Quick and easy. Sorry about the picture. I’d already eaten most of my dinner when I realized it was so good that I should do an entry!

Serves: 1 or more
Prep: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min

Ingredients:
1 chicken breast ( you won’t need all of this but may as well cook it)
1 large mushroom
½ Spanish onion
1 ½ handful of rocket
½ handful of oregano
1 garlic clove
1 small red chili
Lemon myrtle infused olive oil
½ lemon
Grated halloumi to serve

1. Cut the chicken into strips and marinate in the finely chopped chili and finely chopped oregano with a lug of lemon myrtle olive oil and a teeny bit of that lemon as we need most of it in the dressing. Leave for half an hour
2. In a seperate hot pan begin to cook the chicken pieces until nice and brown
3. In the mean time, begin to cook the mushrooms. Slice them and throw into the pan with plenty of olive oil. Once half way through cooking add the onion and garlic continue to cook until just golden on each side on a medium heat.
4. In a bowl combine rocket the remaining juice of the lemon
5. Combine the cooked mushroom and chicken with the rocket. This will wilt it a little. Stir to combine and garnish with halloumi and pepper.

Dinner with Kate… She was most impressed. And I was most impressed that the leftovers survived for lunch the next day. She simply replaced the dressing with a fresh lime from the handbag. Sweet.

Serves: 2-3
Prep: 20 min
Cook: 0 min

Ingredients:
Chicken breast
50g packet of glass rice noodles
Salad vegetables (grated carrot, shredded lettuce, thinly sliced red capsicum, spring onion, basil / mint)
Pau Pau
Fried onion
1 garlic clove finely chopped
1 small knob of ginger finely chopped
1 lime squeezed
A dash of sesame oil
1 teaspoon of sweet chili sauce

1. Cook chicken strips. In this instance I used the breast of a roast chicken and pulled it into strips.
2. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil, add the noodles and cook for 5 minutes until soft. Drain and allow to cool.
3. To make the dressing mix together the garlic, ginger, lime, sesame oil and sweet chili sauce and allow to rest for the flavors to develop.
4. Shred, slice and dice the salad ingredients, and chop the pau pau up and mix in with the glass noodles with the dressing.
5. Serve in a bowl with the chicken on top and sprinkle the fried onion on top.

Serves: 1 or 2
Prep: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min

Ingredients:
1 chicken breast
2 small zucchinis cut lengthwise
8 asparagus spears cut lengthwise
2 handfuls of rocket
2 tablespoons of Parmesan shavings
½ small brown/red onion sliced into long pieces
Balsamic vinegar
Lug of olive oil

1. Put water on in a saucepan for poaching the chicken
2. Heat grill pan, clean and chop the veggies and place on pan for grilling
3. Cut the chicken into two equal portions horizontally and lengthwise as though you were going to butterfly it open
4. Put the chicken in the boiling water with a lid on and cook for around 8 minutes
5. Meanwhile, turn the veggies
6. In a bowl, place Parmesan shavings, onion and rocket
7. Once the chicken is ready remove from the saucepan and slice
8. Add chicken to bowl of salad with the grilling veggies
9. Stir through salt and pepper, a lug of olive oil and splash of balsamic.
10. Serve

Cal. 270

You know how to do these… use soft tacos, mountain bread… I used lavash bread…. but for the fajita marinade:

Serves: 2
Cook time: 15 min

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts cut into strips
Juice of two limes
1 clove of garlic chopped finely
1 teaspoon of oregano
1/2 teaspoon of cumin
1 teaspoon of soy sauce
A good lug of olive oil
A handful of cilantro

1. Mix all ingredients and leave to marinate for longer than two hours or overnight.
2. Fry on a high heat to cook through and give a little colour.
3. Roll up nicely as shown in the picture with sour cream, capsicum, lettuce, cheese, salsa as shown above. And of course when in season avocado.

Hmmm… kick it! This salad really rocks. And it was a really satisfying way for me to send off a tummy bug!

Serves: 2
Cook time: 25 min

Ingredients:
2 chicken thighs
3 cups of inch cubed pumpkin
2 slices of haloumi
A handful of green beans
A handful of rocket

Dressing
1 lug of olive oil
Juice of half a lemon
½ teaspoon of wholegrain mustard
1 teaspoon of parsley

1. Place the pumpkin in the oven and roast at a moderate temperature for 45 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, slice the haloumi and pan fry until golden on both sides
3. Dice the chicken and cook fairly quickly on a high heat so that nice brown crispy bits appear.
4. Slice the green beans and blanch for a moment.
5. Mix together the ingredients for the dressing in a bowl, add the rocket, cooked green beans, pumpkin, haloumi and chicken and stir through.

This dish came out of what I learnt making the preserved lemon dish and reading many many tagine recipies. I don’t know really what makes a tangine a tagine and I don’t know if it is technically one… but that is my source of inspiration and this is a fantastic dish!!!!

Oh, and I suspect that it is the ceramic pot that makes a tagine a tagine… so I think this isn’t the ‘real thing’.

Serves: 4
Prep: 10 min
Cook time: 60 min

Ingredients:
3 chicken lovely legs
1 small onion finely sliced or half a large one
2 garlic cloves finely chopped
1 tablespoon of ginger finely chopped
1 teaspoon of paprika
1 teaspoon of turmeric
One small red chili deseeded and finely chopped
2 cups of chopped pumpkin
1 400g can of chickpeas
2 cups of veggie stock
Two fists full of green beans cut in half
Two fists full of parsley chopped
One quarter of preserved lemon

1. In a large pot, brown off the chicken.
2. Add ginger, onion, garlic, paprika and turmeric and cook for a few minutes to soften the onion.
3. Add pumpkin and stir through the flavor.
4. Add two cups of veggie stock and bring to the boil remembering to occasionally turn the chicken.
5. Add a can of chickpeas
6. Add more water if required to prevent it from absorbing completely. It isn’t until the end of the cooking process that we want it to have really thickened to be careful not to add to much as well.
7. Cook until the chicken starts to fall off the bone. I really enjoyed pulling it off, shredding and tearing at it while cooking and stirring the pot.
8. With about 10 -15 minutes to go add the green beans, parsley and preserved lemon.
9. Serve on plain couscous with olive salsa and roasted pine nuts. (see below)

Wow. What an experience. I Hadn’t cooked anything with preserved lemons before – but they are certainly a precious discovery and something that I’m really excited about having added to my repertoire. They freaked me out to start with, but I’d spent up big on the Maggie Beer ones so I knew I was sort of safe with that.

Kate (my dinner guest) said she had thought of making preserved lemons before and it was just like ANOTHER thing that she says that I was already thinking. :] She’s a sista.

Serves: 4
Prep: 10 min
Cook time: 60 min all up

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons of olive oil
6 chicken lovely legs
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 tablespoon of ginger finely chopped
1 small onion finely sliced
A pinch of saffron (soaked in hot water for 10 min)
1 ½ cups of water
Butter
5 green olives torn in half
Skin of one preserved lemon
Honey

Thanks to Kate’s brilliant thinking… honey lightly drizzled over the chicken complimented this perfectly.

1. In a large pot, brown off the chicken.
2. Add ginger, onion, garlic and the saffron and cook for a few minutes to soften
3. Add the water and bring to the boil remembering to occasionally turn the chicken. Add more water if required to prevent it from absorbing completely. It isn’t until the end of the cooking process that we want it to have really thickened to be careful not to add to much as well.
4. Once the chicken is cooked, remove from the pot and place on a baking tray. Rub lightly with butter and place in the oven for 15 minutes to brown at a high temperature. Turn the heat down on the pot, but continue to lightly simmer
5. Once brown, return the chicken to the pot along with a the olives and preserved lemon. Cook for another 10 minutes before serving with a drizzle of honey on top.

About the lemon
It’s a bit scary at first – but the thing you need to know is that this is intense salty lemon flavor and that it dissolves into the meal. So it’s great for casserole dishes and is often used in Moroccan tangines. The Maggie Beer brand comes already cut into quarters and it is the peel that is the special part. The actual lemon pulp/ pith is discarded and you need to rinse it really well to remove the excess salt.

I simply pre-cook the chicken and make the alioli earlier in the day. You could short cut this step by buying a cooked chicken, or getting some smoked chicken from the supermarket and buying mayo, but I think this is a nicer way to do it.

Samantha and I ate this at a twilight picnic in the Sydney Botanic Gardens with a lovely bottle of rose. The fun part was getting a dinky on her new BMX as we giggled and nearly ran over pedestrians on Macquarie Street. Sammi wants to form a little BMX gang and I’m thinking about joining her.

Serves: 2
Prep: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts
1 apple
1 celery stick
A handful of walnuts
A small handful of torn up parsley

Aolio
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon of wholegrain mustard
2 teaspoons of lemon juice
½ cup of extra virgin olive oil

Prep at home:
1. Get your chicken breasts and cut into strips and fry in a reasonably hot pan until they are slightly browned. Put aside to cool.
2. In a small bowl make the aolio by first mixing one egg yolk, the lemon juice and wholegrain mustard. Once these ingredients are blended slowly add the olive oil a bit at a time and blend until well combined. This should thicken up quite a bit.
3. Place the aolio into a small container to take to the picnic. Once the chicken has cooled pop it in a container as well. All you need to do now is take the apple, celery, walnuts and parsley with you as well as a chopping board and small knife.

When you get to the park:
1. Use your small cutting board to slice the celery and apple and distribute on to two serving plates evenly. Sprinkle over a good amount of walnuts and parsley before topping with chicken and a big dollop of the aolio.

Serves 4
Prep: 20 min
Cook time: 30 min

Ingredients:
500g arborio rice
1.25 liters of vegie stock
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
3 medium sized shallots sliced using the white and green parts
2 sticks of celery diced
2 chicken breasts cubed or chopped into tenderloins
2 cloves of garlic
¾ a punnet of cherry tomatoes
1 large handful of parsley
3 generous handfuls of baby spinach
A knob of butter
½ cup of pecorino or mature cheese

1. You need to pots for this dish – the nice big one that you will make your risotto in and a smaller pan to hold your stock in. Firstly put your stock on to heat – it should be simmering by the time you need to use it.
2. Cube the celery, slice up the shallots and lightly fry in oil.
3. Slice up your chicken and throw into the pan to seal stirring occasionally.
4. Add garlic and rice and stirring through the flavours and coating the rice.
5. Add a tablespoon of white wine vinegar which I am using in place of a cup of white wine (of course white wine is much better – but I didn’t want to buy a full bottle of plonk)
6. Add two ladles of the hot stock and stir through until absorbed.
7. Continue adding more stock two ladles at a time until most of the stock has been absorbed.
8. Add halved cherry tomatoes and continue until all of the stock has been absorbed
9. Take off the heat, stir through parsley, spinach, a knob of butter and the cheese
10. Serve with pepper.

Serves: 2
Prep: 3 min
Cook time: 7min

Ingredients:
One chicken breast sliced into two slices
Half a teaspoon crushed garlic
One and a half tablespoons of honey
One small red chili deseeded and sliced
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

The browned honey in the pan is lovely.

1. Lay out the two chicken breast slices side by side and season with salt and pepper.
2. Drizzle one side of the chicken with honey and spread on half of the chopped garlic. I like to mince some up and immerse it in olive oil, it works nicely with this dish. Top with a little of the chili.
3. Place into a fry pan which is quite hot with some olive oil with the marinated side down and add the remaining honey, garlic and chili to the other side while in the pan.
4. As the chicken slices are quite thin it shouldn’t take very long and will have a nice brownness about it.
5. While it is cooking I added a quarter of a Spanish onion for garnish which topped it off. This is optional.