Free Training For Life

Free Training For Life

ipostparcels International Parcel Delivery Service

Quorn Chicken and Cheese Enchiladas

Ingredients:
 
1 package of Quorn chicken pieces 2 jars of Enchilada sauce   
3 large onions
Big bag of grated cheese
1 package of corn tortillas
Vegetable oil
Directions:

Cut up the onions and saute in oil. Brown the chicken pieces. Place in a bowl and pour in a jar of enchilada sauce. I do this ahead of time and place in the fridge until I am ready to cook for dinner.

Next, heat up oil in fryer pan. It will need to be deep enough to place corn tortillas in flat. Once the oil is hot, place tortillas in and soften. That takes about 2 or 3 seconds.

 
 Slide onto a plate. Spoon in chicken and onion mix and top with grated cheese.

Fold tortillas. Start with the sides on the left and right. Then fold over the side closest to you and roll up. Place into a baking dish. Pour on the other jar of enchilada sauce and sprinkle grated cheese on top.

Bake on 180 for about 25 minutes.

Serve with re fried beans and Uncle Ben's microwave Spanish rice or your favourite rice. Also good to add a little sour cream on top.
 

A little fattening because of the oil and cheese. But tastes really good even left over the next day.

I Love you More on Grilling Days

Tuesday May 28, 2013

Summer, or what resembles summer in England is around the corner and that means its time to fire up the grill that has been sitting and waiting all winter. At our house, we are usually the first to start and the last to stop cooking outside. What my wife enjoys the most, other than eating the delicious food, is having her family around, sitting and enjoying the wonderful smell while I grill. If you have never grilled, you have no idea what you are missing. It has been an American tradition and past time for generations and I am glad to see it catching on here in England. My wife, Sharon, is always saying how much she love how passionate Americans are about grilling. For those who feel intimidated by the process, I am going to share some simple guideline to show you how easy it is to enjoy this great American tradition. 

Step One: 

Buying a grill. I would not recommend getting the small Hibachi grills or the really cheap ones. They will just be a waste of money. Get something at least £25 pounds or higher. Mine cost around £40, but we wanted one that was big enough to cook a lot of different foods for everyone at the same time. You don't need a really high priced one either. Just make sure the metal isn't too thin. The heat will burn holes into it pretty quickly if the metal is cheap and thin. Oh, and get the charcoal kind, not the gas. What's the point of having a gas grill? Might as well just cook on your hob in the kitchen. To get the real taste of barbecue, get a charcoal one. When you buy the charcoal (NOT coal like my very intelligent wife), get the kind you can just light the bags and doesn't require fluid. Using lighter fluid can be very dangerous and if you use too much will make your food taste like chemicals. Also, if you can find some wood chips from a  hickory, pecan, apple, mesquite, maple or any other fruit or nut tree to put on top of the hot coals it will add a nice flavour. Make sure the wood you are using is free nails, glue or anything you don't want cooked into your food. Also, buy a cover it will protect it from the rain and increase the life of your grill.

Step Two:

Safety Tips. First, you must have good weather for grilling. Look at the trees and see if the branches are moving very much. If it is very windy, don't grill. The wind can cause a big fire that can get out of hand very quickly or at the least, cause you to get burned. Make sure there is nothing around your grilling area that is flammable. And keep a glass container of water nearby just in case. Do not under any circumstance grill indoors, under care ports or inside tents or sheds. Make sure the grill has proper ventilation. Grilling indoors will kill you. Or burn your house down. Come on. Be smart and have fun! Grilling is perfectly safe if you just use a little common sense.

Step Three:

Tools of the trade. I use this oven mitt, not my good ones in the kitchen, to lift off hot skewers. The brush is one of my cleaning tools as well as the brush with the scraper on the right side. Tongs, corn holders, fork, spatula and skewers can all be purchased together in a kit for about £10. Again, you don't need a really fancy expensive one. Might even be able to find one on http://www.ilovefreegle.org/ if you ask. Make sure to use metal utensils for grilling though. Plastic will melt, make a big mess on the grill and leave your food uneatable. Get a long lighter like this one. You can pick them up for a buck at any supermarket. This is much safer and will save your fingers from getting burned on a hot lighter.

Step Four:

Light the grill! Remove the grill with the two fork like things at the top of the picture. The grill gets kind of grimmy with soot buildup even when its been cleaned properly. When it's hot, the tools are necessary to remove the grill. I don't tend to remove it until its completely cooled off. Place the bag of charcoal onto the bottom smaller grill. Use the long lighter and light the corners of the bag starting with the edges furthest away from your body so you won't be leaning across the flames. It's really better to move around the grill as you are lighting the bag instead of leaning across. The bag will catch fire and create flames pretty quickly. Don't put the wood in yet. Stay with the grill. Don't leave it unsupervised. Sometimes the flames can get high. Do not close the lid. If you do, the fire will go out.

Let the fire burn for a few minutes. Depending on the weather and charcoal, the time varies. During my last grilling session, my wife said it was flame grilled food. As I explained to her, that is something entirely different. To cook food properly on a grill, you will not be cooking by the heat of the flames, but rather the heat from the charcoal. If you try to cook on the grill at this point, it will burn the outside and the inside will be raw or cold. Wait until the flames have died down and the charcoal turns an ash colour.

It still has a little bit of a flame, but I know when I get the food on and the lid shut, the flames will go out fairly quickly. Place any wood you want to use on the charcoal now. Put the grill back on with those two fork like silver things. And now we are ready for the food!

Step Five:

Grilling the grub. As we are all vegetarians, we are basically just giving our food the a good heating through. You can use whatever meat free products directly from the freezer, but for meat, use well thawed. For southern style corn on the cob, I boil the corn for about 5-7 minutes first. Then I melt butter and bast it generously, Have two basting brushes, one for veggies and one for your meatless or meats. While you are cooking your veggies and meats, keep them basted with butter or whatever sauce you are using. Be careful not to over bast the meats though as they won't cook all the way through very easily if you do. Keeping a good coat of butter on your veggies keeps them from burning and drying out.Cook with the lid closed. The vents on the top (and underneath on the cleaning tray, watch for hot coals falling out though) can be used to keep the flames going when open. I cook with them closed because it doesn't take long for mealtess and veggies to cook. If you are cooking real meat, keep them open to keep the flames from dying out quickly.

I brush on our favourite barbeque sauce on the burgers. Sharon's niece likes hers plain and they seem just as tasty. Worcestershire sauce or any sauce you like is good too. I keep the mealtess products away from the center of the grill because it is the hottest there and will burn the hotdogs and sausage really easy. For thick juicy hamburgers (yeah I miss meat sometimes) or ribs, go ahead and put them in the middle since they take so long to cook. You might want to wait until you turn everything once to put on onions as they cook supper fast.

Turn the corn and bast often. Everything else, just turn once. Put the cheese on last. It takes about 3 seconds to melt good. I usually cook it about 5 or 6 minutes on each side. You will be able to tell when its hot or done. This part takes a little practice just like learning to cook on a hob. After everything is off the grill, I put the pineapple rings on and cook them a couple of minutes in each side. Sharon likes pineapple on her burger.

Step Six.

Cleaning and storing your grill. Keep a watch on the grill and make sure all the coals go out. They will stay glowing and red for 2 or 3 hours after you are done grilling. Keep the lid closed during the cooling off period. Use the scraper and scrap off the excess food and soot from the grills you are cooking on. I wouldn't bother with cleaning off the grill that you place the charcoal and wood on. Just sweep it into the pan underneath that catches the ash with the small broom. Sometimes before I begin grilling, I will take the grills in and wash them with hot water. Doing that too much might cause them to rust though. And again, cover the grill or store it the garage or shed. Make sure it is really cool to the touch and all the coals have been removed first. Covering the grill and leaving it outside though prevents rust well enough.

Cinnamon and Apple Bread

Ingredients:

1/2 cup apple juice
1/2 cup applesauce
3 cups of strong bread flour (white or wholemeal as you prefer)
1/2 cup of currants or your favourite chopped apples (granny smith works best)
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
1 1/2 tablespoon of butter  
1 1/2 teaspoon dry active yeast (if using bread machine make sure its made for machine use)
pinch or two of salt (sea salt is healthier) 

Directions:

For machines, follow maker instructions, cook on light crust. If you don't have a machine, get one! They are awesome fun and easy to use. I picked one up from a car boot sale for less than 10 pounds. Or try http://www.ilovefreegle.org/. You can pick up lots of great stuff and it helps to be more green by saving things from going into the tip that you can still get use from.
 

Stir Fry in Peanut Sauce

This is a really easy and quick recipe for a delicious meal, though kinda on the fattening side. It is also something you need to play around with on the amount of peanut butter you use as the peanut taste can be overwhelming. Using natural and low fat peanut butter can reduce the amount of calories and fat and make it a little more healthy. 

Ingredients: 

1 package of diced Quorn chicken or a package of firm tofu
1 package of stir fry mix (frozen or fresh). I wouldn't use one with mushrooms in it as it doesn't taste well with peanuts. Also add broccoli if it isn't in your mix. The broccoli with the peanut is the best!
120 ml or hot water
120 grams of peanut butter
1 tablespoon of vinegar
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons of peanut oil (add as needed)

Directions:

In a large skillet, heat peanut oil. Brown quorn (or chicken or tofu). Add in stir fry veggies. Heat all the way through chicken and veggies until good and warm.
In a bowl, combine water, peanut butter, vinegar, soy sauce and cayenne pepper until mixed well.
Pour sauce over chicken and veggies and simmer about 20 minutes until hot.

Serve with:

It's really good with egg noodles or fried rice. I get the Uncle Ben's microwave fried rice. It cost about a pound and heats in two minutes. And spring rolls with sweet chili sauce.

Home

Friday May 24, 2013

Tornado Alley.That's what they call where I am from. Whenever someone hears my accent they naturally ask what part of America am I from, not able to recognize the twang mixed with the slow southern drawl. "Oklahoma, I am sure you never heard of it," I answer. Sometimes my answer is meet with a chorus of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma", which always results in my eyes rolling. And the next question is always, "how do you like our weather?". My response is always, "I love England's weather. You guys have no idea how mild the weather is here," which is usually met with protests and declarations that the weather in the UK is horrendous. Now the questions everyone wants to know about are tornadoes.

Oklahoma is a diverse state, a very beautiful and green state full of trees, hills, lakes, farmland and wide open spaces. God's country we say with pride. And her people are as rugged as the vast country outdoors. Rednecks, dumb hicks, Okies, that's what other Americans often label us. But we are a strong people who have survived the Dust Bowl, the Murray bombing, numerous natural disasters and are the 48th poorest state in the nation. This one, though, has knocked us to our knees. It isn't that Oklahoma hasn't suffered the loss of life before. Hundreds have died over the years. Surreal is the word followed by numbness then grief. Twenty children. Seven of those babies died by drowning in their school from broken water pipes. I am as tough as they come. Big, bad butch lesbian. I have worked as a corrections officer with death row inmates, in public schools as a armed security officer and served in the United States Navy. And yet I can not stop the large tears ruining the ink as they fall while I write this. God I hope they were unconscious and felt no pain, had no knowledge of what was happening to their tiny bodies. No fear, just peace.

Images across the BBC news of the place I call home, resemble the aftermath of a bomb exploding. It is a sight I am all too familiar with as I have seen such devastation in person on more than one occasion. Words cannot begin to describe what it is like to stand in what was once a thriving community and a neighborhood of homes where children played and families lived, and now lays in ruins by one of these monster storms. Total and utter chaos, devastation. Leveled. Gone. Nothing is recognizable. Stunned silence, loss. And then quietly, almost immediately, people begin to stir and rise from the rubble, shifting through debris and start the rebuilding process. Somewhere, someone hangs a tattered Stars and Stripes. Old Glory, the symbol of hope and all we stand for. And as always, prayers are lifted to God, thankful for what remains and receiving comfort for what has been lost. These are my people, this is where I come from. And the land we belong to is grand.