Greek Chicken with Couscous and Tzatziki

As you know one of my greatest inspirations is Jamie Oliver. I just love his books and his style of cooking. I've been trying out many of his recipes lately so in the upcoming week I will post some of my favorite recipes, starting with this delicious Greek chicken with couscous and tzatziki!

Duration: 15-20 minutes

The ingredients for 1 serving:

• 100 gr couscous
• 1 chicken breast
• 1/2 yellow paprika and 1/2 green paprika
• 2 spring onions
• Some fresh dill
• 50 gr frozen peas
• 1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
• 20 gr feta cheese
• 1 ts dried oregano
• 1/2 ts ground allspice
• 1/2 lemon
• 1/4 fresh red chili
• Salt & pepper

The ingredients for the tzatziki:

• 1/4 cucumber
• 125 gr organic yoghurt
• 1/2 lemon
• Couple of fresh mint leaves

What you do:

1. Cook the couscous as directed on the package.
2. Cut the chicken breast into slices of about 1,5 cm thick. Put them on a piece of grease proof paper and mix with the dried oregano, ground allspice, finely grated lemon zest and some salt & pepper. Put the chicken slices in a frying pan with 1 tablespoon olive oil and bake them for 3-4 minutes each side until they are golden brown and cooked. 
3. Meanwhile grate the cucumber on the coarse side of a grater block, sprinkle a good pinch of salt over it and squeeze out as much moisture as possible with your hands. Mix this with the yoghurt, the juice of 1/2 a lemon, some pepper and chopped mint and put the tzatziki aside.
4. Remove the seeds from the peppers and the red chili. Chop the peppers, thinly slice the spring onions and dill and put on a plate. 
5. When the chicken is almost done add the frozen peas and cook until they are done (takes 2-3 minutes). Add the peas to the vegetables on the plate and sprinkle over some extra virgin olive oil and some additional lemon juice. Mixed with the couscous (season with salt and pepper) and put the chicken slices on top. Crumble over the feta cheese, add some chilli rings to taste and serve the tzatziki on the side.

Tip: It is very possible that you have some chicken and couscous left. This is a perfect lunch salad for the next day! You can even cook a little bit more couscous, chop the rest of the peppers, add to your salad and you save money and as a bonus have a delicious lunch!

Enjoy!

Create a Menu for the upcoming week and stick to it!

First, sorry for the lack of posts the last week but I've been super busy at work and with the preparations of the Lizz is More Vitality Event yesterday. The event was a success with lots of positive feedback and it turned out into a great inspirational afternoon!

I wanted to write a post about something I do every week: Create a Menu for the upcoming week and stick to it! I do this to save money (it's helps me guide my grocery shopping and make a detailed shopping list), but it also helps me to stay on track and prevents me from making unhealthy choices. I create my menu on Saturdays before I do my grocery shopping! I mainly prep my dinners and I make sure that I have enough in the refrigerator for 4 lunch salads, 3 days of sandwiches for lunch and fresh fruit, yoghurt, quark and oats for breakfast. For more information see my previous post: Meal Planning.

So here is an example of what you could have for dinner in the upcoming week! This menu is balanced and makes sure that you have enough variation in your meals!

Monday: Quick & Easy Noodles with Shrimps
Tuesday: Red Pesto Pasta (V)
Wednesday: San Fran Quinoa Salad with Chicken
Thursday: Green Fish Curry
Friday: Spicy Falafel Wraps (V)
Saturday: Couscous salad
Sunday: Vegan Healthy Cottage Pie (V)

Do you have any questions don't hesitate to ask them!

Have a lovely week!

Fruit Yoghurt

Before I started my clean lifestyle I really liked the fruit yoghurts they sell in the store. But have you noticed that many of these so called fruit yoghurts actually contain lots of added sugar and artificial sweeteners and that these are higher up on the ingredient list then the fruit itself!? So I stopped eating these and only eat natural yoghurt, quark or Greek yoghurt. But now I found the perfect solution! You can make your own fruit yoghurt! And it only contains fruit and yoghurt! And in this version some chia seeds but you can also leave these out.

Duration: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

• 5-6 strawberries
• 1 tbs chia seeds
• 3-5 heaped tbs quark or natural yoghurt

What you do:

1. Simply blend 4 strawberries in your blender with the chiaseeds. Put the quark or yoghurt in a bowl. Stir the strawberry mixture through it and top with some fresh strawberries.

Enjoy!

Chicken Dim Sum with Bimi, Mushrooms & Sour Cucumber

This week it was time to try out a new Jamie Oliver recipe from his 15 minutes cookbook: his chicken dim sum! Left out the coconut bread and some side dishes but it still was delicious and love the steamed chicken. Never did this before but I'm definitely going to do this again because it's just so simple and easy. And all you have to do is wait 6-8 minutes until the chicken is done. So perfect for after a long working day!

Duration: 15 minutes

The ingredients for 1 serving:

• 1 chicken breast
• 125 gr chestnut mushrooms
• 100 gr bimi
• 1,5 tbs hoisin sauce
• 1 lime
• 1 tbs sesame seeds
• 1/4 cucumber
• 1 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tbs white wine vinegar
• 1 tbs dried coriander
• Himalayan sea salt

Directions:

1. Heat up some water in your kettle. 
2. Cut the chicken in strips of 1 cm. Coarsely chop the mushrooms and mix with the chicken and the hoisin sauce and the juice of half a lime. Add a pinch of Himalayan sea salt. 
3. Put this in a steam basket together with the bimi and steam for about 5-6 minutes or until everything is cooked. 
4. Cut the cucumber into small stripes with a vegetable peeler. Mix them with the soy sauce, white wine vinegar and the dried coriander in a bowl. 
5. Roast the sesame seeds until they are golden brown.
6. Serve the chicken, bimi and mushrooms on a plate, sprinkle over the sesame seeds and have the sour cucumber on the side!

Enjoy!

Spinach-Paprika Salad (V)

It's time for another delicious lunch salad but this time with spinach! The fresh spinach was on sale, and since I'm always paying attention to my budget I just had to incorporate it in some meals. What I like about spinach is that it is rich in iron, potassium, calcium, phosphorus and magnesium. But it also contains lots of fibers, vitamin E, A and folate and is low in calories but really fills you up.

The ingredients for 1 serving:

• 1 boiled egg
• 100 gr fresh spinach leaves
• 1/2 yellow paprika
• 1 sweet paprika
• 1 tomato
• 1 tbs roasted pine nuts
• 1/2 or 1 avocado
• 1/4 cucumber
• 2 tbs white wine vinegar

Directions:

1. Put the spinach on your plate. Cut all the vegetables and put on top of the spinach. Finish with the pine nuts and if you're ready to eat, sprinkle over the white wine vinegar for dressing!
   

   Enjoy!