Chicken Satay Noodle Recipe

This is one of my family’s favourite meals. Whenever I tell my son that I’m making stir fry, this is the one that he wants.

Ingredients:

  • 400 grams Hokkien noodles
  • 1/4 cup of water
  • 2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
  • 2 tbsp chunky peanut butter
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp rice vinegar
  • 1 tbsp cooking oil
  • 500 grams chicken cut into cubes
  • 1 medium sliced onion
  • 2 medium finely diced carrots
  • 1/2 green sliced pepper / capsicum
  • 2 tsp crushed garlic
  • 1 tsp minced ginger

Heat the cooking oil in a large wok. Add the onion, ginger and garlic and stir fry until the onion starts to soften. Add the diced chicken to the wok and continue to stir fry until the chicken has started to brown. Then add the carrots and the pepper / capsicum and continue to stir fry until they have fully cooked through.

Then add the water, sweet chili sauce, peanut butter, soy sauce and rice vinegar to the wok and stir it all through. Once stirred through add the hokkien noodles and stir until the noodles are fully heated through.

Meatballs, Couscous and Salad for Dinner

Tonight I am making Meat Balls, Couscous and Salad for Dinner. It is a very easy and fast meal if I have pre-made meatballs, which I usually do. Tonight however I will be making the meatballs from scratch, so it will probably take a bit longer…

The Meatballs

Ingredients:

  • 400g Premium (low fat) Minced Ground Beef
  • 1 x Brown Onion
  • 1/2 Red or Green Capsicum (Bell Pepper)
  • 2 x Cloves of Garlic, or 2 tsp Minced Garlic
  • 2 x Sliced of Bread – Preservative Free
  • 2 x Eggs
  • 1 tsp Dried Parsley
  • 1 Tbsp Steak Seasoning (I used Montreal Steak Spice)
  • 1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

Instructions:

Put all of the ingredients other than the ground mince into a food processor and blend until it is pretty smooth.

Mix the food processor mix into the ground mince beef. You’ll get a bit messy here, since you will need to use your hands for this part.

In the mean time you will want to be pre-heating your BBQ or grill to medium hot for cooking.

After you have mixed in the meat and your garlic / onion / capsicum mix you will want to start to form balls out of your meat mixture. The size of your meatballs will depend on your preference, but the bigger they are, the longer they take to cook on the BBQ or under the grill.

After you have made your balls of meat start to cook them until there is no pink in the middle, rotating them throughout the cooking process. I prefer to cook them on the BBQ, but they cook well under the grill as well.

Prepare your couscous as per usual and a simple side garden salad.

This is one of our favourite meals as a family. It’s easy for me to make and everyone seems to enjoy it.

Where to Hide Chocolate from a Sweet Tooth?

My wife is a huge sweet tooth and if we have chocolate in the house it is gone within days. She also doesn’t read this blog, so I figure that it is safe to write on here where I hide the chocolate so that she can’t find it.

So, where is the best place to hide chocolate from a sweet tooth?

The best place that I have found to hide chocolate, or other sweets for that matter, is in the vegetable or fruit crisper in the fridge.

The fruit crisper may not work if your sweet tooth likes their fruit, but as long as they don’t like fruit it could work for you.

I used to try to hide the chocolate near the back of the fridge, behind some of the regular food, but it usually got discovered.

Hiding it in the fridge crisper has worked for about a month. I just have to be careful that there is no one else around when I go to take out the chocolate. If I’m not careful the game could be up in an instant, and them I’m back to find a new hiding place for the chocolate…

Where do you hide chocolate and sweets from the sweet tooth in your house?

Zucchini and Bacon Scrambled Eggs Recipe

I made this last night when we didn’t have much time for dinner, but wanted something tasty and healthy for dinner. It makes enough scrambled eggs for a family of four.

Ingredients:

  • 7 x Eggs
  • 1/4 cup of Water
  • 2 x shredded/grated Medium Zucchinis
  • 1/2 diced Capsicum / Bell Pepper
  • 1 x diced Brown Onion
  • 4 x Bacon Rashers
  • 1 tablespoon cooking oil
  • Ground Pepper
  • Salt
  • Parsley
  • Shredded Cheese

Instructions:

Break the eggs into a mixing bowl with the water and stir it all together.

After the eggs are mixed with the water (the whites and yokes are mostly mixed together) add the shredded zucchini, ground pepper, salt and parsley. Stir it all together in the mixing bowl and set it aside.

Heat the cooking oil in a large frying pan over medium heat and start cooking the bacon and onion together. When the onion is started to get soft add the capsicum and continue to fry.

When the bacon, onion and capsicum are cooked lower the temperature a bit and add the egg mixture to the frying pan and mix it in with the cooked ingredients.

Make sure that you stir the mixture on occasion to make sure the egg doesn’t burn and stick to the pan.

The egg mixture is cooked when the eggs stick together nicely and there is no more water in the mixture.

When the mixture is cooked dish it up and put the shredded cheese on top. You might want to mix it in near the end of the cooking process, but my son can’t have dairy, so we just put it on the eggs after they are dished up. The cheese still melts through the egg mixture, as long as you haven’t waited too long.

I usually serve this with just buttered toast, but some people might like to also add tomato sauce / ketchup to it.

Quick and Easy Banana Apple Muffin Recipe

This is one of our kid’s favourite muffin recipes. I quite regularly include it in my kids school lunch boxes.

It’s a fun recipe for the kids to help prepare as well. If cooking with young kids I find it best to cut up the apples before they start to help.

Ingredients:

  • 2 x Apples – finely diced
  • 2 x very ripe Bananas
  • 1 1/2 cups of Wholemeal Self Rising Flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
  • 2 x Eggs
  • 2 tablespoons Olive Oil
  • 1 tablespoon Honey
  • 1/2 cup of Low Fat Milk

Instructions:

Start the oven preheating to 180C (350F).

Stir the flour and cinnamon together in a large mixing bowl. Then add the apple and mix it through.

Add the eggs, oil, banana and milk and stir it through.

Grease a medium size muffin tray and fill the 12 muffin spots equally with the batter and place in the preheated oven for 20-minutes, or until cooked.

Update: I originally tried with recipe with 3-apples, but that was too much apple. The 2-apples in the revised recipe above works out much better.

Easy Chinese Fried Rice Recipe

This is a family favourite that can be cooked quickly and varied a lot depending on what vegetables and meat are available in the house.

Ingredients:

  • 3 – cups cooked rice (4 – cups is probably better, but we only have a 3 – cup rice cooker)
  • 1 – cup frozen peas
  • 1 – cup frozen corn
  • 4 – rashers short cut bacon
  • 2 – boneless chicken thigh filets
  • 2 – tablespoons Cooking Oil
  • 2 – eggs
  • 2 – sliced or julienne carrots
  • 1 – brown onion
  • 1/2 – red or green capsicum
  • 2 – teaspoons sesame oil
  • 3 – tablespoons soy sauce
  • 2 – teaspoons sugar
  • dash of pepper
  • 2 – cloves or 2 – teaspoons of crushed garlic
  • 1 – teaspoon of crushed ginger

Instructions:

Start by putting 1 – tablespoon of the cooking oil into a heated wok and swirl to coat it. While it is heating break your 2 – eggs into a bowl and mix, then pour the egg into the wok and swirl around to make a thin omelette. After it is cooked take it out and let it cool before cutting it into thin strips.

Heat the rest of the oil over medium – high and add the onions and carrots. Cook them until they are soft and then add the chicken and bacon. Stir fry until the chick is no longer pink and is cooked through.

Add the garlic, ginger, peas and corn and continue to stir fry until they are warmed. Then lower the heat to medium and add the rice and stir until it is also warmed through. Add the sugar, sesame oil, soy sauce and pepper and stir through.

There you go. I can usually cook this one from start to finish in about 30-minutes, which is nice.

I will quite often make this one without the chicken as well if I don’t have any available. You can substitute in any other meat that you have around, or just stick with the bacon (that’s what I did last night).

You can also substitute or add any decent stir fry vegetable that you have around. One of my favourites to add to this recipe is snow peas.

How to Make Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing Recipe

Tonight I was working on a pasta recipe that called for some balsamic vinaigrette dressing. Unfortunately I didn’t have any in the house, so I went searching on the web to find a good, quick and easy balsamic vinaigrette dressing that I could make to add to my recipe.

I came across quite a few recipes, but since I was looking for an easy one, the following recipe really appealed to me.

Here are the directions and ingredients I used to make my Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing:

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 a Shallot
  • 1/3 cup (75ml) balsamic vinegar
  • 2/3 cup (150ml) Olive Oil
  • salt
  • pepper
  • lemon juice

Because I only needed 1/2 a cup of salad dressing I halved all the ingredients.

Dice the shallot and add it to your mixing bowl

Add your balsamic vinegar

Add a pinch of salt and your black pepper

Drizzle in your oil, while you whisk.

After you whisk it for a while you will want to check the taste. Season it to taste with your salt and pepper and then at the end add a squeeze of lemon juice to give the balsamic vinaigrette dressing a bit of a zing.

You can also see below how to do it:


Salad:How To Make Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

Roasted BBQ Chicken – Beer Butt Chicken

I have had Beer Butt Chicken a few times, but have not yet cooked it myself. It makes a very moist and delicious chicken on the BBQ.

This recipe for Beer Butt Chicken comes Chris Harrison, from a friend in South Australia who is a BBQ fiend. Almost everything I hear from him has something to do with his experiences cooking on his BBQ.

Here is his recipe for easy Beer Butt Chicken:

You need a BBQ with at least 3 burners, mine has 4 burners. You turn on the burners on the outside, leave the middle ones off.

Get a beer can, take the top off it and drink half the beer.

I have a special holder for the chicken and the beer, but you need to season the outside of the chicken with your favourite seasoning. Keep the beer can upright and put it up the chickens butt. Put it standing up in a small baking pan so that the fat can drip into the pan.

Put the chicken with the beer can up it’s but in the middle of the grill and close the lid. Cook for 90 minutes rotating the pan every 15 / 25 minutes. The chicken gets steamed by the beer, it leaves no beer taste, but the chicken is always moist.

You can read more about Chris Harrison and his work with YWAM South Australia on his web-site.

Corned Beef Silverside in a Slow Cooker

Cooking Corned Silverside in the Slow Cooker is one of the easiest meals that I make.

List of ingredients:

  • Medium Corned Silverside Roast
  • 10 Pepper Corn Kernels
  • 3 Table Spoons Brown Sugar
  • Mixed Herbs
  • Splash of Vinegar
  • Water

Put the corned beef silverside in the slow cooker then sprinkle the dry ingredients over it. Pour your splash of vinegar over the silverside then cover it the silverside with water.

Cook the silverside on low for 8 – 10 hours, on high for 6 – 7 hours, or on high for 4 – 5 hours.

Corned Been Silverside is the perfect meal that you can prepare before heading off to work in the morning.

Tonight I will be serving mine with mashed potatoes, a nice green salad and maybe some bake at home rolls. We’ve got a very busy day, so a slow cooker meal is great to make dinner time a bit less crazy.

Whole Chicken in a Slow Cooker Recipe

Yesterday I did a whole chicken in a slow cooker that turned out fantastic.

Here are the ingredients:

  • 1 Large Roasting Chicken (ours was 1.75kg, or 4 pounds)
  • 4 x Medium Potatoes
  • 2 x Large Carrots
  • 1 x Large Brown Onion
  • 3 x Cloves / Tea Spoons Crushed Garlic
  • 1/2 Cup Cooking wine (I used a $5.00 bottle of Chardonnay)

I bought a pre-marinated chicken, but if you use a normal chicken rub your favourite chicken seasoning on the outside of the chicken (my favourite is Montreal Chicken Seasoning).

Wash and cut your potatoes into quarters and put them on the bottom of the slow cooker.

Peal and cut the carrots and put them in the bottom of the slow cooker with the potatoes.

Cut up your onions and put them in the slow cooker.

Add the 1/2 cup of wine (it doesn’t sound like enough, but because of how the slow cooker works, it will be enough).

Add the 3 x tea spoons of crushed garlic to the vegetables and wine.

Place the chicken on it’s back in the slow cooker on top of all the vegetables and wine.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and let it cook. The time will depend on the setting you, but this is a rough guide:

  • High for 5 – hours
  • Low for 10 – hours
  • Auto for 7.5 – hours (I used this one)

When it’s finished you will have a very moist and tasty chicken. I left the skin on when I cooked it, but then scraped the skin off after cooking.

I served this with creamed corn and fresh white crusty bread for a really tasty dinner.