Mini Thai Chicken Muffins….

Planning a wedding is tricky, stressful, and a second job you seem to have signed yourself up for without even realizing.  However, when you find that perfect wedding dress you seem to forget about all those spreadsheets you need to fill out and the fact that your soon-to-be husband thinks he has all the time in the world to rent a tux for the wedding!

I was lucky to have my Mum fly all the way from Australia to NYC for some fun mother/daughter time and to help with my search for THE wedding dress.  I’m not going to lie, trying on dresses for me was scary, awkward,  and on more than one occasion I would find myself breaking out into a sweat and feeling nauseous – leaving my Mum no other choice but to ask me: ‘Are you sure you want to get married?’

Of course I wanted to get married, but I never was much of a girly girl and this whole process of finding a wedding dress was pretty overwhelming… but not as overwhelming as when the store rang me up to tell me my dress was in and I could come in try it on over the weekend…. EEK

And so came about my yummy Mini Thai Chicken Muffin Recipe.  For the past few months I’ve been hitting the gym hard and focusing on gaining some nice muscle definition in my arms and back so I look amazing in my dress.  Then it dawned on me, how am I going to actually put on some muscle if  I continue eating rice cakes with some melted cheese on top for dinner???  In my defense I get home at 10PM and have already eaten my largest meal of the day for lunch, but still… rice cakes, who was I kidding!

My 10PM dinner was lacking one essential component… protein..  These mini chicken muffins are GREAT, they can be re-heated and eaten as a snack during the day, throw them in a salad, or eat 4-5 at a time with some veggies to make them a complete meal .  My latest 10PM dinner craze is having them as a side dish with tomato soup!

Mini Thai Chicken Muffins

Makes:  24 mini muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 lbs chicken mince
• 1/4 cup oyster sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tablespoon sweet chili sauce
• 1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro leaves + stalks
• 1/3 – 2/3 cups light coconut milk

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 390°F
2. Combine mince, oyster sauce, garlic, sweet chili sauce, cilantro and coconut milk in a large bowl.
3. Place rounded tablespoons of mixture into a non-stick mini muffin pan
4. Bake for about 15 minutes or until cooked

NOTE:  I feel like my arms are looking more toned every time I eat these :)

Chilled Green Pea Soup on a Hot Summer’s Night

I love nothing more than chilled soup on a hot summers night, in fact, I love soup.  Ask my old roommate and she will tell you that there were not too many nights that she didn’t see me eat soup.  My favourite is Butternut Squash soup in the winter, and my recent discovery of Chilled Green Pea Soup put’s it closely behind good ol gazpacho as my favourite summer time soup!

Nothing beat’s getting home from work at 10pm and having a huge pot of soup waiting for you in the fridge.  Pair it with a salad and Ta-Da, you have the perfect summertime dinner!  Soup  saves me from splurging on food that has no nutritional value for me, sure it would be easy to come home and just eat a bag of chips for dinner and call it a night, but i gotta fit into a wedding dress next year, so that’s why i love it so much.

Did you know, green peas are naturally abundant in folate, vitamin B1, vitamin B6, carotenoids, tryptophan, vitamin K, manganese, healthy protein, and a number of other health-promoting nutrients.

Once you’ve tried it, you won’t ever go back to canned soup.

• 3 cups frozen peas
• 2 cups sugar snap peas, thinly sliced
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 3 shallots, thinly sliced
• 1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 2 celery ribs, thinly sliced
• 1 carrot, thinly sliced
• Olive oil
• 3 sprigs of mint, about 6 inches in total stem length
• Salt + Pepper to taste

• 1/4 cup greek yogurt
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• Salt + Pepper to taste
• Strips of fresh mint for garnish

METHOD

In a medium saucepan heat the olive oil on a medium heat.  Add the shallots, yellow onion, celery and carrot and cook until softened but not browned, about 2-3 minutes.

Add the broth and mint sprigs to the vegetables, increase the heat and bring to a boil.  Add the frozen peas, sugar snaps and salt and pepper to taste.  Return to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until the peas are just tender, 3-5 minutes.

Discard the mint sprigs and purée the soup until smooth (I love using my Cuisinart Hand Blender, Smart Stick).

In a small mixing bowl, add the greek yogurt, garlic, mint leaves and salt + pepper and mix until combined.

Ladle the chilled pea soup into bowls and drizzle with a little olive oil.  Add a nice sized dollop of the greek yogurt mixture and top with the remaining chopped mint and serve.

Note:  Refrigerated, this soup will keep for up to a week.  It also freezes nicely.