Recipe - {Parmesan Crusted Chicken with CousCous}

I dont know about you, but cooking dinner every night gets to be quite a uninteresting chore for me.
I love cooking, but it feels like we're eating the same few things, even when our meals are going in a 3 week (or more) cycle.

To make this very un-fun but necessary task a bit more enjoyable, I have started to venture out a bit with my cooking, and experiment. I have also been trying to use up whatever meat we have in our freezer, so that we can clean it out.

On the menu for last night was a meal using chicken breast. Normally, i would just make a stirfry, or something similar, but in the spirit of adventure, i created the following recipe pretty much from scratch!

{Parmesan Crusted Chicken with CousCous} 

With White Wine Cream Sauce

Ingredients:

4 servings of chicken breast (we used 2 large breasts for 2 adults and 3 toddlers and it was plenty!)

For the crust:

1/3 cup fine Parmesan cheese

1 slice of bread (I used multigrain)

1 tsp crushed garlic

Pinch of oregano

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Melted butter

For the Sauce:

1/2 c dry white wine

1/2 c stock 

300ml cream

2tbs shallots, finely diced

1tbs oil or butter

Method:

 

1. Preheat oven to 180 Celsius
2. Place all crumb ingredients except butter in a food processor or stick mixer, and blend till combined well. 
3. Lay chicken pieces in a greased baking tray and brush generously with melted butter
4. Press crumb onto chicken to cover the top surface. 
5. Place in oven till crust is golden, and chicken is cooked through (approx 30mins - use a sharp knife through a piece to check for doneness) 

Meanwhile prepare sauce:

1. Place oil or butter in a saucepan and heat over medium heat. 
2. Saute shallots. 
3. Add wine and bring to the boil. Lower heat to simmering and reduce to half its original volume. 
4. Add stock, and simmer to reduce liquid to about 1/2 c in total. 
5. Add cream, and simmer till thick, but do not boil. 
6. Season, and serve hot.

Prepare Couscous according to packet instructions

Overall, the recipe worked perfectly! Hubby was much impressed, and all 3 toddlers gave it their seal of approval!

Bake Up - Simple Baking Recipes

One benefit of being more organised around the home, and especially in the kitchen, is that we spend less on groceries. I am loving this because it means that we can buy some 'special' items, or save the excess money for other way more interesting things than groceries!
Today, I only have the youngest 2 of the 4 at home, and as they both sleep half the day, I decided to do a bit of a bake up. I started off with the goal to use simple recipes that used the ingredients i had on hand, nothing fancy.
First up was this lovely 'Bounty Cake'. I found the recipe on what is quickly becoming one of my favourite blogs... Just Love To Bake. Now before you go visiting here, beware of all the tempting recipes! I mean it! I can feel my waistline increasing just reading them, let alone making them!
This one, however, isnt too naughty, especially if you leave of the icing, which would still taste yum (Not that i did that :))

I also made apple muffins and berry muffins using this all purpose muffin recipe.

And a carrot cake without egg, since we ran out!

We already had some biscuits around, so i havent yet had need to, but i am planning to try out this great 4 ingredient recipe from  Stay at Home Mom. This is said to make 120 biscuits for $4! Now thats impressive!

I must say, all this baking has my home smelling beautiful on this wintery day! And we now have a lovely stock of yummy morning teas in the freezer for when i start uni back on Monday!

{Sweet Potato Damper}- Egg and Dairy Free!

It seems every second person has a food allergy or intolerance these days, be it egg, dairy, gluten.
I recently picked up a cook book for Allergy Free Baking, and given that i had no eggs in the house anyway, I decided to give the following egg and dairy free recipe a try. (And for a bonus, its healthy and contains vegetable!)
The original recipe calls for gluten-free SR flour, but i used ordinary SR flour as gluten is a problem with our family. I also replaced the milk and margarine with lactose free versions, to make it friendly for my lactose intolerant daughter.

 

SWEET POTATO DAMPER

Ingredients:

1 2/3 cupa Self-Raising Flour

1 tsp caster sugar

1/4 tsp salt

20g Nuttelex Margarine

1/2 cup mashed sieved cooked sweet potato

1/2 cup lactose free buttermilk*

2 tbls water

(*Place a Tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice in a liquid measuring cup, Add enough milk to bring the liquid up to the one-cup line, Let stand for five minute)
Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200 C (fan-forced). Grease a baking tray
2. Sift dry ingredients into large bowl; rub in margarine. Add sweet potato, buttermilk and enough water to make a soft sticky dough. Knead until smooth
3. Divide dough into small balls (makes roughly 9), place on baking tray and cook for 15-20 mins

ENJOY!

{Custard Puff Recipe}

This week I have been enjoying not being pregnant, and not having uni work to do! Its amazing what you can do in a day when you dont get exhausted just getting up!

I have had a few little sewing things to finish, but mostly, i have been baking! I think i have made atleast 3 pies, not to mention a number of batches of slice, and these little goodies were for a morning tea picnic that the girls, Tim and I took down to the park near our house:

These Custard Puffs are so easy and yummy, especially for a quick dessert or warm winter morning tea.
To make these simply,
1. Make up some custard (I used custard powder, but if you want to make real custard, there is a recipe here), and let it cool.

2. Thaw a sheet of puff pastry, cut into 9 squares.

3. Then you just need to put a generous spoon of custard onto each square of pastry, and fold to make a triangle.

4. Press edges with a fork to seal, and pop in the oven on 200 C until Golden brown!

ENJOY!

{SWEET TOOTH}- Honey Bubble Crunch

I just wanted to share my favourite recipe at the moment. Its definitely a 'sometimes' food but i love it!
Good ole' Honey Bubble Crunch

Ingredients

• 75g butter
• 1/4 cup Sugar (recipe states 1/2 c but i think its too sweet!)
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 4 cups rice bubble
• 1 cup coconut (you could replace with crushed biscuits if you don't like coconut, or just add more bubbles!)

Method

1. Melt butter, sugar and honey is a saucepan. Bring to the boil, but DO NOT let boil for more than 3 mins.
2. Combine rice bubble and coconut in a large bowl
3. Add butter mixture and mix to combine. 
4. Press mixture into a lined dish (Approx 18cm x 28cm)
5. Refrigerate till firm, then cut into squares. 

I like to drizzle chocolate over the top, or coat with a thin layer of chocolate/butter mixture and add sprinkles!
Beware....its addictive!