What’s Cooking – Quick and Easy Chicken Tandoori

Slow cooking is great and we all know it but sometimes we all have a need for a quick meal. Last week I received some lovely marinades from Ambu Tree. I was keeping them for a weekend BBQ but on Wednesday we found ourselves without any dinner. A quick rummage through the fridge and cupboards gave me an idea for a meal – we were about to have chicken tandoori.

Ingredients:

• 750g chicken breast
• 1 Ambu Tree Mild Tandoori Marinade
• 1 pepper (optional)
• 1 onion (optional)
• 4-5 mushrooms (optional)
• Olive oil for frying

Method:

Cut the chicken into desired size of cubes. Mix well with a pot of Ambu Tree marinade. Fry on medium heat pan for about 10-15 minutes. Dinner served!

Optional if you have more time and feeling more adventurous chop the veggies– chop peppers, onions plus a few mushrooms in half and place them in a baking tray. Add a small drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in the oven for 20 minutes. Once they are cool to touch slice them into smaller pieces and add few minutes before your chicken is done. These roasted vegetables will add a totally different dimension to your meal.

This Chicken Tandoori is perfect for serving with rice as a part of a dinner or you can pair it with a nice toasted bagel just like we did for something lighter and more snack-like. It will also make a perfect sandwich or baked potato filler.

Normally we do not use readymade marinades. Mark likes to mix all the herbs and spices on his own but Ambu Tree are not just your standard marinades. They are natural and healthy; suitable for vegetarians and vegans, free from gluten and diary. Where else would you find a tandoori marinade which is diary free? Ambu Tree marinades come in the form of a thick paste and are made from freshly roasted and ground spices. They are packed with flavour. 100g pot will serve 4-6 people. When used on 750g of chicken breast it was thickly covered. I would say it would marinade a 1kg bag of meat without any problems. Priced at £3.85 per pot they will not break anyone’s bank and will enhance your dining experience. So, if you are not feeling like messing about with spices and don’t have a whole day for cooking, I would highly recommend giving Ambu Tree marinades a try. For this moment you can pick from: Mild Tandoori, Spicy Tandoori or Chinese Five Spices.

Happy Cooking!

Review – Silicea Direct by Hübner – Beauty in the box

What is Silicea Direct?

Silicea is a food supplement that can help maintain healthy skin, hair and strong nails, preventing (to a degree) the signs of ageing and it keeps hair, skin and nails looking beautiful. It can also play a role in the maintenance of healthy muscles and bones.

What’s inside the pack?

Silicic Acid gel (90%), fruit mix from fruit concentrates: Grape, Elderberry, Blackcurrant, Strawberry, Raspberry; Fructose, Thickening agent; Pectin, Xanthan gum; Acidifier Malic acid, Natural Flavour, Selenium and Biotin.

This means that the product is 100% natural. Silicea contains silica, one of the body’s essential nutrients, which is used by all the connective tissue. Our body uses up silica on a daily basis as flakes of skin, hair and nails are discarded, so this is an easy and convenient way of replacing it. Silica is one of our most valuable minerals and one of the most important ‘beauty’ nutrients: it helps to support the formation of collagen and elastin which strengthens skin, hair and nails by encouraging the body to hold on to water and other vital nutrients.

And what’s inside the pack for real?

The answer is still the same; just as above 😉 It comes in the form of delicious red berry ‘smoothie’ shots that are providing mineral silica in a highly available form for better absorption. Hübner’s convenient silica shots provide a measured dosage in a sachet form and because they do not require refrigeration, are ideal for people on the move.

Suitability:

• 100% natural
• Dairy, lactose, wheat and gluten free
• No preservatives
• GM free
• Not tested on animals
• Suitable for vegetarians and vegans

Directions:

Take one sachet (15ml) daily between main meals.

Treatment Time:

The recommended treatment time is 3 months at least twice a year.

It might sound like a long term project, but one finger nail needs around 6 months until it is fully re-grown, skin needs around 28 days to regenerate and hair grows just over one centimetre per month… so no rush there…

Price:

£12.95 for 15 x 15ml sachets

Availability:

Hübner Silicea Direct is available to buy from health stores nationwide and at Healthy2U online.

My thoughts:

Interesting product, this was the first thought that came to my mind. I know there is a huge range of beauty supplements sold as pills or tablets or even a powder which you mix with water but I’ve never seen or tried anything in the form of a gel. If I had to describe the product in just one word it would be weird. You might ask if it is a good weird or a bad weird … Actually neither…it is just weird. The reason for this is the texture. It is a bit like watery jam, but what is the weirdest part is that not all of the shot has the same consistency; so some portions within one sachet are thicker than others. It really is quite surreal experience. Taste wise it is fruity and you can’t miss the berry flavour but it also has quite strong metallic taste. I guess this is how silica tastes 😉

As I received only one pack and used it for just over two weeks I can’t really comment as to the visible benefits of it.

As food supplements go, I like the idea of this one. I think helping our skin, hair and nails from the inside are important. I will get myself a bigger pack for a longer test but I think I will try the capsule version. Yes, they have it in a capsule version too.

Did you ever try Silicea Direct or any silica based products?

* I received one pack of Silicea Direct for free for review purpose. All opinions about the product are honest and my own.