Greenzonelife

We all know that vitamin C is the best immunity booster. At this time of year, when the weather is cold and dump, our immunity is getting a bit low. So I decided to make an immunity booster.

I used equal quantities of Lingonberries and Seaberries, added just a little bit of water and bring them to a boil until they got soft.

Then I sieved them to obtain a fine liquid

I got about 350 ml of liquid

Then I added 150 ml of honey

I put it in a bottle in the fridge and use it every day by making a large glass of drink.

I put a couple of tablespoons of this concentrated juice in a large glass and then fill it with water.

Super delicious and healthy 🙂 packed full with vitamin C and other vitamins – just perfect to boost the immunity!

Don’t throw away your apple peels, they make a nice tea 🙂

Just put the peels in some boiling water, add some spices of your choice, I used: cinnamon, cloves and mint powder and let simmer for few minutes until peels are soften and the spices have released their flavour and you’re done.

Sieve the liquid and add some honey for a sweet taste and some lemon juice, or just enjoy it as it is.

Nice, warm and full of vitamins drink suitable for these autumn days 🙂

Enjoy!

I know I’ve been lazy lately writing on the blog but I got preoccupied with knitting, reading and many other DIY projects. But today I have to tell you about my very first bread machine sourdough bread.

I have a sourdough starter that I keep in the fridge and feed and use it once in a while. I played around several times to bake different things so now I thought is the right time to try and bake a sourdough bread in my bread machine.

So I took out my starter and start feeding it every 12 hours for 3 days (it has not been used for a longer period of time and needed to be strong enough to make a decent bread)

When I got the right quantity of starter, I took about 2 cups from it – my starter has the consistency of a soft dough, the one that you can mix with a spoon – added a teaspoon of salt, a tablespoon of sugar and some olive oil, than put about 2 cups of flour and some water just to get a dough that is not too hard, I never measure the things exactingly, but the dough should be a bit softer than the usual bread dough.

After a light mix I put the dough in the bread machine and program it on the white bread setting (about 3.5 hours – with 3 rising cycles)

In the end I got a perfect bread, just like the one made with yeast but a bit more delicious 🙂

Next time I will play more, adding different type of flours, nuts, seeds… 🙂

Happy bread baking!

When I first saw this recipe I knew I had to do it. They looked to me like energy bars – considering the filling, but in a very pretty presentation. You can read more about them here.

There are many types of Mooncakes, depending on the filling you choose to put in them. I choose the five-nuts version. The original recipe is here, but as you already know me I modified a bit the recipe to suit the ingredients I had.

The most important part of these cookies is the mold, you can make them without it but they wouldn’t be as pretty 🙂

I found mine on amazon

Now for the cookies, there are two parts: the crust and the filling. I made my crust using: 75 g honey, 35 g oil, 10 g water and 150 g flour.

For the filling I used: 45 g walnuts, 45 g almonds, 160 g seeds mix (sunflower, sesames, pumpkin), 75 g glutinous rice flour, 30 g honey, 30 g oil, 25 g sugar, 30 g water.

The filling must be sticky and easy to form into balls

that will be then covered with the crust

This recipe is for 10 cookies, so I formed 10 balls and 10 pieces of crust. Covering the filling balls with the crust require a bit of attention because the crust is a very thin layer.

Then I put the ball into the mold, gently press to form the cakes and then push it out

They already look pretty 🙂

After finishing all 10 cookies I made a eggwash from one egg yolk and a tablespoon of water

I baked the cakes in a hot oven for 5 min, take them out and bush them with the eggwash, put them back for another 5 min but at lower heat and take them out again for a second eggwash, than put them back for another 10 min or until they become golden

Take them out on a rack to cool down

and serve only one ! they are calorie bombs 🙂

but they are so yummmmy

Who need energy bars when you can have Mooncakes made at home 🙂

They are perfect for a sweet treat or to be taken with you on trips.

Happy cooking !

Few days ago I saw a show where kids were drawing fantasy foods and some chefs were cooking things to match the kids drawings. I’m not a chef, but a crazy mum who wants to try crazy things. So I put my kid to draw something than to cook it together 🙂

She drew something that I wasn’t expected. I was hoping more of something that could be made out of cookies, fruits or veggies, but she drew a rainbow snowflake 🙂

So it took me a while to figure out how to “cook” this. Finally I decided to make a meringue, colored with natural powders.

I printed the drawing to obtain a more accurate shape and place it under a sheet of baking paper

than I started to mix the powders with the meringue.

I used beetroot powder for red, beetroot and saffron for orange, saffron for yellow, matcha tea for green, blue spirulina for blue, blue spirulina and beetroot for violet and hibiscus for pink.

And I got all those amazing colors using only natural powders.

The final product 🙂

And yes, it was delicious 😀

Next on my list will be a rainbow cake 😛