Courgette stuffed with millet and raw carrot salad on the side

If you have very fresh and tender carrots at home, they are perfect for a raw salad because that's when they have the best taste. They go really well with other vegetable dishes or basically anything... I used yoghurt for this one, to make it light.

Ingredients for the stuffed courgettes:

• 2 bigger courgettes, preferably straight ones
• 1.5 dls of millet 
• 2 spring onions 
• salt, fresh ground pepper
• a bit of ground nutmeg
• a couple of drops of lemon juice
• grated cheese

First of all, the spring onion has to be chopped fine for the millet and browned in a bit of olive oil. Then you can add the millet and toast it a bit, then add the water (which is always double the amount of millet you are making). Add a teaspoon of salt, and pepper according to taste Let the water boil away, which takes approximately 10 minutes and when done, turn off the heat and cover the dish with a plate. You can start preparing the courgettes: wash them and cut off the ends. Cut them alongside in two parts, and keeping a distance of 1 cms from both sides, gouge them. Don't throw away the inside parts, because we will use them in the stuffing. They need to be chopped fine and thrown in to a pan with a bit of oil just until they soften. Then you can mix them with the millet, add the lemon juice and the nutmeg. Give it a good stir and stuff the courgettes with the millet. Sprinkle the top with the cheese.  Pour a small glass of water under the courgettes before you put them into the oven so they don't burn. Half an hour at 180 degrees should do the trick. 

Ingredients for the carrot salad:

• 2 tender carrots
• 1 clove of garlic
• 2 tablespoons of yoghurt
• salt, pepper

Cut the carrots Julienne style. Smash the garlic and mix it with the yoghurt along with some salt and pepper. Put the dressing on the carrots and give it a good stir. Taste it, and let it rest until the courgettes are being made.

Chicken and mung bean sprouts casserole with millet on the side

Until now I have always used mung bean sprouts in fake home made chinese food, which is stupid because it's something that goes with so many other ingredients. This is how this chicken casserole  was born last week.

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken breast fillet
• 1 packet of mung bean sprouts
• 3 tbl spoons of sour cream
• 1 tbl spoon of Worchestershire sauce
• 2 tbl spoons of soy sauce
• 1 clove of garlic
• salt, freshly ground pepper

Dice the chiken breast and start cooking them on a bit of oil. You can cover it in order to cook it faster. Add the bean sprouts too, because it doesn't need much time, like the chicken. Add some salt and fresh pepper. Meanwhile chiop the garlic fine. When the bean sprouts start to become soft, add the Worchestershire and soy sauce, mix the whole thing carefully, cook it for a little bit and then add the sour cream. At last sprinkle the garlic onto it and mix it, wait until it wabbles and then take it off the heat.

The millet works the same way as rice, the water needs to be twice the amount of millet. Boil it for 10 minutes until the water disappears. You can add some onions if you like, to give it more taste. Add some salt too, once it's boiling. I usually leave the cover on after it's done so that the steam softens it even more after it's done. 

Brownie with ground clove

We all know that the best part of brownies is the texture, which of course is the result of the massive amount of sugar and fat in it, (it's so not fair that the best things are the ones that contain the most sugar and butter...:) ), but I'm still trying to experiment with more humble brownie recipes. This one is a very quick one, with ground clove, to make it more exciting. The result is not so sticky as its more sugary versions, but it's short and sticky enough in the middle that we can call it a brownie :)

Ingredients

• 20 dlgs of flour
• 20 dkgs of sugar
• 4 small or 3 middle-sized eggs
• 4 dkgs of coca powder
• 1 teaspoon of ground cloves
• 1 dl of oil
• 10 dkgs of dark chocolate

Measure the sugar, and mix it with the eggs and the cloves in a bowl. Melt the chocolate and add it to the sugary mixture. Measure the flour, and mix it with the cocoa powder. Unite the two parts, and if it's too thick, you can use a tiny bit of milk to correct it. Pour it into a roll, and bake it in the oven at 175 deg Celsius for 20 minutes at most, but check it frequently during that time, 15 minutes might be enough! 

Avocado salsa

I almost always made guacamole when I had avocados at home, or chicken salad (the recipe iscan be found in the older posts) but I wanted to try out something salsa-like too. In winter, when there are no really tasty tomatoes, this can be the perfect substitute for bruschetta with tomatoes. For that matter, avocado is healthy, full of unsaturated fatty acids, and it's very tasty too :)

Ingredients:

• 2 mellow avocados
• 1 big tomato
• 3 tbl spoons of olive oil
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• juice of half a lemon
• 1 clove of garlic, smashed

Chop the avocado and the tomato, and mix it with the rest of the ingredients. Mix it carefully, don't crush the avocado, because if its mellow it can be smashed very easily, but we want it to stay in bigger pieces this time. Pile it up on a toast and eat it! :) It's better for the taste if it can rest a bit before you eat it. 

Homemade sushi

Making sushi at home is not as hard as it seems. I'm not saying it's cheap (at least for Hungarian standards) but since you decide the amount of ingredients you buy, it's not that bad. We made it with salmon, avocado and cucumber.

Spring cake

  

With this cake I wish my Dear Sister a very happy 25th Birthday!

Heart shaped muffins with raspberries

As a gift from my family, I got this heart shaped silicone muffin pan and of course, I couldn't resist, I had to try it out.

Ingredients for 24 pieces:

• 25 dkgs of fresh cheese
• 15 dkgs of sugar or some kind of sweetener that gives the same amount of sweetness 
• zest of one lemon and juice of half a lemon
• 15 dkgs of plain flour 
• 1 packet of baking powder 
• approx. 2 dls of milk
• 2 eggs 

Combine the fresh cheese with the lemon juice, the zest and the milk and stir until it becomes this smooth cream. Add the sweetener and taste it, because if not sweet or sour enough, you will have to add some more lemon juice or sugar/sweetener. Now it's time to whisk the eggs into the mixture, and give it a good stir again. Measure the flour and mix it with the baking powder before you combine the wet and the dry elements. The flour mixture goes into the cheese cream, and if it's too thick after a thorough stir, you can add some more milk. Get the muffin pan and fill the heart shapes with the muffin dough. I usually bake them on a low heat, at 160 degrees Celsius for about 25 minutes.

You can make a thicker vanilla custard with store bought vanilla pudding mix or from scratch.