Sunshine and the Wonder of Quorn.

Sunshine.

For two days in a row now - I know, TWO DAYS!  - it has been sunny in Glasgow. 

Yesterday the sunshine initiated an impromptu mini-roadtrip out to Mugdock Country park which is b-e-a-utiful on a sunny day. It did actually snow for about 15 minutes, but a bit of compromise is to be expected. 

We layered up and walked and walked, until hunger drove us home to leftover pasta bake (which improves with age by the way).  Definitely a day for stealing your boyfriend's cosiest cardigan, which he sadly wouldn't let me keep. I think he sensed how attached I was getting... 

And today was spent with my lovely friend Lauren trying to feed squirrels and avoid pigeons, photos of which will probably be the feature of tomorrow's post. 

However, whilst the sun has done wonders for my freckles and happiness, it has somewhat hindered my cooking; only because I have been eating leftovers from last week though! So I'm going to post a recipe which I had in the bank for a day like today, when the contents of my fridge probably won't amount to anything inspirational - hey, it happens to the best of us. Even my mum. 

Orange and Lemon Chicken (Made with Quorn)

Now, I know I've sung it's praises before and I know I will again but I love quorn. I LOVE quorn. It's cheap and tasty and better for you than meat. I am basically a vegetarian, apart from beef and occasionally when we I eat out. But free-range chicken is ridiculously expensive and I am morally against buying anything else. Not that I really mind. Quorn is GREAT. 

Anyway, love-in over. 

Ingredients - 

• As much quorn as you and co. will eat (or, two skinless chicken breasts will probably serve 2-4, appetite dependent) 
• 1 red chilli
• A peeled and grated, 3inch piece of ginger
• 2 cloves of garlic, grated
• 1 red pepper, sliced into strips
• 5 spring onions, finely sliced
• juice and zest of 1 orange
• juice and zest of 1 lemon
• 1 tbsp of soya sauce
• rice or noodles to serve

This is really easy to make, it has a lot of healthy, colourful and fragrant lovely ingredients. Whether you make it with chicken or quorn it is super healthy and tasty. 

1. First step, prep all your veg and spices and put everything (apart from the quorn and the red pepper), including the lemon and orange juice and soya sauce in a large bowl and mix it all together. I have extra dark soya sauce which is why this is so dark, but normal sauce will be lighter and slightly less strong in flavour.
   
2. If you are using chicken, you want to cut it into strips and add it to the marinade and leave for 1hr-2hrs to soak up all the lovely flavours. 
3. Chicken style pieces of quorn normally come frozen. So, you want to pan fry them in a tiny bit of oil until they are defrosted. Then, let them cool. Once they are cool, add them to the marinade mixture. Another beauty of quorn is that it soaks up flavour in an instant, so you will only need to leave it for fifteen minutes! 
   
4. Then, the frying part. Heat your frying pan until it's really hot and add the quorn and all the juices. It will spit a bit so stand back! Add your sliced pepper at this point too. 
   
5. Fry it off until it is all sizzling and the juices have reduced a bit. Serve on a bed of rice or noodles and viola! 

Easy as anything, healthy and tasty and it will last a couple days if you have any leftover.

As with any stir fry, feel free to add any veg you fancy, or even do it with strips of beef if you want, although lemon and orange go particularly well with chicken/chicken-style quorn! 

Now, I'm off to go and do a sun dance in the hope it comes out tomorrow too. 

Jacket hasn't come yet, sad.