Budget Tasty Dinner to Feed 2 people!

So, it's getting to the end of January and payday is nearly here! Maybe you're feeling the pinch still from Christmas, maybe you're needing to save this month - or maybe you're one of the lucky ones that are fine! Either way, everybody likes to save a penny or two here and there, and this is the perfect meal to help that!

I love cooking and I love eating healthily, but it's not always the cheapest thing! So, here is a cheapo meal that can be made for around a fiver to feed 2 people! I know, I know....you're welcome! ha ha :)

Chicken thighs are great, they're super cheap and full of flavour. I made them with a harissa marinade and it was so so yummy! Here's the recipe... Enjoy! x

Ingredients:

• Pack of chicken thighs
• 1 x red pepper
• 1 x Fennel Bulb
• Tin of Cannellini beans
• 1/2 tbsp garlic oil
• 1/2 tbsp chilli oil
• 1/2 lemon
• 2 tbsp harissa
• 1 tbsp honey

Method:

1. Marinade the meat with a good squeeze of lemon, 2 tbsp harissa paste or powder, honey and chilli oil and leave for around an hour or as long as you have
2. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees (200 degrees fan oven)
3. Slice pepper into quarters and place on a baking tray 
4. Slice the fennel thinly and place on the baking tray with the peppers
5. Cook the chicken in the oven on a baking tray for around 30 minutes or until cooked and put the veg in the oven around 10 minutes after the chicken
6. About 5 mins before the chicken is ready, wash and drain the beans and fry in a pan with the garlic oil and another squeeze of lemon
7. Mash the beans in the pan whilst you're frying them and add some salt and pepper
8. When everything is cooked, assemble on a plate and drizzle with some extra virgin olive oil

Lamb steaks with Black Olives and Chilli - oh yum yum yum!!

I love this recipe, it's been a while since I've made it too! Unfortunately, it's a stolen one and so I can't take full credit for it - or any for that matter! Nigella Lawson - the Goddess of cookery - gave me the inspiration. She likes to make it with lamb chops, but I just wasn't in the mood - plus they're bloody expensive! £4.60 for 4 little chops that I could inhale! So, as I still wanted to make this so I found some nice lamb leg steaks much cheaper and way more filling!
This can be a quick recipe or a slower one depending on what you want to serve it with. This particular night I chose some mini roast potatoes and peppers (had to use them up!), but more often than not I like this served with hummus and chickpea cous cous or cannellini bean mash.

Here's the recipe, quick, tasty and rather yummy! Oh, and by the way, it's pretty garlicky so unless you're eating this with a loved one, I would say a good snog is probably off the cards after this one ha ha! I know it doesn't look too beautiful but it tasted great!!

Ingredients:

• 2 lamb leg steaks
• 16 black olives sliced into rings
• 2 cloves of garlic sliced
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 fresh chopped chilli
• Zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
• 2 tbsp olive oil plus extra for cooking

Method:

• Marinade the lamb in all the above ingredients either overnight or for 10 minutes! Whatever you have time for
• When ready to cook, remove the lamb from the marinade and scrape off any excess (reserve the marinade though!)
• Fry the steaks in the pan around 3-4 minutes each side or cooked to your liking
• Remove the lamb and allow to rest in some tin foil
• In the same pan fry the rest of the marinade for a minute and then add a couple of tablespoons of hot water - careful it will splash and spit a bit!
• Once its all warmed through pour on top of the lamb steaks and serve with whatever you fancy! I chose mini roast potatoes and some roasted peppers, but as I said earlier, cous cous is nice too!

Enjoy

Emmaline x

Warming One-Pot Simple Thai Inspired Chicken for a blustery evening :)

I've had a mad day and I'm running a little late, trying to be some kind of domestic goddess I plan dinner to be ready at 7:30pm - yeh sure! No problem!
Ha! Realistically, it wasn't going to work like that - or so I thought! I needed a quick fix, a tasty supper that I can make. I still had enough time and so decided to do a little 'experiment' as I call it, try something new, raid the fridge and see what's in there... This is what I came up with and you know what... It wasn't half bad!

It needed to be in one baking dish - I had decided I couldn't be bothered messing around with different pans - and so here it is, made up as I went along! All in one pot - Thai inspired chicken! Oh nom nom nom!! Whipped up a small pan of rice to go with it, nice and simple hot food for this very cold and extremely blustery evening!

Ingredients:

For the chicken marinade -

• 1 stick of lemongrass
• small bunch of coriander
• 2 spring onions
• 1 clove of garlic
• thumb sized piece of ginger
• 1 tbsp ginger preserve
• 1/2 large chilli (or 1 small one)
• 1/2 tbsp coconut oil
• 1/2 tbsp chilli infused olive oil
• 1/2 tbsp garlic infused olive oil
• juice of half a lemon

For the rest of the recipe:

• 1 pack of chicken thighs - or breast if you prefer
• 2 sweet potatoes peeled and chopped
• 1 sweet red pepper de-seeded and chopped in large chunks
• 1/2 tbsp yakitori sauce
• Salt and pepper

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 225 degrees (fan around 190-200 degrees)
• Blitz all the ingredients for the marinade in a food processor and cover the chicken with it
• Leave to marinade for around an hour or as long as you have
• Put in the baking dish and then squidge the sweet potato and red pepper pieces in between the chicken pieces
• Put in the oven for around 45 - 60 mins until cooked through and a little brown on top
• Towards the end of cooking, sprinkle over the yakitori sauce and add some salt and pepper
• Sprinkle with chopped fresh coriander and serve with boiled rice 

Hope you enjoy!

Emmaline x

January Offer!

Its January and were all well... a bit short of cash right? All that eating and drinking can really play havoc on our skin and also our health! Towards the end of last year I decided to invest in a fabulous skin supplement range called Advanced Nutrition Programme. These products are skin specific so they are designed so show results in the skin! BUT, when you are using supplements at this optimum level (not RDAs - way way higher!!) you see fab results, not just in your skin but your overall health!

Collagen Boosting supplements, vitamin A and antioxidants, weight-loss supplements, acne supplements, Skin Omegas (which are like edible moisturisers! - Great for eczema and psoriasis!) and the BEST EVER multi-vitamin - which for me actually changed my life!! Plus loads more!

I decided to put an offer on in the salon for 20% off these AMAZING vitamins, if you're interested then please contact me via email at emmalinetsui@hotmail.co.uk as this is in-store only and not on-line.

I really can't explain how much these vitamins have changed my life! I always used to feel quite sluggish, even when I'm eating as well as I try to do, I still struggled and felt very tired towards the end of the day, now I'm just bouncing off the walls! I have so much more energy and really feel great! I have so many success stories from clients and it's given me so much confidence in them! I highly suggest you try them - especially whilst they're on offer!

Contact me for more details - emmalinetsui@hotmail.co.uk

As much as I hate that cheesy phrase 'New Year, New You' its so bloody true! It's time guys! Let's Go!!

Lots of love

Emmaline x

Sunday Night Prep!

So you all know how much I love my food right!?!? Well, when I'm at work I just don't always have the time to make a great lunch from scratch without doing a bit of prep first!
My 'Monster Salads' have come quite a long way since I started off and I thought I'd show you how I manage to give myself a hearty lunch without all the time-consuming work at lunch time.
The key is PREP! PREP PREP PREP! For anybody who wants to know how I do my packed lunches, here's what I do...

I love lentils, sweet potato, cherry tomatoes and butter nut squash - especially roasted! So, on a Sunday night I try to roast a load of vegetables that will last me 3 or 4 days and so I can add them to my salad when I'm at work and have a little packed lunch!

All you need to do is...

• Chop the butter nut squash or sweet potato and drizzle with some flavoured olive oil (my fav this week is lemon and sun-dried tomato oil), pepper and if I fancy - some fresh sage or dried herbs - put in the oven for around 45-60 mins at a high heat (200-225 degrees) - when cooked sprinkle with a little sea salt if necessary
• Put the tomatoes in a small foil tray and drizzle with some balsamic glaze, olive oil, cracked black pepper and maybe some fresh basil - put the tomatoes in the oven with the potatoes or squash and cook along side them
• Boil one cup of green lentils for 20 minutes then add a drizzle of garlic oil and a squeeze of lemon juice

Then pack them up separately and take them to work! I like to warm them up before I put them on my salads - mainly as I LOVE a warm salad! Then add all my other extra bits - whatever I fancy and Ta Dah! we have a simple quick salad, which is super filling but only took 5 mins to put together (excluding the Sunday night prep of course!)

Hope you enjoy - of course you can always cook what you prefer, this is just what I like! 

Happy Cooking!

Emmaline x

So here's the final salad! Avocado, roasted tomatoes and butternut squash, lentils, pepperdew peppers, crispy onions, vegan salami and a signature drizzle of balsamic glaze. Anybody curious about the vegan salami, its pretty tasty! I buy mine from unicorn grocery but I'm sure a lot of health food shops sell it :)

Sexy Italian Inspired Dinner

Ok, so we all must have got the idea about how much I loved PIZZA NIGHT! Oh so amazing! But I guess the only problemo with doing a night like that is you get leftovers, like tonnes of leftovers and sometimes you need some inspiration of what to do with them. I always need quick food on an evening as it's usually pretty late by the time I get home so what I eat needs to be speedy but at the same time mega tasty! On my way home I nipped to the shop and grabbed some bits but seriously, most of this food is probably already in your pantry/cupboard anyways!

Salmon or any kind of fish is always easy and quick. I did a couple of different meals with it this week but both with sundried tomato paste which gives such a yummy sweet flavour. Here is my recipe though for the one I made last night, an Italian inspired dinner! Enjoy!!

Ingredients:

Salmon

Sundried tomato paste

Juice of half a lemon

Chilli oil 

Fresh pesto

Fine beans

Large can of cannellini beans

Half clove garlic

Garlic oil

Salt and pepper

Method:

• preheat the grill to high

• mix the lemon juice, a tsp of chilli oil and a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste together and spread on top of the fish

• grill the fish for around 3-5 minutes per side or to your liking

• whilst it's cooking, fry the cannellini beans in a pan with a little garlic oil and some grated garlic clove 

• whilst frying the beans, squish them a little and add a little boiled water to the pan, keep adding and mashing until you get the consistency that you want for your beans. Add some salt and pepper and drizzle with some garlic oil - put at the bottom of the oven to keep warm

• then fry the fine beans in a little oil, add a pinch of salt and then add a splash of water to the pan - it will spit and go crazy so be careful not to burn yourself!

• add a couple of teaspoons of pesto to the cooked beans and turn off the heat. Continue turning the beans until they are completely coated. 

• finally, plate up! Cannellini bean mash on the bottom, then the pesto beans and  top with the cooked salmon! Drizzle with some more chilli oil, sprinkle some cracked black pepper, a couple of fresh basil leaves and finally if you wish some balsamic glaze! Enjoy!!

The BEST Sunday night tea ever!! Homemade PIZZAS!! :)

So... Happy New Year everybody! I hope you all had an amazing break, feel rested and refreshed ready for the new year! I certainly do! Struggling with the early starts again mind, but I'm sure I'll get used to them. I really want to start trying to get up super duper early in the morning - like 5:30am! I know that sounds crazy but I love mornings - Yes, I am 'that' person ha ha!

Anyhoo... been trying to eat a little better after the old Xmas hols and so Sunday night (which is usually naughty, takeaway/eating out/buger/pizza/lazy food night) I decided to do something I've not done in ages! - PIZZA NIGHT! I love this! Oh, I love it so so much, it's super fun to do, all you need to do is make a super easy pizza dough, roll it out, put on your toppings, put in the oven and then apply to face! YUM YUM YUM!! :)

So, here's what we managed to do (me and hubby that is) and here's the recipes...

Pizza Dough Base:

Ingredients:

300g Strong Bread Flour

1 x 7g sachet of fast action/easy bake yeast

1 1/2 tsp salt

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil - or a flavoured oil if you prefer

175ml warm water

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 220 degrees (fan 190 degrees)
• Add all the dry ingredients to a large bowl and mix together
• Then add the liquid ingredients
• Now you can either get 'down and dirty' and get your hands in - if so knead the dough on a floured work surface for 8 mins or so until its nice and springy - or if you're like me (sticky finger phobe) then put it all in the kitchen aid and knead with a dough hook on slow for 4 minutes or until it all comes together
• Take the ball of dough out and split it into 3 sections
• Roll out each piece of dough into very thin rectangles/squares/circles - whatever you like
• Place on the baking tray and then top with whatever you like!
• Once topped, put in the oven for around 8-10 minutes or until crispy and your liking!
• Eat straight away! But don't burn your mouth obviously - Duur! :p

My favourite base is sun-dried tomato paste as its nice and sweet and not too acidic - if that makes sense but you can use what you like

Enjoy everybody! Happy pizza making!

Lots of Love

Emmaline xxx

This is a sundried tomato base, cooked in the oven and then once cooked, topped with rocket, buffalo mozzarella, baby tomatoes, fresh basil, fresh pesto and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil

This is a sundried tomato base with cured beef, grated mozzarella cheese, pimento peppers and fresh basil - Hubby's fav and was super tasty!

This is a sundried tomato base, with chilli roasted peppers (these can be cooking in the oven whilst you're making the pizza toppings), pimento peppers, fresh bail and then drizzled with balsamic glaze and extra virgin olive oil when its out of the oven

And finally, this is a sundried tomato base and grated mozzarella top with fresh basil leaves!

PIZZA CHEERS!!