This recipe was totally made up by a huge craving I had one night for a giant bowl of pasta and some kind of crispy meat and cheese. It’s an adaptation of Jamie Oliver’s sausage fusilli recipe, but since I didn’t have English sausages and I don’t take any form of alcohol and I love my veggies, here’s an improvisation. The chicken bits are nice and crunchy especially if you chop them up small enough, but not too fine that they resemble minced chicken. The trick is to also really use the pasta water to get silky, shiny pasta.

It’s one of my favourite weekday dinner options, as it’s protein and veg all in one pan. One of those key occasions where the stars align and you can be lazy AND still make/eat awesome food!

This recipe serves one.

What you need:
Fusilli pasta
100 gm of chicken fillet, roughly chopped
1 tsp ground aniseed
1 tsp chili flakes
2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 tsp oregano flakes
1 handful spinach
Juice from ½ lemon
Parmesan, amount according to preference

What you do:

1. Cook pasta according to packet instructions.
2. Heat 2 tbsp. olive oil in pan.
3. Add chopped chicken, spread evenly so that they cook evenly. Add salt.
4. Move the chicken around until they’re slightly brown and crispy.
5. Add oregano, ground aniseed and chili flakes. Increase chili flakes if you like it spicier.
6. After 2 minutes, add balsamic vinegar. Make sure chicken bits are covered nicely by the caramelised balsamic.
7. Drain pasta, reserving 1 cup of pasta water.
8. Add pasta to pan, stir the mix and add water to ensure a silky and shiny consistency.
9. Add spinach and lemon juice. Stir until spinach is wilted. Taste to see if you need more salt/pepper.
10. Remove to plate. Rain the freshly grated parmesan all over. If you just came back from the gym, add more cheese.
11. Devour.

In an effort to try and eat more organic food in 2016, I recently bought myself a mushroom-growing kit, out of curiosity as I saw a friend having it in her kitchen (my lettuce died, so I'm starting over with something more achievable). The instructions were simple enough, and within a week of spraying the provided wood dust with water I got myself enough oyster mushrooms to harvest! They were clean white and plump and smelled deliciously musty, begging to be eaten. It almost made me forget my sad attempt to grow my own salad leaves.

Cleaning them up was no fuss, and I had them in omelettes, soupy noodles and my personal favourite, as a crunchy topping for an almost-vegan pizza. This ‘pizza’ recipe isn’t exactly recipe but more of an assembly job, since all the veg are roasted in the oven and everything else is pretty basic. I’ve tried a few different combos, but this one is my favourite as the oyster mushrooms are crunchy and not overcooked so you get to enjoy their freshness, and the roasted cauliflower is a nice texture, with creamy avocado and nutty hummus to compliment. Not to mention it takes literally 10 mins to prep (the rest is oven time), so it’s officially my new favourite Meat Free Monday dinner menu.

This recipe makes 2 mini ‘pizzas’.

Here’s what you need:
Flatbread (available at most grocery stores)
Oyster mushrooms
Breadcrumbs
1 egg
1 floret of cauliflower, stemmed
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 avocado
Hummus
Cherry tomatoes (optional)

Here’s what you do:

1. Preheat oven at 180 degrees celcius. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
2. Season breadcrumbs with salt and pepper.
3. Crack an egg. Now dip the oyster mushroom in egg, then the breadcrumbs and then line them up on the tray.
4. Toss the cauliflower in salt, pepper, cayenne and olive oil. Line them up in the baking tray.
5. Roast the mushrooms and cauliflower in the oven for 15 mins. Then remove the mushrooms, and continue roasting the cauliflower for another 10 mins.
6. Heat your flatbread in the oven for around 3 mins. When heated, spread a seriously generous amount of hummus on top it.
7. Assemble the cauliflower, crunchy mushrooms, avocados (scooped out or diced) and halved cherry tomatoes on the pizza if using.
8. Squeeze some lemon over and drizzle some olive oil to finish.
9. Eat while watching Friends.

Note:      a.) The best bits of the roasted cauliflower are the disintegrated, slightly burned ones.
               b.) Don’t buy hummus at the conventional grocery store because they are always so expensive.                         Try the ones in middle-eastern grocers. They’re cheaper and tastes much better.

Sunday brunch time! I love a good hash brown, but unfortunately in KL you’ll end up eating a greasy version of it or paying too much for shredded potatoes. When in fact, it is so simple to make. Not to mention enjoying a plate of hash browns on a lazy Sunday morning is both healthy and therapeutic. Here is a recipe for easy, perfect, crispy hash browns every time.

This recipe serves 2.

Here’s what you need:
2 large russet potatoes (or actually, any potato is fine by me)
2 eggs
Fresh grated parmesan (optional)

Here’s what you do:

1. Wash potatoes. Don’t bother peeling them.
2. Shred the potatoes using the largest grater scale on your box grater.
3. Soak shredded potatoes in water for five minutes (this removes the starch)
4. Drain water. Now get a kitchen towel. Place the shredded potatoes on it. Squeeze the hell out of the potatoes to remove as much residual water out of it as possible (this is what makes the hash crispy)
5. Season potatoes with salt and pepper.
6. Lightly grease a non-stick pan. When hot, place a layer of shredded potatoes.
7. Flip when cooking side is brown and crispy.
8. Serve with a sunny side up, ketchup and some parmesan if you had a rough night last night.