Oven southern style chicken goujons and potato wedges to match

I've made chicken goujons before and decided to try making them this time with a little southern fried taste to them. I made a little too much of the breadcrumb mix so I've reduced the amounts accordingly in what's listed below:

Oven southern style chicken goujons

Serves 2

Ingredients
250g mini chicken breast fillets
milk or (egg)
flour
Breadcrumb mix
2 slices of bread, grated into breadcrumbs
1 tbsp coarse ground pepper
1/2 tbsp rock salt
1 tbsp cajun seasoning
1 tsp paprika

Recipe
1. Preheat the oven to 200 celcius
2. Blend all the ingredients for the breadcrumb mix
3. Individually roll the chicken fillets in the flour, then the milk (or egg) then the bread crumbs (folding into the breadcrumbs for good coverage), then place on a baking tray ready for the oven.


4. Cook in the oven for 30-35 minutes.

Southern style potato wedges

Serves 2

Ingredients
4 medium potatoes (cut into wedges)
3 tbsp breadcrumb mix (see above)
1 tsp cajun seasoning
1 tsp ground coriander

Recipe
1. Boil the wedges for 5-10 minutes
2. Drain the water.
3. Add the breadcrumb mix, cajun seasoning and ground coriander and mix well with the potatoes

4. Cook in the oven for 30-35 minutes at 200 celcius.

Honey Roast Parsnips

This recipe serves one but can be easily multiplied up to suit as many as you need

Honey Roast Parsnips

Serves 1

Ingredients
1 large parsnip
1 tsp honey

Recipe
1. Preheat oven to 180 celcius.
2. Peel and chop the parsnip into 1 inch batons and place in an oven dish.

3. Drizzle the honey over the parsnips.

4. Roast for 25-30 minutes.

Bourbon Chicken

I had planned to make bourbon chicken tonight but ended up using turkey pieces instead. Very tasty! Very easy!

Bourbon Chicken Turkey

Serves 2/3

Ingredients
400g chicken turkey pieces
1 tsp olive oil
1 chopped scallion

SAUCE
1 garlic clove
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp crushed chili pepper flakes
2 tbsp apple juice
8 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp ketchup
2 tsp cider vinegar (can leave this out if you don't have it)
1/4 cup water
8 tsp soy sauce

Recipe
1. Mix all the ingredients for the sauce.
2. Heat oil in a large pan. Add chicken pieces and cook until lightly browned.
3. Remove chicken.
4. Heat the sauce in the pan over medium heat.
5. Add chicken and bring to a hard boil.
6. Reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
7. Serve with scallions over the top.

Usually served over rice, but we had ours with baked potatoes. Delish!!!

Spaghetti with tuna in garlic & white wine

I used to have dinner with a lot of families in church before I got married and had to cook for myself all the time... not that I couldn't cook back then, but it was much more fun to have company for dinner and also have someone cook for you! Well this dish is something I would have regularly had with one family because the kids loved it, and I loved it, despite not really liking tuna!!! So I decided to try making up my own version of the recipe to see how it turned out. Very quick, very easy and very tasty!

Spaghetti with tuna in garlic & white wine

Serves 2

Ingredients
3 cloves of garlic (sliced)
1/4 cup of olive oil
1/8 cup of white wine
4 button mushrooms (sliced)
1 tin (180g) of tuna
Spaghetti (enough for 2)
Parmesan Cheese

Recipe
1. Cook spaghetti as per packet instructions.
2. Gently simmer the oil, white wine and garlic for 4/5 minutes
3. Add the tuna and mushrooms and continue to simmer for 4/5 minutes
4. Drain the pasta.
5. Mix the tuna with pasta and serve. Sprinkle some parmesan over the top.

Bon appetit!

Ruth's Chicken Curry experiment

I've been looking for a good basic curry recipe for a while and read all sorts of recipes for it. So I decided to take some ideas from the various recipes and create my own chicken curry. Delicious!!!!

Ruth's Chicken Curry experiment

Serves 2

Ingredients
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground tumeric
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp chilli pepper flakes
1/2 tsp coarse ground black pepper
1/2 tsp rock salt
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp oil
350g chicken pieces
1 cup yoghurt (I use 0% fat greek yoghurt to try convince myself I'm being healthy)
1 tsp corn flour

Recipe
1. Mix the curry powder, garam masala, cumin, tumeric, ground coriander, crushed chilli, black pepper, salt, garlic and oil in a small bowl to make a paste.
2. Brown the chicken in some oil.
3. Add the paste to the chicken and cook for 4-5 minutes.

4. Stir in the yoghurt and corn flour and simmer for 15 minutes until the sauce thickens.

5. Serve with rice and naan bread.

Delicious! Quite a spicy dish too... just to warn you.

Mexican night

A couple of nights ago we had a bit of fun with making burritos. I boiled rice, cooked chicken in fajita spice mix, cooked some peppers, mushrooms and a little bacon for fun, as well as grating some cheese and slicing some chili peppers. Mix it all into a tortilla and bam!!! Delicious easy and very fun dinner.

BBQ Mince Beef

I found this recipe on the Dinner with the Bickfords blog and loved the look of it. It's good at the minute to try some new mince beef recipes.

The original recipe doesn't have any of the chili in it that I added, which added good flavour but was a little strong (I've wrote in reduced suggestions for the recipe below).

BBQ Mince Beef

Serves 3-4

Ingredients
500g ground beef
1/2 white or yellow onion, diced
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup bbq sauce
1 chopped and deseeded red chilli
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/2 cup sliced green onion

Directions

1. Brown beef and yellow onion in skillet over medium high heat. Drain excess fat from pan and place back on heat.
2. Add corn, tomatoes and bbq sauce, mixing thoroughly.
3. Bring to a simmer and reduce heat to medium low. Simmer 15 minutes until thick.
3. Serve beef topped with green onions.

I think a few edits I might make to this in future for different variations would be to add a little shredded cheese, maybe some bacon or even various other veggies.

Beef Stroganoff

This is another dish I first had in Tennessee and have made it a few times from a satchet since, but decided I should try something from scratch. It went down well and will be cooked again sometime soon.

The original recipe is found on Allrecipes but I've edited it slightly below.

Beef Stroganoff

Serves 2-3

Ingredients
1 pound sirloin steak, cut into bite size strips
1 onion, chopped
1.5 tbsp all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/4 cups single cream

Directions
1. Brown the beef strips in a large skillet over medium high heat and drain excess fat.
2. Add the onion and saute for 5 minutes, or until tender.
3. Add the soup, reduce heat to medium low.
4. Stir in the flour, salt, paprika and ground black pepper and let simmer for 15 minutes.
5. Add the cream, stirring well.

Serve beef mixture over pasta, rice or if you're my hubby mashed potato, but would go well with all sorts of potato. It just tastes good no matter! Give it a go and let me know what you think.

Loads a meat!!!!!

My darling dearest husband got excited recently when a friend in his work said he knew a butcher who sells mince beef in big bags for £10 and decided to get himself a bag.

Meaning the following day I spent some time spliting it into different weights for freezing to use at a later date.



But this wasn't all of it, I cooked some at the same time and made some cottage pie at the same time (with a few edits to the recipe described in that link. Gravy was used instead of cottage pie sauce mix, 2 tbsp of cumin was added to the gravy before it was mixed with the mince, and a few handfuls of crushed salted crisps - aka chips in the USA - spread on the top)




The end result was very very tasty! The cumin gave it a nice kick.

Thai green chicken curry

Thai Green Chicken Curry

Serves 2-3

Ingredients
500g chicken pieces
1 tbsp oil
2-3 tbsp thai green curry paste
400ml coconut milk

Recipe
1. Heat the oil in a wok, then add the chicken pieces and brown for a few minutes.
2. Stir in 2-3 tbsp green curry paste and allow to cok for 1 minute.
3. Add the coconut milk and reuce the heat. Cook for 20-25 minutes to allow the sauce to thicken.
4. Serve with rice or noodles.

Smarties Cookies

Rob loves it when I come home from the shop with some Smarties Cookies, so I thought as a special birthday treat for him that I'd make him some! And it went as follows:


Smarties Cookies

Makes 10 large cookies

Ingredients
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
5 or 6 tubes of smarties

Recipe
1. Preheat oven to 190°C.
2. Mix flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl.
3. In another bowl beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5. Gradually beat in flour mixture.
6. Stir in smarties.
7. Place rounded tablespoons of the batter onto an ungreased baking tray.

8. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool for 2 minutes before eating.

New links

More new links to other foodie blogs have been added to the bar on the right. Some very talented and creative people there! Check some of them out for a little inspiration!

Unleavened Bread

I needed to make some for an illustration for a childrens talk in church tomorrow. While I was at it i cut some roune shapes to make little crackers with some of the mix.

Unleavened Bread

Ingredients

1 Cup whole wheat flour (however I used plain flour and it worked fine)
1/4 Tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. butter
2 Tsp. oil
1/4 Cup water

Directions:

1. Sift flour and salt and mix butter into flour until it resembles peas.
2. Mix oil and water and add to flour.
3. Put a small amount of flour on your breadboard and knead dough lightly.
4. Add a small amount of flour and press flat with hand. Then roll out as thin as possible. Pick up, turn over and roll out again as thin as possible.
5. Perforate with a fork and bake for 8-12 minutes at 200oC.