Mixing business with pleasure!!!

Anyone who knows me, know I love to cook!

It’s my pleasure!

Late last year I went to a “tasting” for some blends of spices, dip mixes, flavoured oils and the like.

It is mostly organic products, which I am super passionate about and I really felt I could use and help others with simple recipes with these products…

I didn't intend to blog so much about the products as I have another platform for that, but is was bound to organically happen! (Like what I did there???)

Anyway, a few weeks ago Daughter E and I were watching Judy Joo on TV she has a great show called Korean Made Simple…. If you are that way inclined do yourself a favour and watch that show!!!

So she did this dish called Bulgogi and it featured these amazing little things called rice cakes. This is the first time I had seen them and they looked delish!! And Judy did a great job of selling them too us via the description as she chowed down.

Now we are blessed to live in a very multicultural neighbourhood, with a strong Asian grocer presence and we LOVE IT!

I thought no doubt I can find these rice cakes locally and I did, first shop we asked at… BINGO!

So I have used them a few times and thoroughly loved, but tonight was something different and a bit more special.

Maybe it was the fact Daughter E cooked almost the entire meal or that there was only a few ingredients that made it just so darn tasty.

Anyhoo… it was an amazing dinner and I want to share.

There was only mumma bear, Daughter E and Baby O so to be honest 2 serves but you can double/quadruple this no worries.

Now for the sauce it really was a true balancing act of flavours – a few sploshes of this a sprinkle of that – taste and repeat… sorry that’s the only way it worked but I urge you to try too.

I’m calling this Tasty Chicken with Rice Cakes and Greens:

5 Chicken Tenderloins sliced thin

1 bunch of Asian Greens (anything at all) sliced

½ bag of Rice Cakes

Tablespoon of Rice Bran Oil

I then used in both marinating my chicken and my base sauce a Spice Blend called Asian Stir Fry from YIAH

For the base sauce: A few sploshes of Tamari, a heap tablespoon of raw sugar, juice from ½ a lemon, a small knob of grated ginger and a splosh of Mirin and a tablespoon of Asian Stir Fry spice blend.. Mix taste and adjust as required… I added more sugar but that was about it! Stir and leave…

So I sliced the chicken into strips and added a tablespoon of the spice blend and left in a bowl to marinate.

While I did that Daughter E placed the rice cakes in a bowl and covered with water.

Daughter E then chopped the greens and set aside.

Then she grated the ginger into a bowl, and added everything else for the base sauce. And left to sit.

I then got out the wok and out on high heat with the rice bran oil, once hot added the chicken and cooked for about 2 minutes.

I then added the greens, rice cakes and base sauce, gave it a big toss and put the lid on the wok.

We went to set the table and pour a drink (very essential).

Then I took the lid off and gave another big toss…and we were done!

I tasted for any seasoning but it was all good.

We served and we ate and we enjoyed!!!

Prep work done!

Base Sauce

OMG does not even come close to how tasty this was...

Rice Cakes.. Sorry can not translate that!

If you want any info on the YIAH products please visit me here.

Pancakes make everything a little better!

Sadly one of the things I love doing rarely gets done.

I love cooking and writing about it and my life on my little blog.

When I signed in today, I saw it’s been about a year since I came in and sat down here and put pen/clicks to paper/blog.

Really sad for me…..

But it is pretty much a reflection of how busy life has been for about a year now and I think I would like it to slow down a little.

I had a really rough trot into the end of the year, with finding a dreaded lump in the old boob which turned into MANY biopsies even one on Christmas Eve. For anyone who has had to go through that, it’s just bloody horrible! It’s horrible finding something, sitting in waiting rooms, having the actual biopsies, more waiting and finally results! For me I am one lucky chook! Sadly for others in that waiting room it was not the same result. And the other horrible thing is I have to go back every six months to be checked again, which I hate! As I now have this timeline hanging over my head that I must adhere to!

I know I am super dooper lucky and should not be here complaining, but I am!

I have had that and a whole heap more going on and I am feeling all a bit sorry for myself at the moment.

But when I woke up today I just wanted a little time away from all the problems.

See Daughter E has been in Sydney for over a week with her grandparents, so I just have Baby O at home. And he likes to wake pretty early to start his marathon of cartoon watching. I thought let’s start the day with a good hearty, healthy-ish breakfast!

Pancakes it was!

I made a nice little platter of strawberries, blackberries, banana, shredded coconut and some goat’s yoghurt and of course some maple syrup!

Baby O had already stared on the Strawberries :)

Baby O and I smashed those bad boys and it really made everything a little better!

Pancakes, a nice cup of tea the sound of the rain tapping on the window and Dora the Explorer exploring in the background has made for a nice start to the day!

YUM!

Pancake Recipe:

Crazy simple recipe which I’m sure I have written about before on my Facebook. This batch I made smaller just for the 2 of us…but it still made heaps!

Just remember its 1 cup of Self Raising Flour, 1 cup of Milk and 1 Egg!

All in a bowl and mix – THAT IS IT!

Cook in a pan with a little Coconut Oil or Butter, whatever you like.

You can double it to 2 of each for a bigger family and add whatever you want to the batter.

When I am missing Bali I add Banana straight into the batter, or grate up Apple…it really is endless.