Pesto Chicken Macaroni Soup - Recipe Clippings

This is my entry for the January Recipe Clippings blog event, read more about it on the Recipe Clippings page.  I haven't quite got round to cutting out this recipe for future reference, it's part of 10 ways with Chicken Soup in the February 'Eat In' magazine.  There's a base soup recipe which you then change to make the different recipes, I chose to make the Pesto, Chicken, Macaroni Soup.  I replaced the macaroni with wholewheat fusilli and reduced the amount of pesto by half otherwise no changes.

Pesto, Chicken Macaroni Soup
Serves 4

1 tbsp vegetable or olive oil
2 onions, thinly sliced
1 carrot, quartered and sliced
2 celery sticks, finely sliced
2 waxy potatoes, diced (skin on)
500g chicken thigh fillets
2 chicken stock cubes
2 dried bay leaves
240g macaroni
200g green pesto

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a high heat.  Saute the onions, carrot, celery and potatoes for 5 minutes.
2. Stir in the chicken, stock cubes bay leaes and 1.5 ligres boiling water.  Bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low. Simmer, covered, skimming off any scum that rises to the surface, for 30 mintues or until the chicken and vegetables are cooked. Discard the bay leaves.
3. Remove the chicken to a chopping board and cool slightly, finely shred, then return to the soup with the macaroni. Cook for 8 minutes or until tender. Stir in the pesto. Season and serve.

The soup was really filling and had a lovely flavour, it was ideal to take to work for lunch and is hearty enough to make an excellent main meal with lots of crusty bread. 

Labels: Chicken, Eat In, lunch, macaroni, Pesto, Recipe Clippings, Soup

posted by Janice @ 10:32 7 Comments

Holy Moly - Guacamole!

Sometimes you just want a simple lunch, not too much work but something delicious all the same.  Avocados are really good just now and even thought the one I used had been 'ripe and ready to use' a week ago, it was still perfect no bruising and it mashed down in a really pleasing manner. Combined with some pitta bread and salad, the simple lunch became a feast.  It would also work well as a DIY picnic, just put the guacamole in a plastic box and pack the bread and salad separately.

Perfect Picnic Guacamole
1 avocado, stone and skin removed
1 spring onion, finely chopped
1/2 a small chilli
2 tomatoes, de-seeded and finely chopped
1/2 lime
handful of coriander leaves, chopped

Place the avocado in a bowl and mash roughly with a fork.  Add the spring onion, chilli and tomatoes. Squeeze in the lime juice, add the coriander leaves and mix all the ingredients together.  Serve in a bowl or scoop into a plastic box to take on your picnic.



I'm entering the Perfect Picnic Guacamole for Tea Time Treats where the theme this month is 'Picnic food'.  Tea Time Treats is run by Karen at Lavender and Lovage and Janie at Hedgecombers.  Guacamole is also appropriate for The Spice Trail where are off on a 'Beach Barbeque', guacamole is a great accompaniment to a barbeque, imagine barbequed steak or chicken in a tortilla with salad and guacamole, delicious!  The Spice Trail is the challenge run by Vanesther at Bangers and Mash and there is a prize of a copy of Nigella Summer.

Labels: avocado, chilli, guacamole, lunch, pitta, salad, Tea Time Treats, the spice trail

posted by Janice @ 19:23 9 Comments

Tortilla Bake

 
We love to eat fajitas. I buy the tortillas and the fajita spice mix and sometimes also the box of Nachos with their sachets of topping.  Sometimes I buy the salsa, sometimes  I make it, but I always make my own guacamole and have little bowls of sour cream, roasted peppers, cheese, salad and kidney beans.

When my sons were still at home it was their favourite meal and there were never any leftovers.  But now there are fewer of us, so last night there were three tortillas left, enough chicken for one and a few bits and pieces in each of the other bowls.  Just about enough for one person's lunch but not really enough for a meal.

As I am not really baking just now, all the bakeware having been packed away for the kitchen work, I have a bit of an overload of eggs.  We get our eggs from a colleague of my husband's and half a dozen beautiful free range eggs arrive every Monday.  Usually I've used them all before the next delivery but they are starting to stack up.  So eggs seemed like a good way to go with my recipe development!



Tortilla Bake (serves 2-3)

2-3 Tortillas
1-2 tbsp kidney beans
1 tbsp soured cream
1 -2 tbsp tomato salsa
1-2 tbsp roasted sweet peppers
1-2 tbsp  chicken cooked in fajita spice mix
1-2 tbsp guacamole
150g hard cheese (cheddar)
4 eggs
100ml semi skimmed milk
salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Grease a round pie dish with butter or oil.  Lay one torilla in the base, add the cooked chicken, place another tortilla on top and cover with the beans, cream, salsa, chicken and guacamole.  Place the final tortilla over this. (If you only have two just make a big sandwich).
2. Beat the eggs and milk together in a bowl, season and pour over the tortilla layers.
3. Cover with foil and leave to rest in the fridge for 2-3 hours to let the egg mix soak in.
4. Heat the oven to 180C
5. Grate the the cheese over the top of the tortillas.
6. Replace the foil and bake for 20 minutes until the egg is almost set.
7. Increase the oven temperature to 220C
8. Remove the foil and bake for a further 5-10 minutes until the cheese is browned and melted.
9. Serve cut into wedges with salad or vegetables.






Tea Time Treats is a blog challenge run by my friend Karen at Lavender and Lovage, this month it is being hosted by Jane at Hedgecombers and the Tea Time theme is 'EGGS'.


This is a new challenge for me, I found it in the list on the Food Blog Diary.  Cheese is integral to the success of the Tortilla Bake and the theme for Cheese Please, this month, is Comfort Food and Winter Warmers, so I think this cheesy supper dish definitely fits the bill!

Labels: brunch, cheese, Cheese Please, Chicken, eggs, fajitas, leftovers, lunch, No Waste Food Challenge, supper, Tea Time Treats, tortilla

posted by Janice @ 07:30 12 Comments

Ham Pate for lunch

I had some baked ham left over so thought I'd make it into a pate for sandwiches and other snacks.

Manuka Honey with Lemon

Ham Pate

You need twice as much ham as you do cottage cheese, and can add whatever flavourings suit you.
600g baked or boiled ham, diced
300g cottage cheese
1 tbsp whipping cream (optional)
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp  New Zealand Honey Co, Manuka Honey with Lemon (or other honey)

Whizz the ham in the food processer until chopped small, add the other ingredients and whizz until mixed.

Pack into a dish or box and cover.

I topped a baked potato with some of the ham pate and served with a simple tomato and basil salad.  It's a great way to use up left over ham it also extends it much further than serving it sliced.

Labels: Baked Potato, cottage cheese, food processor, ham, leftovers, lunch, Manuka Honey, pate, sandwiches

posted by Janice @ 22:21 4 Comments

Lamb Naan Calzone

Regular readers of my blog will know that I like to use up my left overs. On Friday night we had Lamb Curry which had been made from the left overs of the lamb leg we had at Easter and had frozen. There was some of the curry still left from last night, so I decided to make it into a kind of pasty for lunch.  I was going to make pastry, but forgot to defrost the butter so, with a bit of lateral thinking,  I thought Naan - pizza - calzone!

Naan Calzone

1 tsp dried yeast
125ml milk
250g strong white flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tbsp yogurt
15g butter

I made my dough in the bread maker on 'dough' setting, which involves throwing everything in there and switching on.  However, if you want to do it the hard way, it's just a basic white bread but with milk and yogurt as the liquid.

Once the dough is made, split it in two and roll out into a large round.

 





Serve with a tomato, cucumber and red onion salad.
If anything I think I probably made the Naan Calzone too big, there was too much bread and not enough filling, dividing the dough into three would probably be better and would provide a better balance of filling to bread.

Labels: Bread, calzone, curry, lamb, lunch, Naan, salad

posted by Janice @ 20:21 2 Comments

Bacon and Egg Rolls - Random Recipe Anniversary

It's one year since Dom at Belleau Kitchen started his Random Recipes challenge.  So to celebrate this momentous event, we have all had to go back to the first book we used for a Random Recipe.  The first book I used for this challenge was Seasonal Cooking by Claire Macdonald of Macdonald. 

I know that a few people have said they have never heard of Claire Macdonald, well she is well worth finding out about.  An amazing cook, she owns the Kinloch Lodge on the Isle of Skye, she also writes a mean recipe and includes some entertaining stories along with the recipes.  I've seen her demonstrate which is a real treat as she is very skilled and also very amusing.

Labels: bacon, breakfast, eggs, lunch, Random Recipes, rolls

posted by Janice @ 08:00 10 Comments

The House of Menzies, Weem, Aberfeldy.

This colourful board greets you at the door with the specials in the cafe and other events.




Best of all, we ordered a large cafetierre of coffee for two and it was served in these really cool cups & saucers.  It was also some of the best coffee and best value we had all week.

There were some lovely cakes and the soup with homemade rosemary & garlic bread also looked excellent, but I don't think the other diners would have appreciated me taking photos of their lunch!

Labels: bagels, coffee, House of Menzies, lunch

posted by Janice @ 22:26 5 Comments