What BeeBee Cooked: Slow Cooker Chicken Chow Mein

I have been relying quite heavily on ready meals and sandwiches since going back into the office. 

Instead of financing the local Tescos, I have taken to making my own meals on a weekend. Portioning them up and then storing them in the freezer. 

This is my Slow Cooker Chow Mein. I love it mainly as it is really simple to make. Also because it only really gives me one pot to wash up! God love the slow cooker. This makes 4 portions for me.

Ingredients: 

Skinned chicken portions
500ml Chicken stock
One bag of stir-fried vegetables (if you're being lazy like me) or a mixture of finely chopped veggies. 
Packet of dried egg noodles.
Garlic, grated - to taste I often use a tsp of garlic paste
Fresh ginger, grated - to taste or a sprinkling of ginger powder
1/3 cup Soy sauce (ish)

Method:













In your slow cooker (set to high) poach the chicken portions in the chicken stock, soy sauce, garlic and ginger for roughly 3 hours. 

When cooked through remove the chicken and set aside to cool slightly. Shred the meat and return to the pot. 













In the meantime, add the veggies to the stock for about 30 mins.












Add the dried noodles. 












Make sure the noodles are covered by the liquor. Leave until the noodles are cooked through, this should take between 15-30 minutes. All the stock should have be absorbed into the noodles. 












Return the chicken to the pot. 

Mix through. 













Serve and eat. 

Or cool and freeze.

What I Ate Wednesday

It's another busy week, and I'm finding it really difficult to get up in a morning. When time is precious I have a habit of reaching for a friend egg sandwich. Warm, full of protein and has a smattering of tomato sauce in there too. 

Lunch was homemade veggie chilli with wholegrain rice and a bit of cheese. (mmm cheese)

You can also see my diet coke habit is still in force. 

Throughout the day I have been drinking my current favourite coffee Ginger Bread by Beanies - I add half a tsp of brown sugar and a glug of milk for a perfect autumnal hot drink.

I spied this yesterday in the Co-Operative next to my office, mmm nutella choc dip. Yummy!

Tea is courtesy of my hubby, chicken curry and white long-grain rice. 

It's not been the healthiest day. But it has been a tasty one. 

What I've Been Eating

I've not done a food diary in a while, so here we go.

Mince pie porridge

Banana and almonds

I've been drinking this all day

Covent Garden's Pumpkin Goulash 

Mini Oreo cookies... I love these so much.

Slow cooker chicken chow mein 

Pasta and sausage meatballs

What I've Been Baking: Herman the German Cakes

For the last week or so I've had a visitor in the kitchen.

I've kept him warm, safe and fed him as if he was one of my own.

Now the time has come to divide him up and pass him on to a new home or two.

I've been the proud keeper of a Herman sourdough starter. 

German Friendship Cake ‘Herman’

So what you need to know, a Herman is a traditional sourdough cake recipe which has been popular to make for several decades. The mix passes through circles of friends and family so in essence it is a tasty chain letter made of cake.
Day 1 – You get Herman and take the lid off.
Pour him into a large mixing bowl or container capable of holding at least 2 litres and cover loosely with a tea towel or cling film.
Day 2 – Stir well
Day 3 – Stir well
Day 4 Herman is hungry.

Add the following ingredients, stir well and cover again:

115g plain flour
225g granulated sugar
200ml milk

Day 5 – Stir well
Day 6 – Stir well
Day 7 – Stir well
Day 8 – Stir well
Day 9 – Hungry again. Add the same ingredients as day 4. Divide into 4 equal portions and give 3 away to your friends along with these instructions or keep one if you want to start a new cake.
Herman 4 stays with you and is ready to be baked the next day.
Day 10 – Bake your cake

Carrot and Cinnamon Cake

Ingredients

1 portion of Herman
225g plain flour
225g caster sugar
1 heaped teaspoon of cinnamon powder
1 heaped teaspoon of mixed spice powder
2 heaped teaspoons of baking powder
175ml Sunflower oil
2 eggs, lightly beaten
150g carrots, peeled and grated
55g nuts
150g raisins/sultanas, soak in boiling water for 30 minutes prior to making the cake to get them all soft and succulent, then sieve.
2 teaspoons of ginger syrup (or golden syrup with a pinch of ground ginger)

Method:

Sieve the flour into a bowl, add the sugar, spices, baking powder and oil then mix together.

Add the beaten eggs, Herman, carrot, raisins, pine nuts and ginger syrup. Mix thoroughly then pour into a large greased baking tin. I used a silicone ring to bake mine.

Bake for 45 minutes at 175°C. Check if it’s cooked by poking the cake with a skewer, if it comes out clean then the cake is done.

Leave to cool and then cut into slices.

What I've Been Eating: Tex-Mex Chicken Sandwich

So I've delved into my goody bag from Taste Inc. again.

This time I chose the Whole Breast Tex-Mex Chicken Sandwich with cheese and spicy salsa.

Wow that's a mouthful of a description. Label looks clean and sharp. A tad misleading, but then who would microwave lettuce.

Taste:

The taste was good. Hot to the point of sizzling, the bread didn't go too soggy, it also didn't have the wooly texture that was there when I ate the baguette. So far these are plus points.




The chicken did only take up about half of the bread roll though, that I found a bit disappointing. The spicy salsa had a bit of kick, yet wasn't the chunky salsa you would have expected if you only looked at the wrapper. Thankfully the taste outweighed the pasta sauce consistancy of it all.

What did I think?

Now anyone that knows me can testify for my love of American Cheese, aka plastic cheese. I grew up sneaking slices of Princess Processed Cheese out of my Nanna's fridge. There is something almost religous about the unwrapping of the yellow wobbly goodness. Granted there is no real cheese inside and this is a dark, dark, guilty pleasure and I so wish I could buy it in blocks like you can in the States.

Anyway I digress, there was a slice of it in this sandwich. So thin, yet turned into an ooey gooey unchus mess. It was divine. So yes, there it is, the way in to my heart is a slice of American Cheese - who knew?

Overall

I liked this one. More than I did the Chicken & Chorizo Baguette. I'm sure a lot of that is down to the texture of the chicken and the slice of American Cheese. There was a pleasant hum from the salsa, which personally I think should be a chunkier version. Texture is a good think after all.

What I Ate Wednesday

Sausage and mushroom omelette sandwich with bbq sauce

Fruit Scone

Chinese chicken salad - I ate the chicken first oops

Seabrook's Canadian ham crisps

Coconut cream chocolate

Sage & onion pulled pork with roast carrots & parsnips, mashed potato,
swede and yorkshire pudding

Chocolate hot cross bun pudding with cafe latte ice cream

First seen on www.dietingrollercoaster.blogspot.com

What I Ate Wednesday

Breakfast wrap - amazing breakfast

Wasabi peas

Turtle beans with quinoa, lime and chilli soup

Fruit Salad

Thanks to a hacking cough I've had a couple of these through the day

Mid-afternoon pick me up

Special and broccoli with boiled rice & salt'n'pepper ribs

What I Ate Wednesday

Today I had a working breakfast. Coffee, a pecan and fudge muffin and processing Avon orders. 

Lunch was one of the new Covent Garden Skinny Soups. This one was Goan Spiced Chicken Soup with Lentils. Lush. 

I had a bit of a snacky day too, so carrots and houmous came to the rescue. 

Hubby made tea, so it was a Tomato and Spicy Pepperoni pasta bake. 

Then while I was watching Archer Vice I munched on this Graze punnet. 

I think it was Dark Rocky Road. 

What I Ate Wednesday

Breakfast: Poached egg & tomato sauce sandwich and a pineapple, banana and coconut smoothie at my desk. 

Carrot and coriander soup with a sunflower and pumpkin seed roll.

Honey and lime glazed baked chicken with wholegrain rice and steamed veggies.

What I Ate Wednesday

Poached eggs on multi-seed batch loaf toast. 

I'm currently obsessed by cheesy puffs at the moment... mmm cheesy poooofs

This is half a pot of butterbean and chorizo soup from Tesco's Finest range. 

A really filling soup, I ate it with a seeded spelt roll from the bakery. 

The nibbles were upon me this afternoon, so a quick fix from the food machine beckoned. 

Tea today was pasta with a tomato and mascapone sauce and some chorizo slices.