Weekend

I rarely drink alcohol these days, but if I drink, I go for champagne ;)

This weekend I spent like never before! First of all, with new job I rarely have Saturday and Sundays off. Second of all, I travel to city centre not so often, even thought it is not so far away from place where I live.

with my lovely Mom

My mother's visit was the best excuse to change that! We celebrate her birthday (happy birthday Mom! :*), went on a musical, drank champagne during our shopping and eat lots of good food. 

Thriller musical at Lyric Theatre

wonderfully decorated Carnaby Street

After such intensive two days I am so happy and pleased. That was a really great break from (sometimes harsh) reality..

another glass of amazing champagne

our brunch at Grind Coffee Shop (Westfield Stratford) and healthy pouched egg sandwich

Birthday cake

My man had his birthday yesterday <3
For this special occasion I made birthday cake for him!

I used:
* chocolate healthier cake mix (40% less carbs, no sugar, 10% fiber)
* 3 eggs
* 100ml of neutral oil
* water

For frosting:

* melted Philadelphia Freia (Philadelphia with chocolate)
* mix of fresh berries

Party food: spinach rolls

spinach rolls

If you are looking for some party snack, which are easy to prepare, looks great and taste no worse, you came to right place!

Spinach rolls are really easy to prepare. You will need:

* french dough/butter dough (in poland there is a low fat version, which I actually recommend, but here in Norway, we have only regular type)
* spinach
* 1 egg and a spoon of natural yoghurt or Philadelphia cheese

start with preparing spinach that it can cool down before rolling them into dough

First, start with spinach - defroze it, put it to a pot and boil it. Add 1 egg, lots of garlic and salt. At the end add a big spoon of yoghurt to have more creamy consistence. Put the pot from the heat and let spinach cool down.

Take half defrost french dough. It has to be a half-frozen that you can form it easy, when it is defrosted it gets really messy, believe me.

knife has to be sharp to not destroy the beauttiful pattern of dough

Put a spinach on a dough and roll it. Then take a really sharp knife and chop it into piecies like in the pictures below.

rolls ready to bake

Put rolls on an oven pan, you can covered them with egg (but it is not necessary) to get gold coating.
Bake rolls in the oven for 30 minutes in 220 degrees. 

can be served both - warm or chilled

And.. enjoy a great party! :)

Btw. this is not a diet snack, keep that in mind, french dough is very rich in calories from fat. But from time to time you can spoil yourself with treat like that, don't you? :)

Snack it!

Grapes, camambert and blue cheese, salty crackers, olives and pear

I put some ideas for snacks where friends are comming in visit :)
This was what I served when we had girly evening yesterday.

Cheese, crackers and grapes - always good combination!

Simple and easy - no time for time consuming dishes in the middle of the week. But on the other hand it is still sometings more interesting than salty pretzels ;)

Smart party snacking

Even if you are in a rush, try to find fresher and healther solution for all those common know. It take the same time to buy a bag of chips and to buy some olives :)
Fresh fruits and veggies are always better than processed food! If there is autumn now, serve seasonal fruits, like plums, for example.

Plums served with white cheese on crackers

Olives - always a great choice!

Paprika and home made dip - couln't be better!

Paprika filled with cottage cheese

Party food 3

Ready to rock! ;)

Today maybe not the healthiest, but definitely very tasty party food - taco and blue cheese&parma ham salad.

Taco is quite easy dish for parties where there is a lot of people and food have to be filling. And that is what today's party will be :)

I prepare taco from soft tortillas, minced meat with hot spices and corn and lots of cheese. Cheese is an ingredient which will combine tortilla and meat together. I put tacos to the oven for about 10 minutes, to let the cheese melt. This tacos will be served chilled, but they will be even better when served hot. 

Today's salad will be very simple one. Mix of salads, ruccola and baby spinat with blue cheese, fired parma ham and self made croutons. I did also add peanut and a little bit of walnuts oil. I will mixed all salad just after coming to the party place.

Enjoy your Saturday!

Party food 2

A friend visit in out house is always a reason to prepare something interesting to eat :)

 

 Today I served meat stuffed mushrooms and salmon sandwiches.

Party food

 Few simple pary-dishesh to prepare when you don't have time to cook and lovely guest are coming in the evening :)

Camembert&blue cheese with walnuts and grapes

Cous cous&shrimps salad with sesame dressing

Kabanos (dry polish sausage) with camembert cheese and grapes

Bruschetta with fresh basil and ruccola