Party night chicken nachos

Obviously this is not the healthiest meal in the world, but sometimes when you are craving a take away filled with thousands of calories, then making your own version, then controlling what you put in is the best compromise.

Ingredients

Serves 2

1/2 red onion

1 garlic clove

Few sprays of calorie controlled spray/olive oil

1 pepper (I like green for a contrast in colour, but whatever you have is great)

Tin of chopped tomatoes

1 tsp chipotle paste

1 tsp sugar

2 chicken breasts

50g cheese

Bag of nacho crisps

Method

Heat the oil in a pan.

Chop your onion, pepper and garlic finely, then throw in the onion and garlic.

When the onion is starting to turn brown, add the pepper to the pan and cook for a   few more minutes.

Add the chopped tomatoes, sugar and chipotle paste.

Place the chicken into your pan, and cover with your sauce. Put the lid on your pan and leave to simmer for 20 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through.

After 20 minutes, take the chicken out of the pan and shred it with two forks. Return the chicken to the pan, and turn on the grill.

Lay a handful of nachos into a heatproof dish, then spoon some of your chicken onto the nachos. Place the rest of your nachos on top, followed by the rest of the chicken. Grate your cheese over the top.

Place the dish under the grill until the cheese has melted. Serve with sour cream, then eat!

(I recently discovered the jalapeño dip, and have to eat it with everything, that's what the green stuff is. It's so delicious it's untrue)

Calories: 696

Fruity Chicken Salad

Summer has arrived! And for once, rainy Britain is sweltering. When the temperature is this high, I really cannot face eating a big meal, so a delicious salad is perfect.

Salads have a bad reputation. My little brother is fond of saying salad is just a way of making lettuce look pretty. But I completely disagree. 

If you also a little dubious about whether or not a salad is "real food" or not, then try this, the little pieces of lemony chicken are delicious and the cherries are really fucking sexy and lovely. Just, try it.

Ingredients

Serves 2

Olive oil

1 tbsp lemon juice

3 tsp honey

2 chicken breasts

Ciabatta loaf

1tbsp red wine vinegar

1 tsp whole grain mustard

Bag of salad

100g fresh cherries

1/4 cucumber

Method

First, my favourite bit, cut your chicken into bit size chunks and marinate in the lemon juice, 2 tsp of honey and 1 tbsp of oil. Cover and pop in the fridge for a few hours.

Preheat your oven to 180'

Cut up 5 slices of the bread into tiny pieces, then mix in a bowl with a tbsp of oil then put on a baking tray in the oven for 10 minutes. When they come out you will have some lovely crunchy croutons that should look a bit like this;

Heat some oil in a pan, take your chicken out of the marinade and fry in the pan on a medium heat. After a few minutes, they should turn a lovely golden colour. Unfortunately I did not take a picture, but trust me, they look and smell bang tidy.

Meanwhile, Slice up your cherries and cucumber and combine in a bowl with the lettuce leaves.

Mix together the red wine vinegar, 1tsp honey, the mustard and 1tbsp oil. You will need to mix this really well to make sure the oil is really combined. 

Add the chicken and croutons to your salad bowl, then drizzle over your salad dressing. If you are really hungry, then slice up some more of your lovely bread and serve on the side.

Calories (without the bread): 495

Scrap book cookbooks

Just like my mum, I love to collect recipes. The first thing I do when I go to a supermarket is collect any free magazines or recipe cards they have on offer and then proceed to cut them up (very messily) and stick them into my beloved scrapbooks!

These are my two scrapbooks. The first one is a finished recipe book now, and the second one, with the pink spine, is still a work in process. If you are anything like me, and would like to start your own scrapbooks, then here as some handy tips for starting your own.

1. Decorate your scrapbook. I like to start a collage on the front, back an inside covers, but if you are more artistic and can think of something better than go for it! 

This may seem like a silly thing to do, but by decorating it, you are making it a labour of love, something you will want to hold on for the rest of your life and show your family one day. 

2. Make notes. Not every recipe is going to be perfect, so it is very important that you write everything you can think of in the margains. May seem obvious, but if you forget to annotate your cooking, then you may end up making the same mistakes over and over again!

3. Look after your books! Learn from my mistakes! The spiral on my first book has snapped, meaning that its not going to last forever, as soon enough it will unravel completely and fall to bits. 

4. Don't just collect the recipes, try them all! You never know, you might find the perfect dinner party special, that you cook every day for the rest of your life. 

Cheats Jamaican Jerk Chicken

I know all too well what it is like to live on a shoe string. So in honour of that, my very first recipe is going to be an easy cheats version of one my all time favourites, that can pretty much accommodate any budget, now matter how tight.

Anyone who knows me, can tell you that I fucking love the taste of BBQ, to an almost unhealthy level, and that I adore sweet/savoury combinations, so naturally the taste of Jamaican Jerk anything. Being poor should not stand in the way of me eating my favourite thing, and so I made sure it didn't with this bad boy.

This particular time, I used a selection of chicken drumsticks and thighs, because they happened to be on offer at my local supermarket and I am a sucker for a bargain, but usually I would go for turkey breast portions, because they are cheap, but you can pretty much use any meat, or even fish that you want. A word of advice though, if you use a very cheap  or tough cut of meat such as pork loin, then let it marinate for a bit longer. The lime juice will soften and tenderise the meat and make it extra scrummy!!

One more thing, now some of you may think I am really cheating by using a ready made spice mix (and the rest of you may be thinking that I am rambling a little bit, but stay with me!) but I chose to do this because if you don't have all the ingredients for a traditional mix, then it is a lot cheaper to just to buy the one spice bottle.

Now, with no further ado I give you, my cheats Jamaican Jerk Chicken!!!

Ingredients

Serves 2

Selection pack of chicken drumsticks or thighs (or whatever meat you choose to go with)

Tomato ketchup, about 10 good, noisy squirts worth

Jerk seasoning

Pinch of Chilli powder (optional)

Juice of 1 lime

Pineapple juice, about 50/100 ml, depending on how much sauce you want

Cooking oil

1 red onion

2 cloves of garlic

Pinch of sugar

100g frozen peas

Rice, to serve

Method

Prepare the marinade. In a small bowl, mix the ketchup, the lime juice, half the pineapple juice and enough of the jerk seasoning to cover the bowl. If you like things a little more spicy, then add the chilli powder now. Mix well.

Place your meat in a ziplock bag, and pour in the marinade. Seal the bag and shake, making sure that everything is good and covered. Place in the fridge, and leave there for as long as you like. I usually like to marinate for a good few hours, but you can leave it there for a whole day if you want.

Chop up your onion and garlic as finely as possible, whilst heating the oil in a pan. Fry the onion and garlic slowly, adding the sugar to help it caramelise nicely. 

Once the onions start to brown and look really sexy, remove the chicken from your bag and put it in the pan, turning the heat up high. Sear the chicken on both sides then turn it down so the chicken can cook nicely. 

Let the chicken cook slowly, for about ten minutes, your kitchen should start to smell really lovely by now, and your chicken should have a nice glaze on it.

After ten minutes or so, add the rest of the marinade from the bag and the rest of the pineapple juice. Turn the heat up high and heat it up until it starts to steam. Add the peas, and leave to bubble until the sauce has thickened and the peas are cooked through. 

Before digging in, check that your chicken is cooked through, by piercing it with a knife and seeing if the juices run clear.

Your finished product should look something like this

Serve with rice, or potatoes, whatever you have to hand. I was going to take a picture of my finished plate, but I was so hungry, I ate it before I had the chance.

Calories: 463