Chilli | Sweet Potato Chips

Last night I made Chilli but packed it out with lots of vegetables including carrot, celery, mushrooms and obviously kidney beans.
As we don't eat rice, I served it with sweet potato chips and a sprinkle of grated cheese.
It was lovely and we had loads left over! 

Steak | Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms | Salad

It's been a while but last week Grant cooked this for me. 

Sirloin Steak, those trusty sweet potato chips, salad and mushrooms stuffed with cheese then baked. I had blue cheese in mine and the whole thing was delicious!

Butternut Squash & Onion Frittata

I make this quite often as it's great to take to work cold with salad & a slice of ham.

1. Roast the butternut squash in the oven with salt & pepper.
2. Fry a whole onion slowly so it goes soft and caramlised.
3. Whisk 3 eggs in a jug & add about the same amount in volume of milk, grate in a good lump of cheddar cheese.Season..
4. Put the squash in the pan with the onion and turn it down to the lowest heat setting.
5. Add the egg mixture and cook  for around 12 minutes.
6. Put the pan under the grill until golden on top.
7. Leave to go cold!

Thai Chicken Soup

With the rest of my left over roast chicken, I made this lovely Thai Chicken Soup. This soup is gorgeous and I will definately be making it again!
CLICK HERE for the recipe.

A few things to note:

+ As this recipe is American, it uses 'cups' as measurements. I used a small pot about 1/2 the size of your average kitchen mug.

+ Cilantro is Corriander
+ Scallions are Spring Onions

+ The recipe calls for Chicken thigh meat but I think it'd be easier to cook the thighs first rather than shred them raw. I've tried before and it's very time consuming.

+ I used fresh Beansprouts rather than tinned

+ Make sure you use decent quality peanut butter

+ I didn't put in the Rice Noodles and felt the soup was delicious and filling without them. To compensate I added extra green cabbage and extra bean sprouts.

Chicken Stir Fry

Yesterday I made a chicken stir fry with most of the left over roast chicken.
I added Sugarsnap peas, Baby corn cobs, Red pepper, Onion, Mushroom and Carrot.

It's good to have some stirfry staples in the cupboards to really make them tasty. I use garlic, ginger, a small tsp of tamarind paste, 3 tbsp of good quality oyster sauce, 2 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 tbsp of fish sauce and a drizzle of sesame oil. Once cooked off sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Delicious!

Roast Chicken | Creamy Leeks | Vege

Tonight I roasted a whole chicken with just salt and pepper.

I sweated off some leeks with salt and pepper and once nearly cooked through I added a little bit of chicken stock. I use the concentrated Knor liquid stock, you only need a tablespoon with a dash of water. I then added a tablespoon of mascapone cheese. This melts into the leeks and creates a lovely creamy sauce!

Served with carrots and savoy cabbage. I only use the outer leaves from the cabbage as the inner paler ones make a lovely coleslaw.

Delicious roast mid week and no simple carbs needed!

BBQ Pulled Pork | Vege | Sweet Potato Chips

Using the left over pulled pork from Saturday, I made this for dinner tonight. TASTY!!!!

Chop sweet potato into chips, lightly coat in olive oil and spread on a baking tray. Season and put in the oven at around Gas mark 6 for 45 minutes - turning half way.

For the BBQ sauce, I add a bit of everything and anything that I have in the cupboards! Roughly:
1 tbsp Olive oil
2 tbsp Soy sauce
3 tbsp Tomato Ketchup
1 tsp Mustard
1 tsp Ginger
1 tbsp Honey

I then fried mushrooms, onions and courgettes in a wok, once cooked add the left over pork and sauce and heat through.

Pulled Pork | Corn on the Cob | Coleslaw

On Saturday I made Pulled Pork for the first time using a recipe by Simon Rimmer from 'Something For The Weekend'. Click HERE to read it.
I served it with corn on the cob and homemade coleslaw.

Coleslaw is easy to make and so much nicer and healthier that the supermarket bought stuff:

Finely chop half a cabbage - I take the outer leaves from a savoy and use the inside leaves for the coleslaw
Grate a large carrot
Add salt and pepper and a dash of lemon juice
A squirt of mayonnaise - just enough to very lightly coat the vege.
Mix it all together
You can change this to your taste, some people prefer to use red cabbage, I sometimes add finely chopped fennel or radish.

Breakfast | Nuts | Fruits

My standard breakfast and it's delicious!

2 small handfuls of mixed nuts with raisins

1/2 a banana

1 handful of blueberries

4 chopped dried apricots

Milk

Today I added some strawberries that needed using up too. 

Sweet & Sour Chicken | Quinoa

I use the Hairy Bikers recipe from the BBC website. CLICK HERE to read it.

I make a few amendments such as leaving out the brown sugar, I don't think it needs it as the pineapple juice sweetens the sauce naturally. I add sugarsnap peas and baby corn cobs and I serve it with Quinoa as this is a healthier alternative to rice and in my opinion it's tastier too!