Roasted chicken breast with puy lentils and braised red cabbage recipe

I was also a little productive with food over the weekend – I got a MASSIVE red cabbage in my Abel and Cole box on Friday along with some cooking apples and loads of onions and a lovely recipe for red cabbage so it was inevitable. I did then have to think of something vaguely GI-like to have with it so the following was born…

First of all, follow this recipe for the cabbage – I’ve never actually followed a recipe for cabbage that took less effort so I’d definitely recommend it and the finished results were fantastic! Though there’s a lot of chopping to start with (cabbage, apple and onion), you can then just leave it in the oven and check on it every now and then. I did roast mine for longer than the 90 minutes they suggest as I like my cabbage super soft and almost treacley – I’ve now got 5 massive portions in the freezer that I reckon will last through till Christmas – can’t wait to have some with my Christmas ham…that I’ve been thinking about since September…sad I know

All chopped up and ready to go

I then decided to do some puy lentils to go with – using this recipe – except I halved it and added two finely diced carrots to the lentils whilst they boiled and left out the chorizo as I decided this might make it a little healthier! I also used balsamic vinegar instead of red wine as it was all I had…other than malt but it worked really nicely – make sure you season them really well before serving though!

Super rubbish picture of the lentils cooking

 

Red onions for the lentils

Whilst they were boiling away I put the chicken in a pre-heated oven (around 180 degrees C). The chicken was lovingly prepared by Mr B, who rolled a rasher of streaky bacon around each breast and held in place with cocktail skewers. You could also choose to stuff something inside the chicken but we went for simple…

Chicken roasting in the oven

The chicken takes about 25 minutes or until the bacon is crispy, just make sure it doesn’t go dry!

Then it’s a case of pulling the chicken, lentils and cabbage all together, hot, on one plate…et voila!

Roasted chicken with puy lentils and braised red cabbage

And it was delicious!!!! Try it and let me know what you think?

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Getting things sorted and a little forward planning…

This weekend we got a little bit closer to getting the house a little more sorted before Christmas – my basic requirement is to get the lounge looking like a lounge (so my Christmas tree looks pretty – sad I know) and for the tools to not be ALL over the house!

We have a long weekend off next weekend and we are going to line the walls in the hall and lounge that were pulled apart for the damp treatment, sand and paint all the woodwork in the hall and lounge and paint the walls in the hall and lounge. We’ve decided that the ceilings don’t need doing for the moment as they were done by the guy who sold us the house only a few months ago and…we have achy arms as it is!

So we had to finish all the prep this weekend, we finished stripping all the walls – I’d forgotten how much I hate stripping wallpaper – and thought about putting the skirting boards back on…but didn’t Clearly we have to think about the logistics of whacking a few nails into the boards for at least a month before doing anything. They need to be done this week anyway otherwise we can’t wallpaper properly. I’ve been working on the fireplace too, getting that sorted so with a bit of fire cement, a fire guard and an ash pan we can actually have a fire…I’m so excited it’s ridiculous!

A pretty productive weekend anyway, we also ‘pimped’ Betty’s hutch as it’s been getting RIDICULOUSLY cold at night, so she now has a sheep like coating on her hutch, underneath the cover. We saved the horrible carpet from the lounge and have put it to good use, giving her insulated walls I completely forgot to take photos though…it wasn’t that exciting anyway!

The other thing I made a bit of headway on this weekend was operation ‘Sew-up’, a top-secret endeavour which will only be revealed if I actually manage to pull it off! Put it this way, I’ve set myself the task of sewing more items in the next month (and a bit) than I’ve sewn in the past year…yup, I’m an idiot!

Anyway, once I am able to reveal my sewing efforts I shall but in the meantime I will post photos of our DIY efforts this week so you can all laugh at our bodging!

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Gem Squash pasta and looking forward to the weekend!

I love Thursday’s, I can now be excited about the weekend and next week is still far enough away not to have to think about it! We’ve not got much planned for this weekend but then that’s kind of how I like it We need to paper the walls in the lounge and rip out the current cupboard in the alcove next to the fireplace…put like that, that’s a fair amount to do! Fingers crossed we do anything at all, motivation has been at a rather low ebb at the moment so we’ll have to push ourselves to get the rest of our plans actually put in motion!

I thought I’d share a lovely dish that I made this week, based on the fact that I have 4 Gem Squash sat in my fridge and no idea what to do with them, I came up with this recipe which worked rather well…

Gem Squash and Spinach pasta

Serves 4

4 gem squash, deseeded, peeled and cubed (1cm pieces)
1 leek, finely sliced
1/2 red chilli, finely chopped seeds and all
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 rashers bacon
1 tin chopped tomatoes
200g spinach, washed and de-stemmed
Whole-wheat spaghetti
Handful grated parmesan

1. Heat some olive oil in a deep frying pan, once this has thinned slightly, add the squash and leek. Fry for 3-5 minutes, stirring.

Frying off the squash, leek, garlic and chilli

2. Once the squash has broken down a little and the leek is browned, add the chilli and garlic and fry for 2 minutes.
3. Snip the bacon into the pan, I cut mine into reasonably chunky slivers but you can do it however you like!
4. Once the bacon is brown, add the tin of tomatoes, bring the boil and reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 3-5 minutes until the squash is soft and starting to dissolve into the sauce.

Adding the tomatoes

5. Whilst the sauce is simmering, cook the spaghetti according to the packet instructions.
6. Add the spinach to the sauce, stir to combine and cook on a low heat for a minute or two until the spinach has wilted down.

Mixing the spinach in

7. Taste the sauce and season with salt and pepper.
8. Drain the spaghetti and return it to the pan you cooked it in, add the sauce and stir to combine.

Mixing the pasta with the sauce

9. Add the grated parmesan, stir to combine and serve, et voila!

Gem Squash and spinach pasta

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Birthday dinners and hating Monday mornings!

Too too short as usual but then how many people go into work on a Monday thinking that? How many people, in fact, wake up wondering why it can’t just be Saturday again?

The weekend was too short but also rather enjoyable…it was Mum’s birthday and we all went round Saturday night for a lovely dinner that Mum cooked. I thought I’d share with you a few photos (awful quality I know!) of the lovely food that we had – delicious!

Iced Bloody Mary shot, Chicken Liver Brandy pate with Melba toast and assorted meats...maybe some melon too...

 

A little glass of 'Freshinet'

 

Rump steak, Saute potatoes, grilled tomato and tenderstem brocoli

 

A quartet of puddings...Lime mojito granita, almond and orange cake, lemon tart with sugar crust and white chocolate maple syrup brownie

 

We then had a ‘slightly less painful than expected’ photo shoot on Sunday whilst nursing hangovers – we drunk A LOT of red wine on Saturday night…enough said about that. Mr B and I snuggled up last night and watched Date Night which I was hoping would be funny but was actually hilarious! I LOVE Tina Fey It made me want to watch the next season of 30 Rock – we got up to 3 I think so might have to ‘invest’ in 4 for keep us amused over the next few weeks…with work being what it is, I could do with all the amusement I can get…but enough of that! I hope a good weekend was had by all?

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Why was last weekend so stupidly hot!?

I just want to get on with wearing my nice, new (to me) winter clothes I’ve been getting off of eBay, eating lovely wholesome winter meals mostly consisting of custard and kicking leaves in the air whilst wearing my wellies…I just don’t really like the summer, I realise this is a hangable offence but I love the winter – bright, crisp days with stodgy food, cheek freezing walks and snuggling in front of the fire. I’ve been looking forward to Autumn since May!

So WHY was it so ridiculously hot this weekend? We/I had plans to pull out the cupboard in our lounge, rip off the rest of the wallpaper, put the skirting boards back on, put things in the loft, get started on the new quilts I’m making for Christmas and generally sort out the hundreds of piles and boxes (well, more like 10) around my house. Instead Mr B and I got hot and bothered (and not in a good sense) and squabbled our way through the weekend whilst achieving pretty little it feels like, I want my weekend for a do-over! Do you ever have that moment where you’re really not sure what you’re arguing about? We did it a lot!

We did manage to achieve one thing which we’ve been intending to do for about 3 weeks – we put the finishing touches to the coir matting in the hallway. Having ripped up all the carpets downstairs to do the sanding of the floors, we discovered that there was a massive piece of hard board in place of about 3 floorboards just inside the door in the hallway. So, rather than having to actually sort it out properly I came up with a bodge that involved sanding 2 thirds of the hallway and covering the rest in coir matting – presenting it as my truly intentional and original idea, obviously! I think the main problem with fitting it ourselves though is that neither of us had a clue what we were doing but both felt we should pretend we did

The coir matting, edged and finished

But it is done now and I do feel mighty proud of our efforts every time I come down the stairs

To be fair, it wasn’t all bad, we did have a nice evening out on Friday, drinking outside in the sun…so it wasn’t all bad…and we had a lovely BBQ on Sunday afternoon…and we sat out with Betty as she ransacked all my pots – yes, they look pathetic, I know!

Betty in the flower-pot

But last night I tried to make up for the lack of action a little and I’ve nearly finished one quilt with the plan to get started on fabric planning for the other two tonight and I’ll be putting all my other fabric in the loft so you can actually move around in our spare room. Mr B needs the space to play XBox you see

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