Quick and Easy Chicken Curry - A Perfect Midweek Meal

Since returning to work full time I have been trying new, quick and easy meals. Ones that can be made in no time, without the stress of a lot of preparation and meals which are healthy and will please the whole family.

Last week I decided to go for a family favourite, curry. Curries do not always require long marinading time to be tasty and this recipe is proof. Ready in just over 30 minutes this is a meal that can be made easily but more importantly it is a lot healthier than grabbing a take away, not to mention cheaper!

Pair this curry with some rich turmeric and cardamon rice or as my children wanted, rice and beans, naan breads, poppadoms and dips and you have got a meal that has been transformed into a feast!

This is what I did...

Beef Kheema for Great British Beef Week

This week is Great British Beef Week so this weeks recipe with Aldi features their 100% British beef. Aldi are committed to sourcing only 100% British beef that comes from Red Tractor assured farms. This means that they are able to trace back all of their meat to the farm of its origin. The Red Tractor is one of the largest food standard schemes in the UK and they ensure that the welfare of the animals is protected, food safety is paramount and that everything from the care to packaging of the meats is environmentally friendly. 

With Aldi offering some of the best prices on the market seeing the Red Tractor on all of their beef you can be confident that you are going to be cooking and consuming great meat.

To celebrate Great British Beef Week and to also celebrate the fantastic prices at Aldi I am sharing with you a curried beef recipe, beef kheema. This is a simple yet full of flavour dish that can be served in a variety of ways.

This is what I did...

Vini and Bals Rustic Indian Curry Sauces - Review

You cannot beat a good Indian curry but if you are watching your weigh having a take away means consuming a lot of hidden calories. That is without mentioning the cost which when feeding a family can be high! So when Vini and Bal's got in touch to ask me if I would like to try some of their authentic Indian curry sauces I was curious to see whether they would be like getting one from a restaurant.

Vini and Bal's is the creation of a husband and wife team. Vini's family moved over the England in the 70's and Vini grew up cooking with her mother and grandmother, the food was made from scratch and she has treasured memories of growing up grinding spices with a pestle and mortar and making smiley faced chapattis. When Vini married Bal, Vini and Bal's was born. They both have a passion for healthy, home cooked food. After Vini had shared her families sauces with friends it became apparent that there was something special about the sauces. In 2011 they started to make the sauces commercially. Over time the recipe has evolved to cater for Vini's mother who was diagnosed with Coeliacs so the sauces needed to be healthy, clean and of course gluten free! They even paid a visit to BBC's Dragon's Den and got the backing from them!

Chicken and Kale Korma

We love a good curry. But as we are keeping our spending down we cannot afford a takeaway. The other week we decided to buy a ready made curry from an upmarket food chain and after we had eaten we really were not happy. The quality was not good and we really did not enjoy our meal after spending as much as we had. So to try and make up for that disaster I thought I'd make my own curry with the help of Aldi's Specially Selected Mild and Creamy Korma curry sauce. 

I have never used this sauce before but I loved how it came with a sachet of spices to add to the chicken before adding the sauce. This enabled the flavours to fully develop as the meat cooks. This sauce creates a deliciously creamy, fragrant and mildly spiced curry. The coconut, cream, yogurt and ground almonds give it a truly authentic finish. To give this curry some added goodness I have added some shredded kale. When it comes to leafy, green vegetables you just know that they are good for you. Kale is classed as a super food, it is an excellent source of vitamin K, C and A. But what not many people know is that kale is an great source of calcium which makes it a useful source for vegans or people who follow a dairy free diet. But the list does not stop there, kale also contains folate (folic acid), anti oxidants, manganese, copper and it virtually fat free and low in calories! If you struggle to get the kids to tuck into some kale at dinner time, then do what I do, add it to a meal that is sauce based and watch them eat it all up!

This is what I did...

Welsh Lamb Curry for National Curry Week

What more of excuse do we need to enjoy a curry? It is National Curry Week so we have to make a curry or two, it would be rude not to!

I will admit to usually making either chicken or beef curries. I tend to use what ever is leftover from a Sunday dinner and make our favourite leftover curry. So when I was asked if I would like to make a curry using Welsh Lamb I could not wait to try it out. We all love lamb but simply do not have it enough.

This National Curry Week I decided to make a curry which marinades the lamb to ensure that the all of the flavours are deep in the lamb.

This is what I did...