Creamy chicken pesto pasta

Simple ingredients, easy to make and a hit on the table. This pasta recipe is one of the all time favorite of my family.
I used a homemade pesto which was given to me by a friend. (Pesto recipe will be uploaded soon). But you can also buy a readymade pesto at a grocery store, it is available worldwide.

All you need are:
200 grams chicken fillet (slice as chunks)
150 grams broccoli (blanched)
300 ml heavy cream
2 tablespoons pesto
1 medium onion (minced)
1 pc garlic (minced)
Salt and pepper to taste
150 grams boiled pasta at your choice.
Grated cheese
1 teaspoon cornstarch or flour mix with 100ml water to make your sauce thicken.
You can also make a roux. (a cooking term for a butter and flour mixture for making foods with sauce thick)

Optional: red bell pepper (sliced in small cubes)

Now let's cook!
Boil the pasta and be sure that after straining your pasta wash it with cold water and sprinkle with olive oil. While boiling the pasta, heat a pan and saute the onion, garlic, chicken and pesto. If the chicken is almost done, add the heavy cream. Let it boil, add the cheese and season to taste. Add your flour/water mixture while stirring. Add the broccoli and enjoy!
I advice not to mix your sauce and pasta in the big pan but on your plate itself.

Easy and yummy chocolate mousse recipe

Chocolate mousse is an airy and frothy sort of dessert. You can use it as cupcake topping, cake icing or just eat it with fruits. A heavy but yummy dessert. 

If you love chocolate, then you should try this chocolate mousse recipe.

What you need:
200 grams pure chocolate (melted)
2 pcs large egg white
40 grams powdered sugar (confectioner)
250 ml heavy cream (beaten until hard)
10 ml cold heavy cream

While melting the chocolate, beat the egg white with the powdered sugar until stiff. Then beat the heavy cream. When the chocolate is melted, mix the cold cream, be sure to mix it fast and thoroughly. Chocolate can go back to its temperature fast. Then mix the beaten egg white. Then mix the heavy cream. Store in a small containers or glasses for nice serving. Keep it cool for the next 6 hours or more.

Enjoy! Eet smakelijk!!

Yes, I'm definitely back!

Years have passed, a lot happened and I know I'm now a better person and cook! Yes, I'm now a professional cook and I'm proud of it! 
It has been years since my last post, I've been very busy with my studies and work, but I keep telling myself that I'll be back into blogging as soon as I'll have the time for it. And now I am definitely back with lots of new cooking ideas and recipes.

See you around!

Baked chicken breast stuffed with herb cheese and wrapped with bacon

Yummy and easy recipe for a busy mom. I am a working mom, so I always go with easy but yet yummy recipes.

What you need:

3 pcs chicken breast (cleaned and slightly cut in between)

3 tablespoons herb cream cheese

9 pcs bacon strips

salt and pepper for seasoning

toothpicks

What to do:

Pre- heat the oven 180 degrees. Flat the chicken fillet, season with salt and pepper, put the cream cheese in the middle and slowly roll it. Wrap the rolled chicken fillet with the bacon and Put some toothpick at the end to hold the bacon in the meat. Put in the oven for 40 minutes.

Best served with vegetable salad.

Oven grilled Cajun Chicken and Broccoli salad with bacon bits and cashew nuts

We love chicken, it is okay with us to eat chicken everyday. You can make a lot with chicken, either you grill it, bake it, fry it, stew it or just a simple salad with it is really satisfying. This time, I made a Cajun Chicken.

All you need:

6 Pcs. Chicken Drumsticks

2 Tablespoon Cajun powder

1 Tablespoon dried Thyme

1 tablespoon Paprika powder

Mix the Cajun, thyme and paprika powder together and rub it evenly on the chicken. Grill it uncovered in the oven for about 50 minutes. And there's your Cajun Chicken.

For the Broccoli salad:

All you need are:

1 meduim size Broccoli (cleaned and cut into bite pieces)

1/2 cup cashew nuts

100 grams bacon bits (pan fried til brown)

5 tablespoon Herb salad dressing

Boil the broccoli for about 5 minutes or until you will get the soft but still crunchy texture. Then thow it into cold water to stop the cooking. Pat dry, then put in a mixing bowl, add the nuts, the bacon bits and salad dressing. Mix thoroughly and ready to serve!

Meatballs with gravy

Meatballs are the most common and easy meal you can make. You can do a lot of experiments with it. I love my meatballs in my spaghetti or meatballs in my soup. This time, I made Meatballs with gravy and serve with mashed potatoes.

All you need:

500 grams Ground beef or pork or mix

1 meduim onion minced

2 cloves garlic minced

2 tablespoons parsley

2 tablespoons bread crumbs

1 tablespoon paprika powder

salt and pepper

1 tablespoon of your favorite bbq sauce

a pack of ready made gravy (set aside)(cooked according to pack instructions)

Mix all the ingredients thoroughly then form it into balls and brown it in a pan. Put it in a bowl that can be put in the oven. Pre-heat the oven for 180 degrees.

Cook the gravy according to the pack instruction then add it in the meatballs. Put it in the oven for 30 minutes, and there's your meatballs..

You can add some mushrooms too in the sauce for some vegetables. Best serve with rice, noodles or mashed potatoes. Eet smakelijk!

Stoofpotje met roode wijn (Beef stew with red wine)

The saying says "Don't cook with wine if you can't drink it". I don't drink any alcoholic beverages but last week, I was challenge to cook this beef stew with red wine. Saw the recipe in the magazine and tried to cook it. It turned out so yummy, the result, Hubby had 3 plateful of it. :D

So here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

4 tbsp. olive oil

1 kl. lean beef meat (cut into small chunks)

1 orange (peeled and get the juice)

2 cloves garlic (minced)

2 onions (sliced)

1 carrot (cut into 1 cm)

1 stem of celery (cut into 1cm)

2 laurel leaves

2 tbsp. fresh parsley

2 tbsp. tomato puree

1 1/2 tbsp flour

salt and pepper

400 ml red wine

400 ml beef stock

Procedure:

Heat the oil in the stew pan, then brown the beef. Take it out the pan, from the same oil, saute the onion, garlic, carrots, celery, orange peel, laurel leaves, parsley and tomato puree. Cook until the onion is done. Put the beef back in the pan and add the salt, peper and flour. Add the wine, beef stock and orange juice. High fire until boiling point, then cook it in low fire for 2 hours or until the beef is soft. Best serve with rice or mashed potatos.

Enjoy!

Crispy Tamban (Sardines)

Tamban or Sardines are seasonal. There are times that this fish are so cheap, and you don't know how to make it anymore, my Mama invented this recipe. Last week, I bought some sardines in the market and decided to make some last week and my daughter and husband loves it!

Debone your sardines. Open the stomach using your thumb, look for the middle bone and slide your thumb going down to the tail of the sardine, and do it at the other side of the bone, and there's your sardine fillet.

Recipe:

5 pcs. Tamban (sardines fillet) - you can use some other fish of your choice too.

breading mix (you can make your own breading mix too with flour, salt, pepper and some onion powder)

1 cup of oil

wash the sardines, pat dry with kitchen paper or towel, dip into the breading mix and crispy fry till golden brown.

best serve with a fresh salad.

Strawberries!

My last harvested strawberries.

My strawberry plants, with the last fruits.

We love straberries specially my daughter Nia. Last April, we planted some strawberries in a pot and hanging in our backyard. Commercial straberries taste so different than strawberries you plant at the garden or backyard. Winter is coming, so it's already the off season of strawberries. I can't wait for next year's spring so we can plant some new strawberries again and maybe some raspberries too! YUM!

Cooking with wine

I am working in the kitchen of a 4 star hotel, Apollo de Beayerd in Hulshorst, Netherlands. I love to watch the cooks cooking, and sometimes, I'm doing thier recipes at home. They use wine to flavour thier foods, so I decided to make something with red wine today, I can't wait for the result, I hope it will be yummy.. It is a Stoofpotje in dutch or Beef stew. I'll post the recipe with the pic when it's done. :)

Let's go Dutch!

My husband is dutch, so I am learning to cook the dutch foods. I bought some dutch cook books to get more knowledge on thier foods. Dutch foods has influences from the different European countries but they still have thier own kick.

Everytime I will try to cook the foods, I will always ask my mother-in-law how and what to do. Sometimes, it is not perfect but hey, we learn from our mistakes, right?

This time, I made a Stampot Prei (mashed potatoes with leek). Stampot is a common winter food for dutch, it is a hearty and healthy food.

Stampot Prei met worst en jus (Stamppot Leek with smoked sausage and gravy)

What you need: This is good for 6 persons.

1 kl. potatoes (peeled and cut into half)

2 teaspoons salt

2 pcs Leeks (sliced)

2 pcs hard boiled eggs (sliced)

100 grams bacon bits (spek)

any gravy of your choice

smoked sausage (prepare it according to the package)

What to do:

Boil the potatoes with salt for 20 minutes or until done. While cooking the potato, get another pan and blanch the leek for not more than 2 minutes and remove from the pan using a strainer to get the excess water. Fry the bacon bits until brown. Boil the eggs. When the potato is done, remove the water from the potato using the strainer. Put the potatoe back in the Pan (be sure you used a big pan) add the remaining ingredients and start to mash it - no need to add salt because the bacon bits are salty enough. Then your dutch food is ready for serving. Serve with the smoked sausage and gravy.

Eet smakelijk! (enjoy your meal!)

A fruity and vegie salad

A yummy side dish makes your main course more exciting. Last sunday, It was a great weather here in Netherlands (at last, after months of rain! LOL). Me and hubby really loves barbeque, so we decided to have barbeque for dinner and eat at the backyard. I always love to eat outside the house if the weather allows me :).

Barbeque is a heavy meal, a meal that is full of protien, so to lighten it up, I made a fruit and vegetable salad. It is so easy and yet so healthy and yummy.

I just grab some lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, silver onions in a pot, Kappers, oranges, apple and salad dressing ( i used a natural herbed dressing). Sliced them and tossed them all in a big bowl. Finish with a pinch of salt and pepper. And whaalaaa! There's the yummy-healthy-easy fruit and vegetable salad.

You can use some pineapple tidbits, Corn, pear and other fruits you want.

Mami (Philippine beef noodle soup)

It has been almost 5 years since my last mami or beef noodle soup. I just missed it so much, so I decided to make it last week. A yummy soup for a cold rainy weather is always the best!

So this is my own rendition of Mami because some of the ingredients are not available here.

All you need:

250 grams egg noodles (cooked as what in the pack says)

Lean beef (sliced into tiny chunks)

1 beef knucle (for the stock)

Carrots (sliced thinly)- for garnishing

bell pepper (sliced thinly) for garnishing

Chinese cabagge (sliced thinly) for garnishing

2 pcs. spring onions (sliced thinly) for garnishing

1 onion

thumbsize ginger

2 liters water

salt and pepper

2 tbsp. oil

3 tbsp. fish sauce

pinch of Vetsin

2 pcs eggs (fried and sliced thinly) for garnishing

chicharon (pork skin crackling) crushed- for garnishing

Set the garnishing ingredients aside

for making the stock:

saute the onion then add the beef chunks, when the color turns brown, add the beef knuckle, ginger and water. Simmer until the beef chunks are soft. Put the fish sauce, vetsin and pepper (taste if it is salty enough for you, you can add more fish sauce or salt)

Put the boiled noodles in a bowl (enough for 1 person) put some vegetables (it is sliced thinly, so it will be cook with the hot stock) then add some eggs and chicharon. Pour the hot boiling stock into the noodles. Just enough for one person. Then set aside for 2 minutes to let the vegetables cook and enjoy!

Spaghetti Napolitana (inspired) with meatballs and zucchini

I love pastas, for me, it is like a comfort food after a busy day. When I make my pasta, I always put vegetables on it. This time, I cooked Spaghetti Napolitana with meatballs and zucchini or cougette (this is my own recipe).

This recipe is so easy and so yummy.

To make my Spaghetti Napolitana, you need the following; (good for 4 persons)

2 tbsp. Olive oil

1 medium size onion chopped

1 red paprika (bell pepper) sliced

1 small cougette sliced

750 grams ripped tomatoes, skinned and chopped or you can use ready made tomato sauce (I used the ready made tomato sauce about 500 grams)

fresh basil leaves

1 tablespoon sugar

salt and pepper

Pasta (any pasta you want)

Meatballs (cooked)

What to do:

Boil the pasta.

Get a pan, saute the onion in the olive oil then add the meatballs and vegetables, when the vegetables are done, add the sauce, sugar, salt and pepper. Let it boil and add the torned basil leaves. Put it over your pasta and topped with cheese!

Old Fashioned Tea

These days, we usually buy our tea in a grocery store. These teas are already packed in a factory. It's yummy but have you ever tasted the old fashioned tea? I love to drink a cup of tea while watching tv and sitting on the couch after a rough day. My 2 year old daughter loves tea too. So what I really mean about old fashioned tea?

Last sunday, me, hubby and my daughter went biking after dinner and decided to drop by in my brother-in-law's house. My sister-in-law offered me a cup of tea, it was just the best tea i've ever had. Then my she showed me the freshly dried fruits and spices which smells like heaven, it's not like in a grocery that is packed for a cup of tea, you have to use an old fashioned container to hold the peices of tea leaves, fruits and spices. That's what I mean of old fashoined.

She told me if I want to buy something, she'll go with me and show me the store nearby.

I am free from work today, so I called her and we went to the tea/coffee store. While I was walking inside, I can already smell the aromas of fresh coffee beans and tea spices. It's just like smelling your favorite perfume. So relaxing!

They have about 30 kinds of tea flavours. I bought some Rooibos Chocolate kiss (Rooibos tea with chocolate pieces, Zorgelos (anti stress) and Autumn tea.

I will difinitely go back thier and buy more tea. hmmmmm.. Wanna have a cup?