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Dinner Tonight? Chicken Pizza… with a difference!

04 Apr 2015 6 Comments

by Ritu in Recipes Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Chicken Pizza, Food, Gluten-Free, Low Carb No Carb, Recipe

Good For You Pizza!

Ok, so last year when I was on my extreme health kick, wanting to lose weight for a wedding we were attending, I chanced upon the Juice Plus+ diet, which involved meal replacement shakes, and capsules, along side balanced meals.

I did really well of the diet, but before I started the main event, we were asked to detox for 2 weeks. It wasn’t as bad as I thought, and to be honest, I started o eat certain different foods, that I wouldn’t have necessarily eaten usually. One of the recipes that I learned, which was YUMMY was this, Chicken pizza, with no gluten!

You need

1 chicken breast per person
Tomato puree
Diced red onion
Mixed diced peppers
Diced Mushrooms
Goats cheese – soft
Dried mixed herbs

To accompany
A peeled sweet potato cut into long chunky strips
A couple of peeled parsnips, cut to similar sizes as the sweet potato
Olive oil
Drizzle of honey
Salt and pepper

Selection of veg to steam, to eat with the meal

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees C
Butterfly cut the chicken breasts and flatten them out
Cover with tomato puree
Sprinkle peppers, onions and mushrooms over the top
Place on a baking tray in a pre-heated oven at 200*C for 15 minutes
Remove from the oven and sprinkle with goats cheese and mixed herbs
Place them back in the oven for 5 minutes

Before preparing the chicken, parboil the sweet potato and parsnips, drain, then spray a tray lightly with olive oil. Place the parsnips and sweet potato on the tray and drizzle with honey. Stick in the oven then prepare the chicken. they should all be ready about the same time.

Don’t forget to steam you veg!

If you are just eating this as you want to try, and not for any diet controlled reason, add a sauce to compliment it! I love a bit of sweet chilli dipping sauce to it! Or experiment with the toppings.

Its a delicious meal!

Please try, and enjoy!

A variation with sweet potato fries and steamed spinach!

Versatile Mushroom Curry/Sauce/Something Or Other!

03 Mar 2015 15 Comments

by Ritu in Recipes Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Curry, Mushroom, Recipe, Sauce, Thingy

It’s Tuesday.
That means veggie day here in our household.
Hubby Dearest is definitely Mr Meat, so days like today aren’t easy. Usually my Mother-in-Law makes a lentil curry, which he just about eats.
However the in-laws are away for a while now, so he has to eat my food…
Mwa ha ha ha!!
No, seriously, I’m not a bad cook, but still, veggie? Not him! He’d rather order a veggie pizza but we can’t do that every week, especially since we had pizza on Sunday!
So I thought I’d ressurect one of my mum’s recipes. We used to have this mushroom concoction in pita breads with salad, and it was yummy! Or you could have it as a pasta sauce.
Here are the instructions for how to make it!

Ingredients
1 tbspn olive oil
1 tspn cumin seeds
1 chilli, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 inch ginger, minced
1 white onion, sliced
2 large flat mushrooms, chopped
A handful of button mushrooms, quartered
Salt to taste
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 dessertspoon tomato puree
1 tspn garam masala

Instructions

1) Heat oil in a large wok or pan. Once hot, add cumin seeds. When sizzling, add ginger, garlic and chillies and cook circa few moments. Then add the onions.

2) Cook the onions until translucent.
3) Add the mushrooms, tomato puree and tinned tomatoes. Mix and add salt and garam masala.

4) Put on a low heat and allow to simmer until cooked, about 10-15 minutes. Check and stir. The mushrooms will give off water so you will get a natural gravy as well once cooked.

Enjoy your mushroom thingy how you wish! We’re having it in pita with salad today!

East West Chicken Biryani Ritu Style – Recipe

25 Feb 2015 17 Comments

by Ritu in Recipes Tags: Biryani, Blog, Blog Post, Blogging, Chicken, Quick Dinners, Recipe, Rice

Now I know there are nights when you want a quick, filling meal, and here’s one I made tonight in just three quarters of an hour or so.

Ingredients

1 cup Basmati rice

2 cups water

2 diced chicken breasts

2 tablespoons natural yoghurt

1 tablespoon Olive oil

Medium knob of butter

1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds

1 fresh chilli

1 inch ginger, minced

1 clove garlic

1 medium onion, diced

Salt to taste

1 teaspoon Garam Masala

15-20 button mushrooms, halved

1 carrot, peeled and diced

10 cherry tomatoes, halved

Handful of tenders tem broccoli florets

Handful of green beans

Instructions

Soak rice in warm water and set to one side.
Melt butter and oil in a large wok or pan.
Once melted, add cumin seed. Once these sizzle, add onion and cook off til softened and golden brown.
Add garlic, ginger and chilli and cook for a couple of minutes.
Add chicken, and when the chicken is starting to cook, add the yoghurt.
Here, add the various vegetables and stir.
Add the garam masala and salt to taste.
Once the chicken is cooked, drain the rice that was soaking, and add to the pan.
Add the 2 cups of water.
Cook on a very low heat until the water is absorbed. Don’t stir too often as it can become a mushy pile instead! But take care that it doesn’t stick and burn at the bottom!

Enjoy, as I did above, with yoghurt, or a salad side!

You can vary the vegetables, add peppers, sweetcorn, whatever takes your fancy!

Banana Pancakes!!

18 Feb 2015 3 Comments

by Ritu in Recipes Tags: Banana, Blog, Blog Post, Blogging, Egg, Gluten-Free, Pancakes, Recipe, Yum

Seriously lush!

So, following on from my last post, I remembered last year, during my diet, we were required to detox, and gluten etc was banned!!!
I discovered these beauties then, soooo yummy!

Banana Pancakes
2 eggs
1 banana
Fruit to garnish
Powdered cinnamon to sprinkle over if you want.

1) Whizz the eggs and banana in a blender til smooth.
2) Heat a pan with a little oil.
3) Pour eggand banana mix in and cook on a low heat.
4) Turn gently, they aren’t as solid as your usual.pancakes!
5) Once cooked on both sides, slide onto a plate and lovingly top with whatever fruit you like! My fruit of choice is strawberries!
6) If you like, sprinkle some cinnamon on top, the weight loss benefits of cinnamon are great!
7) Enjoy!

SIMPLES!!!

Indian, anyone?(Recipe)

10 Feb 2015 3 Comments

by Ritu in Recipes Tags: Authentic, Blog, Blog Post, Blogging, Curry, Curry Base, Curry Recipe, Punjabi, Recipe

One of my curries with Paneer

A good while back I assured my good blogpal Tom I would post a simple, authentic curry base recipe. This is your true base for pretty much all Punjabi cuisine. I hope you might take the time to try it out with whatever variation you wish, and let me know!

Punjabi Curry Base
You will need:
Vegetable oil
Cumin
White onion
Garlic
Ginger
Green chillies
Salt
Chopped or fresh tomatoes
Turmeric
Garam Masala

Heat some oil in a pan, about a couple of tablespoons.
Add a teaspoon of whole cumin seeds.
When they start to sizzle, which will be rather quickly, add a large diced onion.
Fry on a medium flame for a while until the onions are nicely browned.
Add a couple of cloves of minced garlic and around an inch of minced ginger and fresh chopped chilli to taste.
Fry for a short while until these have also browned.
Top tip! If you find that this is starting to stick to the bottom, add a small amount of salt, it will stop the sticking!
Now add a tin of chopped tomatoes, half a teaspoon of turmeric powder, and half a teaspoon of garam masala powder.
Allow the mixture to cook on a low heat for a while stirring occasionally, until the oil starts to rise to the top.

This is the base for pretty much all home made curries!

If you want a curry with a bit of a gravy then add whatever you are planning on cooking, like chicken or lamb, with potatoes and/or peas, and coat in the mixture then add water to the desired amount for a nice gravy. Then allow to cook! Lamb will take around an hour, chicken quicker, but check periodically to see when the meat and potatoes are cooked.
You could put a tin of kidney beans or chick peas and potato, with water for vegetarian alternative.
For a drier dish you could add mince and peas, no water needed and cook in the base.
Or add whatever veg you like! If using potato, add that first as it takes longer than most other veg, then add others once it’s partly cooked, like cauliflower, diced carrots and peas, aubergine, that sort of thing!

Once cooked, taste to see if you want to add any more salt.

Hopefully this would create a tasty, authentic homemade curry for you!

Enjoy!