Chicken and Lettuce Wraps

The trouble with buying fresh vegetables is that... you gotta use them up. Somehow. Sadly, I end up throwing a lot of my vegetables because they go rotten. :( But not this time around. In keeping with my current health kick (no, seriously!) I have decided to try and actually use them up.

And that's where these come in. Problem with buying lettuce for sandwiches is that you don't really need a lot. Just one, maybe two leafs would be enough. So... what if you were to use the lettuce as the main star of the dish, not just a side show? Of course, a salad would be best but... as I said, I really, really don't like salads so much. But these? These are sort of like a salad, only... not. :D The lettuce is wrapped around flavoursome flavoursome chicken, to form a lettuce sandwich. Sounds awesome. So... here we go. :)

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Roasted Chicken Caesar Salad Sandwich

Chicken Caesar Salad is basically the only salad I will eat. Not happily, but I will eat it. I feel like a rabbit while doing so, but hey, that's the price you pay to be healthy-ish, right? Not to mention, rabbits don't eat chickens. Probably not. Now there's an image. :D Imagine a rabbit chasing a chicken for it's dinner. Hilarious.

Anyways, the thing is, when I pack it for lunch, I'm never satisfied. I am just not cut out to be a salad eater. Not really. Sigh. It's sad. Then, I read somewhere of putting chicken salads into sandwich form. Well, that sounds kinda tasty. I didn't use to be such a huge fan of sandwiches, but I've grown into them. There's so much you can do with them. :D And they're simple to do too. So here we go :D

What you need:
Roasted chicken, shredded
Your favourite Caesar salad dressing
Lettuce (I used romaine lettuce)
Sandwich rolls (wholewheat ones are healthier and tasty too :D)

What you do:

1. In a small frying pan, fry the chicken in just a little bit of oil until slightly browned.
2. Add in the salad dressing and heat until the sauce is thickened and coats the chicken nicely,
3. Pile onto the sandwich buns and top with shredded lettuce. Add in a little bit of cheese, if you want. Shhh. Go on. I won't tell.
4. Enjoy hot, or cold. :)

And that's it. Of course, the pure salad form is far healthier since it has more lettuce in it, but meh. Still. These were tasty. I love Caesar salad dressing. It's garlicky a little, and just a bit cheesy. Delicious. Having it with the chicken, in sandwich form... was delicious. Problem with the salad is that, unless you drown the lettuce in dressing, you can't really have *all* the lettuce covered in dressing. That would defeat the purpose of a salad, really. And this sandwich? This lovely melding of dressing and chicken and a fresh wholemeal bun and yes, the lettuce... it's a lovely compromise. :D Perfect for the lunch box. <3

Quote of the day: Enjoy every sandwich.

Tiramisu Cupcakes

Ahh, tiramisu. Probably the most favourite of the desserts we make at home. Many of other desserts we have made have been overshadowed by it. Problem with serving it during events such as open houses is that ... people tend to take a lot. Not a bad thing, it's only because it's so delicious. But that means that we have to make a *lot* just to have enough for everyone. And even so, we always run out.

And this is where these cupcakes come . It's basically tiramisu, only in a cupcake. And generally, people don't really take more than one of cupcakes. It's in-built portion control, plus they look adorable. :D It's a little bit harder to make, in that you bake the sponge fingers right in the cupcake liners, but I think it's pretty worth it. I'd definitely make it for an event where we were expecting large amounts of people. (PS Sorry for the picture... the only one I could find) Also, I really have no idea about the proportions between the sponge fingers and the cream cheese filling. :( Just make one batch of the cream cheese filling and make more, if needed. Anyways, here we go!

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Pan-fried Salmon with Garlicky Green Beans

Let's take a short break from all the sweetness, shall we? We'll come back to them, I promise.

When this blog first started out in... oh, 2006 (wow, has it really been 5 years?), it was initially to kind of... document the dinners me and the boys (Hadi and Justin, does anyone still remember them? hehe) were having. Justin was the healthy one, always not putting in enough salt, frying with too little oil, etc. Hadi was the adventurous one, sometimes with great results, sometimes with... well, not so great results. Chocolate Chicken, anyone?

I kind of miss those days. Cooking is so much more fun when there's someone else to cook for. Not to mention, 2 days out of three, I didn't have to do anything but eat and wash the dishes. So relaxing. But anyways. These days, this blog is mostly about the cakes and bakes that me and my sisters whip up. More delicious perhaps, but not healthy. :P For anyone's waistline. Let it not be said that Ihsan has made people fat, so here is a slightly more healthy recipe for you all, based on this salmon recipe and adapted from this green beans recipe. :D Here we go!

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Nutella Cheesecake Bites

Nutella, for me, is a recent thing. Well, fairly recent. Last couple of years. Before, it was always this strange chocolatey thing that my siblings put on bread then toasted and smelled really good. But I never was an adventurous eater and never tried it.

Until one day, I did. And it was amazing. <3 Now I'm a huge fan of nutella. Cheesecakes, not so much, but these cheesecakes are teeny tiny bite sized portions and let's admit it. Anything with Nutella has to be good, haha. So here we go! (Note: Did not make these, my sister did. I just observed :P)

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Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake Cupcakes

So after a crazy two weeks in Brunei for Raya, it's back to the UK for me. Raya is the usually the time when me and my sisters (well, one of my sisters at least) try out new recipes and despite the major lack of time, this time was no exception.

The best thing about making things around the festive period is that... its usually fairly easy to get rid of them without having to eat a ton of sugar by yourself. In our case, we made several desserts for the KTB Open House and that is what you shall be seeing over the next few weeks.

First up are these adorable strawberry swirl cheesecakes, based on this recipe. Here we go!

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Pusat Ehsan Charity Bazaar

Hey everyone. :)

It's been awhile, and I promise I have a lot of new delicious recipes for you guys to drool over, but in the meantime, I'd like to bring your attention to the Pusat Ehsan Charity Bazaar which is happening in less than a month. Sadly, I won't be in Brunei at the time, but it would be awesome if you all can go and support it. :D Seems like its gonna be a lot of fun! You can win yourself some techie stuff too, if you're lucky. ;) Details are below! Click to embiggen.