Sweet Chilli Quicken

Posted by Dannii on 30 April, 2010

Last night I had another one of my favourite quick and easy meals, chilli. I didn’t have any veggie mince left so I had to make it with chicken-style pieces instead.

Sweet Chilli Quicken
(serves four)

Ingredients:
300g Quorn Chicken-Style Pieces (or preferably beef-style mince)
1 Large Onion (diced)
1 Packet Chilli Con Carne Sauce Mix
150ml Water (only needed in the chilli mix you’re using requires it)
1 Tin (400g) Red Kidney Beans
1 Tin (400g) Chopped Tomatoes
Honey (to taste)
Olive Oil
Serve with brown rice

Directions:
Start cooking the rice
Dice and brown the onion and Quorn chicken-style pieces in the olive oil (only brown the onion if using veggie mince)
Throughly rinse the red kidney beans, mix the chilli sauce with the water (or follow the instructions on the packet)
Add the red kidney beans, chilli con carne sauce and tinned tomatoes to the saucepan (and the veggie mince if using)
Bring to the boil then simmer for 10 mins. Stir frequently as it easily sticks to the bottom of the pan!
Bring off the heat and stir in honey to taste (if the chilli is too spicy for you add more honey or use less of the chilli mix)
Serve with brown rice, salad and a lime flavoured low-calorie drink

Alternatives:
Instead of using rice serve in a wholegrain tortilla lined with lettuce.

 Here’s What We’ve Been Up To Recently:

Posted by Dannii on

Here’s Some of What We’ve Been Up To Recently:

1. Going to Ikea with Madeleine for a fun day out!

Our housemate decided he wanted to buy furniture for his room so we all went to ikea, with my friend Madeleine (who I hadn’t seen for MONTHS). We spent hours walking around looking at everything and anything. Madeleine and I spent most of the time taking photos of us trying everything out!

A massive Best Buy has just opened near Ikea (I think it’s the first one in Britian) and I really wanted to go but we were all ravinous with hunger so we went straight to Bluewater to get some food. We went to Ed’s of course :) I had my favourite- the bean burger combo (bean burger, fries, onion rings and coleslaw) with a diet coke. Dan had his favourite- a slick dog combo with a root beer and chocolate mint malt milkshake. So unhealthy but soooo good!

2. Trip to London with my Mum

I hadn’t been to Central London for ages so this was a really fun day out. We went on the London Eye (where my mum bought me a cute I <3 London hoody), to Covent Garden market, Leicester Square, Chinatown and Oxford Street. I was so exhausted for days afterwards, we did about six hours walking! I ended up doing yoga on the Wii Fit at midnight to try and loosen up a bit so I could sleep!

3. Enjoying the weather

We’ve been having plently of BBQs in the goregous weather we’ve been having! I love having a garden and we’ve been making the most out of it. It’s so nice to sit out in the sun, having friends over or even to just have our morning cup of tea! Snowdrop has been loving it too!

4. Dad and Grandma visiting

Saturday was the first time my Dad or Grandma had seen the house since we moved. It had been way too long since I last saw them. We went for lunch at this really nice resturant which is right by our house. I had a goat’s cheese and mushroom burger, expecting it to be a veggie burger but it was literally a slice of goat’s cheese and a whole mushroom in a bun with relish! It was really good though (and I’m not usually one for goat’s cheese). I had a soda and lime with it, that’s only the second time I’ve ever had that drink and it’s really growing on me. The perfect thirst quencher for a hot day!
Afterwards we went shopping. Dad and Grandma got me a blender, hand blender and iron as house warming gifts :)

I’m so excited about the blender as it’s means I can now make home-made soups and smoothies! Nom.

5. Getting into fighting shape!

Recently I’ve been trying to give my lifestlye a healthy makeover. I’ve started eating a lot better and been trying to exercise regularly. It’s been hard and I’ve had some setbacks but I feel so good for it. Dan said this morning that he was starting to see results and my skin is much clearer. If you want to read my fitness blog, leave a comment and I’ll email you the link.

6.Work as usual

After a nice few days off over Easter and some fun weekends it’s been back to work as usual, except with lovely warm weather!
Here’s a video of us on our way home from work one day:

7. New Shower!

After being broken for AGES we finally have a working shower! It was so nice to have one yesterday after I can’t remember how long. I do love a nice bubble bath, but not every single day. I almost forgot how quick showers are compared to baths! lol

8. Taking Photos

The warm weather and clear blue skies has really got me back into photography! Dan drove the country lanes route to work the other day especially so I could take photos :) We had some extra time another day so grabbed some lunch from a supermarket (I got sushi NOM!) and went to one of our favourite spots to eat it. It’s this little lake hidden down a quiet road which always has loads of ducks and an ice-cream van! It was so nice eating lunch in the warm weather whilst watching the ducks. Another day we went to these gardens I love so I could take photos of the blossom. I’ve also been using my tripod in the garden to take photos of the blossom. I edited the last two photos in Paint Shop Pro.

[edit]This is why I love blogging and taking photos! If I hadn’t make this post I’d probably have forgotten about everything mentioned in it. I really need to blog more often and definately take more photos, especally of people![/edit]