The Marinade

I made a marinade of

1 tbsp of lemon Juice
2 tbsp of Olive Oil
1 Naga Chilli finely chopped
1 tsp Habanero powder
2 tsp Coriander Leaf
1 tsp Ground Cuman
1 tsp Tumeric
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp Fresh Garlic
1 tsp Fresh Ginger

All mixed together and mixed into the chicken. I stuck it in the fridge for about 90 minutes to marinade.

The Sauce

2 tablespoons of oil
3 onions finely chopped
350ml Chopped Tomatoes
Spoon full of chopped Garlic
1 Green chilli pepper sliced

Fry the onions in some oil for a few minutes to brown them
Add garlic and chilli pepper
Add tomatoes
Blend onions mixture into a pulp
Heat until all cooked through (Takes about 5 minutes)

To Complete

Heat some oil hot, and add the marinaded chicken. Cook turning often and stiring to cook through. Once cooked through, add the sauce and continue to heat and mix.

Serve with some rice, or a naan bread.

I packaged several away into foil trays ready for another day. It was quite spicy but not too hot. Just the right heat for me.

I often buy bulk amounts of ingredients and then cook up several things and make single portions so I can make them faster from the freezer. Microwave meals with what I know has been put in them.

For the past month or so, my freezer has been empty except for a bag of prawns, and ice cubes. Tonight, it is quite full again – with lots of meals cooked up.

I’ve been using all fresh ingredients, getting veg from the local farms with whatever is in season and chicken from places like Makro – they had an offer for about £10 for 2.5KG of chicken breasts… so been making up things today.

Some of my menu for the following few weeks:

• Mango Chicken
• Chicken Jalfrezi
• Chicken Curry
• Piri Piri Chicken
• Spicy Chicken

From what I’ve tasted today, its going to be a good set of meals.

It turned out a lot better than I expected it too, and it was great for a saturday. The weather is getting nicer, spring seems to have arrived and to have something that I didn’t really need to do much with and make great sandwidges with, all I can say is its turned out well and now I can make something more.

The cost for the whole receipe came to around £7.50

Ingredients

* Pork Shoulder / Pork Roast
* 2 onions, sliced and deviced
* 1 onion, chopped (Optional)
* Juice of 2 limes
* 1 green bell pepper
* 1 Jar BBQ Sauce
* 1 tablespoon of olive oil (Optional)

Seasoning Mix Ingredients (cost around £1)

Seasoning Mix Blitzed

* 3 chillis de-seeded & finely chopped
* Around a 2cm cubed piece of ginger finely chopped
* 3 cloves of garlic
* A few Black Pepper corns
* A little Salt

Create the seasoning:

Method 1:

Chop ingredients and mix in a bowl

Method 2:

Place in food processor and let that blitz the ingredients together. This is the way I did it.

How to make the dish

I have used a slow cooker to create this dish, but its also possible to use an oven and slow cook using a low heat however I found a slow cooker was more economic and simple enough to use. My instructions are for what I use, you may need to look elsewhere for heat settings for an oven.

1. Prepare the seasoning mix
2. Place 1 sliced onion at bottom of pot
3. Place pork on top of onions
4. Cover pork with seasoning mix
5. Top with remaining onion, and add chopped peppers
6. Drizzle with lime juice
7. Cover with pan lid
8. Cook on a high heat for 6 hours
9. Remove meat & veg
10. Discard juices
11. Shread pork using two forks to pull it apart
12. Return pork to the pan
13. Pour and mix in BBQ sauce
14. Cover with lid and heat on low for 1 hour or more
15. Fry chopped onions in a little oil to how you like them (Optional)
16. Serve

Works well in bread buns.

The shreading of the pork, pulling it apart took quite a while to do but it did pull away so easily. The meat turned out to just work so well in this dish, and was almost falling apart when I took it out of the pan in stage 9… but overall it worked well. Not sure when I’ll manage to eat it all but glad others are coming over to join in. Hope they enjoy it as much as I am.

An Added Heat Twist…?

I’ve thought that if I was to add to the seasoning mix a naga jolokia chilli blitz into this, it would make for a Hot shot version but thats not for people in general. The heat of those things are an aquired taste. Most people do not taste anything more after the heat has hit them and we don’t want to waste the lovely flavours. I didn’t add much heat to this one and it is delicious and one to share in a party I’d think.

The end look of it:

Shreaded Pork in a BBQ Sauce: The End Result

Enjoy, I have and will again!

Ingredients

• Vegitable oil
• Popcorn
• Naga Bin Jolokia Chillies paste (Available here, and here)
• Optional: Sugar

Process

1. Vegitable oil to coat bottom of pan
2. Add about half to a teaspoon of Naga Jolokia Chilli paste
3. Heat up and stir to mix the chilli into the oil
4. Add popcorn to cover about 3/4 of the bottom of the pan
5. *Optional* Add 2 tablespoons of sugar to cover popcorn for sweetness
6. Cover Pan and heat on a medium to high heat
7. Wait for popping
8. Wait for popping to slow to almost stopped
9. Remove from heat, stir and serve

Enjoy!

It was a nice change, quick and cheap to make and will most likely suprise people when they try it. It starts as a tingle heat and seems to get hotter the more you have.

I once made regular chilli popcorn for a church event. I told people I was bringing chilli popcorn, they didn’t seem to grasp the chilli part. Almost every person tried some and liked the first taste, but after a few then people went for Water of all things… we told them milk but they didn’t listen.

Some of the group loved it and ate the rest. People tended to listen more after I said things after that. Strange coincidence, or just looking after themselves?

Ingredients

500g Chicken breast – Chopped into chunks
400g Tomatoes chopped into chunks
6 mixed Peppers (I used red & yellow)
250g Mushrooms
1 large onion
2 large leaks
1 pack of Minced Garlic
Around 10 to 12 leaves of mint
Fresh Garlic
6cm x 2cm x 2cm ish Fresh ginger sliced into fine strips around 2cm long
Red wine
chinese white wine, soy sauce, lime juice

The Method I used

Chop vegitables into small slices/chunks (around same size)
Heat some oil in wok/pan to medium heat
Add Onion, and chopped mint to pan and brown, add garlic and about half the ginger
Leave for about 10 seconds and add chicken.
Splash in some soy sauce, and chinese wine
Cover and allow to steam chicken in mixture for a few minutes

In a seperate pan
- Heat a little oil, and add some garlic
- Brown leaks and mushrooms

Pour pan into main pan.

Seperate pan
- Add peppers to seperate pan (no extra oil)
- Stir fry turning reguarly
- Add 5 splashes of Lime Juice
- Continue to stir until peppers are slightly brown

Chop tomatoes and add to main pan
Stir and leave uncovered for a few minutes

Pour seperate pan into main pan
Stir
Add remainder of ginger
Add around 50ml of red wine
Cover and simmer
Add chosen seasoning to taste
Stir reguarly & then Serve

I served with noodles, its tasty and so much left. Shame no one is around to help me through it.

Now I see a prickly rash over my arms – actually one of many wierd things happening to me recently.

Nothing new taken – just happens sometimes for a few days – think its something in the air – like a hayfever reaction then it stops again for no reason – had that one before

I had a realisation of addiction to chocolate… I could feel myself eating chocolate, and more just eating it with no real effect or enjoyment of taste and then saw my self as thou I was above looking down at me while at the same time being the me, so kinda like an astral projection above watching things happen then suddenly pulling myself together.

There is also the realisation of things around me more – as thou time slows and you can notice things around that usually you’d pass and not notice… Its wierd and yet really kewl at the same time. I think its like dream logic time, where you could have slept for 20 minutes but have memories of hours passing

I’ve always had a low tollerance for chesse, and that probably helped with the idea going into my head. I don’t now think I am that as it seems that actually drinking/eating dairy seems to relieve this issues.

I told a few friends and one in particular, gave me a load of good advice on how to cope with it that I would like to share as you could also find it useful.

Some Good Advice

Hanging around in shops reading labels and a LOT of just cooking from scratch.

If you can eat soya, then there are loads of dairy alternatives open to you that I can’t have. Much easier for you to locate safe chocolate too!

Most large supermarkets have a special diets section, have a look, avoid the gluten free baked goods, they are horrible!

This is the butter they get: http://www.puredairyfree.co.uk/ they have it in big tescos and sainsburys.

Biscuits – cheap bourbons, party rings and rich tea biscuits tend to be dairy free.

There is a dairy free ice cream, sold at most large supermarkets, some even have multiple flavours! http://www.swedishglace.com/

This brand: http://www.alprosoya.co.uk/ gets sold in lots of supermarkets, they do nice flavoured soyashakes and mousses and stuff.

I like this because it’s dairy and soy free: http://www2.oatly.com/ I get their stuff from Waitrose.

Pizzas: you could try non-dairy cheese, but it’s a bit weird. They get non-dairy pizza bases, put the tomato puree base on as usual, and load up the veg and bake, cheese free! It isn’t the same.

Beware!

Be careful with pasta sauces, crisps and pre-packed meats, these can all have unexpected dairy. Cereal and cereal bars often contain milk

List of dairy things in ingredients:

• Lactose
• Caesin
• Whey powder
• Milk
• Cream
• Butter
• Yoghurt

Useful Links from this post

• http://www.alprosoya.co.uk/
• http://www2.oatly.com/
• http://www.puredairyfree.co.uk/
• http://www.swedishglace.com/
• http://www.puredairyfree.co.uk/

When I first tried them I didn’t really like them but then mixed them in smoothies and they added a different flavour. Recently I started trying them on their own and really like them and often have them as a snack food now – they are very low in fat and the wierd taste is nice but something to get used too.

I don’t know if I believe the idea that they are excellent for you and althou many supermarkets are now stocking them I believe that IF they were always such an excellent source for all these vitamins etc they would have been shipped many years ago like bananas, apples and oranges.

All in all, I quite like them. They taste even odder if soaked in water for 20 minutes – they become kinda oval shaped and apparently are good in curries – i’ve not tried it – I didn’t like them absorbed in water. Ever thought of putting raisons in water… before writting this I had not… maybe something to try – to see what happens.

Ingredients:

4 x Carrotts
1 x Parsnip
1 x Sweede
2 x Potatoes
2 x Leaks
1 x Chopped Chilli

Boiled everything in the stock from yesterdays Chicken thing and a little extra hot water for about an hour. Smushed (cut, mixed and mulched) the ingredients into an orange pulp. Lowered the heat and stired for about 5 minutes.

Served and packaged some for later. I made some thing similar to this at christmas time but just used Hot water instead of stock as there was a vegitarian eating with us.

Yum

I got one large onion and chopped into 8ths and put in bottom of dish, added some vegi stock, garlic, leak and peppers and stirred.

Added 3 breast of chicken – sprinkled fresh chillis on top and stired in. Then added a foil tray, a little oil and some peppers, leak & Onions.

Covered the lot and let cook on gas mark 4 for an hour. Emptied the oil from the foil tray into chicken mix and returned to heat for 15 minutes.

The chicken has turned out firm and nice with kinda roasted peppers next to it The liquid I strained and stored to make the base of a soup this week.

Tastes good.

My ingredients:

1 x leak
1 x Large Onion chopped into eighths
2 x peppers chopped in to chunks
1 x Vegi Stock cube, 1x Chicken stock cube
1 to 2 pints of hot water
4 x Garlic Cloves
2 x Chilli Peppers deseeded finally chopped

2 x Bananas
400g Strawberries
150g Blackberries
2 tsp Cacao Nibs
3 tsp Goji Berries

Fruit juice to cover fruit in blender.

Blitz the lot, pour and Enjoy!

I’ve came to realise that its a great little thing the apple. Something i’ve never really took the time to enjoy – a snack and yet a mini meal at the same time.

I’ve been trying to replace my snacks at work from sweeties to something a little healthier – I’ve taken on fruit to try it for a bit. I don’t seem to be having those sugar dips mid afternoon anymore since changing. Maybe I had too much sugar before. I know fruit has sugar in it too.

Is it an energy food or something that helps you rest… some ingredients give energy, others help you relax – it contains minerals, fits nicely in the hand and is easy to eat for young and old with its squishyness.

Is it a genetically made fruit? well in theory everything is but man made genetically over many centuries? I don’t know but its like a super fruit providing so much for people.

Random banana rant over…

I use it in cooking, in remidies and have lotions of it. Quite hard to get hold of the ginger lotion I like but some friends managed for my birthday – A very excellent present.

Did you realise that if you have a cough with mucus in your throat/chest – you can reduce it by just making a kinda tea with grated fresh ginger in hot water. Fresh ginger is really cheap – I usually get about a 10cm piece for about 15 pence. You only need about 1cm cube for tea.

One of my favorite ginger dishes is simply chicken with grounded ginger. Marinade the chopped chicken in about 2 tbsp of olive oil with a 2 tsp of ground ginger and about 1/2 cm fresh ginger and then heat a hot wok and stir fry until cooked. Great over salad leaves like lettuce.

Strange random topic to write about but then again thas just me really – random with a purpose – so is it ever random?

I took some time out and started writing what I ate and when things happened… to find if there is a pattern between what I eat and headaches, or other feelings.

I discovered that what I eat is not good and althou I don’t have loads of junk food – I also do not have a very mixed diet when it comes to food types. I often have different flavourings of things but not the correct or even close to correct portions of types of foods.

I have a low amount of starchy foods in my diet or did until I really realised what they were doing. I’ve always loved vegitables and many meats particularly beef. But often missed the potatoes as thought them as boring and avoided them unless they were chips.

I’ve discovered different ways to cook them from friends suggestions, aswell as TV cook shows, books and the internet. I used to hate rice, unless mixed with a curry but quite like these rice noodles which are just as good.

I was low on energy and still am as not got the balance right yet but cutting down on sweets early in the day is helping overall.

I am having more regular meals – like taking food to work and having meals same time of day each day which seems to help reduce the tiredness and exhaustion I was feeling.

There does seem to be a balance issue. I’ve misunderstood much of what I read on foods previously and currently re-training myself the basics to get back on track.

So don’t think there is anything wrong with me. I just messed up on the things that helped with slow energy release – oops.

Were in a world where we expect things instantly… My energy was the same – a quick fix is a sugar filled drink or chocolate bar whereas some breakfast cerial can be fast but last so much longer.