Lego Lunchbox: pizza crumpets

Lego lunchbox today:
pizza crumpets
love tea - rose, chamomile and lavender
Nakd raw bar for dessert

When I first came to London I was curious to try three things: liquorice, Marmite and crumpets. Marmite is good, liquorice is really good, but crumpets... Crumpets are the best.

Crumpets go well with everything - peanut butter, jam, chocolate, cream cheese - whatever you prefer. But the best way to eat a crumpet is to make a tiny pizza out of it. That actually might be the easiest way to prepare a pizza - and a good one, too. Just add your favourite pizza ingredients on top of a crumpet and bake for a minute or two. Easy as that. And de-li-ci-ous!

The Best Christmas Present

Home baked cookies аre an absolute must this time of the year. They are fun to make and decorate and actually - they are a great last-minute gift idea, too. Who would say no to a batch of sugar cookies in fun holiday shapes? I wouldn't. Dexter wouldn't. You can trust us.

This recipe makes about two dozen: there will be plenty of cookies to munch on during holidays or pack and give away. You are going to need:

1 cup softened butter

1 egg

1 cup powdered sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon 

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 

for the glaze: 3-4 teaspoons lemon juice and a cup of powdered sugar

You could always use the help of a curious dog, too. Dexter plays his part perfectly. 

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the egg, cinnamon and baking soda until combined. Stir in the flour until dough forms. Form a ball from the dough, wrap it in plastic and refrigerate it for a couple of hours.

Lightly flour your counter top before you take the dough out of the fridge. Roll it flat: if you prefer crisper cookies, roll a thinner layer of dough. Thicker dough makes softer cookies (me and my helper are big fans of those). Use your favourite holiday cookie cutters, place cookies on a baking sheet and bake for about 8-12 minutes. Place all baked cookies on a cooling rack once you get them out of the oven.

Lemon glaze is one of my favourite things on earth because it's the easiest thing to prepare and it gives the cookies a nice wintery look (and a great taste, too!). Just add 3-4 teaspoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice to a cup of powdered sugar and stir until it gets homogenous. Spread quickly on your cooled cookies and leave it dry for about half an hour. You can melt a bar of you favourite dark chocolate and cover some of the cookies with it. Both choices are delicious.

If you're planning to give some of the cookies away as present, you are only going to need a plastic or cardboard box and that baking paper we used earlier. You could write down the recipe on a card and attach it or just doodle something cute. Don't get too serious about it, though - it's what's on the inside that counts. Some wise words about cookies. 

Have fun baking and packing and eating some of those sweet sweet gingerbread men. 

Happy Holidays! Be merry and bright :)

Lego Lunchbox: tabbouleh

Lego lunchbox today:
Tabbouleh salad - bulgur, parsley, tomatoes, orange juice, onion
mint tea in my extra cute keepcup (my lunch set is growing!)
tangerines for dessert

I don't know if you guys have heard about tabbouleh salad. I hadn't up until a few weeks ago, when I tried it at a restaurant and totally fell in love with every single ingredient in it. Tabbouleh is a Levantine Arab salad made of bulgur, parsley, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and garlic and seasoned with lemon juice and olive oil. I changed the recipe a bit to match my taste: I dropped the garlic and cucumbers and seasoned all with orange, instead of lemon juice. Tabbouleh is highly nutrient, yet very light - it can be served as a salad or a meal on its own. It tastes great and looks kinda cool in a red lego lunchbox.

I leave you my upgraded version of the recipe - try it out and I'm sure you'll love it!

Tabbouleh Salad Recipe:
1/2 cup of bulgur
3 bunches fresh, finely chopped parsley
1 diced tomato
1/2 onion, diced
3-4 tablespoons fresh orange juice
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
salt

Pour the bulgur with boiling water and let it sit for 30 to 45 minutes. While you wait mix the orange juice and olive oil in a bowl and add the parsley, so that it could soak in. You can then add the tomatoes and onion and when the bulgur is ready and any excess liquid is removed - add it as well. Mix all ingredients until combined and let the tabbouleh marinate for a couple of minutes before serving. 

Lego Lunchbox: pumpkin somethings

Lego Lunchbox today:
6 pumpkin somethings - I can eat no more than two but I have to show people around I've actually baked something, no?
Flavoured yoghurt drink - here's a secret - I only picked the strawberry flavoured yoghurt because the cap was red and it matched my lunchbox so well. But we all know forest fruits is the better choice. Just so you know.

А couple of weeks ago a colleague of mine shared a most excellent recipe for pumpkin cookies with me. Being the crazy pumpkin lover that I am, I couldn't resist trying it out immediately. I have to admit I changed it a bit (unintentionally, of course) and my version can hardly be called cookies... so i just call them pumpkin somethings. But don't let that discourage you! I promise these are the tastiest pumpkin somethings in the world!
If you want to try this recipe at home you are going to need: oat grain; oat bran; raw nuts - I used almonds, cashew and hazelnuts; apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, a tablespoon of coconut oil, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds and... some pumpkin would be great, too. Roast about 3-4 pumpkin wedges until they are fork tender and let them cool. Then peel off the skin and put the flesh in a food processor. Once the puree is ready, you can add the sugar and oats.
Blend the nuts and seeds and add them to the mixture as well as the coconut oil. Grate the apples (I used raw apples, but if you like you might roast them beforehand as well) and add cinnamon and vanilla. I keep myself from giving you exact proportions, because this is more of a do-whatever-feels-right recipe - experiment, add or remove whatever you like and I'm sure it will turn out great - you might even make actual cookies, instead of somethings. But hey - no judging: somethings are pretty tasty as well.
Since my mixture wasn't exactly homogeneous (my puree was too much, I suspect), I used cupcake cups for the baking. The whole place smelled of cinnamon for so long afterwards - it didn't even matter that the whole thing came out as little pies more than as cookies.
These pumpkin somethings are great for breakfast or for in-between meal snacks. Obviously I've had them for lunch, too. They are very nutritious and have all magical ingredients for a wonderful day. Dexter says so, too. If you don't believe me, trust him - he's quite the expert.

Lego Lunchbox

This blog has been many things: a journal, where I post pictures of whatever my camera finds interesting; a diary, where I write stories about my everyday life; an inspiration board for all things that pique my interest...  but mainly - a place where I share all the things I create. 

I've been paying a lot of attention to myself for the last couple of months. I wanted (and still want) not only to improve my skills in drawing and designing things, but improve myself in the process as well. I've taken up running. I cook a healthy meal whenever I can (cook meaning I try really hard and fail almost every time but end up eating the food anyway, a little ashamed. Which actually motivates me to do a little better next time). I read a good book before I fall asleep and watch a good movie when I find one. I try to learn something new everyday: a recipe, a new skill, a fun fact, a complicated German saying... sometimes all four things at once. I try to be a better person. Do good, be nice.

Last week I bought myself a lunchbox. I saw it in a children's toy store and fell in love with it immediately: it's a big red shiny Lego brick and it is admittedly the coolest thing in the world. I hadn't used a lunch box in my life. I hadn't brought lunch anywhere. But I knew this might just be my newest hobby. 

And it is.

I now try to prepare myself homemade lunch as often as possible. And since I have the coolest lunchbox in the world, I also want the content to look and taste just as cool. Which keeps me motivated to prepare better, tastier and healthier food. 

I've grown so fond of this idea that I decided to keep track of the things I put into my lunchbox. I promise I'm not transforming Little Birds into a culinary blog. I want to share with you a couple of lunch ideas, maybe a recipe or two that I've invented in the process, and - let's be honest - brag a little about how cool I look in the cafeteria eating lunch out of my Lego brick. And who knows - you might want to buy yourself a lunchbox too and we can all join forces and start a revolution together. In the pursuit of good homemade food. 

Lego Lunchbox today:
Rucola + Spinach Salad: rucola and spinach, black olives, crab sticks, chia seeds, mozzarella.
water (yeah yeah, I had to share a photo of my super high-tech water bottle which non-intentionally matches the colour of my lunchbox. Ok I lied. It was all carefully planned.)
pomegranate seeds for dessert.