Lemon Goodness

The main part of this meal (the Paprika & Lemon Baked Chicken) was planned for Saturday night dinner but sadly the chicken wings hadn't defrosted (even after a whole day & night in the fridge). So it wound up being a Sunday night dinner and it was fantastic. I paired it with lemon green beans and pearl couscous, so there's three recipes with this post.

Paprika & Lemon Baked Chicken 

The full recipe is available on the taste website: click here. I made the following changes:

• Substituted the chicken thighs for 1kg chicken wings
• Doubled the paprika
• Lemon olive oil
• No onions (still hating them while pregnant)
• Dried oregano (I just sprinkled it over and I don't think I used 1/4 cup)
• Dried chilli flakes (again just sprinkled over & didn't measure)
• Only used 1tbsp brown sugar
• Squirted some bottled lemon juice into the sauce as well (I'm slightly obsessed with lemons if this post doesn't already demonstrate that!)

Lemon Green Beans (adapted from Kayotic Kitchen)

Ingredients

• Frozen green beans (I just guesstimated enough for 2 of us but there was probably enough for 4 small serves)
• 1tsp minced garlic
• 2tbsp lemon juice
• 1tbsp white wine vinegar
• 3tbsp lemon olive oil
• 1/2tsp dried oregano
• 1/2tsp dried parsley
• 1tbsp lemon pepper

Method

1. Throw the frozen green beans in a microwave safe container (with lid). Mix up all the other ingredients and pour over the green beans. Put in the microwave (covered) for 5-6mins. Voila it's done. 
2. You can save the liquid and then pour it over the pearl couscous if you choose to have couscous with it. 

Pearl CousCous

Method

1. Heat lemon olive oil in small saucepan and add 2 cups of stock (I used vegetable), bring to boil.
2. Add the pearl couscous and mix then add whatever seasoning you want, I added a bit of dried parsley and some lemon pepper. Cook for 8-10mins on a simmer.
3. Pour the green bean liquid in while there's still about 2-3mins cooking time left.
4. Once done (there shouldn't be any liquid left) it's ready to go. 

There was lots of yummy sauce left with the chicken so I poured that over the chicken and couscous once I'd plated the whole thing up. All of it worked really well together and I'll definitely be making it again. It's also nice to have another side to add to my repertoire seeing as I'm in love with green beans at the moment. The whole meal was also relatively cheap (especially if you have most of the items in your cupboard).

The whole meal probably took about 40mins to cook but in total I'd give yourself an hour if not a little longer.

Exotic Sides

Peas are my 'something green', seeing as I'm always trying to get more veggies on our plate at dinner time. Unfortunately there are only so many peas you can heat up in the microwave and throw on the plate before you get bored so I turned to the good ol' internet to solve the problem. And solve the problem it did (plus added some extra greens in the form of spinach as well). In stepped the Vegeta website, because it was a side I didn't go as snap happy as I usually do so please appreciate the end result! This accompanied a steak and some yummy (if not very well done) potatoes.

Ingredients

• Enough peas and spinach for however many people you need to feed (keep in mind the spinach will wilt)
• 1tbsp butter
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp cumin powder
• 1/2 tsp lemon rind
• 2 tsp fresh mint
• 2 tsp vegetable stock powder
• 50ml water (the recipe also suggested adding 30ml sherry too but I don't have that in the house!)

Method

1. Cook peas (follow instructions on back of packet) - unless you're really gourmet in which case why are you reading this blog!
2. Melt the butter in a large pan (over medium heat) and throw in all the other ingredients (except the water) - stir them all together.
3. Add the water and simmer for 10mins . Just before the end add the peas and stir.

This was definitely a yummy surprise in our house and I'd highly recommend it if you're looking for something to jazz up your sides. It's also pretty handy because most people will usually have most of the ingredients in their cupboards and if not it'd be easy to make substitutions.