DATE NIGHT: ROMANCE & THREE COURSE MEALS

Hey guys, 

Hope you're all well in the Lord :-)

Before I start, I'll have you know that our wedding video is up on Youtube. If you weren't able to attend our wedding, we thought we'd share a clip about how the day went.
Thank you to everyone who made the day extra special. We truly bless God for each one of you.
You can find the video on the link below:
Jasmine + Daniel

Back to food, thought I'd write a post about dining in on those special date nights. Husbands, this is the part you start taking notes ;-) If you're looking to spice up your love life over a romantic dinner without it costing you an arm and a leg then this is for you.

Last night was our weekly date night. Me and the hubz vowed to make an effort every single Wednesday or basically once every week to go on a special date. It could be dinner at a new restaurant or dinner at one of our favorite spots or a movie, etc but yesterday we decided it was going to be indoors since we couldn't decide where to go. I told the hubz to take me home and we'd still make it extra special by me making a nice three course meal. 

We started of with a simple snack of roasted chicken potato crisps and macadamia nuts. <Just a small portion, the idea isn't to fill up before the appetizer>

Ingredients:-
Fresh bread/ Baguette <I usually buy a fresh loaf/ roll at The Bakery at the Shell Petrol station in Westlands for about 120 Ksh>
Steak slices <Preferably the tenderloin, ask your butcher to give you softest part of the cow>
Fresh salad in a pack <retails in Nakumatt and Uchumi for 80 Ksh>
1 can Sweet corn <retails at about 130 upwards depending on the brand>
Balsamic vinegar <retails at about 400 upwards>
Extra virgin olive oil
Vegetable oil
2 Tomatoes
Sandwich cheese sliced <retails for about 230 upwards depending on the brand>
Pesto <retails for about 300 upwards depending on the brand>
Plantain < large bananas commonly used in West Africa>
1 Zucchini <also known as courgette >
Dried parsley
Black pepper
3 garlic cloves
Fruits < I used watermelon and nectarines>

Note: Remember that these are ingredients you can use more than once so it would be very good investment for your kitchen.

For the Appetizer: Pesto bites  

Heat oven to 180 degrees.

Cut bread and tomatoes in slices.  Apply pesto on the slices and put cheese and tomatoes on the top. Sprinkle some parsley and olive oil and put in a oven for 5 minutes.

 

For the main course: Steak, fried plantain & zucchini with a garden salad

Start by peeling the plantain and slicing it. Wash and slice courgette.

Heat vegetable oil in a pan and once it is hot, fry plantain and courgette slices. Once they're cooked, remove them from the oil and place on a plate with kitchen tissues/serviettes to drain out the oil.

Wash salad greens and put aside.

Follow by slicing steak in large strips. Peel and chop garlic and put to cook with olive oil on a grill plate/ pan. Add steak slices and season with salt and black pepper.
Bonus tip: Steak is cooked last because meat tends to dry up when kept for long before serving, serve when juicy and hot>

For Dessert: Fruit platter
Wash and cut up the fruit.

Plating
Place pesto bites and fruit neatly on two separate long plates.
Sprinkle some olive oil on the pesto bites before serving.
On a fancy plate <cause remember its date night> place fried plantain and courgette on top. Follow by placing the salad greens with a handful of sweet corn on top and drizzle with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Lastly place the steak slices and serve. < Optional-You can sprinkle some sea salt on the top of the steak before serving>

For the married, enjoy with some well lit candles, some music, a good glass of wine or juice and finish it off with the fruit platter.
Above all, enjoy each others company, take time to discuss your passions and plans together. You may be married but you can still date your spouse until you're old and grey.

For the singles, this could be an awesome meal to impress your friends or it could serve as practice for the future :-)

As always, I'll have you know:-

-I'm up to 13800+ pageviews-thank you Jesus! and thank you all for following and trying out my recipes.

-I'm now on Youtube, you can subscribe and check out the video here: CookingwithJaz

-I am officially on twitter on this account (@cookingwithjaz)

-I am also on facebook on this page "cooking with jaz"
-You can also find me on instagram under the handle, "cookingwithjaz"

-If you want to be featured on the "GUEST AND RECIPE OF THE WEEK" email me on "cookingwithjaz@yahoo.com"

-If you have tried any of my recipes, do tag me or send me the pics on any one of my social media pages

Have a lovely week :)

Sincerely,

Jaz.

MY SATURDAY GRILL

Hey lovely people,

Its a sunny Thursday and God is good, so why not have a good meal to finish of this week on a 10!

So since I got married, I'm all about cooking for the hubz daily. I have so many recipes that I want to try out just to make him happy since he absolutely enjoys my cooking. Although I'm also trying to be careful with the content of fat in the meals I make. I'm incorporating a lot of vegetables, fruit and fiber in our diet. We both love fruit and veggies so its easy when I throw a whole bunch of them together for supper because we really enjoy them. My aim though is always to make my meals flavor-full no matter what ingredients I use. If you're a Kenyan like me, you most probably grew up eating watery stews and are probably not a believer that veggies can actually taste good. THEY CAN but only if they're cooked right. I always look for ways to cook them well, either by stir-frying, grilling or steaming them. The aim is not to overcook or over boil them because they loose their nutrients and taste in the process. I also try to get spices and sauces that don't overpower the natural sweetness of the veggies. So here's a recipe to a meal the hubz and I enjoyed a few days ago. I basically threw in just about everything.  I used white meat, lots of veggies, and opted for olive oil instead of vegetable oil so healthy is an understatement. We are pretty blessed to live in a country where we can enjoy a large variety of fresh vegetables all year through. So visit your local market before the weekend, stock up and try this at home.

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts/ thighs

4 garlic cloves 

1 red onion

ginger

1 courgette

1 green capsicum/ hoho

1 yellow capsicum. hoho

1 celery stick

3 carrots

2 fuji/ pink lady apples

6/7 potatoes

Coriander/ Dhania

Olive oil

Salt

Black pepper

Cayenne pepper

Oregano

Parsley

Worcestershire sauce

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees. Peel and slice onions, garlic and ginger. <Put garlic aside> Peel, wash and slice apple, potatoes and carrots.Wash and chop up celery, capsicums, courgette and coriander. <Put coriander aside.>

Cut up the chicken breasts in half. Grease an oven tray with olive oil. Mount all the ingredients together and sprinkle oil, salt, a generous amount of Worcestershire sauce and spices over them. Finish of with placing chicken breasts scattered on the tray. Add the chopped coriander on top of everything.

Make sure the veggies and chicken are smothered in a bit of oil and spice. Put in oven to grill in the middle of the oven for well regulated heat. Time 40 minutes and allow to grill.

Make sure to check and turn ingredients every 10 minutes so that they can cook evenly. 

15 minutes into cooking, add the chopped garlic on top to give the grill a boost of flavor.

Serve with white rice.

Its really that simple! The sweetness of the vegetables and the fruit and the spiciness of the chicken blend perfectly.

Enjoy