Friday A healthy snack idea and a walk down memory lane...

.  I have never been a big fan of fruits growing up. My mom had to always remind me to eat some kind of fruit a day otherwise I wouldn't. So I am sure this post will make my mom and mother-in-law very happy, since every time I talk to them, they ask me if I have eaten plenty of fruits. And then they go on and share with me some recent article they read about the benefits of eating a certain fruit. They are so nice and caring and I love their genuine concern for me, especially now that I am pregnant.
Well, this has become my favorite snack of the day. Apples, pears, tangerines, assorted nuts, cinnamon cookies with a touch of honey - super yummy but above all it's super healthy.  Don't get me wrong, I do have those moments when I want to eat nutella all day long, but luckily, recently I've been craving more these healthy snacks and fruits of the season, especially tangerines.
Few days ago, preparing this snack and peeling all the fruits, brought back sweet memories from childhood. I thought of my dear grandma and her garden full of tangerine trees. She would always peel plenty of them and have them ready for me to enjoy. She would not just peel them, but she would make sure to carefully take off all the white little stems from them, leaving only the best part for me to eat.   So if you ever find my peeling tangerines and I have a smile on my face, it's because I am thinking of my grandma. Oh, I miss her dearly. 
Yes that day, those tangerines tasted a little sweeter!
xo Ema Albanian Version // Versioni Shqip

    

                  

      

Monday Vanilla Pie Cups - Super easy recipe

This is the easiest dessert you will ever make! And above all it's delicious!
For the bottom crust I used 4-5 crushed Graham Honey Crackers mixed with melted butter. 
I used a package of  'Cook and Serve' vanilla pudding for which I followed the directions on the box.(it needs only 2 cups of milk) 
For the other top two layers, I used some whipped cream and some instant chocolate pudding. (it needs two cups of milk)
I topped them with some crushed cookies and some walnuts. 
Let it cool in the fridge! It's best served cold!
Super easy and voila it's ready to enjoy in only about 30 min! 

    

                  

      

Effortless Dinner for two

It's no secret that I love cooking for my husband and I. I try to cook a different meal every day but sometimes I lack ideas of what to make. On days like these, I try to keep things as simple as possible and make an effortless meal. I have found that these effortless meals turn out to be very tasty in the end.  For this meal, I used fresh salmon sauteed in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and salt & pepper.  I baked them for about 30 min. Not wasting any time, I also baked asparagus for about 20 min also sauteed in olive oil, lemon juice and garlic. In the mean time I boiled 4 potatoes, which after were done I peeled, cut and seasoned with salt & pepper and olive oil.  The final result was delicious. I will definitely make this more often. The part that I loved was that it took me very little time to prepare this meal and still had plenty of time to do other stuff while the meal was cooking. You should all try it!  Salmon + Asparagus + Potatoes = Great Combo

    

                  

      

Wednesday Pasta Primavera

Today I am bringing to you a delicious recipe! Pasta is one of my favorite dishes and I always try to experiment with different kind of sauces and ingredients. Usually I prepare my meals based on what I have in the fridge that day. I try to picture in my mind how the different combination of ingredients would taste together. The ingredients I used for the sauce this time were: 2 finely chopped zucchinis,                1 cup of chopped mushrooms,  1 fresh spinach bunch, 1 cup of shrimps,  olive oil,  wine vinegar,  half lime, 2 tbs butter,  2 tbs all-purpose flour,  1 cup half and half and  different kind of seasonings.  After preparing all the ingredients, I started by cooking the shrimps in a large sauce pan. I sauteed them in olive oil, lime juice, and seasoned them with garlic, salt and pepper. After the shrimps were cooked thoroughly, I added the chopped zucchinis and mushrooms. I added a little more lime juice and let them cook until soft, gradually stirring. When they were almost done, I added the spinach since it only takes it few minutes to cook. In another small pan, I prepared the white sauce by mixing together butter, flour and half and half ( you can also use milk if you don't have half and half) After the white sauce was ready, I mixed it with the cooked shrimps and veggies.  I cooked the pasta and voila everything was ready.  It was delicious, exactly as I had pictured in my mind. Let me know if you try it.

    

                  

      

Saturday Breakfast: German Pancakes Recipe

This past Christmas I got a new Cook Book as a gift and I am loving trying out different recipes. I love making lunches and dinners, but I have always struggled finding breakfast ideas. So this past few weeks that I have had more time to cook a proper breakfast, I have turned to my cook book for quick and delicious ideas. 

This time I decided on German Pancakes!

It was delicious and so filling.

Here is the recipe:

1 cup milk

1 cup flour

¼ teaspoon salt

6 eggs

6 tablespoons butter

For Toppings

2 to 3 apples, sliced

3 tablespoons butter

½ cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Combine the milk, flour, salt, eggs in a blender. Melt the butter in 9 by 13-inch baking dish in oven. Pour batter in the pan and bake in oven for 25 minutes. On the stove, sauté sliced apples with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon. When the baked pancake is done, pour apples and whipped cream on top.

You should definitely try it out!
What's your favorite breakfast?

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Thursday Discover Albania - Part II

As promised, I will be writing a series of posts about my home country, Albania. This is  "Discover Albania - Part II"  and if you missed "Discover Albania - Part I", you can find it here. A lot of unpleasant things are going on in Albania right now, which make me sad and emotional. I wish and pray that everything will soon come to an end and this would be just a bad dream. Today I have chosen to bring you some Albanian taste! So prepare to get hungry!

I love Albanian food 

First of all, you can never have enough of Albanian fruits and veggies. Everything is freshly produced and tastes so good. We don't have to wait for a certain day of the week, or certain season to go to a Farmers Market, we have Farmers Market everyday in Albania. Of course there is no substitute for my mom's or my mother-in-law's home cooking, but I definitely enjoy eating out while I am there. Some of the things I love eating in Albania and  I have yet to find a better place, are Pizzas, Salads, Barbecues, homemade Fries and Sea Food! And the best part about Albanian restaurants is that they are not super expensive for the quality of food they offer. Here are the links of my favorite restaurants in Tirana, Albania, Juvenilja Castello and Taiwan, Casa di Pasta. So if you ever visit Albania, you should check out these restaurants.

These are some pictures I took just this past summer!

Sunday Homemade Sushi

Beautiful Mia sharing her talent

So first of all, I should say that I love sushi and I was so excited when one of my friends taught me how to make homemade sushi this past summer. Her name is Mia and she was so nice to invite me one day to make sushi with her. Since then I have been making sushi very often because it is so easy and so tasty! I am not an expert, but I am going to share what I know.

In this post I am going to show how to make my version of California roll. But you can fill it anything you would like!

Ingredients:                                                              

•   1 cup Rice
• 1 cup water                                                                                                             
• 1/4 cup Rice wine vinegar                                 
• 1 teaspoon Sugar

• 1/4 cup Mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup imitation Crab meat, finely chopped
• 
  
• Seaweed
• 1/2 Cucumber peeled and sliced in small pieces
• Cream cheese

Step 1

Wash the rice in several changes of water until the rinse water is no longer cloudy, drain well, and place in a covered pan or rice cooker with 1 cup water. Bring pan to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, and cover the pan. Allow the rice to simmer until the top looks dry, about 15 minutes. 

Step 2

Mix the rice vinegar and sugar in a small bowl until the sugar has dissolved, and stir the mixture into the cooked rice, until well combined. allow the rice to cool and set aside.

Step 3

Use a blender to finely chop the imitation crab meat and mix it with mayonnaise in a bowl. 

Step 4

Prepare the cucumbers, carrots, cream cheese etc. After you have all the other ingredients ready, it's time to roll the sushi. To roll the sushi, cover the bamboo rolling mat with plastic wrap. Lay a sheet of the seaweed, shiny side down, in the plastic wrap.

With wet fingers, firmly pat a thin layer of the prepared rice, leaving 1/4 inch uncovered at the bottom edge of the sheet. At this point, you can choose to flip the seaweed sheet so the seaweed side is up. I prefer it down, so I am going to show my version, even though the real California roll has the seaweed sheet up.

Step 5

Now is the time to start filling with crab meat, cucumbers, cream cheese, avocado, etc. Place all the ingredients somewhere in the middle of the sheet.

Roll the bamboo into a long roll by first folding the bottom third in then roll it up. It should look like a tube of some sort. 

 Now remove the sushi roll from the bamboo and cut into small pieces.

Step 6

Enjoy it and share it with friends!