Crispy Beef Strips...

As much as I love baking, sometimes I just want to cook a really quick and easy dinner and chill out for the evening. Franks Hot Sauce and I are 'involved' at the moment... I'm addicted to the stuff. It makes even the simplest dish, taste incredible. 

The combination of crispy beef strips, with the spicy sauce makes for an amazing combination that I'm pretty sure you're going to love. 

For the crispy beef strips:

• 150g thinly sliced beef (I used sirloin steak for this) 
• 2 tbsp coconut flour 
• 1 tsp GF baking powder
• sea salt 
• 1 egg white
• 1 tsp coconut oil 

Slice your steak into long strips. 

Mix coconut flour, baking powder & sea salt. 

Coat beef strips in egg white. 

Next toss in coconut flour mixture.

Melt & heat coconut oil in a pan. Add prepared beef and cook over a high heat to seal & crisp up the coating. Lower the temperature & cook over a moderate heat until cooked through. 

For the sauce:

• 2 tbsp Franks hot sauce (original)
• 1 tbsp Greek yoghurt

Add hot sauce and yoghurt to cooked beef. 

Finally add some spinach and cook for 1-2 minutes until slightly wilted. 

Serve topped with 2 tbsp grated Gruyère cheese. 

Absolutely anyone can make this.... cooking is really simple & is enjoyable once you relax and experiment with flavours. Try this out & let me know what you think :)

Sweet & Sour Chicken

Sometimes even I need a little inspiration when it comes to cooking... You know where you're in that mood when you've NO idea what you want for dinner? The Facebook page is a great source of inspiration for me lately, and people are always asking me to come up with healthy ways of making their favourite dishes..

I haven't had Sweet & Sour Chicken in.... I've no idea how long... but it was probably around the time that I stopped poisoning my body with sugar. Didn't you realise that Sweet and Sour sauce is pretty much sugar? Now don't get me wrong... yeah sugar tastes good, but should you really be eating it for dinner? Definitely not... 

I've said a few times that there are no limitations to what you can eat when you choose to eat good food... a little creativity goes a long way... 

So traditional Sweet & Sour sauces use pineapple juice & a LOT of brown sugar to give it that recognisable sweet, caramel-like flavour... 

Pineapple juice contains a lot of sugar... and yes, I know it's natural sugar but it's sugar all the same & is going to cause a massive insulin spike.. Solution??? The obvious one would be to use honey instead of brown sugar & stick with the the pineapple... But.... I've a better idea... 

For the Sweet & Sour sauce:

• 3 tbsp organic tomato purée
• 1 tbsp wholegrain mustard 
• 3 tbsp unsweetened apple purée (peel & chop a cooking apple & microwave with 1 tbsp water until mush basically!) 
• 2 tbsp lemon juice (lime would work too)
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp sweet paprika
• sea salt 
• a little water to thin the sauce out 

Throw all the ingredients into a food processor & pulse until smooth and well combined. 

Set aside until needed. 

For the chicken:

Traditionally, the chicken is coated in corn starch to form a crispy coating when it's cooked... Not today it's not... 

I wanted the chicken to have a distinctive flavour, with a light crisp coating... 

• 1 tsp Keen Almond Butter (any brand is fine... but this is my favourite!)
• 1 tbsp coconut flour
• 1 tsp almond flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• water

Mix the first 4 ingredients together, then water a little at a time to thin out the batter.. it should be pretty thick to coat and stick to the chicken.

• 1 large chicken breast

Toss the diced chicken pieces in the almond batter until well coated. 

I love coconut oil... I really do, but sometimes I find the coconut flavour doesn't work in certain dishes... Bacon fat however.... 

• 1 piece of smoked streaky bacon
• 1 celery stalk/red onion (red onion would be great here because of its sweet flavour)
• 1 clove of garlic, chopped finely
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated

Start by cooking the bacon in a pan. Once the fat has softened a little, you'll have your fat for cooking everything else in... 

Add celery/onion, garlic and ginger and cook for 2/3 minutes until fragrant. 

Next add your chicken pieces over a pretty high heat. By sealing the outside quickly, the almond batter goes a little bit crispy. 

Lower the heat after 2 minutes & add any vegetables you fancy (I used broccoli, mushrooms & bell peppers).  

Finally stir in the sweet and sour sauce, and leave to simmer over a low heat for 10/15 minutes. This will allow everything to cook thoroughly & thicken the sauce... if you prefer a thin sauce, then just add a little water. 

Taste the sauce as you go along... you may prefer more of a sweet or sour flavour so you can play around with the ingredients as you cook. 

I served this with cauliflower rice, and I've gotta say... It was pretty delicious & got major thumbs up from my resident taste testers too :) 

Chicken Parmigiana...

Chicken is boring right? Tastes like chicken etc etc.... I hate bland food. Grilling a piece of chicken & serving it with lettuce is a sure fire way to make me not eat it, and eat crap instead. What can I say... my taste buds are stuck up b*tches...

Chicken is not boring. It's actually the perfect meat to cook with... you can basically flavour it any way you choose since it hasn't got a really strong flavour to begin with.

I prepared all the ingredients for this meal in less than ten minutes, and left it to cook while I showered & tidied up. Be smart with your time... don't just stand there staring at the oven for 20 minutes, and then moan about how long your dinner takes. I wipe down the kitchen counter tops, sweep & mop the kitchen floor every evening as my dinner cooks. Why??? Cos I'm clearly a clean freak, but also I know that coming home to a clean & tidy house the next day is a great feeling.

There's no feeling of dread about having to clean because someone is visiting, or cos there's an ant invasion on your counter tops... That's stress right there... Small stress admittedly (actually ant invasions are pretty nasty stress), BUT my point is that all those little stresses have a huge impact on your body without you even realising it.... and we know that stress is bad for our health, our nutrition habits & fat loss goals so..... clean the bloody kitchen! :)

Right... the chicken... it's delicious! Simple ingredients are the best.. Make this for dinner & it'll become an instant favourite :) (And no... it may not look amazing... but it tastes so good!)

Oh... and you get to bash the crap out of the chicken... there goes more stress!!

• 1 large chicken breast
• sea salt 
• paprika
• passata/chopped tomatoes
• grated cheese of your choice

Start by butterflying the chicken breast. (Using a sharp knife, cut a slit 3/4 way horizontally in to the breast)

Cover with a piece of cling film/tin foil, and using a rolling pin/saucepan or anything else heavy in your kitchen...whack the chicken repeated until it's well flattened... Great fun! 

Season with salt & paprika. Place in a heatproof dish, cover with tin foil & set aside while you prepare the vegetables. 

I'm addicted to roasting vegetables lately... they just taste so much nicer than stir frying them... and they're perfect lazy food ... all you've to do is chop them roughly & pop them in the oven. You can use any combination of vegetables you have, drizzle with a little melted coconut oil & season. Simple.... 

You can now put the chicken & vegetables into the oven. Cook for 12-15 minutes (the chicken will cook quickly since it's so thin). 

Once the chicken is cooked, remove the tin foil & add toppings... 

Add a generous amount of passata/canned chopped tomatoes/leftover home made tomato sauce....season well with chilli flakes & fresh herbs. If you're using canned tomatoes/passata, I'd suggest adding garlic powder too... just mix it all in a bowl before topping the chicken.

Top with 2 tbsp of grated cheese. You can use mozzarella, cheddar, goats cheese or whatever you feel like here. I used oak smoked cheddar. 

Place the chicken back in the oven for 5 minutes (uncovered) to allow the cheese to melt, and for it to warm through. 

Serve with your roasted vegetables. 

Wasn't that quick? 30 minutes after I started, I've got a delicious healthy dinner, I've showered & the kitchen is sparkling. Now what was that about it being difficult or too time consuming to cook????