dinners – Create You Coaching

Chicken and veg bake, yum!

This dish is soooo good. Just saying, it truly is. It has all the food groups needed and somehow the combination is ridiculously tasty. Not even toddlers can deny it.

Ingredients:

Chicken breast or thighs cut into cubes	Whole milk
1 onion diced	Plain flour
Sundries tomatoes roughly cut	Rosemary sprigs
Butternut, courgette, aubergine cubed	Garlic
½ stock cube diluted in a cup ½ boiling water/ ½ milk	Mixed herbs
Cheddar cheese, grated	Butter
Mushrooms thinly sliced to top the dish	Pepper & salt

Method:

As always cut up your vegetables of choice, toss with olive oil and herbs that you like or have in the house. Roast it off and then when it is done put your sundried tomatoes in with the veg.

While the vegetables are roasting start with the chicken part of the dish. Fry your onions in a bit of olive oil, add a small pinch of salt, garlic and some butter, onions love that! Add a tablespoon of roughly chopped rosemary and let them mingle. Remove everything and add some oil to the pan, now get your chicken in there and sear on all sides. When the chicken has good colour add the onion back and take a heaped tablespoon of flour and sprinkle it all over the chicken and onions and stir for 1-2 minutes.

Scatter flour on the sealed chicken and fry off before adding the herbs.

Now remove from the heat and add the whole milk & stock slowly while stirring now return to the heat and add the last while stirring. It should thicken up to nice saucy mixture now add the vegetables, pour a little boiling water in the vegetable bake tray to loosen all the oil and herbs and add to the chicken mixture.

Add the liquid and stir till a thick suace forms

Empty it into a baking tray (make sure the chicken is distributed evenly) and top with the grated cheese and lay the mushrooms on top and bake for 20 minutes. If the top is not nice and brown get the grill on and watch it bubble! Served with couscous, bulgur wheat, potatoes or wraps whatever you got in the cupboard.

Arange the mushroom slices on top, you can be as creative here as you want. I just did rows

The Social Shift: How to find your place

We are all on this crazy roller coaster called 2020. As the shops open and the we dust off our ‘out clothes’ and life resumes to some sort of normality, I find myself sitting in a bit of a pause. Before the 23^rd of March we would head out at least 4 days out of 5 in the week. Whether we went for a walk in the park nipped to Tooting to go to the Childsplay Brasserie and buy a few things from the shops or meet friends for a coffee/ brunch. Admittedly the latter was happening way less, as the twins were on the move and it was just such hard work.

I loved going out on Mommy nights, Mommy & Daddy dates, but now I feel hesitant. I received the ‘heart drops letter’ that I was on the high-risk group, so we were shielding. I am healthy except that I do not have a spleen, so my immune system is compromised. About 3 weeks into isolation my doctor called me back as I wanted to confirm the reason for being on the list. She asked me a few questions and decided that I could go to the medium risk group but still needed to isolate. I started to go out for solo walks or maybe take the kids out but never any shops and not seeing anyone, it was more for my sanity than anything.

The reality is that I got used to it, the isolation that is. We eat well, we work out, we drink cocktails and go for walks on the Common. I almost feel safe and the idea of going out meeting multiple people is even on a subconscious level very intimidating for me. It’s a weird one because I am not scared of getting ill, but I am concerned that if I do get ill, I may die. It really isn’t as bed a s it sounds when I say it out load, I mean surely it is a real fear. The media and old Boris haven’t said it all fine you can go out and you should be okay.

Then when we go out with 2 friends to Tooting Common and see people gathering in groups of 20, yes, I feel uncomfortable because we meant to be in groups of 6. Is it a social disorder? I know we all need to do what we feel comfortable with but really, I am wondering if anyone else is here, where I am or close? I am not a hermit I like/ like going out, shopping, eating in restaurants, so how does our future look ?

A question we must all be asking because it will not be the same. It should not be the same! This is our chance to pivot life. They used to say you can do that with your career, but literally we can do that for our entire socio-economic lives. I would really love to hear from you guys, if anyone is finding the ‘freedom’ hard to process.

Thai Pork Mince

This is a delicious recipe that is so easy you can prep it while babies eat a snack and the key is that it can stand this your guest arrive or your husband gets home. One pack of mince makes 2 portions for the babies and one dinner for my husband and I. you can do half and half and have a smaller dinner and freeze more for more children meals.

The final dish, garnished with cariander and sesame seeds

I can’t actually remember where this one came from but it is definitely inspired by soy and Thai basil pork mince dish we ate and loved in Thailand when we went there in 2017 and improvised a little to make it work for the entire family. The image shows the condiments we use but it just what we have in and can be substituted.

Ingredients:

Pork mince (you can substitute with turkey or chicken if you prefer)	Fish sauce
½ a Red and green pepper	Reduced salt soy sauce
4 Spring onions chopped (you can use any onion here)	Thai green curry paste, to taste
Washed spinach shredded/ finely chopped	Peanut butter optional
Optional ½ grated carrots	Sesame seeds
Chopped coriander	Coconut oil
½ can of Coconut milk	Lemon grass if you have any
	Thailbasil if you have this it will be delicious

Method:

Fry the spring onion in the small pan and the peppers in a larger pan using coconut oil, you can use any oil you have here. Once the onion and peppers have chard slightly and soften separate a little into the child’s pan and a larger amount into the larger adult’s pan. I blended the onion and peppers as the babies don’t much like eating pieces of pepper and it integrates nicely into dish then too.

Once you have fried the onion and pepper blend it with a handblender before adding your currypaste, this step is optional

Now add the curry paste to each I used my tiny teaspoons as seen on the chopping board. One un-heaped for the child’s portion and two heaped for the adults, you can add more but it is more for flavour than heat. Stir till they become fragrant and add the mince ¼ for the child’s portion or 50/50 if you want to freeze some portions. Brown off the mince and add the spinach at this point to wilt.

Use a seperate small pan for the children so you can add less curry paste

Once the mince is cooked add the coconut milk and flavour the adult portion with fish sauce and soy and the children’s just with a little soy sauce. Add coriander to taste but save some for the top of your dish, I only added a tiny amount for the children so they can get used to it, but it is a strong flavour for them. If you are only serving this later, I stopped cooking it now and just brought it back up to heat and reduce before serving. If you are eating it straight away added a teaspoon of peanut butter and reduce, taste and serve when you are happy. We serve ours with rice, Thai rice or basmati but what ever you enjoy or have in is fine. Garnish with coriander leaves and sesame seeds. Enjoy!!!