Chinese 5 spice chicken

I knew were where having salad for dinner, I just had no idea what flavour the chicken would be :)

So looking in the cupboard right at the front was Chinese 5 spice.

So 5 spice chicken it was :)

So what you'll need

Chicken breast

coriander/cilantro (fresh) ~ 2 tablespoons chopped 

soya sauce ~ 1/4 cup

red wine vinegar ~ 1/4 cup

ginger ~ 1/2 tablespoon

5 spice ~ 1/4 teaspoon

honey ~ 1 teaspoon

Oil for cooking the chicken

Cut your chicken into cubes/bite size pieces

in a ziplock bag  add the soya sauce, red wine vinegar, coriander/cilantro and honey

then add the chicken, CLOSE the bag and give a big shake

Leave for as long as possible (at least 1 hour)

Heat the oil in a pan, pour all the contents from the ziplock bag into the pan with the heated oil.

cook until chicken is cooked through

I served this on top of a chopped salad

Enjoy!

what you'll need

cut the chicken into cubes

grate some ginger
about 1/2 tablespoon

add honey, 5 spice, coriander/cilantro, soya sauce, red wine vinegar  and ginger

add chicken and shake the bag and make sure all the chicken is coated
leave for as long as possible

heat some oil

pour the chicken and sauce into the heated pan

this is a really moist chicken

I served on a chopped salad

Enjoy

Green cleaning

I found this tip YEARS ago!!!

I love this! it is easy to do and I find it REALLY works!

This is great for cleaning through grease, when your child has cooked bacon and you find that there is more grease on the stove than that was ever in the pan!!!!
Cleaning in the garden as well, cleaning chairs and tables outside.


What you'll need

Vinegar (white/nature)
orange skin
spray bottle

Wash and dry off the skin of the orange
In a jar add all the orange skin you have making sure there is no orange flesh (you know the actual inside of the orange ;)
Rip the skin up as your putting it into the jar.
Fill the jar with vinegar, then leave for 2 weeks

After the two weeks strain the mixture a couple of times then pout into a spray bottle

:)

A Green project

Growing your own your own veggies from scraps…

I had wanted to do this for a while.
Saying that,while I wanted to try this   I also didn't want a window full of glasses/jars of veg that could turn moldy.

Then recently I had some used some spring onions and I had the bottoms to throw out and thought ahhhh lets give it a try.

I figured this would be the easiest to give a go.

You'll need
Green onions/Spring onions/Gibbons/Scallions   Whatever you might call them :)

glass or jar
water (which I changed every other day)

Onion bottoms that would have been put in the bin

Started to regrow just two days later

really starting to grow

Big difference over night

Chicken and Chorizo one pot dinner

I wanted to make something for dinner that was a bit different.
For me this was different  using the orange zest and chorizo also add oil to a dish with chorizo
Also being another one pot dinner was a bonus!

So what you'll need

chicken thighs
potatoes
chorizo
2 small onions
zest of 1 orange
oregano  ~ 1 tablespoon
salt and pepper ~ to taste

in an oven proof dish,  add a tablespoon of oil
throw the potatoes in and making sure all coated in oil
add the chicken
Remove outer layer of chorizo and cut into slices and half the slices
then add the chorizo
chop and add onion
zest one orange and add the zest
add the oregano
mix well and bake at

 baked this at 180/350 degrees for about 70 minutes

Enjoy!

My version of a sort of a crab rangoon

The first time I had a crab rangoon I was in in New Hampshire.
I was like hummmm yeah fish ~ NOT!!!!!
BUT……. I loved them!
I was also pretty psyched as I had chinese out of little white boxes like I used to see on TV or in the movies….I know sad!

Over the years I have made plenty along the way but I normally fry them and I decided this had to stop
No idea why this dish in particularly ~ but I just did.

I have tried baking them before and making them into a sort of a pinwheel.
But then when I tried doing it like that I had to cut the wrappers smaller.

Then recently I made them and instead of using tinned Crab I used  shredded crab stick
I also gave up trying to make them into a pin wheel, so I made tiny spring roll looking things

So what you'll need!

Cream cheese
Crab
creamed horseradish ~ 1 tablespoon   (not pictured)
smoked paprika  ~ 1 1/2 teaspoons
chili powder   ~ 1 1/2 tablespoons
ground white pepper 1/2 teaspoon
spring roll wrappers
water
beaten egg

Mix the crab, creamed cheese, horseradish, smoked paprika, pepper, and chili together and leave in the fridge for at least 1 hour!
Then place your spring roll wrapper at an angle like in the picture
add a spoonful of the mixture, with water wet the edges
then fold the bottom corner over the mixture DON'T FOLD TO THE TOP!
then fold the left side in, then fold in the right side making sure all the wrapper is tucked in
then roll to the top of the wrapper and coat in a LITTLE beaten egg
Bake at 180/350 degrees for about 18-20 minutes

Serve with sweet chili sauce

enjoy!

Sliced pickled onion

I love most pickles and relishes and moving here, was great.
I think I'm I'm keeping my local supermarket in business when I keep buying the
Silver skin cocktail onions

So I alway seem to have a couples of jars being thrown away in the trash each week

Then one day the unthinkable happened. I went to get some out the fridge and there were hardly any in the jar….Well this is not like me because if there were only a few left I'd have eaten them!
Somebody else must have been at them!!!!

So I sliced some onion, strained the vinegar that was in the jar and placed the seasoned sweet seasoned vinegar and onions in a new jar and put it in the fridge.

This is great with salads and burgers

What you'll need,

the vinegar/juice from your pickles ~ I used the sweetened type
thinly sliced onions

My version of lettuce wraps

On friday I decided lettuce wraps were on the menu!
I mean who doesn't love lettuce wraps?!?!
I go to a certain big chain restaurant just for these!

The only problem was that I needed water chestnuts ….and guess what I couldn't find?
Yep Water chestnuts!!!!
I looked up what I could use instead and it seems quiet a few people had the same problem.
Well celery was the common answer…hummmm wasn't sure about that.
Then Angie came to the recuse!
Angie also helped out with the main ingredient for Sundays dinner, but you'll get that recipe sometime this week :)


Peeling the iceberg lettuce was a nightmare! I'm sure I wasted more than I used!!!
I'll use lambs/butter lettuce next time.
So when I made these I also cooked some puffed up the noodles….go me!


So what you need!

lettuce leaves
chicken ground/minced  ~ I used 600 Grams
red pepper/capsicum/bell ~ 1/2 of a large one diced
Straw mushrooms ~ 1 small packet chopped finely
water chestnuts ~ I used 1/2 a small can
hoisin sauce ~ 5 tablespoons
fresh ginger grated ~ 1 tablespoon ish
2 cloves of garlic minced
Sesame oil ~ 1 tablespoon
green/spring onions finely chopped

In a pan put the oil, garlic and ginger.
start cooking through, then add the minced/ground chicken
when almost cooked through add the finely chopped straw mushrooms
Then add the hoisin sauce, mix well and keep cooking
Then add the finely chopped red pepper and water chestnuts

The water chest will still have a crunch to it!

To puff the noodle heat some sun flower oil and test it it hot enough by dropping a noodle in. if it starts puffing up straight away it it hot enough, BUT be care not to burn your oil!!!!

Serve in a a lettuce leaf and garnish with green onions and puffed noodles

What you'll need

add the oil, ginger and garlic to the pan and
start cooking through

add the chicken when starting to change colour add the finely chopped mushrooms
cook for a few minutes then add the hoisin sauce
and finely diced bell peppers and finely chopped water chestnuts

For the puffed noodles

Heat the oil to a high temp and put the noodles in

cook one side then  turn over for the other side
This takes seconds!!!

Serve in a leaf of lettuce.

Enjoy!

Marinated Lamb

I was really wanted some lamb this week. Which got me thinking to the minted lamb we we get when we lived in Dubai. I LOVED that stuff, it was the best!!!

Then I remembered when we moved here and I was excited to see what I thought was minted lamb….. it wasn't, I don't know what it was but it was nasty!

I decided to make my own today.

While the stuff in some butchers is a powdered mix I decided as I had fresh herbs here that was what I was using :)

It was good :) it didn't taste like what I would buy when I'd get them already flavoured.

Even so it was good!

I left them to marinate for about 2 hours. Then Gareth cooked them in a griddle 

What you'll need

Lamb

olive oil ~ 2 tablespoons

fresh mint ~ 1/2 cup

fresh parsley ~ 1/3 cup 

Chili salt ~ 1/2 teaspoon  (I used the one I made recently)

Sugar ~ 1 teaspoon

pepper ( I forgot to add the pepper to the picture)

in a bowl add the oil, mint, parsley, chili salt, pepper then blitz with the band blender 

Then dip/over the lamb in the paste. 

leave to marinate for as long as possible. I only had 2 hours

Then cook in a hot pan until cooked to your liking 

Enjoy!

Mustard Chicken

We had a great weekend away watching the Kids play basketball.

They are an amazing bunch of kids and I was so lucky to spend the weekend with them!

So I'm sorry I haven't been here the last few days.
It is just so exhausting watching the basketball :)

For dinner on Monday I wanted to make something quick and easy with what I had here.
I knew we had chicken thighs here so a light bulb moment happened :)

I made Mustard chicken and it was GOOD!
It was moist and flavorful
This was so easy and it was all thrown into the dish :)

What you'll need

Chicken thighs (you could other parts of the chicken)
Dijon mustard ~ 1/3 of cup
rosemary ~1 tablespoon
honey ~ 1 tablespoon
oil ~ 2 tablespoons
Salt & Pepper

Add everything into a bowl, mix well, throw in to an oven proof dish and bake at 180/350 degrees until cooked through

What you'll need

add everything into a bowl

mix well
place chicken mix into an oven
proof dish and bake

Enjoy!