Tuesday, 2 February 2016

CURRENT: R E C I P E S


Lentil, pecan & roast beetroot salad with goat's cheese

What do you do if you love salads as much as I do but crave hearty soups and warm stews in the winter? Get roasting! I can't quit my salad fix during the colder months and so I make them a bit more substantial by adding roasted veggies. I love the hot/cold combo so much. Like cold, crisp iceberg lettuce in spicy, sizzling fajitas. Or brain freezing ice-cream with hot apple pie. Is that odd? Anyway  make this amazing salad tonight. Not only does it taste amazing but it officially means I read a part of The Daily Mail that wasn't the showbiz section. 


Spicy, soupy, white chicken chilli


My girl crushes are pretty standard. I want to be as demure as Holly Willoughby with a wit like Sharon Horgan and the boobs of Scarlett Johansson. As I have none of those things, I settle for constantly wanting to swop lives with Chrissy Teigen. Between her sarcastic Twitter comments and amazing culinary skills, she's everything I want to be when I grow up. Meaning I follow her blog religiously and will most definitely be making her spicy, soupy, white chilli chicken again soon. FYI she puts nachos in her soups. Enough said.


Spinach & chickpea rice pilaf


I found this amazing little side dish over on Budget Byte's blog and decided it sounded so tasty that I needed to turn it into a main. So I added salmon. You could easily add some leftover roast chicken or stir through some prawns. As per I made way too much so you could do the same and use it for work lunches for the rest of the week. Which beats my usual work lunch of a coffee and a flick through The Daily Mail showbiz section.


Thai drunken courgetti  with spicy honey chicken

I avoided courgetti like the plague for a good year. I thought it was reserved for those ridiculously skinny supermodel celebrity chefs who were never without a spiraliser in their hand. The ones who are raking it in from the recipe book deal that they pretend to have written. But after receiving a free spiraliser last year I have to take back my hard critique because you can actually make some seriously good dinners out of a variety of veggies like courgette and butternut squash. This Thai drunken courgetti with spicy honey chicken did not disappoint. Although I have no idea where the 'drunken' came into it as there was no alcohol in this recipe. That did disappoint.


Salt & chilli chicken

Someone introduced me to salt and chilli chips from the local Chinese take-away recently. It's changed the face of my Chinese delivery order forever. Salt & chilli prawns, chicken, ribs are already a firm favourite with this blogger when the need for take-out takes over but salt & chilli chips? Never fancied them. Until now. My arteries are delighted. In the spirit of saving money (on both take-away and bigger jeans), I've been attemptng 'fake-away' Friday and cooking my favourite dishes at home. This recipe for salt & chilli chicken was as good as any Chinese take-away I have ever had. 


Shakshuka

I constantly get asked (based on my Instagram feed) how I am not the size of a house and the answer is that I often skip breakfast and/or lunch. I'm a big fan of the fasting approach and the health benefits I believe it brings. As the idea is still quite a controversial one, I tend not to promote my penchant for skipping meals too much. Because I really can't be bothered listening to someone with absolutely no backround in nutrition telling me how unhealthy I am being. However it does mean that when I do decide to do brunch, I make it a good one. This Shakshuka recipe from The Guardian is the perfect lazy breakfast recipe and also proves that I do look at proper newspapers sometimes.

No comments: