Hairy Dieters: Spanish Style Chicken Bake

I love a competition and I was the lucky winner of this book from a competition which was run by fellow blogger Nicole at Miss Fridays Feast.So many of my friends have told me how great the Hairy Dieters book is and I had my doubts as the TV show was verging on cheesy. But, given that the hubby and I probably eat a little too much, this book is just what we needed. Flavour and decent portion sizes but with less calories!

I've made a few things from it now and this one is by far my favourite - scored on the page 9/10 - a high score indeed! With 370 calories per serving, its really filling and absolutely delish! Next on the agenda is the Lamb Tagine, it comes with high praise from friends.


I love these colours, so summery!

Ingredients:

• 1 medium onion, cut into 8 wedges
• 1 medium red onion, cut into 8 wedges
• 500g new potatoes, quartered lengthways
• 8 whole garlic cloves, unpeeled
• 8 medium tomatoes, quartered
• 75g chorizo
• 8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• ½tsp sweet smoked paprika
• ½tsp dried oregano
• 1 green pepper, deseeded and cut into strips
• Flaked sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6. Put the onions, potatoes, garlic and tomatoes in a large roasting tin and season with sea salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper. Toss everything together lightly and roast for 20 minutes.
• While the vegetables are roasting, skin the chorizo and cut the meat into thin slices – 5mm is about right. Put the chicken thighs on a board and carefully slash each one 2 or 3 times with a knife. Season all over with black pepper. Mix the paprika and oregano together and set aside.
• Take the roasting tin out of the oven, scatter the chorizo over the veg and turn everything a couple of times. Place the chicken on top of the vegetables and chorizo and sprinkle with the paprika and oregano. Season with a little salt and return to the oven for 20 minutes.
• Take the tin out of the oven. Holding one corner carefully with an oven cloth, lift the tin a little so all the juices run to the opposite end, then spoon and drizzle the juices back over the chicken. Tuck the pepper strips loosely around the chicken and vegetables.
• Turn the oven up to 220°C/425°F/Gas Mark 7. Put the tin back in the oven for another 20 minutes or until the peppers are just softened and the chicken is golden and crisp. As you eat, squeeze the garlic out of the skins - delicious! 

Review: Fernandos Grillhouse, Loughborough

In April the new Fernandos Grillhouse opened its doors on Leicester Road slap bang in the centre of Loughborough. After a hefty marketing campaign around town, we were eager to get in and see what the fuss was all about.

Flame grilled chicken and steaks served in a casual style with sides of your choice. Aside from the steak, it turns out that Fernandos is....well... Nandos with an extra 'Fer' on the front.

Unfortunately, given the strict council rules, Fernando's don't yet have an alcohol licence so, at the moment, its a booze free zone. Still, this was no bad thing as we headed over there on a week night with some of our friends. Bottomless soft drinks all round for us!

The decor is minimal, clean and functional with brick effect walls and booths. The menu, spice levels and even ordering are the same as Nando's, as are the bottles of sauce. Everything is really reasonably priced and I think this place will do a roaring trade with the students and bargain hunters alike.

I decided to go for my standard Nando's choice for a direct comparison - 1/4 chicken, spicy chips and coleslaw. The chicken was moist and tasty and well seasoned. You can't really go wrong with chips and coleslaw. The hubby had BBQ beans and these were well flavoured and smelt lovely.

A big bonus is that all of the sauces are freshly made on site and the spicy ketchup in particular was delicious.

All in all, we had an enjoyable meal which was well cooked and really reasonably priced. A meal and soft drink was around £10 per person. Although Fernandos will never blow your mind or break the mold, its a great addition to the Loughborough dining scene and we will return!

Cheers!

We finished the evening with a couple of drinks in the lovely Organ Grinder part of the Blue Monkey brewery chain and just around the corner. Full of character and serving lots of local ales, its a fab little find.

The Leibster Award

Something a bit different which I just love the sound of and couldn't wait to have a go at!

The very fabulous and local to me, blogger Emily nominated me for this. Her blog, Recipes and Reviews always has something home made and delicious to look at and on top of this, her favourite food is sushi - which makes her all good in my view!

The Leibster Award. Here it is in a nutshell:

"The Liebster Award is for bloggers with under 300 followers and the rules of the award is that the nominee must link back to whoever awarded them, write 10 random facts about themselves, answer the 10 questions from the award giver, and then nominate other bloggers and make up 10 questions for them to answer. it's a great way for new and undiscovered bloggers to meet new people, get more followers and find some blogs that they want to follow."

Task 1 - Ten random facts about me:

1. The teeth either side of my two front teeth are missing - if you look closely, you can see that my pointy ones have been filed down to look 'normal'.
2. I am addicted to onion ring crisps, the cheaper the better.
3. My favourite food in the world is roast belly pork.
4. When I was 18 I spent the summer working as a school cleaner.
5. I once stood on Jools Holland's foot.
6. I have a tattoo of a butterfly on my right arm.
7. I have tiny feet - size 3!
8. I have my very own recipe guinea pig  - he's also my wonderful husband of 7 months and counting.
9. I love the Shrek films.
10. Last year I flew to Los Angeles and back in 1 day.

Task 2 -Answer Emily's questions

How would you sum up your blog in five words?
Lighthearted, local, simple, fun and varied.

Where did your blog name come from?
From my hair colour and family nickname - as a child my hair was flame red! Its faded a little now so I like to think of myself as more 'strawberry blond'!

What is your ultimate favourite cuisine?
I absolutely love Indian food as you can probably tell from the amount of reviews on my blog. I cook a lot with Indian spices at home and love nothing more than a good curry!

What foodie product or utensil could you not live without?
My wok! I use it for frying, stirfry, curries.. anything really!

Do you think you could go veggie and why/why not?
Absolutely not! Although I tend to cook one or two vegetarian meals a week, I love meat and fish and couldn't imagine my life without them.

What would you cook if you went on 'come dine with me'?
Ooooh I've thought about this so many times and never come up with the answer. I guess I'd do something simple like parma ham wrapped asparagus and soft boiled egg to start followed by a rich and meaty beef stew with crusty bread and a light cheesecake to finish!

Who is your favourite celebrity chef and why?
My all time favourite is Glynn Purnell - not only is he from the Midlands but he's a great chef with a cracking sense of humour. At the moment, I'm a little bit in love with Tom Aitkens too, its the ginge which gets me!

If you were to make an icecream with three scoops, any flavour, what would they be?
Can I have sorbet? Lemon sorbet, vanilla and strawberry :-)

What is your earliest memory of cooking/ baking?
My dads eggy bread. He used to make it for lunch on the weekends when my mum was at work. His giant hairy hands dipping the bread in the egg mixture and the smell of frying! Yum.

Last but not least... sweet or savoury?
Savoury. That is all.

Task 3 - Nominate other bloggers

I've stuck to a foodie theme with this - so, here are my nominations - all great foodies, well worth checking out!

The British Menu
Adam is a fellow Leicestershire food blogger with a great attitude to food and sense of humour.

Eat Slurp Burp
I was one of Carol's first blog followers. She's eaten at some amazing restaurants around the world.
Very jealous!

Domestic Goddess on a Shoestring
A girl after my own heart, Cut Price Kate has a penchant for a yellow label! Her blog focuses on reduced price food and she proves you can eat well on just pennies!

Cooking, Cakes and Children
A lovely family oriented blog written by the ex-Foodies 100 editor.

My 10 questions, should you choose to accept the challenge:

1. When and why did you decide to start a food blog?
2. If you could only eat one vegetable for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
3. Red sauce or brown sauce?
4. If you could have anyone to your house for dinner, who would it be and why? You can invite 4 people.
5. What is the one ingredient you can't live without?
6. Favourite takeaway?
7. What's your most embarrassing food secret?
8. What is your favourite style of cooking and why?
9. Cheeseboard or cheesecake?
10. Who inspired you most as a young cook & what did you learn from them?

So, thats it, my Leibster post is almost over! Thank you for nominating me Emily, its been really fun and I hope to see some answers from my nominees soon!

Cornish Farings (a fancy name for tasty biscuits)

I'm trying to improve my baking skills. As the owner of a very savoury tooth, I don't tend to spend much time baking. Seeing as I am also the owner of a husband with a very sweet tooth, its time I put this to rights. So, over the past few months I've started trying more 'sweet' recipes and this one is by far the easiest I've done so far.

With so few ingredients, you'll probably find you have everything you need too!

Cornish Farings - little mouthfuls of loveliness! 

Ingredients - makes 24 biscuits

• 100g (4oz) plain flour
• 1/4 level tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 level tsp ground mixed spice
• 1/2 level tsp bicarb soda
• 50g (2oz) softened butter
• 50g (2oz) caster sugar
• 75g (3oz) golden syrup (I used Co-op Fairtrade Chilean Honey instead) 

Method:

• Pre-heat the oven to 180c/Fan 160c/ Gas 4. Lightly grease 2 baking trays.
• Measure the flour, spices and bicarb into a bowl. Rub the butter and flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs, then mix in the sugar.
• Gently heat the golden syrup and stir into the mixture to make a soft dough. Roll the dough into 24 balls roughly the size of a cherry and place onto the baking trays, allowing room for them to spread.
• Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 10 mins, then take the baking trays out of the oven and carefully hit on a solid surface to make the biscuits crack and spread. Bake for a further 5 mins until they are a good even brown. Lift off the baking trays and leave to cool on a wire rack.

 I'll definitely be making these again, delish! 

Over and Out!

Budget Busting Sausage Casserole

You know how it is - pay day has been and gone and you're running out of money already. One way you can cut back and save the pennies is by being frugal with your food shopping. There is no shame in buying own brand ingredients to cut costs, often I find they are as good as the big brands. Using some of the Midlands Co-op Simply Value range as well as their clever casserole pack, I've come up with a budget busting sausage casserole which keeps the cost down without scrimping on flavour.

As you know, I'm a fan of all things local and I do blog for the Midlands Co-op but my opinions are my own and I truly rate these products. Unlike the 'budget' lines at some other supermarkets, the Simply Value range includes free range eggs, nothing is animal tested and none of the products have any artificial colourings or hydrogenated fats in them. Good stuff!

Ingredients, serves 2-3:

• Olive oil 
• Simply Value tinned tomatoes
• Simply Value salted butter 
• Simply Value cheddar cheese
• Co - op 'Chop Chop' Casserole pack 
• 5-6 sausages (I use thick, herby pork sausages)
• 250ml Vegetable Stock 
• 1 tsp Herbs de Provance
• Salt & Pepper
• Breadcrumbs

Method:

• Pre-heat the oven to 180C/ 160C Fan. Brown the sausages over a medium heat in a large saucepan with a mix of butter and oil (or one or the other if you prefer). 
• Once the sausages are browned all over, add the casserole vegetables and a tsp herbs and season well. Cut any big potatoes in half and give it all a good stir then let it brown for a couple of mins.
• Add a tin of tomatoes and 250ml vegetable stock. Bring to a simmer then turn the heat down and cook for 15 minutes so that the liquid reduces and the potatoes are cooked through.
• Pour the mixture into an ovenproof dish and cook in the oven for a further 20 mins (this is so that the sausages and potatoes cook through) before sprinkling with grated cheese and breadcrumbs. 
• Turn the oven up or move to the grill for the last 10 minutes and once bubbling, its ready to serve.

Granted, this is not the prettiest food in the world but its filling and tastes great! Serve hot in a bowl and if you're feeling really greedy, add some crusty bread!