Real World Wednesdays: Easy Cheesy Breakfast Pizza

So. I've decided to create my very own blog event/challenge for myself. I'm calling it "Real World Wednesdays" (RWW) wherein every Wednesday I will photograph and blog about (@ least) one meal!

The idea behind this is so that I can ensure that a reasonable portion of what eventually ends up here is actually student food! And, so that I actually post once a week or more... because a regularly updated blog is an interesting blog! In theory.

Tonight I'm planning on having Cottage Cheese Loaf so, unless I make the Swedish Cabbage Casserole I'm considering serving as a side - I won't have anything to post on my first ever RWW! And that would be very, very lame. LAME!!!

Yes, yes, I know that if I hadn't told you about my evil-genius plan until next week when I'm probs gonna be eating something I haven't posted before... you'd never know any different. But I would! And I have so many evil genius plans that it's very difficult to remember them all!

LAME!!!

Now I'm just yelling because it's fun... And the high level of italics in this post was/is freaking me out... Yelling seemed like a good way to distract you (me) from it all...

Now I'm confused. Are you confused? Or is it just me...? Oh dear!

*breathe*

Right. So. Easy Cheesy Breakfast Pizza - I eat two eggs for breakfast. EVERYDAY. Except for when I'm at home. Because my Mummy says that two eggs for breakfast everyday is too many and if I want sufficient protein I can have muesli or peanut butter toast. "But Muuummmyyy" I moan "muesli and toast have tooo maaannnyyy caaarbs!" And then I feel bad for being a whingey daughter. But when I'm in my flat I have two eggs. After a while though two plain eggs for breakfast everyday can get a little boring even if they're sometimes cooked differently...

Enter: Easy Cheesy Breakfast Pizza:

Complete with BBQ Swirl!

(Yes, yes I know... BBQ sauce kinda defeats the "healthy" purpose... But it's yummy...

Recipe follows!!!

Student Staple: Mince Chowder

I've been watching Nigella this afternoon... And she's inspired me to make, what was last year a total staple, Mince Chowder with a "Mexican" twist...

Sorry, it's kinda blurry - but this photo is sooo much prettier than the other one!

Last year this dish would grace our table at least once a month - it's a real winner! This year though, I've been remiss... One of the greatest features of this dish is its versatility - usually I make it with a hint of the Mediterranean but tonight I've gone Mex-ish!

This one's actually quite pretty too... This is Joshee's dinner...

Read further for the recipe:

Taste & Create: Lemony Peppered Chicken

Hello all!

At last, I have my entry for this month's Taste & Create challenge!

Taste & Create is a blogging community where blogger apply, and a paired up with a partner whose blog they must sample a recipe from!

(^^ Ewww... that was a messy sentence...)

Anywho! This month I was partnered with Tamy of Always Eat on the Good China... It's a real interesting blog with a bazillion recipe! I was there for days just lookin' around... In a totally non-creepy manner. Promise.

So - eventually I decided I wanted to do something with chicken, and using that as a search, I eventually came across this recipe for Lemon Lime Pepper Chicken... I don't have any limes, so mine's just "Lemon Pepper Chicken" but this is what I came up with:

This is my Boyfriend's dinner - served with brussel sprouts, lemon/sesame glazed carrots and  pesto coated pasta... Mine was the same, only smaller. And without the pasta.

What resulted was a delicious, subtle dish that was a doddle to make, and will definitely feature on my dinner table again!

I encourage you to go to Tamy's page for the recipe, if you're interested! But these are the changes I made to her recipe:

• As I mentioned before: I have no limes so I used only lemon.
• I scaled the recipe down for 2 - except for the glaze which I kept as instructed except to halve the sugar (as always!)
• Tamy has onions in her photo, so I flung half an onion in with the butter, before the chicken.
• I bashed my chicken with a saucepan before dredging it in flour so that it would cook at an even rate. (I don't have a meat mallet...)
• I chopped up the lemon skin and threw it in with the frying chicken, pulling it out before I poured the glaze on.
• I did a "Nigella" and allowed the chicken to rest, wrapped in tin foil for 10 minutes while I prepared the veggies and BF's pasta - the chicken was so juicy and tender!

It was a real successful meal, and Tamy's blog is an interesting read! So thanks to Taste & Create for introducing me to a new blogger!

Home Food: Beef Wellington

Daddy asked: "What do you want for dinner"

Kat (thinking to herself): "What's the most ridiculous, unlikely thing ever... I know!"

Kat (out loud): "Beef Wellington"

Daddy: "Sounds great! Let's go shopping!"

Kat: "opgkpdokfmjgednvb jknb fd..." <-- that's what a dropped jaw sounds like.

So we did. From this we learned 5 things:

1. That Kat is not quite as imaginative as she thinks when it comes to thinking up ridiculous meals...
2. That Daddies have greater power to suprise than Kia cars.
3. That Kia car advertisements are apparently effective.
4. That Kat watches TV sometimes (when at home...)
5. aaand... We learned what a dropped jaw sounds like!

Beef Wellington aka something else... is basically beef sirloin, slathered in pate, shrouded in mushrooms and wrapped in pastry... It can be prepared individually, or in one, great, honking slab like this:

Beef Wellington looking all posh like with not one, not two, but THREE bow ties!

In short, this is NOT the kind of meal any student will EVER make in their own flat... unless something really, really important (like feeding the Royal Family) or a bucket load of money showed up... BUT it's an AMAZING dish, and should definitely be made at some point in everyone's life, especially when one's parents are funding the meal!

This: 

              is what BW looks like on the inside... It's not a brilliant photo, but the centre is beautifully rare! If however, rare is not your thing (tsk, tsk) then the outside parts may well be more to your liking.

I served this for our Easter meal... So I set the table fancy-ily, I'm gonna show it off now!

Setting tables is my current "thing" this ones all pinks, and whites and browns b/c  Easter is a springy thing in the Northern Hemisphere, so all our Easter decorations are spring, rather than autumn based...

Because I'd never made anything like this before, I followed Nigella's recipe nearly to the letter... Things to note though, are:

• I used my Daddy's homemade pate
• I made my own crepes - the crepes are used to soak up any juices from the fillet and, theoretically, stop the pastry from going soggy.
• Make sure your duxelles are really, really dry - or again, you'll have to deal with soggy pastry!
• Mummy and I went to the butcher's so that we could stipulate exactly how much beef we wanted, and it was cheaper than the supermarket anyway!
• I used store bought pastry - b/c I didn't feel like rolling out me own... :|
• Next time I'd maybe cook it on a rack - b/c despite my best efforts the  base of the pastry was still a bit soggy, but Daddy said that was just meat juices from slicing the beef...?
• I served this with roasted potatoes and steamed spinach!

And that's it! :) It's really not that difficult to make - just the beef makes it somewhat expensive. And it's a truly impressive, delicious result that will knock people's socks off for only a little effort!