Stuffed mushrooms are one of those easy to prepare, tasty and nutritious meals that can please everybody. Generally speaking, stuffed food recipes are versatile, because most of the taste resides in the stuffing. One can choose the stuffing according to personal preferences or to the seasonality of various foods. Spices are another great way of creating unique, personalized healthy recipes with amazing taste and flavors.

Here’s one of my favorite stuffed mushrooms recipes, healthy, cheap and doable in no more than 25 minutes.

Ingredients:

• 8 big Portobello mushrooms
• 1/4 of a small celery root, finely grated (don’t use more than 1/4 root, because otherwise the stuffing will have a dry, crumbling texture which is not very nice)
• 1 egg (the egg plays the role of binding the stuffing mixture elements together, but you can skip it or use only the white if you want a low-fat dish)
• 1 cup coarsely grated cottage cheese
• 8 slices of Emmentaler cheese
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 15-20 minutes (depending on the mushrooms' size)

Serving: 2-3 people

Method:

Clean the mushrooms thoroughly, detaching their stems. Cut the stems into small pieces, then put them in a bowl and mix them with the egg, the grated cottage cheese, the minced garlic, the grated celery root, the thyme and a pinch of salt. Optionally, you can add other herbs or spices such as red hot chili peppers powder, coriander, cumin or dried basil. Oil a baking dish and put the mushrooms inside, making sure they fit well. If they don’t, take a bigger dish. It is important that the mushrooms stay flat on the bottom of the dish, otherwise the stuffing will drip into the dish. Spoon the egg mixture into each mushroom carefully until you finish it. Bake the mushrooms at medium heat for 10-15 minutes, without covering the dish.

After the 15 minutes, take the dish out of the oven, put on top of each mushroom a slice of Emmentaler cheese, then cook them for another five minutes or until the cheese starts melting. Serve hot, with freshly ground pepper sprinkled on top. I prefer a mix of red, white and black pepper. For a delicious variation, you can serve the stuffed mushrooms with a sour cream topping or with hot salsa.

This is an easy chicken stew recipe which takes relatively little time to prepare. The secret to make it fast is to cut everything small and to choose vegetables that either can be eaten raw or don’t require long cooking time. The beauty of such foods is that you can discover healthy recipes each and every time by simply choosing a vegetables mix rich in those nutrients you’re most interested in. One of the vegetables that can contribute to preparing a healthy dish is celery root, also known as celeriac, turnip rooted celery or celery knob. When consumed raw, celery root belongs into the low glycemic index group of foods, however when cooked, it’s a high GI food. Despite this, celeriac is still beneficial for diabetes sufferers, because of its low sugar content. The following chicken stew recipe is suitable for people who love potatoes but have to stick with a low-carb diet. It’s an easy recipe for two people, but you can easily adjust quantities if you have more mouths to feed.

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken breast, skinless, boneless, cut in small, thin stripes (the smaller, the better, because the faster it will get cooked)
• 1 big onion, finely chopped
• 2-3 green onions, cut small
• 1 medium sized celery root, peeled, diced small
• 1 medium size potato, diced small
• 1/2 can diced tomatoes in tomato sauce
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• Red hot chili pepper powder (or freshly ground red chili flakes)
• Salt, pepper

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Serves 2

Cooking method:

Take a large pan or a wok, heat the oil, then stir fry the onion with a little bit of added water, so the oil doesn’t get too hot. Depending on your ability to chop onions, you’ll need to stir fry it for 4-8 minutes (even 10 minutes if you’re clumsy and you chopped it really big, but I’m sure that if you got to read this, then you can finely chop an onion, so 4-5 minutes of stir frying should be enough). When the onion gets soft and almost transparent add the potatoes and the celery root pieces and cook everything together for 5 minutes. Add the chicken breast chunks and continue cooking, stirring quite frequently in the first two minutes, then cover the pan and let the food simmer for about 10 minutes. Now add the tomatoes in sauce, the green onion, garlic, chili, salt and the pepper, stir well and continue cooking for another 10 minutes with the pan covered. Serve hot, with a sprinkle of freshly ground pepper on top.