Meal 106 - December 13th - Chilli Con Carne Meatballs
I'm having a bit of a disastrous December, and not just because I have not yet started my Christmas shopping. Two bouts of sickness has meant, nearly two weeks into the month I have only cooked two 15 minute meals. My grand plan of cooking the remaining sixteen 15 minute meals is in serious jeopardy. It doesn't help that Lolz is now threatening to refuse to eat any more fish meals. Still, at least her stomach is now functioning as normal and she chose this chilli con carne/meatball combo as meal number 106, as we continued our gastronomic world tour, which has already taken us to Mexico, Greece and Morocco in the last couple of weeks...
Showing posts with label chilli. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chilli. Show all posts
13 Dec 2013
30 Nov 2013
Mexican Tomato Soup, Chilli Nachos, Veggie and Feta Sprinkles
Meal 103 - November 30th - Mexican Tomato Soup, Chilli Nachos, Veggie and Feta Sprinkles
You'd be forgiven for thinking that I've taken my foot off the gas in my 15 minute meal challenge as it has been a while since I posted anything. And you'd kind of be right, as circumstances have been dictating my schedule recently. Today's Mexican tomato soup was supposed to be the first of three meals this weekend, as I looked to take advantage of a rare weekend at home. Unfortunately things did not go quite according to plan...
You'd be forgiven for thinking that I've taken my foot off the gas in my 15 minute meal challenge as it has been a while since I posted anything. And you'd kind of be right, as circumstances have been dictating my schedule recently. Today's Mexican tomato soup was supposed to be the first of three meals this weekend, as I looked to take advantage of a rare weekend at home. Unfortunately things did not go quite according to plan...
3 Feb 2013
Veggie Chilli, Crunchy Tortilla & Avocado Salad
Meal 11 - 2nd Feb - Veggie Chilli, Crunchy Tortilla & Avocado Salad
As I write this on Sunday night I'm reflecting on what's been a fairly stressful weekend, in a culinary sense. Poor Cinderel-Lolz claims to have washed up 20 times, I'm debating whether to go to A&E after slicing off the top of my finger in the food processor (slight exaggeration maybe) and three 15 minute meals were cooked to varying degrees of success...
The first of the three was this rather funky looking chilli, my first veggie attempt. After getting through ten dishes in January including a knockout Swedish meatballs on Wednesday maybe we were due a bit of bad luck. The first problem was finding dried smoked chipotle or ancho chillis... Waitrose did not stock them, nor, after an internet search do any other major supermarkets. Even our trusty Lebanese corner shop could not fix us up. Not a major disaster though as we had some chipotle paste from a previous dish. The second problem was finding a ripe avocado, we bought the best we could find and decided to make do.
The centre piece of this dish - the chilli - is extremely simple - basically chuck it all in a pan and turn on the stove. The salad however, although simple on paper, relies on the dressing to pull it together. Unfortunately, our unripe avocado meant we couldn't blend it effectively, even after switching from the hand blender to the liquidizer. It did liquidize eventually, but the flavour wasn't right. What we ended up with was a fairly basic/ boring salad of lettuce, cucumber, tomato, chilli and rather odd "croutons" (which also didn't really work) with an overly limey dressing.
Thankfully, the chilli was a 15 minute miracle with all the flavour of any other chilli I've ever cooked. The chipotle adds a really good zing and the dried chillis were not missed.
Lolz gave the dish 8/10, think I probably added too much chipotle paste. Said it was too spicy for her delicate lady palate. Difficulty 2/10. Just make sure you get a good, ripe, soft avocado!
As I write this on Sunday night I'm reflecting on what's been a fairly stressful weekend, in a culinary sense. Poor Cinderel-Lolz claims to have washed up 20 times, I'm debating whether to go to A&E after slicing off the top of my finger in the food processor (slight exaggeration maybe) and three 15 minute meals were cooked to varying degrees of success...
The first of the three was this rather funky looking chilli, my first veggie attempt. After getting through ten dishes in January including a knockout Swedish meatballs on Wednesday maybe we were due a bit of bad luck. The first problem was finding dried smoked chipotle or ancho chillis... Waitrose did not stock them, nor, after an internet search do any other major supermarkets. Even our trusty Lebanese corner shop could not fix us up. Not a major disaster though as we had some chipotle paste from a previous dish. The second problem was finding a ripe avocado, we bought the best we could find and decided to make do.
The centre piece of this dish - the chilli - is extremely simple - basically chuck it all in a pan and turn on the stove. The salad however, although simple on paper, relies on the dressing to pull it together. Unfortunately, our unripe avocado meant we couldn't blend it effectively, even after switching from the hand blender to the liquidizer. It did liquidize eventually, but the flavour wasn't right. What we ended up with was a fairly basic/ boring salad of lettuce, cucumber, tomato, chilli and rather odd "croutons" (which also didn't really work) with an overly limey dressing.
Thankfully, the chilli was a 15 minute miracle with all the flavour of any other chilli I've ever cooked. The chipotle adds a really good zing and the dried chillis were not missed.
Lolz gave the dish 8/10, think I probably added too much chipotle paste. Said it was too spicy for her delicate lady palate. Difficulty 2/10. Just make sure you get a good, ripe, soft avocado!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)