Sweet Chili Chicken Nuggets

This chicken nuggets need a bit of refinement but if you're game to try now feel free to go ahead, and I'll modify this recipe down the track.

Ingredients

1/4 cup plain GF flour (you can use whole grain if you have it to make these lower GI)
1/2 cup rice crumbs
Pinch of salt
Sprinkle of parsley
*Sprinkle of garlic - Adding garlic here is not Low FODMAP.  If you need low FODMAP eliminate this step and use garlic infused olive oil.
1 teaspoon of paprika
1 sprinkle of black pepper
1-2 teaspoons of chili (mine wasn't very strong so you could add more or leave it with less for a non-spicy chicken nugget.
500 grams diced chicken breast (thawed)


1/2 cup Rice Malt  Syrup

Oil for frying - if you want low FODMAP use garlic infused olive oil.  Otherwise any other cooking oil will work.

Method

Mix all the flour and herbs together in a bowl until all your spices are well mixed in.

Melt your rice malt syrup either in the microwave (faster, but needed to be watched carefully and it started to harden like candy) or in a bain-marie (which will probably work better for this purpose).
As soon as your rice malt syrup is melted roll the chicken nuggets in it and transfer to the flour mix.
Coat in the flour and spice mix then transfer to the frying pan.

Cook immediately on high for about 6 minutes, then turn and cook for about another 4 minutes

As always with chicken check to make sure it is cooked before you eat it so you don't get food poisoning!  I usually break open one large piece to check the pink is gone, when I'm thinking they should be ready soon, as you don't want to over cook them either.

Serve with tomato sauce. - make sure it's a low FODMAP option for those who need it.  :)

Homemade Pizza

Tonight I was going to hang out with some friend and celebrate end of exams - or at least end of my exams, but we was all too tired.  So instead of eating out I decided I had better create my own delicious dinner.

I've been dying to try homemade pizza since I saw this recipe for the base on Jo Whitton's blog, Quirky Cooking.  It was amazing.  Just in case you were wondering.  ;)

Crust as per Jo's instructions.  Be careful though, I burnt my top base because it was too hot in the oven, and I sliced 10 minutes off the cooking time too!  I would stick with putting them on bottom shelves, and don't accidentally splash too much oil on them - I think that makes it worse.

Joy diced up 3 cloves of garlic for me (speed 9, 5 seconds), I then added 8 small tomatoes (speed 9, 10 seconds), and cooked on steam temperature for two minutes, I added 1/2 small brown onion.  This took about 4 minutes to get from watery, to tomato paste.

Spread 1/2 of tomato paste on base, add olives and 1/2 onion, cook for 5 minutes while you clean up the mess you just created... (oven temp 180C)

Pull it out and add other toppings (mushroom, parsley, mixed herbs, baby spinach, spring onion, and the rest of the tomato paste to hold it on.)

Cook for 10 more minutes... delicious!!!  Mmmmm, the whole house smelled wonderful.

Roast Capsicum and Semi-dried Tomato Dip

This dip is another great starter, and fairly easy if you just buy the ingredients from a jar, however if you had leftover roast capsicum that would also work quite nicely in here.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup roast capsicum
1/3 cup semi-dried tomato

Method:
Blend well with a stick mixer or in a blender.

If you're unsure about it you can sample it at this point to check you are happy with the taste combination.

Serve with crackers or veggie sticks.

Semi-Dried Tomato and Olive Dip

This is another favourite.  I love this stuff, and once you make it, I'm sure you will also love it.  Even my friend who doesn't like olives thinks this is great!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup high quality pitted olives  (You can buy non pitted and pit yourself if you prefer.)
1/4 cup semi-dried tomatoes

Method:
Blend with stick mixer or in a blender.
Check it's not poisonous and tastes okay.  ;)
Make more, because you ate it lots before the guests came...