D&D

Dinner and dessert: my two favourite meals of the day! Dinner is where everyone comes together after a long, busy day to have a lovely, warm, home-cooked meal. We use that time to do some catching up; to share what’s been happening in each other’s lives. Dessert is a rare treat; and a home-made one rarer still.

I’ve always loved to cook, bake and make. But the weekly routine of cooking simple three-dished-meals (one rice, one vege, one meat/tofu/fish) really hampered my love and desire to try new recipes…that is until I started watching Masterchef and My Kitchen Rules and Alive and Cooking! My favourite cooking show is James Reeson’s Alive and Cooking. James is such a charismatic chef; his humour and easy personality makes the show enjoyable to watch. I find myself waking up before 9 so I can eat breakfast in front of the TV whilst savouring the food he whisks up.

So, armed with a new determination to cook, coupled with a desire to eat healthier (blame my nutrition course) I decided to do something I’ve never done before for my family. Cook them a Western-ish dinner with something more Asian for dessert: a proper two-course meal. So what better dish to cook than ‘Asparagus Stuffed Chicken Breast’ for dinner and ‘Watermelon Tapioca with Watermelon Mint Sorbet’ for dessert?! For the chicken breasts I used James’ recipe found here with slight changes here and there. As for the dessert, I combined several different recipes (I think I used 3) into one.

GL's version: 'Asparagus Stuffed Chicken Breast'

And oh my word, the stuffed chicken breasts were delish, it had the perfect combination of sour (marinated asparagus), sweet (semi-dried tomatoes), salty (cheddar cheese) and crunchy (breadcrumb-ly outer layer) with juicy chicken meat: yum! It’s a healthy, well-balanced meal that ticks all the boxes. As for the dessert, well, it was a bit of a disaster, I guess watermelon didn’t really go well with tapioca pearls (mango would’ve been perfect) and the sorbet was way too sweet (I got a bit lazy with measurements and whatnot :X). Sigh, oh well. Next time, next time.

'Watermelon Tapioca with Watermelon Mint Sorbet'

Now, onto melon pans!