Hello my friend, have you got out of always-feel-like-eating mood since December? Andrew and I always find hard to say no to a descent dinner. Now we really need to tie up the larger appetite from nonstop eating and drinking since Christmas and replace something tasty and low-carb.

  We love cooking and we hate repeating. We do look for some inspirations here and there, however, it is not always easy to get the dream ingredients or we often underestimate the process is not exactly like its look. Anyway, I came cross a low-carb recipe “Layer grilled vegetables with veal for a restaurant-quality meal” from this amazing recipe site Taste and the tasted was sensational. BUT! Sometimes stories come with a “but”, that is: I only have a small grill pan…Thus, it took me a bit longer to finish cooking than the actual time due to the original recipe. Today, I am going to show you how I modify this dish and make it an easier version yet healthy. Because this is a freestyle version, so you can replace any element your choice outside of the key ingredients. So, let’s do this!

Firstly, here are the key ingredients that you need and I sincerely wish you don’t change this magical team:

Some pitted kalamata olives, chopped.
Chopped/ full-leafed fresh basil.
1 punnet cherry tomatoes, halved.
250-300g ricotta.

Then, these ones you can simply replace or just so as mine:

Any kind of Schnitzel, about 1 pack and today I used pork and 2 packs( boys love meat…).
1 avocado, chopped or sliced.
1 zucchini, sliced.
Balsamic vinegar to serve.

How to do:

1. Pour a little bit oil( I don’t use teaspoon measurement because this is a freestyle version) into a high heat pan and place the halved tomatoes with cut site up then cook it till you see the shapes change a bit. Do not flip because you don’t want the juice made the pan burn. You can chop the olives and other vegetables while waiting.
2. Take the tomatoes into a big/ deep bowl and mix with ricotta, olives and basil. If you want a better plating, save some basil and put it on top in the end.
3. Pan-fried zucchini till they look a little bit transparent. 
4. Cut the schnitzel into smaller pieces. I did mine about 3cm wide. Place them into the pan and cook them around 1-2minutes both sides. I used the same pan after tomatoes, it’s always good to recycle.
5. Layer up the schnitzel, zucchini and avocado on a plate then top up the mixture of ricotta and olives, etc. Drizzle balsamic vinegar with your preference. Voila!!! Here comes a fresh summery dish with beautiful flavours.

You can add some rockets, walnuts and even capsicums. It is so easy to create your own style and every one will love it. Tell me what you think if you try this recipe, I would love to hear different free styles!!!

Stay fresh

xxx Aka