Chickpea salad with yoghurt lime dressing

Little salad recipe for you today. I've used mostly pantry ingredients for this one, with a little ripe avocado and some basil from the window garden on top.

There are some lovely, fresh flavours here, and it is filling with the chick peas.

This salad would be great for a bbq, and as a side to grilled chicken or other meats. Or you could just have it by itself with some crusty bread.

Baked sticky chicken wings

Yum alert! Sticky finger food is so good, if a little messy. But that's what finger bowls are for!

These sticky chicken wings are easy to make, inexpensive and everyone loves them. That ticks all the boxes at my house. Enjoy these while watching your favourite footy team go around with a cold beer. Bliss!

Warm potato salad

Potatoes are a way of life here in Austria. Potato salad (Kartoffelsalat) is served in a vast majority of restaurants and cafes. Most recipes here involve peeled potatoes that are sliced while still warm and then soaked in a vinegar dressing. The salad is then cooled and generally served cold. This salad is a tradition accompaniment to schnitzel. I really like it, as I find it lighter than the Aussie-type potato salad with a creamy dressing.

That said, here is my recipe for a warm potato salad, which can be served as a side dish grilled meats or fish. This is a good dish for a BBQ or feeding a crowd, as you can make it is advance and store. We had this salad for dinner on Saturday night, accompanying baked chicken breast and a rocket and asparagus salad.

You can adapt this recipe as you like and depending on what you have in the pantry or fridge. In this recipe, I have used chorizo sausage, corn kernels, fresh parsley, roasted almonds and a dressing of natural yoghurt, mayonnaise and lemon juice. But you could used other types of nuts such as pine nuts, sliced cooked bacon or ham, finely chopped gherkins or capsicum or sliced eschallots.

I think it is better to make the salad the day before and let the dressing soak into the potatoes. I am also somewhat of a 'lazy' potato salad-maker. I do not peel my potatoes. I like the taste of the skin and the texture it gives the salad. But if you want to peel the potatoes, go right ahead.

Spaghetti with pork and mushroom sauce

Sometimes life is just so busy and hectic, isn't it!
Is it because we make it that way, or is that just how modern life is I wonder? Some evenings, I look at the clock at dinner time and think, "Ughhh, I have no inspiration for cooking tonight." Or I have no energy or a combination of both.

This pork and spaghetti dish was what I made on a night when I had no inspiration, was running late, and would have just loved to sit on the couch with a glass of wine and a cheese platter! (that would count as dinner right?)

There was microwave defrosting of meat involved in this recipe, which I don't generally like to do but when needs must........

A quick whip up of a mushroom sauce, a bit of spaghetti, grill some pork and a salad, and there it is. Everyone satisfied, fed, job done. Then I sat on the couch with a glass of wine and put my feet up.

Creamy chicken, bacon and tomato bake

On a cold night, we devoured this simple baked chicken dish.

The flavours were wonderful, from the tender chicken pieces, the crispy bacon, and the herbie, creamy sauce.

I cut up a whole chicken, but this dish would work equally as well (and be a little bit less fussing about) if you used thigh cutlets or drumsticks.

I served this with some steamed potatoes and green beans, but you could also pair it with rice, cous cous or even some crusty bread.

Whatever you have it with, don't waste any of the sauce, as it is super tasty.

Don't be worried if the sauce has a slightly 'separated' look when you bring it from the oven. Once you serve the dish, the sauce ingredients will mix together and it will look and taste delicious.

Simple fried rice

Here's a recipe for a simple and filling fried rice. It is certainly not a traditional recipe, but is a great way to use up leftover rice or even cous cous or quinoa.

We had this rice as a side dish to the Asian-baked chicken wings. The flavours in each dish complemented well.

I like the texture of this fried rice. The squishy rice and vegetables, with the crunchy nuts, the tangy fresh mint and the salty bacon and soy. Yum!