This roast chicken is delicious and juicy, your guests will be raving over it. It even looks like it’s professionally done and all you need are just a few basic ingredients and an oven.  Here is the recipe:

Simple, Easy Roast Chicken Recipe

Ingredients

1 whole chicken

8 tbsp oyster sauce

6 tbsp light soy sauce

8 tbsp honey

1 clove garlic, diced

2 onions, quartered

Fresh rosemary, around a bunch

Instructions

1. Season the whole chicken with the sauces and honey.

2. Stuff the rosemary, onion and garlic into the cavity. Leave some of the garlic and rub it all over the chicken.

3. Let the chicken season for more than an hour or if possible, overnight.

4. Make a few small slits along the sides of the chicken.

5. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.

6. Pop the chicken into the oven and roast it for about 30 minutes. There will probably be some leftover sauces in the dish where you seasoned the chicken. Keep it as it can be used to baste the chicken.

7. Baste the chicken with the leftover sauces. If it’s not enough, use a mixture of honey and olive oil.

8. Bake the chicken for another 30 minutes.

9. The chicken is done when juices runs clear and the flesh separates easily. Otherwise, use a meat tester. If it appeared uncooked, baste it again and you can continue roasting for another 15 minutes until it is a golden brown. Test it again.

10. Chicken is best served hot from the oven.

You can serve the chicken with some mashed potatoes, fresh green salad and coleslaw. This makes a wholesome, healthy meal suitable for everyone from small children to adults. Enjoy!

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Now, lets get on to this recipe. I have this packet of black quinoa and thought I’d come up with some recipes to cook it. Like I said, quinoa is very versatile, so I used it to cook a broth-based soup that’s healthy, wholesome and darn good too! So, if you are vegetarian and would like some chicken soup without the chicken, quinoa soup is the way to go!

Instead of using chicken or any kinds of meat, the quinoa broth-based soup can be cooked with carrots and mixed beans.

I used the organic 7-color beans to cook with the quinoa.

It is pretty easy to cook this broth based soup. You can even use a slow cooker/ crock pot to cook it.

Here’s the recipe:

Mixed Beans Quinoa Soup Recipe

Ingredients

1/2 cup quinoa

1/2 cup mixed beans

1 tbs dried wolfberries

4 dried dates

2 large carrots, cut into chunks

2 – 3 pods garlic, peeled and halved

2 – 3 cups water

salt to taste

Instructions

1. Heat up the water in a pot.

2. Dump everything into the boiling water.

3. Cover and simmer over low fire for up to an hour or until the quinoa is cooked and the beans softened.

4. Add salt to your own taste.

For slow cooker / crock pot, you only need to pour in the water and dump all the ingredients in. Then set it at low and leave it to cook overnight. Tomorrow morning, you will have a wholesome, healthy, vegetarian Quinoa soup!

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The great thing about cooking this salsa style dish is that it is very versatile and can be eaten as it is or with rice, salad, bread, even spaghetti! It is pretty simple to make too. First, you will need…

carrots, tomatoes, celery, onions, potatoes, bell pepper (capsicum), ketchup, balsamic vinegar, ready-made pasta sauce and

quinoa. I used red quinoa because it’s what I have. You can use pearl quinoa (the white quinoa) or black quinoa, whichever one you like. The cooking method for all types of quinoa is the same. After chopping up all the vegetables into chunks…

You will need to heat up a pot with some olive oil. First, you sautè the onions for a short while and then you add the carrots, tomatoes, capsicum, tomatoes.

After you stir it around for a minute or so, you add the potatoes, celery, sauces and water. Also add a sprinkle of dried mixed herbs for extra flavours. The quinoa is the last one to go in, after adding all the other stuffs. Then, you just leave it to simmer over low fire for close to two hours. If you don’t have the time, just dump all ingredients into the crock pot or slow cooker and leave it to simmer on low overnight. It will be ready the next day! And that’s it. Easy and so darn good, you may want to make it again and again!

So, here’s the recipe:

Wholesome Healthy Quinoa Salsa Stew

Ingredients

3 large carrots, cut into chunks

4 large tomatoes, diced

3 large onions, chopped

2 large potatoes, cut into chunks

3 stalks of celery, diced

1 – 2 capsicum (bell peppers), cut into chunks

1/2 cup red quinoa

5 tbsp pasta sauce

4 tbsp ketchup

1 tsp dried mixed herbs

1 – 2 cups of water (depending on how thick / watery you want it to be)

palm-sized chicken breast, skin removed and sliced thinly or minced. (if you want to add chicken or you can leave it out if you want a vegetarian one)

Instructions

1. Heat up a large pot with some olive oil.

2. Sautè the onions and then add the carrots, capsicum and tomatoes. Stir for a minute or so.

3. Add in the rest of the vegetables (potatoes and celery) and then stir in the sauces.

4. Add water and pour in the uncooked quinoa. Stir to mix the ingredients around.

5. Turn the heat up to medium and let it boil. Add the herbs, then add the minced chicken (or sliced chicken, whichever you like).

6. Turn down the heat to low and leave it to simmer for up to 2 hours. Remember to check on it and stir often to make sure it doesn’t burn.

7. If you are using the crock pot / slow cooker, then you can skip the sauteeing part. Instead, just dump everything in, add the sauces and water and leave it to cook on slow.

Special note: Water is important so you must not leave it out and it is important to add more as quinoa absorbs a lot of water and it needs a lot of water to cook. Here’s how to cook quinoa.

This quinoa recipe is great to go with any food. If you are cutting down on calories, you can eat this as it is with salad as I also like to call this recipe an all-in-one meal which contains vegetables, protein (quinoa is very high in protein) and healthy carbs (potatoes).

If you simply must have rice…

or if you prefer bread…

It is pack full of nutrients from all the vegetables and quinoa so it is not only low in fat (especially if you cook it without the chicken), it is very wholesome and best of all, so good you won’t even feel as if you are eating diet food!

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But there are exceptions. Of course, there are exceptions. Who could ever live without salmon and cod fish, I ask you? But we won’t talk about salmon today. Today, it is dedicated to the darn expensive (it is considered a luxury food item over here in Asia since it’s imported and all) but oh-so-good and so un-fishy smelling cod fish.

Feast your eyes on what I did with the cod fish:

Are you salivating already? You better be because I am.

Here’s the recipe:

Oriental Butter Garlic Cod Fish Recipe

Ingredients

1 pc Cod fish steak

4 tbsp light soy sauce

2 tsp garlic powder

5 curry leaves (if you can’t find any, you can totally use Thai basil leaves or any herb with a spicy scent like marjoram)

5 tbsp diced garlic

1 tbsp diced fresh ginger

4 tbsp butter

1/2 cup water

Instructions

1. Season the cod fish with 2 tbsp light soy sauce, garlic powder and a sprinkling of the diced garlic and ginger.

2. In a non-stick pan, add the dollop of butter and heat it up.

3. Sautee the garlic and ginger till fragrant and then add the fish.

4. Pan fry the fish for a second or two and then add the curry leaves. Add a tbsp of soy sauce and two tbsp water.

5. If you noticed, some of the garlic and ginger are turning brown. Move the fish aside and remove those brown bits of garlic, ginger and curry leaves. DO NOT THROW THEM AWAY. Just set aside.

6. Then, you pan fry the fish till it is browned on both sides. Add the remaining sauce and water and then cover. Simmer the fish for a few minutes and then remove from heat.

Serve it hot and sprinkle the brown bits of ginger, garlic and curry leaves on top:

Oh yes. Now, that’s what I call oriental style cod fish with a tinge of fusion! The curry leaves gave it the nice spicy scent but like I said, it works just as well with any spicy herb.

These are some of the ingredients used in this cod fish recipe:

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I’m just being my usual food-loving self. So, when I want pita bread, then it is what we have for dinner. Other than being healthy and wholesome and all, it is pretty easy to prepare with minimal cooking. Really, I’m not lying.

Okay, so I cheated by buying the pita bread but heck, it is readily available and the healthy, wholemeal, no-preservative types can also be bought so might as well buy them than spend goodness-knows-how-many-hours kneading and whatever making them, right? Right. I did say minimal cooking.

Now, let’s get on to the minimal cooking part…the meat fillings for the pita bread

Chicken breast recipes: Healthy baked chicken breast with mushrooms

Ingredients

For the baked chicken breast:

200g chicken breast meat strips

4 tbsp teriyaki sauce

1 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped into tiny smithereens (or roughly chopped, whatever)

a dash of black pepper (or 1 tbsp if you really like black pepper)

olive oil (I use cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil for maximum health benefit but you can use any old un-virgin olive oil or any vegetable oil you like, for that matter.)

For the sauce:

4 medium-sized fresh shiitake mushrooms, cubed

4 button mushrooms, cubed

1/2 cup frozen mix vegetables, defrosted

3 tbsp oyster sauce

3 tbsp water

olive oil

For the fresh ingredients that don’t need to be cooked:

5 cherry tomatoes and some sliced tomatoes

1 cup cabbage, sliced thinly

Plenty of salad greens like baby butterhead

Oh, you can totally leave out the cabbage and replace it with thinly sliced carrots. I just happen to get a big huge head of cabbage so I had to use it. In fact, I came up with some other recipes because of the head of cabbage I needed to finish! But that’s some future posts, so let’s continue on with this one.

Here’s a pictorial idea of what you’ll need…

Don’t forget the most important ingredient…the pita bread!

Chicken recipes: Baked chicken breast recipe with mushrooms

Instructions

1. Season the chicken strips with the teriyaki sauce.

2. Add in the black pepper and herbs.

3. Use your fingers or spoon to mix it all around till it is all evenly covered in the sauce, pepper and rosemary (or whichever herb you took a fancy to, it doesn’t really matter).

4. Place the seasoned chicken breast meat on a tray covered with foil and then drizzle some of the thawed frozed vegetables and chopped mushrooms on top like so…

5. Don’t forget the extra virgin olive oil. Drizzle some on top of the chicken and then pop the tray into the oven and bake at 200C for 10 minutes. Then turn over and bake for another 10 minutes. Do check in between to make sure it is not being baked to a dried out old hump. These baking time are not as accurate due to different sized ovens, different wattages, different climate, different countries, different worlds, different chicken, I dunno. Just check the chicken.

Anyway, once done, they should look like this:

See? Juicy, succulent, cooked and NOT like dried out old hunks of stringy meat at all.

Now, on to the sauce for this beautiful, beautiful meat for the best, pita bread meal ever.

What sauce?

What do you mean what sauce? I don’t know about you but I don’t eat my pita bread with meat and veg without any sauce. That’s just too darn weird. And no, I don’t mean ketchup. Puh-lez!

Now, remember those chopped mushrooms and frozen vegetables?

6. Heat up some extra virgin olive oil in a wok or pan and then sautee the mushrooms and mixed vegetables like so:

7. Add in the water and the sauce and then stir-fry for a while till fragrant. Add a pinch of flour if you want a thicker sauce.

There you have it, simple and easy sauce to go with the chicken and pita bread and plenty of fresh vegs. YUM.The best part is that you can serve up the baked chicken breast covered in this sauce as a main dish itself, other than for use with pita. Look…

But me, I pour some sauce over the chicken and then the rest in a bowl and serve it all up like this:

Yep, everyone get to stuff their own pita with whatever is on the table and dribble as much sauce (or as little) as they want. Simple, easy and importantly HEALTHY!

Now, we’re talking. Whoever said healthy food is tasteless have not tried MY version of healthy food. Baked chicken breast, plenty of vegetables and wholemeal pita bread. What could be better eh?

Go on, try this out and if you don’t have any of the sauces or even pita bread or want to try out extra virgin olive oil, you can shop for them online here:

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So, we gave in to our curiousity and plunge right in to give it a try. Since there are so many food reviews about this place, I think I will just post up the pictures of what we ate and give a brief review of it all. No point writing a 1000-word review when so many others have waxed lyrical about the food there. Okay, I admit, I was just being lazy but well…it’s not like I cooked these food. I tend to feel less passionate about outside food nowadays compared to my own *ahem* delicious cooking.

A Review of Mizi Bistro, New World Park

Something to take the edge off your hunger as you wait for the food to be served…

Over at Mizi’s, they have this wonderful selection of value-for-money set meals that comes with drinks, soup, main course and free-flow of ice cream for dessert. All for RM19.90 only. And when I say wonderful selection, I meant the whole menu. As in you can choose any main course in the menu. A word of caution though, some of the main course may mean you need to add RM6 to the original price.

The above is the soup of the day, pumpkin soup. I am not really a pumpkin person but surprisingly, I do like the soup. Not too cloying or sweet as I’d thought it would be.

This is what I ordered, roast chicken breast with apples. Yes, they did this quite perfectly too, balancing the sweet flavours of cooked apples with the savoury sauces.

I can’t remember what The Food Critic’s dish is called but it’s basically roast chicken in a tomato-based sauce that complements the chicken pretty well. Nothing really to shout about but it still do have loads of great flavors. Like roast chicken in tomato-based pasta sauce.

Finally, there’s the free-flow of ice cream. I LOVE ice cream especially on hot humid days so I helped myself to three scoops and topped it up with chocolate rice and chocolate sauce. I even went for a second helping…mmmm…..

Final note: Food is reasonably good and it is worth the price. They have a nice relaxed ambiance and yes, this is a great place for some casual lunch or dinner. And by the way, if you can’t have enough of their food, you can try the original restaurant, JL Gourmet Corner at Prangin Mall, which was opened years before they open Mizi as a sort of branch.

Rating: 7/10

Price: $$

Mizi Bistro

New World Park

Burmah Road

04-2272921

tarmeezee15@gmail.com

Opening hours: 11am – midnight daily

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Now that I got that outta the way, let me continue with the succulent, juicy, spicy, did I mention succulent?, chili pork ribs. Now, this recipe works on any kind of ribs. So, you can use it on baby back ribs. Even human ribs. Whatever. Although I’d prefer that you don’t use it on human ribs. That’s just SO disturbing. But, this is one rib recipe that’ll stick to YOUR ribs. Or mine, to be exact. Here’s what I meant…

Is your mouth watering? Want some? Here’s another look:

Didn’t I say its succulent and juicy and damn good? Now, lets get on to it already. I am getting hungry just looking at these pictures.

Grilled Sweet and Spicy Chili Pork Ribs Recipe

Ingredients

2 large pork ribs (or any other ribs you like)

4 tbsp hot chili sauce (I used Nando’s hot peri-peri sauce but you can go ahead and use any other brand)

4 – 6 tbsp sweet chili sauce (this is definitely different than the hot chili sauce as it has a sweeter base)

2 tbsp ketchup

2 tbsp organic brown molasses

4 tbsp powdered peanuts

3 tbsp flax seeds

Instructions

1. Season the ribs with the hot chili sauce, ketchup and organic brown molasses for at least 10 minutes. Sprinkle the flax seeds over it. Why flax seeds? Because they are good for you and SO MUCH healthier than sesame seeds. Oh, and I do have a post on benefits of flax seeds coming up. Lookout for it.

Heck, if you wanna be clogging your arteries with these ribs, might as well add in something that will help to clear the clog a bit. But if you wanna use sesame seeds, be my guest.

2. Sprinkle the powdered peanuts on top. Why? Because I said so. Don’t like powdered peanuts? Too bad, this is my recipe and I will add whatever I want.

If you opted outta using the powdered peanut, I really, seriously pitied you. It makes a difference you know. It really does.

3. Now comes the easy part. Slide the ribs into the oven. Drizzle the sweet chili sauce on top and grill in the oven for 10 minutes. Then turn over and drizzle more of the sweet chili sauce on top and grill another 5 minutes. Then turn over and drizzle the sweet chili sauce again. Grill 5 minutes and I swear it’s for the last time drizzle more sweet chili sauce and then grill another 5 minutes. Be very, very generous with the sweet chili sauce. You want the ribs practically smothered in it. Don’t worry, those ribs are dead anyway so they don’t need any breathing space.

Now, on to the final important part…

You serve it up and dig right in. Or to be exact, chew right in.

Dang. They sure do look good, don’t they? If I may say so myself. Now quit drooling over your keyboard and start marinating ribs to grill. Don’t have the ingredients? You can check them out here…

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This time around, I tried a very simple quinoa recipe with canned sardines. We happen to opened a can of sardines a few days back and I’ve some leftovers so I used it to cook it with quinoa instead. It turned out pretty good too. This further proves that quinoa is extremely versatile and goes quite well with almost anything.

As you can see, I also added some tomatoes and mushrooms to make it a complete meal by itself. So, this dish is more like an all-in-one healthy dinner. It has grains, fish and vegetables.

Quinoa recipes: Red Quinoa and sardines

Ingredients

1/2 cup red quinoa

1 cup boiling water

2 canned sardines in tomato sauce + 6 tbsp of the sauce

2 rose onions, chopped

5 cherry tomatoes, diced

5 fresh shiitake mushrooms, diced

3 button mushrooms, diced

3 tbsp ketchup

2 dried chilies, chopped

a few leaves of parsley

Instructions

1. Soak and rinse the quinoa. Then heat up a non-stick pan and stir fry the quinoa till it is dried up.

2. Add in the onions, tomatoes, chilies and mushrooms. Stir fry for a bit.

3. Add the sardines, sauce and ketchup and throw in the parsley. Stir to mix well. Add the boiling water. Stir and lower heat to medium low. Cover and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. Remember to stir it every five minutes to prevent it from burning.After 20 minutes, turn off the heat and let it stand covered for another 5 minutes.

It is done when the quinoa is fluffed up and looks like fish roe as below:

For a really balanced meal, serve it on a bed of fresh green vegetables like this…

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Since I am most adept at cooking the Chinese way (meaning stir frying most of the time), I thought maybe I could use almost the same way to cook cod fish. And this is what I made…

**Cod fish in mushrooms and herbs sauce**

It is pretty easy to cook and the sauce gave the codfish a nice herby and mushroomy flavor. This is what I do:

Fusion cod fish recipe: Codfish in Mushrooms and Herbs Sauce

Ingredients

2 pcs codfish

1 tsp sea salt

1 tbsp garlic powder

1/2 cup plain flour

5 fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced thinly

4 tbsp chopped fresh mixed herbs

1/2 clove garlic, diced

2 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tbsp light soy sauce

5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup water

Instructions

1. Season the codfish with salt, garlic powder and rub the flour all over it

2. Heat up about 3 tbsp of cooking oil in a non-stick pan and shallow fry the fish until it turns brown. Make sure to fry both sides till it is cooked through.

3. Remove the fish and place on a plate. Do not clean out the cooking pan as it already has the nice codfish juices in it. Instead, add the remaining cooking oil and then sautée the garlic over medium heat till fragrant.

4. Add the mushrooms and stir fry it till fragrant. Then add in the sauces and the herbs. Stir fry it a while before pouring in the water.

5. Let it simmer over medium heat

6. Remove from heat and pour it over the cooked cod fish.

Serve the cod fish hot or else it will become soggy

Codfish in mushrooms and herbs sauce

Eating codfish is good for you as it is rich in Omega-3, thus making it a heart-healthy food and also one of those foods that could prevent cancer. Do try to consume fish at least two times a week.

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To get the curried baked chicken breast, I rubbed some chili powder onto the chicken breast meat first before I add the curry paste. So, for sure, this dish is as hot and spicy as I wanted it to be! So, you see, baked chicken need not be bland or plain. It can be crunchy and now it can be spicy with curry flavours!

I am sure, by now, you must be wondering why I have so many baked chicken breast recipes in recent times. Well, lets just say I needed to revamp the way we eat and add in more healthy, wholesome and non-oily food. Baked chicken breast is probably one of the healthiest dishes I could think of as it has minimal oil and thus, less calories compared to frying. Also, it is easy to prepare. Just season, pop into the oven and it is ready to eat!

Now, lets get on with it….

Chicken recipes: Curried Baked Chicken Breast Recipe

Ingredients

150g chicken breast meat, cut into strips

2 tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp sea salt

4 tbsp curry paste

1 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

1. Clean the chicken, drain and pat dry. Cut into long, thin strips so that it cooks easily. Season the chicken with the salt and chili powder.

2. Rub the curry paste all over the chicken.

3. Place the chicken strips onto a tray covered by foil. Drizzle it with some olive oil and bake in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes. Then turn over and bake for another 10 minutes. It’s done when it looks like this:

To really test if it is done, just pick a larger piece and nudge the centre with a fork. If it is all white inside with clear juices, it is done. If there’s still a hint of pink, then pop it back into the oven and bake for a few more minutes. Just be careful you don’t over-cook it or else you’d get some really tough and hard chicken breast meat!

I’d say it goes great with some brown unpolished rice and green veg. However, how you like to eat it is entirely up to you as it can also be made into chicken salad or as a main dish with potatoes and salad as sides.

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