Healthy chicken muesli crust schnitzel - 68 of 366 creative days

68/366 - Chicken muesli crust schnitzel - healthy and diet

The extra crunchy crust schnitzel I made using some leftovers. When I realized is so good,  I start to experiment, so this was the recipe.

a - Materials

1. Chicken breast 
2. Egg (1-2)
3. Bread crumbs (home made or bought)
4. Plain rolled oats
5. Soy sauce (100ml)
6. Oil
7. Pepper
8. Garlic

b - Tools

1. Plates
2. Knife
3. Pan
4. Plastic foil or sandwich bags
5. Meat tenderizer

c - Techniques
           1 - Cut the chicken bread into slices 1 cm thick, add pepper and garlic paste (made from mashing the garlic, cleaned upfront) and soak in the soy sauce, coating all over. The lay the fix on a cutting board, cover with the plastic and pound with tenderizer until become half centimeter. Can be left in the fridge for few hours and stirred occasionally so it will soak the aromas.

Chicken breast in soy sauce and spices

          2 - Beat the eggs in a bowl and soak the pieces of chicken one at a time. Going trough it before and after step 3.

Egg

              3 - Break crumbs. After soaking in egg, place it in the bread crumbs, then again trough egg before step 4. move needs to be done fast

Bread crumbs

               4 - Rolled the soaked meat trough the rolled oats, trying to get on as much as possible.

Rolled oats

         5 - Place some oil in a pan and set to high heat before starting soaking the first piece of meat.
Place it in the pan, and turn it 4 times 1-2 minute on each side, depends on the thickness.
Check with the back of a fork, should "spring" back.

Schnitzel frying pan

d - End result

 The interior is soft and easy to bite while the exterior is crunchy. The aroma from the soy sauce will break trough and also the rolled oats will have their own addition.
 These are very healthy, but keep in mind that fired oats and crumbs have calories.

DIY Home made photo booth - 67 of 366 creative days

67/366 - DIY home made photo booth

  If you don't have money to buy a photo booth for you jewelry, just look around your house, you can always find spare part to help you build a photo booth like: wire, boxes (cardboard, plastic, metal if you are hard core), paper, tape.
  All you need is a bit of imagination. So see what I did when my drying rack broke several years ago (about 4)

a - Materials

1. Hard wire
2. Soft wire (tape can be used instead, but will make everything less sturdy
3. Light bulbs the higher the better, I had 120 W output, but could have been much better
4. Tape
5. Wax paper, or cooking parchment, white
6. White paper
7. Aluminium foil

b - Tools

1. Pliers
2. Wire cutters

c - Techniques
           1 - Make from one wire a square and the leg of height of the box and repeat so you can have 2 pieces. Leave at the end a 2-3 cm to be able to bend and will be used for link the pieces between themselves.

Top and bottom of the wire skeleton of the  photo booth

Wire joints for linking the squares for top and bottom

            2 - Link the top and bottom together using the bent end wires. use thinner wire or extra wire for the 2 other legs that are missing.

Wire joints for linking the top and bottom

Top and bottom of the skeleton photo booth put together

            4 - Add paper all around and use tape to stick it together

            5 - Use another wire to build a big circle and a small circle( that worked for my type of lamp).
Cover the big circle with aluminium foil (used for wrapping and secure it with a tape)

d - End result

You will need to find ways of figuring out of putting together based on whatever you have. The bottom line is to have all the joints secure enough. The objects you will use will not be too heavy, but is good that entire photo booth to be good enough so you wont need to patch every photo shoot.

Polymer clay purple and pink color mix - 66 of 366 creative days

66/366 - Color mix for flowers and more

The mix is done regardless of company and turned out pretty well.
It goes well specially when you want to soften FIMO hardness.
Studio Sculpey is a very soft clay that goes softer with hand heat(specially if you have warm hands by default). Studio and PREMO Sculpey seems to remain soft over the years compared to FIMO classic.
So please see below the color mix that I played with (that's why the random combos), was a lot of fun and element of surprise.

a - Materials

1. Premo Sculpey Accents Pearl - 5101 

   

   Premo Accents Pearl
2. Premo Sculpey Accents Magenta Pearl 2029 - the light pink that was used for this experiment was discontinued in 2015(can be mixed from 8 parts Premo Accents Pearl 5101 + 1 part Premo Fuchsia 5504), the 2016 version is a strong pink. 

   

   Premo Accents Magenta Pearl

3. Premo Sculpey Accents Bright Green Pearl 5035 

   

   Premo Accents Bright Green Pearl

4. Premo Sculpey Accents Purple Pearl 5031 

   

   Premo Accents Purple Pearl

5. Premo Sculpey Accents Blue Pearl 5289 - was discontinued, can be mixed from 6 parts Premo Navy Blue 5010 + 1 part Premo Accents Pearl 5101 + 1 part Premo White 5001 + 1/8 part Premo Accents Cadmium Yellow 5572 

   

   Premo Accents Blue Pearl

6. Premo Sculpey Accents Peacock Pearl 5038 

   

   Premo Accents Peacock Pearl

7. Studio Sculpey Antique Gold 6894

   

   Studio Sculpey Antique Gold

8. Fimo Effect Metallic Gold 11 

   

   Fimo Effect Gold

9. Fimo Effect Metallic Copper 27 

   

   Fimo Effect Copper

Very useful Premo chart with discontinued colors with formulas.

b - Tools

           1 - Hands or pasta machine

c - Techniques

           1 - Mix equal amounts from the above colors

d - End result

Color Premo Pearl color mix

Color Premo Accents Sculpey Fimo metallic pearl Mix Chart

The picture shows the colors very close to reality. I love earthy colors and all those combinations please me.

Asian style stir fry - low carb - 65 of 366 creative days

65/166 - Asian style stir fry low/no carbohydrates

For the sixty sixth day of 366 creative days I posted my stir fry recipes, easy to make, very tasty, can match all tastes and very healthy and with as little carbs and calories as possible.

Stir fry no carbs vegetarian 

Materials

      1 - Any 4-5 vegetables you have in the fridge or around the house (onion, carrots, mushroom, chicken, cabbage, chicken, tuna, noodles, etc)
   Example:
- onions, Chinese cabbage, tuna, avocado, mushrooms (Pic 1)
- onions, celery, chicken, spinach, red pepper, mushrooms (Pic 2)
- onions, red and white pepper, tuna, spinach (Pic 3)
- onions, mushroom, spinach, red pepper, cauliflower - vegetarian (Pic 4)

     2 - 50 - 60 ml from the following sauce mix
         - 1 spoon of balsamic or white vinegar
         - 2-3 spoons of dark soy sauce
         - 1 spoon oyster sauce
         - rest up to 50 - 60 no sugar soy sauce
Combination can be made by adding oyster sauce or mirin or teriyaki but i prefer to keep it low carbs
      3 - 2-30 ml oil mix (sesame, olive oil, aromatic ginger oil)
      4 - 1-2 cloves or garlic
      5 - 5-6 thin slices of ginger if you have and like (even pickled is good
      7 - pepper, 5 spices, etc


b - Tools

           1 - Wok, I prefer non stick
           2 - Sharp big knife
           3 - Wooden or non stick big spoon
           4 - Measuring cup
           5 - Imagination
 

c - Techniques
           1 - Wash and chop the vegetable in thick slices, 1/2-1 centimeter for hard vegetables and 5 cm for soft like spinach, Chinese cabbage, etc.
           2 - Prepare the sauce mix in advance in the measuring cup and add also the spices
           3 - Place the wok on the highest heat setting and add the oil. When is very hot, thrown the ginger and garlic, and leave it for 20-30 seconds, before it goes brown. Garlic can be removed.
           4 - add first the meat (thinly slices - 2-3 mm) and add 1/3 of the sauce. Stir continuously until the meat gets white, no need to be fully cooked, otherwise will get dry by the end of the full dish (1-2 minutes).
           5 - add the hard vegetables (carrots, onion, celery, cauliflower, mushrooms, cabbage, pepper, etc) and add another 1/3 of the sauce ( 3-5 minutes, depends on the vegetables, cabbage needs a bit more until is getting softer)
            6 - add the soft vegetables (spinach, salad, Chinese cabbage, bean sprouts, etc) with the remaining sauce. (1-2 more minutes)
            7 - serve while hot, but can be served also cold if you like it        


d - End result

Stir fry no carbs - onions, celery, tuna, avocado, mushrooms

Stir fry no carbs - onions, celery, chicken, spinach, red pepper, mushrooms

Stir fry no carbs - onions, red and white pepper, tuna, spinach

Stir fry no carbs vegetarian - onions, mushroom, spinach, red pepper, cauliflower

I am sorry the pictures are not that good. The recipe can be varied based on taste. if you have too many ingredients ( I usually place 1 item each - 1 big onion, 1 tiny carrot, 1 can mushroom, 1 chicken breast thinly sliced) you might need to add a bit more sauce, up to 75 ml.
I cook based on my mood and add ingredients based on my imagination. I never had complaint so far for this dish, whatever was the variation. I was even asked for recipe.
I will try to perfect it a bit more and check the time more precise.

I hope you will enjoy it or get some inspiration.

Lahmacun and pockets recipes for diet - 62 of 366 creative days

62/366 - Lahmancun and pockets

For the 62 of the 366 creative days I tried to reinvent Lahmacun at home, based on a taste I remembered. Also tried some spring pockets with same type of filling.

a - Materials

 1 - Bread dough or Armenian pitta or frozen flat pastry
 2 - Mix of 50/50 lamb with beef, 20% fat, minced
 3 - Lots of chopped parsley, 1/3 of meat
 4 - Chopped onion, 50% of meat
 5 - Chopped tomatoe, 1/4 of meat
 6 - Garlic (my personal touch), 1-2 cloves for taste
 7 - Salt, paper for taste
 8 - Some oil for greasing the pan and the dough
 9 - Chilly flakes for adding later when you eat (same can be added in the mix as well, 1/2 tsp)
 10 - Ayran yogurt, for putting down the fire

b - Tools

1 - Bowl for mixing
2 - Greased tray and covered with baking paper
3 - Toothpicks
4 - Rolling pin or glass bottle      

c - Techniques
     Mix all ingredients together in the bowl.
  Use a rolling pin  to spread the dough as thin as possible, 2-5 mm.
  Grease the dough with some oil.
  For the lahmacun - "sprinkle" the mix all over into a thin layer
  For the pockets - cut the dough in even 7- 10 cm squares and place a tbsp of mix in the middle.
Bring the corners together and place a toothpick to keep them together
Bake in over at 200 C, separately.

d - End result

Home made Lahmancun

Home made pockets with lamb and beef mix

It ended up being good but the pockets were a bit dry, needed more oil.
Lahmacum is a very light food, diet dish, like a pizza but without all the fat. If the layer of dough is thin, no worries about carbs either.
I will experiment some more and update the recipe until I will reach the perfect taste.

Orange jelly hearts - 57 of 366 creative days

57/366

   For the fifty seventh of 366 creative days I have done something for the stomach again.
   Orange jelly hearts diet recipe(diet sweets, oh yah!):
     - juice from 6 oranges
     - 3-4 spoons of sweetener( it needed to be diet, right)
     - 3 bags of gelatin powder
     - 1/2 teaspoon orange coloring( I didn't have orange so I used yellow and fuchsia- this is a hard name for strong pink; and some other color if you like to do a mix)

  Place the orange juice and sweetener in a pan and add to boil(if you have saccharin, put it after you remove from fire and got a bit colder)  1-2 minutes, then remove from fire and add the gelatin stirring continuously until it melts.
 Separate in different bowls if you want different colors and add the coloring. Pour into heart shapes or what shapes you desire and place it on refrigerator for an hour or until it gets hard and cold. Remove, ornate, eat.
 Here is the picture that inspired me(by inspire I mean made me crave orange jelly hearts sweets). Thanks to Sanyu for creating that palette for me(it really makes a statement) and the pattern template and novrain62 for being inspired to use the template and that palettes to color it!

   Thank you and forgive me I didn't have a green plate :D (grin)!

Falafel - 4 of 366 creative days

4/366

This is for forth day of 366 creative days.

   I never liked falafel too much, maybe because was always stuffed in a pita roll mixed with potatoes, salad and some other things, so I couldn't feel the taste too well, or maybe cause wasn't properly done, who knows.
   But things changed when a very ill friend of mine said that is better for her not to eat toxic things, one of them being meat so she replaced it with falafel. She was wondering how is done cause was a bit too pricey to buy it in those pita rolls I was talking earlier.
   And I started to search over the internet for a good recipe with easy to reach ingredients and not much of a work. Discovered a recipe on BBC site close to my wishes but still needed improving to get to my taste. So here is the story of how I made falafel...

1. Falafel ingredients

   First I forgot to measure the cups of dried chickpeas for the recipe and put placed all the half kilo I had in a bowl, covered it with water and added 2 teaspoons of baking soda. Left it there delaying and delaying to start to make the recipe for around 24 hours. When I finally decided to start sort of figure it out that it should be 3 and half cups of soaked chickpeas. As you can see the 1 and 2 in the picture, dry chickpeas doubles it's size.

2. Chopped chickpeas for falafel

  Then my hand blender started it's job and got hot very fast. Did some pauses to let it cool but ended with some smoke coming out from some of it's holes. Then, the stronger hand of the family finished the job while saying "is nothing creative in mashing by hand chickpeas and sweating like hell". I added the rest of the ingredients(1 tablespoon cumin, 1 teaspoon salt,  1/2 teaspoon black pepper, a pinch of chili, 1 medium chopped onion, 3-4 cloves of garlic crushed and 1 cup of parsley parsley) and tried to use the blender again, but only got some weird noises like was trying to tell me: go away! So I mixed by hand, like a dough.
   Because the parsley was chopped with the thought that will end up in the blender, it looked a bit big, like grass coming out from the ground. I have done a ball to test and it seem all loose and thought it will spread in the pan so I beat up and egg very fast, just in case. Impressive but it wasn't needed at all!

3. Falafel - before and after frying

   I placed in  frying pan about 2 cm oil and set it to a medium cause I am very bad with frying, I either burn or not cook enough the dishes. When the oil was hot enough I placed the test ball and miracle, didn't spread, and slowly went brown but without burning, even I left it there for more than 2 minutes on every side. So be sure you have some dishes in the sink cause you will get bored while waiting, one dish here, turning the balls there and all will be done in at least 30-40 minutes. That unless you are an experienced cook and set the heat higher.
   The taste was better than imagined, really crunchy and with some sour yogurt, like the greek strained one is a miracle. You can eat it warm or let it cool, is good anyway, but don't let it till next  day to get the humidity in, is not that good, and very hard to chew.


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