Greek Chicken Rissoles

Rissoles are such an easy old timey favourite dish.  Sometimes you get bored of the same-old-same-old, and need to spice them up a bit.  A while ago I posted my favourite lamb rissoles which always go down a treat.  In our kitchen, we had some chicken mince, a few veggies and some Greek Yiros seasoning which were itching to be used, so I came up with a new spin on an old favourite.  It was SO GOOD! I shouldn't be surprised.  Lately I've been just rolling chicken breasts in Greek Yiros seasoning and cooking them and they have been De.Licious.

We served the rissoles with quinoa tabouleh because our parsley, mint and spring onions were ready for harvesting from our balcony garden, and it is one of my all time favourite sides.  We made these rissoles earlier in the week without the feta and tomato paste, then immediately made it again with the additions once we finished the first batch.  We loved the original recipe, but knew that those couple of additions would take it to the next level.  Love. These. Rissoles. We will have them again!

Stir Fried Chicken with Egg and Noodles

One of my favourite lunches to make for myself as a teenager was two minute chicken noodles with an egg stirred through in the hot pan. As weird as it sounds, I loved it so so so much.  I wanted to create a (healthier) blast from the past for dinner one night this week, and this is what I came up with.  It made use of some bok choy, shallots and cayenne chilli which we have been growing in our balcony garden, which was even better.  Cooking with food you have grown yourself feels so grounded and beautiful.  This meal takes all of 10 minutes to make and serves 4.  I loved it.  The egg adds protein, holds everything together, and tastes great.

Sweet Potato, Asparagus and Feta Frittata

If you are looking for a quick and easy meal to throw together that will taste gorgeous, then look no further.  We've had too many eggs so I wanted a yummy main to use some of them up, as well as some other veggies I had in my fridge.  This balance of flavours is absolutely lovely.  The sage and the sweet potato make the dish hearty, the feta adds some tartness, red onion adds a peppery kick and the cayenne pepper brings a little spice to the table.  We used about double the amount of cayenne pepper than I've listed in the recipe because we just love spice.  This fed the two of us for three nights with side veggies or salad (pictured above with a side of quickly stir fried spring onion, asparagus, garlic and wilted spinach topped with a squeeze of lemon juice...nom).

Gorgeous Asian Sauce

In my Sesame Soy Salmon with Soba recipe, I used my now-favourite Gorgeous Asian Sauce.  It is so simple and so delicious, I can't believe I haven't thought to make it before this year.  I decided to make this a separate post because I anticipate that it will feature in a few recipes from here on out.  It is a regular in my kitchen.  I recommend always keeping soy sauce and rice wine vinegar in the cupboard, and I am never without garlic and ginger.  The quantities can be doubled, trippled etc to meet the need.  This recipe makes enough for 2 serves, so tweak it as needed.  This sauce is good in stir fry, in noodles, in fried rice, with dumplings, on baked salmon, in a parcel of baked or steamed fish and veggies, or any other way you can think to use it. Plus it takes a whole 1 minute or less to make.

Greek Baked Chicken

Moist, flavoursome, easy.  These are words that should always accompany chicken.  I hear people say that chicken is bland from time to time but I totally disagree.  Done right it can be downright mouth watering.

One of my favourite meals is Greek lemon potatoes. I love their lemony garlicy noms.  I had a craving recently, but am watching my waistline at the moment so decided to bake some Greek style chicken to serve with a side of (or on top of) quinoa tabouleh as a delicious and healthy dinner.  This was so easy to throw together and we adored the flavour.  Scoring the chicken means that the marinade can permeate it more fully.  The chicken was moist and tasted so good.  This recipe will go down in your list of regular go-to meals.

East Meets West Eggs

Weekend breakfast.  Zomg.  I love it.  Breakfast is one meal I will never get sick of.  Now - to be honest I love every meal of the day - but I particularly love breaking my fast.  There are so many ways to make it enjoyable, and most of them are simple and easy, which goes well with my weekend morning brain fog.  Having something yum starts the weekend off perfectly.  Everything flows from there.  I used to think that cooking breakfast had to be a big deal, but I've learnt that you can make a lot of simple and healthy breakfast dishes with ease.  I've also learned that basic things like scrambled eggs, while a treat done the old fashioned way, can be spun lots of different ways pretty simply in order to keep things interesting and reduce "ugh...this again" style food fatigue.  Below is a simple and tasty East meets West one-pot scrambled eggs and bacon dish.  It is on the table in no time with minimal fuss. The recipe is so easy.  What more could you ask?

Lunch Poops

Vegetarian Lunch Poop Wrap

I started making bean wrap filler's years ago after learning Gillian McKeith's Chickpea Burger recipe. Since then I've been tweaking the recipe depending on what I have in the house at the time, and I'm happy with my version.  I find them to be easy to throw together and a filling healthy lunch.  I suppose they are similar to a baked falafel in many ways.  Its good to eat vegetarian from time to time.

You can bake them however you like - in little rounds, or in longer segments like I do in order to fit nicely into wraps for lunch.  The Dragon looked at them the first time I made them and asked "why are you baking poops?"  From then on they were called Lunch Poops and I can't call them anything else.  I've been making them again recently in line with my goal of getting healthier so I decided to share them with you.  It's fool proof cooking and does just over 2 weeks of lunches for one or one week for two :)  I freeze whatever is unused, and they defrost absolutely fine.  I recommend these as an easy high protein, high fibre lunch wrap filler.  They taste good and I feel good after I've eaten them.

Mexican salad

Yum

I love a good burrito.  So I wanted to throw together an easy and healthy warm salad based on the flavours I love.  One of my favourite things about burritos is how easy they are to prep and throw together.  One of our key interests of late is to learn how to do more tasty warm salads.  Especially after we both packed on a few kilos over Christmas.  So here is a very basic and tasty meal which even the most beginner cook can master.  Enjoy!

Hearty Chicken Noodle Soup

When the Dragon and I were still just friends, he got really sick once and given that he didn't have a partner to look after him at the time, I made him a big batch of chicken soup.  I knew how much he loved Worcestershire sauce and decided to throw a bit in just to make sure he would definitely like it (provided that he could taste).  The result was so good that I was jealous leaving it all there for him and went home and made another batch for myself!  Ever since then, this is the chicken noodle soup that I make every time we are sick, and I wouldn't leave out the not-so-secret-ingredient which takes it to another level. It is so easy you can make it even when you are sick yourself.  I can't return to the canned or pre-prepared soup anymore.  Warning - once you have made this, you can't go back to a lesser version.

Cider Adventure

Bunny Bounce - Pear Cider Edition

Recently the Dragon and I forayed into a new realm – cider brewing.   He used to brew beer in a keg in his cupboard at college years ago (classy I know – can you imagine the smell?) and I got my first Home Brew kit last year.  I didn’t want it to be a yucky eye sore, so I got a white and wood country-kitchen looking table from the shops (about $30 I think) and assembled it to make a very girlie keg zone. I also got a pink white and green stripey bucket to go with it – its a pretty cute set-up.  Or at least it will be once we finish renovating the garage where we house it.

In total, we spent about $33.50 on the cider mix and the dextrose, which made 30 litres.  So that works out at about $3.35 a litre.  A quick google search showed me that carton of 24 x 330ml Monteith's pear cider (my favourite pear cider) sells for about $65.  A carton = 7.9 L appprox.  Given that this batch made just shy of 4 x that amount, I'm pretty happy with the cost.

Neither of us has done ciders before so it sounded like a fun challenge.  We have collected a bunch of adorable green beer bottles in the shape of buddha which we will be using.  See below for a review of our experience.

Baked tomato, capsicum and chorizo pasta

Pasta. Who doesn't love it?  Here is a tasty and simple pasta sauce made from scratch.  I have made an alternative vegetarian creamy version of this recipe for years, which I will link here when I make it again for this site.   I decided to add meat to use up some ingredients in the freezer and try out some different flavours.  This turned out to be a tasty and simple meal worth sharing.  The basic pasta sauce is so simple and versatile.  There is nothing naughty about it.  The only potential naughtiness is in what you add to it. In this case leftover chorizo from the freezer from Spanish Eggs.  It was pretty cheap, given that I already had pasta, and only needed to purchase tomatoes, a capsicum, some basil, a red onion and some parmesan cheese.  Once we have our herb garden we won't need to purchase fresh herbs any more which will keep costs down even lower :) But that will be a few more months away. I'll post about it when it happens.

West African Ground Nut Stew (Maafe)

Who doesn't love peanuts? When I think of using peanut flavours in cooking I think of a few things - pad thai, satay sticks, largely Asian cuisine.  Alternatively it evokes thoughts of biscuits, peanut brittle, peanut and chocolate treats.  What doesn't instantly spring to mind is African cooking. And yet peanut is a major player in African cuisine.  Add chicken and sweet potato to the peanuts and you have a match! Yum.

The following is my take on a West African Maafe (peanut butter stew).  Maafe was originally made by the Mandinka and Bambara people of Mali, and regional recipes vary somewhat.  It can contain any meat.  Some even use hard boiled eggs in it, which could be a good option if you are cooking vegetarian.  I'll leave them out of my stew this time.  The dish varies from region to region.  It typically includes tomatoes, onion, garlic, root vegetables, cabbage, and leaf vegetables.  It is either served on rice, couscous or on mashed sweet potatoes (eg in the ivory coast).  I have elected to substitute the  cabbage for capsicum because, well, yum, and to use sweet potatoes in it. I'll serve it on brown rice to add to the nutty flavour.

I've elected to try to use up some food in my pantry fridge and freezer, and this meal was a good way for me.  I already had canned tomatoes, peanut butter, chicken stock, garlic, ginger, rice, the spices and frozen chicken.  So shopping was really just sweet potato, spinach, onion and capsicum today.  Go go gadget budgeting!

Koshari - My take on an Egyptian national dish

Koshari - Egyptian bliss

It is always fun to experiment with completely different flavours from what you usually eat. I used to make Koshari (an Egyptian vegan dish) years ago but forgot all about it until I stumbled upon an old recipe.  I've spun this so it is a little less traditional but should be delicious nonetheless. Traditional Koshari (aka Kushari, Koshary) is a combination of rice, lentils and macaroni topped with a spicy tomato-garlic-vinegar sauce and caramelised onions, with or without chickpeas.  Sounds odd I know, but trust me it is delicious and a  fun departure from flavours you may be used to.  In my recipe below, I've added persian feta  as well. Leave it  out if you want a more traditional vegan version of this meal.  Since we don't have any macaroni I've used up some risoni I had leftover from another meal instead.

Koshari is a staple in Egypt - you can purchase it from vendors on the street who serve it from huge metal cauldrons, from restaurants, and it is eaten in homes around the country. The dish purportedly originated in the mid-1800s.  Some think that koshari originates from khichri - a rice and lentil mix.  The ingredients reflect its multi-cultural origins and it can be made a few different ways, so I feel free to take a few liberties and personalise it a bit.   Reportedly rice, lentils and macaroni were easily acquired and kept in bulk in most pantries around the country.  Mixing them together was a way to use up food.  The British troops occupying Egypt found that this was a budget friendly and safe option to consume and the locals took a strong liking to it.  Its popularity only grew and Egypt has never looked back.  It is also commonly consumed by Coptic Christians during lent and meat/dairy fasts.

This meal makes for good comfort food. It takes a few pots and pans on the go at once but I think it is worth it.  It is a weekend recipe because the onions take a long time to cook. I recommend using a nicer dicer or the like if you have one to make the slicing easier on the old eyes. I realised that I could have done so about 3/4 through chopping and face palmed it. Oh well - next time!  Despite the longer cooking time, it is quite simple to make and we had fun cooking something different.