Category: Recipes

Foodie Fri-Dae (chicken & corn salad)

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I’m beyond excited about my new guest post series!!!
I’m featuring a fellow arty farty creative type (Ok this girl made her own wedding dress so she beats me hands down).
Davene Prinsloo is a sought after wedding/lifestyle photographer, but lately the pictures that really got my attention are the food pics she has been posting on Instagram.
She has embarked on a more healthy lifestyle but opted away from supplements,shakes and pre-made mixes, instead, she cooks from scratch and has definitely uncovered a new talent.
I managed to convince her to share some of her favourite recipes with us over the next few weeks and if you want to know more about this “Jacky of all trades” be sure to check her out on her BLOG
I am so making this later 🙂
Chicken and Corn Salad (serves 4)

Ingredients
2 tbs of olive oil
1 tsp Parsley
1 tsp Thyme
250g pack of frozen corn
4 chicken breasts
1 pack of mixed salad leaves
Seasoning (I used Ina Parmen’s Garlic and Chilli and Lemon Pepper Seasoning)
1 chopped tomatoes
1/3 chopped cucumber
1  sliced avocado
Method
Boil the corn in a small pot filled for 20 minutes (or pop the bag in the microwave for 5 minutes, if you’re fine with microwave cooking).
Throw the olive in a pan and put it on the stove. 
While the oil is heating up, half the chicken breasts horizontally and then slice them into strips.
Season the strips well with thyme, parsley & seasoning of choice (If you’re using the same seasoning as I did, use the Garlic & Chilli) and add them to the pan, frying them until thoroughly cooked through.  By now, the corn should done, strain it and let it cool down. Remove the pan from the hot plate and let chicken cool down as well.
Rinse the salad leaves and plate them in four different bowls. Season the leaves well in the plates (use the lemon pepper seasoning). 
Distribute the cucumber, tomatoes & avocado equally amongst the four salad bowls. 
Place it as desired on the bed of salad leaves.
Season slightly. 
Scatter the corn equally on top of each of the salad bowls. Distribute the chicken equally amongst the four salad bowls. Enjoy.
*thanks so much Dae, looking forward to the next installment

Become a cupcake angel

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When people think of me, baking doesn’t come to mind, at least I don’t think so, if you think Ella and baking comes to mind, come over, lets chat, I’ll bake for you and food poisoning will come to mind, hehehehe. Okay I’m not that bad I can follow a recipe pretty easily and no one has ever gotten sick off one of my recipes. I’m just more into decorating than baking. Even so I have signed up to be a cupcake angel J

Cupcakes of HOPE is a Non-Profit Company whose aim is to raise awareness and funds for families in need of medical assistance, through cupcake themed fundraises.

I had a lot of fun making bows as Oh!Boy for Reach for a Dream earlier this year and thought this was an equally noble cause for Oh!Boy to get into, because childhood illnesses are close to my heart and cancer even more so.

So on the 26th of September my cupcakes will join hundreds being sold for this noble cause, I think I’ll stuff those babies full of chocolate so they have a chance of being noticed among the crowd of those donated by professionals J

All jokes aside I’m quite excited

 

Do consider getting involved, they swear that all they require is the cupcakes are made with love… click below for more details

 

http://www.cupcakesofhope.org/cancer-foundation/get-involved.html
I have included a basic cupcake recipe to get you started and fellow bloggers AMELIA, RUTH and LUCHAE will be posting recipes of their own so keep an eye out

 

Basic vanilla

·         2 cups flour

·         1⁄2 teaspoon salt

·         2 teaspoons baking powder

·         1⁄2 cup butter, softened

·         3⁄4 cup sugar(if you like your cupcakes very sweet, add a little more.)

·         2 eggs

·         1 cup milk

·         1 teaspoon vanilla essence(optional)

Directions

1.     preheat oven to 375f or 150c; line muffin cups with papers.

2.     cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. beat in eggs one at a time.

3.     add flour (mixed with baking powder and salt) alternating with milk beat well; stir in vanilla.

4.     divide evenly among pans and bake for 18 minutes. let cool in pans.

(recipe from food.com)

 
 

 

Toddler tips (&recipes) for the sick and tired

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As many of you know,  I work in an office, three days a week, this week it was office Monday to Wednesday and from home Thur and Friday. This Thursday the flu fairy came and hit all three of us with it’s wand, good and proper. So I found myself feeling horrid, with a bunch of sewing and a cranky, sick toddler who wanted attention… These are some of the things I did to keep him busy and give him some mommy time between tasks…
sick
If you follow me on INSTAGRAM,FACEBOOK or TWITTER you might have seen one or two of these, but these are my sick toddler hacks:

Trick them into healthy eating:

easy cookies
We made these based on THIS recipe but with macadamia nut butter
Just mix a cup of the nut butter an egg and 6 table spoons of sugar and bake for 10min
I decorated with melted dark chocolate

 

yogurt pops
We also made “ice-cream” because he saw the moulds while we were at clicks pharmacy
and I thought why not
I just filled the moulds with yogurt straight from the tub and froze…
quite yum and he actually ate it, go mom

 

Keep them busy

toddler tricks
To buy myself some sewing time I glued a magnet to a craft stick
Popped a few coins out of his money box and made a game out of “fishing for money”

 

scissor tip
I let him practice his cutting with a pair of bladeless scissors (from woolies) and play dough
it is easy to cut and recut and he loved it… “Aidy do it self mommy”

 

The rest of the time I just put him to work or locked him in the car 🙂
*I’m kidding don’t kill me

Please comment with your tricks for entertaining your sick toddler and for getting healthy food in them when eating sounds like a punishment to them.
Have a great day and ya’ll come back now you hear, 🙂

Chicken pie for the soul

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You know how I like to do calorie conscious good for you meals on a Friday? Ja, this is not one of those, it’s hearty and delicious and much better for your mental well being than for your thighs, But every now and again we need to say, Banting for what? Calorie Counting for who? Steamed Broccoli for when? hehehe YUMMMM for me thanks…

The recipe is brought to you by a great girl I know (since way back in my student days) who is never in a bad mood, as in ever! Mandy Abrahams…here’s hoping I can twist your arm for more recipes…. You can even order from her if you are this side of the world on a Friday as she’s into PR but really into cooking.




MANDY SAYS:

The plan is to serve  a“Winter Warmer”  to assist with keeping the chills at bay J
 Homemade Chicken Pie (A creamy chicken stew loaded with carrots and mushrooms, baked inside a flaky crust… it’s comfort in a bowl)

Homemade chicken  pie:
Ingredients:
2 x onions (finely chopped)
4 x chicken breasts (steamed and shredded)
1 x punnet mushrooms
4 x large carrots (chopped up chunky)
500 g frozen peas
1 pckt chicken or mushroom soup
2 tblsp mrs balls chutney
2 tsp Robertsons Chicken Spice
250ml fresh cream
2pckt todays or pennywise puff pastry
Method:
1.       Steam chicken breasts in 500ml water and 2tsp Robertsons chicken spice
2.       Preheat oven to 180 degrees
3.       Roll out 1 x pastry (not too thin) and layer over the bottom of a greased, oven proof dish.
4.       In a pot, fry your onions in 1 tblsp olive oil until the onion starts getting translucent.
5.       Add carrots and let it cook for 3 – 4 mins.
6.       Add your already steamed and shredded chicken breasts.
7.       Add salt and pepper to taste (you could also use Robertsons chicken spice instead of salt) and 125ml water and simmer until it forms a nice gravy
8.       Add mushrooms and simmer 1 -2 mins
9.       Add Mrs Balls Chutney and simmer 1 -2 mins
10.   Mix chicken or mushroom soup together with cream, add to stew and let simmer until thick gravy forms.
11.   Let cool then pour into pastry covered dish.
12.   Roll out the other pastry (again not too thin), cut off overlap of pastry and press together top and bottom pastry with your fingers or you could use a fork.
13.   Brush top of pie with some egg and pop into the oven and bake for 30 mins or until brown.
14.   Serve with a green salad  

Storybook DIY: home based chocolate factory

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Morning all, you know the song …WHO RUNS THIS MOTHER?…. the answer right now, the flu virus, sheesh, can’t we get sick one at a time maybe?

Any who I am involved in a really cool blog challenge where me and three other book/DIY loving bloggers each chose a book and over the next four weeks will be doing crafts based on these:

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Suddenly a Mom)
Cinderella (Ruth Abercrombie)
Alice in Wonderland (My Spreadsheet Brain)
Peter Pan (Me,JustEllaBella)

Today is Charlie and Chocolate Factory , the book (and the movie, lets be honest) makes me think CHOCOLATE!!! but as a grown person aware of the calorific and sugar loaded truths of a chocolate lake I decide to make something a little more, “big person” but just as chocolaty…

Ginger choc popcorn 

Yummy ginger choc popcorn at 118 calories per serving if you share…
Three cups of air popped popcorn
candied ginger slices
dark chocolate (I went all fancy with Frey’s Dark Crunchy Almond)

chop up about 15g of the ginger
mix in 20g melted choc with the ginger 
Enjoy the deliciousness!!!

It can get a little messy, I know because Aidan saw me eating, ran to his room, returned with a wet wipe and told me to clean my “choccy face”…he is getting quite a mouth on him that one, his dad was playfully chasing him around to “catch his nose” when he stopped mid run, turned around and said “here, just take my nose” hmmmmmmmmmmm

The other bloggers came up with super cool Charlie and the Chocolate Factory inspired Crafts:
SEE HERE:

SUDDENLY A MOM
MY SPREADSHEET BRAIN
RUTHABERCROMBIE

Pudding for Breakfast…chia recipes

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I know I’m fairly late to the Chia phenomenon, but uhm why did no one tell me about this?!

chia recipe
I’ve seen it on many a instagram feed and thought I would try it out…and DELICIOUS!!!

It’s supposed to be filled with protein and omega 3, which is good, but for me the real benefit is that it is said to help with insulin resistance which I suffer from.
I know, I know, there is always a seed or a berry that is said to help… and I’m not usually into fads, but this is so yum and actually keep hunger at bay so I say why not????Also it’s way cheaper than the other “superfoods”, like I don’t need to take out a loan for this like I often feel I should with quinoa

here is how I eat mine….

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