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.



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Sandwich Loaf.........{Its National Picnic Week}

 

It's national picnic week - I absolutely love enjoying food al fresco and picnics are just the perfect way to do this. One of my favourite things to make for picnics is my Sandwich loaf, because I love me a sandwich! This loaf is a kind of sandwich but looks much fancier. Transporting it whole is very easy and you can just cut it in slices or quarters when you get to your destination. Feel free to play around with the fillings as well; I’ve made one previous ones with tuna, rocket, hard boiled eggs and anchovies which was pretty lush....
 

  

Picnic Sandwich Loaf

1 cottage loaf, size of you choice
Olive oil
6 slices Parma ham
15 slices salami milano
5 tomatoes, sliced
2 balls mozzarella, sliced
Basil leaves
1 aubergine sliced and then grilled and allowed to cool
1 courgette, sliced, then grilled and allowed to cool
75g, sundried tomatoes

Slice the top of the bread and then scoop out the inside of the bread. Brush the insides with olive oil and leave uncovered overnight. Take your other ingredients and then layer them inside the bread. My layers went as such: Parma ham; tomatoes; basil; mozzarella; aubergine; salami; courgette; sundried tomatoes; mozzarella; tomatoes; basil; and finally more salami. Make sure you press down every time you finish a layer so you are packing it down firmly. Once you have filled your loaf, put the top back on and cover the whole thing in foil and then weigh the top down (a tin of duck fat works well here!). You want to leave it for at least 2 hours but the longer the better. When you are ready, either slice or cut into quarters and serve.

 

This recipe can be found in my recipe pages in the July/August edition of Families First

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