How to cook: Salmon fillet with spring potatoes

Every once in a while I feel an incredible lust for fish. Sometimes I just need one so badly! I love getting a fresh one from the fishery, but sometimes I get a salmon or a mackerel. The only downside is that Ales doesn't like them! I make delicious recipes from fish and he does not fully appreciate these (not that he wouldn't eat it, but it's a waste of delicious meal), so I usually make something else for him. As for this recipe, it's nothing special but it's simple and tastes pretty good.

For two portions you need:
2 salmon fillets
4 middle-size potatoes
1-2 spoons of fine white flour
spoon of oil
chive
2-3 spoons of butter
oregano, basil, savory, thyme, salt, pepper

First peel the potatoes, cut them into small pieces and put them in the water to boil. Wash the fillets, and coat them with the mix of flour, herbs, pepper and salt and let them rest for like 10 minutes. Then preheat a pan with the oil and roast the fish from both sides. Meanwhile you should melt the butter. In theory you should be finished with all three ingredients at the same time, so all you need to do now is to put everything aside, drain the potatoes and then mash them a bit, add butter and freshly cut chive and serve.

How to cook: Couscous with salmon, peas and Parmesan cheese

What I like about couscous is that it is really quick dish. Using the electric kettle to boil water and then just five minutes ant it's done! Yay! All you have to do is prepare the mixture to go with it. This one is one of my favourites (the other one is with leaf spinach and walnuts and Parmesan). Truth is that I mixed a recipe for Italian risotto with a salmon (or a sea trout or what was it) I had in the freezer for some time and I really wanted to do something about it. The couscous served as light lunch after Christmas binging and even my fish-hating boyfriend enjoyed it (ok, I exaggerated a bit, he is not exactly fish-hater, he just doesn't like them much)...




What you need:
200 g of salmon /sea trout fillets (possibly any fish would do)
handful of peas (frozen, canned, fresh, depends on you)
three handfuls of couscous
60 g of Parmesan
1 really tiny onion or half a regular one
two spoons of oil
spoon or two of flour
water, salt, pepper, red pepper, leftover wine (optional)

What you do: As in many of my recipes chop the onion finely and throw it in the pan with preheated oil. You have like fifteen minutes before it turns brownish (you cannot turn the stove on full you know!), so prepare the fillets, use pepper, salt and red pepper (not necessarily red hot pepper) and mix these with flour and wrap the fillets in this mixture. Throw them on the pan and sear them on both sides. Now you should have brownish onions and seared fish, so ad the peas and pour some wine (one decilitre is enough, you can use water instead) and let it bubble. Meanwhile pour water in the kettle and wait till it boils. Use appropriate amount for the couscous in some bowl (it should be written on the package, it should be twice the amount of couscous) and salt, then cover it and let it prepare itself for five mins. As for the fish-peas mix, you should disassemble the fillets (it should go easy now, nice and soft), mix it with the peas and if necessary, add some more spices. When the couscous is nice and ready, add it to the pan (if the pan is not big enough, you can do the exact opposite and pour the mixture in the couscous bowl). Now add the secret ingredient - the Parmesan cheese and voila! Nice and quite healthy dish can be served!

A way to go Billa!

Some time ago the only good thing about Billa was the fact that it is usually in the very centre of a town, unlike many other supermarkets that keep their distance (at least in south Bohemia it is so), so you could get groceries without having to commute to the periphery. And that was basically it. The quality was not amusing, especially the vegetables, prices were often higher than in other stores and the choice is limited. But today I've noticed a nice thing (and pardon me, if it is nothing new, it certainly is here in the wild). Today I found some regional goods titled "Billa regionally (Billa regionálně)". Not just items that are from Czech Republic but these are directly from our district. And It seems nice. I immediately purchased oat-flake cocoa cookies and they were simply marvellous! And it is not just the taste itself! There is no white flour in the cookies. There are no eggs so the cookies do not mess with my new diet. The baking powder used is in bio quality. The packing was half paper, half plastic but these two were fully separable so each part can go to it's own sorting garbage container. And they are very local (meaning thirty kilometres away from where I bought them). I bought them as a snack for my way home from school and I had to keep my hands of it so there were at least some left for the photo!

CZ
Ještě před nějakým časem jediná dobrá věc na Bille bylo to, že na rozdíl od většiny supermarketů je i v samotném centru, takže můžete zaskočit na nákup i bez cestování na kraj města, kde se obvykle drží ty ostatní supermarkety (tedy aspoň tady to tak je). Ale kromě toho nic moc, kvalita průměrná, zelenina nic moc, ceny často přehnané a výběr díky menší rozloze docela omezený. Ale dneska jsem si všimla hezké věci (nevím, jak moc je to novinka, ale pro mě je, takže...!). V Bille je regál s nápisem "Billa regionálně", kde najdete...překvapivě regionální výrobky. Ale nemyslí se tím věci českých výrobců ale opravdu místních, takže se tu našly marmelády a med ze Šumavy a podobně. Mně učarovaly Kaplické ovesné kakaové sušenky, tak jsem si je koupila na svačinu do vlaku (ze kterého se vyklubal autobus, zatracené České dráhy!). A byly opravdu moc dobré! A nejen to, nebyla v nich žádná bílá mouka, kypřící prášek byl bio a bez fosfátů a taky v nich nebyla žádná vejce, takže se to nemlátí s mou novou dělenou dietou (mimochodem, mám za sebou dva dny a už teď je mi lehčeji!). Navíc, obal byl udělaný tak chytře, že papírová část šla čistě oddělit od plastového sáčku, takže můžu oba kousky dát do kontejneru na tříděný odpad! Jinak sušenky stály asi 20 Kč, při 100 gramech, což se může někomu zdát dražší, ale zato víte, co jíte (to je další má nová zásada, jíst míň, zato kvalitněji).Kolik radosti člověku neudělá balíček sušenek...

Testing trophology

Lately I've been sick, had plenty of free time thus I decided to reorganize a few things in order to feel better. Firstly my closet. I did another closet cleaning based on my usual rules (if you haven't worn it for a year, sell it/throw it away) and am planning more of these quite often in order not to be flooded with clothes. Next on the list was the lifestyle. See, I've been having some digestion problems, I felt tired and bloated and just not well. And I remembered how great I felt when trying trophology (food combining) for the first time. So I came back to that. Today is my first day and I feel great. The good thing about food combining is not only the fact that you are thinking about what you eat but also not pressing on you body. You are serving yourself the meals that work together and are more or less easy to digest. I hope it will last for a while, as I usually get lazy after some time and start cheating. Well, I already did, but that was only because they do not count soy into regular legumes and I just love the tofu spreads on my wholegrain bread for breakfast (which is something you should not do, but I think it's better than having a pâté or salami or butter).
I have like four P.E. classes signed up for next semester (which is not because I wanted to work out but because I was missing some credits for my finals). And I need to do some work on my thesis, seriously!
Keep your fingers crossed as my finals from psychology and education are taking place tomorrow!

How to cook: Indian lentil soup

I am not a soup person. I know people that cannot imagine meal without having soup before, but as for me, it always makes me full and I simply can't have anything else. I usually make one as a main course, my favourites are broccoli cream soup, peas cream soup, classic broth with noodles, garlic soup (also known as after party dish) and this one. Local Indian restaurant has the possibility of lunch menu in the form of a raut/banquet/all-you-can-eat for really low price and the good thing about it is, that there is always soup, three different dishes, four side dishes and an appetiser (I love onion bhajis and I would never find out without this option!), which allows you to try something you haven't tried before and yet you don't risk getting something you dislike and paying full price for it. Anyway, I fell in love with many things from the menu and I love to make Indian evening for my pals (appetiser, soup, main course). But as for the lentil soup, I love it even separately!

Get well box

So I'm sick. AGAIN. I caught a flu last week, I spent four days in bed, unable to move, then I had to go to school with fever to pass not one but two exams.On Friday I was finally getting better. Then Ales caught it from me. So I took care of him. The bad thing was he didn't have four days, he had two. And then had to go to work (damn you, system!). So I was sending him some energy so he could survive day at work (Yeah, I believe in energies and stuff). Well, I couldn't control the amounts, so the next day I was sick again! Ales is fine though. I've been sweating like a little pig for three more days, my bones hurt and it is just great. The good thing is my Brandnooz box just arrived! Some of you might not know what's that all about. Well, you subscribe to a box, pay 220 CZK a month (about 8,5$) and in the end of a month you receive a box with all kinds of goodies. Even though it cost me great amount of energy, unpacking the box really cheered me up. If you haven't opened your box yet, I recommend not to read any further...

How to cook: Spinach quiche with baked tomatoes

After all these visits at my mum's and grandma's, all the fat, meat, pastry, we were all so stuffed, so full and so tired of all the food that we needed some lighter meal. It was me who invited all the present relatives to join us in out apartment for this fresh and light dinner. The quiche is brilliant by itself but, as my dad said, the tomatoes play an interesting tune in the chord (not sure, if this metaphor works in English as well). Nevertheless, I borrowed the recipe from Foodlover (who used the quiche dough from cook book of Dita P., I made a few changes), the tomatoes are my idea.

How to cook: pork steak with spinach sauce and baked potatoes ENG/ CZ

ENG
Hail to the cooking master! Seriously though, I know it doesn't look that way but most of my diet consists of beans and legumes, rice, vegetables and vegetarian stuff. But, most of these delicious meals don't look very nice in a photo, so you have to get over with the fact that all the recipes are not very healthy... I'll try my best to get a nice photo of my delicious vegan Indian lentil soup or of my favourite falafel with corn-tomato salad. But right now:

How to cook: Meat-filled pasta with cream tomato sauce

ENG
When I was younger, everyone in my family believed that I will never be the sort of a woman who is into cooking and so did I. But as I moved out to live with my boyfriend, It turned out I am quite good at it. And more, I like to experiment a bit with spices and tastes. Italian cuisine is my favourite and I had this pack of conchiglioni pasta for ages and just wanted to do something about it.

Fat or flat

I am really happy that many campaigns fight against anorexia, bulimia and the way media depicts women's body. I support all the "plus size" models, the ads with proper women, such as Dove:

And I thing that fashion industry is sick and just wrong. But the other side of these "everybody's perfect" campaigns is defending fat girls. Here, I said it. FAT.
The truth is, that S-size is not available for everyone. I know that very well. I tried to wear that, just like my mother and sisters do, but no. I happened to inherit the bodytype of my grandmother - big tits, wide calves, not being able to get under 62 kilograms even if I tried really hard (I tried once, stopped, because I felt just wrong). Never mind. It is perfectly ok to be size 44, 46 or whatever. But you just can't weight 120 kg and tell me you are perfect the way you are.
First of all, unless you have some health issue which keeps you from moving, it is just your fault and I believe even your laziness. Nobody wants to weigh that much. And everybody can try to change that. I know that my struggles might seem stupid compared to yours but they are as real as yours. I ride my bike everyday to work and back. I run, I go for walks, I exercise I do stuff. I try to eat properly and I manage to do so most of the time. I am not gaining weight. I'm not losing it either, as I stopped smoking this year and the metabolism kind of stopped burning calories. And every once in a while I feel fat and ugly. I could do more for myself. And so can you.
The most important thing about being overweight is not the fact, that you can't find fitting clothes. It is your health. Do you know what extra kilos do to your joints? Not to mention the impact on your heart, stomach and other. You get tired easily, you move badly and your body suffers even if your mind doesn't. You can change that.
Look again at the women on the picture. Different sizes, different shapes...all perfect. But I bet you that most of them exercise. They try to improve their figure or at least maintain the one they have to stay healthy. And That is what those spacially distinctive ladies should do too.

I am a vegetarian... except for occasional steaks

To be honest, I'm not. I just wanted to say I understand you guys. A little. I mean, there are many good reasons for not eating meat. You don't like the taste of it, you don't like the way animals are treated, you think you are healthier without it... I get it. I am just not going to join you. And here's why.

It is OK to eat meat. What is not OK is animal treatment. And the fact that we produce more that we can use, so we throw away tons of food every single day. Not just meat. It's not only lives of animals that come to waste, it's other things. That is not right.