Lately I’ve had to change my way of eating again. Seems that with aging our body needs different things.
Because of cancer surgeries in the 90’s I’ve dived into menopause way too early, and since my mom died from breast cancer I’m not a big fan of getting the hormone treatment that our health care have to offer…so I’ve changed my way of eating instead.

And the soy bean is suppose to be good for a lot of reasons. It is suppose to prevent breast cancer even. But the biggest reason for me to try out soy products are the hot flashes I get.

So I’ve made Miso soup in every fashion you can imagine for the past month now and it’s great I really like it.
I’ve also exchanged regular milk for Soy milk. It doesn’t taste the same, but in my coffee and in cooking it doesn’t really make much of a difference in that way. And I rarely drink milk at all these days.

After a lot of chasing around for the Miso paste I finally managed to find it at Tesco. It’s a rather spicy variety of miso paste, but it’s good. And cheap too.

Not to forget how easy it is to make.
The paste I bought come in sachets that you mix with 160 ml of boiling water, and that gives a full flavor soup with a bit of seaweed in it. Then I add some egg noodles (not the instant stuff…the real kind), some bean sprout, a bit of leek or spring onions, sweet peas, shaved carrot etc. etc.

What I like about Miso is that you can mix and match in pretty much any way you want.
And yes…it does help at least me with the hot flashes.
There’s a reason why Asian women rarely have any problems with menopause and why breast cancer is so rare in Asia compared to in the western part of the world. And the soy bean is most likely the main reason.

I eat this once a day if I can and it’s perfect as lunch.
With a bit of luck it will ease the symptoms I’m having down to zero within a few months.
Or so I hope anyway.
If not, at least I’ve tried…and at the same time found a dish that I really like

Add to this that I “should” stop smoking, quit my coffee consumption and put away chocolate and spicy food :p Then life might go back to normal again…but without all the fun stuff.
So neither of those are likely to happen even though they are a big trigger.
I’m trying to do everything in moderation instead

I must admit that I love ice cream. And dark chocolate. Put the two together, give me a spoon and you won’t see me until there’s nothing left in that bowl

Tesco Finest Organic Fair Trade Chocolate Ice Cream went up to the top of my list of favorite goodies only a month ago when I bought the first batch of it. Normally, chocolate ice cream is a bit too sweet for me so I rarely buy it even if I like it. The sugar level is simply too high.

This new ice cream from Tesco is delicious. At least if you like a bit more grown up flavor. This ice cream is perfect if you like dark chocolate, because the flavor is a bit bitter. And the sweetness is a lot more discreet than what you usually find in chocolate ice cream.

You can get this ice cream in chocolate, coffee and vanilla flavor, and so far I’ve tried all but the vanilla. The coffee flavor taste like coffee, and just like the chocolate version it contains very little sugar. So both are nice.

And it’s become a fashion among a lot of big grocery stores here to sell Fair Trade products. Which means that a bigger share of the profit goes to the farmers behind the ingredients. Or at least that’s the theory.
Which is the way it really should be without having to make so much fuss about it.
But, I guess if you want to make people feel like they are doing some good by buying a certain product, you will make it “exclusive” and give it a special name.

Anyway…next time I might get bold and buy the vanilla
We’ll see.

Garlic is rarely a part of my menu any more since my tummy hates me if I try to include it anywhere.
However, and I’m sure there’s a reason for this, marinated garlic works just fine. I can eat that as candy if I want to…that is, if I don’t want to have any company :p

Anyway….there’s something in marinated garlic, some acid, that was reported being poisonous. But I can tell you that I never noticed anything like that. Garlic keeps us healthy, and if you do this marinade you can eat them as they are.

You’ll need this:
40 cloves of garlic
200 ml water
½ tsp salt
50 ml white wine vinager

Marinade:
2 tbsp balsam vinager
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp tomato puré
½ tbsp chili powder
½ tbsp curry powder
½ tsp salt
100 ml oil

Peel the garlic.
Boil water, white wine vinager and salt.
Put the garlic cloves in the water and let them boil for a couple of minutes.
Pour off the water and put the cloves into clean jars while they are still hot.

Mix balsam vinager, honey and tomato pure. You can warm the mixture in the microwave for a few seconds which will make it easier to mix.
Add the spices and the salt.
Whip the oil into the mixture, preferably with a blender.
Pour the marinade on the cloves and close the jars.

Turn the jars upside down and shake them a bit so that all the spices are mixed with the cloves.
Store in the fridge.

Since I don’t really have any recipe for you today I thought I’d write a bit about food in general and how eating healthy has become an achievement that isn’t just about self discipline. It is also about what we can afford.

A lot of us hasn’t got a clue what we can eat instead of what we are use to. Fast food is simple, just like take-away and unfortunately we all know more about what is not good for us than the opposite.

There is a lot of information for those who really want to change their way of eating both on and offline, but most of the time we have to pay to get that information. In general it’s cheaper to eat healthy than what it is to spend our money on fast food, restaurants and take-away, but that bit will vanish if we have to pay for memberships and other silly things just to get the knowledge needed to change our ways.

And since very few of us has the knowledge needed, it is easier to keep on going in old tracks.
A lot of people say that lack of time is nothing but bad excuses not to change our habits, and sure, that’s easy to say if you know what to put into the cart in the grocery store instead of what you are programmed to.

I’ve noticed that whenever I do grocery shopping there’s a certain pattern in the route I have in the grocery store. They recently changed the layout of Tescos in Chesterfield, so I’m a bit lost these days…but earlier the pattern was pretty much bread, eggs, fruit & veggies, meat, fish, milk, canned food, drinks, tea and coffee.
If I wanted to eat better I would skip at least 2 or 3 of those stops I do when I load the cart full of food. Or maybe I should say junk. Because a lot of it is.

We are also influenced by those we love and live together with. Personally I enjoy cooking and I rather use fresh ingredients than canned or frozen food. However, I’m living with someone who could live from canned food, microwavable dishes and ready-made-ready-to-warm soups etc.
Sure, it’s comfortable, easy and fast to get on the table…but it’s not even half as good for you as if you cook from scratch.

In the past I could eat nearly anything. These days I notice straight away if there’s something missing in my diet or if I’ve had too much of something. But not everyone are like that.
So how do we know that we will get what we need if we change our way of eating?
I mean, without actually spending a fortune on books and memberships.
I don’t have an answer on that one since everyone are different. If you have a job where you sit around a lot during the day, you’ll need less energy than if you are working with for example construction. Women need less than men.

I think most of us are still in old tracks because we also have this picture of healthy food being bland and flavorless. Which isn’t necessarily true.
Personally I lost a lot of weight during summer 2006 when I went almost entirely vegetarian. I felt great in spite of the gallbladder being a real pain in the butt and I had a lot more energy.
Since it was ok for me to go back and eat red meat and more fatty foods again, I’m often tired and I’ve got a heart burn that is beyond belief.

What I’m getting at here is that eating healthy shouldn’t be more expensive.
To learn more about it should be for free.
Darn it, it should be a part of what schools has to offer on their daily routines.
I know…that will never happen.
But we can all dream, right?

This morning when I woke up I realized that we didn’t have any bread left. Ever been in that situation? I think we all have once or twice.
So after consuming some coffee I was getting hungry…and I needed a fast and simple recipe. But good too.

And this is probably as easy as it will ever get. I’m using fresh yeast for this since it does give these buns a fluffy texture that active dry yeast simply won’t, so if you want to make them with dry yeast the way you make the dough will be a bit different from this.

You need:

1.7 oz (50 grams) fresh yeast
1.7 oz (50 grams) butter or margarine
2 cups milk
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
1.7 lb All purpose flour
1 egg

Howto:

Heat the over to about 392 F/200 C.

Melt the butter and mix with the milk. Warm until body temperatur.
Crumble the fresh yeast in a big bowl and mix with the sugar.
Pour the milk mixture over and stir until the yeast has melted.
Add the salt and the flour. Mix until smooth. The dough should easily come off the bowl.
Sprinkle a bit of flour over it all.
Cover with a towel and put in a warm and draught free place.
Allow to rise for at least 30 minutes.

When it’s done, cut the dough into 12-14 pieces, depending on how big you want these buns to be.
Shape them into round buns and put on a baking sheet. Whisk the egg and brush the buns before you put them in the oven. It will give them a golden brown colour.
Bake for about 10-12 minutes.

How many times have you had a bar of chocolate and then felt guilty afterwards? I think we all have, especially while being on diets.

There’s a company here in England called Prestat who just might change that. At least as long as you don’t eat a whole chocolate bar at once :p Overindulging  in chocolate will most likely never be good for any of us, so I think we’re on our own there. But this new kind of chocolate is suppose to be good for you.

What is good about it is the amount of antioxidants it contains. Antioxidants is a part of our own defence and it keeps us healthy. The cocoa bean naturally has a lot of antioxidants, but for obvious reasons it is not usually preserved in regular chocolate. After all, it’s made to be candy, not some type of health supplement.

How these guys have managed to keep such high levels of antioxidants in this chocolate is of course a secret. And the thing is that neither you or me can actually measure these levels, which means that we either believe what the producer says, or not.
However, I believe that in order to sell something like this and claim that it IS high in antioxidants, someone had to make a test somewhere at some point.

Since it’s chocolate, I’m ready to believe anything

So far Choxi+ is only sold here in the UK, but they can be purchased online at Prestats.
If you want to know more, there’s a lot of information here about Choxi+.
If you want to buy online, their store is at their web site. But it seems that they only deliver to the UK mainland.
However, if this is real and if it really works, it will be all over the place in no time.

I think the question is what a nutritionist would say.

These belong to the category of favorite cookies that I grew up with. The smell of chocolate in the kitchen when mom and Granny made these was complete, and both me and my sister used to dive into the cookie jar when these were present.
They get a crispy texture, but are still a bit chewy in the middle.
The pearled sugar on top might be tough to find if you are outside Sweden, but as always, take a look at the grocery section in your IKEA store. Sometimes they have a lot of surprises. And in case it’s not translated on the jar, you should look for Pärlsocker…and I’m sure this blog messed up the second letter in that word. It should be an “a” with two dots above it.

Now to the recipe.
You’ll need:

3,5 oz (100 grams) butter
0,6 cup (1, 5 dl) granulated sugar
1 egg
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
ca 0,5 cup (1 dl) all purpose flour
0,5 tsp baking powder
0,6 cup hazelnuts

Howto:
Turn on the oven. Temp should be 200 C/392 F.
Whisk butter and sugar white and fluffy.
Stir in the egg, cocoa powder and vanilla sugar.
Mix the flour and the baking powder, and stir it carefully together with the other mix.

Spread the mixture on a baking tray.
Chop the hazelnuts and sprinkle over the mixture.
Bake in about 10 - 12 minutes or until the cake has a nice brown color and feels dry.
Cut while it’s still warm into squares.

I made these the other day and I think I will have to put a locker on the fridge door if I ever do them again…lol And I can’t even put all the blame on my partner. I was there too
The name might be a bit odd, but it comes from the way these cookies look like….not the way they taste.

These cookies has hazelnuts in them, so obviously if you are allergic or know someone who are, it’s not for you. But if that’s not the case and you like hazelnuts and chocolate, go right ahead and try them out. They are easy to make and I can guarantee that they will become popular.

To make 15 - 20 cookies you need:

7 oz (200 grams) whole hazelnuts
2 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar

Filling:
1.7 oz (50 grams) butter
1 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp confectioneries sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar

How to:

Heat the oven to 200 C or 392 F.
Grain the hazelnuts finely.
Whisk egg and sugar until white and fluffy.
Mix the grained nuts with the eggs and sugar until smooth.
With two spoons, shape small round balls on a baking sheet and bake for about 5-10 minutes. It’s ok if the cookies are a bit chewy.

Let them cool off.

Filling:

Stir the butter soft and mix with the rest of the ingredients.
When the cookies have cooled off, split them in two halves, put the filling on both sides and press together.
Store in a locked refrigerator

Just like there’s Beef Stroganoff in Sweden, there’s also Korv Stroganoff…or Sausage Stroganoff…made out of Falukorv. We are using this sausage for just about anything :p

This Stroganoff should be served with rice, but as with the Oven baked sausage, you can serve it with mash or pasta if you want to. It’s all a matter of what you like and are use to. Personally I do prefer this with rice.

This makes 4 servings:

2 cups of Falukorv, in strips
2 yellow onions
1-2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp all purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 tsp salt
Black Pepper
2 tbsp tomato puré
0.5 cup Creme Fraiche or Sour Creme
2-3 tbsp chopped parsley

How to:

Chop the onion and fry it together with the stripes of sausage in a pan in a bit of butter until the onion has softened a bit.
Sprinkle the flour over the mix and stir. Add the milk while stirring, a bit at the time until you’ve got a thick sauce.
Add salt, pepper and tomato puré and let it all slowly boil on low heat for about 5 minutes.

Add the Creme Fraiche or the Sour Creme and heat it up again, but without boiling.
Just before serving you add the chopped parsley.

I didn’t realize that I just put up a short post about this dish and no recipe. It’s nice and it’s easy to make…and it’s rather cheap as well. However, it’s no diet food :p

Traditionally it’s served with mash, but you can serve it with rice or pasta as well. If you want to make a sauce for it, I recommend a white sauce with horseradish. It goes very well together with this type of sausage.

What you need to make this is:

3 lb Falukorv (or a big ring of it as in this picture)
2 big tomatoes
1.5 cup cheese, grated
6 tbsp sweet mustard
1 red or yellow onion
salt & pepper
Butter

How to:

Cut the sausage as if you were to slice it, but don’t cut all the way through. Make the “slices” about 2 inches thick. Place it in an oven safe dish with a bit of butter.
Put some mustard in between each “slice”. Slice the tomatoes and the onion.
Put one slice of tomatoes and one slice of onion in the same place as the mustard.
Any left over tomatoes or onion you can put in the middle of the dish.

Cover the sausage with the grated cheese and put it all in the oven for about 15 minutes in 340 F/175 C, or until the cheese has melted and became a bit crispy. Cut the sausage in pieces and serve with mash.