I’m loving working on my blog so much again. I ignored it for too long, and you may have noticed if you’re a regular visitor, that I have a new layout – new logo and brand refresh coming very soon also! It’s to reflect my move into being more of a mummy lifestyle blogger. That sounds a bit cringe, but really it just means that I create content on more than just family food, which is what my main focus was for years. Family, food, home and style (oh, and books!) are my main categories now.
For those of you that have followed me for years, do not worry! I will be creating and sharing tons of recipes as well as tips right here, on my YouTube channel, and on my Instagram where you can catch me most days. What I will be doing even more of is snapping what we eat for dinner (mainly, but breakfast and lunch too) and popping it up here the day after, which is where it all began. I still believe that old fashioned recipe posts will never go out of style – because we all need to feed our family and even food bloggers like me need a steady flow of new ideas!
This was last night’s dinner. On the meal plan it said ‘Chicken broccoli new potato traybake‘ – don’t get me wrong I love that traybake, it’s one we make all the time – but I feel like I’ve been stuck in a rut myself of making my overly familiar meals week on week, so I switched things up, looked at what needed using up and came up with this.
The chicken is essentially a traybake cooked over red onion and butternut squash (leftover from this recipe that only required half the squash). It gave the veggies such a lovely flavour. Meanwhile I cooked up some brown rice and then combined the two. Everyone loved it. OK, OK, so the kids ate everything apart from the squash, but I ate their unloved vegetables, so that’s fine. They devoured the rice and chicken. Also the leftovers today were divine – no chicken left, but I reheated the rice and veggies and crumbled feta on top. YUM.
Makes: enough for 4-6
Takes: 40 mins beginning to end
Ingredients:
8 chicken thighs
Sprinkling of fennel seeds, same of cumin powder, and of paprika
Olive oil – few tablespoons
Half a large squash, cut into chunks
Red onion, cut into chunks
Some whole cloves of garlic, about 8
S&P
1 cup brown rice
Stock cube
To serve:
Tomatoes, sliced
Parsley
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Instructions:
- Take the thighs out the fridge a good two hours before cooking if possible. Add 5 mins to cooking if not possible.
- Turn oven on to preheat at 220C. Chop veggies.
- Pop veggies and chicken thighs in a large roasting tin. Toss in the oil, seasoning and spices. Then make sure the chicken sits on top, skin side up. Roast for 35 mins.
- Meanwhile, rinse the rice and pop in a pan, along with twice the amount of cold water and a stock cube. Bring to boil, then simmer until all the water is gone. It should take about 20 mins.
- Check the chicken is done. If it’s not crisping, whack up heat. Once done, pop chicken to one side. Mix rice into pan with veggies and lovely cooking juices. Pop chicken back on top. Scatter with fresh herbs. Serve with a sliced tomato and parsley salad.
