New Year, New Me, Same Old Appetite – Recipes to Keep Your New Year’s Resolution
Adopting a healthier lifestyle is certainly at the top of the list of New Year’s resolutions. In this time, we truly believe that we can change; from now on, we exercise, banish the much-feared carbohydrates from the kitchen, and of course, we shop for groceries mindfuly, leaving any snacks behind. It all lasts until the dark days of January make us crave emotionally supporting desserts, or until a slice of steaming pizza winks wickedly at us from our TV screens. But before you send the leftover Christmas desserts to the searing pyre, let us clarify something: you should not change everything drastically just now, as it is usually not a good way to adopt a healthier lifestyle. Although it is hard to find a sufficient supply of fresh vegetables in winter, frozen and seasonal ingredients might offer a good alternative. Gradually, we can integrate healthy dishes into our eating habits, adding a bit of variety to our everyday lives. In this article, we recommend some recipes for a healthier diet.
Breakfast Avocado and egg sandwich spread Ingredients: 2 eggs half an avocado 2 tbsp yoghurt (creamier if made with Greek yoghurt) salt, pepper, green herbs to taste lime juice Hard-boil the eggs, and when they are cool, peel the shells off and cut them in half. Stir the yolks with the avocado in a bowl and mash them with a fork. Add the yoghurt and the lime juice and blend it well. Chop the egg whites into small pieces and mix them into the spread. Lastly, season the mixture to taste and serve spread on a toast. A sprinkle of chilli powder suits this dish particularly well. Brunch, Lunch, and Dinner Vegetable quiche – prepared in an unusual way The reason why this recipe is unusual is that the quiche sits on slices of sweet potato instead of a salty crust. Ingredients: 3 sweet potatoes 4 eggs 1 can of cream cheese, ricotta or mascarpone 250 ml heavy cream a handful of cocktail tomatoes or other vegetables to taste 1 clove of garlic 1 small red onion, minced 3 handful of spinach (fresh or frozen) Peel the sweet potatoes, slice them into about half a centimetre thick rounds, and place them on the bottom and sides of a round pie dish covered with baking paper, so that they overlap each other slightly. Preheat the oven to 200 °C and bake the base until the potatoes start to soften (about 20 minutes). Whip the cream cheese in a bowl, add the eggs (one after the other) and the grated garlic, season to taste, and finally pour the heavy cream into the bowl. Take the sweet potato crust out of the oven, arrange the vegetables on top, and slowly drizzle the cheese mixture over the top. Bake the quiche at 180-200 °C for another 30-40 minutes. Before taking it out of the oven, check with a cake tester or skewer whether it is completely baked or not. The quiche is done when the inside becomes solid. Tzatziki – a dipping sauce, in case you are tired of hummus Ingredients: 1 seedless cucumber 2 tsp lemon juice or white wine vinegar 4 tbsp Greek yoghurt 1 clove of garlic, grated green herbs (mint, dill etc.), chopped salt, pepper, olive oil for serving Wash the cucumber and grate it through a large-hole grater. Salt it well, then squeeze the water out of it and let it rest on a paper towel until it stops draining. Mix all the other ingredients in a bowl, then add the squeezed cucumber to the sauce. Before serving, pour some olive oil on top. Tzatziki goes well with bread or tortillas, it can be served as a refreshing side dish for meats, or we can even dip crunchy vegetables in it as a snack. Coleslaw Ingredients: 1 small cabbage (green, red, or both) 1 red onion 2 carrots half a can of Greek yoghurt 2 tbsp white wine vinegar or the juice of half a lemon 2 tbsp mayonnaise ½ tsp mustard salt, pepper to taste Wash the cabbage and the carrots, grate them into a bowl, and cut the onion into thin slices. Salt the vegetables, and while they are soaking, mix the ingredients of the dressing. Pour the mixture over the vegetables and stir well. Before serving, we recommend sliding the finished coleslaw into the fridge. It is so much more than a simple side dish served with a burger. Crunchy, colourful, delicious – sometimes we just want to take the whole bowl and shove it all in. Creamy chicken pesto pasta Ingredients: 1 chicken breast cut into bigger pieces 1 clove of garlic half a red onion half a can of pesto sauce 250 ml cooking cream salt, pepper, caraway 500 g pasta Dice the onion, grate the garlic, and braise it in a small amount of butter or oil. In the same pan, fry the chicken until it turns white. Add seasoning and a little water to the chicken and start cooking under a lid. When tender, add the pesto and the cooking cream. Cook the pasta in salted water and toss it in the pan along with a half cup of its cooking water. Tip: This dish also suits rice, steamed quinoa, and vegetables instead of pasta, but if the chicken is served this way, we recommend putting the side dish on the plate next to the sauce, do not mix them together. If desired, other vegetables, like peas, can be added to the sauce as well. Photos by: Barbara Péter Desserts, and Snacks Crunchy seeds Ingredients: 150 g flaxseed 4 tbsp chia seed 100 g sunflower seed 100 g pumpkin seed 50 g sesame seed 1 dl water salt Put the flaxseed and chia seeds in a bowl and pour the water over them. Let the seeds absorb the water to form a gel-like layer around them. This layer will hold the snack together. Leave the mixture to rest for a few minutes, then add the rest of the seeds and flatten it out on a baking tray covered with parchment paper to a thickness of about 2-3 mm. Preheat the oven to 180 °C and bake for about 10 minutes, or until the top has hardened. When taken out of the oven, season with salt. Once cool, break it into pieces and snack on it. Tip: There might be some very small pieces left over at the end. Those pieces can be collected in a small box and sprinkled on salads. Cottage cheese cheesecake Ingredients: 750 g cottage cheese 4 eggs 120 g sour cream or Greek yoghurt 80 g sugar and vanilla sugar 40 g corn starch 1 grated lemon zest berries Put all the ingredients in a bowl and blend with a hand blender until homogeneous. Pour the mixture into a prepared baking tray or cake tin, sprinkle the fruit over the top, and bake in a preheated oven at 175°C for about 40-45 minutes. Almond Cake by The New York Times – A sweet dream, free from gluten Ingredients: 100 g dark chocolate 100 g butter 4 eggs 1 tbsp cocoa powder 100 g grounded almond 100 g sugar Melt the chocolate and butter over hot water (adding a big pinch of salt helps to bring out the flavour of the chocolate even more). Separate the parts of the eggs and whip the whites into stiff foams while adding the sugar little by little. Whisk the yolks as well, then drizzle the lukewarm chocolate mixture into the egg yolks. Add the cocoa powder, the almonds, and finally, in a gentle whisking motion, the egg whites. Pour the mixture into a prepared baking tray or a 24 cm diameter cake or pie tin. The top can be sprinkled with grounded almonds or decorated with apple and/or pear slices. Bake the cake in a preheated oven at 180 °C for 45 minutes. It is important to cut the cake only when it is completely cool, otherwise it might crumble. Smart Made Simple Grate an apple, top with a few spoonfuls of yoghurt, and sprinkle with plenty of cinnamon. If you are not ready to let go of the Christmas spirit – or it has just arrived –, gingerbread spice is also an option. A handful of frozen berries also look good as a topping. Of course, depending on your budget, you can also use chia pudding instead of yoghurt as a base for your dessert. Nowadays, we can read a lot about needing a high amount of protein or cutting down on carbohydrates, but at the same time, some people might suggest otherwise, since we need all of these nutrients. Dairy is once despised then praised at the next moment, like in the case of eggs. Sugar is instantly stigmatised, and we have not even mentioned the problems with meat yet. With so many conflicting opinions and suggestions, it is no surprise that even the most determined person is left scratching their head at the calorie chart in the shop. So here is an everlasting piece of advice: Of course, this thought should not make anyone feel justified to eat a whole box of bonbons or eat out in a fast-food restaurant, because that is not what it is about. In the past, people used to consume only what they really needed. They did not let all the additives pile up in their bodies – of course, in the past, ultra-processed foods were far more uncommon, if not non-existent – and their senses were not clogged by them. We can still do that today. Yes, even those who live in a dormitory. A bag of instant soup every other week is enough, you can have a snack if you like, but you should also integrate other things into your diet as much as you can. It helps a lot if we cook our own meals – because then we know exactly what we are eating –, if we dress the salad in a fancy way, and if we listen to our parents’ old saying: first comes the main course, then the dessert. Translated by: Tímea Hajtmann
“What a man wants is what he needs, and that will not hurt him.”
