Simply Scrumptious Smoothie

My mum stayed over last night, and this morning when I went to the shop to get some bits for a nice breakfast (I would have got them before but it was a bit unplanned!) I went a little overboard... We couldn't decide what we wanted so I got... Everything! Meaning bacon, crumpets, oats, malt loaf and yoghurt! As I am eating freezer meals and consequently hardly buying anything, I thought I may as well! Our breakfast was two crumpets and two rashers of bacon each, then some yoghurt with the fruit loaf. It was delicious!

The yoghurt I got was Onken. mango, papaya and passionfruit. After eating a supermarket basic brand for so long it was so creamy and good! I do really like the basics one actually, but it made a nice change!

Then for lunch I made a smoothie with the yoghurt, a banana and milk. It was really nice, a light but filling lunch after a big breakfast! Plus I got to use my smoothie cup... which is just plain cool to be honest.

My next post will be about a few things I made whilst at home... check here tomorrow!

I'm Baaaaaack!

So, on my last trip home I remembered to take my camera so I could carry on posting... But I forgot the cable to connect it to the computer. And when I came back here... I forgot the camera. So home with camera and no cable, and then here with cable and no camera. But it's all back together now. I am on a placement at the moment, and I have enough meals in the freezer to last until I move (in ONE week!) so I won't be doing that much cooking, but I promise I will post what I do cook... Keep an eye!

Chicken Challenge #4

For day four of the challenge, I made Mary Berry's Greek Chicken Salad. I went to the cinema today to see The Great Gatsby, and it was quite nice to have a little potter round the kitchen putting it together when I got back. The salad itself was chicken mixed in a Greek-style dressing, served with a warm pitta. I really love warm pittas, the smell, the taste, the texture... they are just so good. A simple dish, but it was really good, nice and light for a warm and sunny afternoon.

The dressing: natural yoghurt, mint, parsley, lemon juice, spring onion, a pinch of sugar and seasoning.

 

 

Craft is Coming...

I know I said I would do a post about craft today... And I kind of am as this post is about craft... But anyway. I am not going to tell you about what I was going to today- yet! There is a good reason though. Without giving too much away, it is something I made very carefully, and something that I really want to showcase in the best light possible. I can't do that today, but all will be revealed by the end of this week, I promise! I'm sure those of you who have done craft projects before and that are very proud of them will understand what I'm saying. If you don't... Well, you'll just have to be as patient as the rest of them! :)

Chicken Challenge #3

Day three has arrived, and I'm pleased to say this one was just as successful as the last two. I did a Sam Stern recipe tonight; Thai-Style Chicken Salad. It really proved that salads can be filling! I got to use rice noodles as well, which I was looking forward to as I have never used them before. They were a success, I have to say. Along with the chicken and noodles were beansprouts, a red onion, a red pepper, spring onions, coriander and the dressing. The dressing was what I would call a fairly standard Thai dressing (fish sauce, caster sugar, lime juice, rice wine vinegar), but it was really nice, and the salad wouldn't have been quite the same without it. The recipe also wanted a red chilli, but as I can only seem to get them in packs, I used my red chilli paste, like always. If I buy the packs, they don't get used and just end up going off... and I hate waste!

 Like I mentioned, it was extremely filling, which would usually be good, but I haven't been hungry all day since I had a really filling breakfast. But I powered through because it was so nice, and just about managed to finish it. I loved the colours of it as well, really nice vibrant when it's such a dull and windy day outside!

The main ingredients

 

 

I have this again for tea tomorrow, so there will be no new Chicken Challenge. Don't fret though, you can read always read about days one and two to keep yourself amused. There will also be a craft post coming appearing, something which I haven't done for a while... so plenty to keep you going until Wednesday!

Chicken Challenge #2

I know it is only the second day, but I am really enjoying this challenge! Read about how it started in Chicken Challenge #1. It is probably because I have had two extremely successful meals so far. Let me tell you about the second.

First let me tell you how I came to have the recipe. When I was last at home, my mum was clearing out the paper recipes that she'd collected from magazines over the years. One of the things on the castoff pile was a collection of sandwich recipes... I love a good sandwich. So I took it. There were several chicken sandwiches on there, but I picked this one as I was already buying one of the ingredients for another dish. That ingredient was pesto, and I really, really like pesto. So it had to be done! It was essentially an assembly job, which went like this.

I mixed the mayo with a little bit of the pesto, and spread that on one slice of bread. On the other slice went the rest of the pesto. On the first bit of bread I piled (literally, piled), leftover chicken, parmesan and rocket. And there should have been two tomatoes, but I forgot them! Then I topped it with the other piece of bread. I decided to use the crusts, because they are thicker than the other pieces, and slightly concave, so I thought it would hold the filling better. That is the only thing I don't like about some sandwiches; that all the filling falls out. Considering how well stacked it was, it stayed together surprisingly well, perhaps due to the double 'glue' of pesto and pesto-mayo on both pieces of bread. Anyway, I don't care how it stayed together. All I know was that it was divine. Definitely a recipe to write up!

Let the leftovers begin!

The base stone; pesto and mayo (although it does look a lit like mashed avocado...)

The end product... sandwich-ery at it's finest.

Chicken Challenge #1

My dad said to me a while ago that if I roasted a chicken, it would last me a whole week. This week, I have finally got round to testing that theory! Every day this week, bar one, I will be having a different chicken dish, and I will see if it does indeed last the whole week. I can't wait.

Of course, the first dish had to be a roast dinner. One of my (many) number one dishes... The accompaniments were mixed veg, stuffing, mashed potato and gravy. Instead of using the cooking instructions on the packet, I used... my mum. She is the best cook I know, and I'm glad I did what she said! The chicken turned out really moist and juicy and, well, perfect.

Perfect!

Not that I eat the skin, but look how crispy and golden it is.