New website launching soon!

I've been taking a bit of a break from the blog lately to be able to concentrate more on my upcoming website launch! It's really exciting stuff!!! My apologies to all my followers, but I promise it will be worth the wait!

A sneak preview of what to expect on the new Foodie Declarations website

www.foodiedeclarations.com, coming soon... to a kitchen near you!

A Strawberry salad to go with this summers BBQs!

Anyone else longing for hot summer nights and the smell of the BBQ? Yes, I know it's almost June but I do live in Sweden where the summer weather is about as predictable as bull on speed, so I haven't had much of a chance to use my tiny little bucket BBQ yet. Once has the weather given me the opportunity and even then it rained after a while. This strawberry salad is a good reminder that despite the weather, it is summer and the nights are a little bit lighter and people are a little bit happier. It's so simple, whip it up in about 1 minute flat, needs no preparation, just serve with a nice piece of meat or add more to it, like grilled asparagus and spring onions. 

The What

(Organic) baby spinach

(Organic) arugula

Romaine salad

Strawberries

Purple basil leaves

balsamic vinegar

olive oil

Salt and pepper

The How

Wash the salad and rinse the strawberries.

Cut the strawberries in half. 

Mix the salad and the strawberries in a large bowl, top with basil leaves, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and fresh ground pepper. 

Serve with freshly BBQ d meat, chicken or veggies. 

Rainbow trout filled with fresh herbs

A lot of people are intimidated by the thought of cooking a meal form a whole fish, with the head and everything still on. I know I was! But my mum taught me that if you have a good fish, it really doesn't have to be very complicated. So we went to the fish market this Easter holiday and got some beautiful fresh rainbow trout. It's a pretty cheap fish with white meat, and very tasty in itself which means you don't really have to do a whole lot to it to make it taste like heaven. 

All you need to make my herb filled rainbow trout is:

4 rainbow trouts

1 lemon

1 hand full of fresh thyme

1 handful of fresh rosemary

1 handful of fresh basil

butter

salt and pepper

The how is just as simple:

Put the oven to 200 degrees.

Put the fish in tin foil in an oven safe dish.

Season with salt and pepper and fill the fish with butter, herbs and a wedge of lemon.

Close the tin foil around the fish to make it a little package, and put in to the oven for about 20  minutes. 

Serve directly with a nice salad and (Swedish) new potatoes!

Energising berry water

The perfect refreshment on a hot day; cold water, frozen berries and a cool straw. 

That's all you need!

Carrot and poppy seed cupcakes with lime and pomegranate frosting

I've never been a baker, a cook, yes, but a baker with exact precision... Hell no. I find it difficult to know how much I should knead a dough without it getting too compact and gross, I have a tendency to use too much flour because the dough sticks to my hands and I almost always use too little of some super important spice, like salt. 

But I am also extremely stubborn and am therefore determined to become great! ...or at least okay, at baking. Cupcakes in all kinds, shapes and sizes are super trendy so I thought I would give them a go. 

One of my best mates makes an amazing carrot cake, so I thought I'd steal parts of her recipe and mix in some of my own flavors. 

The What:

3 eggs

3 dl white sugar

3 dl flour

1 tsp vanilla sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1 pinch of salt

1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground cardamom

2 tsp ground ginger

4 tsp poppy seeds

1 ½ dl sunflower oil

5 dl grated carrots

and for the frosting you need

60 g of soft butter

5 dl icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla sugar

100 g Philadelphia cheese

the peel from one lime + 1 more for garnish

lime juice from ½ a lime

pomegranate seeds, also for the garnish

The How (for the cupcakes)

Put the oven to 175 degrees.

Beat eggs and sugar until white and airy in consistency. If you have an electric whisk or mixer, use this because beating it by hand is haaaard. I used my boyfriend. 

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl and carefully turn them into the egg mixture. 

Add the sunflower oil and the carrots.

Place the paper cupcake forms in an oven safe dish and fill the forms up to about 2/3 with batter. 

Bake in the middle of the oven for about 15-20 minutes, depending on your oven. 

Let the cupcakes cool before you add the frosting.

and The How to make the frosting:

Beat the butter, icing sugar, vanilla sugar, the grated lime peel, lime juice and the Philadelphia cheese until nice and creamy.

Spread the frosting over the cupcakes and garnish with poppy seeds, lime peel and pomegranate seeds. 

They actually turned out pretty good, although I may have overdone the frosting on a few of them. If you have a muffin dish to put the paper forms in, I highly recommend that you use it; with out that stability, the cupcakes float out a bit too much. They still taste great but they don't look as pretty!

We enjoyed these babies outside in the grass with a cup of lungo coffee. 

Mmmm finger lickin' good!!! (sorry for stealing your line Colonal Sanders!)

Thank you Nathalie Eklund for the inspiration <3

(and thank you Leila Lindholm for inspiring her)