The Man Made Food.........{Greek Style Lemon Chicken & Rice}

You know how it is, you're late leaving work, the man calls and asks what time you will be home. When you tell them that you've only just left you can hear his brain whirring as he realises that it will be a long while before dinner is made, so he actually offers to cook. To be fair to H, if I wasn't such a little chef I'm sure he would do more cooking but when I love it so much he kind of just lets me get on with it.... what can I say, he irons my creased shirts - it works for us. It was a lovely meal, all cooked in one pot (bonus) and pretty healthy as we are trying  to eat more healthily and I am trying to loose quite a bit of weight. We ate this out in the garden which was just lovely. He is lovely. How lucky I am.

 This recipe is adapted from RecipeTin Eats which is fast becoming a favourite blog of mine!

Greek Style Lemon Chicken and Rice

for the marinade:
5 - 7 chicken thighs / legs
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp dried oregano
1tsp salt

for the rice:
1 1/2 tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup long grain rice
500ml chicken stock
200ml water
1 tbsp. dried oregano
lemon quarters
S&P

take the chicken and marinade ingredients and combine them in a bowl. cover and refrigerate - H left it for a couple of hours but the original recipe suggests overnight. heat 1/2 tablespoon olive oil in a heavy based pan and place the chicken in skin down. brown both sides of the meat and then remove from pan and set aside. add a tbsp. of olive oil to the pan and cook the onions until translucent then add the garlic. after a minute add in the rice, reserved marinade from the chicken, the oregano and the stock and water. bring the pan to a simmer , season and then place the chicken on top of the rice. put lid on the pan and then cook covered for 40 minutes (180oC)  then take the lid of and cook for a further 15 minutes. serve - we served with some broccoli which was lovely.



Linking up with Honest Mum for #tastytuesdays

When Paella rice isn't an option......{Wild Rice Paella}

Because paella rice really isn't an option for me. Complex carbs only which is fine I like sweet potato and brown rice. I went for another run yesterday night which was the fourth day of exercise in a row (probably a record for me) and my body was in need of some serious carbs. Now I'm not saying this is the healthiest dish in town - the chorizo sees to that (and paella without chorizo makes me sad) BUT the use of brown and red wild rice, soya beans and extra veg makes it that bit better for you. I'm sorry I'm a bit scatty with my measurements I do tend to just throw things in a pan!

Wild Rice Paella

1 cup red and brown wild rice, uncooked

2 banana shallots, diced 

100g chorizo, sliced into £1 coin thickness

1/2 red chilli, finely sliced

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 TSP dried red chillies

5 mushrooms, cubed 

1 TSP paprika

pinch saffron

splash white wine or brandy

chicken stock, fresh is best or from a stock pot

couple of handfuls of  frozen soya beans 

handful frozen peas

10 raw prawns 

1 tomato, cubed

put the chorizo in a heavy based shallow pan, and cook for 5 minutes until the oils are released and they start to crisp up slightly. add in the chilli, garlic and shallots and stir until softened. add in the dried chilli, paprika, mushrooms, and saffron. stir for a few minutes then add in the rice and coat it in the pan oils. splash in some wine and cook it off and the add in a good amount of stock, i covered the rice and a good 2 1/2 inches more. leave on a moderate and keep an eye on it but don't stir. when the stock is almost all absorbed check the rice - if it's still hard add some more stock if not then add in the soya beans, peas, prawns and tomato and cover the pan. cook on low for another 5-10 minutes or so and then everything should be cooked nicely. serve.

Basking in Dry January....... {Chicken Basque}

One of my plans to own my 2015 is to loose some weight and to kick it off H and I have been partaking in Dry January. Its a great way to get cracking on healthy eating and lifestyle and lets face it a rest from the booze is never a bad thing. So Saturday night came around and as we weren't drinking and we were still quite tired from the Christmas and New Years holidays we decided to have a night in and I decided to cook us a nice but relatively well balanced meal. It also gave me a chance to try my new cookware - a present to myself , I couldn't resist as it was half price in Sainsburys. This recipe is one I have loved for years - Delia Smith to thank for that and I'm giving you my version of it here, it's rustic cooking at it's best. Enjoy!

Chicken Basque

(Original recipe by Delia Smith and can be found here)

6 small chicken fillets

1 large red pepper, sliced 

1 Spanish onion, thickly sliced 

4 tbsp olive oil

150g Chorizo, cut into slices thickness of £1 piece

100g sundried tomatoes, roughly chopped 

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1/2 tsp smoked paprika 

1 tbsp tomato puree 

125g brown basmatic rice

125g wild rice 

300ml chicken stock

200ml dry white wine 

1/2 orange cut into wedges 

50g pitted olives (I used black and green)

put 2tbsp of the olive oil into the pan and brown off the chicken. Remove from pan. Add the rest of the oil and the onions and peppers, cook for 5 minutes or so until they have softened and browned off slightly. Add in the chorizo, tomatoes and garlic and cook for couple of miutes, stirring constantly. stir in the rice and make sure the grains are coated in the oil. Add the tomato puree, stock and wine and seasn. bring to a simmer. place the chicken on the top of the rice with orange and olives dotteded in between (my photos show how it should look. Cover and put in oven at 180oC for and hour, until rice has cooked through. 

Beans, Beans, Good for the Heart...... {One Pot Boston Baked Beans}

Exceptionally good for the heart are beans. Also good for the heart and general well-being is food that is natural with no artificial additives, step in to the spotlight Kikkoman Soy Sauce. I love Kikkomen sauces especially their soy sauce, mainly because I think it tastes great and I love the fact it is made from all natural ingredients. When the lovely people at Kikkoman asked if I would like to create a recipe using their soy sauce I jumped at the opportunity, especially when they said they didn't want it to be an Asian dish as they want to show the versatility of soy sauce in all variety of dishes. This is great for me as I often use soy sauce to substitute for Worcester sauce as I prefer the taste - just as savory but not as strong. 

After having a ponder, as one likes to do I decided to use the soy sauce for my classic American, one pot, winter warmer dish: Boston Beans. The savouriness and richness of the soy sauce really helps bring out the smokiness of these BBQ style beans. Often you find recipes for Boston Beans call for bacon or pork belly as the meat but I like to go for chorizo as I think it adds so much more flavour and colour to the dish. You can be flexible with what beans you use, cannellini beans work well for this dish. I just love the way you basically throw everything into the pan and leave it bubble away in the oven whilst your house smells of lovely BBQ food - it's the perfect comfort food as the dark night draw in and would be a great addition to any bonfire parties! 

Boston Baked Beans 

150g chorizo, cubed

1 onion, finely diced

1 tin (400g) kidney beans 

1 tin (400g) haricot beans 

1 tin (400g) butter beans 

3 TBSP soft brown sugar

2 TBSP black treacle

4 TBSP Kikkoman soy sauce

2 TSP English mustard powder

½ TSP smoked paprika

400g chopped tomatoes

300ml chicken stock, or you could use beef if you prefer

crusty bread, toasted

cook the chorizo and onion in a large pan or casserole dish until the onions are soft and the chorizo crispy. Stir through the beans, sugar, soy sauce, treacle, mustard powder, treacle, paprika and chopped tomatoes. add the stock making sure beans are covered. cover pan with a lid and either cook in oven at 180OC for two hours or simmer on the hob for the same amount of time, until beans are soft and the sauce had thickened. Serve on the toast.  

***Thank you to Kikkoman for asking me to be involved in this recipe challenge and sending the bottle of soy sauce to create this recipe***