Beer honey chicken with oven-roasted potatoes

   This recipe was recommended to me by a friend a loooong time ago and it's heaven on a plate! The chicken is sooo moist, the sauce is very flavourful because of the beer and honey combination and the potatoes are crunchy on the outside but soft in the middle. I'm telling you, you need to try this recipe! One of the best dishes I've eaten lately! :D

Ingredients for 2 people:

- 2 chicken thighs

- 250 ml beer

- 2 Tbsp honey

- 3 Tbsp water

- 4 Tsp soy sauce

- 1 Tsp grounded mustard seeds

- 1 big onion julienned

- 8 - 10 garlic cloves, minced

- 4 medium potatoes, cut into cubes

- salt and pepper to taste

- oregano to taste

- sunflower or olive oil for coating

Steps:

1.  Preheat the oven at 200C. Cut the potatoes into cubes, then put them in a pan and add salt, pepper, oregano and oil. Mix well. Cover with tinfoil and put them in the oven for about 30 min then take the tinfoil off and leave them for 15 more minutes to get crispy on top.

2. Heat a large pan over medium-high heat, Add oil, then place the chicken thighs in the pan. Season them with salt and pepper, cover the pan with a big metal bowl and let the chicken cook for 3 minutes on each side. Then put the chicken on a plate.

3. To the same pan add the grounded mustard seeds and the minced garlic and stir a little.

4. Add in the julienned onion. Stir fry until translucent.

5. Add soy sauce, the water, the beer and the honey to make a sauce. Mix well.

6. Put the chicken back in the pan and cover again. Let the sauce reduce to half on medium-high heat (it will take at least 10 min, 5 min on each side). Check the thighs from time to time and don't forget to baste them.

7. Add more water if the sauce is too reduced before the chicken is cooked through. Also reduce the heat if you do this :)

8. Once cooked, transfer to a plate, take the potatoes from the oven and enjoy your dinner! 

Bon appetit! :)

Looneyspoons veggie pizza with pesto, mozarella and feta

Hey!

Tired of too much meat in your meals and you feel like switching it up? Then this veggie pizza with yuuuummy cheeses will make your world go round! The original recipe is taken from The Looneyspoons, an all-time favourite book written by Janet and Greta Podleski. There it's called "It's a little pizza heaven" and the title doesn't lie ;) Of course, I tweaked it a bit, like I always do :))

By the way, I decided to go wild and I made my own pizza dough so I'll include the recipe for the dough too, just in case you wanna make your own.

Let's get started, shall we?

Ingredients for 2 pizzas:

Thin and flavourful dough: *recipe from chef Adrian Hădean
- 3 cups of 650 flour
- 1 1/2 cups of warm water
- 10g fresh yeast or 3g dry yeast
- 1 tbsp warm milk
- 2 pinches of sugar (used separately)
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 tsp dry oregano
- 1 tsp dry basil
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

OR 2 pizza doughs from Lidl ;)

Topping for 2 pizzas:
- 2 tsp olive or sunflower oil
- around 6 sliced mushrooms (put a variety of them if you can)
- a haldful of broccoli florets cut small
- a medium zucchini
- 1/2 red bell pepper thinly sliced
- a small red onion thinly sliced
- 1/2 jar Barilla pesto sauce
- 1/2 jar pizza sauce or any tomato based flavored sauce (I used Barilla Napoletana)
- 2 tbsp freshly grated Parm cheese
- aprox. 150g mozarella di bufala balls
- around 60g shredded feta cheese
*my addition, optional: corn (as much as possible :P)


Steps:

Making the dough:
1. Mix the flour and water.
2. Add a pinch of salt and sugar.
3. Dissolve the yeast in the milk and a pinch of sugar, then add to the flour mix.
4. Add the oregano, basil and olive oil.
5. Knead the dough for about 15 min by hand or with an electric mixer (I used the second option) until it's soft, elastic and it comes off easily. You might need to adjust the water/flour combo.
6. Let it rise for about an hour close to a source of heat.
7. Separate it into 2 doughs for your two pizzas and work it like a true Italian pizzaro until you fill your 2 trays of pizza:

Adding the topping:
1. Tomato sauce (I added too much and the pizza ended up soggy, so make sure you don't add too much)

2. Cooooorn

3. Add Parm cheese :)

4. Add the sauteed veggies coated in pesto - In a big pan or a wok over medium heat add the oil and all the cut veggies. Cook and stir for about 6 min until they are tender, then take them off the heat and add in the pesto. Mix well, then spread on top of the pizza.

5. Add the mozarella balls, yummm!

6. Final step: Add the shreded feta :)

And this is how the pizza looks before going in the oven for about 10 min if the dough is fresh or 8 min if the dough is store bought and thawed. Bake it at 230C until the crust is lightly browned and cheese is melted.

7. Final product:

Bon appetit! :D

Guacamole Egg Toast

Hey, friends!

Lately I've fallen in love with this simple yet absolutely addictive breakfast recipe. So much so that I keep craving it every other day! Since it's mouthwatering, healthy and super easy, I thought I'd share it with you! ;)

So here goes:

Ingredients for 2 toasts:
- 1 ripe avocado
- 1 medium tomato
- 1 small red onion
- a bit of lime or lemon juice
- salt and pepper
- 2 eggs
- 2 slices of bread
- Chipotle flakes or Chilli flakes

Steps:
1. Make the guacamole by peeling the avocado, then mashing it down with a potato masher. Then dice the tomato and the onion, add the lime juice, salt and pepper and mix everything.
2. Poach your eggs or simply put a bit of water in a pan then add the eggs and cook them like a regular sunny side up. Season with Chipotle or chilli flakes.
3. Toast your bread.
4. Assemble: toast, guacamole, egg.

Eggcelent breakfast, I'm telling you! Bon appetit! :D