Brazilian Chicken Stir Fry

   We found this recipe on a website that was recommended to us (www.tablespoon.com) for its amazing recipes and we curiously decided to try it out especially because of its wild combinations that we thought would never work in 1000 years :))) Like who in their right mind would mix soy sauce, coconut milk and tomato paste and expect that to taste good?! And then try adding some pineapple and some chicken to the mix! Crazy, right? Crazy delicious, I'll tell you what! You GOTTA try this Brazilian recipe! Oli modified it a bit, so here's what we used in the end:

Ingredients (for about 2 servings):
- 1 tsp cumin and 1 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup coconut milk
- 1 Tbsp tomato paste
- 4 Tbsp sesame oil
- 250g chicken thighs or breast, diced
- 2 medium bell peppers, sliced
- 1 hot pepper, diced, seeds removed
- 1 cup pineapple, diced
- 1 Tbsp fresh ginger
- 2 cloves garlic, grated or minced
- 1 cup black beans
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
- about 130g egg noodles

*tsp = teaspoon, Tbsp = tablespoon

Steps:

1. Mix together the cumin, pepper and chili powder. Separately, mix together the soy sauce, coconut milk and tomato paste. Yes, it DOES work!

2. Toss the chicken with a drizzle of soy sauce (kind of like a quick marinade) and then leave it in a bowl.

3. Heat a wok with 2 Tbsp of sesame oil. When it's hot, throw the chicken in it, then remove it when it's cooked. 

4. Add another Tbsp of sesame oil to the wok, then add the bell peppers and the hot pepper. Stir fry for about 3-4 minutes, then add the pineapple, ginger and garlic. Cook until the pineapple starts to caramelize.

5. Sprinkle the spices over the veggies and cook for 1 more minute. Add the soy sauce mix and return the chicken in the wok. Continue cooking until the sauce has reduced and coats the chicken (for about 3 minutes). Add the black beans and remove from heat then add the cilantro.

6. Cook the egg noodles in boiling water. 

7. Serve the stir fry over the egg noodles. Bon appetit!

Creamy Sun-dried Tomato Pesto Pasta

   We tried this recipe once before from Tasty (thank God for pages like that, otherwise we'd be out of ideas frequently) and we loved it! It attracted me because it had sun-dried tomatoes in it and I just adore those! :D I'd eat them every day if I could :D But then again, too much is too much...

   The original Tasty recipe had asparagus in it but this time I decided to use zucchini instead as a cheaper option. Aaaand since I wanted to be creative and make it a bit more filling I also added some chicken and some mozarella bocancini. That's the beauty of cooking! You can start from a simple recipe and then tweak it and make it your own :D The tweaked version was sooooo yummy I already can't wait to try it out again! 

Ingredients (for about 3 servings):

- A shallot, diced

- A pesto jar (again, Barilla is strongly recommended)

- 6-7 sun-dried tomatoes, julienned

- A medium zucchini, peeled*

- 200g mozarella bocancini

- 250g chicken thighs, diced

- Grill seasoning to taste

- 100g cooking cream

- About 200g pasta (we used Fettuccine)

Steps:

1. Boil the pasta with a bit of salt.

2. Chop the chicken, then season it with some grill mix.

3. Cut your shallot and sun-dried tomatoes, then peel all the zucchini lenghtwise with a peeler until you obtain a lot of very thin zucchini slices.

4. Cook the shallot and the chicken together in a pan until the chicken is about 80% cooked then add the zucchini slices and keep cooking them until the zucchini reduces and the chicken is cooked through. 

5. Add the sun-dried tomatoes, the pesto and the mozarella and stir for a bit, then add the cooking cream (to make it creamier).

6. Add the cooked pasta and keep stirring to coat the pasta in sauce. Serve immediately with cracked pepper on top. Bon appetit! :)

In case you want to try out the original Tasty recipe, here's a video: 

Fluffy Pancakes with Fresh Fruit

   What can sound better than delicious pancakes for a Sunday breakfast? I found this recipe on Teo's Kitchen and I really wanted to try it out because the pancakes looked super fluffy! And they don't even contain eggs! I replaced the frozen berries with fresh fruit and I added the Saskatoon syrup we brought from Canada for extra zing :D You can use Maple syrup instead. Mmmm, delicious!

Ingredients for 2 servings:

– 250g flour

– a small bag of baking powder

– 1 tsp salt

– 1 tsp sugar

– 350ml milk

– 50g melted butter

– ½ vanilla bean

– your favorite fresh fruit (I used banana, apple, kiwi, orange and strawberry)

- Saskatoon syrup or Maple syrup

Steps:

1. Combine the milk, the melted butter, the sugar and the vanilla bean seeds in a bowl or in a blender. 

2. Add the flour, salt, baking powder and keep mixing until you form a dense batter.

3. Heat up a pancake pan, add a tiny bit of oil so that the batter doesn't stick, then keep adding half a ladle of batter forming round shaped pancakes. Cook the pancakes for about 1 minute on each side until they're nice and golden brown. 

4. Dice the fruit.

5. Stack some pancakes up, then add the syrup and the fruit on top. That's all! Bon appetit! :)