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Recipe – Spicy Chicken Pasta

January 28, 2013 by Bel Leave a Comment

This is my third and final recipe for today and you’ll be pleased to know I’m going out for dinner tonight, so there won’t be another for a while, lol. I cooked this one last night, again for 4 people, but since 3 of them were guys, I made plenty of pasta just to bulk it out. The last picture mind you, is of my dinner and my portion size, the guys had a bit more.

Spicy Chicken Pasta
Serves 4
Per Serving: 398 Calories, 3.3g Fat
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes

Since I still wasn’t feeling too well yesterday, everyone offered to help cook dinner. I didn’t really need it but since I’m not a big fan of raw chicken, I did let my brother slice that up for me. Other people grabbed or passed the odd thing here or there, but for the most part I cooked this solo.

Ingredients:
225g (uncooked weight) tagliatelle
1 vegetable stock cube
1 red onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 red pepper, seeded and diced
4 x 100g skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes
1 red chilli, seeded and finely chopped
8-10 basil leaves, shredded
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Parmesan cheese, to serve

Begin by placing the pasta in a large saucepan, with boiling water and the vegetable stock cube. Fingers crossed it should be ready about the same time as sauce, but if you really don’t like overcooked pasta, hold off on the pasta for a while, making sure you’re well on your way with the rest first. Next get a large non-stick frying pan and dry-fry the onions for 2-3 minutes until soft. Add the garlic and red pepper, and cook for a further 2-3 minutes.

Add the chicken strips and season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes, until the chicken is firm and changes colour. Turn during cooking so that the chicken strips cook on all sides. Add the tomatoes and chilli, bring to a gentle simmer.

Drain off the pasta and pour into a serving dish. Spoon the sauce over and sprinkle with shredded basil leaves (this I forgot, but don’t actually feel is necessary) and a little Parmesan. I personally served the pasta up into 4 bowls, then spooned out the sauce equally over the 4 portions.

I think this has probably been my least favourite out of all the dishes I’ve cooked these last three days, but as with the other ones, everyone polished them off fairly fast, as did I. Some of my issue with this is its tomato sauce base (as I’m not great with chopped tomatoes, though I like them once I’m eating them) and some of it is probably the cooked peppers (not a huge fan of those). However that said, it really did taste good and I will definitely cook it again.

Next time… Paprika Mince

Recipe – Turkey and Bacon Hotpot

January 28, 2013 by Bel 1 Comment

Saturday night was one of those evenings where comfort food was a must. It had been snowing, everyone in the house was under the weather, and to be honest, I didn’t even feel like cooking. But with a house full of people, including my partner, my brother, and a guest, I knew we needed something hearty to warm us up. I ended up making hotpot—just the main dish, without any salad or veggies to accompany it, as I often forget that part! As we all gathered around the table, it struck me how much easier it would be to enjoy this kind of meal if we could just go out to a franchise hot pot place. Having everything prepared and ready to enjoy would have been a real treat. But that night, our homemade hotpot did the trick, bringing warmth and comfort to an otherwise chilly evening.

Turkey and Bacon Hotpot
Serves 4
Per serving: 412 Calories, 6.4g Fat
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 20-30 minutes

Ingredients:
2 red onions, sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
450g lean diced turkey
225g thick-cut lean bacon, diced
1 tbsp plain flour
450ml semi-skimmed milk
1 chicken stock cube
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
450g potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
1 tbsp reduced-salt soy sauce
freshly ground black pepper

When making this, I completely forgot to take pictures until the end. I’m clearly not capable of multi-tasking by cooking and photography at the same time, oops!

Begin by preheating the oven to 190 C (375 F, Gas Mark 5). Get a large non-stick frying pan, adding the onions and garlic and dry-frying till soft. Next add the turkey and bacon, continuing to cook, turning the meat to seal on all sides. Sprinkle the flour over and “cook out” for 1 minute, then gradually stir in the milk. Add the stock cube and allow to dissolve, stirring to distribute. Simmer gently for 15 minutes, to allow the sauce to thicken. Stir in the parsley (I used dried as I rarely have fresh in) and pour the mixture into an overproof dish. Top with sliced potatoes, drizzle with soy sauce and season with freshly ground black pepper. Finally bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked.

This is the only picture I remembered to take (and the kitchen lighting makes it look quite yellow, where it isn’t)! Both pictures show the portion size, this being a quarter of the full size dish. The only thing I would add to the recipe is to say that I season with salt and pepper even at frying stage, not just at the end. Also I have no idea what weight of potatoes I used, just enough to top about 2-3 layers deep. Having done more than this previously, I know the potato doesn’t always cook through well. That said, if you doing it with plenty of time to spare before dinner, you could cook at a lower heat and for longer, to ensure it was all cooked through, if you did want a deeper potato topping!

This recipe is another of my favourites, but ideally I definitely would have served it alongside some salad or vegetables.

Next time… Spicy Chicken Pasta

Recipe – Boozy Beef with Mushrooms

January 28, 2013 by Bel Leave a Comment

As I mentioned before, I’ve just started dieting again, using the Rosemary Conley diet books I had from a few years ago. I’m not following her low GI diet exactly, doing more of a calorie counting one, but I’m cooking fresh meals every night, using her recipes.

Boozy Beef with Mushrooms
Serves 4
Per Serving: 230 Calories, 7.1g Fat
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes

In my opinion, these recipes only serve 4 if all of you are on a diet. However as I’m often cooking for my partner and/or friends, I feel like they provide 1 correct size portion and then 2 good potions, or 1 good portion and 2 correct size portion (especially given that the normal non diet people are usually guys). Also my logic is – they can always have extra food after, its more important that I just don’t eat more than the correct size portion.

Ingredients:
2 red onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
450g lean braising steak, diced
1 beef stock cube, dissolved in 300ml (1/2 pint) boiling water
1 tbsp plain flour
225g mixed mushrooms, sliced
300ml (1/2 pint) beer or cider
2 tbsp chopped fresh mixed herbs
salt and freshly ground black pepper

To begin with you get a large, non-stick pan, add the red onions and dry-fry until brown. You then add the garlic and beef, continuing to cook and seal the beef, seasoning with salt and pepper. Add 2 tbsp of beef stock and sprinkle the flour over.

Mix well and “cook out” for 1 minute, before gradually stirring in the remaining stock. Stir in the sliced mushrooms and the herbs. I didn’t actually have fresh herbs in, or even mixed herbs for that matter, so I just added a tsp of every herb I had in the cupboard, from parsley to thyme, from rosemary to oregano.

Finally add the beer or cider, then stir. Reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and cook for 35-40 minutes, until the beer is tender. It looks a lot of liquid after you’ve added everything, but trust me it simmers down to nothing. In fact it can end up too thick so be sure to keep an eye on that, possibly add a little water.

I haven’t cooked any of the Rosemary Conley recipes in about 4 years and while I remember they are tasty, I had forgotten just how good they were. At the point of typing this up I have actually cooked three of her recipes, and so far this is my favourite. I shared it between 3 in this instance, but making sure my own portion was the smaller. Of course the other thing about Rosemary Conley’s recipes is that she just provides you with the main part of the meal, but not whatever you serve it with. I chose to serve this with basmati (microwave) rice. However I only had one plain and one egg fried version, so I ended up mixing them together before serving them up.

Anyway, it was delicious and both my partner and guest agreed! Its really easy to make, low calories and not really all that expensive (my cider was 99p and my beef was marked down as reduced).

Next time… Turkey and Bacon Hotpot