Leftover Rescue: BBQ Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

We love a Sunday roast dinner in our house, but the leftovers can get a little monotonous. This week, I completely transformed some leftover roast chicken into a flavorful barbecue dish that is sure to please the whole family.

My husband and I both love dark meat, so we usually eat the legs/thighs when I roast a chicken. So, for this recipe, I used the leftover breast meat. If you have leftover leg or thigh meat, it works just as well, and you might even be able to trick chicken breast lovers into eating some dark leg meat for once!

I whipped up a batch of quick homemade coleslaw to go on the side - 1/2 head of shredded cabbage, 2 tbsp free range mayo, 1/2 tsp organic honey, 2 tbsp white vinegar (I used rice vinegar, but that's just my personal preference), and a dash of white pepper. If you're whipping some coleslaw up to go along with your meal, I recommend doing it before you begin cooking the potatoes, so that it has plenty of time to sit, marinate & mingle in the fridge.

So there you have it! An easy Monday recipe that mixes up some leftover chicken. Enjoy!

Spiced Lamb Burgers & Greek Veggies

I always look forward to our local farmers' market at the end of the month, because we have a fantastic local lamb farm that I buy meat from. Ground lamb is one of those things that you usually associate with the classic heavy meals; ie, shepherd's pie, moussaka, and other heavy wintry dishes. I think it's just as versatile as beef, though, and these lightly spiced lamb burgers are the perfect example of how good it can be on the grill!

Now, when I say "spiced," I don't mean spicy, I mean spiced. Cumin and coriander both pair fantastically with lamb, and a cool yogurt mint sauce on top can whisk your palate away to the Mediterranean. I didn't put mine on buns simply because it's hot out and I didn't feel like eating heavy bread, but by all means pop yours on a whole grain roll - the flavor of this burger can really stand up to whole wheat buns.

The veggie skewers are another flavorful summer side dish that kicks your basic sides to the curb; I recommend fresh oregano, but if you don't have any in the garden, dried will work just fine. Actually, after making this recipe, I went and planted some oregano so I can have the fresh stuff next time!

Ham Shank: The Forgotten One-Pot Wonder

This recipe is a total throwback to simpler times, when dinner was literally boiled meat in a pot with a bunch of root vegetables. Doesn't sound appetizing? Then think again.

The ham shank is an incredibly flavorful, ridiculously inexpensive cut of meat, and this recipe hails from a time when every part of the animal was used because, well, meat was expensive. And it still is today, so next time you think that you need to save a bit of dough, ask your butcher for a ham shank. This whole big thing cost me £3, and we've gotten 2 meals out of it already, with leftovers to spare. If you like ham, you'll love it. It's simply a cheaper cut of meat that has been cured the same way.

For this recipe, I used potatoes, swede (that's like a big giant turnip, for my American readers), carrots, one red onion, a bulb of garlic, and a head of cabbage. The seasonings in the pot included 6-8 whole peppercorns, 2 bay leaves, 2 sprigs of rosemary and a handful of fresh parsley (stems and all). Cut up all your vegetables into big 2-inch chunks, and cut the head of cabbage into quarters. Try to aim to have everything cut to the same thickness so that it takes the same amount of time to cook.

Begin by covering the shank with water in a stock pot. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for approx 1-1 1/2 hours, skimming the top of the pot occasionally to remove any foam & sediment that might come out of the bone. Seriously though, leave it and don't worry about it, this is easy.

When the meat is fork tender, chuck everything except the cabbage in the pot, cover and cook for another 20 minutes, then add the cabbage and cook for the remaining 10. Drain the vegetables, lift out the ham and pull the meat off using forks and/or a knife.

To make a quick gravy, make a roux from 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp flour in a pan, then add a few ladles of the cooking water. Add white pepper and salt (to taste).

Tadaaa! A big, hearty, healthy, delicious meal that your great-grandmother would be proud of.

Green Machine Quinoa Salad

Have you ever had one of those days where your body was literally begging for you to eat a really big, really green salad? I have felt super sluggish lately, which I'll chalk up to having a few sleepless nights with a fussy (suspected teething) baby, and I know I've needed to up my green veg game. Leafy green salads don't tend to fill me up and leave me feeling really satisfied, though, so I turned to the nutritional powerhouse that is quinoa for this job.

Not only is quinoa a gluten-free grain, which is what it's most often marketed as, but it's a complete protein - meaning, it contains all of the essential amino acids that our bodies require but cannot make on their own. Because it's packed with protein, it will help to make you feel full and give you plenty of energy.  I've had an aversion to it's trademark nutty/earthy flavor in the past, but with the dressing on this salad, you don't need to worry about that at all! It's a great starter recipe if you're trying quinoa for the first time. Just cook it according to the package directions, and mix it all up. This salad is best refrigerated for a few hours or overnight, so that all of the flavors can mingle and do their thing, but I ate a bowl straight away and it tasted great too.

Vegetable Tagine with Cod

So my readers are pretty aware of my current obsession with harissa, right? Well, I hope you have some in your pantry, because here's a fabulous vegetarian & pescatarian option. If you want to omit the fish, that's fine, because this complete meal gets plenty of protein from chickpeas, and its plenty filling. If you're a carb lover, it would be great served with couscous or basmati rice.

 

If you're exploring the idea of a plant-based diet, it's a wonderful example to debunk the myth that a plant-based diet is made up of mostly salads. And it's a one-pot wonder, too, so your cleanup and actual cooking time is minimal, making it great for throwing together on a weeknight.

What is a tagine, you might ask? It's a round ceramic baking dish with a cone-shaped lid, popular for slow cooking in north African cuisine. As the heat and steam rises while food cooks, the cone-shaped lid helps the moisture to drop back down into the cooking, ensuring that the food (usually meat) is tender and moist. If you're like me and don't own a tagine (yet- it's on my wish list!) then you can make this dish in an enameled cast iron pot. Have you ever noticed the little bumps on the underside of the lid of an enameled cast iron pot? Well, they essentially are meant to do the same thing as a tagine, so it works great for these types of recipes.

You can adjust the heat of the dish to your liking, and I added a little bit of chili flakes to mine because the harissa I had on hand this time isn't as spicy as I'd have liked it to be. I also garnished with some chopped fresh mint, which goes fantastically with the flavors in this dish.

Colorful, flavorful, filling, and healthy! What's not to love?