Chicken Tikka Pasties

I took out some ground chicken to thaw for dinner, but then I realized I didn't have all the stuff I needed for the things I usually make with ground chicken. Oops.

I started looking up recipes for ground chicken or beef, and I came across a recipe for these biscuit cup things, which suddenly reminded me of Cornish pasties.

Then I wanted to see what people did with chicken in a pasty.
After a bit of google searching, I found a few recipes for chicken tikka pasties. I had a jar of pre-made tikka masala sauce, so I glanced at the recipe, then decided to come up with my own version with what I had on hand.

I made large ones for dinner using a hand pie press that I picked up a while ago.
Then I made some mini ones - I used a crumpet ring to cut the pastry (about the same size as an egg ring), and then crimped them closed with a fork

Here's my lunch with two mini pasties, some salad, apple, and a deviled egg:



Recipe!

1lb ground chicken
1 large russet potato
1/4 white onion
Jar of tikka masala sauce (I used this one)
1c frozen peas

Peel and dice potato (about 1cm pieces), boil until just done (stick a fork in, or cut it with a butter knife, if it's easy, it's done)
Cook ground chicken almost completely through, drain,
Dice onion, and add to the pan, cooking for a bit longer until chicken is cooked through and onion is soft.
Add enough sauce to coat the meat, fold in potato and peas. Add more sauce if necessary.

This will make about 9 large pasties... and a whole lot of mini ones (I have no idea how many - hah!)

I used this recipe for shortcrust pastry - it makes 3-4 pasties, depending on how thin you roll it. and about 6-8 mini ones.
If you want the pastry to be more golden, you will need to use an egg wash, but because I was doing such a small batch last night, I skipped it.

You can fill the large ones with about 1/3c of the filling, and the small ones take about 1tbsp.

I only made 2 large and 4 small pasties, so I have enough filling left for at least 2 more dinner/lunch combos, maybe more.

If anyone wants to do it completely from scratch, here is the recipe that inspired me.

Two Lunches!

I wasn't home all day yesterday, so I didn't get to make a post. I have to go make lunch for tomorrow, so this one is short!

Yesterday's lunch was chicken teriyaki with rice, corn and gyoza:

Today's was quickly thrown together - Mediterranean meatball soup and assorted veggies:

Both were super tasty!

Salad Bentos and a Cat

I forgot to take a photo of yesterday's bento, but it was just leftover taco fixings arranged into a salad, with some tortilla chips on the side. Yum!

I wanted to take a photo of both mine and my husband's bento boxes for today - they're essentially the same, but you can see where I've changed things up to accommodate our slightly different tastes.




Mine is on the left, his is on the right.

The main component in each is a salad - the base is spinach and romaine, then I've topped it with various other veggies. I get cucumber and red pepper, he gets snow peas and matchstick carrots.
I have salad dressing, but he likes his plain.
We each get a deviled egg, 3 chicken nuggets, and 1/4 of an apple - sliced into bunnies, because I can.
For the space filler, his is entirely broccoli, and mine is tiny grape tomatoes and broccoli.
Aren't the tomatoes so cute?

I take my photos on a bamboo slat placemat set on our kitchen table.
When we're not using the table, the cat likes to sleep on the edge of it up against the windowsill, so when she spotted me over there, she had to come see what I was doing:



Thankfully she doesn't like people food.

January 10 - Onigiri with Beet Salad

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The only thing I had leftover from dinner last night were some beets, so I had to get creative.

I didn't want to just throw the beets in there plain. That's how I had them for dinner, and it was delicious, but I wanted something different for lunch. I grabbed my Just Bento cookbook, and flipped to the index to see if there were any recipes featuring beets. There was one, so this is it. It's a beet salad with a grainy mustard dressing. I sliced up the beets in to thinner pieces before dressing them.

I settled on chicken nuggets as my protein - there are actually 4 in there, one is hidden under the cup.

And for my carb, I've got 2 onigiri, made with a plum rice seasoning I found at a little Japanese style convenience store near my work.

I filled the space with grape tomatoes (I like how these ones are slightly green at the tips - they don't taste underripe, but they look nice!), and some carrot matchsticks.

Bento #48 and #49

I'm so behind!



Mini pita sandwiches - 2 mini pitas cut in half, filled with red leaf lettuce, turkey, mozzarella, Caesar dressing (low calorie) and pepperoncini.
Cucumber
Tomato
Carrots
Pepper Kinpira




this one was a mish-mash

noodles with sesame oil and soy sauce
deviled egg
meatballs (on a pick!)
chicken nuggets
potato smiles
frozen corn
carrots
blueberries
and a container of teriyaki sauce for the meatballs.

delish!

***

Next one is Bento #50 ... I'd like to say that I'll do something special, but I probably won't.

Bento #6

I had oatmeal crisp (triple berry - yum!) for breakfast - 1-1/2 cups with 1/2 cup skim milk (I don't like milk and milk doesn't like me). It was pretty good.

I didn't specifically get to go for my hour walk this morning, but I did get at least an hour of walking done while picking up veggies and cleaning supplies.

I was starved when I got back home, so I had a sandwich (portugese roll, ham, turkey, garlic & herb cream cheese, havarti, lettuce)

Then my bento box this afternoon.
I included an apple bunny, an octodog, carrots, cucumber, snow peas, 3 chicken nuggets (blue label from President's Choice) with homemade jalapeno jelly for dipping (thanks to my grandmother) and I made onigiri stuffed with a bit of tuna salad. Oh, and a toffee for a treat.
The Mister got the same thing, minus the cucumber (he doesn't like it, so I threw in more carrots to compensate) and with an extra nugget. He liked the octodog.

Dinner was a new rice mix I wanted to try - it's also from the blue label line. It's called "Bayou Blend" with 3 kinds of rice, black eyed peas and red beans. I added some cajun spice to add a bit more kick, but it was pretty good. The leftovers are going in the bentos tomorrow.
I served it with maple smoked sausage (1 for me, 1-1/2 for the Mister)

***

When I was at my doctor's today, I was getting a prescription re-filled for migraine medication. She asked how that was going, and I let her know that I pretty much stopped getting them (my prescription had actually expired with several refills left). I used to get them monthly, but hadn't had one for a few months. One hit and it was a doozy, but I've been fine for a few months since.
She asked if I could think of anything that may have changed to cause this, and really, the only thing I can think of is ... my diet and activity level.
Hooray for all around health!

Bento #3

Bento# 3
I didn't forget to post yesterday, I was just really busy.
Also, horrible photo for some reason.



Breakfast
I had zoodles for breakfast. I was having a massive craving. 300 cal.

Lunch/Dinner
Turkey and Havarti sandwich on pesto garlic tortilla - 120 cal
2 chicken nuggets with cajun spice - 52 cal
1/8 nectarine - 8 cal
1/8 apple (bunny!) - 9 cal
3 grapes - 4 cal
5 snow peas - 7 cal
2 baby carrots - 8 cal
cucumber - 8 cal
fruit bar - 50 cal
3 cheese flavour rice crackers - 15 cal

salad (same as yesterday, but carrots instead of peas, and a not-so-calorie wise ranch dressing instead of the italian.) - 196 cal

The above only added up to 777 calories total (super low!), so I bought a 12 grain bagel with cream cheese at Tim Hortons when I got to work. - 441 cal
That brought me up to 1218.
When I got home, I was really, really hungry, so I made 2 slices of 'pizza bread' (sunflower flax bread, 2tbsp(each) tomato sauce, 2 slices ham(each), 2tbsp grated cheese) - approximately 368
(I over estimated the cheese, I know I used less, but I didn't specifically measure it at the time)

So, total for the day was 1586.

Skipped the yoga and only did about 3500 steps (2.6km/183cal)

Today
I worked late yesterday, and had to work early today, and I really didn't have time to make lunch. So, no picture today.

Breakfast
Life cereal with skim milk - 280 cal

Lunch
Nong Shim Spicy instant ramen. (Package said 190 calories per 1/2 bowl (WHY?). I discarded half the noodles and made all the broth, so I'm estimating 300 total? I'm sure the noodles amount to more, but whatever.)
7 snow peas - 10 cal
5 baby carrots - 20 cal
5 grape tomatoes - 20 cal
12 grapes - 16 cal
366 total.

Dinner
1 Maple Smokie - 160 cal
3/4 cup spanish rice - 101 cal
261 total

hm. only 907 today.
I didn't think this would be so hard!

Forgot my pedometer this morning, but I walked my butt off - I barely got to sit at work today, walked to and from the train station, and walked to and from the grocery store with my cousin, and now I'm sore. Again, no yoga. I will pick it up tomorrow, I swear!