All Green Turnip & Courgette Salad

This salad is an ode to green. It is fresh, it is crispy, it is stylish!

Just cut up some fresh medium sized courgette into long thin ribbon style slices, and for this you best use a "econom", a vegetable peeler.
The turnip, not too large, you peel clean, wash and slice thin slices with a sharp knife. Assemble and season with the best extra virgin olive oil you can find , salt, pepper (I used green) and maybe some bits of green chilly pepper and chopped parsley. You can stain the corner of the plate with a little lemony mayonnaise.
Enjoy!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

The healthier home made version of a munching sweet for the babies of the house, from 1 to 90 years old. My  wife made this for our 15 month old, Diana. Oh, I enjoyed some, too, of course.

INGREDIENTS:

• 300 gr. oatmeal (I used rolled whole grains);
• 200 gr. plain wheat flour;
• 1 cup raisins;
• 6 tablespoons sugar;
• 1 pack baking powder (~10 gr.);
• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil (do not use very fragrant);
• 280 ml. milk

HOW TO MAKE:

You simply mix together all the ingredients very well in a bowl. Then, just let it sit for at leas half an hour. After this you can scoop some mixture from the bowl and form cookie shapes. Note: they will thicken in the oven. Arrange them on a oven tray lined with baking paper, keeping some distance between the individual cookies.

Bake in the preheated oven at medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes, until they look brown and done.

Chicken Yogurt Sauce Pita Wraps

This is an excellent weekend breakfast, a Saturday evening party treat or even a "watching the game" food, depending on the occasion or your mood. It is easy to make and requires almost no time to prepare.

That is, if you use the store bought pita wraps (like I did). Don't worry, even the greatest chefs do it most often then you think.

Anyway, it is a delicious and most importantly, healthy meal.

INGREDIENTS:

• pita wraps (use as fresh as you can find);
• chicken breast;
• green onions;
• some grated yellow cheese (ca use cheddar or even a blue cheese);
• salt, pepper, chilly flakes to taste;
• red salsa or just plain ketchup.

FOR THE YOGURT SAUCE:

• 1 cup plain yogurt;
• 2 springs finely chopped green onions;
• 1 minced garlic clove;
• salt, pepper;
• a tablespoon olive oil.

HOW TO MAKE:

Just mix together all the ingredients of the yogurt sauce in a bowl and give them a good stir.

Grill the chicken breast cut into finger thin slices that have been salted and peppered. Cut the grilled meat into finger style strips. Put a few strips of meat on an open pita wrap. Do not let the pita wraps out of their bag for longer then a few minutes or let the bag open for they will go all dry and stiff. Cut a few green onion springs into 1 inch long bits and sprinkle over the meat. Grate or brake the cheese and sprinkle over the other stuff.

Now use the garlic sauce to moisten the whole thing like in the picture. Last goes in the ketchup. Wrap and enjoy with care not to drip sauces on ones clothes.

Guest: Kevin Rose Interviews Dr. Andrew Weil

Kevin Rose is a remarkable young IT guy and he is interested not only in the high tech geeky stuff like the internet and gadgets but also in good and healthy living in general. He is a tea drinking fella that (like me) wonders about how you can change your life and habits to live healthier, even though we spend maybe to much time in front of a computer. Well, ... he is also the founder of digg.
I got to him through another amazing guy, Tim Ferris, that I'm sure I'll be talking about some more on other occasions. Entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs...
So, Kevin Rose interviews d. Andrew Weil about some health issues that I think might interest you also. The video was posted on Kevin Rose's blog too.

Caprese Salad With Home Grown Basil

Made with the basil leaves from my balcony, that I planted from seeds.
"Caprese" means "from (the island of) Capri" in Italian. It consists of ripe tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, fresh basil leafs, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper. Some people do variations (adding pesto sauce, for example). Like most italian recipes, it has few ingreds and therefor you must use the most fresh and quality ingreds you can find. If you like the tomato zest olive oil cheese combo, take a look at this.