Thai/Vietnamese Inspired Chicken Salad

I wanted to try an asian style salad I saw in a magazine. I did change it alot as there didn't seem to be that many things they had in their salad to make it filling enough.

After eating it I comfirmed that I don't like this type of asian sauce. Give me soy, honey, ginger, garlic. But not fish sauce and lime and coriander and mint. But hey, you might like those things! If I were to do it again I would use a different type different type of dressing. Maybe balsamic, or lemon, or even soy and honey.

What you will need:

I was lazy and used a bag of mixed lettuce and spinach leaves...

half red capsicum (pepper)

1/2 cucumber

cherry tomatoes (around a punnet)

1 carrot cut into matchsticks

1 stick celery

handful snow peas

1-2 chicken breasts

handful of fresh mint

handful of fresh coriander

dressing:

1/3 cup lime juice

1/3 cup fish sauce

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 chilli finely chopped (I didn't add the chilli).

Method:

1. place chicken breast in pot and cover with cold water. Place on medium heat and when it starts to boil, turn it down to simmer, cover with a lid and let it simmer for around 10-12 mins or until cooked. Once it is cooked shred the chicken.

2. Cut all the salad ingredients and place in a bowl

3. Put shredded chicken into salad bowl and pour over dressing.

Menu for the week

Our menu for the week

Monday- Lamb Yiros
Tuesday- Honey Lemon Chicken with Rice
Wednesday-Beef stroganoff
Thursday- left overs
Friday-Vietnamese inspired Chicken Salad
Saturday-???
Sunday-Taco's

Greek Style Lamb Yiros

I LOOOOVVVEEEEEE Yiros! I thought it was time I made some of my own as I never really get to them much as we don't buy take away that often.

Very easy and delicious. Grace (4 yrs old) LOVED it. I was surprised, she doesn't normally like lamb, or lettuce but she gobbled it up and asked to have it the night after too :) The lettuce was grown in our own veggie patch, as well as some of the herbs that I put in the marinade.

What you will need: (for 4 people)

1 tomato sliced

2 cups lettuce sliced

1/2 red onion sliced

Yiros bread

Lamb marinade

500 gms lamb (I used leg steaks which are nice and tender and have alot of meat. You could use back strap, or use left over roast lamb, or just use plain old lamb chops and just cut the meat off) I cut my lamb into strips, you could do strips or chunks.

3-4 garlic cloves crushed or finely chopped

1/4 teaspoon sumac (dry you can get it in the herb section)

1 teaspoon thyme (fresh or dry)

1 teaspoon oregano (fresh or dry)

1 teaspoon rosemary

1 teaspoon all spice

juice and rind of 1 lemon

salt

pepper

3 tablespoons olive oil

Yogurt (tzatziki)

Greek Stlye yogurt (I used a 200 ml tub but that was way too much, unless you want to use it as a dip the next day too) so perhaps only 100ml for just the yiros

1/2 continental cucumber (around a cup) peeled, and de-seed, then grated.

juice of 1 lemon

2 garlic cloves (crushed or finely chopped)

salt

pepper

parsely (1 tablespoon)

optional is mint or oregano

Method

1. Cut lamb and herbs for the marinade and place all of those ingredients into a air tight container and place in the fridge (preferbly for atleast 4 or 5 hours so you can really get the taste).

2. Place the yogurt, lemon juice, herbs, cucumber into a bowl and stir around, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for the same amount of time as the lamb. (taste to see if you want to add more of anything, your tastes will be different to ours).

3.Heat pan or grill and cook lamb until its cooked to your liking (some like it rare, medium etc).

4. Slice the salad ingredients.

5. Place yiros bread in warm oven wrapped in foil for a few minutes or in the microwave (without foil!!).

6. Once lamb is cooked you can assemble your yiros. No real art to it, whatever takes your fancy. We put some lettuce, tomato and onion down, lamb on top and the yogurt and then wrapped and enjoyed :)

Serve with fries or garlic bread

Menu this week

Monday- Greek style lamb yiros
Tuesday- Crispy chicken with tomatoes and garlic
Wednesday-Lamb chops with mango
Thursday- Honey mustard chicken cutlets
Friday-Spaghetti bolognaise
Saturday- Spaghetti bolognaise
Sunday- Taco's

chicken and mushroom pies

I adapted this recipe from one I saw on Better Homes and Gardens

I only made 8 pies as I was in a rush to get them out in time. The original recipe called for ALOT of mince which I think would of made atleast 24 pies. So I know that to make 12 it would of been around half of the quantity. So if you want to make more just double the mince.

200-250 gms chicken mince

120gms creamed cheese

1/2 onion (or 1 leek stalk)

6-7 medium sized mushrooms

2 garlic cloves

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon sage

1/2 chicken cube stock

3 tablespoons boiling water

2 tablespoon bread crumb

2 sheets shortcrust pastry

2 sheets puff pastry

egg (for eggwash)

Method

Preheat oven to 210 celcius

1. Chop mushroom, onion (or leek), garlic and fry these in some oil. Add salt and pepper. Add the chicken stock cube and the water. Set aside to cool or place in the fridge (will take around 15-20 mins)

2. Whilst the mushrooms are cooling take out the frozen pastry as they need around 15 mins to thaw out.

3. Grease (or spray with oil) 12 pan muffin tin

4. once the mushroom mixture is cool add the chicken mince, sage, bread crumb and creamed cheese to the bowl and mix well.

5. Cut circles in the shortcrust pastry that will leave a 1cm height over the top of the muffin tin (so bigger than an egg ring) and brush with egg wash. Place these in the bottom of the muffin trays and fill with the chicken mixture.

6. cut smaller circles of the puff pastry (an egg ring is a good size) and place on top of the pies with some egg wash and crimp the sides with a fork.

7. Place in the oven for 15-20 mins, until the tops are nice and brown.

review- The recipe said to use shortcrust but I think it would of been fine to use puff down the bottom also. The kids LOVED the pies and so did the hubby :)

chicken and mushroom pasta

This was really quick and easy, it kind of reminded me of a chicken stroganoff type of thing.

the kids scoffed it down, Grace doesn't always eat all of her tea but she did with this and even asked for more mushrooms!! This recipe served 2 adults and 2 small children (and there is enough for left overs- so would feed 4 adults)

You will need:

2 chicken breast cut into cubes or pieces

6-7 medium sized mushrooms sliced

1/2 brown onion chopped

2 cloves garlic chopped

Tin of cream of mushroom soup (I used campbells)

1 chicken stock cube in 1/2 cup hot water

Salt and pepper for seasoning

1 teaspoon dried sage (or fresh if you have it)

2-3 handfuls of baby spinach chopped

3 tablespoons of thickened cream

handful of parsley chopped

parmesan cheese to serve on top

Method:

Heat some oil in a pan and cook chicken, when almost done add the garlic and onion

Add salt and pepper and sage

Add mushrooms and cook for a minute or so

Add soup and chicken stock and heat through

When its almost done cooking (reduce heat to simmer)add in the baby spinach to heat them and some of the cream and let it simmer for a few minutes.

Serve with your favourite pasta (my kids like the curly pasta)

Top with some parsley and parmesan cheese before serving