Chicken and Pancetta Salad with Honey and Mustard Dressing

Some days I dont have enough hours in the day, today was one of those days! So, it had to be something that was both quick and healthy with ingredients that I have in the house ... and here it is!

I dont much go on the salad dressings available in the stores these days. They often have gluten in them and a whole bunch of chemicals and I'm not into chemicals in my food anymore. I had to chance my arm again and try and make my own dressing. Boy, have I had some disasters over the last few years with salad dressings, but this one was good. Sweet with a bite! Just right!



130 g cubed pancetta
300 g chicken diced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp GF wholegrain mustard (make sure the mustard is GF)
2 handful ls fresh rocket
6 cherry tomatoes, halved

Dressing

2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp GF wholegrain mustard
2 tbsp runney honey

To serve 2

Make the dressing first by putting all the dressing ingredients into a screw-top jar, shake, then put the dressing in the fridge to chill slightly
In a dry frying pan, add the pancetta, dry-fry on a low heat, to render up the fat from the pancetta and let the pancetta come to a golden colour. Discard the rendered fat and tip the pancetta onto kitchen paper to absorb any further fat

Thank your lucky stars, you have just got rid of a whole load of liquid cholesterol, that isnt going to clog your arteries

In the pan add the olive oil and wholegrain mustard, allow to sizzle for a few minutes, add the chicken and saute until cooked though, leave for a few minutes to rest
Divide the rocket leaves and tomatoes between two plates, add the chicken and pancetta, dress with the honey and lemon dressing

Lunch!!!

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

My gluten free son has been pleading with me for the last two weeks to make him some GF cookies. I've given in to his wishes, so here are cookies especially for a GF son!!!

I've set myself a further challenge ... when don't I! I'm sure my son wont notice the difference! As I have elevated cholesterol, that I am trying to reduce. I don't fancy doing on life-long medication to reduce it! I am trying to reduce saturated fats in my diet. When it comes to baking, that means I am trying to replace butter (high in saturated fat) with sunflower oil. It has a knock on effect, when mixing up a recipe, sunflower oil produces a wetter mix than a butter mix, so I've added flour to counteract that. Even considering the extra flour, this is a very good cookie



1/4 cup sunflower oil
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/4 cups vanilla castor sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup gluten free flour mix
1 cup crunchy peanut butter
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup medium ground oats
3/4 cup jumbo oats
100g chocolate chips

Heat the oven to 350 degrees

Mix the sunflower oil and the egg together in a small jug

Sieve the sugar and flour into a large bowl, add the baking soda and ground oats
Add the peanut butters, mix to combine. Ad the egg and oil mix, stir to combine. Add the jumbo oats and chocolate chops, stir to combine

This produces a fairly sticky dough. Take handfulls of dough and roll them into balls a bit more than an inch in diameter. Place on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment. Cook for 12 minutes or until just turning golden. Keep an eye on them, they turn from golden brown to very brown fairly quickly

Rocky Road Brownies

I have somewhat vague memories of eating rocky road chocolate cake about twenty years ago, as far as I can recall I've never done anything 'rocky road' from then till now. I doubt very much if brownies had reached these shores at that time, if they had, I certainly hadn't heard of them!

I was thinking of making some cookies for myself and my gluten-free son this week-end. He is always trying to get me make GF cookies since I let him sample the Flourless peanut butter cookies which I jazzed up a few months ago. Then I came across this recipe from Carol Fenster, cookies became brownies, which I have only adapted sligtly by using a healthier oil (sunflower oil which is heart-healthy). I was sold before I even started gathering the ingredients together. I love brownies as does my son and anything of the 'rocky road' ilk is fine by me!



1 1/4 cups gluten free flour blend
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp xanthium gum
1/4 cup sunflower oil (this is far healthier than using butter or margerine)
1/2 cup vanilla sugar
1/2 cup brown castor sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup warm water or coffee
1/2 cup GF chocolate cups
1/2 cup mini marshmallows
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees - Line the bottom of an 8" square tin with cooking parchment
In a mixer bowl, stir together flours, cocoa, baking powder, salt and xanthium gum and set aside
In a large mixer bowl, beat together sunflower oil, sugars and egg with an electric mixer on medium speed, untill well combined
With mixer on low speed, add dry ingredients. Mix untill well blended, add warm water or cofee and mix untill thoroughly combined. Stir in chocolate chips, nuts marshmallows and cranberries
Spread the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 35 minutes
Cool before cutting

Impress your son with Gluten Free Rocky Road Brownies :)

A Cup of Tea and a Slice of Cake in the South-West

I've been working away from home recently in Plymouth, Devon. A wonderful place to go visiting this time of year! I was unfortunately working so saw hardly anything, but my husband went out for a few hours with a camera, to take some pix

On the way back, we were travelling in homeward, and just approaching Honiton, it was 5.30 in the afternoon, so getting a cup of tea in such a small market town was a bit of a long shot. Honiton is one of those old fashioned towns, they are famous for their lace making and definately not the sort of place where you'd see a fast food joint, more a place for tea-rooms. Thats exactly what we found ' The Boston Tea Party Tea Room and Cafe', YES, it was open .. at 5.30 pm

I was gobsmacked that we found somewhere to get a cup of tea at all, imagine how shocked I was to find I was in a tea-room that had orange and ginger gluten free cake

If you are ever in this part of the country check it out!



And a few more pictures, this time of Plymouth!

Mango Relish

This recipe is inspired by the TV chef Paul Merrett. His recipe includes chilli, but unfortunately due to quite severe reflux I cant tolerate it and also have to keep my food quite light on spice. This spice level works for me, but you may like to add a tad of chilli powder. If you do, let me know of any variations and I'll update this recipe

I plan on cooking some chicken breasts with a light Asian marinade to go with this relish, but think this will go with a whole host of food!

Make sure you use ripe mangoes, mine were a little under-ripe and held their shape a bit more than I wanted them to ...



Drizzle of sunflower oil
1 onion, diced into 5 mm cubes
1/2 red pepper, diced into 5 mm cubes
60 ml white wine vinegar
4 tbsp granulated sugar
1/4 tsp curry powder
2 large mangoes, cut into smallish dice

Heat a drizzle of oil in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat
Sizzle the onion and red pepper in the oil or a few minutes, until the onion becomes translucent
Add the white wine vinegar and sugar, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about five minutes or until the mixture starts to thicken
Add the curry powder, diced mango and stones from the mangoes and cook over a low heat, until the liquid has evaporated and the and a jam consistency is reached - approximately 30 minutes
Leave to cool and pot in a jar