You may remember that last June, I reviewed just-eat.co.uk giving it major thumbs up & have recommended it to friends within the UK & Ireland and also sent a £20 gift voucher by David Buttress, who runs just-eat.co.uk to give away during my 6 Prizes in 6 Days for 6 years competition. Since then, they’ve under gone a major website re-vamp introducing Belly & Brain as part of their advertising campaign in within the UK (see the TV advert above!). Belly is such a cutie!

So here I am again, pimping just-eat.co.uk out for the simple reason that I love it, so much so that by their records, I’ve used it 23 times & spent over £400 to date *gulp* since I first used it in November 2008.

If you’re in the UK & stuck for dinner, then use the website, it’s great if you don’t have any cash on you (like I rarely do!) & ultra simple to use! If you’re in Ireland or Canada then you can use it too! Not to mention Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands & Norway.

& no, I’m not paid to pimp the website out! It’s just one of my favourite websites around I thought I’d share

Cupcakes! Who doesn’t love cupcakes? They cheer you up when you’re down, give you a sugar rush when you need it most & are addictive as hell! These cupcakes are no exception, in fact they are so addictive you can’t just have one!

Cupcake Ingredients:
60g soft unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
1 egg
20g cocoa powder
40ml red food colouring
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
120ml buttermilk
150g plain flour
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1½ teaspoons white vinegar
Cupcake Tray filled with paper cases

Cupcake Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Put the butter and the sugar in a bowl and use a hand held electric whisk and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Turn the mixer up to high speed, slowly add the egg and beat until everything is well mixed.

2. In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla extract to make a very thick, dark paste. Add to the butter mixture and mix thoroughly until evenly combined and coloured. Turn the mixer down to slow speed and slowly pour in half the buttermilk. Beat until well mixed, then add half the flour and beat until everything is well incorporated. Repeat this process until all the buttermilk and flour have been added.

3. Turn the mixer up to high speed and beat until you have a smooth, even mixture. Turn the mixer down to low speed and add the bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. Beat until well mixed, then turn up the speed again and beat for a couple more minutes.

4. Spoon a tablespoon of the mixture into the paper cases and bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes until the sponge bounces back when touched. Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely. When the cupcakes are cold, spoon the cream cheese frosting on top. This recipe makes approx 20 cupcakes.

Frosting Ingredients:
300g icing sugar, sifted
50g soft unsalted butter
125g cream soft cheese

Frosting Method:
1. Beat the icing sugar and butter together in a bowl using a hand held electric whisk on medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together and is well mixed. Add the cream cheese in one go and beat until it is well mixed. Turn the mixer up to medium-high speed continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy making sure you don’t over beat it

2. Frost your cupcakes with a knife or an icing bag and then top with extra toppings of your choice. I topped it with 5 different things: sprinkles, crushed oreo’s, cake crumbs, pink sugar flakes & icing balls & bunny rabbit.

Ingredients:
115g unsalted softened butter
50g granulated white sugar
1 large egg
140g all purpose flour
Pinch of salt
100g of your choice of nuts, finely chopped (I used a mini food processor to finely chop them into pieces)
A jar of your favourite flavour of jam (I choose Strawberry)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180°c. Line a baking tray with grease proof paper and set aside.

2. Cream butter and sugar using an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg yolk (separate yolk from the white) and beat until combined.

3. Siv the flour into the bowl (so there are no lumps) with the mix and a pinch of salt beating until mixed thoroughly into a dough.

4. In a small bowl, whisk the egg white until frothy and place your choice of chopped nuts on a plate. In your hands, roll the dough into small balls. Taking one ball of the dough at a time, dip into the egg white and then roll into the nuts coating it completely. Place each ball on the baking tray and using your thumb, make an indentation in the center of each ball filling the indents with 1/2 a teaspoon of jam.

5. Place in the middle of the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until brown. Once ready, remove from oven and cool down before eating. These little cookies are golden brown on out outside & taste like buttery shortbread inside, perfect with a glass of chilled milk

Ingredients:
1 Lemon Cut into Quarters
2 Tbsp Runny Honey
50ml White Wine (or White Grape Juice)
1 Tbsp Tomato Puree
Handful of Chopped Fresh Parsley
Handful of Fresh Basil Leaves
8 Small Chicken Thighs
500g Baby New Potatoes
1 Red Onion, Halved & Sliced
Low Fat Cooking Spray

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 170°c. Squeeze the juice from the lemon into a large bowl and add the squeezed out lemon into the bowl as well. Stir in the honey, wine, tomato puree, basil and parsley. Season well and add the chicken stirring to coat. Set aside to marinate.

2. Half the baby new potatoes and add then into a pan of water, bring to the boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes until tender. Drain and cool under running water. Then place them in a large casserole dish. Scatter the onion on top, season well and mist with low fat spray.

3. Place the chicken on top of the potatoes and drizzle with the marinade. Roast for 1 hour turning the chicken over every now & then until cooked.

4. Plate up & enjoy with added vegetables if you want. I used whole baby carrots

This recipe takes approx 5 minutes to prepare & 1.5 hrs to cook. Serving 4, it has 372 calories per serving or 5.5 Weight Watchers Points

Ingredients for Curry Paste:
4 Shallots chopped roughly
4 Garlic Cloves chopped roughly
3 Green Chillies chopped roughly
2 inch piece of Fresh Ginger grated
3 Lemon Grass Stems sliced (or use 3 tsps of a jar of lemon grass already mushed up)
Zest & Juice of 1 Lime
4 tsp Water
Handful of Coriander

Method:
Place all the ingredients into a mini blender and whizz it all up until all slushy

Ingredients for Curry:
Low Fat Cooking Spray
400g Peeled Butternut Squash cut into chunks
1 Small Aubergine cut into chunks
Curry Paste (all of what you made above)
400ml can of Light Coconut Milk
200ml of Chicken or Vegetable Stock made from 1/2 a stock cube
400g Skinned Chicken Breast cut into strips
100g of Green Beans halved
1 tbsp of Whole Peppercorns
Handful of Coriander

Method:
1. Heat a large pan and spray some low fat spray adding the squash along with a generous splash of water. Sauté for 5 minutes and then add the aubergine adding more water if necessary. This is to prevent the vegetables sticking to the bottom of the pan. Cook for a further 3 minutes, then turn down the heat stirring in the curry paste you made previously.

2. Cook the vegetables for 5 minutes more stirring, then gradually add in the Coconut Milk and then the stock. Simmer for 10 minutes or until the vegetables are soft. Add the chicken and beans simmering for 5 minutes or until the chicken is cooked. Stir in the peppercorns and scatter the Coriander on top.

3. Add cooked white rice onto your plate, add your Thai Green Curry and enjoy

This recipe takes approx 15 minutes to prepare & 30 minutes to cook. Serving 4, it has 497 calories per serving or 7.5 Weight Watchers Points

I came across the recipe while browsing Hannah’s blog and decided that I MUST make it. Living in Singapore when I was a kid, I’d eat this A LOT, it tastes amazing and a must have make at home kind of food! It’s simple to make & delicious

The original recipe came from the Visit Singapore website but I did some changes to the recipe myself. For the rice, I used garlic puree paste because, as Hannah’s said, I didn’t want garlic bits in people’s mouths lol. I’ve written my version of the recipe with the small changes I made for you to try, or you can see the original one.

Ingredients for Chicken & Rice
1 Whole Chicken
2 Scallions, cut into 1 inch pieces
6 slices fresh peeled Ginger
4 tsp of Garlic Puree Paste
4 cups Uncooked Basmati Rice, washed and drained
1 tsp fine salt

Ingredients for Chilli Sauce
3 tbsp freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice
4 whole chilies finely chopped (red preferably)
5 cloves garlic, chopped
3 slices of ginger finely chopped
1 tsp fine salt
1/2 cup boiling hot chicken stock (this is taken from the chicken after it’s ready)

Method
Boil a large pot of water. Stuff the cavity of the chicken with scallion, ginger and some garlic puree paste. Add chicken to boiling water, breast side-down. Lower the heat to a simmer just under boiling point and cook, covered until just cooked through, about 40 minutes. Bathe the chicken in an ice water bath till chicken is cold to create a tender, springy texture. Heat garlic in a pan for the rice, stir fry till fragrant. Add uncooked rice, fry for a minute, add salt and enough chicken soup to cover 1/2 inch above the top of the rice. Boil on high heat, lower heat when steam holes form, cover and steam for 30 minutes till rice is cooked. Chop chicken and serve with steaming hot rice and chilli sauce. Dark soya sauce is the ideal accompaniment.

Method for Chilli Sauce
Add all the ingredients into a bowl & mix together, then put them into a blender & blend for a minute until liquid… easy!

From this:

To this:

Let me know how you get on with making this, you won’t regret it

Growing up in Singapore, one of my favourite dishes was Kai-Lan in Oyster Sauce… if I could eat it 24/7 with rice I would have Kai-Lan is otherwise known in English as Chinese Brocolli and you cannot find it ANYWHERE here *cries* I’ve tried, even in the Chinatown but they have a substitute Pak-Choi which is pretty much similar and known in English as Chinese Cabbage so it satisfies my cravings! It’s great as a vegetable addition to any Chinese dish you cook & tastes amazing So here is my quick easy recipe that only takes 15 minutes to make & tastes yummy!

Ingredients:
2 Cups of Basmati Rice
2 Small Onions chopped
2 Peppers sliced into strips
2 Small Pak Choi
1 tbsp Chilli Sauce
As many uncooked Peeled Shrimps as you want
2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
1 Sachet Blue Dragon Stir Fry Oyster & Spring Onion Sauce (use another if you like more sauce)

Method:
Boil 2 cups of water into a sauce pan with the cup of rice with a pinch of salt for seasoning, the trick to perfect rice is for every cup of rice add 2 cups of water. Turn up to the highest temperature on the hob until boiling then turn right down puting the lid on the pan and let it simmer away for around 10 minutes. Never ever stir the rice as this leads to it becoming wet & soggy, you want dry fluffy rice, don’t you?!

Meanwhile, bring another pan of water to the boil, throw in the uncooked shrimps and boil them up for a few minutes until they become pink, this shows that they are cooked. Once cooked, leave to the side.

Next, add the Vegetable Oil to a frying pan to fry the onions & peppers with 1 tbsp of Chilli Sauce to give them a little kick until brown. Add in the sachet of sauce mix and let it simmer away gently until it’s nearly time for the rice to be ready. You’ll know when the rice is ready when the water goes away and holes start appearing between the rice grains. At this point, you can taste the rice to see if it’s alright & push a spoon to the bottom of the pan to make sure it hasn’t burnt (the joys of trying to make the perfect rice!)

Boil water again into the pan you used to cook the shrimps (saves on washing more dishes!) and de-segment the Pak-Choi blanching these for a few minutes. Blanching basically means to boil the vegetable quickly and then run under cold water for a few seconds to stop the cooking process (check me, eh!).

Lastly, add in the Shrimps into the Onion & Pepper mixture making sure that they get covered in the Oyster Sauce mix stirring for a minute or two to heat up the shrimps again. In the pan you used to blanche the Pak-Choi, add a little of the Oyster Sauce from the frying pan & mix together.

Add some rice to your plate, top with the Shrimps & Pak-Choi… et voilà, dig in*drool*

Note: If you can’t get Blue Dragon Stir Fry Oyster & Spring Onion Sauce or would rather make your own sauce mixture then all you need to do is purchase a bottle of Oyster Sauce (comes in handy!) and for this recipe use around 4 tbsps of Oyster Sauce along with 2 tsps of soy sauce, 1 tsp of corn flour and 3 tbsps of Chicken or Beef Stock, mix altogether and just carry on with the steps from above. It does taste so much better making your own sauce because you can add things & take away things but I ran out of my trusty bottle of Oyster Sauce so had to use the sachet instead.

We’ve been having pretty good weather in the Scotland on & off for the past month with temperatures reaching around 28 degrees celcius A few weeks ago we had a BBQ, something which we haven’t done in a very very long time (we’ve since bought a BBQ & used it several times!). There is something about a BBQ which makes food taste so much better, so here I am teasing you with some food p0rn

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