tuna salad on bread

a simple little something for our Sunday lunch... as the content of the fridge wasn't super inspiring I landed on making a tuna salad, served on bread and with fresh tomatoes on top. I don't know why, but it seems to always take me by surprise that we also need to grocery shop for lunch... good thing that we almost always have canned tuna!
the tuna salad was made from canned tuna, creme fraiche, red onion, dill, lemon juice, salt and freshly ground pepper. tuna, creme fraiche and onion are mixed in a small bowl and seasoned to taste with dill, lemon, salt and pepper.

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banana - blueberry morning...

part of todays breakfast

with two small children we are usually up at the very crack of dawn and today was no exception... in the weekends this means that we have extremely good time for having a nice slow breakfast, something we all enjoy. right now it is the season for Norwegian blueberries, and as we all were out picking (and eating) some last weekend, this morning called for banana - blueberry smoothies as part of our breakfast. I like to be able to, in such a simple way, to demonstrate to our three-year-old that the origin of food isn't the grocery store...
today  I used two frozen bananas, 100 g of blueberries (also from the freezer), a little vanilla and some natural yoghurt, gave everything a good blending, and it was done!
when I have very ripe bananas I won't get to use I cut them up in chunks and put them in the freezer, I find this a great way to reduce food waste and at the same time I often have bananas for smoothies at hand. as a bonus the smoothie is both creamy and ice-cold.

cauliflower soup and corn chips

main ingredients

nice warm cauliflower soup with corn chips and a little lemon juice

also little hands enjoyed the soup

today has been nothing but rain here and I really feel like soup... it is still summer though, so dinner ended up being a light cauliflower soup inspired by this recipe. as I know this is a soup liked very much by all of us, I made a large portion and froze half of it for a busy day with no time to cook... a great thing about this soup is that you can serve it with almost anything... bread, parmesan, chicken, bacon or as today, corn chips and lemon juice. This version is made from two rather large organic cauliflowers, two cloves of garlic, two potatoes, a bit of freshly grated ginger, vegetable broth, nutmeg, olive oil and lemon juice. I cut all the vegetables into appropriate pieces, seared them carefully, including garlic and ginger, in olive oil, and then added water and vegetable broth. for this version I added about two liters of fluid. when the potatoes are done I used my beloved Bamix, and gave the soup a good blending. finally I added grated nutmeg, salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste and served it with a little extra lemon and corn chips.

when we are out of time...

ingredients for a very simple dinner

dinner is served

some days we run out of time and life can be a bit camp chaos... on days like this I like to draw on well known classics (at least in my book). this version of pasta, ketchup and sausage has followed me from my childhood till this day, granted, I've upgraded the ingredients a bit, which to me makes a huge difference... for this version I used whole grain spaghetti, good ketchup, really good sausages (these are with a bit of wild garlic) and a little splash of olive oil. 

Spaghetti is boiled in salted water, sausages are cut and fried, ketchup is added to the sausages and given a quick boil while stirring and finally the spaghetti is added and tossed around. serve with a few kalamata olives and/or grated parmesan... 

fish in a wok

fish in a wok

one of our all time favorites is fish in a wok... it is a very good opportunity to use up any left over vegetables from the fridge, it takes almost no time to prepare and depending what you use, you can dress it up or down as you please (and last but not least, it can be prepared in advance).

in this version I used a bit of salmon, pollack, black tiger scrimps, yellow and red bell pepper, red onion, spring onion, sugar snaps, squash and broccoli. everything is cut into appropriate bites, mixed in a large bowl with oil (usually I use either a mild olive oil or canola oil), lemongrass and lemon-pepper to your taste. at this stage it can be left in the fridge for some hours, or from morning to evening. a few minutes before serving everything is fried in a very hot wok using a bit of oil, salt is added to your taste (alternatively you can add a bit of fish sauce or soy). I like to serve this with a bit of whole grain noodles.

variations that I can recommend is to try out scallops or lumpfish, adding a bit of mustard seeds, or maybe go with white fish, scallops, spinach, squash, tomatoes and a pinch of chili to replace the lemongrass and lemon-pepper.

inspiration...

welcome into my kitchen... (well, strictly speaking it is not solely my kitchen, but you get the idea). ever since childhood whatever went on in the kitchen had my interest... in the beginning I would assist my mum with simple things as part of cooking dinner, and little by little I could do more and more on my own and I enjoyed it so! to this day I love cooking and experimenting in the kitchen and now that I myself am a mum of two young boys I think a lot about how we influence them, which values are important to us, and not least what we would like to pass on to them. among other things one thing I hope for, is to help them develop a conscious and curious attitude towards food... and as I see it one way to do this, is to let them into the kitchen, let them take part in whatever goes on, and not least prepare and enjoy meals together. Being also a busy family trying to combine working life with family life, it isn't always easy to come up with good ideas for what to have for dinner, so I was thrilled when I read this post on one of my favorite blogs! I thought it was such a brilliant idea that it made me wonder how I also could make a little contribution... as you read this, you have probably figured it out, I leaped into starting my own blog, primarily focusing on what takes place in our kitchen. so thank you Vigdis for being such great inspiration!