Healthy Low Fat Chicken salad

As the holidays come to an end another series of events is about to take place. A series of weddings from friends and family (notably my elder brother) approaches and I felt that it was time to start eating healthy to look my best for these events. So in light of the weddings the next few recipes I will be posting will be healthy and light! The total calories for this recipe are only 270 but the taste is that of a full fat meal! Just follow my instructions:

Ingredients:

1 chicken breast

1 Onion

4 Cherry tomatoes (optional)

Salt / pepper

Lettuce - about 6-7 leaves or more if you like

20 gr Mustard

40 gr Hellmann's Lighter than Light Mayonaise

How to:

1. Salt and pepper the chicken according to your liking. Take a piece of  aluminium foil and place the chicken breast. Peel the onion and cut the tomatoes in half and add  them on top. Close the foil and bake for 1 hour in 200 Celsius degrees.

2. Once baked remove from the oven, cut the chicken in stripes and allow for it to cool down.

3. Cut the lettuce leaves, add the chicken, tomatoes and onion and mix well. In a small bowl mix the mayo and mustard and add it to the salad. Serve and enjoy!

PS: If you really want to feel that you are not deprived of anything drink a coke zero or a sprite zero with the meal. You won't even know that you are on a diet!

Office desk with bookcase hutch

A very close friend of ours wanted a desk with a bookcase to put in a spare room. Being a 3D designer himself and a lover of industrial design he and George came up with a design combining a bookcase with a pull-out desk that not only can fit his many books and car models but also saves space with the desk being stored inside the bookcase.

So one fine day after planning and measuring the wall, George  ordered the material and constructed it. They went for OSB chipboard. Osb stands for Oriented Strand Board and is chipboard covered in wood flakes. Although it looks rough and unfinished it is anything but and is mostly used for industrial style. Additionally it is ideal for outdoor constructions like prefabricated store units. Just make sure that you buy the waterproof one.

Here is the plan they made with the right proportions for those of you with a similar sized wall.

After a long day of constructing and carrying (and 2 sandwiches provided by my friend's wife) this was the final result:

As you can see from the photo the desk has wheels so it can be easily moved around in case he has a customer and needs it in the middle of the room. Plus every inch of space is used as it even has storage space under the desk.

A perfect desk for a 3D designer!

If you too are interested in creating your own unique desk/bookcase you can contact us by e-mail. The design plans with a 3D image cost only 10 euro. If you live in Cyprus we can also give you a price for constructing one in the materials of your choice!

Flat update!

Almost there! It took a lot of effort to coordinate the jobs that needed to be done in our new apartment. Unfortunately the previous tenant left us with many problems to deal with. After writing all the jobs that needed to be done we numbered them so as to know which ones needed to be done first.

Firstly we went to the water and electricity companies to pay and get the contracts done. This was essential to be done first of all so as to get the electrician and the plumber next. They made sure that all was in working order and fixed / changed what was not. Additionally we gave the electrician our ceiling lamps to install them in all the rooms and bought led lamps to use.

Following that we asked George's dad who is a carpenter to change our doors in the kitchen, which were in a terrible condition, add a cabinet under the sink in the bathroom and fix a few shelves in the wardrobes.

Following that we brought a painter to treat some of the walls which were destroyed from humidity and paint the walls around the dining table area which were deep purple. Even though it was a very nice color it made the already small area look even smaller and darker. We therefore opted for a light grey color which made a huge difference. Here is a small preview of the area before:

And after:

Notice how much lighter the place looks? More pics will come soon when we start moving in :)

Finally what REALLY needs to be done before everything else is a good scrubbing and cleaning of pretty much everything. Since there are a lot of things that need to be cleaned I contacted a company that specializes in cleaning. I did this for two reasons: First of all, the place and especially the oven are too filthy for me to even go near them. Secondly, they have the right cleaning tools to do that. And a quick advice: I agreed with them that they will be paid once they are finished and I inspect everything and find them satisfactory. To do that I plan to take my mother with me who notices all the details ;)

That's all for now! In the meantime we are waiting for our vacation to start to recharge our batteries for the moving!

Lemon soda (aka Gkazoza) - Homemade and super easy! (3 ingredients!)

The other day, as we were returning from a trip to the mountains, George and I felt that we had once again eaten too much! Once we got home we realized that we didn't have any soda so I resorted to making one on the spot! It was so easy and refreshing that it made me wonder why we bother to buy them in the first place instead of just making them at home. It's cheap, easy and saves you trips to the market and space in the cabinets.

Ingredients:

Lemon squash (if you don't have any here's how to make some)
Cold Water
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda

How to:

1. Take a glass and add some lemon squash. You don't need to use much as the baking soda will make it even sweeter. Add cold water. Leave about 1/5 of the glass empty.

2. Add the baking soda and stir fast for 5-6 seconds (you will see bubbles forming).

3. Enjoy!

Spaghetti with white sauce - Quick and easy!

Spaghetti is one of those foods that you can combine with so many different ingredients and sauces that it's worth having it in your kitchen all the time! In this very simple recipe you can - as always- add ingredients you may like such as bacon, salmon or chicken leftovers.

Ingredients:

400 gr of spaghetti (approximately)
1 cube of vegetable stock (optional)
400 gr cream cheese
1 table spoon olive oil
1 table spoon butter
1 medium sized onion
150 gr mushrooms cut in slices
150 gr grated Parmesan cheese


How to:

1. Take a pot and add lots of water to cook the spaghetti. Add the vegetable stock cube. When the water is
 hot add the spaghetti and leave them to cook.

2. In the meantime cut the onions. Get a deep pan and add the olive oil and the butter. Once the butter melts add the onions and the mushrooms and leave them to cook.

3. Once cooked, lower the heat, add the cream cheese and stir. (At about this time the spaghetti might be done, if so strain them while the cream cheese melts and leave them in the pot). After 3-4 minutes add the grated cheese, turn off the heat and stir well!

4. Having strained the spaghetti, add the cream sauce to the pot and stir well until the spaghetti are all well covered. Serve immediately or keep it covered to stay hot.

Cheesy Bread!

My fiance's sister invited us over the other day and made this bread which we found delicious! It can be served with food or as an appetizer or even as a snack! It all depends on the filling that you will decide. I am giving you the basics so build up!

Ingredients:

1 Bread (I used ciabatta bread but you can use any type you like)
Slices of cheese (quantity depends on the bread - I needed 5)
Half pepper (any color / type you like!)
Salt / pepper

How to:

1. Take a bread knife (to make your life easy) and cut the bread vertically and horizontally BUT not all the way down. Cut it a little more than half of the bread's height.

2. Cut the cheese in stripes and put them in all the slits.

3. Cut the pepper in small cubes. We do that because the bread wont be in the oven long and smaller pieces cook faster than bigger ones! Put them on top of the bread and add salt and pepper. Put it in a roasting dish with non sticking paper underneath.

4. Bake for 10 minutes in a preheated oven at 180 degrees.

Enjoy!

Saving Tips - Part 1

Everyone is looking for ways to save money and time. Here are 3 simple tips to save you money so you can spend it somewhere else! (eg. your vacation!)

1. Here in Cyprus summer starts early on so ice cubes are a constant demand in our house. It's not easy going to the store every 1-2 days to buy them and carry them back home nor to re-fill the trays and wait for them when you need them immediately! So what we do at home is fill the ice trays and once the cubes are ready we empty them in a large bowl in the freezer. Then we re-fill the trays. The goal is to have the bowl full at all times so you can have ice on demand for you and your guests. And don't worry if they are stuck. Simply hit the bottom of the bowl on the table or the floor.

2. Don't waste time while ironing clothes. Electricity is quite expensive especially during summer when we also have air-conditioning. So when we use it for other purposes we need to be sure that we are using as much as we need. In ironing for example, don't fold each clothe right after it is ironed. You waste time and money while the iron is on. Instead place the ironed clothes gently on chairs so you can fold or hang them afterwards. Alternatively you can ask a family member to do that for you so you can finish faster! You can have up to two clothes on each chair. Just make sure that they are placed straight to avoid wrinkles.

3. Get a money box (or make your own!) and put all the spare change you have in there. You won't believe how much money you can get just by putting your spare coins! At the end of each month or two get your coins and either deposit them or treat yourself with something special!