Cook's Club Challenge 53 is up and running

CCC#53 is up and running.

check it out - looks like I may have some competition for my mousse ;-)

CCC #45 - My Turn again!

Challenge #45 was my turn to provide the challenge.

Here are my recipes

Stuffed Chicken Breast with prosciutto (a Weight Watchers recipe)

Preparation time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 25-30 mins

Ingredients

2 x 140g chicken breast fillets, trimmed

2 thin slices (50 g) prosciutto

Filling:

2 tbs light cream cheese

2 tbs sun-dried tomato strips – finely chopped

2 tbs dried breadcrumbs

Serve with:

300 g pumpkin, peeled, cut into 2 cm cubes

3 x zucchini, cut into 2 cm slices

Directions

Preheat the oven to 200°C or 180°C fan forced.

Cut a pocket horizontally into each fillet. Combine cream cheese, tomato strips and breadcrumbs. Spread mixture into each pocket.

Wrap a piece of prosciutto around each fillet, place on a tray lined with baking paper. ** see note below for alternatives

Place the pumpkin & zucchini on a tray lined with paper and spray with oil. Bake vegetables and chicken for 25-30 minutes or until golden and cooked. Remove to warm plate, lightly cover with foil and rest chicken for 5 minutes before slicing.

The top photo is what it is supposed to look like  ;-)

Here is my slightly out of focus photos ;-)

**My Variations:
For those that like simpler tastes, bacon can be used instead of prosciutto and the sundried tomato strips can be left out – a TINY drizzle of oil may be needed to help cream cheese and breadcrumbs mix together.

This recipe works well both ways – I have the spicy version, hubby has the plain one ;-)

Smoked Salmon, Tuna, Bacon & Egg Salad
Serves: 1
30 g Smoked Salmon
1 can (95g) Sandwich Tuna (drained)
1 lge hard boiled egg
2 slices Bacon (trimmed – I use Weight Watchers)
1 Tomato (I used Roma)
Low Fat Caeser Salad Dressing
Lettuce

Method:
Boil up an egg and set aside to cool.
Chop up bacon, cook lightly, and set aside to cool.
Slice up smoked salmon, break up Tuna, chop tomato and split up the lettuce.
Place all ingredients in a bowl, drizzle caeser salad dressing over top and mix gently.

This is a very filling, tasty lunch that is great to take to work. I usually keep the ingredients separate and have the salad dressing in a small container – then I just mix it up when I am ready to eat.

If I make it when I am home, I usually eat it while the bacon & eggs are still a bit warm – Yum!

Honey Chocolate Mousse (this recipe was given to my by a friend)
Serves 6

225 g Toblerone (plus some extra to sprinkle over top)
¼ cup warm water
¾ cup cream
3 egg whites

Optional: Berries to decorate

Melt chocolate (with the ¼ cup warm water)
Beat cream in a medium bowl until soft peaks form.
Beat egg whites in a small bowl until stiff peaks form.
Using a metal spoon, fold egg whites into cream.
Gently fold half the cream mixture into the chocolate mixture until both are combined, then fold in remaining cream mixture. Spoon into individual dessert dishes and refrigerate approx 6 hours (usually overnight)
Just prior to serving sprinkle shaved chocolate over top and add some berries if desired.

CCC #46 - Thai BBQ Chicken

I have finally had some time for some cooking therapy!

Over on Cooks Club Challenge the challenges have been rolling on!  I can't believe how quickly time is going!

I decided to try the Thai BBQ Chicken from Challenge #46 as people were saying some really good things about it.  As at today, 26 November 2009, it is winning the vote for making it again!

As per usual for our household, I made the dish minus the garlic and used half the volume of spices.  We do have to be careful with spicy food in this house - it can go right through us IYKWIM!

This dish is a winner!  It is very tasty and the chicken was beautifully tender after marinating for 3 hours. 

I got a 'you can make this one again, love' ............ so here is another dish added to our 'faves'.  Next time I make this, I think I will 'up' the spices and use full measurements - live dangerously!

Full recipe can be found HERE as well as a lovely recipe for Apple pancakes, which will be next on the list to try!

CCC#13 - Banana Bread

I was flicking through some old posts on Cook's Club and found this one for BananaBread it was perfect timing as I had a heap of ripe bananas!

I just love how the top goes really crunchy!

CCC#24

I was so impressed with the photos presented for this challenge, I just had to have a go!

CCC#24 - the truffles looked delicious!

Boy, did I make a mess of the kitchen with this one!

it was a whole lot of fun (and stress!!) trying to pull these together -

here is what I posted on the forum:

QUOTE "have just made the truffles and must confess to being disappointed with my results.

have taken some piccies and whilst they look nice, they are still soft and gooey unless they are straight out of the fridge, they don't seem to stay firm the milk chocolate ones, with vanilla essence, rolled in choc sprinkles & crushed almonds (bottom right) seem to be the most successfull. the white ones rolled in coconut used coconut essence (top of piccie) are the next most successful ones the white & choc speckled ones were coconut essence & kaluah (left of piccie) - these seem to be the most gooey what did I do wrong??? I do admit that they taste nice, but they don't stay very firm for very long

EDITED: 1 hour later: have just finished the batch of milk chocolate ones, with choc sprinkles & almonds - they seem to be the most successful, the ones with the kaluha (the ones I was most looking forward to trying ) seem to be the most disappointing

EDITED: later again: they taste good, so not a COMPLETE waste of time or effort My SILs (yes plural) are chocolate freaks and say there is no such thing as BAD chocolate, just some are better than others

EDITED: 24/12 - the truffles have been in the fridge for 24 hours and now seem to stay firm - I don't know why they took so long to firm up. I will pass on the SILs verdict either later this evening or tomorrow. My verdict is that they are OK, very fiddly to make. I am not really a sweet person, so I think I will stick to savoury things in the future. END QUOTE

I didn't even attempt the chocolate coated ones! I think I will leave this type of thing to the professional LOL

CCC#20

I only made one recipe from the CCC#20 challenge - the mongolian lamb

I liked it! Hubby thought it was a bit spicy

I divided it up into single serves just for me!

I think it might be time to make up another batch!

Cook's Club Challenge 19 - my turn

Over on CCC19 it was my turn to pick the dishes for the challenge.

I chose a quick & easy theme - Savoury Nibbles - Pizza Wheels, Pasta Carbonara (no cream)

Choc Banana Muffins.

The Pizza Wheels won the vote - they are my favourites too!

I have enjoyed participating in these challenges and do intend to keep trying new things - time just gets away from me sometimes.

The forum is very friendly and there is no pressure to participate, you are made to feel most welcome when you do.

Check out the www.taste.com.au site it is a great visit!