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Easy Moroccan Chicken one pot meal

February 20, 2015 by manjirichitnis 22 Comments

The chill in the air is just right for warming one-pot meals. Make them healthy, quick, and easy to put together and you have a winner on your hands. Last year at the Cake and Bake show which I attended with a dear friend and fellow blogger,  I ended up spending a bomb (£££!!!!) on four different sized pots – non – stick being one of their biggest virtues. One of them is a huge wok which I intend to use to make a stir fry over the weekend. The coating is said to last for years and each vessel comes with a glass lid. I can apparently also shove them directly into the oven but haven’t tried that yet. The big and rather saucepan is what I use as my crockpot for making one-pot meals in. In fact, there is something very comforting watching a warming curry or gorgeously tasty and nutritious one-pot meals!

heaven in a saucepan - healthy , happy meals begin here!

Ok so coming back to my one pot recipe. I had a bag of baby spinach leaves in my fridge and was craving a wholesome soupy stew with lots of vegetables. So managed to gather a few things that I think would taste great together and then added in Knorr onion gravy pots and Knorr mixed chilli pot for flavour and the result was so very satisfying.  But the best part was adding in Ras El Hanout a delicious and fiery moroccan and North African fragrant spice mix. The delicate dried rose petals look so pretty , that’s why I decided to name my dish Moroccan Chicken one pot.I also devoured it for lunch today – umm.

 Moroccan Chicken one pot meal

Make this in a large quantity and it will freeze well. Batch cooking is highly recommended as it saves you time and ensures that you do not eat things that you will end up regretting when you are hard pressed for time and simply cannot cook.The freezer is a wonderful boon, use it!

I purchased a beautiful Red Leicester and Pumpkin seed batard to go with my meal – it is soul-satisfying to mop up the thick gravy with the bread while sitting on the couch watching my fav crime show on the telly, feeling all warm and happy.

The best part of this recipe is I haven’t added in potatoes or extra sugar to taste and yet the flavours are so well balanced. (Though both gravy pots do contain sugar) I love stocking up on these tiny Knorr flavour pots they are life-savers!

A recipe with enough spinach to make Popeye jump with joy! Spinach has several health benefits and is known to be a great source of folic acid and several essential vitamins and great levels of iron too. Best part is a big bag of spinach can be consumed in no time as the leaves are high in water content and it reduces in size when cooked.

 Moroccan Chicken one pot meal

Easy Moroccan Chicken one pot

Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes mins
Cook Time 25 minutes mins
Course Main Course
Cuisine Fusion
Servings 4 servings

Ingredients
  

  • 2 tsp Olive oil
  • 1 Large Red Onion
  • 2 cloves Garlic
  • 270 Grams Mixed – Broccoli, Carrot and Cauliflower
  • 500 Grams Chicken thighs
  • 75 Grams Trimmed green beans
  • 4 or 5 Chestnut Mushrooms
  • 1.5 Knorr onion gravy flavour pot
  • 1 Knorr mixed chillies flavour pot
  • 4 tbsp spinach leaves
  • 3/4th Cup Red lentils – without skin and halved
  • 1/2 tsp Ras El Hanout
  • 1/2 tsp Roasted Cumin Powder
  • Salt as per taste
  • Water

Instructions
 

  • Remove the skin from thechicken thighs after washing thoroughly under running water
  • Chop the chicken thighs to make strips of the flesh leaving just enough on the bone
  • Wash and cut the broccoli, carrots,cauliflower, green beans and chestnut mushrooms bitsinto bite sized pieces
  • Slice an onion lengthwise into fine strips
  • Remove the skin from the garlic cloves and chop into tiny bits
  • In a large saucepan or stockpot heat olive oil on a medium flame, when the oil becomes to heat up add the finely chopped garlic and saute’ until they turn a golden brown then add in the sliced onion
  • Stirring occasionally allowthe onion to sweat and just when it begins to brown add in the chopped vegetables and saute for half a minute
  • Then add in the chicken thighs and saute for another minute
  • Then wash and add the red lentils , add enough water to create a thick gravy – enough to allow the lentils to cook and not soak up all the water. Then add in the Knorr flavour pots and mix well
  • Then add the washed spinach leaves, cumin powder and cover and cook on a medium flame for 15 minutes
  • By now the lentils will have cooked and the chicken will almost be done too
  • Then taste the soupy water and if it is too spicy add just a very tinypinch the Ras El Hanout , I added 1/2 a tsp as the tastereminded me of garam masala. Ras El Hanout is a moroccan mixture of fragrant spices with rose petals and gives the stock pot a gorgeous full bodiedflavour
  • Cook for a further 10-15 minutes on a gentle low flame
  • Serve in large bowls with a big portion of the pumpkin batard bread
Big, beautiful pot of healthy goodness - absolutely irresistible!
Gorgeous Bowl of goodness with immunity boosting spinach and delicious veggies
Moroccan Chicken one pot meal recipe

Filed Under: Food, Healthy, Meat, Quick and Easy, Recipe Index Tagged With: @manjirichitnis, broccoli, carrot and cauliflower, chestnut mushrooms, chicken thighs, easy dinner recipe, easy recipes for healthy meals, eat healthy, garlic, Healthy, healthy recipe, Knorr mixed chilli pot, Knorr onion gravy pot, less oil, Manjiri, Manjiri Chitnis, Manjiri Chitnis Kulkarni, manjirikulk, masoor dal, Moroccan Chicken one pot, North African fragrant spice mix, olive oil, one pot recipe, quick and easy to put together meal, Ras El Hanout, recipe developer, Red Lentils, red onion, spinach, travelsfortaste, Trimmed green beans

Avocado,Spinach and fruity Green Smoothie

February 18, 2015 by manjirichitnis 23 Comments

It’s a relatively bright and sunny but chilly February morning and the bright sunlight streaming through my kitchen window is not letting me sit down work due to the blinding light getting into my eyes. I have now moved to a cozy spot on the couch but it’s making me drowsy…

While I was away in India and eating all the wonderful local food, I also started reading up on a lot of things related to food, what we eat and how it affects us and how our body reacts to it all.

Now let me share some facts about myself – I am lazy – very lazy and not the type who will ever go the gym even twice a week – I have ended up wasting money in 2 currencies and 3 cities so I should know that however fabulous the gym it simply does NOT work for me.

Nor does dieting – I feel deprived and end up stuffing my face even more.

So what’s the way out when I have finally made a decision to eat sensibly and loose as much weight as I can without going mad. Well, past 2 weeks I have broken down my meals to smaller portions, trying to eat 5 small meals instead of 3 every day and have drastically cut down on sugar consumption. By sugar I don’t mean granulated sugar but sugar hidden in various food.

I have procured a chart about which foods are high in carbs and thus break down into sugar while they are being digested. Am consciously trying to read up more and steer clear of obviously sugar laden foods and any sugary foods are out. Thankfully I quit sugar in my tea years ago so that is not a problem but yes saying no to alcohol and other foods is not going to be easy. But then nothing good come by too easy does it?

Avocado, Spinach and Fruity Green Smoothie - Bursting with the goodness your body NEEDS every day!
Avocado, Spinach and Fruity Green Smoothie – Bursting with the goodness your body NEEDS every day!

So here goes, my morning smoothie recipe – an attempt to start the day on a healthy note :

Avocado,Spinach and fruity Green Smoothie

5 from 4 votes
Print Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes mins
Cook Time 5 minutes mins
Course Drinks
Cuisine Fusion
Servings 2

Equipment

  • 1 Blender

Ingredients
  

  • 1/2 Banana
  • 1/2 Pear
  • 1/2 Big Avocado
  • 1 Apple
  • 8 tbsp Baby Spinach Leaves
  • 2 tsp Ginger

Instructions
 

  • Chop the ginger into small bits after roughly removing the skin, if the ginger is super fresh you can use the back of a spoon to easily peel of the fine layer of skin
  • Roughly chop all the fruitsinto chunks. Break the banana half by hand
  • Simply chuck all the aboveingredients into a food processor and add very little water just to give the smoothie some movement and consistency

I prefer a thick consistency the type you can scoop out using a spoon as it is simply more satisfying and increases the feeling of being full.

This made 2 small glasses and I had both of them , simply double up the quantity for 2 people and so on and so forth.

Avocado, Spinach and Fruity Green Smoothie - Bursting with the goodness your body NEEDS every day!
Avocado, Spinach and Fruity Green Smoothie – Bursting with the goodness your body NEEDS every day!

Leafy, green, tasty, bursting with fruity goodness and taste, this smoothie is an immune system booster and full of all things good for your body. It will definitely boost sagging energy levels and induce a feel-good factor. The smooth creamy taste added by the avocado is a bonus!

I have linked up my recipe with Credit Crunch Munch which is a frugal food recipe sharing challenge developed by Helen over at Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla over at Fab Food 4 All and guest hosted by the lovely Elizabeth who blogs at Elizabeth’s Diary,  linked up for Feb 2015 on her blog post too.

Filed Under: Food, Healthy, Recipe Index, Smoothies Tagged With: apple, avocado, banana, breakfast smoothie, eat raw, eat with a spoon smoothie, fdbloggers, foodblogger, foodie goes green, ginger, green smoothie, Healthy recipes, how to stay healthy and positive, live healthy, Manjiri, Manjiri Chitnis, Manjiri Chitnis Kulkarni, Manjiri Kulkarni, pear, raw foods, recipe developer, recipedeveloper, sliceoffme, small changes for a better life, smoothie a day keeps the doctor away, spinach, start small, the goodness of raw, thick smoothie, think healthy, travelsfortaste

Beetroot and Chickpea salad

February 6, 2015 by manjirichitnis 19 Comments

Who doesn’t love a salad that you can put together in no time? This easy to make and super quick to put together Beetroot and Chickpea salad recipe is just the thing when you want to eat healthy and not compromise on taste at the same time.  I have added in amchoor powder which is a tangy  dried mango powder which will give this salad a fabulous twist when combined with balsamic vinegar.

IMG_9354 (Copy)

If possible try and buy baby beetroot cooked in vinegar as these would be the perfect size and also have the right amount of vinegar. If you are not sure of how much balsamic vinegar you can handle, add 1?2 tbsp first and then if you feel brave add another half. I have a whole collection of flavoured vinegar and if you can get your hands on cranberry infused vinegar, I highly recommend adding that in as it will totally elevate the flavour of your salad.

IMG_9357 (Copy)

Beetroot and Chickpea salad

Manjiri Chitnis
Print Recipe
Course Salad
Servings 4 servings

Ingredients
  

  • 1/2 Can Boiled and Cooked Chickpeas
  • 250 Grams small beetroot cooked and peeled
  • 1 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
  • 1 small Red Onion slicedl ength wise
  • 2 tsp Amchoor Powder
  • 2 tsp Heaped Pomegranate Seeds

Instructions
 

  • In a large mixing bowl add the chickpeas
  • Chop the cooked and peeled beetroot into bite-size chunks. Add them to the chickpeas. Add the chopped onion and pomegranate seeds
  • Add the vinegar and the amchoor powder and mix well
  • Serve and sprinkle with more pomegranate seeds if desired
IMG_9356 (Copy)

I have found the perfect linky to add my virtuous yet superbly delicious salad to. It’s this month’s Spice Trail with the theme ‘ Temple Food‘ hosted by the lovely Vanesther on her blog called ‘Bangers and Mash’. The whole concept of respecting your body by treating it like a temple is really apt for the way I have recently begun to think about food. I have to re-think and re-align what I feed my system and actually begin to ‘listen’ to what my body is speaking to me. It’s important that after years of neglect I FINALLY pay attention to what is entirely my own – my body.

By linking to this challenge I take heart in knowing that I am not ALONE. There are other like-minded foodies who are re-thinking their ways of eating. I do hope my recipe is one of the many delicious, innovative, and beautiful ones that will help my readers on their journey to eating healthy and feeling more energetic.

Filed Under: Food, Healthy, Quick and Easy, Recipe Index, Salads, Vegetarian Tagged With: amchoor powder, be a fit foodie, beetroot salad recipe, chickpea salad recipe, easy Indian salad, easy salad recipes, eat healthy, foodies can eat healthy too, Manjiri, Manjiri Chitnis, Manjiri Chitnis Kulkarni, Manjiri Kulkarni, manjirikulk, pomegranate seeds, quick and easy salad recipes, recipe developer, recipe development, red onion, sliceoffme, sliceoffme creative, travelsfortaste, travelsfortaste recipes

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