I'm back!...with a recipe!

Hello! Hello!

Although it has been quite sometime since I last posted some pictures of eating habits, I have now finally finished (I hope) with studying and can focus mostly on baking and my blog.

Since last time I had posted, I managed to bake a sticky date pudding with a lush butterscotch sauce and a whopper of a chocolate fudge cake. That's it. Sad, I know.

The whole family has also been doing quite a bit of "clean eating" for over 6 months now. My interpretation of clean eating generally consists of eating wholemeal, protein of any sort and veg. The family including my little munchkin have treats on occasion, which explains my cake baking shortage.

A few weeks ago I had made two wholemeal pizzas with bbq chicken on one and steak on the other.

For my dough I used the same recipe as the Zaatar Pizza and instead of using plain white flour I substituted it for wholemeal flour.

BBQ Chicken Topping:

- Barbecued chicken, roast or fried chicken breast
-Thinly slices Spanish (red) onion
- Sliced Capsicum
-Sauteed mushrooms

Once the dough is rolled out to your preferred thickness I smothered the base with bbq sauce I then add cooked barbecued or roast chicken (fried up chicken breast is just as good).
Add the onions capsicum and mushrooms, then mozzarella cheese.

Steak Topping:

-500g beef strips
-Carmalised onion
-Sauteed garlic
-handful of roasted pine nuts or almonds

Once again once the dough is rolled out, throw on a few tablespoons of tomato paste onto the base.
Generously lather on the onions and garlic (these can be cooked together).
Add the beef and nuts.
Finally add the mozzarella cheese.

Presto! Easy and healthy.

Happy eating!

Spiced roast chicken

Hello all and welcome to my recipe-athon! I hope to overwhelm you all with tantalising creations from savoury to sweet!

Today's recipe is my own. I actually put it together on the spot as there was no time for me to sit and think and look for inspiration. So I quickly put a few things together with what I had in my pantry.

Let us begin!

Ingredients:

2kg chicken
3 bay leaves
6 bruised garlic cloves
6 sliced or roughly chopped garlic (extra)
1/3 cup sweet paprika
1/3 chicken spice (any kind)
2 heads broccoli
50 g melted butter
1 cup olive oil
1 cup balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper

Method:

1) Pre heat oven to 190 C ((fan force) add 20 C if using gas oven)
2) Cut broccoli into to florets and place into baking pan
3) Wash and dry chicken. Cut off tail and any extra fat around the cavity.
4) Rub some salt into the cavity
5) Stuff the chicken with bay leaves and 6 bruised garlics
6) Rub salt and pepper onto both sides of chicken
7) Rub the sweet paprika onto both sides of the chicken, making sure to coat between the legs and wings
8) Rub chicken spice onto the chicken on top of the sweet paprika.
9) Place chicken on top of the broccoli and sprinkle sliced or chopped garlic on top of the chicken (breasts are always facing up)
10) Brush melted butter all over the chicken
11) Cook chicken on high for the first 30 mins then turn in down to about 150-140 for an hour after that.
12) throughout the roasting time when we see the chicken become dry baste the chicken with olive oil and balsamic vinegar mixture. It may seem like a lot, however you may find that you won't need it all.

In my rush and starvation I forgot to take a picture of the end product, but here is what it looked like before in went into the oven!

I hope you give it a go and please let me know how you went!

Recipe of the week

OMG! This is a naughty one this week.

Make welcome Banoffee Pie!

I Chose to use a very fast and simple recipe as I've never tasted one of these babies before. I found the recipe at http://www.taste.com.au/. I usually go here for ideas and usually tweak the recipes to make it my own. However on this occasion I followed the recipe to the T.


Ingredients:
1 x 250g pkt granita biscuits (Arnott's brand)
125g butter, melted
2 bananas
1 x 300ml tub double cream
1 x 394g can sweetened condensed milk
70g (1/3 cup, firmly packed) brown sugar
50g butter

Method:

1. Place the biscuits in the bowl of a food processor and process until finely crushed. Add the butter and process until well combined. Divide the biscuit mixture among six round 8cm (base measurement) fluted tart tins with removable bases. Use the back of a metal spoon to firmly press the biscuit mixture over the base and side of each tin. Place in the fridge until required.

2. To make caramel filling, place condensed milk, sugar and butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, for 10-12 minutes or until caramel thickens (do not boil).

3. Pour the hot caramel evenly among biscuit bases. Cover with glad wrap.

4. Peel and thinly slice bananas, and arrange over the caramel filling. Top pies with a dollop of cream and serve immediately.

This is obviously a sometimes treat. It is much too rich to eat on a regular basis.

Hope you enjoyed reading this weeks recipe of the week!

Rich hugs!

Recipe of the week

This weeks recipe was a hard one to choose from, I figured that I'd go with the traditional Filipino dish 'Pancit'.

Noodles were introduced into the Philippines by the Chinese and have since been adopted into local cuisine.

Ingredients:
1  packet vermicelli noodles
1 packet egg noodles (optional)
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 onion, finely diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups cooked chicken breasts, diced
1 small cabbage, thinly sliced (optional)
1 cup sweet peas
4 carrots, thinly sliced
2 sprigs greet onions, sliced (optional)
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 lemons, cut into wedges, for garnish


Method:
1. Place the rice noodles in a large bowl, and cover with warm water. When soft, drain, and set aside.
2. Heat oil in a wok or large skillet over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic until soft.
3. Stir in chicken, cabbage, carrots and soy sauce. Cook until cabbage begins to soften. Toss in noodles, and cook until heated through, stirring constantly. Transfer pancit to a serving dish and garnish with quartered lemons.

Note: To add extra flavour you could purchase a sachet of Pancit flavouring from a Filipino grocer. This will give it a slight orange colour along with added Pancit taste.

Let me know if you try this out, I love you hear from you all!

Hanggang sa susunod na oras!