Chicken Fajitas... in the Slow Cooker!

We love fajitas in this house and I think most people do.  They are an easy thing to make the conventional way, but when I find a new recipe for a thing I love I can't help but try it!  I saw this on Pinterest (I'm obsessed I know...) so yesterday afternoon I cracked open the slow cooker and filled it full of deliciousness.

This is so easy to do and has become my default meal because I always have what is needed in the cupboards!  It's great for days that I have to be out and about and I know I will be knackered when I get home (like the three medical appointments in one day Wednesdays that have happened in the last few weeks!) - I put this together before I go out and then when we come home it's ready to go!

You will need:

veggies - what ever you fancy! You've got to have onions, and other than that I recommend bell peppers, onions, mushrooms and chilli. 

A quarter cup of fajita seasoning, make your own or use a shop bought version.

A cup of water (a little less if you add mushrooms)

A chicken breast per person.  

And that's all.  Chop up the veg and put it in the slow cooker, then mix the water and seasoning together, pour this over the veggies and then put the chicken on top.  Putting it on top lets it steam more than cook in the water and it goes so wonderfully tender and shreddable.  Put it on high and leave it for three hours, if you need to leave it for longer feel free to put it on for the three hours and then turn it to low and leave it for as long as is needed.  After this time take two forks and shred the chicken, mix it all up and remove the excess water to serve.  Meanwhile you need salsa, cheese, cream cheese, salad to serve and wraps to wrap it all up in!  Easy!

I know it's not the most appetising photo, but it tastes so good!  I have served this up to my husband, my parents and then used the left overs on bagels for lunch! Delicious.  

Cupboard Soup

I don't know if it's the way I was brought up, or the fact I'm from a farming family, or if it's just a thing that happens to some people but I bloody love soup.  There is something so comforting about it and it can be an amazingly quick thing to make happen - yet it's still so rewarding!  I know opening a carton, a tin or a packet is for sure quicker but it's nowhere near as good, as healthy or as filling.  

This soup is based on a Hugh recipe, but I have put my own spin on it to use up what I had that needed using.  I intend to make many many variations of this in the future so I shall keep you updated on what works and what isn't so amazing....

This soup is cannellini beans, pearl barley, carrot, peas, chicken and chicken stock and it could not be simpler to make.

For two people as a main lunch course, or four as a side.

400g tin of cannellini beans,

50g pearl barley,

one large carrot,

chicken stock,

100g peas

a handful of kale (hard stalks cut out), and,

a few bits of left over roast chicken.

Bring the stock (around a pint) to the boil and add the barley.  Leave this to simmer till the barley is softened - this took about 20 minutes.  In this time cut up your carrot, roughly shred your kale, chop up your chicken and drain your beans.  Then have a sit down and relax (or get the rest of the lunch ready!).  Add the carrot, beans and peas to the barley and stock - let this to simmer again for 5 or so minutes till the carrot is softened and the beans are hot.  Add the kale and the chicken, let them warm and wilt.  Season liberally with pepper and a little salt and serve immediately.  

Brian enjoyed this so much that he didn't believe that it had kale in it (he's a kale hater) so I will for sure be using kale up in this way in the future.  It was very tasty and there is enough left over for my lunch another day too.  Excellent!  I think this would be a lovely thing to serve at a lunch this time of year (it's snowing here in Monifieth today, excellent, thanks weather man!), it's hearty, quick and it looks so fresh!  We ate far to many black olive crackers with this today and the salty taste of them went with the beans beautifully so crackers are highly recommended (the ones we are a bit addicted to are from Marks and Spencer's - thanks Mum!) no butter or cheese needed... but I wouldn't say no  if you offered.  

Exploding Soup

Soup.  I love soup.  This weekend I decided that I was going to make soup as a reward to Brian and I for being such good humans and painting our hall.  We have been putting it off for two years...

So, I chopped up a butternut squash, a sweet potato and two carrots.  I put them in a pan with enough veg stock to cover them and then let them boil till they were soft.  

Then I let it cool, put it in the blender, and this happened...

I could have cried.  The bottom of my blender unscrews so that it can go in the dish washer and either I didn't screw it back in tight enough or it worked it's way loose in the blending process.  How unimpressed can one Karen be... fucks sake I was angry!  Almost a whole roll of kitchen roll later, a clean t shirt and a lot of swearing we had tinned soup for lunch, and the kitchen was tidy again.

And do you want to know what the worst bit is?  It was really, really tasty! I ate some from my hand before I cleaned it all up to see if it was worth making again some day.  It was, but if this ever happens again I will not be a happy bunny!

Easy Peasy Quick 'Baked' Potatoes

 I love baked potatoes but they take so long to cook that I can never be bothered baking them when I'm at home.  I never have them when I'm out to eat because it feels like a waste of 'eating out'.  So, imagine my joy when I saw a magic way to bake potatoes in forty minutes...  I had to do it, cover it in butter, salt and cheese and put it in my face.

This is so easy that I feel a fool for typing it...  Take a potato and cut down into it but not all the way to the bottom, it should fan open a bit.  If you do manage to cut all the way down it (like I did) then stab it back together with cocktail sticks.  Cover it in oil and then put it in the oven at at least 220 degrees C for forty minutes.  The skin will go all crispyand the flesh will bake but in a whole new way!

Take them out of the oven and remove the cocktail sticks, season and cover in butter.  Then just treat it like a baked potato.  Brian had his with mixed baked beans and cheese and I just stuck to my favourite, cheese and butter.  Delicious.  

This is Brian's review...

So I'm taking that as a ringing endorsement (what can I say, the boy loves baked beans) and I will be making these again, for sure.  There are three pre-baked baked potatoes in our freezer and I'm not sure if I can bring myself to eat them now!  The produce box is doing good things for my soul...

Lemon Hummus, Wraps and Carrot Sticks

Yes, it's hummus in a tea cup - what else does one serve hummus in?  Hummus is one of those things that I really enjoy to eat but had never made.  I have thought about it, but not actually done it.  Well... I have now!  

This was such an easy lunch to serve and pull together come lunch time, but making the hummous was not quick.  I used dried chick peas, in the name of trying to do things properly, but I shall not be doing that again.  By the time the peas have boiled and simmered for the time needed I think I used enough gas to justify buying tinned chickpeas!  So I have stocked up. I also found getting my hands on tahini a bit of a challenge and had to try three separate supermarkets, so don't give up hope if you can't find it!  Health food shops also stock it (well, most of 

I served this with, as you can see, carrot sticks and some wraps that had gone a bit past fresh, cut into bits and toasted under the grill.  These turned into the perfect hummus boats!

To make the hummus:

125g dried chick peas,

3 tablespoons of tahini,

2 tablespoons of olive oil,

one garlic clove,

the juice of two lemons,

a bay leaf and, 

water.

The night before you're wanting to make the hummus soak the chick peas in enough water to cover them, and leave them overnight.  

The next day drain them and rinse them well.  Put the chick peas and the bay leaf in a pan and bring to the boil.  Then reduce to a simmer for up to three hours - until you can push a fork happily through the peas.  Now drain the peas and keep the water.  

Into a blender place half of the peas, the tahini, the oil, the lemon juice and the mashed garlic.  Add the cooking liquor slowly till the mixture is quite smooth.  Now add the rest of the chickpeas and more of the liquid till you reach the consistency you like.  I made mine quite fine, but I think next time I will blend it less to get more bite.  

And that's what I did... but next time I think I shall add more lemon juice and maybe some chilli for Brian.  Maybe.  There are hundreds of variations to the recipe and I do fully intend to play with it! 

Glossary

I thought I'd take a moment to make a record of my logic so that it makes sense to all of us, so here we are. I have split my content into three sections so I think it all makes sense. 

The Meals, the backbone of eating and how we structure our eats.  In our house the three main meals generally increase in size as the day wears on, but sometimes the larger meal is eaten around mid-day if we are feeling extravagant with time or I am in an odd mood.  Supper is not a normal meal for us, but sometimes it happens to be snack food that is too posh or joy inducing to be called a snack.  

The Extras are the things that we don't all do every day, but if we could we'd do a lot more of!  Celebration food is things that are made for special occasions - Christmas cake, Sentinel cake and good old fashioned birthday cake.  Cuppa covers anything to serve with a cuppa or an afternoon tea that replaces a shop bought biscuit or fancy.  Treats are just those, I was going to call this 'puddings' but I want them to be special, and although we don't have pudding a lot, we love a treat.  

 The features are the things that will pop up on a regular basis.  Manifesto for any essays or new intentions I have in mind, top five for my favourite things we've eaten, cooked. made, or seen and then seasonal specials, the monthly run down of what we're eating this month, what to look out for and any odd seasonal things I've found that I have no idea what to do with... And finally, hosting - what we've sat down to eat with friends, any menu ideas I've had and maybe even an invite to my fictional dinner parties.  

I solemnly swear that everything will be labelled, everything will be searchable and one day there might even be some form of index...

And that's it, I hope!

Tripoline Carbonara

Now, I've made this lunch related but this one could go in Tea, Dinner and even Supper.  I don't think I'd choose carbonara as Breakfast, but you never know!

I have always loved pasta, but spaghetti is a nightmare to eat, I am the messiest eater in the world and spag is my nemesis. My singing teacher as a teen was Italian and her Mum used to make me my tea if my parents were away and she made the only spaghetti that I could eat as it was so sticky and perfect - can I replicate this? No. So I went on a venture down the pasta isle in the supermarket and found Tripoline.  Tripoline is a ribbon pasta with one flared edge and one flat edge, it's easy to cook, easy to eat and found in your supermarket of choice (unless your local supermarket is the size of a large shoe like ours is).  Anyway... this is nothing special of a recipe, it's inspired by my singing teachers tiny little Italian Mama with a meat option borrowed from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.  Thanks chaps!

For two people you will need,

200ml double cream,

2 egg yolks,

150g 'long' pasta of choice,

100g grated italian hard cheese of choice,

Pepper,

Olive oil,

bacon or chorizo or similar

Cook your pasta as normal. Meanwhile separate your eggs and throw the yolks in the cream, mix this through and season with pepper.  Now cook your meat of choice, I had some fridge chorizo on hand today, so that's what went in ours (recipe coming soon as I am not 100% happy with it yet).  Once the pasta is cooked, turn off the heat, drain the pasta and leave a little water in the pan - then add your eggy cream mix and stir stir stir.  Once it's all come together and the cream looks less opaque and more 'sticky', the add the meat.  Put the cheese on the top, add more pepper and serve!

This can be served with salad, lovely bread, garlic bread... any number of things but today Brian and I just put it in our faces and ate it with glee and happiness.  It might not look appealing, but it's quick, it's good and it's very satisfying.

So there we go, a classic, tasty meal that I imagine a lot of people could make happen with food you already have in the fridge, it costs less than your average supermarket packet or tub of sauce and you can make it in the time it takes to cook the pasta (and meanwhile you can make the salad or convince your husband that a slice if Christmas cake is an acceptable pudding at any time of day).