Chicken and black pudding?

Hi folks! I haven’t blogged in a few days but I’m back with something I hope you’ll find quite interesting!

Tonight’s dinner was delicious. I absolutely love black pudding. Not only is it amazing in a squishy roll with a runny egg to ease a hangover, but it makes a lovely accompaniment to other meat. I was a lucky girl at lunch time as James rustled up black pudding with some scallops! It was something different and we rarely ever cook scallops so it was just a really nice treat. So I wanted to treat him back with a tasty dinner! I seasoned the chicken thighs with salt, pepper & some dried thyme and fried off on either side until browned, concentrating most on the skin side (we both love cripsy skin!). Then I popped it in the oven at 190 degrees to cook all the way through for about 20 minutes. Whilst that cooked away, I made a side dish consisting of half a pint of chicken stock, a very generous tbsp of cream cheese, cannellini beans, salt & pepper and lovely chunks of black pudding. All these ingredients seemed to just gel together gorgeously! I let all that simmer away until the chicken was cooked all the way through.

I also cooked a bit of savoy cabbage on the side. Have to get the greens in there too! 🙂

This was super tasty and didn’t take long to cook at all. Also, James loved it which is great!

It’s not the best photo in the world, but you do get the idea! 🙂

So as always folks, happy eating and hope your week is filled with yummy food!

Emily xxx

Chilli Con Carne With a Twist!

Tonight I thought I would make something traditional but add my own twist to it. Chilli con carne! This has always been a favourite of mine (and James) especially when it’s so cold outside!

So as far as I am aware, chilli con carne usually comes in the form of beef mince with kidney beans. I decided to make this dish with extra lean turkey mince and butter beans. And it was so good!

I sweated off 2 garlic cloves and a chopped white onion, then I added in the turkey mince. I added passata, butter beans, a tbsp of tomato puree and then a chopped red chilli. Allowing all the seeds to go in to the dish as we love a bit of heat! To add another little spark I popped in some rosemary sprigs as well and allowed it to simmer away for about 45 minutes. It was so worth this wait. It was delicious, warming and comforting. I had a piece of bread with mine and decided to just go all out and squidge some chilli con carne in to a sandwich, I was that hungry! 🙂

Well, here it was! 

 

 

Happy eating everyone!

Emily xxx

Lean eating

My day today has been disgustingly healthy (hmm, is that actually a term?!) Anyway! I had a pretty healthy lunch consisting of quinoa, kidney beans, sugar snap peas, cabbage and sweetcorn. I know, wheres the meat right? (I had no meat in the fridge but it was pretty tasty as it was!) Plus I dont mind some of my meals being vegetarian 🙂 I do find though that you really need to season quinoa well as it can be quite bland! I normally find olive oil, pepper and boiling it in salted water does the trick. But of course you can mix anything with it and adjust the flavours as you please. 

Dinner was a lean gammon steak with an egg (sunny side up!) for some reason these two things are just glorious together! I also had the rest of the quinoa mix on the side too! 

 

Quinoa leaves me so full seeing as it’s a whole protein and so it’s great if you’re looking to lose a few pounds too! 

Well as ever, happy eating everyone and I hope your week ahead is filled with deliciousness!

Emily xxx

Superfood lunch

I think the fact that I am going to be wearing a wedding dress in 6 months has kicked in and so I opted for a superfood lunch today. The thing about superfood is that it’s not all boring and most of the foods are actually bright and appealing. Not to mention delicious!

So I bought some ready cooked chicken slices marinated in a dried bbq spice coating and I just fried it off a little until it was a nice golden brown colour. The salad was a mix of quinoa, selection of beans, pieces of brocolli, blueberries, some crumbled feta cheese and yellow split peas. The dressing is yogurt, lemon and some chopped mint. All in all it was totally delicious and I am left really full which is good. It looks quite summery, but it certainly sets the body up well for fighting against this freezing weather we’re having. Mmm, it was delicious!

I love eating beans. Not only because they’re comforting and tasty, but they leave me feeling full which is a bonus.

I’m looking forward to coming up with tonight’s Asian style dinner. watch this space..

Happy eating everyone!

Emily xxx

Freezing Monday

Well I had a great time visiting family over the weekend and loved seeing my newborn niece! She’s beautiful! Lots of good food was consumed, as I blogged about last time. Before we left on Friday evening I quickly made a banana loaf to bring over – it was sticky, moist and delicious! As we left about 5 minutes after it was cooked I had no time for a photo so you’ll have to just take my word for it this time! It was literally all scoffed when we arrived, went down a bit of a treat I think!

So now its back to Monday. It’s been snowing here all day and all I want is warming food! It is sooo cold and this snow doesn’t look like it’s going to stop any time soon!

So, as I haven’t been too keen to venture out to the shops, lunch was beans on toast and endless cups of tea! I know, far too exciting!?

Dinner promises to be much more exciting actually! Diced beef needs used up, so we’ll come up with a delicious meal. Something that includes chilli to beat this freezing weather we are having!

I’ll update later everyone so watch this space…

Happy eating everyone!

Emily xxx