Roast Chicken Salad...

Got a favourite meal that's just too naughty to eat all the time? why not try turning it into a salad? Here's how we like to eat our roast chicken dinners, cutting the calories without curbing any flavour!

Serves 3-4

You will need:

- Roast chicken pieces (choose whatever part of the bird you like most, we use thighs)
- 4 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
- 1 bunch of asparagus
- 2 large handfuls of green beans
- 1 punnet of cherry tomatoes
- 1 spanish onion
- 6 cloves of garlic
- A whole bunch of parsley

 Prepare all your ingredients while the oven warms to a hot temperature (roughly 200oC).

Asparagus and tomatoes can be placed on an oven tray along with sliced red onions and peeled garlic cloves as shown in the picture.

 When the oven has reached temperature, put the potatoes with some oil in first, followed by the chicken in a separate dish roughly 15 mins later.

Roughly chop the parsley, stems and all, and add it to a large serving bowl.

When the potatoes and chicken are 10 minutes away from being ready, blanch the halved green beans in boiling water and place the asparagus, tomatoes, red onion and garlic in the oven to roast.

You will know the chicken is cooked when you pierce the thickest part and the juices run clear.

Once it is ready, pull it apart with 2 forks while it is still hot and add it to the large serving bowl.



As the remainder of the roasted vegetables come out of the oven add them to the serving bowl as well.

We like to serve ours with a lemon vinaigrette before giving it a final toss to serve!

B O N    A P P E T I T !

Caramel Banana Cups...

I can’t stand letting anything go to waste in my home (my fiancé will agree that sometimes it get’s a bit extreme), in particular, brown bananas! As most of you know, the completely overripe stage where they look, feel and taste horrendous can be transformed into a delicious delicacy with a little persuasion…

You will need:

80g butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

3 bananas

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 pinch salt

1.     Turn the oven onto 180oC and grease a cupcake mould with canola oil spray.

2.     Cream the butter and sugar using an electric mixer.

3.     Beat in the eggs until combined.

4.     Peel and chop the bananas into small chunks then fold into the mixture. along with vanilla essence.

5.     Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt, then fold this into the mixture as well until ingredients are just combined.

6.     As this recipe does not rise very much you can fill each cupcake mould up to 3/4 full and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.

7.     Once cakes have cooled, whip together 1 part butter with 3 parts icing sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla essence. Spread or pipe a tablespoon of buttercream over each banana cup.

8.     To finish, drizzle each cup with warm caramel (see ‘salted caramel’ recipe from January 2014).

Don't be afraid to cook special treats so often, it's much more fun to share the love with neighbours, friends and family!

Fanco's Pavlova...

Franco is here and he just had a very special birthday, so what better way to celebrate then with his favourite cake, PAVLOVA!!!

Recently having experimented with a chocolate pavlova, I knew this one would be easy peasy, and guess what... it is!

Serves 6 generous pieces (after all, half of it is fruit right?)

You will need: 8 egg whites
               500g of sugar (I roughly poured half a 1Kg bag)

Turn your oven onto a low heat, about 180oC and use a fan forced oven if you can.

Place egg whites in a bowl and whisk on a high speed for 1 minute.

Keep the the electric mixer beating while you gradually add the sugar. You will need to beat the mixture for about 15 minutes, until it is thick and glossy and the sugar granules have dissolved.

Using a baking paper lined oven tray, pour the thick mixture into the centre on the tray keeping it an even 10cm high all the way round. Do not spread it too much, keep it nice and high!

Cook the pavlova for about 20 minutes in the centre of the oven (this is very important!), until a cracked crust has formed and the centre is foamy looking but remains stiff. It will expand in the oven and fall down a little once you take it out, so don't worry when you see this happen!

Once cooled, top this little beauty with whipped cream, your favourite fruits and a fruity syrup (I used apricot nectar as passionfruit is unavailable at the moment).

It should be marshmallowy in the centre and have a heavenly honeycomb texture to the crust (thanks for the adjectives Jess).

H A P P Y   B I R T H D A Y   F R A N C O!