Saturday Kitchen 400th Episode

In celebration of Saturday Kitchen's 400th episode I will be cooking Chicken Chasseur with Creamy Mash from James Martin's Home Comforts

Tempted by Farmison

Received an email through work a couple of weeks ago tempting me to try Farmison who sell meat, cheese and veggies online. With a nice discount code decided to give it a try and have been impressed.

http://www.farmison.com/

I ordered some cuts of meat I've not tried before, Picanha Steaks, apparently the best bit of the sirloin, simply cooked with homemade onion rings, potato wedges and a spicy mayonnaise. Cannon of lamb, again simply cooked with fondant potatoes, steamed samphire and a red wine jus.

Not unusual - Chicken thighs but tried a recipe from my newest cook book - Butter Chicken - amazing!

 

Finally Pork Ribs - cooked in Ginger Ale - very tasty!

 

Thanks Farmison!

 

Jamie Oliver's Crispy Polenta Chicken Caesar Salad

Still working my way through this fab cookery book Jamie's 15 Minute Meals

Tonight's meal was Crispy Polenta Chicjen Caesar Salad - very easy and very tasty.

Mayonnaise and Macarons

Finally mastered the art of mayonnaise and made garlic aioli tonight! Took a few attempts so now have egg whites ageing to make macarons later in the week!

Jamie Oliver's Butterflied Sardines Tuscan Bread Salad

2 Jamie recipes cooked this week and this is my favourite!

This is the first time I've cooked sardines, I've always avoided them as sardines bring to mind the tinned ones in tomatoes that my mum used to eat on toast - and I think the cat as a treat!

These were amazing, bought fresh from Fleetwood on the morning I was cooking. I followed Jamie's recipe religiously (apart from replacing fennel seeds with dried oregano and omitted the capers - just because I didn't have any!).

The salad was amazing, I'm not the best at eating salads but have already made this for a second time, the combination of cherry tomatoes, cooked red peppers, anchovies, feta cheese and ciabatta is fantastic.

The bonus - only 399 calories :-)

Update on my 90 Day Challenge

7 days in on my 90 day challenge and I've lost 4lbs which makes me happy.

Shakes are tasty and apart from the first day I've not been too hungry, I look forward to my evening meal and have realised the reason I need to lose weight is that I eat too much! I've learnt this by making Jamie's 15 minute meals which are calorie counted, they are tasty and fulfilling and I'll be sharing my favourite recipes over the next few days.

Additional benefit of the 90 day challenge is the extra energy I seem to have, not finding it all difficult to get up for the gym and training hard.

90 Day Challenge

So tomorrow morning I start the 90 day challenge!

Now my life's back on track there's no excuses to be overweight and unfit so all you'll see on my blog for a while are healthy eating recipes which I'll be eating alongside my healthy shakes to help me loose those extra pounds.

If anyone has some light recipes to share let me know!

Very pleased to have Masterchef back and looking forward to trying recipes from one of their books I picked up this weekend - Aldi £6.99!

Saturday Night Food

Seems ages since I cooked a proper mea1! On the menu tonight an old favourite - Jamie's Empire Chicken with Bombay Potatoes and Indian Gravy followed by Passion Fruit Pannacotta and Almond Tuile Biscuits.

New Recipes

Picked out a couple of new recipes to try:

Prawn Caeser Salad with Olive Oile Croutons and Blackened  Cajun Cod Burgers with Alioli & Paprika Baked Potato Wedges  :-)

Time to Cook!

Finally out of the 'Breck Bubble' - it's been an amazing project to have been involved in and hope you'll all take a look http://www.breckapartments.co.uk/

Tomorrow I may find time to cook again! Just checking out the latest Delicious magazine.

Cicchetti Manchester

Have been to one of our favourite eating places today - Cicchetti in Kendals Manchester.  They serve small Italian dishes in the same way that the Spanish serve Tapas. We enjoyed Crostini with Chicken Livers, Calamari, Fillet with Mushrooms and Truffle Oil, Baby Chicken with Chilli & Rosemary and Flat Bread with Mozzarella & Nduja

http://www.sancarlocicchetti.co.uk/

Christmas Cooking II

Christmas Dinner was Roast Rack of Lamb with a Herb Crust, Fondant Potatoes and Glazed Carrots. Never cooked Rack of Lamb before so was glad of my Temperature Probe which helped me cook it to perfection. Also not cooked Fondant Potatoes before, I found lots of recipes but the one I used browned the potatoes on butter and then cooked on the hob in chicken stock, worked well!

Favourite Roast

Favourite Roast Dinner today - Rib of Beef to be served with Roasties, Parmesan Parsnips and maybe if I dare Yorkshire Puddings!

Have no excuse for failure as I have my shiny new oven with a door that shuts properly!

Christmas Dinner will be:.................

Rack of Lamb!

Don't like Turkey and can't bring myself to pay £60 for a goose!!

Christmas Cooking

Getting Christmas ready for those lovely people I work for! Parmesan Parsnips and Chicken Wing Gravy in the freezer!

Chilli Jam

Fab to serve with cheese and cold meats!


http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/8257/sweet-chilli-jam

Sunday Roast on Monday!

Been a long day and loads more to do yet so looking forward to Dunc's Roast Chicken with Jacket Potatoes :-)

Castle Gardens Carleton

 

Castle Gardens - Average Pub Food and quite expensive for what you get but at least you don't have to cook!!!

Heston Blumenthal The Fat Duck

                                                                     I want to go!!!