Non-Dairy Tofu No-Meat Meatballs

I'm having a really tough time recently trying so hard to avoid dairy food as I'm almost sure cheese is not well accepted by my own body. I never drink cow milk since a year or so and this was a big step, but cheese is my little weakness and removing it completely from my diet is too hard. I'm trying to eat it the least I can though, and one big step I've made is to stop including it in all the recipes I try even if they don't really need its presence. On the other hand I love tofu and I've always eaten tofu vegetarian meatballs with a lot of parmesan cheese included in the mixture, but recently I adapted my original recipe to my temporary non-dairy diet and they come out pretty good, so I wanted to share them with you...

For 5 tofu balls you'll need:

• 180g Tofu
• 1 medium egg
• 4 tablespoons chopped zucchini
• 2 + 2 tablespoons breadcrumbs
• 1/2 teaspoon + a pinch of salt

First thing I always do is chopping the tofu into little squares and throwing it into the mixer until it's all super finely chopped. I then move it into a big bowl and add an egg to the mixture, this will make it more sticky and it will be easier to build together our tofu balls in the end. I then added 4 tablespoons of chopped zucchini to enrich the taste, but here you can add whatever vegetable you'd like, I sometimes go for some lightly stir-fried leek or onion, but I also love them with some chopped eggplant, tomatoes or peppers. I then added two tablespoons of bread crumbs to make my mixture a bit thicker and lastly 1/2 teaspoon of salt. I mixed all together and then started shaping five medium balls out of it, rolled them in two (or so) tablespoons of bread crumbs and then fried them in a pan on both sides until they were golden brown. Lastly I dusted a pinch of salt on top.

If you don't like how tofu taste but want to add it to your diet for any kind of reason, this is the perfect recipe for you - it's so good and tasty, and you can spice it up as you desire to make it better to your own taste. These are so delicious, completely vegetarian, not too heavy but a complete meal and can be pared with a good old rich salad or just eaten on their own, they can also be stored and eaten a few hours later, maybe at work, just lightly reheated in a microwave. This little, super quick and easy recipe is now a staple of my vegetarian diet and I couldn't live without my super yummy tofu balls, so hopefully you can enjoy them as well!

Will you try this recipe?

Lava cakes for two

Weekends are baking time for me and this time I decided to experiment with a new recipe for some delicious chocolate lava cakes and served it for breakfast - everyone was so enthusiast and being that this could actually be one of my favorite desserts to bake (& eat of course) I thought I could share my recipe with you. This can be a lovely dessert idea to serve to your better half after a special meal or for a romantic breakfast in bed and it's not a case this recipe makes the perfect amount of mixture to serve two super yummy chocolate lava cakes...

For two chocolate lava cakes you'll need:

• 125g dark chocolate
• 30g unsalted butter
• 1 egg and 1 egg yolk
• 15g white flour
• 1 tablespoon of white sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon of coffee powder
• icing sugar & strawberries for serving

Once preheated the oven to 220°C I melted the chocolate and the butter using a bain marie as it's my favorite way to do it but you can definitely go for microwaves if you prefer, but always remember to whisk often both cases. I then added the egg and egg yolk, mixed, added flour, white sugar, salt and coffee and mixed well again and again until I had a very smooth mixture. I then buttered two of my super cute (and cheap) Emile Henry Ceramic Ramekins and threw in my chocolate mixture in equal parts. Placed them on a baking sheet, they were ready to be baked in the oven for around 10/12 minutes (and not more). It's important to not overcook them as our lava cakes are meant to have a soft and liquid-y heart.

Once baked you can remove them from the oven and leave them cool for a few minutes or until the ramekins can be handled and then reverse it on a cute little plate. Using the icing sugar and the strawberries try to embellish your dessert - I cut a strawberry in half and placed it around my little lava cake and sprinkled a bit of icing sugar on top. When you'll cut it with a spoon, it will reveal a soft and delicious chocolate heart which will supply the perfect amount of sweetness in your weekend. This dessert is super delicious and can be served in special occasions to friends, family or lover to leave them all super impressed even if it's just the easiest and quickest dessert to prepare and bake!

Will you try my lava cake's recipe?

Black Cherry & Chocolate (Ben's) Cookies

Last month I was in London and of course I needed to give some Ben's Cookies a whirl for the first time. Fair enough I felt in love with them, and once I came home I knew I had to try baking them myself. A month later I came up with a pretty custom recipe very Ben's Cookies inspired and totally Luke Evans based (oh dear, check his channel out because he makes the most beautiful videos) and thought I could share it with you as I'm pretty satisfied with the result. I assure you, these cookies are delicious, my entire family loves them, and if you're looking for something easy to make but very impressive to offer to your family or guests, you should give them a whirl!

For 9 big cookies you're going to need:

• 300g brown sugar
• 200g unsalted butter
• 1 medium egg
• 325g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• A lot of dark chocolate and some sour black cherries

As you can see the ingredients are pretty basic and the majority of them I'm sure you all already have in your fridge, the only thing you may need to buy are black cherries, but these cookies are very customizable and you can add whatever you want and make them as you prefer like nuts, almonds, white chocolate, everything really! They're also pretty easy to prepare, you just need to remember to preheat the oven at 220°C and having your butter at room temperature before proceding.

I simply beated all the ingredients together with a whisk as it's the easiest way: starting from butter and sugar, I wanted it to be very soft and fluffly so I beated those two ingredient together for a few minutes, then I added the egg and beated again. Once mixed flour and baking powder together, I added them to the butter, sugar and egg mixture little by little until the dough was formed and it was quite solid and firm and not too sticky. If you feel your doug is too sticky add a bit of flour and beat again. Then I chopped the chocolate and added it to the mixture with some black cherry as well and blended all very evenly so that all the cookies had the right amount of chocolate and cherry once formed. I created nine big balls with my dough, arranged them on a baking tin lined with parchment paper and flattened them a tiny bit with my hands. Keeping in mind these cookies will spread out, I placed them reasonably apart from each others. Then I baked them for 12/13 minutes in the oven at 220°C, and they came out very chewy and gooey, but you can definitely let them bake a few minutes more if you desire. Consider your cookies will continue cooking on the hot baking tin when you pull them out of the oven, so don't overcook. I left them rest and cool for 20/30 minutes before trying them.

I think the dark chocolate really compliments and balances the sweetness of the sour black cherries, but I can't lie, they are very sweet, and if you don't love super sweet things you may have to consider using a lot less cherries than I did. But these to me were perfection, and I'm really satisfied on how they came out, so I hope you can enjoy this recipe too and try them in the upcoming future! 

What is your favorite cookies flavor?

Eat sweet, stay beautiful: dietetic hot chocolate!

Nel mio scorso Insta-Week vi avevo mostrato una foto della mia cioccolata dietetica, ricetta inventata dalla sottoscritta, e in molto mi avete chiesto di condividerla. Dato che, come al solito, mi fa sempre piacere condividere le mie "scoperte" (non che questa sia qualcosa di geniale), ovviamente in questo post vi mostrerò il procedimento per cucinare la vostra cioccolata calda dietetica senza grassi! Quindi questo sarà un nuovo capitolo per il grande ritorno della rubrica "Eat sweet, stay beautiful" inaugurata quest'estate. Se volete sapere come cucinare una cioccolata calda dietetica senza grassi con ingredienti sani, continuate a leggere!

Eat sweet, stay beautiful: chocolate cookies recipe.

So che questo non è un blog di cucina, che dovrei parlare di bellezza, moda, prodotti, eccetera eccetera. Però quando trovo una ricetta che mi piace, che funziona, sento sempre il bisogno di condividerla con qualcuno (amici, familiari), e quindi perchè non con voi? D'altro canto è una ricetta dietetica con il minimo contenuto di grassi, e quindi ha qualcosa a che fare con la bellezza. Per questo ho pensato di chiamarla "Eat sweet, stay beautiful", e probabilmente ci saranno altre ricette in questa sorta di rubrica. Penso che una delle cose più difficili sia riuscire a combinare ingredienti dietetici (e quindi non buoni come gli altri - solo al gusto ovviamente) e creare qualcosa di buono. Nessuno però ha detto che chi è a dieta non può mangiare dolci, e ve lo dico io che, perennemente a dieta, mangio dolci e non ingrasso.

Vi è venuta fame? Ecco come preparare questi gustosissimi biscotti al cioccolato dietetici!

RECIPE: Choco-milkshake (zero grassi).

Oggi un post diverso. Tutte noi in questo periodo dell'anno ci dedichiamo a diete e stiamo attente a quello che mangiamo, ma d'estate con questo caldo è bello anche ogni tanto mangiare un gelato o qualcosa di fresco. Ma spesso non osiamo concedercelo per paura dei "chili di troppo". E se vi dicessi che potete bere un milkshake senza preoccuparvi della linea? E' buono, è fresco, vi piacerà! E potete prepararlo dei gusti che più vi piacciono, ad esempio con uno sciroppo alla fragola o persino frullando qualche frutto che vi piace. Utilizziamo ingredienti magri per non prendere un solo chilo: ne potete bere quanto ne volete, davvero!
Io l'ho preparato (e lo preparo di solito) al cioccolato, perchè sono golosa, ma ho intenzione di provarlo anche al caffè. Ecco come fare:

Dosi (per due bicchieri di milkshake):