Baked chicken bruschetta

You know those days when you get home from work at 5:30, collapse into bed and the next thing you know it's almost 9pm and you've done absolutely nothing productive other than bitch about your wireless provider on Twitter and kick your sisters out of your room? Yep, I'm having a great night you guys!!! I figured it was time to block Twitter for the night (where would I be without Chrome's self control add-ons?) and try to be a little more productive. So not only am I about to actually step out of bed right after I post this, I'm finally sharing this recipe I've had drafted for over two weeks now! I know, I can't believe what a productive human being I am either.

I've made this baked chicken bruschetta twice already in the last couple of weeks, each time using slightly different ingredients. The first time I had fresh basil and parmesan and the second time I used kale and gouda. Both ways were really flavourful and there was cheese involved so it's a win no matter what, right? The dry basil in it is really key so I recommend using a lot!

Ingredients:

• 2 tomatoes
• 1 potato
• 1 onion
• Dry basil
• 2 garlic cloves
• Cubed chicken (mine had been boiled and I threw it in but you can fry up some raw chicken if you'd like)
• Grated parmesan (or any other type of cheese, I used gouda the second time I made it)
• Salt and pepper
• Black mustard seeds (optional)
• Fresh basil (optional)
• Kale (optional)

Coconut lime chicken with black rice

Black rice. I recently discovered it on one of my Bulk Barn trips where I go completely overboard and spend too much money buying a little bit of everything, especially things I've never heard of. Although I had a little bit of trouble cooking it at first, it turned out to be very tasty and it made a great addition to a quinoa salad I made earlier this year. Little did I know, it's apparently also a crazy superfood (I guess maybe everything I eat is). It contains really high antioxidant properties which can help protect your body from cell damage, lowering your risk of cancer and heart disease. The rice is also packed with fiber and has a really low sugar content.

And I already mentioned that it looks cool and tastes good too, right?

The rice went perfectly with the coconut lime chicken that I made, which had a slightly sweet taste to it.   The coconut browned perfectly and the brown sugar complemented the lime really well. I also added some shredded coconut to the rice as it was cooking and then again when it was done and it added a really nice flavour. I highly recommend soaking the rice for at least an hour to cut down on cooking time.

Roasted cauliflower pie with spicy chicken

When are weekends not so busy that you need a weekend to recover from your weekend? And how many times can I say weekend in one sentence? Anyway, this was one of those and it involved a dozen or so toddlers on massive candy highs, Princess Belle, and way way way too much food.

My little sisters celebrating their 3rd birthday! (You can get banners like those made here)

Castle cake by mom

Thankfully Sunday night was a little bit less crazy and since we somehow ran out of party food, I decided to head into the kitchen and play around with what we had.

This dish turned out similar to a shepherd's pie, with a cauliflower mash on the bottom and top and a mix of vegetables in between. It was also a good excuse to use up a some of the vegetables that were left over from my little sisters' birthday party and to use my new mini loaf pans and the arrabiata spices I picked up from Winners. Best part? It took less than 45 minutes from start to finish.