Hairy Dieters Week 11

This week has been quite a hectic Hairy Dieters week, I’ve cooked loads of new stuff and also used the last of the meat and potato pies that I froze.

First up was the Paprika chicken, I couldn’t get any skinless and boneless chicken thighs so I skinned and boned some, although next time i’d probably use chicken breast instead. The flavour of the stew was nice enough but it did lack a bit of heat so I added a few dashes of Tabasco and a sprinkling of hot paprika, I served it with a little bit of rice and it would have been a little odd just on its own.

Next up were the Mediterranean inspired burgers, these were fantastic, the burgers them selves were simple in terms of making and flavouring but all the excitement comes in the toppings, the gooey, stringy mozerella, fresh basil, home grown yellow pear and cherry tomatoes and a drizzling of balsamic vinegar, I’ve frozen the remaining two burgers to eat at a later date.

Following on from the burgers was going to be tough, luckily the lamb, spinach and potato curry was awesome, really packed full of flavour and with a nice level of heat and spice from the chilli and ginger. I was a bit worried how the lamb would turn out as I did it per the instructions instead of in the slow cooker but I needn’t have worried as it was tender and melt in the mouth. I server it with a little bit of rice as again thought it was a bit strange as just a bowl of curry.

With the week over it was time to have a bit of a treat on the weekend so I cooked the fried breakfast, with some good quality smoked bacon I bought from the farmers market, a couple of fresh local, free range eggs, that for once I managed to poach perfectly in a pan, I also used home grown cherry tomatoes which were super sweet and worked really well with the balsamic vinegar and watercress. While the bacon was good I think i’d be tempted to cook it on the griddle pan next time as there’s something really special about smokey griddled bacon.

Finally I decided to give lemon and blueberry cup cakes a go, I was surprised at just how easy they were to make and really enjoyed the flavour but I’m not 100% convinced on the icing, personally i’d leave this off next time and just have the actual cake. They seem to have stayed nice and moist for a couple of days in an air tight container too which is a good thing as I’d have quite happily eaten them all the day they were baked.