Lemon Chicken with Cannellini Beans and Rosemary

I'm on the look out for low calorie meals at the moment. This one looked pretty easy and was one of those recipes that uses things you have in the house usually.
It was really really nice and full of flavour. I will be making this again soon.
The sauce had an amazing lemony, tomato flavour with a hint of rosemary. The beans worked really well with it too.
The other bonus is that it was really quick.
I served it with steamed vegetables and rissoni for the family members not being so careful about calorie intake!


(This recipe serves two people, so a total of 550 calories on the recipe, 275 calories per person)

Lemon Chicken with Cannellini Beans and Rosemary

Ingredients

• low-fat cooking spray
• 200g chicken breast fillets, skinless and cut into small pieces
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 tablespoon rosemary leaves, finely chopped and woody stem discarded
• juice and zest of 1 small lemon
• 1 x 400g tin of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 200g cherry tomatoes, halved (I used crushed tomatoes)
• 100ml vegetable stock (I used stock concentrate and made it really strong)
• 2 tablespoons low-fat plain Bio-yoghurt (I didn't add the yoghurt)
• salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions

Step 1	Heat a large frying pan that has a lid, or a wok and then spray with low-fat cooking spray. Season the chicken breast pieces and then fry for 5 minutes until golden brown and cooked through.
Step 2	Add the garlic and cumin seeds and stir around the pan until the spices smell fragrant, then add the rosemary, lemon juice and zest, beans, tomatoes, stock and seasoning and stir to combine them all.
Step 3	Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
Step 4	Remove from the heat and allow to cool for a minute or two before adding the yoghurt, stir well and serve in warmed bowls.

One of the Disasters

Macaroons are a favourite of my 5 year old Isabella. As it has been a wet weekend I suggested we make some. My previous attempts have been really successful but today was one of those days when things just didn't work out.
Our finished product turned out more like chewy meringues...but looked cute. Like a macaroon? No.

Our neighbours got some as will some of the teachers in Isabella's 'team' at school tomorrow.

I think this will require some further investigation and experimentation!

Fish Pie with Slow Cooker Mashed Potato

I've had this mashed potato recipe pinned on 'Pintrest' for a while and was interested to give it a try.
It worked really well. I'm not sure it is a better option to boiling the potatoes but worth having as an option. The recipe said to leave the skins on. I decided not to as the mashed potato was topping a fish pie.
I used a Manuka smoke infused salt from Prenzel in the potato to bring a smokey flavour into the dish. I really like fish pie using smoked fish but today had fresh fish to use.
I let the potato cool a bit and the consistency changed a lot. I'd keep it hot int he future to keep the creamy consistency.

The fish pie recipe is from 'Food Gawker'...an Irish Fish Pie. Maybe because it had leeks in it? I added capscuim to increase the vege quota in the dish.

The final product was good. It took a while but I did it bit by bit over several hours while doing other things.

Mashed Potatoes in a Crock Pot 

• 1kg potatoes
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup butter, cut into chunks
• 1/2 tablespoon salt, plus
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup milk, warmed

1. Place the potatoes, water, and butter into a slow cooker.
2. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Cover, and cook on High for 4 hours.
4. Do not remove the excess water from slow cooker. This adds to the creamy texture.
5. Mash potatoes with a masher or electric beater, adding the desired amount of warm milk to achieve a creamy consistency.
6. Keep warm on low until serving.
7. Potatoes keep consistency for a couple of hours after mashing. Just keep the lid on the slow cooker and serve directly from there.

Fish Pie

Ingredients: 

750 gr white sea fish fillets 
2 large leeks ,chopped
2 strips orange rind 
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
6 peppercorns
2 bay leaves
6 parsley stalks
2 1/2 cups milk + extra 2 tbsp milk 
30 gr butter
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tbsp flour

Use potato recipe above or...

1 kg potatoes
pepper, salt to taste
1 tsp ground sweet paprika 

Place fish fillets in a pan, add 1/ 2 of one leek, orange rind, nutmeg, parsley,bay leaves, peppercorns. 

Pour in milk and simmer over a low heat for about 15 minutes.  

Carefully remove fish fillets, strain liquid and reserve for a sauce. 

Melt butter in a pan, add garlic and rest of leeks. Cook over a low heat for about 7 minutes . 

Remove half of cooked leek mixture and reserve. 

Sprinkle flour over remaining mixture in the pan and blend unit smooth. 

Add reserved poach milk in a pan and stir until mixture comes to boil and thickens. Cut fish into chunky pieces and fold gently through the sauce. 

Add salt and pepper to taste. 

Use potato recipe above or...

Add reserved leek mixture and 2 tbsp milk  to mashed potatoes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

Pour fish sauce into shallow casserole  dish. Top with potato leek mixture. Sprinkle with paprika. 

Bake at 200°C for 20 minutes or until potato topping is golden brown.
Enjoy!

Feijoa Ginger Sponge Pudding

Our feijoa crop is nearly over. A very limited amount of fruit due tot he drought we experienced over summer this year. I was still determined to get a few new feijoa recipes made though.

We are all quite keen on ginger so this recipe seemed like a good one to try. It was either that or a feijoa cobber which is a real family favourite.

This recipe was a hit with the family and our dinner guest. It will be one I make again although in a smaller dish to ensure the sponge topping is a bit thicker...or maybe I will double the sponge?
The topping is a little bit like a ginger steamed pudding.





Feijoa Ginger Sponge Pudding

2 1/2 cups peeled and chopped feijoas
125 g brown sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tspn ground ginger
50 g butter
125g golder syrup
1 egg, beaten
75g g=flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger

Mix together feijoa, brow sugar, lemon juice and ginger and spread evenly across the base of a buttered baking dish about 20cm diameter.
Bake at 180 degrees C for about 15 minutes.
While fruit is cooking, cream butter and golden syrup in a food processor and blend in the egg.
Add flour, baking powder and ginger and process until combined.
Spread the sponge mixture evenly over the hot feijoa and bake for about 30 minutes or until the sponge topping is cooked through.
serve still warm with whipped cream (I used ice cream).