Welcome

***I now mainly write at www.theschoolofbalance.com and would love for you to come and join me over there***

Welcome to Sarah's Kitchen Diary

I love everything about food and use this blog as a place where I talk about recipes, places I've been and products I've tried.

To help you find your way around I've tried to gather posts under six main headings.  

Healthy Eating 

Here you will find all my recipes for everyday eating healthily. I've always been interested in cooking, baking and creating but in recent years have become increasingly interested in eating for health. For me this means avoiding processed food and chemicals, buying organic where possible and choosing lean protein, vegetables first, with some fruit, nuts and grains. 

Treat Days 

Here you will find all my recipes for Treat Days.

Whilst I try to eat healthy 'clean' food most of the time I still do enjoy an occasional treat. For me this involves eating well for the majority of the week with 1-2 treat meals a week. On these I prefer to make my own treats or eat a quality restaurants so that I know what has gone into the meals. 

 Travel and Out & About 

Here you will find all my posts about restaurants and recipes I have found on my travels some further away and some closer to home. I also have a few posts about cooking classes I have attended.

Product Reviews 

 

Here you will find posts with reviews of various products.

I often get offers of products to try in return for a review on this site. I only say yes when I believe in the product and sometimes also will post reviews of products I've bought and love. 

  

 Tips and My Free Recipe Book 

 This page is used to collect all of my too hints and tips and will shortly be home to my very first recipe book. Best of all it will be free! 

 Contact Me 

 If you do want to contact me then you can find all of my details on this page. I love to here from you and questions, comments, suggestions are all welcome.

Along the side of this screen you can also see shortcuts to recipes using key words, a search functionality, popular posts and much more.

Finally a little request from me. If you like what you read on my blog please do leave a comment and also let me know how you get on if you try any of my recipes.

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One Week in Sarah's Diary: Sunday

I started the day with 20 mins of circuits before breakfast and also went for a nice, but bracing, walk. I was visiting my parents and they wanted roast lamb for dinner so I volunteered to cook it so I could make it as clean as possible.

Food and Drinks:
Breakfast: first thing I had lemon, ginger and hot water. I then had a variation on this Baker Boys recipe. I didn't have any bread so I layered up 2 rashers of lean dry cure bacon with a luscious tomato mixture (made from tinned tomatoes, tomato purée, balsamic vinegar black pepper, oatmeal and a tiny piece of beef stick cube), topped with a poached egg. Here is my version. It really was delicious. .




Lunch: I was out again but managed to eat relatively well. I had a ham ploughmans with no bread and extra salad and a few olives

Afternoon snack: a latte made with skimmed milk

Dinner: as mentioned my parents wanted a roast dinner. I'm glad I decided to cook so that the meal was cleaner than a full on traditional roast. We had a leg of lamb which they had bought from a local farm. The lambs graze on the salt marshes, eating samphire, which makes the lamb very tasty. They would normally want roast potatoes so I substituted these for roasted veg (onions, carrots and celeriac) and also cooked some shredded cabbage.




For pudding I made a pseudo fruit crumble based on my granola. The base was blackberry and apple with a fruit prunes chopped very finely and stirred through for sweetness topped with a mixture of oats, egg, flaked almond and cinnamon. We had it with 0% Greek Total yoghurt rather than custard or ice cream. You could also serve it with plain frozen yoghurt. Considering there was no added sugar it was very tasty.








Water: 1.5 litres
Other drinks: 5 mugs of decaf tea with skimmed milk, 1 latte
Organised for tomorrow: nothing for tomorrow but I have booked a massage later in the week to help with relaxation

Exercise and Walking

Walking: 45 mins
Exercise: 20 mins circuits (ten each of elevated rear leg lungs, jump squats, push ups and burpees repeated for 20 mins)

Relaxation and Sleep

Relaxation: spending time with family, going for a walk, early night
Meditation: 10 mins
Bed time: 9.30pm
Estimated hours of sleep: 7.5 hours

Before bed I always eat a few walnuts and take a magnesium supplement. I also sleep with a black out blind and sleep mask and use a pulse aromatherapy oil made of relaxing oils.

One Week in Sarah's Kitchen: Saturday

It was so lovely to wake up from a good nights sleep after a long week. I started the morning with some yoghurt and nuts before going to the gym as I was doing a weights class and struggle if I don't have anything to eat beforehand.

As I've mentioned I try and eat cleanly all week with the exception of 1 treat meal a week. Some people call this a cheat meal, but psychologically I prefer the idea of treating myself for eating well rather than seeing it as cheating. I also plan this meal as part of my weekly food planning and chose something I really want so I have something to look forwards to. I tend to have this at the weekend and typically cook something. I try and still keep it as natural and unprocessed as possible but don't worry about sugar, refined carbs or fat. This week I'd decided to have it on Saturday lunch time as I had my friend and her girls coming to visit and she wanted to go to a nice bakery for lunch.
I find this meal important for three main reasons:

1. I love cooking and baking so the idea of never being able to eat some things and try some recipes is not one I'm willing to consider.
2. By having a treat meal I have something help me resist temptation during the week. If I fancy a bar of chocolate I ask myself if I'd rather have that or the treat meal I've planned and am looking forwards to.
3. From what I've read this shakes up your body and helps prevent your metabolism from becoming too sluggish.

Food and Drinks:

Breakfast: first thing I had lemon, ginger and hot water. I then had a small amount of 0% Total Greek yoghurt with a few lightly roasted nuts

Morning snack: this was more breakfast than a snack as I had it when. Got back from the gym but I went for scrambled eggs with mushrooms and spinach and added some thyme and a splash of balsamic vinegar to the mushrooms for flavour before adding 1 egg and 2 egg whites.




Lunch: at the bakery I had a croissant filled with gruyere cheese and ham with grainy mustard and a side salad followed by a raspberry tart with a pot of tea and a small bar of dark chocolate with pink peppercorns (very unusual but quite tasty!).

Afternoon snack: as I had a big, late lunch I didn't have any snack.

Dinner: As I was home I wanted to cook something tasty but clean. I had some Tenderstem broccoli which needed using up so I decided to make a Thai green curry served with Tenderstem broccoli and asparagus dressed in a soy, chilli and lime dressing. The Thai curry was a recipe I picked up when I was on holiday in Kao Tao, Thailand. They used a bought curry paste so I did the same but do sometimes made my own and freeze it in small portions. You can find good recipes on google.








For pudding I had a foil baked orange



Water: 2 litres
Other drinks: 2 mugs of decaf tea with skimmed milk, 1 black decaf coffee, 1 regular tea
Organised for tomorrow: I am visiting my parents so packed my gym kit

Exercise and Walking

Walking: 30 mins
Exercise: 1 hr weights class - Body Pump

Relaxation and Sleep

Relaxation: I then listened to some music whilst cooking and watched a TV programme I'd missed in the week and then went to bed early
Meditation: none
Bed time: 9.15pm
Estimated hours of sleep: 8 hours

Before bed I always eat a few walnuts and take a magnesium supplement. I also sleep with a black out blind and sleep mask and use a pulse aromatherapy oil made of relaxing oils.

One Week in Sarah's Kitchen: Friday

Last day in the office of the week. I always forget how long these exercises are! As I travel most weeks for work it was lovely to sleep in my own bed every night for a week but 12-14 hours in the office each day in a high stress situation has taken it's toll. I'm very glad it's the weekend!

Food and Drinks:

Breakfast: first thing I had lemon, ginger and hot water. Followed a little later by Protein Pancakes. However unlike the recipe I had them plain with a little cinnamon sprinkled on top.




Morning snack: a healthy Eton Mess. Made my mixing 0% Total Greek Yoghurt with raspberries, blueberries, chopped dates, grated apple and vanilla. I normally top with a few flaked almonds or mixed seeds but I forgot. Yum!

Lunch: tomato and lentil soup


Afternoon snack: roasted nuts and a pear

Dinner: As I was home at a reasonable time I wanted to cook something but as I was feeling pretty tired it needed to be quick I went with this recipe. It is basically a tomato sauce with eggs cracked on top and allowed to cook. I added onion and plenty of spinach to the tomato sauce to increase the vegetables and served it with a green salad.




For pudding I followed this with a healthy version of chocolate mousse and I don't mean those awful low fat and low calorie pots you buy which I full of sweeteners and very little nutritional value.

Water: 1.5 litres
Other drinks: 2 mugs of decaf tea with skimmed milk
Organised for tomorrow: my gym kit

Exercise and Walking

Walking: 15 mins
Exercise: Rest day - I had wanted to do a weights session but after a long week I was too tired.

Relaxation and Sleep

Relaxation: turned off my phone all evening for Quiet Night Friday. I try and do this every Friday to have a break from everything. I then listened to some music whilst cooking and chose a nice classical album. I then had a bath soaking in Epsom salts. I then read a chapter of my book in bed. Both still listening to music.
Meditation: 10 mins
Bed time: 9pm
Estimated hours of sleep: 8.5 hours

Before bed I always eat a few walnuts and take a magnesium supplement. I also sleep with a black out blind and sleep mask and use a pulse aromatherapy oil made of relaxing oils.

One Week in Sarah's Kitchen: Monday

So it's the first day of posting what I eat. After a busy weekend, today is rest day (exercise wise) so no gym for me and just some walking.

I was in work early but started the day as I had intended, largely due to the fact I had everything I could ready the night before.

Food and Drinks:

Breakfast: first thing I had lemon, ginger and hot water followed a little later by scrambled eggs with mushrooms and spinach (2 eggs, 2 eggs whites, large handful of spinach and plenty of mushrooms).

Morning snack: a green smoothie with a teaspoon of spirulina powder added

Lunch: tomato and lentil soup and an apple



Afternoon snack: lightly roasted nuts and kale crisps



Dinner: bolognese made with a mixture lean beef and turkey mince and bulked with mushrooms and onion with some steamed cauliflower, broccoli and spinach. The Bolognese was similar to the one I used for my savoury pancake stack

Evening snack: frozen grapes - these are a fab as taste a bit like sorbet. I sometimes even blend them so they form a sorbet.



Water: 2 litres
Other drinks: 2 mugs of decaf tea with skimmed milk and 2 mugs of herbal tea
Organised for tomorrow: gym kit, soup for lunch and snacks

Exercise and Walking

Walking: 30 mins
Exercise: None, rest day

Relaxation and Sleep

Relaxation: 30 mins soaking in the bath
Meditation: none
Bed time: 10.15pm
Estimated hours of sleep: 7 hours

Before bed I always eat a few walnuts and take a magnesium supplement. I also sleep with a black out blind and sleep mask and use a pulse aromatherapy oil made of relaxing oils.

Overall I was quite pleased with the day. I would have preferred to have got to bed earlier and also made time for some meditation

One Week in Sarah's Kitchen: Musings on Food and "Diets"

I've mentioned a few times on my blog that I like to eat clean and healthily, whilst enjoying an occasional treat. I also try and create healthier versions of my favourites to help avoid crumbling and succumbing to the oh so wonderful looking biscuit, cake, chocolate that in reality leaves me feeling not so great afterwards! In general, when I eat well, do some exercis, relax and have enough sleep I feel better. My physical and metal health are better, my skin, hair and nails respond positively and my body looks better. So I thought it'd be good for me to share this what I do each day for a week. I also think that the discipline of posting every day will be good for me as I can be a bit haphazard with keeping up to date and one of my resolutions was to blog more often. Also, after an extremely stressful week my body feels like it's been through the mill and some extra care and attention is needed.

Through research and my experience I don't sign up to the standard diet advice or 'calorie model' so many of the standard diets are so focused on calories and not enough on nutrition, and what that nutrition does to the hormones in your body. Put simply, I sign up to the belief and research which states a calorie is not just a calorie and that hormones have a bigger effect on your body shape than calories alone. I also don't aim for a massively low fat diet, especially good fats like avocado, nuts, seeds, olive or rapeseed oil.
I also, have huge concerns with the amount of chemicals and unknowns that go into the food we eat and what this may do to our health now and in the future The recent findings of horse meat in beef doesn't concern me from the point of view of eating horse but from the point of view of what else is in our food that we don't know about? Most people don't realise that food manufacturers don't even have to put everything on the label! For example most processed bread is made using a enzyme which is potentially concerning, but they don't have to mention it as it's only used in the processing.

It actually makes me angry when I see products loaded with chemicals and unnatural ingredients marketed as 'healthy' as soon as I see "sugar free", "diet", "low fat" I immediately look at the label to see what they have replaced the sugar and fat with and try to avoid things like chemical sweeteners. Where is the legislation to protect people from these blatant lies?

I mentioned above that I try to make healthier versions also, I have often found when I crave something not necessarily exactly what I want. For example the other day I really wanted cheesy chips. I've not had them in years, probably since uni but for some reason I really really wanted them. I tried to work out if it was what I really wanted or if something else would do and realised that what I really wanted was melted cheese. It wouldn't have matter if it was on a chicken breast. It wasn't really the chips I wanted (incidentally, as it turns out by the time I got home I wasn't too worried about the idea at all and was able to make a healthier choice all together but it has made me stop and think what I really want).

I should probably make it clear I'm not a nutritionist or similar so this is by no means advice. It's simply a diary of my food and the associated recipes made primarily from food that, through research, I consider healthy and balanced.
As I believe that food, drink, exercise, relaxation and sleep are all elements in the equation that makes for a lean, healthy body and mind each day I will fill in the following template.

If you want to read more research on this sort of thing I would start with Metabolic Effect as they have lots of blog articles on research papers and so on.

Food and Drinks:
Breakfast:
Morning snack:
Lunch:
Afternoon snack:
Dinner:
Evening snack:
Water:
Other drinks:
Organised for tomorrow
Exercise and Walking
Walking:
Exercise:
Relaxation and Sleep
Relaxation:
Meditation:
Bed time:
Estimated hours of sleep:

Please comment if you have any feelings on the subject or if there is anything else you would like to see.

Bircher Museli

I start the morning most days with some form of oats. This is one of my favourite ways and is so versatile as you can use whatever you have in.

Basically, you soak the oats overnight in your chosen liquid. I used almond milk and then stirred in grated apple and topped with berries, cranberries, flaked almonds and seeds.

The method can be found in my guide

Check out How to Cook Bircher Museli #Healthyeating by Sarah's Kitchen Diary on Snapguide.




Enjoy!

Porridge with Spiced Apple

On a cold day like today a steaming bowl of porridge is a great start to the day.
I try not to add any sugar and also use non dairy milk so have to be fairly inventive with the toppings so it doesn't become bland and boring.
The recipe can be found in my guide

Check out How to Cook Porridge With Spiced Apple by Sarah's Kitchen Diary on Snapguide.

Here is the finished result




Tasty!

Lemon and Ginger Tea

I drink a lemon and ginger infusion every morning. I even take a lemon away with me when I'm working away.

It's so simple to do and has great health benefits as this article explains.

I try to drink it as soon as I get up and if possible about half an hour before I eat my breakfast.

The method can be found in my guide.

Check out How to Make Lemon and Ginger Tea #Healthyeating by Sarah's Kitchen Diary on Snapguide.

Diana Henry's Roast Chicken with Quinoa and Feta Stuffing and Lebanese Beans

I love a Sunday roast but when the weather is warmer (or not cold at least) I don't feel like a full Sunday lunch with gravy and so on.

As I've mentioned before I think that Diana Henry is one of the most underrated cookery writers I have come across and this is one of her recipes which I love.

She roasted the chicken with the stuffing inside but I don't like to do this as I don't think you an fit enough in!

So I just simply roasted the chicken with a little herb butter under the skin and no stuffing. I like to use roasting bags (which you can buy in the supermarket near the cling film) as I think they result in really moist chicken. I forgot to take a photo of the chicken but it just looked like a roast chicken so nothing unusual!

I made the stuffing separately. I mainly followed her recipe but removed the bread that she uses and replaced it with quinoa so that it was gluten free.

While the chicken is roasting sauté one finely chopped onion in a little olive oil until soft. Add 2 crushed garlic cloves and cook for a couple of minutes. Add a packet of chopped cherry tomatoes. Stir into quinoa cooked according to the instructions on the packet add 100g chopped feta, a handful of chopped mint and parsley, 1 tbsp tomato purée, an egg and seasoning and stir. Put into an oven proof bowl and bake in the oven with the chicken for around the last 45 mins. You may need to cover it with foil to prevent it from getting too brown and dried out.




I served it with her Lebanese beans and some green salad.

Heat some olive oil in a pan and add a roughly chopped onion and sauté until soft. Add 2 crushed garlic cloves and cook for a couple if minutes. Add 4tsp ground cumin, 800g tomatoes (I used tinned) and season. Stir well and add 75ml of water and 1/2 tablespoon of tomato purée and a squeeze of lemon juice. Cover the pan and sweat the tomatoes for about 15 mins until they are soft and mushy. Add 500g chopped runner beans and cook for 15+ mins until they become really soft. Add additional water if the moisture starts to dry out and additional seasoning if you need it. You can finish with a few torn mint leave if you like.

A green goddess (or monster!) smoothie

This smoothie looks frankly terrifying as its dark green, but it's extremely good for you and you can't taste the 'green' taste. In fact it tastes a bit like a non alcoholic mojito

Place the following ingredients in a blender
Serves 1
- a handful of mixed berries
- a couple of sprigs of mint
- a chunk of cucumber about 3 inches long
- a teaspoon of spirulina powder (you can buy this in health food shops or substitute with a handful of spinach leaves of just leave it out)
- juice of half a lime
- an egg white (optional if you want to up the protein, read why here)
Blend all of the ingredients until smooth, you could blend with ice if it was a warm day, and serve.

Almond Protein Shake

This shake is high in protein and ideal for after a session at the gym instead of a bought protein shake, which contains god knows what!

Place the following ingredients in a blender:

Serves 1

- 100ml of your choice of chilled, unsweetened, non-dairy milk (I uses almond milk)
- 75ml of natural yoghurt (I use 0% Total Greek yoghurt)
- 1/4 a pack of silken tofu (this isn't the tofu that you get in the chiller which is spongy in texture. It's found in the Asian section in the supermarket in the shelves in a cardboard/foil packet)
- a small handful of roasted almonds (roasting them isn't essential but it gives a great flavour)
- a few drops of vanilla extract (I used Ndali, as it is fair trade)

Blend all of the ingredients until smooth and place into a plastic beaker with a lid for after your workout

Berry, nut and chia seed smoothie

One of the key things I have been trying to follow is eating smaller portions more regularly and trying to keep my blood sugar on an even keel.
Although fruit is good for you, particularly berries, it does still contain sugar, in the form of fructose. Apparently eating protein at the same time reduces the impact of this on your blood sugar.
Place the following ingredients in a blender or a jug if you're using a hand blender
- a large handful of berries. I used strawberries, raspberries and blueberries
- about a tablespoon of roasted nuts (they don't have to be roasted but I find them so much tastier. I used mixed nuts)
- about half a tablespoon of chia seeds (these are optional but apparently very good for you. Read more here)
- 200ml of your choice of chilled, non dairy, unsweetened milk (I used oat milk)
Blend until smooth and serve. If its a hot day you can blend with ice. This is obviously easily doubled, trebled etc.
Enjoy!

Homemade Granola

I love granola with Total 0% Greek yoghurt but shop bought cereals and granola's are mainly filled with sugar.

It's so easy to make it yourself and you can make exactly the mixture you like plus you know what goes into it. Win, win!

You can also make it gluten free, just make sure the oats you buy are gluten free.

Start by putting 200g of rolled oats into a bowl, add a handful of chopped nuts (I used pecans and flaked almonds) and a smaller handful of chopped dried fruit (I used dates, apricots and cranberries), a dessert spoon full of coconut oil (this is optional, but is a good fat and can now be bought in most supermarkets), one egg, a teaspoon of cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg. Mix well and place in a thin layer on a baking tray and bake at 180C for about 15-20 mins until it is golden. If you want it sweeter you can add agave syrup or honey, but this obviously makes it less healthy.

Allow to cool and store in a air tight container.

I like to serve it with Total 0% Greek yoghurt, which is lovely, thick and creamy and not acidic like some natural yoghurts.

A week of clean eating

I love food. Having a food blog is probably a good indication that I enjoy food and cooking, but I really, really do. I'm obsessed. I don't finish a meal before planning the next one (and the one after!). I spend huge swathes of time thinking about flavours and combinations and what I'm going to cook next.
I also concentrate on eating the best I can, in terms of time, and money. I aim not to eat processed food and would prefer to buy cheaper cuts to have better quality meat. I've always thought this way to a certain extent, but more recently have been reading more about healthy eating philosophies such as James Duigan's @cleanandlean and @metaboliceffect. Basically, they advocate eating unprocessed foods, especially protein/healthy fats/vegetables and cutting out sugar, alcohol etc.
This is in stark contrast to a lot of traditional 'diet' advice, which focuses on low calorie and low fat rather than food which is good for you. I honestly don't know how the supermarkets and food companies get away with marketing products which are full of chemicals and sweeteners as 'health' ranges.
So I thought I'd share some of what I'd been eating this week. I like to eat little and often do tend to have 3 meals and 3 snacks a day. Recipes to follow!
Breakfasts included:
- Summer Porridge
- A healthy cooked breakfast with sugar free homemade ketchup
- homemade, sugar free, granola with Total Greek yoghurt. I always buy Total Greek yoghurt. Yes it's pricey in comparison to the supermarkets Greek style yoghurt but it's much thicker and creamier (even the 0% fat one) and it doesn't have the same acidic taste that some natural yogurts do
- cooked porridge with cinnamon and nutmeg
- boiled eggs with asparagus wrapped in Parma ham as the soldiers
Snacks included:
- a handful of berries and a handful of raw nuts
- oat cakes with sugar free hazelnut butter (it's so much nicer than peanut butter and tastes very similar to nutella)
- homemade hummus and crudités (I use this recipe as I like the chunky texture but have recently read a Silvena Rowe recipe for a smooth hummus I'll try it soon and post the results)
- berry, nut and chia seed smoothie
- my almond protein shake for after the gym
- a green goddess (or monster!) smoothie - I promise it tastes amazing. A little bit like a non alcoholic mojito, it's such a dark green colour because I added spirulina powder, but you can't taste it once it's whizzed up
- cooked chicken or salmon with cucumber or tomatoes
- Total Greek yoghurt with berries and seeds
Lunches included:

- Chicken and Barley Soup
- quinoa salad
- chicken salad
- roasted vegetable salad
- chunky chicken and vegetable soup
Dinners included:
- Diana Henry's Roast Chicken, with quinoa wheat and feta stuffing and lebanese beans
- Tessa Kiros' Lamb Tava
- Tessa Kiros' Lemon and Oregano Chicken
- Chicken cataccioa and minted courgettes
- Steak with peppers and onions


Hopefully this will give you some healthy, clean eating ideas.

Summer Porridge

After posts full of cake and chocolate yesterday, I though it was time for something healthier.

This is one of my favourite summer breakfasts and I often have some variation on it. It's so quick and easy, the only hard part is remembering to put the oats to soak the night before!

Start the night before, by putting the oats in a bowl. I use about 40g per person. Pour on your choice of milk until it comes just above the level of the oats. I tend to use oat milk to cut down on the dairy I eat, a good apple juice also works well. Cover the bowl and put it in the fridge overnight.

In the morning coarsely grate half an apple per person and stir into the oats. Top with your choice of fruits, I used a mixture of cherries, raspberries, blueberries and strawberries. It's also good to add some dried cranberries or chopped dried apricots. Sprinkle with a few chopped nuts and drizzle on some good honey, if desired. My favourite is Greek honey which is dark and has an almost caramel like flavour.

Enjoy!

Herby Rainbow Coleslaw

I love summer. The long warm days, light nights and the feeling that there is time to achieve anything. I know this summer hadn't been perfect but, in London at least, we've had enough decent weather to make my mood more buoyant.

This is a quick salad I made on a lovely summers evening. I had some leftover fresh beetroot and decide to make a take on coleslaw.

I shredded beetroot, carrot and cabbage (you could also add onion but I'm not a fan of raw onion) and then added a tarted up mayonnaise.

My friend who is pregnant was eating with us so I used bought mayonnaise to avoid raw egg and enhanced it with a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, seasoning, lemon juice and finely chopped parsley and mint and then mixed it with the vegetables to form a fabulously colourful salad.

This is great with a BBQ or a cooked chicken and salad.


The herbs came from my garden

Guest Post: Easy Spanish Chicken

One of my team mentioned to me that although had an interest in food he couldn't cook. After asking a few questions it did seem that he knew how to cook almost nothing. It doesn't surprise me as if you don't have a parent or similar who has an interest in cooking then it is quite hard to learn. Most recipe books are quite inaccessible and assume a basic level of knowledge.
So I set him the challenge of cooking a meal. I will post his results once he's made the meal next week.
I chose one of my favourite simple, one pot meals and tried to write the recipe as clearly as possible. This recipe is not necessarily authentically Spanish but originally it was given to me by a friend's Spanish mum, hence the name.
If anyone else knows someone who claims not to be able to cook ask them to have a go at this recipe and send me a photo and/or comments to let me know how they get on.

Easy Spanish Chicken

Serves 4 but can be easily halved or doubled

Ingredients:
4 chicken portions like the ones in the photo below or you could use 8 chicken thighs instead.
Salt and pepper
Two large peppers maybe a different colours
Two large onions
Two large potatoes (I leave these out to make it 'cleaner')
Two cloves of garlic (these are the small ‘segments’ from a whole bulb)
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 head of broccoli
Water
Equipment:
An oven
A large pan or dish which is oven proof
A knife
A chopping board
A tin opener
A wine glass
A saucepan
A strainer (if you have one)




Turn your oven on to pre-heat. You want the temperature to be 180C. If the oven is a fan oven you always have to put the temperature 20C less so it would need to be set to 160C. This is about 350F or Gas Mark 4
Take a large pan or dish, which is able to go in the oven. Something like a lasagne dish would be good. If you don’t have one large dish two smaller ones will do, but don’t be tempted to squash everything into one small one.
Get 4 chicken portions and place them in a single layer in the dish. Remember when handling chicken that you need to make sure that the raw chicken doesn’t touch anything that won’t be cooked so once you have put the chicken in the pan, wash your hands and anything the chicken has touched well.
Sprinkle salt and pepper over the chicken you want a pinch of each.
Cut the peppers in half and cut out the stalk out of the pepper and all of the seeds and throw these away. Take the pepper halves and cut each one into four roughly equal pieces. Scatter these on top of the chicken.
Peel the onions. This is easiest if you cut the top and bottom off the onion and then cut the onion in half first. Cut each half into 3 wedges. Scatter these on top of the chicken.
Cut the potatoes into half and cut each half into quarters scatter these on top of the chicken. There is no need to peel them.
Peel the garlic and chop it into small pieces. The smaller the better. You can also crush it a little with the flat side of a knife.
Take the lid off the tin of tomatoes and put them in a bowl, stir in the tomato puree and the garlic.
Spoon the tomato into 4-6 small piles around the chicken and vegetables and then carefully pour a small wine glass worth of water around the edge.
If the pan or dish you are using has a lid put it on. If not take a piece of tin foil and place it over the top and scrunch the sides to make sure it stays on.
Put the dish into the oven and set a timer for 1 hour. Check it about half way through by lifting up a corner of the foil. Be careful of the steam. If it looks dry add another wine glass full of water.
After 45 minutes take some broccoli and cut it into smaller pieces or ‘florets’ place it in a pan of boiling water and cook it for 3-5 minutes. I tend to boil the water in a kettle first for speed but you can boil the water in the pan just pop the lid on else it will take ages to boil. Drain the water off the broccoli using a strainer. If you don’t have one if you are careful you always fish them out with a spoon or fork.
After an hour take the chicken out of the oven and serve with the broccoli.

Clean living

As I've mentioned before as much as I love cake I do try and balance it with clean eating. Last week, more as an experiment than anything else, I tried to have a wheat free, diary free, sugar free week (Mon to Fri).

Here is one of the days food...

I started the day with an egg white 'omelette'. The only reason it was egg white was because I had so many left over from making pasteis de nata. It wasn't a true omelette as I much prefer egg poached to fried so I tried poaching the egg white. I had it with tomatoes and mushrooms which I fried in a little rapeseed oil, added a bit of thyme, a splash of red wine vinegar and some seasoning.



For a morning snack I had some roasted mixed nuts and seeds.

For lunch I had a fab veggie salad. I started by 'roasting' some peppers. I did this by charring them directly onto the gas. Remove the metal pan stand, turn the gas on and rest the pepper against the flame. Keep a careful eye on it and turn it every so often until it the skin is blistered and black in places. Put them into a bowl and cover tightly with cling film. This will help the skin come off. Leave them for about 10mins and then peel them. This is easiest under running water. Chop into chunks.




I also had chunks of cucumber, sliced of tomato with basil, sautéed onions and mushrooms and mixed lettuce with some sprouting seeds. You can sprout seeds yourself but I bought these from @wfm_kensington






My afternoon snack was coconut yoghurt also from @wfm_kensington which is dairy free and would make a fantastic ice cream.

For dinner I had chicken which I marinated in oil, mint, chilli, ginger, lime zest and line juice. I pan fried it and then whilst it was resting I quickly fried off some rice noodles that I had pre-soaked in water. This is a trick I learnt in Thailand which means there is no news to boil them. In a separate pan I fried some broccoli and finished it with soy sauce and a little sesame oil.





For dessert I made a chia pudding. Chia seeds originate from Mexico and are great as they can soak up ~10 times their weight in liquid. This means they are fab for thickening and can be used in smoothies as well.

I put about 2 dessertspoons of chia seeds in a blender with 1 dessertspoons of cacoa nibs. I added a teaspoon of vanilla extract, a handful of raw porridge oats, a handful of mixed roaste nuts and about a cup of almond milk. I blended it until it was quite smooth and poured it into a bowl and chilled it until it thickened slightly. Now I wouldn't serve it at a dinner party but considering it is a pudding with no sugar in it was really quite tasty!

'Carrot Cake' Porridge

I love porridge and I love carrot cake so when I saw this rather unusual recipe from @porridgelady I had to give it a go. I know putting carrot in porridge sounds a bit strange but it takes fab in carrot cake so seemed worth a go! My version is a bit of an adaptation but was very yummy and relatively healthy.

I decided I wanted to make it all in one pan so I grated the carrot into a saucepan, added a splash of orange juice, the dried fruit and the spices (plus sugar if desired, leave out to keep it clean) and cooked for a few minutes until it started to soften. I then added jumbo porridge oats, a little bran and the water and the milk. I cooked slowly until the oats started to break down and it looked nice and creamy and served with a sprinkle of walnuts and soft dark brown sugar.




Recipe

One carrot
A splash of orange juice
A mixture of spices I used cinnamon and nutmeg
A small handful of sultanas or your chosen dried fruit. I also added a little chopped crystallised ginger (use fresh to keep it clean).
A 1/2 cup of jumbo porridge oats
About half a tablespoon of bran if desired (it doesn't change the taste but increases the fibre)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup milk (I use unsweetened almond)
Walnuts
Soft dark brown sugar (leave out to keep it clean or substitute with a natural sweetener)

1. Grate the carrot into a saucepan and add the orange juice, spices, dried fruit and sugar/sweetener to taste (if desired). Cook for a few
minutes until soft.
2. Add the oats, bran (if using), milk and water and cook on a low heat until the oats are starting to break down and the mixture is fairly thick and creamy.
3. Pour into a bowl and serve with a sprinkle of walnuts and soft dark brown sugar. If you're feeling particularly decedent a splash of single cream would go very well I'm sure.