Chicken Pesto Gnocchi Bake

For me, gnocchi brings a little more baggage than little round balls of potato should. They’re riddled with guilt: I know how to make it from scratch, but I almost never do; the husband eats it but doesn’t necessarily love it, so I always feel a little bad for throwing it into the menu plan; I always feel like I bastardise it by creating a mongrel of a recipe with all sorts of random things thrown it.

But, guilt be damned. I don’t have much time in the evenings, and I need easy, filling, budget friendly meals that have some sort of nutrition involved, without eating the same things over and over. Yes, the gnocchi comes from a packet. Yes, husband would probably prefer wheat pasta. Yes, I’m making it up on the fly instead of following a recipe from 5 generations of women who lovingly pass it down from daughter to daughter. But we all do what we can to keep our families fed, right? Despite it’s flaws, this recipe ticks all my boxes, and is tasty, to boot (although it’s just over 500 calories, which is slightly higher than my usual weekday meals – still, better than takeout, right?). Vive la packet pasta!

Serves 4

Ingredients

500g gnocchi

2tsp olive oil

1 brown onion, diced

200g mushrooms, sliced

1 garlic clove, minced

500g chicken breast, diced

70g sundried tomatoes, finely diced

1 medium zucchini, diced

400g tinned tomatoes

190g pesto

3tbs parmesan cheese, grated

50g grated cheddar cheese

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 180C.
  2. Heat oil in a deep ovenproof frypan over medium heat. Add onion and mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes until golden. Add garlic and stir for 30 seconds.
  3. Add chicken and cook for 5 minutes until browned all over, stirring occasionally. Add sundried tomatoes and zucchini and mix well.
  4. Meanwhile, cook gnocchi in a large saucepan of salted water, to packet instructions. Remove and drain about a minute early.
  5. Stir in tinned tomatoes and pesto, and combine very well.
  6. Remove from heat and sprinkle over both cheeses.
  7. Bake for 15 minutes until golden and bubbly.

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One Pot Chicken, Bean and Veg Rice

Now that I’m back at uni (and doing it so slowly that I’ll be here for about 5 years, which is vaguely horrifying!), while still teaching full time, raising kids, maintaining a marriage, pretending to have a social life,
spoiling a high-maintenance dog, playing sport, making noises about work-life balance (hahahahaha) and trying to stay sane through it all*, I’m relying harder than ever on quick meals that are nutritious, delicious, cheap, and require no mental energy to prepare.

I’m rather fond of this one-pot wonder, which is very tasty, allows the throwing in of whatever you have on hand, can absolutely be made the night before, is basically begging you to use pre-cooked rice (but is still a one-pot cinch if you cook it from scratch) if you’re feeling particularly rushed, and is full of veggies and protein. We use brown rice most of the time, so there is some wholegrain goodness going on there, too. It takes all of 15 minutes in front of the stove, and is an absolute treasure on those evenings when you’re pulled from pillar to post after a long day at work, but want dinner to consist of something decent (does anyone else have those nights when you don’t even have time for takeout? We call them Thursdays around here).

As if this wasn’t already the dinner that keeps of giving, it’s relatively low calorie, with 1/4 serve consisting of 400 calories. I routinely eat 1/5, and it’s more than enough for me, but I generally don’t eat huge meals at night. One day, I’m sure I’ll use barley instead of rice, but that kind of defeats the quickness of the whole thing.


*Note to self: don’t list it all out like that again in black and white if you want a snowball’s chance of that last one!

Ingredients

1 tsp olive oil

1 onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 yellow capsicum, diced

500g chicken thigh fillet, cubed

400g tomatoes, diced (quartered cherry tomatoes are particularly nice, but regular sized tomatoes are completely fine)

375g microwavable rice (or 3/4 cup rice, cooked however you please. I steam mine, leaving it just underdone)

200g chicken stock

400g red kidney beans, drained

1 zucchini, diced

pinch cayenne, to taste

Salt and pepper, to taste

Method

  1. preheat oven to 180C. Heat oil in an oven-proof skillet over low heat, and cook onion, garlic and capsicum until softened.
  2. Increase heat to medium-high and add chicken, cooking for five minutes, until well browned.
  3. Add remaining ingredients, and stir to combine and coat rice with juices. Ensure that the rice has separated, as it sometimes comes out of the pack in clumps.
  4. Bake for 15 minutes until golden.

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Sweet Chilli Chicken and Corn Soup with Pumpkin Scones

Oh, look! Another soup! It’s cooling down here now, and I’m swapping my salads for soups as my seasonal staples. I’ve been making this soup for years, and it’s an absolute winner. I mean, chicken and corn soup isn’t anything overly special, but the sweet chilli sauce – such a simple addition to such a simple dish – makes such a difference to the versions I ate growing up. Adding a pumpkin lemonade scone for dipping makes this a delightfully delicious light meal that will leave you feeling like you’ve partaken in something special. Yet, it’s a cinch to make, and so very budget friendly. A serve of each sits right at 400 calories, making it the perfect winter warmer.

Sweet Chilli Chicken and Corn Soup

Serves 4 at 300 calories per serve

Ingredients

1.25 litres chicken stock

2 garlic cloves, minced

1tsp minced ginger

1 onion, finely diced

420g can creamed corn

200g sweetcorn kernels

300g chicken thigh fillets, skin removed

2tsp soy sauce

1tbs sweet chilli sauce

2 eggs whites, beaten

Salt and pepper, to serve

Method

  1. Bring stock to the boil. Add garlic, ginger, corn, onions and chicken to the stock, cover, and reduce heat to medium. Simmer for 10 minutes, or until chicken is mostly cooked through.
  2. Remove chicken from the stock, and using two forks, shred meat. Return to stock and resume simmering (uncovered) for five minutes or until cooked through.
  3. Stir through the soy and sweet chilli sauces. In a thin stream, slowly pour in the egg whites, whisking the soup to incorporate evenly. Cook for another minute, then serve with a generous crack of black pepper and salt to taste

Pumpkin Scones

makes 16 at 100 calories each (they freeze really well)

Ingredients

300g pumpkin (weight without skin and seeds)

2 1/2 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon maldon salt flakes

1/2 cup lemonade (Schweppes works well as it’s not too sweet)

1/2 cup thickened cream

1tbs milk

Method

  1. Steam pumpkin until very tender, drain and cool.
  2. Preheat oven to 220C and prepare a tray with non-stick baking paper (I give it a little spray with oil anyway, because I have trust issues).
  3. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl.
  4. Combine cream and lemonade. Pour into flour, and using a flat blade knife, mix to combine. Don’t overmix, but do ensure the flour is incorporated. The dough will be rather wet and sticky.
  5. Using a tablespoon or, better yet, a soup spoon, dollop spoonfuls of mixture on the prepared trays, shaping them into neat rounds with only a few millimetres of space between them.
  6. Brush with milk and bake for 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly on the tray. Serve with soup as they are, or spread with just a little butter or (as I tend to do) cottage cheese.

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Japanese Curry

Once again, dinner at my house was ascertained by the husband watching TV characters eat something, then looking at me with a half sly, half sheepish grin that absolutely means “hey… you could make that for us!” i KNOW that this is what this smile means, because the worlds usually tumble out of his mouth shortly after the grin spreads across it.

So, props to whatever show had the characters eating a Japanese curry. Actually… I think it might have been a Youtube video of some sort. At any rate, I spent the next hour or so hunting down a good recipe. Which was challenging, because while I have certainly eaten more than my fair share of Japanese food, and a moderate amount of curries, I don’t believe I’d ever had a Japanese curry. So evaluating it was tricky. What sold me on this recipe from Just One Cookbook was that while Nami assures us that we can use store bought curry roux (many sites insist that it’s the done thing), she also provides a fabulous recipe to make it from scratch. The whole dish was out of this world: the sweetness of the apples and honey is perfectly balanced with the heat of the other spices, and made my house smell nothing less than divine. Of course, I’ll keep researching Japanese curries (for science), but I could not be more pleased with this one. The whole family gobbled it up, and as is so often the case with curries, the leftovers the next day were possibly even better than when freshly cooked.

Honestly, I didn’t change much with this recipe. I just wanted to put it all together in one place for ease of reference. Because of the potatoes, rice is unnecessary (but not altogether unwelcome), and one fifth of the recipe is only 396 – very respectable for such a flavour bomb!

Ingredients

Roux:
3 Tbsp butter

4 tbsp flour

3tsp curry powder (6 g)

2tsp turmeric

1 Tbsp garam masala

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

Curry

  • 600g boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite sized pieces
  • 1 pinch maldon salt flakes
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 carrots, diced
  • 2 onions, diced
  • 2 medium waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into bite sized pieces
  • ½ tbsp minced ginger
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1½ tbsp olive oil
  • 4 cups good quality chicken stock
  • 1 red apple
  • 1 Tbsp honey
  • 1 1/2 tbs soy sauce
  • 1 Tbsp ketchup
  • Rice to serve (optional, not included in calorie calculation)

Method

To make the roux:

Melt butter over low heat. Add flour, and using a rubber spatula, cook for 10 minutes, stirring regularly to prevent roux from catching. When roux is browned and bubbling, add the spices and cook for 30 seconds. Remove from heat and set aside until step 7

To make the curry:

  1. Soak the potatoes in warm water while making the roux, or for at least 15 minutes.
  2. Season chicken with salt and pepper and set aside until step 5
  3. Heat oil over low heat and sweat the onions and carrots for five minutes. Add onions and garlic, and cook for 30 seconds.
  4. Add the chicken, and brown all over.
  5. Pour the stock over the chicken. Bring to the boil.
  6. Peel the apple (discarding the skin) and grate directly into the broth. Stir in honey and potatoes and simmer for a 15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender but not mushy.
  7. Incorporate a ladleful or two into the reserved roux, and stir until it is a smooth paste. Spoon the roux into the stock, and stir to combine.
  8. Add soy sauce and ketchup. Simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes or so, until the curry becomes thick.
  9. Serve with rice if using, and steamed vegetables.
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Sweet Chilli Chicken and Haloumi Salad

Ahhh, cheese. It’s always there for me. I don’t eat a lot of it anymore, but you can bet your sweet Aunt Betty that when I do, I savour every second of it. And maybe moan just a little bit into it. Also, it tends to be consumed within a salad, because salad is simply The Best Meal Ever, especially when cheese is included.

For reasons utterly beyond me, I haven’t made this salad in over a year, nor did I ever think to blog about it. Which is stupid, because it’s delicious, healthy, quick and easy when you’re battling an Australian Summer with no aircon (I know, right?!), and filling. By rights, I should be making this every week. I certainly wouldn’t mind. However, I had a craving for haloumi today (and yesterday, and the day before that, and basically for the last decade or sothat haloumi has been in my life…), and was so annoyed with myself to realise I never wrote down the recipe. What I DID the do last time I made it, luckily, was log the ingredients into the recipe builder in My Fitness Pal, so I did have something to go by. I mean, it’s by no means difficult or schmancy, but I do find chronicling recipes inspires me when it’s a week before Christmas (or school report season, or just run of the mill busy) and my dinner give-a-crap has broken. Besides, I’ve been so slack with this blog lately, and I think it is the kind of recipe that deserves a little online love. And it’s only 400 calories for a generous serve, so you can have some guilt-free cheese love – a novel idea if you’re anything like me!

Serves 4

Ingredients

1tbs olive oil

500g chicken breast, diced

3tbs sweet chilli sauce

1tbs lemon juice

2-3 second spray oil

1 tsp minced garlic

1tsp minced ginger

180g haloumi, sliced

60g baby spinach (or leaves of your choice)

2 truss tomatoes, cut into large chunks

100g sugar snap peas

100g snow peas

1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and sliced

Method

  1. Combine oil, sweet chilli sauce and lemon juice in a small jug. Pour over chicken in a glass bowl, mix thoroughly and let to sit for an hour or so.
  2. Place tomatoes and spinach into a large salad bowl and toss to combine.
  3. Heat pan and add garlic, ginger, chicken and mushrooms. Cook, stirring, until chicken is cooked through. Add to spinach and tomatoes.
  4. Cook haloumi for 1-2 minuted until golden brown. Add to salad.
  5. Blanch peas and asparagus. When completely cool, add to salad. Toss well and serve with a little additional sweet chilli sauce.

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