Sticky Orange & Rosemary Chicken.

Chicken features on the dinner menu here a couple of times a week. It's probably the only dinner that no one turns their nose up to and usually there are clear plates all around. It's nice to pimp up a simple dish to make it even tastier and this does just that.

You will need;

A selection of drumsticks, thighs and wings, preferably free range.
100ml sweet chilli sauce
1 orange
Few sprigs of fresh rosemary

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
Place chicken pieces in a roasting dish and cover in the chilli sauce, rub in.
Slice up orange into wedges and squeeze juice over chicken before throwing peel on top.
Scatter the rosemary sprigs on top.
Place in the preheated oven until cooked through, approximately 40 minutes.

Serve with home made wedges, some nice green salad or whatever else takes your fancy. Now that is fast food my style!

Greek Lemon & Rosemary Tarts

Ooh I love a nice tart! A family favourite was a traditional apple tart with the top layer of pastry removed to sprinkle on another layer of sugar! Am shocked that I only ever have had two fillings in my teeth. :-)

I have a penchant for lemony desserts, I love the tang of the lemons fighting against the sweet flavours. This is a great recipe and unusual as it sounds the rosemary in the pastry is a fantastic complementing flavour.
This recipe makes four mini tarts so increase/decrease as needed.

For the pastry crust you will need:

60g butter
50g icing sugar
Tiny pinch of salt
125g of flour
1 egg yolk
2 sprigs of rosemary, finely chopped
2tbsp water

Cream the butter,sugar & salt together.
Add in flour and egg yolk and rub until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
Add the rosemary.
Add just enough water to form a dough.
Place onto a floured surface and pat into a sausage shape.
Cover in clingfilm and refrigerate.

For the lemon filling you will need:

125ml Greek yoghurt
50g caster sugar
1 egg
60ml lemon juice
1tsp lemon zest

Combine the yoghurt and caster sugar together and mix well.
Whisk in the egg yolk.
Stir in the lemon juice and zest.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
Line the four tart tins with the pastry. I cut slivers of the sausage shape and press the pieces together in the tin before trimming the excess.
Prick the bases with a fork and place in the oven for 15 minutes or until golden.
Leave to cool for 5 minutes before pouring the lemon filling in and return to oven for approximately 20 mins.
There should be a slight wobble to the centre.
Leave to cool before decorating with some lemon and rosemary.
Delicious!!

Thanks to all of you for taking the time to read my blog. I enjoy updating it so much and I really appreciate all of your support and encouragement along the way. xx

Three B Pasta! Tagliatelle with bacon, blue cheese and broadbeans!

One of the great benefits of my new running regime is being able to indulge in carbohydrates without the added guilt. Pasta is a runners friend and this fact pleases me greatly. Probably healthier to have with a tomato based sauce but we all need a treat every now and then!

For 2 greedy adults you will need;

200g dried tagliatelle
2 thick rashers, cut into bits
200g broadbeans, peeled weight*
50g blue cheese, I used Cashel blue
1 fat clove of garlic, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
150ml of Avonmore cooking cream

Boil some water and put the tagliatelle on to cook, according to pack instructions.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the minced garlic.
Add the bacon bits and fry until slightly crispy.
Add in the broadbeans and stir well.
Add the cooking cream and the blue cheese and simmer on a low heat.
Drain the tagliatelle and add it to the pan. Give it a good stir before piling onto warmed plates.
Serve with garlic bread, roasted vine tomatoes, green salad or just on its own.
Delicious, creamy, flavoursome and quick!

* I couldn't lay my hands on any fresh broadbeans so I used canned ones. Not as vibrant in colour as the fresh but not a bad substitute. Use the fresh ones if you can.

Healthy Pot Noodle

I recently bought the book "River Cottage Veg Everyday" by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and already it has taken pride of place in my cookbook collection. I fully admit to being a meat lover, I like nothing better than a big juicy steak or a plate of lamb chops to up my protein and energy levels but after seeing all the lovely recipes in this book I can see how people survive without meat. I won't be turning vegetarian anytime soon but I have loved the recipes I have tried.

This is a gorgeous quick & fresh lunch dish that I amended slightly to suit my tastes, that is the great thing about being confident in the kitchen, anything goes!

To serve two people you will need;

2 nests of quick cook noodles, I used Sharwoods fine egg noodles
1 vegetable stock jelly
1 carrot peeled and then sliced very finely
12 sugar snap peas, finely sliced
4 scallions, finely sliced
6 baby corn cobs, finely sliced
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
1/2 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp of curry powder
4 tsp soy sauce
Juice of 1 lime

Put the noodles, carrot, sugarsnaps, corn, chilli, ginger and scallions into a pot. I used two small kilner jars, which worked out perfect.
Place stock jelly and curry powder in a jug and pour on 3/4 pint of boiling water. Stir well and pour straight on top of the noodle mix. Cover and leave for 8 - 10 minutes stirring once or twice.
Add the lime juice and soy sauce and serve immediately.

What a great little dish to throw together in minutes. My boys are big fans of any noodle dishes and they devoured these little pots of goodness. I am always droning on about the benefits of feeding your children healthy meals and plenty of fruits and vegetables but that's our job as parents. The children are rarely sick and I put a lot of that down to their diet. No better children to devour a packet of sweets in minutes but I don't mind that as long as they getting their vitamins and minerals through their meals I know I doing a good job!

Thanks for reading & happy cooking! xx

S'mores Brownies!

When it comes to baking I am very impatient. I never leave anything to cool for as long as I should, never allow melted chocolate to sit and cool before adding cream, am always impatient to ice or decorate whatever I have baked but this recipe I urge you to allow to cool fully before attempting to slice up! Being my usual impatient self I couldn't wait and my kitchen looked like it had gone to war with Dr Oetker himself!! S'mores brownies are a big hit over on pinterest so I couldn't wait to try my own version of them. However I need to practice them to make them look as perfect as ones I have admired!!!

You will need;

200g digestive biscuits, in crumbs
100g butter, melted
175g sugar
175g soft butter
150g self raising flour
125g drinking chocolate
4 eggs
100g dark chocolate, in pieces
200g mini marshmallows

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease and line a brownie tin.
Add the melted butter to the crumbed biscuits and press into the bottom of the tin. Refrigerate.
Mix the flour, sugar, butter, hot chocolate and eggs together until a runny mixture is formed.
Add the chopped chocolate and combine.
Pour on top of chilled biscuit base and place in oven for approximately 45 mins or until brownies have just a slight wobble in the middle.
Remove from oven and place a layer of marshmallows on top. I cut each mini marshmallow in half to allow full coverage of the brownie.
Place under the grill and watch very carefully! Wait until very slightly browned then remove immediately!!
At this point you should allow to fully cool, then refrigerate before cutting up into 16 bars! I however attempted to slice them up there and then, this involved several knives, a spatula, a cake server, a breadboard, several plates, a restless 4 year old, a medicinal brandy, two tea towels, a dish cloth and twenty sticky fingers. Am slightly exaggerating here but you get the picture, DO NOT SLICE UP STRAIGHT FROM OVEN!!

I am going to attempt them again soon if only to try and get a perfect shot of a couple of them instead of just this lonely little one!!

Old Fashioned Lemon Loaf!

My children love having a little treat after their dinner and this is one of their favourites. Once they have made a good effort and eaten all their vegetables I don't mind them having something sweet. Everything in moderation and all that! This is such a handy cake as literally it is made and in the oven in minutes, no messing around. One bowl and one loaf tin equals delicious lemony delight!

You will need;

225g softened butter
225g caster sugar
225g self raising flour
4 eggs
1 lemon, zest and juice

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
Grease and line a loaf tin.
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs, one at a time. Mix well between each addition.
Sift in the flour, zest and juice and combine well.
Pour into the lined loaf tin and level off with back of spoon.
Bake in oven for approximately 45 mins or until a skewer comes out of centre clean.

To decorate;
You can decorate this cake anyway you like. Icing sugar mixed with some lemon juice or orange juice and poured on top to set is delicious. Cream cheese beaten with some lemon juice and icing sugar is another alternative. For this one I fried some thinly cut slices of lemon in 2 tablespoons of sugar and allowed to cool on some grease proof paper. I dredged the slightly cooled cake with icing sugar and placed the slices on top. Like most of my favourite recipes anything goes. Play around with it and try different combinations until you find the one you love! Hope you enjoy this cake as much as my family do! xx

Competition!!

Time to run another little competition on my blog! I adore the two greedy Italians and for one lucky winner I have a copy of "Two Greedy Italians Eat Italy"! I have been blogging for 15 months now and am really enjoying it! I would love a few more followers on my blog page, so simply to enter all you need to do is to follow my blog. If you are already following you will automatically be entered! Competition closes the 27th of April and is open to all!