Ajuangs Kitchen

This is my favorite recipe when I'm counting calories,  veggies like mushrooms and cabbage fill you up while keeping your count low. First step is to season your meat, I used salt, pepper, coriander, paprika, chili and garlic powder. Brown your meat with some olive oil and onions. Add some mushrooms and Chinese cabbage and saute. Add coke zero, about half a cup per serving, and cook till all the liquid is evaporated.
Serve in a bed of lettuce.

This is a big meal burger even without the buns because it is very filling. This seemed like it would go well together because you cannot wrong with avocado and tomato combination and l love creamy spinach with my beef. I was right, it is a clean meal (not sure about the cream being part of a clean diet) and very feeling meal.

The beef patty is very simple and quick to make, place ground beef in a bowl and spice it like you like it. On this day I used mixed herbs (the dried version that comes fully mixed), garlic powder, chili powder, onion powder, salt and pepper (generally i use whatever is in my pantry at the time). Roll about a handful of the mixture into a beef patty shape, you want to make the patty as flat as possible to make it cook faster. In a hot oiled non-stick or grill pan under high heat, place the patty and cook till well done or medium rare depending on how you like it.

To make the creamed spinach, place onions in a hot pan under high heat and add the spinach. Stir regularly, after the spinach heats up season it then add cream. The ratio of cream to spinach depends on how you like it, the creamier you like it the more cream you add. Start with about one tablespoon, eyeball and increase the cream as you please.



Finally, arrange your burger, patty, spinach, avocado and tomato. Salt the avocado and tomato as desired.

Happy New Year, in May right. Today's recipe is Chicken Parmesan, the trick with this recipe is being careful not to end up with too much sauce. What you need for this is an oven proof skillet for easy cooking and we will talk about why.

First step is to make the pasta sauce(or buy it). If you love fresh sauce like i do then in a skillet fry onions in some oil, add tomatoes and let soften. I like to leave my tomatoes in hot water for about 30 minutes and then peel them before i make the sauce, it makes for a smoother sauce in my experience. Add a bay leaf and some basil and let simmer. Remove the bay leaf and blend the mixture. Some recipes add celery and carrots to the mixture to cook before blending but I don't do that only because carrots take a while to soften and I'm always going for the quickest way to skin a cat. Now if you use pasta sauce a lot, make a big batch and freeze, you could also add chopped cilantro once the mixture is ready for that extra something.

To make the Chicken Parmesan place 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a bowl, add your herbs, in this case I used teaspoon each of fresh rosemary, thyme and parsley. This mixture will be enough to brush onto about 4 double breasted chicken cutlets. Heat your oven proof skillet and add the oiled chicken and brown both sides (about 2 minutes per side).  The oven proof skillet comes in handy here because you move on to the next step directly, if your skillet is not oven proof, transfer your chicken to a baking tin. Remove from the heat and add your pasta sauce over the chicken, about 3/4 to 1 cup. Sprinkle Mozzarella cheese on top of the chicken and top with Parmesan cheese. I eyeball the cheese step, i love Mozzarella so i add to my hearts content then sprinkle my Parmesan. place the skillet in the oven, cover and cook at about 250 degrees Celsius until the chicken is cooked, (about 40 minutes), uncover and cook for five more minutes to get the color.

 

The recipe is not a very quick one but its worth it, the slow cooking makes all the juices sip into the chicken and makes it so full of flavor. Its finger licking good and makes for an impressive presentation.

To make the stuffing, place 1/2 cup of cream cheese into a bowl, add 1/2 a cup of arugula, 1 tbs of lemon shavings, 1 clove of crushed garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Slice the chicken breast into half without slicing all the way through.  Stuff the chicken and close it up (I used dental floss but toothpicks will work as well). Heat olive oil at medium heat and add the chicken. Cover with a smaller lid than the pan but big enough to cover the chicken.


Cook each side for about 10 minutes until it becomes golden brown.  Pour your favorite red or white wine into the pan and add corn flour and stir with the left over chicken juices to make the gravy.

This healthy recipe is easy to cook and very filling. The first step is to prepare the stuffing. I opted for ground chicken which I prepared by placing crushed garlic cloves and diced onions in a hot pan with olive oil. After the onions soften, add tomatoes and stir then add salt and pepper and an assortment of spices. I opted for onion powder, paprika and cayenne pepper . You want to spice this up generously because the pepper is pretty tasteless. Add the ground chicken (or whatever meat you choose) and cook in medium to high heat until dry. Even though i prefer my vegetables slightly cooked when it comes to ground meat, I find it easier to fry my vegetables before I add the meat, its a lot easier to work with that way.

Bring water to a boil, cut the pepper, remove the core then place into the boiling water and continue to boil for five minutes. Dry the pepper with a paper towel and stuff with the meat and top with mozzarella cheese. place in an oven at 200 Degrees for 15 minutes and serve. 

This recipe was taken from an assortment of recipes. In a bowl mush 3 very ripe bananas, add one egg, 1/4 cup of vegetable oil, 1/2 a cup of sugar (or apple sauce if you want to avoid sugar completely) and mix. Add 1 teaspoon of powdered cinnamon, 1/4 tsp of nutmeg, a pinch of salt, 3/4 tsp of baking soda, 1 tbs of Vanilla essence and mix.  Add 2 cups of peanut flour (or 1 cup peanut flour and 1 cup wheat flour if you’re not quite ready to go full on gluten free). Add 1/3 cup of cocoa and mix. Fold in 3/4 cups of chocolate chips. Place in baking tin and bake at 180 for about 40-45 minutes.

I have to confess, it doesn’t taste as good as regular banana bread, but if you’re on a diet and need a treat without breaking your diet. It’s especially good if you want to have that chocolate fix without breaking your diet. Avoid the sugar and wheat if you want to stick to your diet. I have to warn you though, the banana taste is lost in between the peanut aftertaste and the heavy chocolate taste. It is still surprisingly sweet.