Until recently sandwiches were the main dish for breakfast and supper. In the course of time meals with rolled oats, buckwheat groats, millet groats and quinoa came to the Polish breakfast menu and salads and other food inventions are eaten for supper. I have to say that I like sandwiches, and sometimes I like to get back to my roots and prepare traditional sandwiches. I try my best to make them nice and tasty and varied. My children kid that mum has again prepared sandwiches with leaves, but fortunately they usually eat everything without fussing.

Today I would like to share with you the recipe for sandwiches with olive tapenade, avocado and smoked salmon. They looked beautiful and you have to believe me that they were yummy. You can make the tapenade with a blender. I like when it isn't so smooth, so I chop the ingredients finely with a knife.

Ingredients (2 sandwiches)
olive tapenade
50g of pitted black olives
1 clove of garlic
a couple of almonds
a piece of chili pepper
2 tablespoons of chopped parsley
2 tablespoons of olive oil
salt and pepper

Last weekend my children placed an order for cake. It had to be baked and chocolatey with cream and fruit. Additionally, the cake should be quick to prepare, because when young people want something sweet, they want it right away and not after dinner the next day. From this idea (and with the ingredients I had in my kitchen) I made shortbread chocolate cake with blancmange, apples and blueberries. The cake was accepted and eaten very fast. An unmistakable asset of this cake was the caster sugar and the blackcurrant sorbet, which perfectly suited the cake.

I managed to save a few pieces of the cake from the hungry gourmands, and this beautiful cake was excellent with hot coffee on a warm spring afternoon.

Ingredients (28×24cm cake tin)
dough
0.5 kg of flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
200g of sugar
200g of butter
1 egg
3 tablespoons of cream
2 tablespoons of cocoa
blancmange
2 packets of powdered blancmange
0.75 ml of milk
3 tablespoons of sugar

I don't like throwing away food, so I try to plan my meals first and then do the shopping. I avoid buying unknown products and only then thinking about how to use them. I generally don't use recipes for which I have to buy a few unusual ingredients and then only use a few grains of them. Then I forget that I have them in my kitchen and before I can use them again they are past their use-by date.

Sometimes I have leftover ingredients and I have to make a dish thanks to which I won't feel guilty taking out the rubbish. That's how it was this time. In my fridge was some leftover chard. There was not enough to prepare a soup or my husband's favourite cold soup, but it was enough to make some very interesting buckwheat groats. So I prepared a yummy light dinner which surprised us with its simplicity and choice of ingredients.

Ingredients
100g of unroasted buckwheat groats
half a bunch of chard
half a bunch of asparagus spears
2 cloves of garlic
2 teaspoons of butter
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 tablespoon of maple syrup
parmesan
almond flakes
salt and pepper

Tomato soup is one of the most popular soups in Poland. Apparently, the first written recipe comes from 1872 and was written by Maria Parloe in the USA. Since 1897 famous Campbell's soup has been very popular. Every country has its own recipe for tomato soup. In Poland it is served with rice or noodles. In Italy tomato soup is thicker and seasoned with basil and olive oil. The Spanish serve gazpacho – cold pepper and tomato soup or hot with chili peppers.

Today I would like to share with you the recipe for Indian style tomato soup: with cumin, rosemary, and red lentils. I served it with fried bacon and crunchy pistachios. It was great!

Ingredients:
300g of red lentils
1 tin of tomatoes
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
half a chili pepper
3 sprigs of rosemary
1 teaspoon of butter
1 teaspoon of sweet paprika (powder)
half a teaspoon of cumin
salt and pepper
1 litre of vegetable stock
100g of smoked bacon
pistachios
2 tablespoons of nigella

Since last weekend I have had a new recipe for a quick dinner without any meat. The sweetcorn pancakes will be a perfect dish during the summer holidays: simple, quick and they don't need sophisticated ingredients. I like this kind of dish as much as my children like to eat it. My children said that only courgette pancakes are better, but very few dishes can compare with them. Courgette pancakes have been an absolute hit for many years.

Today I added chili pepper and parsley to my sweetcorn pancakes. They were excellent with spicy yoghurt and chives. You can also prepare them without extras, and serve them sweet with fruit or maple syrup. Choose your favourite version or come up with your own idea for these beautiful sunny pancakes.

Ingredients:
1 tin of sweetcorn
150 ml of milk
10 tablespoons of cornflour
1 tablespoon of potato flour
half a chili pepper
a fistful of minced parsley
salt and pepper
oil for frying