Orange and Apricot Chicken with Quinoa and Baby Peas

I found a recipe in a cookbook that looked good.  I thought I had most of the ingredients to make it but when it came time to cook it, I discovered that I didn't.  So ... I improvised.  Here's the resulting recipe ...

Ingredients:
1 orange, you'll need the juice and the zest
1/4 cup chicken stock, salt reduced
2 teaspoons apricot jam
4 chicken breasts, skinned and boned
2 tsp cornflour
fresh parsley
slivered almonds
olive oil

How to make it:
Preheat oven to 190C/375F

In a small saucepan, over a medium heat, mix 2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest, 1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice, the chicken stock and the apricot jam.  Stir until smooth (like in photo above)  ... doesn't take more than a minute or two.

Over medium heat,  heat olive oil in a large oven proof fry pan and add chicken.  Lightly salt and pepper each breast. Brown chicken just a little bit ... a minute or two on each side.

Pour orange/apricot mixture on top and bake til chicken is cooked through ... about 20 minutes. 

Mix 2 tsp cornflour with 2 teaspoons of water to make a smooth paste.  Once the chicken comes out of the oven, remove to a plate and keep warm.  Add cornflour paste to fry pan with remaining sauce.  Stir for a couple of minutes until the sauce is nice and thick.

Serve chicken, drizzled with sauce, over quinoa and with a side of baby peas.  

Sprinkle parsley and slivered almonds on top of chicken.

Raw Key Lime Pies

 

These little things are delicious!

I found the recipe here and just had to try it. I changed it just a little bit after reading through some of the suggestions in the comments.  And next time I will double the crust because I had WAY too much filling. (I'm not putting the double crust recipe here though as you may not find that necessary ... maybe I have smaller cupcake molds?) The original recipe was for eight cupcakes or one pie.

Crust: (like I said ... this is the single recipe but I'll double it next time)
1 cup unsweetened dried coconut
1 cup  walnuts
a pinch of sea salt
10 dates (pitted)

Filling:
1&1/2 cups mashed avocado (this was three avocados!!)
3/4 cups fresh squeezed lime juice (I ran out of fresh so I used a bit of the bottled stuff to top it up)
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup coconut oil
zest from one lime

Method:

Put crust ingredients in your food processor.  Whizz that up until it's crumbled and moist.  Push that together in the bottom of your cupcake molds.  I went and bought some silicone ones.  You'll want to too or else you'll never get them out!!

Put filling ingredients into food processor.  Whizz that up until it's smooth.  Taste it.  Try not to eat it all right now!  You can adjust the taste by adding more honey or lime juice.  I did neither.  It was so tasty!!

Spoon that filling into your cupcakes molds on top of the crust.

Freeze until set.  

**I took these to a party the first night I made them and since there were lots of us, we just cut them up and shared.  I reckon that is the way to do it.   We have a couple in the freezer and we've been taking one out a night, cutting it into four and sharing.  It's sorta like one perfect bite!!  Yum!!

Comfort Breakfast Bake

I saw this recipe on Facebook the other day and thought it looked easy and quick to throw together.  Perfect for a Sunday morning breakfast with a hoard of boys.  As it turns out it was super easy, very quick, and a HUGE hit!  (as you can see by the picture!!  That last bit disappeared shortly after I took the picture)

 

Ingredients:

5 eggs

1/4 cup milk

16 oz refrigerated biscuits (I used the jumbo flaky kind and cut it into smaller bits than the recipe originally called for)

1 bunch green onions

1 (generous) cup extra sharp cheddar cheese

1lb cooked sausage or bacon (I used sausage this time and the boys said it tasted like a pizza bake, but I'm sure they would love bacon too!)

 

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Mix eggs and milk in a large bowl until well mixed. 

3. Cut each biscuit into fours and add to the bowl.  (with the BIG biscuits I cut them into 6ths) Mix. 

4. Cook bacon (cut into pieces) or sausage (make sure its crumbled) and drain grease if necessary.

5. Cut green onions.

6. Add all remaining ingredients to the milk/egg mixture and stir.

7. Spray 13 by 9 pan with cooking spray

8. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes (or until it isn't runny and the biscuits look flaky.

 

Enjoy!!!