Oh my god, it’s been such a long time since my last post. I feel guilty. I’ve been really busy, still cooking but not giving myself time to put anything up. That might just be an excuse but I have been busy. I find, like a lot of people do that it’s really hard to stay motivated to cook healthy food for dinner every night and still have time for everything else. Now today I’ve had a day of recovery and relaxation so I’ve been cooking  all sorts. The star of the day was a bacon sandwich. Good bread, proper good butter and tomato sauce. Yes! Now for dinner this evening I’ve made some slow roast chicken with a quinoa salad with roast vegetables and crusty bread. Well tasty. 

Not that I’m rubbing it in but here is my bacon sandwich. It was awesome. 🙂

So….the salad!

Ingredients

1 Red Pepper
1 Green Pepper
1 courgette
1 clove of garlic
1 portabello mushroom
2 cups of Quinoa
1 Lemon
1 Apple
2 handfuls of cherry tomatoes
Maldon Salt
Black Pepper
Extra Virgin Olive oil
Organic Free Range Chicken legs

I’ve done my normal thing of using my cast iron pan to cook the chicken in. I’ve just put 9 chicken legs in my pan. I added Maldon salt, pepper and good extra virgin olive oil. If you feel a bit funky then chuck a smashed up garlic clove in there. Needles to say I was feeling funky!

Ok so pop this in the oven on about 150-160°C and leave it for 2 hours. I should say this is a bit of a Sunday afternoon I’ve not got much else to do kind of dish. So while this is cooking go do something and chill out. After two hours remove the pan from the oven, leaving the lid on and pop it somewhere to chill out while you cook the rest of the dish.

Now turn the oven up to 200°C,  grab a good oven dish and add roughly chopped red and green peppers, 1 large portabello mushroom, 1 medium courgette, a small red onion and a handful of cherry tomatoes. Get a clove of garlic and finely slice it, chuck that in give a splash of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Chuck in the oven with bit of foil over it for 10 mins then remove the foil and cook for a further 10-15 mins.

Now while this is happening get a pan with 2 litters of water and bring to the boil. Add a pinch of salt and add 2 handfuls of peas. Cook for 3-4 mins. Now strain out the peas into a bowl, add a knob of butter and some pepper, make sure keep the water. Bring this water back to the boil and add 2 cups of quinoa. Cook this for about 15-20 mins or until it is cooked. You know it’s cooked when you get a little white ring around the edge of the quinoa. Stain once cooked and pop in a large bowl. Season a tiny bit and leave to sit.

Now remove the roast veggies from the oven and add to the quinoa and mix then add the peas. Add a squeeze of lemon juice and grate one apple into it and stir. Taste, season if needed.

Served it on a bed of dressed lettuce (just olive oil and balsamic vinegar) I then got two chicken legs and stripped off the chicken and added it on top of everything. Serve with a nice bit of sourdough….Yum!