Deliciously filled mini meatloaves

A muffin tin, an appetite for new recipes and a bunch of webpages was all it took us to come up with the idea to make filled mini meatloaves for the weekend. Below is the recipe we used, but it is quite versatile and you can just add whatever filling you like. Enjoy!

Ingredients (makes about 8):

500g minced beef
4 tablespoons breadcrumbs
1 1 / 2 dl milk
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 egg
3 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tsp thyme
1 teaspoon salt
1 pinch of pepper
2 slices of ham, cut in half
4 cheese cubes
1 cheese slice, cut in 4
2 slices of pineapple, cut in 4

Preheat the oven to 200 °C. Place bread crumbs and milk in a bowl and let them swell for 5 minutes. Fry the onion in olive oil, in a skillet. Mix eggs, tomato puree, spices, fried onion and minced meat in the bowl with the breadcrumbs, and stir to a smooth mince. Shape the mince into a half ball and place in a greased hole of the muffin tin. Press the cheese or pineapple wrapped in ham in the middle of the meatloaf, and cover with more mince mixture forming a perfect round loaf. Additionally you can place some cheese slices or pineapple pieces on top of the loaf. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes. Serve with boiled potatoes, green salad and lingonberry jam.

Curry Soup

The temperatures outside dropped, the clouds are gray and the rain is imminent. In this kind of evenings there's nothing better than a bowl of hot soup. We love the classics like mushroom soup or vegetables cream. However, we are always looking for new tasty soups and we found that curry brings a very interesting taste to the soup. Give it a try and let us know.

Ingredients:
1 medium onion
3 cups of sweet potato, peeled and cubed

1 1/2 cups of carrots, peeled and sliced
1 tablespoon grated ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
3 cups water
1/2 teaspoon salt

 Plain yogurt to taste

 
Add all ingredients to a large pan. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat and simmer for about 25 minutes or until all vegetables are tender.  Process the soup until creamy or leave some chunks if you prefer. Serve with plain yogurt.

Banana & Walnut healthy muffins

 The running season is starting in about 3 months and now it's time to get fit and ready for it. A big part of it is nutrition and what we eat is as important as the actual training. We are always looking for new healthy and tasty snacks, as sometimes we are short of time between work and training. This time we tried a new recipe of healthy muffins. They were easy to make and even easier to eat.

Ingredients (about 12 muffins):

2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups bran flakes
1/2 cup of walnuts, roughly crushed
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp ginger powder
1 cup milk
3 tbsp butter
2 tbsp honey
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
2 ripe bananas, mashed

Preheat oven to 190C. Combine the flour, bran flakes, walnuts, cinnamon, baking powder and ginger. Set aside.
Heat together milk, butter, honey and sugar until butter had melted and sugar is dissolved.
Stir in baking soda and mashed bananas.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mixing to just combine. Do not over-mix.
Spoon into 12 greased or paper covered muffin tins and bake for 15-20 minutes.
Leave to stand for 2 minutes before removing from tins.

Recipe adapted from taste.com.au

Mushrooms "Bulhão Pato"

Bulhão Pato was a portuguese author that loved eating clams. One day, one of his friends, that worked as a chef, created a recipe of clams for him called clams "Bulhão Pato". Until today, this is a well known dish in the portuguese cuisine. As fresh clams are not always easy to find, especially when you live in a country far away from the sea, other core ingredients can be used. Prawns and shrimps are frequently used, but the Swedish and the Chef tried this recipe with mushrooms instead. The result was a tasty, healthy and easy to make recipe.

Ingredients (2 people):
200g button mushrooms or Cremini, diced
200g white button mushrooms, diced
2 tbsp olive oil
6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
100g white wine
1/4 lemon, juiced
Small bunch of coriander, grossly chopped
Salt
Black pepper

Heat up the olive oil in a skillet. Add the garlic and stir. When the garlic is turning golden add the white wine and the mushrooms. Mix, reduce the heat and let it cook for 6-7 minutes. Add the coriander. Season with salt and pepper. Turn off the heat and add the lemon juice. Serve immediately with pasta.

Notes:
Other combinations of mushrooms can be used.