Couscous Salad with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Mushroom

Couscous is one of my favorite variety of starchy food, and I love to incorporate it mostly in my salads -It is also known that couscous is among the healthiest grain-based products!-.

Here is what you will need to prepare this salad:

- A drizzle of olive oil

- A pinch of garlic powder

- 1/4 cup of couscous

- 1/3 cup or about less than a half cup of water

- 1/4 cup cherry tomatoes (Halved)

- 3 mushrooms (Halved)

- A small bunch of spinach

- Drizzle the cherry tomatoes and mushrooms with some olive oil, pinch of salt and pepper and pop them into the oven for about 10 minutes 180 c.

- Until they get roasted, in a saucepan, bring water to boil. Add salt and stir, then add couscous and directly remove from heat and let it sit for about 5 minutes. Couscous should absorb all the water, fluf with fork and sprinkle with garlic powder.

Little Tip: You can add vegetable stock instead of  water to add more flavor to the couscous!

- Mix the spinach leaves along with couscous, cherry tomatoes and mushrooms and serve immediately.

Enjoy your warm salad! 

Guiltless Baked Banana

Baked banana is a pleasant warmness in a plate for such lovely cold weather! It's naturally sweet and Better yet, it's healthy!!

This recipe is soo simple that you will only need literally 3 little ingredients; 1 banana, pinch of cinnamon, and 2 teaspoons of honey!!

All you need to do is peel and cut the banana in half lengthwise, put it in a baking dish and sprinkle the rest of the ingredients on top. Cover with aluminum foil and into the oven for about 10 to 15 minutes. And voila!!! You can have this dish with some whipping cream, ice cream, with oatmeal, or even on top of pancakes!! 

Enjoy my loves...

Home-made Granola

I've been asked by soo many of my lovely readers and followers on how to make an easy homemade granola recipe for quite sometime. I know that searching for a plain granola or according to any of your taste is a bit hard to find -or a little bit expensive-. to make the long story short, I have prepared for you the simplest recipe that you can add anything you like (nuts or dried fruits) to the recipe and make it just the way you like it!

Okay, so let's begin!!

Ingredients:

- 1 1/2 cups oats (Quacker)

- 1/2 cup sliced almonds

- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

- 2 tablespoons honey

- 1 small pack of sweetener (I use Stevia) 

- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

- 1 teaspoon cinnamon

- Pinch of salt 

Directions:

- Preheat the oven to 180 c.

- Combine oats and almonds in a bowl.

- Melt the butter and mix it well with the rest of the ingredients (Honey, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and salt).

- Now, combine the honey mixture onto the oats and almonds using a spoon or a spatula until the oats are well coated. -The mixture should be a bit clumpy-

- transfer the granola to the baking sheet and spread them evenly, and into the oven for about 20 minutes stirring the granola every 8 minutes.

- Let the granola cool down, and it will dry up nice and crunchy.

- Store the granola in a container for up to two weeks, better yet in the fridge!

This is how the granola will look after cooling it down, golden and crispy!

This is how I enjoy my granola... 

Happy New Year my lovely followers and readers, keep checking my Instagram ( @Alla_Alsh ) or my Twit Acct for my daily activities...

See you next year insha'allah...  xxx

Mixed Berry Parfait

Hello again my dear readers,,, Hope you all had a wonderful Eid break!!

Here is a sweet, easy, and short post on how to make your own healthy mixed berry parfait that you can have it in the morning to get you going through the day, or even as a light dinner!

Simply, what you'll need:

- 1/2 cup of any of your favorite berry mix (Fresh or frozen; doesn't matter)

- one small packet of sweetener, I use either (Stevia or Splenda). Or you can substitute it with one tablespoon of honey

- Low-fat yogurt 

- 1/3 cup granola

Method:

1. Combine yogurt and sugar/honey in a bowl

2. In a glass or goblet, alternately layer granola, yogurt, and berries. To build the parfait, you need to repeat the layers until all of the ingredients are used completely.

3. Garnish with granola and berries. 

4. Chill or immediately serve,,, Enjoy!

Serves 1...

Sweet Potato Wrap

Hello my pretty followers/readers, I am soo sorry for my absence for quite some time. But I am finally here with a new delightful recipe awaiting for you to try! 

It is soo easy to prepare, delicious, fulfilling, and it is vegetarian friendly!!! All you need is the following:

- 1 medium sweet potato, roasted, peeled and mashed

- 2 wraps, I use low fat tortillas, no cholesterol (Garden Spinach and vegetables)

- 1/2 small onion, chopped

- 4 small mushrooms, diced

- Drizzle of olive oil

- 1 teaspoon paprika powder

- Dash of ground pepper

Method:

1- Roast your sweet potato in the oven 200 c for 35-40 minuts.

2. Warm the wrap in a large pan -No oil needed in this step!-, just to soften it up for about 1 or 2 minutes on each side!

3. In a pan, drizzle some olive oil and saute the onion and mushroom.

4. When potato is ready, peel and mash with fork or a potato masher.

5. Sprinkle paprika powder and ground pepper on the mashed potato.

6. Spread the mash potato over the warm wrap, add the mushroom and onion, roll the wrap and slice it in half, and enjoy the goodness of this recipe!

Happy eating!! xxx

Thirsty Thursday

Hey there guys, I recently noticed that my skin looks more radiant and hydrated after drinkining not less than 6-8 glasses of water a day -As I tend to have a ridiculously dry skin-, especially now it's summer!! So yeah, don't you forget to have your fair share of water throughout the day; to keep your system clean, hydrated and to improve your over all health,,, And all for ZERO calories!!

Enjoy your weekend sweeties...

Muscle Matters

Increasing lean muscle tissue, helps your body burn more calories...

We are getting closer to our fave season of the year; summer. And we are all anxiously excited for rocking this season's fashion with THE perfect body! So, this is a little motivation to encourage all of us to work on it and make it happen this year and to enjoy summer and fashion.

Happy Sunday everyone...

xxx

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

I pretty much prefer not to fry my food as much as I can, since I am trying to stick to my healthy eating habit, so I bake my favorit side dish in the oven. Sweet potato fries is a healthier choice instead of having greasy fries as a comfort food to me, they are low in calories, tastier, sweet, healthier -recommended as a healthy food supplement even for diabetes-...

This recipe takes about 30 minutes to make, it can be served as a side dish or I sometimes eat it as a main dish and dip it with some Chinese/Thai sweet chillie sauce...

Here we go..

Ingredients:

2 Medium Sweet Potatoes,

1/4 cup Olive Oil

2 teaspoons Sea Salt

2 teaspoons Ground Black Pepper

2 teaspoons Dried Rosemary if desired or any of your favorite herbs mix

4-5 teaspoons Paprika Powder

Serves: 2

Preparation Instructions:

Line the baking tray with parchment paper or aluminum foil and spray the paper with a little bit of olive oil spray; so the fries won't stick.

Preheat oven 200/220C depending on how hot your oven. 

Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into wedges.

Put the wedges in a large bowl, add the oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper and the rest of the herbs. Mix well to combine all the ingredients, until each and every wedge gets well coated with the olive oil and the rest of the ingredients.

Arrange the wedges in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. First, bake the fries for 10-15 minutes, then toss them the other side to bake them evenly, and bake for another 10-15 minutes.

Total baking time should take you approx 20-25 minutes...

And Voila... Instead of dipping it with ketchup, I love using Chineses sweet chillie sauce as a dip...

Enjoy =)