Fri YAH! The weekend is here! And for some of you, it might even be date night.  But I have an idea for you.  Since so many of you are dealing with the cold weather, why not skip the restaurant meal all together.  Instead you can have a restaurant quality meal in the comfort of your own home while staying warm and toasty.  No need to worry about a babysitter, and you can both enjoy the glass of wine without having to spend your week’s wages for a taxi!  The key is to prepare a dinner that is quick, simple and not creating too much of a mess in the kitchen.

Let me introduce you to the delicious Chicken with Balsamic and Fig Sauce!  While January is the month that most of us try to stay on the straight and narrow, this recipe isn’t too naughty. And when served with some sautéed kale and steamed baby potatoes, you won’t feel guilty!

Ingredients
4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves, divided
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
3/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 cup finely chopped dried figs (such as Mission)

Preparation

Sprinkle both sides of chicken evenly with 1 1/2 teaspoons thyme, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 6 minutes on each side or until done. Remove from pan; keep warm.
Reduce heat to medium; add butter to pan. Add onion; sauté 3 minutes. Add broth, vinegar, soy sauce, and figs. Simmer until sauce is reduced to 1 cup (about 3 minutes). Add 1 tablespoon thyme and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Cut chicken breast halves lengthwise on the diagonal into slices. Serve sauce over chicken. (recipe from Cooking Light)

My Hubby loved this recipe when I made it for our date night in.  He even asked for seconds! The recipe makes enough for four people, so I saved my “seconds” for lunch the next day. It is very earthy and moreish, hearty and at the same time light.  Eating figs gives your body a great boost of fiber to aid your digestion. Figs really are so good for you, but sometimes it is hard to find fresh ones. And with this recipe, you don’t need fresh, just the dried ones. So win, win, win all the way around!

I am a typical girly girly and do like to get dolled up for a proper date night out every now and again.  Hubby is a bit more of a home body.  But this ended up being perfect for both of us as we got to enjoy a quick but delicious meal, a nice glass of wine and a fab movie at home.  I could still get a bit dressed up without worrying about making a mess of myself cooking.  And not only were we able to stay healthy but it was a night that was gentle on the pocket book.

We are getting through all the Awards seasons movie screeners that get sent to me (I am still a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild) so a dinner like this is much better than a tub of popcorn and M&Ms at the cinema.   I’m going to do a recap of all the films we have been able to see on another post. But a little heads up, the film Room by the Irish director Lenny Abrahamson is riveting! As well, Brooklyn with the Irish actress Saoirse Ronan was absolutely dreamy! Both are deserving of their nominations.  And this recipe is deserving of your next Date Night In!!!

Couple Cuddle Love!

YDP

P.S. Since starting this blog, when we go out to eat I feel obliged to take photos to share with you all on here or my other social media. So when I saw this cartoon I had to laugh. Restaurants are so used to people taking snaps that if you don’t this is the reaction! OMG!

 

Well it is day four of our Salad Scentral week.  So far so good getting the New Year off to a great start!  It feels wonderful being healthy and incorporating more fresh fruit and veg into our lives.  It is the clean food our bodies need after all the holiday time indulging.  But instead of strapping ourselves with boring “diet” food, which loads of people do for January, we are having “live it” foods!  No wonder people fall off the bandwagon so easily when they experience such depravation. And many of the so called “diet foods” are in fact quite processed.  I read in the book “The Daniel Plan” (I am not on the plan, just enjoy the book and recipes) that if something comes from a plant then it is good to eat.  But if it was made in a plant, then leave it on the shelf!

Well today’s salad is actually one of my favorites. It is packed with different flavors and textures, and it reminds me of Los Angeles. Though it has a Mexican vibe, as I have shared before on here, living in L.A. for so many years I was able to enjoy some of the best Mexican food in the world outside of Mexico itself (due to the large number of Mexican immigrants). In fact, I often serve this particular salad as a side when I am having other “South of the Border” foods like tacos or enchiladas.  It is a sturdy salad too. What I mean by that is that it keeps well.  Most salads get wilted once you put the dressing on them.  But this one stays nice and crunchy and the flavors actually improve!

Mexican Fruit Salad (aka Musical Fruit Salad)

Serves 6

1 tin 200 g sweet corn, drained

1 tin 400 g black beans, drained and rinsed

1 small red onion thinly sliced

6 Peppadew Peppers (or one cucumber) thinly sliced

Watermelon (750 g) peeled, seeded and diced into cubes

6 Tbsp chopped fresh coriander or fresh mint

Mexican cheese or Feta Cheese (as much as you like, to crumble on top)

Dressing:

1 clove garlic, minced

Juice of 2 fresh limes

2 Tbsp avocado oil (or olive oil if you don’t have avocado oil)

1 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp chili flakes

salt and ground pepper to taste

1. Whisk together the ingredients for the dressing. Pour over the beans, corn, peppers/cucumbers and onions in a large bowl. Cover and leave to macerate in the refrigerator for one hour.

2. To serve, add the watermelon and fresh coriander to the bowl of beans/corn mixture and   gently stir. Arrange on a large platter, serving bowl or a hallowed out watermelon. Sprinkle with the Mexican or feta cheese.

I often like to serve food in food.  Does that make sense?  For instance when I make my Spinach Dip I like to serve it in a hollowed out cabbage, or bell pepper, etc.  It makes it appealing if you are entertaining.  A WOW factor.  And one less bowl to wash!  So with this salad, I like to put it in a hallowed out watermelon, since HELLO it has watermelon it in.  The only thing is you have to slice off a bit off the bottom of the melon so it will stay stable.

Now you might be wondering why I call it a Musical Fruit Salad when it is technically a Mexican Fruit Salad.  Well,  I explained it like this to my cookery class students in Dublin when I made this for a Mexican themed brunch demonstration:

“Beans, beans the musical fruit, the more you eat the more you toot. The more you toot the better you’ll feel, so eat your beans at every meal!”

If you could have seen their faces!  I’ll never forget it.  So that is why today when I did the tutorial on Snapchat (username: blissbakery) I had to share that ditty with them too.  But then again, I was wearing a sombrero and dancing to “Livin’ La Vida Loca” so they probably weren’t as shocked!

Adiós y amar a mis amigos!

YDP

P.S. I love to listen to music while I cook, as I have mentioned before, and even though I am a bad singer and a bad dancer (with some good recipes), I still get to burn off calories moving around!  Move more, eat less is a good healthy motto for the New Year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whenever I hear, read or see the words “I Feel Good” I can’t help but think of James Brown.  His song of that title instantly jumps into my head and I start boppin’ around not a bother!  I had the pleasure of meeting him at the 1997 Super Bowl in New Orleans when I was helping with the production of the halftime show.  Even though my hometown boys the Blues Brothers, as well as the legendary ZZ Top were also performers, it’s James I remember most.  I mean he was already 64 years of age at that juncture!  Wow talk about energy. And he was quite nice, smiling all the time and a very humble person.  But when he hit that stage, WOOWAAH!

While not all of us are born with natural energy, we CAN choose to eat foods that make us feel alive and feel good!  Since this is Salad Scentral Week, and it is wintery, cold and rainy outside, I decided a warm salad would be just the thing!  As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, the benefit of most salads are they can be made quick, easily and are adaptable.  This salad for instance includes bacon, so if you don’t eat meat, just omit it from the recipe.  That is the only “naughty-ish” thing in the ingredients list.  Everything else is packed with a vitamin punch!  Kale, the holy grail of super foods at the moment (being touted as the most nutrient dense food in the world) is the star, along with Brussels Sprouts.  Though many want to forget about those little round smelly fellas after their perfunctory appearance at your Christmas dinner, you might want to have a re-think about that.  They are known to boost your DNA, and assist with detox (HELLO HOLIDAY HANGOVER remedy).  As well, they are meant to help reduce cholesterol, so maybe you won’t feel so guilty keeping the bacon in the recipe after all!

Warm Winter Salad (aka I Feel Good Salad)

Serves 4- 6

9 oz kale (1 large bunch) center ribs removed and thinly sliced

1 lb 2 oz Brussels sprouts, finely shredded (I use my food processor)

½ cup dried cherries (or you can use dried cranberries like I did)

1 cup cashews, chopped

3 Tbsp olive oil

2 large shallots, sliced into rings

3 slices of (streaky) bacon, chopped

30 g goat cheese, cut into cubes

Freshly ground pepper and sea salt to taste

For the dressing:

2 Tbsp Dijon mustard

2 Tbsp honey

6 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Juice of 2 lemons

Generous pinch kosher salt

1. Prepare the dressing by whisking together the mustard, honey, olive oil, lemon juice and salt until emulsified, then adjust taste if needed. Set aside.

2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frying pan over medium high heat and fry shallots until golden brown. Remove to a kitchen paper lined plate to drain. Add the bacon to the pan and cook until browned and crisp. Remove bacon to another kitchen paper lined plate to drain. Remove all but 2 tsp bacon grease from the pan.

3. Add the kale to the pan and sauté for 30 seconds. Then add the Brussels sprouts and sauté for another 30 seconds. Toss back in the bacon and add in the cashews and stir around.

4. Remove to plates and drizzle with a bit of the dressing. Then sprinkle with the crispy shallots, dried cherries and a crumbling of goat cheese.

I think this salad is near perfect in terms of flavor combination and texture!  The saltiness of the bacon with the sweetness of the dried cherries (or cranberries which I used) is amazing. And the crunch of the cashews with the nice bite of the kale and Brussels sprouts (because they aren’t cooked too much) is sublime.  My fav part though is the nuttiness of the Gouda goat cheese (harder than normal goat’s cheese) with the smoothness of the cooked shallots, amazo!  It makes me feel good inside, and I think that translates to feeling good on the outside too!  It makes me wanna dance (which I did on my snapchat tutorial, username: blissbakery).  So go ahead, try this salad and you’ll be feeling so good you may want to bust out some of your own James Brown moves!

LOVE! CUZ I FEEL GOOD! HEY!

YDP