Honey Mustard Chicken Stirfry

I was very busy this week so for dinner I cooked quick meals. This is one of them.

I simply cooked the pre-cut chicken breast and poured on the (free!) Honey Mustard sauce, stirfried the pre-prepared vegies, mixed them together and served them over rice. Voila!!

As well as some brown rice and a few parsley leaves, these are all the ingredients I used for dinner.

Cannelloni, Zucchini Fritter & Chips

Dinner last night was quick and easy. The cannelloni was pre-prepared in an oven tray and just needed cooking, as did the chips. I simply heated the fritter. Yum.

Simplicity Chocloate Cake (not so simple!)

My family recently got together for Grandma's birthday and it was my job to take afternoon tea and cake. I cheated a bit. Afternoon tea was store bought dips and biscuits as well as super simple tomato, cheese and kabana bites. I also made a beetroot dip using baby beets (from a can), 200g chickpeas, lemon juice and cottage cheese. It sure didn't look pretty but it was healthy and well received.

I put all my effort into the cake. Simplicity Chocolate Cake was the recipe name. Simple it was. Cake, not so much; it was more crumble. As the picture suggests, it didn't turn out so great!

It was Friday night and the last thing I wanted to do was bake, but I couldn't let Grandma down so I tried a different cake recipe. Nigella's Old Fashion Chocolate Cake was perfect because I needed to use some sour cream I had in the fridge. My luck was not so good this Friday night. Cake number two turned out quite flat. I cannot quite convey just how frustrated I was with my cooking but I chose to stick it out and do what I could with my two 'cakes.'
I covered Nigella's cake with Nutella and salvaged what I could of the Simple cake to make a top layer.

The layered cakes

Next I made the frosting. I didn't have quite enough icing sugar so the icing was runny. Atleast it tasted nice. I stuck a few TV Snack biscuits on top. I was so embarrassed by the cake but at least Grandma would know lots of love went into the preparation

My brother said it looked like a cow pat. He's not wrong!

Any way, I apologised to my family, we sung Happy Birthday and then served up the cake. I held my breath while waiting for a response and I guess the saying is true; don't judge a book by it's cover (or a cake by it's cow pat appearance).
This is what the layers looked like once cut into.

Simplicity Chocolate Cake

• 2 eggs
• 75g butter, melted
• 1 cup castor sugar
• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 150g milk chocolate, melted
• 1/2 cup milk
• Nutella for icing

1. Heat oven to 180 degrees C. Thoroughly grease 20cm round cake tin.
2. Beat all ingredients together by hand for 3mins. Spread into tin.
3. Bake for about 45mins or until cooked. Allow to cool in tin before turning out.
4. When cold spread Nutella over cake. Serve with Cream.

Nigella's Old-fashioned Chocolate Cake

Follow this link for the cake recipe

Turkey Burgers

I love turkey mince. T hates it. I cook, so I win. We had home made turkey burgers the other night. I was super proud of my effort, I thought the burgers were delicious.
The mince was mixed with mustard, tomato paste, worcestershire sauce, an egg, chopped parsley, salt and pepper (I think I might have added something else too but I can't remember what).
Once the patties were cooked I put them between pieces of bread with a little garlic, cheese, tomato, beetroot (I love beetroot), lettuce, avocado and cranberry sauce.

I even had a burger for lunch the next day. There are advantages when T doesn't enjoy his dinner!

Hoisin Chicken Stirfry

Dinner on Monday was nice and easy, just how I like to start the week. I bought some hoisin marinated chicken skewers, removed the chicken from the sticks and fried it. I then stir fried some frozen vegies, mixed through the chicken, a little extra hoisin and served it over basmati rice. Dinner in a flash!

Rocket & Walnut Penne

I've seen an ad on TV for a very simplistic pasta dish lately and I thought I'd give it a go (or something like it). I cooked up some penne and the other ingredients were just stirred through.
Lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, chilli sauce, salt and pepper were whisked together and poured over the pasta. Rocket, toasted walnuts and parmesan were mixed through too.
I think it was nice; fresh and light. Something different.

Stuffed Chicken Breast with Vegies (including brussel sprouts!)

I haven't eaten brussel sprouts in many, many years but considering their cheap price and high nutritional content I decided to give them a go. The sprouts were drizzled with butter and wholegrain mustard. I also fried some onion and tomato, boiled some corn on the cob and stuffed a chicken breast. The stuffing for the chicken was ricotta cheese, lemon zest, a tiny bit of yoghurt and some oregano. It was a really nice meal and the brussel sprouts were actually pretty enjoyable!