Sweet & Crunchy Chicken Salad *

I’ve been having a bad case of yummy chicken salad craving, which got stronger and stronger until I could not take it anymore. So this weekend, we did a massive grocery shopping spree and I brought home all the ingredients needed to make some delicious Sweet & Crunchy Chicken Salad.

Yellow Bell Pepper & Onion

Green Onion

B was curious to see how my salad would turn out especially since it was my first attempt and I decided to modify the basic recipe I found online with my own substitutes.

Cashew

Walnut

I did not have any leftover chicken to use so we bought a whole roast chicken, juicy and ready to be shredded/diced.

Roast Chicken

Shredded

I took my time to prepare my salad, making sure everything was nicely chopped, shredded and diced to perfection. I could already imagine the taste of my yummy chicken salad but I still had to taste the finished dish to ensure that what I was tasting inside my head translated to what I was making for real!

A little Blackcurrant

Add in vege

Crushed nuts

 

After carefully going through the steps, I was done and gingerly had my first taste. I gotta say my first attempt at this Sweet & Crunchy Chicken Salad was a success and YUM! Even B was impressed with his first bite, exclaiming in delight at the different flavours and textures of the chicken salad, which made me one happy chef wannabe! For that, I shall continue watching my favourite cooking shows on TV to get more cooking inspiration!

Evenly mixed Chicken Salad

 
I then let my chicken salad stand inside the refrigerator for a few hours (minimum 1 hour) before making Sweet & Crunchy Chicken Salad on croissant for supper. It was delicious according to B and now, he no longer has to visit Subway when he gets a sandwich craving! Oh and he gave me a 4.9 / 5. I’m never gonna get that perfect 5 am I?!

Sweet & Crunchy Supper

Here is the basic recipe. I omitted a few items for my own alternatives so you can do the same too. Happy cooking!

Recipe

MMM LOVES

Sweet & Sour Prawns with Pineapple *

Happy 12-12-12! I’m not really sure what’s written in the stars for this date but 12-12-12 sure looks cool to me and to mark its uniqueness, I decided to cook Sweet and Sour Prawns with Pineapple for dinner.

 

Truth be told, I’ve been craving for Sweet and Sour Prawns for quite some time and so far, the ones we have sampled when dining out is nowhere near my high expectation when it comes to good prawn cooking. So I took matters into my own hands and attempted to cook this dish for the very first time.

Here are the ingredients. Besides pineapple, I also added shallots to my recipe and though the recipe did not call for water, I did add just a bit to balance the sweet with the sour.

Ingredients

Pineapple and the prepared sauce

Shallow fry the prawns (marinated lightly with salt) until they are lightly cooked. Remove from pan and put aside while you cook the sauce. Sauté the shallots, garlic, ginger and red peppers on medium to low heat until fragrant. Pour in the sauce ingredients and bring to a boil. Add in the fried prawns and stir well. Remove from pan and serve hot.

Frying prawns

Cooking the sauce

What’s the verdict? Well, my recipe and first-attempt at cooking Sweet and Sour Prawns was a success … to me and to B at least! My dish was definitely not way runny as served in most restaurants we’ve tried in our area. I also like that the sweetness of this dish was not overwhelming so we could taste both the sour and the sweet equally well. To put it in a nutshell … YUM and next time, I want to try cooking Sweet and Sour Fish!

Sweet and Sour Prawns with Pineapple

By the way, B gave my dish 4.5 out of 5. Everything was yummy and perfect taste-wise but the prawns were not enough so he was left wanting more!

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Quick Lunch @ Italiannies!

I have to say, both B and I thoroughly enjoyed our Italiannies lunch @ The Curve recently!

 

Itallianies, The Curve

We’ve not eaten here in ages and since I love Italian food, I was more than happy to oblige when B suggested we check out the Quick Lunch promotion. We always steal glances at this promo sign while driving about town but now that we were actually seated and ready to order, we took our time to see what was available.

Quick Lunch

Choice of Appetizer, Main Course, Dessert & Pepsi

Icy Cold Pepsi

 

Lunch al fresco

Warm from the oven

Delightful Dip

I was not disappointed with the selection and appetizer was an easy choice. I am not a big soup fan so opted for the Caesar salad. It was a wonderful choice and possibly one of the best Caesar salads I’ve ever tasted. The salad dressing was light but generously coated over greens and the toasted focaccia croutons plus the generous shaving of grated cheese complimented the light Italian dressing to delicious perfection.

Caesar Salad

Main course was a tougher decision. I was debating between Classic Carbonara and the Parmesan Crusted Fish. Both sounded tantalizing to me but I was in the mood for pasta that day so Carbonara it was! My pasta dish was creamy and deliciously cheesy of course. I liked that the sauce was not overly thick it ends up drying too early into the meal so that was good. Flavour-wise, Classic Carbonara at Italiannies was definitely up to my expectation and all I had to do was add a dash of pepper for a gastronomic buzz of creamy parmesan fettuccine with smoked beef bacon and fresh button mushrooms!

Creamy, Cheesy Carbonara

B went for Grilled Chicken Milanese, which consisted of grilled chicken breast over cream spinach, topped with chilled tomato caper relish. I had a bite of course and as much as I enjoyed my Carbonara, there was a small part of me that wished I had ordered his dish. Yes, it was that yummy!

Equally delicious chicken for B

As you can imagine, I was already stuffed by then but dessert was next and when my chocolate brownie arrived, I could not wait to take a bite!

Sticky Chewy Delight

Yum Yum!

Even B who was waiting for his Raisin Bread Pudding looked enticed! 

Divine

What a sinfully scrumptious sweet ending to our afternoon lunch at Italiannies, adding another reason to lure me back when I have my next craving for delicious Italian cuisine!

Lunch with B

  

Food:
Price:

 

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