with garlic powder and drizzle with lime juice and olive oil.

I didn't have around coriander around the kitchen that day, but if you have it add it to the salad it will add the perfect finish.

Recipe makes 2 servings of 440 g

Calories per serving is 549, saturated fat 5.3 g

This recipe is good for you because:

• Low in cholesterol
• Very low in sodium
• Low in sugar
• High in dietary fiber
• High in selenium
• Very high in vitamin C

Tea Party

I am/was true coffee addict, who wouldn't guess that :P love for food comes in a whole package after all, but few months ago I had to stop drinking coffee because it started to make me really sick. I decreased my coffee intake gradually from 3 cups to one small cup but the symptoms didn't get better, I will still feel my heart racing, stomach will get upset and will have the most annoying headache. Sadly I decided to stop drinking coffee at once and honestly speaking it was one of the hardest things I ever done, not because I was caffeine addict but because I love coffee; the smell of it can literally bring me back to life and turn my day upside down and I was totally depressed and had the worst temper ever for weeks ... still I did cut off my coffee because the price I was paying was too high (which is my heart health).

I love green tea, so it was my natural substitute for coffee but unfortunately I couldn't drink more than 2 cups a day because it will make me feel sick as well so I had to be creative and find other beverages that I can drink through the day to keep me focused and productive. Even though I was drinking lots of tea before but I never thought of new ways to serve it, I was just drinking it the way it is, and since I already said I get bored easily I had to make sure I don't over do it with tea and get bored of one type or the other so I started to mix and match tea with other tea and tea with fruit, spices and herbs and the results were awesome. Below I will share with you 3 of my favorite tea recipes not only because the are tasty but they help you get the energy you need throughout the day.

I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do :)

Apple - Mint infused Tea

Ingredients:

2 bags apple mint tea 

2 bags white tea 

4 cups of boiling water 

1 red apple thinly sliced

1 spring of mint

1/4 cup white honey

Directions:

In a glass tea pot put all the tea bags and cover with boiling water, let is set for 5 mins then remove the tea bags and add honey stir then add apples and mint and enjoy the tea hot or cold equally super good.

This tea is really great way to start your day or end it; apple and mint is awesome combination to sooth the stomach and detox your system, honey and white tea give you the boost you need to keep doing what you have to do, either going to gym or finish your work.

Green tea - berries infused tea

Ingredients:

3 green tea bags

1 blackberry tea bag 

4 cups of boiling water (60°C)

6 frozen or fresh strawberries 

Direction:

in a tea pot put all tea bags cover with water and let it set for 3 mins, remove and add strawberries cover and let is set for 5 mins and serve hot or cool.

This tea is really refreshing and energizing, you don't even need to add any sweetener because the strawberries 

add their natural sweetness that make the tea taste so wonderful along with the blackberry tea the green tea give you huge boost to run all house chores without feeling slightly tired but as well it improve your overall health, I don't need to  the point out benefits of green tea but also strawberries are good fruit to fight body fat.

Mint - Honey infused Tea 

Ingredients:

1 cup fresh mint 

4 cups of boiling water 

1/4 cup of good quality white honey 

Directions:

In a tea pot put the mint and pout the water over it, add honey and stir, this one leave the mint inside and serve hot or cool.

This tea I call it my exams tea, mint is super ingredient, just drink that all day and see how focused you will be, your brain will be much relaxed and calm to focus on the study materials and your body will feel great all day long. This one is really good as well if you have upset stomach, it will sooth it quickly after spicy meal or fatty dish.

* Tip: make sure you use the right temperature for water while making tea, each type of tea needs certain temperature to bring out the flavor but also don't bring too much. Specially with green tea, if the water is too hot the tea will taste bitter or if the water is not warm enough it will not bring all the extracts we need for good tea.

A thermometer is a good investment in the kitchen anyways or just use the electric water boiler for safe results.  

Corn Waffle Burger

For me, there are two things I don’t compromise even for health when it comes to them, big juicy burger and tender huge steak , I don’t consider them healthy choice but they are not really bad for you still I wouldn't dare to make them healthy until recently; at least for burgers :)
While I was having my infamous corn waffle with my friend Ieva, she said the perfect thing ever “imagine this waffles with burger topped with crispy bacon” at this point my brain froze and went totally other direction and I didn't hear the rest of what she said, in my mind I was imagining how I can combine the best healthy waffle burger without OF COURSE compromising the taste and I decided to take my chances and try to put together really awesome dish.
Honestly speaking when I try to make something healthy I don’t intend to cut as much calories as I can (eventually I don’t care about calories because I need about 2800 calories per day … lucky me :P) but actually turn unhealthy dish to healthier version by making each portion fulfilling  contain real nutrients  that our body needs and if I managed to cut big portion of the calories that would be great.So, when I was trying to duplicate this recipe all I cared is to have a meal that I will feel good about it and will not make me sleepy the rest of the day and that’s what I had …. One of the best recipes I made <3

Ingredients:

Corn Waffle Burger - My Little Healthy Twist 

For the burger
1 avocado
1 tomato½ yellow or red pepper
1 green chili
1 egg
110 g minced turkey breast  
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon Cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon sweet pepper
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Coriander for garnish

For the waffles
1 cup Yellow Corn Flour
1 egg
1/2 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar


Directions:


Starting with the waffles recipe: Preheat the waffle iron while making the waffle batter, mix all ingredients for waffle in a bowl whisk together and scope 2 table spoons in each square of the iron; this batter should make 6 waffles. Repeat the same until the batter is done.To make the burger: mix the meat, all spices and Worcestershire sauce and place it a side, heat a nonstick pan while slicing the avocado, yellow pepper, green chili then the tomato make a disk shape of the meat and place in the pan cook for 5 mins each side for well done.Fry the eggs and layer the burger by placing one waffle and top it with sliced pepper the avocado, the burger the top it with the fried egg and garnish with coriander, put on the side the rest of the avocado and the tomato and enjoy.You can have the rest of the waffles as late snack ;)

Recipe makes 1 serving of 498 g 

Calories per serving is 866, saturated fat 10.3 g

This recipe is good for you because:

• High in dietary fiber

• High in selenium

• High in vitamin A

• High in vitamin C