Meal Plan ~ Chicken and Eggplant

Last week I shared with you why I started my meal plan and some of the foods that I cook, my favourite being chilli beef. On Saturday I went food shopping for the month and I picked up some diced chicken fillets which were on sale and a few other things including my mince, eggplant and pork for my all time home made delicacies. Today I wanted to share my meal plan for this week (Monday and Tuesday) since I won't be home rest of the week until Sunday.
I can not recall the last time I ate eggplant so much that I was not sure how I was going to cook it, after some research (maestro google) I decided I was going to bake them. Several recipes has mentioned just putting straight in the oven but I wanted to some how cook them a bit before the oven. I found a recipe that suggested I soak the chopped eggplants into slightly salty water for half an hour then slightly fry or grill them until brown (I chose to fry).
As I have mentioned previously I am not good at writing out recipes so I will add captions to each photo as a way to explain what I did.

Step 1: Chop onion and asparagus, then diced the chicken fillet. Fry both on either side of the pan on low heat for 10 minutes or until fairly cooked.

This is how it should look like, almost cooked but not yet.

Step 2: Add tomato puree (I added some chopped tomatoes as well), salt, pepper (and chilli if you want) then add water and simmer for 10 minutes

Whilst I was cooking the chicken I had already soaked the eggplants in the salted water for 30 minutes, I then removed from the water and heated a pot with olive oil (just a tablespoon)

Before and After frying the eggplants for 3 minutes.

Step 3: In the baking tray layer the eggplants then top over with the chicken sauces cooked earlier, then sprinkle some oregano and cover with foil before baking for 20 minutes.

Serve with choice of side dish, I felt like some rice so I had mine with rice.

I can promise you, you will be licking your fingers all day. I love how simple and easy this is to make and could probably be done faster than me but it was first time so I was happy to take my time. Cooking has become something I enjoy and is very therapeutic and it's my me time so this is awesome to recreate something I will enjoy.

So what do you think of my cooking? How do you cook your eggplants? I have some more in the house and need more recipes for next week so please do share.

Meal Plan

A few months ago after I returned from my trip to visit my friends and family in Zambia I decided to make a change in my life. I got tired of spending almost £30 every week to buy ready meals for the week since I could not be bothered to cook. I now spend about £30 a month of food and since it's just me its a good amount. I buy meats in bulk and buy fresh veggies every week for my salads which I surprisely eat daily to accompany all my foods or by themselves.

#chilli #meatballs jalapeños pickled cucumbers natural #yoghurt #doritos & #cheese #foodblogger #foodflirt #food #healthy #recipe #eats #feedme #instafood #foodphotography #foodgram #foodflirt #foodporn #healthyliving #healthyeating #healthy

A photo posted by A July Dreamer (@myrabev) on Dec 30, 2014 at 11:51pm PST

My meal planning is pretty simple since it is just me, myself and I. I spend a few minutes every month and decide what meats I want to eat and sometimes what other veggies I want to try out and that's it. I do not have a specific day during the week when I cook loads of food and freeze them, for me it all depends on my mood and level of work plus how much energy I am left with when I return from work.

I have made my meal planning as painless as I possibly can, I cook my favourite delicacies and I cook these in huge amounts to last me a week or two. And I have days where I feel like eating cereal or having my jacket potato with cheese and sauce for me it's really simples.

My favourite all time recipe to pull out is my chilli beef recipe, I can not remember the last time I bought ready cooked chilli or chilli beef con carne or anything along those lines as I really do believe mine tastes much better than the store bought. I will share a few steps but I am not that great at explaining recipes so I hope the pictures will be enough but if not when I do get a chance I will update this post with the recipe details. 

Step 1: Add 2 teaspoons of oil to the pan and fry onions until tender then add mince until brown

Step 2: Add  tomatoes, spices (and as much chilli as you want) and cook for 3 minutes then add tomato puree and water and cook for 10 minutes

Step 3: Add the beans (this is optional) and cook for 2 minutes

Step 4: Cover and simmer on low heat for 10 minutes

Done

I portion my food out into small lunch boxes and carry one to work. I made a salad to go with this chilli beef

Portion control is very important so I usually use this size ball to measure.

Because I do not want my meals to look dull I always switch it up, I sometimes have the chilli beef with nachos, yoghurt and cheese. It's so delicious you really should try it if not done so already.

So how do you do your meal planning?

{Recipe} Jacket Potato Lunch + {GIVEAWAY}

You know how you seat and think about lunch way before you meant to like an hour after you just had breakfast? Well that happened to me AGAIN, I was sat enjoying my work busying myself when my tummy was saying lady we need to know what we gonna eat and since I had breakfast late it somehow threw me off balance. Even though I had the time I didn't feel like making my Granola Breakfast or trying any of my Many recipes for breakfast and/or lunch so I had a bagel with herbal tea instead. I wish I was having my Avocado/Banana bagel meal but that was not to be instead my stomach grambled and cried bloody murder.

Don't feel like eating much this lunch so snacking on #sainsburys bagels with banana and #avocado

A photo posted by A July Dreamer (@myrabev) on Oct 10, 2014 at 5:25am PDT

Whilst sad contemplating what to have for lunch I remembered I had boiled some eggs this morning for breakfast but forgot to eat then so carried them to work with me as well as some cheese I was gonna use on the jacket potato. I had also on a whim carried my tomato and basil soup which expires today to work with me with the intention of giving it away only to find I was in the office alone AGAIN. Anyway I put on these items together and it hit me I was gonna eat it all so that's how this recipe was born.

Items: Baking Potato, Tomato soup (you can make yourself but I had a bought one), 2 boiled eggs & cheese
Cooking: Microwave the potato for 6 minutes on high, then warm up the soup. Cut the baked potato in 4 and sprinkle the cheese onto whilst the potato is till hot (to allow it to melt) then top it up with the hot tomato soup and add the eggs (descaled ofcourse) as you please and wala you are done.

Let me know what you think of my Jacket potato lunch, also do you get chance to fix up lunch at work?

Check out ::The Myrabev Life:: blog for more information on the #giveaway #FreebieFriday and some coupons from @AliexpressUK tomorrow
— Myrabev (@MyraBev) October 30, 2014

Now onto the giveaway, I am giving away £15 amazon gift card and 2 medium sized Ad spaces on this blog and A July Dreamer for a whole month. Enter my raffle below, also if you create an account with AliExpressUK you might just be in for a treat. I will be randomly choosing 5 people to receive coupons from  AliExpressUK, all you need to do is register for an account on their website and drop me your e-mail address associated with that account and I will send you the code which am sure you can use to purchase that Christmas present you want to get for that special someone.

Post by Myrabev.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

{Recipe} Pork with spring onions

This dish I sprang up because I didn't really want much but already didn't want to take too long in the kitchen. I love how it turned out and the taste of it, I really am enjoying creating little meals which am sure have been done before but for me they are first time creations.

...Prep 10 minutes, Cook <15 minutes...

Ingredients

Pork steak (marinate with black pepper, salt and olive oil. Ensure you make sizeable cuts on either side of the meat)

Spring onion

Chilli (optional)

Onion 

Tomatoe purée

Tomatoe (skin removed then crushed)

Lime (optional)

Knob of butter 

Rice (to serve)

Method 

1. Heat the butter, once melted toss the spring onions, chilli, onion in. Cook for 2 minutes

2. Add the tomato purée cook for couple seconds hen add the crushed tomatoes.

3. Add lime and Cook for 3 minutes. 

... At same time cooking the spring onions....

1. Heat the olive oil on medium heat, fry the marinated pork until brown on both sides.

2. Cut a line on either side of the pork whilst cooking to allow the oil to sip through and tenderly cook the inside of note done fully. 

....

 Serve topping the pork steak with the spring onions and rice or salad as side dish. 

{Off-Sunday} Meals of the week

I am in love with Granola hence my breakfast is granola infested.

My dinners are well that my dinners, I can't tell you how much I am enjoying sitting down and mauling my own cooked dinners. Why on earth did I ever stop cooking???

I am never really home during lunch time as in work 9-5 so this weekend it was a real treat to make me some lunch. I love avocado so it only made seem I use that for my lovely delicious bagels. 

Hi there and welcome to The Myrabev Life, I am sure you have noticed the increased number of food related posts around these parts and all my social media. Well just in case you don't know I kinda lost the cooking spirit about 5 years ago when I started uni and found a girl (now good friend) who loved cooking. She would come over to mine at whatever time I called her and best part we did same course so same classes. I am not a person who enjoys eating alone but well in life you need to adapt and that's exactly what I am doing now...adapting.

I have got my cooking mojo back and I am enjoying creating simple meals because even though I am enjoying my time in the kitchen I do not intend to stay there for hours on hours hence the simple and quickness of my meals. Anyway enough rambling, today I am sharing the meals I have had the pleasure of preparing this week. Unfortunately forgot to take pictures of my first ever chilli beef - yes I am not ashamed to admit I had never cooked chilli before and I hadn't had a foggiest idea how to make it but thank the heavens for the Internet wonders. 

What have you had this week that you cooked? Do you enjoy cooking?  

{Recipe} Simple Salmon meal

Hi there and welcome! I am still basking in my own joy because I have finally gone back to cooking!no more take aways. I just love how I can come up with different recipes, even better the web is full of them. I must confess I am yet to fully follow a recipe to the T, all of them so far I have made major alterations but that's ok that's called cooking (ha self praise). Now let me share with you my quick and easy salmon meal I had the last night.

Ingredients

Salmon fillets

Spring onions, chopped finely

Chilli, chopped finely

Lime juice (zest too if prefer) 1 tablespoon 

Butter

Cooking oil 1 tablespoon 

Method

Heat the cooking oil and fry the salmon for 5 minutes or till crisp and make sure you start with the skin part. 

Once cooked or crisp, turn on to the sides and cook for 2 minutes each side. 

... Put aside once done...

Melt a knob of butter in the pan, once done fry the spring onions, chilli plus lime zest (if included) for 3 minutes then add the lime juice. 

Pour the sauce you just made onto the salmon and serve with either a salad or rice. I chose rice cause I needed a full and filling meal. 

This is a light meal which can be eaten at anytime, it is easy to prepare and delicious. What do you think? Do you like salmon? If so how do you like yours cooked?

{Recipe} Granola Breakfast

Hi there and welcome! Today I wanted to share with you a simple breakfast recipe with Jordan's Granola cereal I received in my September Degustabox. I have never been a fun of granola only because I never had the best like Jordan's granola. Today I decided to make my first official granola breakfast and here is my less than 5 minute recipe. 

Prep time <5 minutes:

1. Jordan's Granola cereal (or granola of your choice)

2. Natural Greek yoghurt 

3. Honey

4. Raisins

5. Banana

Place the granola in a cereal bowl, add the raisins to your desire then add the yoghurt. Once done peel the banana and chop into small pieces then top it all with a table spoon of honey. 

That's how I made my delicious granola breakfast, I just love love this little recipe and will be making a frequent appearances during my mornings. I am also enjoy someTwining's original chai & vanilla tea to go alongside my new favourite cereal. 

Do you like granola? How do you like your cereal?

{Recipe} Healthier and Easy to make Salad

Hi there and welcome to my first ever recipe post on “The Myrabev Life”, for the last two months I have been sharing with you all the lovely vegetarian books I have been reading and reviewing but I am yet to share with you some recipes that I either came up with or got the idea from the books. Today’s recipe I whipped up myself at work and it actually tastes really really good. This is the 2^nd most ‘Greens or produce’ containing food I have ever consumed in my adult life, like I mentioned in my last book review post – I grew up with a vegetarian lifestyle one not by choice but by necessity. I remember growing up back home and we used avocado (mashed up and added some sugar for taste) only on bread like you would peanut butter or butter so I was very surprised and shocked to see avocado used in salads, since then I have been on a mission to find a way I can have avocado in my salad. Today I am sharing with you my one little creation I am proud of and so excited to share.

Ingredients:

·         Assortment of beans plus herbs (red kidney beans, borlotti beans, cannellini beans, fresh spring onions, red onions, parsley, mint, sliced black olives) I used Three Bean Salad by Delphi which was marinated in olive oil and herbs.

·         Avocado

·         Tomatoes

·         Salt & black pepper

·         Assortment of salad leaves à I bought the Sainsbury assorted salad

·         Optional – German sausages 

Preparation time: under 5 minutes

1.       Cut up the tomatoes to your desired side and sauté with salt/pepper

2.       I prefer my salad leaves really small so I cut mine up and mix with the tomatoes

3.       Microwave the sausages for 1 minute, cut into small desired pieces

4.       Cut up the avocado, I had a whole one (was not too big)

5.       Lastly mix-up everything with the assortment of beans and add a little salt/pepper if you want.

 This is how I made my healthy salad (also vegetarian), it contains all the good stuff I need and the best part I still get my piece of meat (even if it’s just small German sausages). Let me know what you think of my little creation, I am just starting out with trying new things so am very excited for the exploring that I can do.