Speedy Chicken Kiev with Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Broccoli

This is another HelloFresh! recipe with new ingredients. I've never had much success with sweet potatoes so was a bit worried that I would end up with mushy sweet potato chunks at the end but this went better than I thought.
 If you've enjoyed the Hello fresh recipes you have seen so far then you can download a whole book of them at: http:///hellofreshrecipes.co.uk/recipe-book-download/

2 Chicken breasts, 400g Sweet potato, 350g Broccoli, 2 Cloves of Garlic, 20g Breadcrums, 2 tblsp cream cheese, 1 tsp italian herbs

As we have all learnt by now the first task is to put on the oven and chop up all the ingredients.

The oven needs to be heated to 190 degrees.

The broccoli should be separated into florets, sweet potatoes into wedges and the garlic finely chopped.

The sweet potato needs plenty of time to roast so toss this in some oil with a sprinkle of salt and pepper and pop onto the top shelf of the oven.

Next I mixed together the cream cheese, quarter of the garlic and a pinch of salt and pepper.

I made a slit in the fattest end of the chicken breasts and using my fingers made a large enough hole to squish my cream cheese mixture into. This was quite messy but don't worry, it its really not working well extend the slit down the side a little as long as you get most of your mixture inside the chicken.

Once the chicken was filled I mixed the remaning garlic, bread crumbs and italian herbs in a bowl and rolled my chicken in it so it was well coated. I then popped them onto a tray and put them in the oven for  25 minutes.

Keep an eye on the sweet potato so that it doesn't burn but try not to move the wedges around too much unless you have to, that when it gets broken up!

Finally I steamed the broccoli in a steamer, if you don't have one you can use a metal colander on top of a pan of water with the lid on top!


And Serve!

 

Result:

The chicken was lovely and moist, the sweet potato was crispy and the broccoli tasted nice and fresh.

This recipe was actually easier than I thought so I definately wont be buying ready made, hollow kieves in future!

 

 

Recipe score:

Kent's Kitchen Meal Kits and Posh Noodles

I decided to give Kent's Kitchen a go after seeing some of their meal kits and that Hello Fresh were using their stock pots.

Kent's kitchen have developed a range of pastes spices and oils which go into their kits to help you cook fresh tasty meals that are full of flavour.

How easy was it to order?

The website itself is fresh and modern in design but I did have a few problems with clicking links (such as the offers) and being presented with a blank page!


I also found some of the items I wanted to order were unavailable.


Other than that I looked through the "browse and shop" section and added a couple of meals kits, a risotto, some stock pots and selection pack of Posh Noodles.

By spending over £20 I was able to get free delivery rather than spending £3.99 on postage.


Checkout was as straightforward as you'd expect, enter your details, enter your payment card and you're done.

Delivery and Packaging

As I said delivery was free and my order arrived in 3 days.

My items came well packaged and the packing material was suitable for the contents.

What's in the box?

All the items I ordered obviously!


I'm really looking forward to trying meal kits and I had a posh noodle for my lunch. so far these look like great quality ingredients and my miso style garlic and prawn noodles were lovely and flavoursome.

 

Ratings

 Delivery -free over £20 by standard post

Packaging -normal secure packaging

Quality & Taste - what I've tried so far has been lovely.

Value for Money -a bit more expensive than the supermarket but also more exciting

Other comments: Some lovely ingredients to add variety to your home cooking and also great healthier snacks

     Overall Rating:

Sponge!

Sponge is a cake company based on the North Norfolk coast. On their website you can buy lovely big 10" Sponge Cakes, 7" Sponge Cakes, Baby Sponges and Slices.

How easy was it to order?

The website is easy to navigate and I liked how each flavour showed exactly what was in the cake.

I chose a box of eight different mini sponges and 2 slices of Carrot Cake.

At the check out you can enter your details and any discounts you may have, NUS extra holders enter your card number to get a discount.

If you sign up for the news letter you can also get a give one get one free deals, that's 2 for the price of one delivered!

Delivery and Packaging

Delivery is £5 or free when you spend over £50.

The baby sponges arrived in one box and my slices of cake in another well padded with greaseproof paper and paper napkins.

The box had nice clear messages saying "this ways up" and even had a message on the bottom of the box!

What's in the box?

Only good things! 

 That's what's in the box! 

 

 My baby Sponges were Chocolate, Victoria, Coffee, Carrot, Lemon, Bakewell, Chocolate & Orange, and Apple Crumble. I also ordered two slices of carrot cake as that's my favourite and they include lovely napkins which is a nice touch!

Ratings

 Delivery - £5 for next day delivery isn't bad

Packaging -The Sponges were well packaged and arrived safely. 

Quality & Taste - Really good quality cake

 
Value for Money -Quite pricey for what they are but good for a special treat

Other comments: I was very pleased with the presentation, packaging and speed of delivery. A bit expensive for everyday treats but worth money for a special occasion.

     Overall Rating:

Apple and Blackberry Crumble

I went blackberry picking on Sunday and collected way more blackberries that I knew what to do with!

First I thought I'd make an Apple blackberry crumble! This is such an easy dish to make on a Sunday afternoon, you don't need to be accurate at all with the fruit mixture just use whatever you've got, plus I've not yet come across anyone who doesn't eat crumble.

3 Large Cooking Apples, 150g Blackberries, 250g Caster Sugar, 200g Plain Flour, 150g Unsalted Butter

Pre-heat the Oven to 200°C.

To start I peeled my cooking apples and put them in a pan with 30mls water, 150g sugar (or to taste) and 50g of butter on a medium heat. With the lid on I let them stew slowly until they started to soften, I then added the 150g blackberries. I stirred slowly until all the fruit was soft then took it off the heat.

To make the Crumble all you need to measure is 1-1-2. One part sugar, one part Butter to two parts flour. I went with 100g Sugar, 100g Butter and 200g Plain Flour.

Measure out the flour and sugar first and stir well. then add the butter in small cubes. Now the fun part, get your hands in there and rub the butter into the flour until the mixture is as fine as bread crumbs. If you've never done this before you are literally rubbing the butter and flour mixture between your thumbs and finger tips to break up the butter and mix with the flour and sugar.

Once done put the fruit in the bottom of a dish and top with the crumble mixture. You can finish with a sprinkle of brown sugar if you have some then pop in the oven for 20 minutes or until browning on top.

If you really hate soggy crumble pour off some of the liquid from your fruit before adding the crumble. This liquid can also make a really nice sauce or sorbet!

Roasted Coconut Cod with Shiitake Mushrooms, Mange Tout and Egg Noodles

Another HelloFresh! recipe, I've had  dried shiitake mushrooms in my cupboard for ages so I'm glad to see a dish that finally uses them!

This one is Japanese, so I'm continuing my journey of dishes from around the world!

2 Cod fillets, 2 nests of Egg Noodles, 50g Mange tout, 60g Shiitake Mushrooms, 1 Tbsp of Coconut powder, 1 Lime, 5g fresh Ginger, 1 Tsp of red chilli, 1 chicken stock cube, 1 Tbsp of Soya Sauce

First I put the grill on high then, as always, I started chopped up my ingredients. The Chilli was sliced in half, de-seeded then finely diced. The mushrooms were roughly chopped and the ginger was sliced into little match sticks.
(You can peel your ginger with a spoon, use a firm scraping motion)

In a bowl I then combined the coconut powder, 3 teaspoons of olive oil, the zest of half the lime (I just used the fine grating bit on my cheese grater), the ginger and chilli. Then I added the juice of half the lime and a bit of salt and pepper.

I then coated my cod on both sides with the mixture and popped on a baking tray under the grill  for 8 minutes.

To make the noodles I put 600mls of boiling water in a pan on the hob and added the stock cube. Once dissolved I added the noodles and Soya sauce. After a minute I then added the mange tout and mushrooms and let simmer for 3 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon I removed the noodles and veg and put them in bowls to serve, by then the fish was ready so I placed it on top before adding a cup of the noodle liquid to finish.

Result:

The fish was nice and flavoursome but the best part was the noodles!

I think I could have eaten a bowl of the noodles on their own and they were so sinple to make, I will have to keep a bottle of soya sauce in future.

Recipe Score:

Mouthwatering Minestrone with Cannellini Beans and fresh Focaccia

As promised here is a recipe that the vegetarians can make as well. The version I have mad contains pork but it is just as nice without the pork and still a heart filling meal. The ammounts below are advised by HelloFresh but I double up on it as there were a lot of "half"s which would be left over!

40g Macaroni, Half a Leek, 1 clove of Garlic, Half a Carrot, 80g Potato, Half a stick of celery, 50g Green Beans, Half a tin of chopped tomatoes, 1 Vegetable stock cube, 1 tbsp tomato puree, Half a tin Cannellinni beans, 1 Tbsp Parsley, A chunk of Focaccia ( Optional - 4 Sausages, 1 tbsp parmesan)

As always I first chopped everything up; The potato and carrot needed to be peeled and chopped in to cubes, the leek and celery sliced into 1cm chunks and the garlic was finely chopped. The green beans were sliced into 3rds.

First I heated a pan with a little oil and added the leeks and garlic. I then boiled a pot of water and added the pasta.

Once the leeks were soft I added the tinned tomatoes, 800mls of water, the stock cube and all the chopped vegetables.

I then left it to simmer for 10 minutes. Take the pasta off and drain once cooked.

I was using sausage, so I removed the skins and cooked in a frying pan until brown.

Next I drained and rinsed the cannellini beans before adding to the soup, I also added the pasta at this point (add the sausage now if using).

Finally I turned the oven on to about 100 degrees Centigrade and popped in the focaccia bread.

Once the bread was warmed through everything was smelling delicious and ready to eat!

Serve with parsley on top. (and parmesan if not vegi! you could also use a vegetarian cheese)

Result:

A lovely mouthwatering minestrone as promised. may be a little wasteful if not doubling up the recipe.

Recipe score:

Lamb & Rosmary Linguine with Artichoke

I don't often cook or order lamb but when I do I always enjoy it so was glad to see a recipe which included not only lamb but also artichokes which I have only ever had as part of a mezze platter or tapas type dish. This was another Gousto recipe.

180g Lamb (missing from picture, it was in the fridge!), 1 Vegetable stock cube, 12g Rosemary, 1 red onion, 170g Linguine, 2 garlic cloves, 175g artichoke hearts

As always I started by chopping everything up! So finely chop the garlic and slice the onion thinly into those nice half rings.

The lamb was chopped into small cubes, you can include all the fat as it cooks down nice an softly unlike beef fat which can be chewy.

Then I heated a pan on the hob with a little oil and added the garlic and onions. once soft the lamb went in and cooked until sealed and brown.




Next I boiled the kettle added 300mls of boiling water to my pan and half the stock cube, plus the sprigs of rosemary.

With the rest of the water from the kettle I filled a medium sized pan with boiling water and cooked the linguine.

The artichokes were then rinsed and chopped roughly before adding to the pan with the lamb and stock, season and allow to simmer, you can put your feet up for 10 minutes at this point. once the linguine is cooked, drain it and add to the meat and vegetables.

Stir well and serve!

Result:

this was one of the easiest and tastiest dishes I have tried so far. The lamb was lovely and tender and the whole thing had lots of flavour.

I will definitely make this again.

Recipe score: