"If you were on Come Dine With Me, What would your menu be?"
This is always a question that is in the back of my mind, and until now I haven't been able to decide what I would do.

Starter:

Naturally I got a good few cookbooks for Christmas and as I was flicking through one I found a starter that would be perfect in my opinion.
A Duck salad would be great as it is complex with the cooking of the duck and light enough for a starter. This is a roasted duck and watermelon salad with toasted cashew nuts and the picture is literally mouthwatering! By the looks of it, this is an asian inspired dish and looking at the ingredients I can see why, there are all kinds of flavours involved. 
One thing that caught my eye was the dressing, it's definitely one I'd like to incorporate into other dishes.

Main:
I think this is the course that I struggled with deciding on the most. I thought fish would be most suitable but I really think I would go for chicken. 
The dish I have in mind is chargrilled chicken breasts on linguine with a chilli and garlic salsa puttanesca. What a mouthful! (see what I did there...)
I would most definitely make my own pasta to make this simple dish more impressive. These simple bunch of ingredients all come together to make such a delicious, comforting dish. If I had something like this put in front of me, I'd think it looked pretty good.
I'd perhaps make the pasta so it would have spinach in it, not only would it add a lot more colour to the plate - no on likes a plate of beige food - but it would also add flavour (slightly) and a whole lot of added nutrients.

Dessert:

Now I've known, deep down, what I would do for this for a while which is a melt-in-the-middle chocolate pudding. I made these for the first time at Christmas, and if I do say so myself, they came out perfectly. It was the right balance between cake and chocolate sauce and it would obviously be served with ice cream. Some might say that this is too much for a dessert but if the first two courses are balanced right and everything is time correctly then, in my opinion, it would all go down a hit.


I wouldn't necessarily call this a winning menu but if I put this 3 course meal on the table to my best standard, then for me I would be happy and rather proud of myself.

I haven't given loads away about each of the meals, purely because I want to eventually make each of them to share with you all. 


What would you have as your Come Dine With Me menu?

Maggi So Tender

This is a product that I’ve been using for about a year, when they first brought it out here in the UK and it is one of the best things I’ve had with chicken.

Before you jump to any conclusions, this is not a sponsored post in any way. It’s just something I want to share out of the kindness of my heart, how great am I!

This is a product that is part of the Maggi range, and it comes in 3 flavours – Italian herb, garlic and paprika, and it is pretty good value as you get 4 in a pack.

The best part is that you don’t have to use oil when you cook it. Just be careful though because the chicken probably won’t cover the whole area so the spice on the uncovered area may burn and set off the fire alarm!

I really love the paprika one, I’ve tried the garlic one but I found it too salty and I didn’t enjoy it much. Just to make it even better there's only 25 calories per papyrus paper so you aren't adding a whole lot to your meal, except a ton of flavour!

When you cook the chicken in this paper, it keeps it moist and doesn’t go dry as it sometimes does in the oven. It only takes about 10 minutes to cook so it makes a quick and healthy dinner!

This is what the papyrus paper looks at first

Pop it in the frying pan, with no oil or anything!

I normally serve mine with a load of vegetables but I overcooked my cabbage last time I had it, how embarrassing…

I can't recommend these enough! Have you tried any Maggi products? Do you think you will be trying these?

My favourite dish to make…

Chicken Pie, I love making this and it has to be one of my favourite dishes to make for everyone. While I’m sat writing this I’m making it for all my housemates for when they get home from work (I’m great aren’t I). I always pack it full with carrots (and onions) to get more vegetables in, and they help you see in the dark right?

I’ll give you the recipe of course:

Ingredients:

1 Onion, chopped

2 or 3 Carrots, chopped

3 Chicken Breasts, chopped into chunks

A splash or two of olive oil

1 Stock Cube

1 tbsp Gravy Granules

Salt and Pepper

Puff Pastry

I added a bit of oregano today, and also I served it with loads of cabbage and then my housemates had chips as well!

Method:

1. First put a splash of oil in a pan and heat it up a little. Add the onion and soften it then add the carrots and cook for roughly 5 minutes or until they are all softened. Season with salt and pepper.
   
   
   
2. Next add the chicken and cook for roughly 8 to 10 minutes, check that its cooked thoroughly first before carrying on. Season with salt and pepper.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Make up the gravy and stock in one jug, fill it with boiling water and mix it all together. Then add it to the chicken and vegetables and let it simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes.
   
   
   
4. Take it off the heat and spoon it in to a ceramic dish (mine is floral and pink obviously), so that there is a good layer along the bottom. It’s best not to fill it to the top as it can overflow and the flavours blend together better if there’s a smaller amount of mixture.
   
   
   
5. Put a layer of puff pastry over the dish. I always let it fall over the sides so it puffs up nicely and we get extra pastry with the pie!
   
   
   
6. Cook it in the oven at 180C for 40 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown and you can hear the gravy bubbling inside.
   
   
   
7. Serve with chips or mashed potato or even more vegetables and most importantly, enjoy!
   

Spicy Chicken Rice

This is my take on spicy rice. If you've ever had it at nandos, it is possibly the best thing since sliced bread. It is the ultimate comfort food but without any guilt. Everyone should try this, you won't regret it.

Ingredients (per person):

2 oz of brown rice

½ a pepper

½ an onion

Chilli powder

1 crushed clove of garlic

1 egg

1 chicken breast

Olive oil

Soy Sauce

Butter

Method:

Start by weighing out your rice, you don't want more than this otherwise you will lose all the other ingredients and basically just eat rice. Cook the rice according to the packet instructions. Also cook the chicken breast with a bit of seasoning in the oven for 25 minutes on 180C.

Melt the butter in a pan. Then turn down the heat and crack the egg in the pan, then scramble it. Cook it for about 4 minutes or until it is to your liking.

 Chop up the onion and pepper and crush a garlic clove in with the onion.

Put some olive oil in a pan and add the onion and garlic. Let it cook on a medium heat for about 5  minutes so the onion softens. Make sure you keep stirring so that it doesn't catch.

Add the pepper and cook for a further 2 minutes, then add in the rice and soy sauce (as much to your taste) and chilli powder (again to your taste, depending on how much spice you want). Mix it all together and cook for about 3 minutes, make sure you keep stirring so you don't burn the rice.

Shred the cooked chicken so it is in smaller pieces. 

Add the egg and chicken and mix in with the rice mixture and cook for a bit 3 minutes to heat it all through.

And here's the delicious final dish! I could eat it all over again, it was that good. I could give nandos a run for their money :) 

Next time I would probably add carrots but we didn't have any in the house at the time. And maybe a bit more chilli powder!

A... is for Adele

This is a new series of blog posts I wanted to do for those who don’t know me so you could see something aside from recipes and weight loss.

Here it is ‘A-Z’ of me.

So, A is for Adele, that’s me!

If I were to describe myself in 3 words it would have to be kind, thoughtful and generous.

My favourite colour is pink (if you hadn’t guessed).

I will probably never have a favourite food but anything with chicken is an absolute winner.

I am crazy organised, it always sounds so generic but it is so true!

I’m still a little confused as to what I want to do for a career but I’m getting there!

That’s it for now, I can’t give too much away, there are still 25 more letters!

Lemon and Garlic Chicken

This is yet another recipe from The Londoner but with my own take on it again. Although this was only because I didn’t have any oregano in Kingston, only basil.

Ingredients (per chicken breast):

1 Chicken breast

½ lemon

3 or 4 cloves of garlic

a glug or two of olive oil

1 tsp dried basil (or oregano like the original recipe)

Salt and Pepper

Method:

Put a bit of oil in a baking dish with the garlic whole. Put the chicken in the dish, along with wedges of the lemon. Sprinkle the dried basil over the chicken with some more oil and the salt and pepper. 

Place in the oven at 180C for 45 to 60 minutes, but obviously keep an eye on it and take it out when it’s to your preference.

As you can see I served mine with spicy sweet potato wedges, of which the recipe will come soon!