I was looking to make us a delicious lunch today, that was not only scrumptious, but also fairly healthy. Todd has been diagnosed with high cholesterol and I am trying to get him to eat a lot healthier. If they can't get his cholesterol down, it will mean him going onto a medication to bring it down. We don't want that if we can help it. (Baking cookies does not help.)
This means using low fat ingredients, and avoiding butter, cheese and fatty meats. No frying etc. You know the drill. Boring . . . when you take the fat and fun out of food, you also take out a lot of the flavour. You have to get it back in there somehow . . .
Going low choleserol is not an easy change to make when you have a man who loves buttered toast with cheese in the evenings, and tinned corned beef sandwiches on buttered bread for lunch.
I had a jar of mostarda di frutta that I had picked up at the store probably about six months ago. A pricey little item, and something that I had not yet used. I also had a package of cooked chicken bits that I wanted to use up, so today I decided to make him a somewhat healthy chicken salad for his lunch.
I used lots of celery and toasted pecans for crunch. I thought the mostarda di frutta would add some interest and a bit of hot sweetness to the mix. It was a fabulous addition . . . I used the plum and orange. I only added a minimum of mayo, and I used the ultra low fat version at that . . .
We were very pleased with the results. Todd really enjoyed this. Of course you could add not so good for you ingredients . . . like chopped grilled bacon or chopped hard boiled egg . . . but in this instance we didn't really miss them.
Chopped apple is also very good in this, or even chopped mustard pickle or chutney.
*Chicken Salad*
Serves 2
Printable Recipe
A delicous chicken salad, filled with flavour, crunch and little surprises!
For the salad:
250g package of cooked chicken breast bits
(about 2 cups)
2 stalks of celery, washed, trimmed and chopped
2 spring onions, washed, trimmed and chopped
a small handful of pecan nuts, toasted and chopped
two fruits from a bottle of mostarda di frutta, chopped
a drizzle of the syrup from the bottle
several dollops of mayonnaise
salt and black pepper to taste
lettuce leaves for serving
a few toasted pecans for garnishing
If your chicken is in large bits, cut it into smaller bits, about 1/2 inch cubes. Place into a bowl along with the remaining ingredients, adding only enough mayonnaise to moisten. Cover and chill until ready to serve. Arrange some lettuce leaves attractively on two chilled salad plates. Divide the chicken salad equally between the plates, placing it on top of the lettuce leaves. Garnish with some chopped toasted pecans if desired.
Note - this also makes a delicious sandwich filling. If you cannot get the mostarda di frutta you can use mustard piccali, if you wish, or you can use a half of an apple, cored and chopped. Leave the skin on for colour. This adds a touch of sweet and crunch.
I bet when you saw the title of this recipe, you pictured in your mind a deliciously creamy curry . . . redolent with spice and heat. Looking at this picture . . . this is not butter chicken in that sense. It's butter chicken, but not as you know it . . . bear with me.
It's no secret that, when cooked incorrectly, chicken breasts can be tough . . . dry . . . tasteless. Far too often they are overcooked, and then well . . . to be perfectly honest, not that good a eatin. Blah . . .
I discovered this way of cooking them, years and years ago and they always turn out moist, delicious and full of flavour. I am not sure why. I do not know what the secret magic is . . . I only know it works. Quick, easy and oh so delicious!
You get deliciously moist chicken breasts, full of flavour . . . covered in buttery, garlicky crumbs . . . every time. Oh, they are sooooo good . . . crunchy on the outside and all scrummily buttery . . . moist and tender on the insides. This is sure to become a firm favourite in your house, I guarantee!
*Butter Chicken*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe
Deliciously tender chicken breasts, dipped in egg and cracker crumbs, and then baked with butter. It's naughty, but very, very nice.
2 large eggs, beaten
8 ounces of buttery round crackers, crushed
(1 cup)
1/4 tsp garlic powder, or 1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
4 ounces butter, cut into bits
(1/2 cup)
Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/Gas mark5. Place the eggs into a shallow bowl. Place the crackercrumbs into another shallow bowl and mix together with the garlic powder and the pepper. Dip the chicken breasts, first into the egg and then roll them in the cracker crumb mixture, coating them well. Place them in a 9 by 13 inch baking dish. Drop the pieces of butter all around the pieces of the chicken. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven until the chicken is no longer pink inside, the juices run clear and the crumbs are nicely browned.
My Todd is a simple man . . . with traditional tastes and values. He grew up during the War and knows well the deprivations that went along with that era, both during and after the war . . .
It does not take much to please him, and he appreciates most anything you set down in front of him . . .
Just so long as it's not pasta . . . or chocolate.
He even liked school dinners when he was growing up. Not a lot of people did. School dinners have traditionally gotten a bad rap, but not for Todd. He loved them. I suspect I would have probably have loved them too. In any case they would have been better than a cold sandwich and a bruised apple served up in a paper bag, which is what I had!
Anyways, I digress . . . Todd . . . simple man . . . traditional values.
Like bread and butter pudding, which normally has lovely sultanas studded all the way through it. They always kind of burn on the top and get all chewy and scrummy, however . . .
I am not always a traditionalist. I sometimes like to shake the tree a little bit.
Just a little bit mind . . . not so hard that all the coconuts fall out . . . just enough to give things a little bit of a twist . . .
Like your traditional bread and butter pudding. I got to thinking the other day how delicious it would be with a layer of strawberry jam added in the middle . . . kind of like souffled jam sandwiches . . .
all soft and unctuous, with a tasty layer of sweet jam in the middle . . . the custard gently flavoured with lemon zest, cardamom and cinnamon . . . oh and with a traditional dusting of nutmeg on top . . .
This was some good. Warm and comforting and delicious. School room flavours . . . with a grown up touch.
Kind of like a Queen of Puddings . . . without the meringue . . . but somehow better. With just enough spice and lemon to really bring out the lovely strawberry flavour.
It went down a real treat!
*Strawberry Bread and Butter Pudding*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe
A delicious bread and butter pudding with the added twist of a layer of tasty Strawberry Jam.
1 ounce softened butter, plus extra for buttering the dish
8 thin slices of sturdy white bread
good quality strawberry jam
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
the grated zest of one lemon
12 ounces whole milk
2 ounced double cream
2 large free range eggs
1 ounce caster sugar
grated nutmeg to taste
demerara sugar for sprinkling
Butter a 2 pint pie dish with butter. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/Gas mark 4.
Trim the crusts off of the bread and butter each slice on one side. Spread half of the slices thickly with some strawberry jam, on the unbuttered side. Put together with the other half of the slices like little jam sandwiches, with the buttered sides showing on the outside of each. Cut each sandwich in half diagonally and then place into the prepared dish. Sprinkle with the cinnamon and cardamom.
Place the milk in a pan over low heat. Add the lemon zest. Scald. (Heat just until you see bubbles appearing around the edges. Do not let it boil.) Whisk in the cream.
Break the eggs into a bowl, add the sugar and beat together well. Whisk in the heated milk slowly. Strain the resulting custard into a beaker, then pour this custard over the bread mixture. Let stand for about 30 minutes so that it is absorbed somewhat. Sprinkle with some freshly grated nutmeg and a dusting of demerara sugar.
Place into the oven and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the custard has set and the top is a golden brown. Serve warm.
I saw Ina Garten making something similar to this on the telly the other day. It looked really tasty. I thought to myself . . . "I can make something like that, only I can make it even tastier."
I know . . . I'm pretty bold, aren't I!!! Ina Garten is pretty good . . . to think I could pip her, what was I thinking????
Nevermind, I did it, and that's what counts!!
I had a few courgettes in the veggie bin and I thought I'd add some carrot to give some colour to the dish. Courgette is what they call zucchini here in the UK.
I make a courgette and carrot casserole, which has a tasty stuffing base and topping and they go so very wonderfully together . . . courgettes and carrots, that is.
Ina had used all milk in her sauce, but I added some chicken stock to give the sauce more flavour. You can just use a stock cube or one of those lovely little jel cubes.
Be careful not to add too much salt though, as stock cubes can sometimes be a bit on the salty side.
A bit of chopped fresh thyme leaves would go wonderfully in this, I am thinking, although it was incredibly tasty as it was!
We ate the leftovers, reheated in the microwave, last night and they were, if anything, even tastier than they had been on the first night. I think this is a winner!
*Cougette and Carrot Gratin*
Serves 4 as a side dish
Tasty courgettes (zucchini) and carrots, baked together in a rich and creamy sauce.
3 medium courgettes, washed, trimmed and cut into coins, about 1/4 inch thick
2 medium carrots, peeled, trimmed and cut into thin coins, about 1/8 inch thick
2 medium onions, peeled and thinly sliced
2 heaped TBS butter
2 heaped TBS flour
250ml of chicken stock*
250ml of milk
salt and black pepper to taste
2 ounces bread crumbs (about 1 cup)
2 ounces grated Gruyere cheese (1/3 cup)
Heat the butter over medium high heat until foaming. Add the onions. Turn the heat down to low and cook, without colouring, for about 10 minutes until very soft.
Tip in the carrots and courgettes. Cook and stir until the courgettes are beginning to wilt. Sprinkle the flour over all and stir.
Mix the milk and stock together and then slowly pour this over top, stirring gently and cooking until it thickens. Season to taste with some salt and pepper.
Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/Gas mark 6.
Butter a shallow gratin dish. Pour the courgette mixture into the gratin dish.
Mix together the bread crumbs and the gruyere cheese. Sprinkle this mixture evenly over top of the vegetables.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until bubbling and lightly browned on top. Allow to sit for about 10 minutes before spooning out to serve.
Note - if you use a vegetable stock, it makes a nice Vegetarian entree for two.
This one's for Angie . . . yes . . . She who taunted me yesterday with the words . . .
"Holey Socks, woman, you'll have us eating chips out of newspaper soon!"
Spaghetti on Toast is a popular supper dish over here in the UK . . . simple, easy, cheap and something that the children really love, and a mainstay for poor and hungry students living in bedsits.
Oddly enough, even Todd (who hates regular pasta) loves Spaghetti on toast. It is rather wierd I think.
When I was a child my mother would feed us tinned spaghetti occasionally. We always had it with bread and butter and cooked hotdogs. It was a real treat!
I had never heard of ladling it over hot toast before I moved here, and . . . just like everything else . . . I had to put my own twist on it. It can't be plain old toast for me. It has to be grilled toast, with slabs of sliced strong cheddar cheese placed on one side and then grilled until all toasted and bubbling . . .
Then you simply place them onto heated plates and ladle the hot spaghetti over top.
With a good grinding of black pepper on top, it's a fab supper, that yes . . . even I resort to from time to time Angie!
It's a no brainer really . . . hot toasted cheese with hot tinned spaghetti ladled over top.
Don't knock it. It's really very good.
(All in good fun folks. I love, LOVE Angie! She's one of my bestest friends and texting buddies!)
I wonder if you would all be surprised to find out that when I was a girl I was a Brownie and then a Girl Guide???
Probably not!!
I just loved the program and all the things that I learned from being one of the girls. I had ever so many badges on my sleeve, and have many, many fond memories of hours spent . . .
Camping out and learning all about the heavens and stars . . .
Learning how to make a bed properly, give bed baths, first aid and take care of the sick and infirm . . .
Learning how to tie knots and make traps . . .
Learning how to cook, simple things like tea and toast, and cooking over an open fire.
No surprise which was my favourite activity!!! I excelled at it.
It was not enough for me to open a tin of baked beans and cook them over the fire. I wanted to do things like mixing different tins and making tasty hobo stews and such!
This tasty dinner is a meal in a packet.
Very easy to do and hearkens back to my girl scout beginnings! Don't let the simplicity of it fool you into thinking that the flavours will be not all that . . .
These are fabulous and will have your family wanting you to make it again and again.
Sure you could do it in a baking dish if you wanted to . . . but then again . . . you wouldn't have all the excitement of eating your dinner out of a foil packet!
Cheesy Topped Burger Packets
Yield: 4
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 50 MinTotal time: 1 Hour
Delicious foil packets filled with potatoes, beans and burgers, with a tasty cheesy topping added at the last minute, and cooked until meltingly scrummy!
Ingredients
- 12 new potatoes, washed and cut into quarters
- 1/2 tsp seasoned salt
- 1/2 tsp dried Italian seasoning
- 1 TBS olive oil
- 4 extra lean minced beef burgers (I make my own up and freeze them individually so I can take out as many as I want at any given time)
- 2 handfuls of green beans, trimmed and blanched
For the cheesy topping:
- 10 ounces shredded strong cheddar cheese
- 8 slices of smoked streaky bacon, cooked and crumbled
- 1 package of spring onions (about 6) trimmed and then chopped
- 2 heaped dessert spoons of mayonnaise
- 1 dessertspoon of catsup (about 1 1/2 TBS)
- a few spashes of hot pepper sauce
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ Gas Mark 6. Take out 4 large sheets of heavy duty foil wrap, about 18 by 12 inches in size. Spray lightly with cooking spray.
- Place the potatoes, seasoning salt, Italian seasoning and the oil into a microwaveable bowl. Toss together. Cover and microwave on high for about 4 minutes, until the potatoes are fork tender.
- Divide the potatoes equally amongst the squares of foil. Cut the green beans in half and scatter them over the potatoes, dividing them equally. Top each with a beef patty. Wrap the foil securely using double foil seals, and allow room for heat expansion.
- Place on a baking sheet. Place into the oven and cook for 30 to 40 minutes, until the patties are cooked thoroughly. remove from the oven and open the packets.
- Make the cheese topping by mixing all the ingredients together. Divide this mixture evenly amongst the packets, placing it on top of the beef patties. Do not recover. Bang back into the oven and cook for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, until the topping is melted and beginning to brown slightly. Remove from the oven.
- Place each of the foil packets on a plate to serve.
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Over here in England they call cupcakes Fairy Cakes. How can you not just love something which is called a Fairy Cake!!! A name like that gives something that is already scrumptious, an even more mythical mystical scrumdiddlyumptious quality!!!
I mean . . . if the fairies are feasting on these kinds of cakes, then they must be very good indeed!
I love to visit the Tate & Lyle site and am a fan of their We Love Baking page on Facebook. Every so often they post a link on their back to their baking site and the recipe of the month, which this month, happened to be these Sticky Ginger Fairy Cakes.
As soon as I saw this recipe, I knew I had to bake it. We both are big fans of gingerbread in this house! This recipe was right up my alley.
I wanted to kick up the spice a notch though and so I added some additional warmth by adding some ground cardamom and cloves . . . and some vanilla.
Oh my but they are moreishly tasty. Of course you can get the recipe in it's original form on their baking page. Or you can just print out my variation. Their page is definitely worth a peek though, as there are other yummy recipes there as well.
*Sticky Ginger Fairy Cakes*
Makes 12
Printable Recipe
Adapted from the Taste and Smile page on Tate and Lyle.
5 ounces Dark Brown Soft sugar
(3/4 of a cup)
4 ounces Golden Syrup**
(1/2 cup)
3 ounces Black Treacle**
(slightly less than 1/2 cup, halfway between
the half and the 1/4 mark on your measure)
6 ounces unsalted butter
(3/4 of a cup)
8 ounces plain flour
(1 1/2 cups plus 2 TBS)
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 TBS ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs, beaten
150ml milk
(5 fluid ounces on the measuring cup)
For the Icing:
the juice of one lemon
175g of icing sugar, sifted
(about 1 1/4 cups)
Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/Gas mark 4. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners. Set aside.
Place the butter, golden syrup, dark treacle and sugar into a saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until the butter has melted. Allow to cool somewhat. Whisk in the milk, vanilla and the eggs.
Sift the flour into a bowl along with the soda and the spices. Pour the wet ingredients over top and quickly stir together. Pour this mixture into a large measuring jug and them divide the mixture equally amongst the lined muffin cases, filling them about 3/4 full.
Bake in the heated oven for 30 minutes, until well risen and the tops spring back when lightly touched. Remove from the oven and allow to sit in the pan for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Once they have cooled completely whisk together the icing sugar and the lemon juice, adding only as much of the lemon juice as you need to make a thick drizzable consistency. Drizzle over top of the cakes with a spoon and allow to set before serving. Delicious!
**Note - you can substitute an equal amount of mild molasses for the syrup and the treacle.
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