Strawberry Breakfast Bars

There is never enough time. All the rush, all the fuss, all the musts, all the work, all the papers, and every day I wish that the alarm clock will fail. That one day it will just forget to do its job. Especially this week. However, I do not give up easily. You could even say I never give up. That is why, even though the schedule was tight, I decided to squeeze in some baking-time and the perfect recipe for busy people, who need their energy fast is: Strawberry Breakfast Bars.

Strawberry Breakfast Bars

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cup oats

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup brown sugar

200 g of salted butter

500 g strawberries

4 handfuls coconut shreds

To make it fast and efficient start with cubing the strawberries. Add 1 tbsp of brown sugar (or two depending on how sweet the fruits already are) and heat them in the pot on medium fire mixing occasionally. 

Having the strawberry filling in progress mix flour, oats, salt, baking powder and sugar together. Cube the butter and add it to the powder components. Don't forget to mix the strawberries, so they don't burn. 

Knead the dough into a homogeneous mass and press it into a baking tin. It is a good idea to smear a thin layer of butter on the baking tin before pressing the dough into it. Blend the strawberries in the pot and leave it on a medium fire for another 8 minutes and mix them occasionally. The target consistency is a bit dense, not too liquidy and does not contain pieces of whole fruits.

Now assemble! Put the strawberry filling on top of the dough, sprinkle it with coconut shreds and oats, press the topping gently into the filling, but not all the way down. Bake at 160 C for 30-40 minutes. A good indication that the bars are ready is when the coconut shreds start to turn golden. Cool it down. 

A good idea is to bake it in the evening, leave overnight to cool down and then munch it for breakfast or take to work for a power break. Don't forget to share it with your colleagues. They might need it more than you do. And here is little something to make your mornings more full of energy and fill them with motivation:

Muse-Survival

Gazpacho Day

Today, I call a Gazpacho Day. As the tomatoes become more rich in taste and outside it's getting warmer and warmer, I craved for something cool and veggie. 

I bought some fresh, ripe tomatoes, cucumber, sweet pepper and chili and hoped for the best to create the taste I remember from my trip to Granada.

 Gazpacho

1 kg fresh tomatoes

1/2 sweet red pepper

1 big cucumber

1/2 chili

1/2 onion 

1 tbsp lime juice

1 tsp brown sugar

2 tsp balsamic vinegar  

It's an easy and quite fast recipe, perfect for the busy people who want to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Recipe written for 3 portions.

Start with blanching the tomatoes for 4-5 minutes in freshly boiled water. This way it wil be easier to remove their skins. Place a sieve on a pot and cut the tomatoes in halves. Do that keeping the tomatoes above the sieve so that you will be able to collect all their precious juice and remove manually seeds from tomatoes (seeds go to the sieve, cleaned tomatoes go directly to the pot). With the use of sieve separate seeds from the pulp and juice as much as possible.

Peel and cube the cucumber, cut pepper and chili into stripes, add pressed garlic, vinegar and squeezed lime juice to the tomatoes. Add freshly milled pepper, salt and brown sugar to taste.

Blend all the ingredients until the soup is homogenous and put aside to the fridge for min. 30 minutes.

In the meantime prepare ciabatta bread. Cut it into slices, spread a bit of olive oil on top, press garlic on top, sprinkle with dried basil and bake in the oven until crunchy.

You can spend your waiting time with Manu Chao: 

Manu Chao- Me Gustas Tu

When ciabatta is ready, serve it together with cold gazpacho decorated with fresh basil leaves. I must admit, I am quite a critical person, but this gazpacho met absolutely all my requirements. It even managed to surprise me with its rich taste and caused a pleasant refreshing sensation in a very warm day. A gazpacho that is worth recommending to all veggie-lovers!

Rhubarb Heaven

This weekend I had way too much energy. I went for a trip to the seaside, I did the shopping, I worked during the weekend, I cleaned the house, I read a book, I went to the lake, I made a pizza, I made sushi, I made freshly squeezed juices, I tried my new lens, I couldn't sit still in one place. But the highpoint of my weekend was baking the rhubarb tart. It was quite an unexpected choice. In the shop, me and the rhubarb looked at each other and I knew there was no other choice. We had to leave the place together. 

Rhubarb tart

3 cups flour

260 g unsalted butter

1 pinch of salt

10 tbsp powdered sugar

30 ml of ice-cold water

1 kg rhubarb

2 apples

2 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 vanilla pod

 First step is to prepare the tart. Cut the butter into 1 cm cubes and beat it with flour, salt and 7 tbsp of powdered sugar. Then knead the dough manually, add the ice-cold water and knead a little bit more. When the dough is homogeneous, divide it into 3/4 and 1/4. The bigger part should be pressed and fitted into a tart pan and pricked with a fork in a few places. The smaller part should be rolled into a ball and wrapped in a plastic bag. Place the dough in the fridge for at least 30 min. In the meantime heat the oven to 200 C.

Second step is getting friendly with the rhubarb. Wash it well, dry it a bit and chop it into smaller pieces. Place the chopped rhubarb, peeled and cubed apples in the pot. Mix them with lemon juice and 2 tbsp of powdered sugar and seeds obtained from the vanilla pod. Leave the mixture on a low fire for 30-40 minutes and mix occasionally. You want vaporize most of the liquid.

Put the tart into the preheated oven and bake until golden. In the meantime spice your date with rhubarb-filling with:

Arctic Monkeys-Fluorescent Adolescence

When the tart is ready remove it from the oven and put the rhubarb-apple heavenly filling on top. Roll out the remaining part of the dough and cut stripes from it. Place the stripes on top of the filling (yes, the awesome sour-sweet filling) and bake for additional 30 minutes. When the tart has cooled decorate it with 1 tbsp of powdered sugar on top.

A good tip for serving the tart is with vanilla ice cream (and trust me on this one... this is a really good, mouth-watering, heavenly combination of flavors).