Spinach Cheese Swirls with Avocado

This tempting appetizers look like they are reallyyyyy difficult to make, but guess this is one recipe that a fresher to cooking experiments can try their hands on.....and results in flaky puff with your choice of stuffing and an awesome dressing

(I am sorry for the clumsy pics, as I was in a hurry while preparing this...but next time when I bake this will post more clearer pics )

So all you require is

1 Sheet Puff pastry ( thawed)
All purpose flour to dust
Rolling pin
Oil - for brushing


Stuffing - Cheese Spinach Mixture

1/2 cup Spinach - finely chopped
3 Tbsp of fresh coriander / Parsley leaves - finely chopped
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
2Tbsp Mozzarella Cheese - grated
1Tbsp Parmesan cheese - grated

Heat the oven to 400°F.
Sprinkle the flour on the work surface / baking tray.
Unfold the pastry sheet on the work surface and roll it out a bit

Brush the pastry sheet with oil
Mix all the ingredients for the stuffing
Top the sheet with the cheese and spinach.mixture
Starting at a short side, roll up like a jelly roll
Cut into about 20 (1/2-inch) slices
Place the slices, cut-side down, onto the baking sheet lined with parchment paper
Brush the slices with oil
Bake for 15 minutes or until the pastries are golden brown
Remove the pastries from the baking sheets and let cool on wire racks for 5 minutes



Topping / Dressing

3Tbsp Mashed  ripe avocado
1Tbsp boiled corn kernels
1Tbsp onion - finely chopped
1/4 tsp green chillies - finely chopped
1Tbsp Tomatoes - finely Chopped
Salt to taste
1/4 tsp lemon juice

Mix all the above ingredients and keep aside

Finally........In a plate place the pastry swirls and top it with the Avocado mix
Sprinkle some fresh ground black pepper over it

TIP's:


For a flavor twist, try a different cheese.  Any shredded cheese will work in this recipe
You have endless options for the stuffing's
For best results, make sure to remove as much liquid as you can from the greens before adding it to the pastry. If it's too wet, it may make the pastry soggy
For the toppings, you can also try versions such as Pesto, Hummus, Cucumber - Yogurt Dip,  mixed glazed fruits, Apple Plum Reduction

Mango-Tomato Summer Salsa Recipe

This is one of my fav from ifood and this recipe fits in with many cuisines such as Thai, Mexican, American, Vegetarian, Summer Parties, and is kid friendly. It is a Healthy Choices dish easy to make just dice and mix! It is Weight Watcher  friendly too!!!!!!

The marriage of the flavours is exciting and refreshing. Tomatoes with mangoes and avocado is spiced up with the Thai chiles and lime juice plus plenty of garlic. The cucumber adds a cooling effect and great texture contrast to the smooth sweetness of the mangoes and avocado buttery flavours. This can be chilled and served in individual small soup bowls, or as a salsa-type dip for corn chips or toasted nan or pita wedges. It is also a wonderful side or garnish
The avocado should be just ripe but not too soft, the same for the mango.
Choose tomatoes that are meaty and not with large gel areas. Using fresh lime juice and fresh cilantro is key to a great flavour. Please use fresh garlic not the already crushed preserved type of garlic. Even Spring garlic is nice in this recipe if it is available. Another nice way to serve this is on grilled baguette bread slices on a long diagonal sort of a Thai bruschetta.
This refreshing Summer recipe is perfect if you are watching your calories
I personally omitted Garlic since I am not very fond of raw garlic

1 mangoes - peeled, seeded and diced

1 avocado - peeled, pitted, and diced

5 medium tomatoes, diced and seeded

3 Thai Dragon Chiles (Phrik Chee Fa), minced and seeded, to your taste or You can also use fresh green chillies / Jalpenos

1 medium, diced

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (Pak Chee/ coriander leaves)

5 cloves garlic, minced

salt to taste


In a medium bowl, combine the mango, avocado, tomatoes, cucumbers, chiles, cilantro, and garlic. Stir in the salt, lime juice, red onion, and lime juice.

To blend the flavors, refrigerate for about 30 minutes or longer before serving.



Note:

A variation can be made by using green papaya shredded in place of cucumber if you want a firmer contrasting texture. You also can use slivers of mint or Thai basil (bai Horapha) in place of cilantro (Pak Chee), or slivers of Kaffir Lime leaf (bai Magroot).

Food Signatures

FOOD SIGNATURES !!!

This is interesting info... 

You are what you eat, so eat well. A stupendous insight of civilizations past has now been confirmed by today's investigative, nutritional sciences. They have shown that what was once called 'The Doctrine of Signatures' was astoundingly correct. It now contends that every whole food has a pattern that resembles a body organ or physiological function and that this pattern acts as a signal or sign as to the benefit the food provides the eater. Here is just a short list of examples of Whole Food Signatures. 

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye...and science shows that carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes. 

A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart is red and has four chambers. All of the research shows tomatoes are indeed pure heart and blood food. 

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows that grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food. 

A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds are on the nut just like the neo-cortex. We now know that walnuts help develop over 3 dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function. 

Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys. 

Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet the body pulls it from the bones, making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body. 

Eggplant, Avocadoes and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats 1 avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? .... It takes exactly 9 months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them). 

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the motility of male sperm and increase the numbersof sperm as well to overcome male sterility. 

Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics. 

Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries.

Grapefruits, Oranges, and other citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts. 

Onions look like body cells. Today's research shows that onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes.



'The news isn't that fruits and vegetables are good for you, it's that they are so good for you, they can save your life .'