Thursday Night's Dinner: Fajitas

Cooking is way easier than I thought. This dish basically involved chucking all the ingredients into a dish and letting it cook in the oven. The best part is it's so. good.

Ingredients:
600g of chicken (well, I just used the packet, which was 600g. I think it would be better with more chicken though, and I intend using a larger quantity when I next make this).
Peppers (I'd say at least two, though I would definitely recommend using more. Again, I would have done this, however we only had two peppers in the house)
Two red onions
One clove of garlic
One teaspoon of chilli powder
Half a teaspoon of paprika
One quarter of a teaspoon of cumin
Half a teaspoon of salt
One teaspoon of sugar
Olive oil
Tortilla
Condiments of choice (e.g. guacamole, salsa, sour cream etc.)

I started by chopping the peppers into large chunks. I also chopped the onions roughly, and the garlic clove finely. I placed them all in a glass dish.

The chicken I had was already cut into chunks, but I sliced had already been cut into chunks, but I cut them down further to make them a bit smaller and easier to eat in the tortilla. However, you could use larger chicken fillets and cut those in to strips too. It doesn't really matter, so long as it's chicken! I placed these chunks in a pan along with the peppers, onion and garlic.

I pre heated the oven to 200 degrees Celsius (most people would do this before they started cooking but I feel like it's a little bit of a waste- it still gets cooked perfectly well even if you don't pre heat the oven for a very long time).

I combined the chilli powder, paprika, salt, sugar and cumin in a bowl. I added it to the ingredients in the glass dish along with a liberal drizzle (I think that's a bit of an oxymoron, contradicting itself slightly. What I mean is a didn't just add a few drops but I didn't drown it either). I mixed all the ingredients together with my hands in order to make sure that everything was well coated.

I put the dish in the oven for twenty minutes, took it out and stirred it thoroughly, then put it back in to cook for a further fifteen minutes.

We all ate it with tortillas, and no condiments because there were none. Well, I'm lying slightly. I had BBQ sauce on mine, since that was the only thing available, and I really love my sauces. I was the only one, though.

I can't believe how delicious it was. I can't believe that something I made, that chicken that I made came out succulent and juicy and tender. The juices ran and mixed with the pepper, onion, garlic and spices and it was unbelievable. It definitely has to be one of the best things I've ever cooked, and I don't often cook amazing things (in fact, it's a bit of a rarity).

Wednesday Night's Dinner: Falafel

Another easy one! Cooking is easier than I thought! I think I was just scared for nothing really. I actually really enjoyed this one too, and I thought it was pretty fun to make.

Ingredients:
400g of chickpeas
Half a red onion
One clove of garlic
One teaspoon of cumin
A large handful of coriander
Half a teaspoon of chilli powder
Two tablespoons of plain flour (I used wholemeal)
A liberal sprinkling of salt
Sunflower oil for frying

I started by roughly chopping the half onion, garlic clove and coriander, and left it to one side.

I then opened the can of chickpeas, drained them and dried them with some kitchen towel.

I combined all the ingredients above (minus the sunflower oil) in a food processor and blitzed them until them mixture was smooth and could easily be moulded (if you can imagine shaping them into balls as you would do with dough then it should be okay).

I rolled them into balls using my hand and flattened them into disk shaped patties. I made them pretty small (and came out with twelve), but you could make them bigger, though it would make fewer.

I put them in the fridge to chill for a bit (well, around fifteen minutes). This isn't essential though.

Once out of the refrigerator I heated the sunflower oil in a large pan and fried them until they were golden brown on each side. It's important to use kitchen roll once you've fried the falafel and removed them from the pan as it will soak up the excess oil.

We ate the falafel with whole meal pitta bread and an red onion salad (which I did not make). I think it would also go well with cucumber and lettuce, and perhaps Greek yoghurt, though I'm less sure of that. I thoroughly enjoyed this and felt a real sense of accomplishment having made it, despite the fact that it really wasn't that difficult. I honestly wish I had some photos because they looked amazing too!

Tuesday Night's Dinner: Beef Kebab

I felt so awful today, my mood was so low that I actually felt physically sick, almost as if I had the flu. However, I pushed through as I really wanted to keep learning to cook (and I knew I wasn't actually sick) and made some beef kebabs for dinner. This was not entirely planned as I originally thought last night's dinner would last for two days, which it didn't. It was amazingly easy though! For some reason, I had always thought that making kebabs was really difficult, but this was a breeze- it was basically a question of combining all the ingredients in a bowl together, mixing and shaping.

The ingredients I used were:
300g (one packet) of minced beef
Half an onion, finely chopped
One teaspoon of garam masala
Half a teaspoon of cumin
One teaspoon of paprika
A handful of coriander leaves, chopped roughly
A handful of mint leaves, chopped roughly
A liberal sprinkling of salt (enough to enhance the flavour)
Metal skewers (technically not ingredients but they still help the meal to come together)

I emptied the packet of minced beef into a bowl. I then chopped half an onion (I used red, but I think green would work just as well), added that plus all the other ingredients into the bowl with the mince.

I mixed everything together thoroughly with my hands, making sure all the ingredients were well incorporated.

I then moulded the kebabs around the metal skewers, forming small sausage-like shapes (though they can be as large as you like), and laid them to rest in a tin foil dish.

I cooked them in an oven set to 190 degrees Celsius (it's probably best to pre heat the oven, though I didn't and they still turned out fine) and cooked them for 20 minutes. I assume they would probably take less time to cook if you pre heat the oven before hand. The cooking time may also be altered if you don't use metal skewers as they help heat the insides of the meat (because metal conducts heat, basic science, of course!).

As I said, it was really easy (even easier than last night's dinner!) and they tasted great! We ate them with some naan bread that we had in the house, though I think they would really compliment anything (especially pitta bread, cous cous or a salad). The only downside is that they didn't make very many- it only produced six small kebabs, which isn't really sufficient for a family of four, though you can easily overcome this by using more mince (though if you do double the amount of meat used don't double the spices, only add a bit more, as their flavours are pretty strong!).I definitely plan on making this again sometime soon; I only wish I had some pictures to show how good they looked!

Monday Night's Dinner: Pasta with Salmon and Pesto

I've decided that in order to successfully lead a truly healthy lifestyle I need to learn to cook properly for myself- I think this would make a huge difference in terms of maintaining a healthy lifestyle in the long run. Today was my first attempt (in a while) at cooking something, so I decided to go with something that was pretty easy and I most likely wouldn't mess up. For me, the most 'challenging' aspect of the meal was cooking the salmon as this was completely new to me (I've made pasta multiple times over the past few years so that was virtually effortless), but it was very easy- all the instructions were on the back of the packet and it was really just a question of whacking it in the oven and leaving it there for around twenty minutes. Unfortunately, I'm not at the stage where I can make my own pesto, so that was shop bought, which did make the dish a whole lot more easy for me to make. I will definitely attempt to make my own pesto when I'm a bit more of an experienced cook.

As I said, the dish is super easy to make and it's also incredibly versatile. For example, you can use as much or as little pasta as you want or need, as well as whatever type of pasta you like (I mixed spaghetti, penne and fusilli, some of which was white and some of which was wholegrain). I suppose you can really add anything else you want (as well as the salmon and pesto); I'm a little sad that I couldn't find any appropriate vegetables to use- broccoli would have complemented this dish perfectly!
The ingredients I used were:
Pasta
Salmon
Shop bought pesto (which I'm sure could be very easily made at home if you're a better cook than I am. I'd actually recommend making it at home if you can)
and Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper to taste.

I baked the salmon first, following the instructions on the back of the packet (wrapped in foil for around 20 minutes at 190 degrees Celsius).

As soon as I put the salmon in the oven I set the water to boil in a pan, with a salt sprinkled liberally in the water. As soon as the water was boiling I added the pasta and left to cook for ten minutes.

I took the salmon out of the oven, unwrapped it from the foil and cut it into shreds. Almost immediately after cutting the salmon, I drained the pasta (after checking to see if it was done by tasting it to make sure it wasn't too hard).

I added the pesto to the pasta and mixed roughly, then added the salmon and mixed it slightly more thoroughly. I also added olive oil, salt and pepper to taste.

As I have said multiple times, it was very easy, as you can evidently see from what I've written above. Not only that, but it tasted pretty good, and I got a lot of positive feedback from my family (though they were possibly just being polite). I'd recommend it as a starter recipe for people who want to learn to cook, it gets you off to a pretty good start as it's not challenging, yet it makes you feel like you've accomplished something pretty big.

Trial Thing

I'm going to be attempting to cook a few recipes these weeks, which I will post to this blog. It's part of something I'm trialling (and might involve setting up a new blog if I feel like it goes well). I'll explain my ideas after I'm done. In terms of other posts I'm not sure what's going to happen (I had previously made the decision to start writing about some new topics, but I'm now unsure if I really do want to do this), and what I want to do, as I feel like I might put more effort into this idea. As I said, I'll explain when I've finished.

Blog changes

I've taken a bit of a break from writing on this blog, and in this time I've decided that it's time to stop writing solely about my time off since I'm (unfortunately) not doing anything particularly exciting. Therefore, I've decided to stop posts about confidence and achievements and others like that, in favour of writing about things that are a bit different. I'm hoping to invest my time in writing a lot more, but less about myself specifically. My first idea is a weekly opinion post where I write about my opinions on a range of matters (basically whatever I've been thinking about recently). There are other things I'm thinking about writing about- I'll probably do reviews, and I'd also like to try writing about food if I get round to making anything interesting. I'll get these posts out as and when I think of them, though. 

I'll still do personal posts to help clear my head and make me feel better (and I will label them as that), as well as reflective posts to help keep some track of any progress I make, though I'm cutting the confidence and achievements posts (I'll compile a list of everything relevant I've done that will be published later on). However, I want to write things that are both interesting for me to write and interesting for others to read, and I feel like the posts I've been making recently are a bit of a dull read, as well as not being particularly exciting to write. I'll keep posting updates about new post themes.

More things to do in the remainder of my time off

I had made a post recently about things I could do in the remainder of my gap year since I didn't want to completely waste it. I feel that it's more important that I focus on things like work experience, jobs, volunteering etc. (i.e. things that will boost my CV), so I explored all those options in that post. However, there are, of course, activities I can take up in this time that will still be enriching, even if they don't necessarily improve my employability, so I've decided to make a post about some of these activities.

• Draw/paint/come up with designs and stuff just for fun. I've bought myself a proper sketch book in order to do this, so it would be nice to fill this up.
• Read lots
• Keep writing and blogging, and try and do this as regularly as possible
• Learn something new, like an instrument or a language (this would be really cool, especially the language one, but I don't really know how to go about learning it without paying someone to teach me or buying a bunch of books. Also I'd have to buy the instrument as well if I wanted to learn it, unless I just stuck to guitar)
• Teach myself to cook (or learn from mum)
• Improve driving
• Focus on losing weight/getting healthy
• Help around the house (which I actually don't mind doing too much)
• Get myself prepared for university again
• Find ways of improving my self confidence/self esteem
• Look into making friends online 
• Find my own style and learn to do my make up better
• Take weekly trips into the town centre

That's all I can think of doing for now. I'll update this as and when I think  of things (if I do).