CEiMB – Tuscan Roasted Chicken and Veggies

 This weeks recipe for Craving Ellie in My Belly was picked by the lovely Margaret of Tea and Scones. She chose Tuscan Roasted Chicken and Veggies, a perfect recipe for warmer days since the dish can be made in the oven: so no sweating above a hot stove!

The chicken gets rubbed with a mixture of garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice and oil, which when placed into the oven gives off a lovely lemony/garlicky scent. I absolutely loved the flavours of this dish and will definitely be making it again!

The recipe can be found over at Tea and Scones. Go here to check out what my fellow Elie-istas thought of the Tuscan Roasted Chicken and Veggies. If you’re interested in cooking up delicious, nutritious and healthy food, check out Craving Ellie in My Belly: we’re always open to new members!

 

Zebra Pastel Cake

Towards the end of March I started dating E. As dating turned into a relationship, both E.’s parents and my parents kept asking when they would meet me/E. So, E. and I decided we would meet eachothers parents during the Easter weekend.

Ofcourse I couldn’t turn up empty handed, so I decided I would bring a cake and turned to my bookmarked recipes. I soon decided on making a Zebra Cake, because I loved the pattern: it looked like a fun cake. Usually a Zebra Cake is made by making a batter, dividing the batter into half and adding cocoa to one half and adding alternating spoonfuls of the two batters. But I also saw this Rainbow Cake and decided to change it up a bit. I divided my batter into 3 portions, added some pureed raspberries to one batch and some pureed blueberries to the other batch.

The cake can be served topped with a dollop of whipped cream and a strawberry, but is also quite delicious served on it’s own.

Pastel Zebra Cake
adapted from Baking Bites
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk (low fat is fine)
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
pureed blueberries
pureed raspberries

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9-inch round cake pan with a circle of parchment paper and lightly grease the bottom and sides of the pan.

In a large bowl, mix together eggs and sugar until mixture is light and creamy and the sugar has mostly been dissolved. Stir in milk, vegetable oil and vanilla extract.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Pour into wet ingredients and whisk to combine. Divide batter equally into three portions, add some pureed raspberries to one batch and some pureed blueberries to another batch.

Put 3 tbsp of blueberry batter into the center of the pan and let it spread slightly on its own. Put 3 tbsp of raspberry batter in the center of the blueberry. It will push out the other batter and, as it sits for a moment, will also spread itself. Then put 3 tbps of vanilla batter into the center of the raspberry. Alternating spoonfuls of the three batters, repeat the technique until all the batter has been used up.

Bake for 38-42 minutes, until the cake is light gold and a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
Let the cake cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes, then turn out the cake and remove the parchment paper. Reinvert on to a wire rack and let cool before slicing.

Serves 10.

CEiMB – Spicy Egg and Avocado Wrap (my pick!)

This week it was my turn to pick a recipe for the lovely group of ladies that cook along with Craving Ellie in My Belly (or bake, depending on the recipe that is chosen). Since the weather here has been quite good the last couple of days I wasn’t in the mood to spend a lot of time in the kitchen and so I decided to pick something easy.

I still had some recipes bookmarked from when I got to pick a recipe last time and I soon found something that sounded completely right to me: Spicy Egg and Avocado Wrap on page 31 of So Easy. I understand these wraps were supposed to be a breakfast meal, but I paired one wrap with a lovely salad and called it dinner. I loved the kick that the Thai chili sauce added to the wrap.

Go visit the other ladies of CEiMB here and see what they thought of the wraps. It looks like June will be a tasty month, want to join in on the fun? You’re always welcome!!!!

Spicy Egg and Avocado Wrap
makes 4 servings (serving size 1 wrap)

8 large eggs
4 large red-leaf lettuce leaves (I used iceberg lettuce)
4 whole-wheat wrap breads (about 9 inches in diameter)
1 avocado, pitted, peeled, sliced
1 medium tomato (about 4 ounces), sliced
1/8 English cucumber, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon prepared Thai chili sauce or hot sauce, divided
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Place the eggs in a 4-quart saucepan. Cover with water, bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 9 minutes. Remove from the heat, rinse with cold water, and peel. Remove the yolks from 4 eggs and discard the yolks. Slice the remaining egg whites and whole eggs into 1/4-inch slices.

Lay a lettuce leaf over the center of each wrap bread. Top with the avocado, sliced eggs, tomato, and cucumber. Sprinkle with the chili sauce and season with the salt and pepper. Fold one side of the bread about 2 inches over the filling to form a pocket and roll into a wrap. Eat immediately or cover in foil and store in the refrigerator for up to 1 day.