Curry Chicken Salad

This is one of my favorite chicken salad recipes of all time. It's super easy to make and it tastes great the next day. It's also super rad cos you can easily change the ingredients based on the things that you have in the house or you can swap an ingredient that you don't really like for one that you much prefer.


Serves about 6

Ingredients

• 6 boneless chicken breasts (skin removed and diced)
• 1 cup of chopped celery (or I sometimes use cubes of cucumber instead)
• 1/2 cup diced apples (red or green, with or without peels)
• 2-3 T raisins
• 1/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans (or cashews, or whatever nuts you feel like)
• 1 t curry powder
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 teaspoon cider vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 1/8 t ground cayenne pepper
• 1 cup mayonnaise (I usually put 1/2 cup mayonnaise and 1/2 cup plain white yogurt to make it healthier)

Method

1. Season or marinade the chicken breasts and shallow fry them.
2. Combine the cooked chicken breasts with the rest of the ingredients in a bowl.
3. Taste and add more salt, pepper or mayonnaise if you feel necessary
4. Cover and refrigerate until its served

Art Imitating Life

Recently I have become quite interested in anything photography related...and I have grown very curious but fond of the effects of Photoshop. Unfortunately I have very limited skills in both photography and Photoshop, but I do hope to improve these once I receive my birthday present from Coates. Rumour has it, it is an awesome 3D digital Sony camera...but we'll have to wait and see :-)

But for now I can only admire the talent of other photographers, and share with you the innovative and beautiful shots below. These are more than just photographs, but rather ART!!!

To see more photographs of similarly awesome scenes click Here, and view the rest of the photos that have been uploaded by various photographers.

My "Daily Shoe" Addiction

I have found such a stunning website called The Daily Shoe. Every day it sends you an email with a different shoe design from various international designers, such as Chloe, Brian Atwood, Sergio Rossi, Yves Saint Laurent, Jimmy Choo, Christian Louboutin and Burberry. Some of the shoes from this website are completely over the top (refer to exhibit A), or super simple (refer to exhibit B) or just plain stunning (refer to all of the below pictures).

 


Exhibit A

 



Exhibit B



    

     

The Daily Shoe just satisfies my craving for absurdly priced shoes by allowing me to perve over a different shoe each day...its like porn for women :-) Except you won't get fired for looking at it at work... So I strongly recommend that you click on the link above and then go to the bottom of the page and type in your email address and await The Daily Shoe:-)

Beware of the Grill- Amazing Chicken Bake

What do you get someone for Christmas, who has everything (except the patience to cook himself a meal)? This person is my brother, and the Christmas present he received was a bunch of dinner vouchers. Basically I offered to be his personal chef once a week for a few weeks. Being the optimist I am (sometimes), I also saw this as a great opportunity to make some new and interesting meals and then blog them. My intentions were to take photos of the meals that I cooked for my brother and upload them with the recipe, but a slight incident with the oven grill, caused the chicken bake meal to be slightly more "browned" than it should have been, and it thus looked slightly less appetising than it should have.

After scraping off the brown/black over-grilled bits my whole family ate this meal and it by far exceeded my expectations and got great reviews from the usual suspects (my family and Coates, my boyfriend)

Serves 6 

Ingredients

45 ml butter
1 large onion, chopped finely
1 large carrot, coarsely grated
225 g mushrooms, finely sliced
3 garlic cloves, chopped finely
600 g chicken breast fillets, cut into strips of squares
380 g IDEAL Evaporated Milk (Lite)
1 packet mushroom soup
20 ml cornflour
250 ml prepared chicken stock
salt and black pepper to taste
4 thick slices white bread (cut the crusts off)
1 extra clove garlic, coarsely chopped
250 ml grated cheddar cheese
80 ml olive oil
45 ml spring onions, coarsely chopped


Directions

Melt the butter in a pan and add the onion and carrot. Saute until translucent then add the mushrooms and garlic.  

Saute briefly then add the chicken and cook just until the chicken becomes opaque- no longer.

Now add the IDEAL Evaporated Milk and bring to a boil. Mix the soup powder and cornflour with a little chicken stock until smooth then stir into the chicken mixture together with the rest of the chicken stock.

Stir until the mixture is thick then season with salt and pepper then spoon into a large baking dish or ramekins.

Mix the rest of the ingredients in a blender/ food processor until crumbled and sprinkle over the chicken mixture. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes or until the topping is crisp and golden. Remove from oven and serve.

If it doesn't brown properly you can grill it...But please BEWARE OF THE GRILL :-)

Frame It!!!

While tirelessly searching the internet for awesome sites and ideas, I came across some stunning ideas for designing your own personal photo frames for your home.  The first idea I found is the "relationship frame". In order to make this, you and your partner need to collect various things from throughout your relationship, such as concert/movies/theatre tickets, photos, festival passes, wrist bands, letters or cards from each other etc. Then arranged all of these items in a collage format on a background, and finally place it in a frame. If there are 3D objects in your collage then a box frame can be used instead. Once your frame is complete put it up in your home, somewhere that you and your guests can see it, to display all the good times you and your partner have had. This is also a stunning gift idea, but it just takes some pre-planning.

Relationship Frame

I'm going overseas in 3 months time and so the next idea, "the Travel Frame", completely and utterly excited me! During your travels, collect various small memorabilia along the way such as aeroplane tickets, photos, till slips, train tickets, tags from things you bought in that country/place etc and then arrange these similarly to the frame above in a collage on a background, and place it in a frame. Put a heading of the place or country that you visited, which can be cut out from photos that you have taken at that place. Then display these frames in your home, and add a new frame to your collection every time you go to another country. This is an alternative to a scrap book, and although you cannot put as many things in these frames as you would in a scrap book, these frames are more accessible to you and your guests. 

Travel Frames

The truth about being a TROOPER

In the hospital in which I work...the highest compliment that one can receive from your colleagues is "Sho you're a Trooper". A trooper being an adventurous, ready to try new things, reliable and AWESOME team player. So when I got a call from the Medical Workshop department last week asking if myself and my friends were 'trooper enough' to sign up for an undisclosed event...I immediately declared we were and signed us all up.  

This mysterious event turned out to be a 5 km run (which I later renamed as a 5km run/walk) leaving from our local sports club at 6:30 on Sunday morning...yes SUNDAY...the day of rest, the last opportunity to sleep in before another week of early mornings!!! I was not sure why I had been invited to this event...but I suspected that it was Karma paying me back after a had caused trouble somewhere along the way. Being the trooper I was, I stuck to my promise and awoke before it was light on Sunday morning to get ready for a race which was exactly 10 times longer than the longest distance I had ever run in my life. I gathered anything I could find that made me look remotely athletic, including a pair of netball tackies, sweat bands, gym pants and a sports bra, and I swallowed a few too many tablespoons of powdered 'Game' energy drink. Now that I looked like a poorly coordinated sports model with a severe case of ADHD I knew I could conquor anything :-) 

The run started with six thousand-and-something people shuffling to get as close to the starting line as possible, while I performed my essential stretches, which involved me showing as many people as would watch how I could climb through my double jointed arms. In hindsight I don't think these stretches were really necessary but they sure did attract the glances of some unusual characters. As the starting gunshot went, signalling us to start running, myself and my friends shared a few awkward comments about how this was just a fun run and we didn't care if we finished or not, and then we started running. As you may have picked up, I've never been much of a runner...but when you find yourself standing in the middle of a road surrounded by the oddest collection of people, who all have one goal you seem to find the motivation to run to the next corner... and the next marshal... and the next water point. This motivation came mainly from the people surrounding me, as I ran I would look around at the people and find a reason to keep running, such as the mom ahead of me who was pushing a pram with one baby in it, while carrying a second baby in a giant harness strapped to her back, and I thought...like hell I'm letting this overloaded mom beat me...and so I kept running until I saw a man running with one leg and crutches in front of me and I thought... if he can do it, I absolutely can and I kept running until I saw a 5 year old child with a Mohawk ahead of me running like it was no body's business and so I kept running. I'll be honest there were many a walk breaks during this time, and some curse words either said or at least thought when my friend Shavaughn encouraged me to keep running even though my legs were telling me otherwise.

THE MEDAL

The race ended with us running onto the sports field while being cheered on by my adoring fans, which consisted of my one work friend and her 13 month old daughter. I was awarded my finisher's medal and a handful of pamphlets advertising future running races, which I was told I should attend... that's only if I'm a TROOPER:-) We ended up having an awesome time...which was partly due to the accomplishment of finishing our first 5km run run/walk, and partly due to the copious amounts of bacon, eggs, mushrooms, tomotoes and Champagne that was consumed after the race.

In order to maintain my trooper status I will be doing the future races, but next time I will be more prepared, as I have found a website on my ever faithful pinterest which has a training program called couch to 5km in 2 months, click here to check it out. My amazing friend and self proclaimed coach, Shavaughn, has also introduced me to another awesome site called Race Results which has all the pamphlets of the up and coming road races in South Africa. 

Wedding Fever

I am completely and utterly, and somewhat inappropriately, obsessed with all things wedding related. This may not seem strange except for the fact that I am not married, nor am I planning a wedding. Despite all this I still find myself drawn to all things white, lacy and romantic. I wanted to share some wedding dress designs from 3 of the most talented international wedding dress designers that I have ever come across. 

Rosa Clará is a Spanish wedding dress designer who has been designing wedding dresses since 1994. Her dresses are available internationally, including in South Africa from Olivelli, which is a wedding boutique in Randburg. You can see more Rosa Clara designs here on her website.

Below are a few of my favourite designs.

Jim Hjelm- My friend Ruth who is getting married soon introduced me to the wonderful world of Jim Hjelm. I don't know much about this label other than that the designs are enchantingly gorgeous. You can see more of his wedding dress designs on his website here.

Below are some Jim Hjelm designs that I would gladly sell my soul for :-)

Maggie Sottero is an extremely well known international designer, whose dresses are available in several wedding boutiques around South Africa, including Olivelli. With her famous name and perfect designs comes a considerably high price tag, but nothing that a second bond on the house won't cover :-) There is such a wide variety of Maggie Sottero designs that pretty much every lady will find her perfect dress in the catalogue.

Unfortunately the Maggie Sottero website's security is as tight as Paris Hilton's mini skirt, so I wasn't able to upload any pictures of her dresses from the website, but if you click here you can see here entire collection of dresses.

If you're not pinning...you're not winning

One of my all time favourite websites is http://pinterest.com/, and it has something of interest for pretty much everyone. It is a giant cyber pin board that allows people to post pictures of things that interest them, under various category headings. When you see a picture or caption from another person that interests you, you can click on the link and it will take you directly to the website with all the information regarding that picture.

        It literally covers every topic imaginable including:

 

• Weddings
• Travel
• DIY
• Babies
• Recipes
• Quotes & jokes
• Fashion- SHOES SHOES SHOES
• Photography
• Hair styles
• Unusual Products
• Animals
• Fitness

You can see all the pins without being a member, but you have to be a member if you want to start your own pinboard or comment on other people's pins. There's honestly nothing better than sitting down with a large cup of coffee, after a long days work to check out all the latest Pinterest posts.



Manny's Special- Beef Trinchado

On Friday I found out that one of the ladies working in my office had not tasted a "Manny's Special". What??? Being the good Samaritan I am, I dragged her off immediately to GrandSlam Sports Diner in Edenvale to show her what she has been missing :-) This is the restaurant/pub/sports bar where the great Manny's special can be found.


Basically Manny's special is this incredible beef trinchado, where thick chunks of beef float effortlessly in a rich but magical gravy. It's served with either extra crispy chips (seen below), potato wedges, mash or a Portuguese roll and I can quite honestly say that it is one of the most incredible dishes around. Despite numerous attempts at bribing the GrandSlam waitresses to share the recipe, I still have had no luck.

Manny's Special Before



Manny's Special After :-)



"Grandslam" has a stunning view from the deck and such a rad vibe, especially on a Friday afternoon after work and during any big sporting events and I seriously recommend that you make a plan to go there and get yourself a Manny's special, or at least get yourself a take away :-)

 

The view



Share a Coke

Now I'll admit I'm not the biggest fan of Coca-cola, but I did find this pretty cool, when I saw it. Throughout 2011 Coca-cola was running a "Share a Coke" Campaign in Australia. You could get a bottle or can of Coke customised with a person's name on it and then you could give them this personalised gift. I thought this was a really cute and creative way of advertising a product.  

A distant relative of mine went to Australia recently and had this can personalised. My surname is Hellyar and I absolutely fell in love with this idea when I saw this photo posted on our family facebook group. My surname is also where the inspiration came from for the name of my blog, as most people find it difficult to say my surname and end up call me Michelle HellYeah :-)

Well Christmas has come and gone, and for me it was an absolute perfect mixture of family, fun, food and most importantly remembering the birth of Jesus. There was also a fair amount of awesome presents that were exchanged and I felt it necessary to share some of the cute and funky gifts that were either received or given by me :-)

 

 Both of these rings are from Sass Diva in Greenstone. There are plenty of other designs, some delicate and others completely over the top, I thought these two were so cute and unusual

 Both the purple scarf and the lace top in the above picture are from Mr. Price, Greenstone. I thought that this top was the perfect way to make a chilled outfit a little more classy and the scarf (which is sparkly and lacy) will add some fun to any outfit

I have no idea where this is from, but it's an evil eye bracelet that I received from my best friend who is Greek. Legend has it that the evil eye will protect the person who is wearing it from evil and from jealous people who wish bad things upon them. 

 As I am taking a trip around Europe next year my fellow traveller and good friend has prepared me with an Italian starter pack, which included a pocket dictionary to help translate the important Italian words and phrases. I am not sure where this is from but it's so incredibly cute and useful

This is a material bag from Meltz in Stoneridge and it's so great because it will add some old school beauty to any outfit

 

And...I received the ultimate gift, an iHome, from my awesome brother. It's basically a sound system for playing songs from your iPhone or iPod while keeping it charged. This was bought on the internet from Buy Cool. Click Here to see the link

Satisfy Your Hunger

I have just finished reading “The Hunger Games”, which is a 3 part series of books written by Suzanne Collins. It has completely won me over along with millions of other readers, including Stephenie Meyer and Stephen King. The first book is currently being made it to a movie which is due to be released in March next year. Click Here to see the trailer for the first “Hunger Games” movie.



The story is set in a post-apocalyptic era, and it is centered around the Hunger Games, which is an event that occurs every year where 24 children are chosen to enter an arena, where they are required to fight to the death. The games are televised for the entertainment of the people in power and the victor of the games is the last remaining participant, who has survived against all odds. Basically is like “Survivor” on steroids, with an underlying power struggle between good and evil!!! It has just enough romance to keep the ladies reading, enough blood and fighting to entertain the guys and some incredibly creative ideas that leave you wondering exactly what this author was smoking when she wrote this book :-)

Safe and Sound is one of the songs off the Hunger Games movie sound track. It's by Taylor Swift and The Civil Wars and after listening to it about 17 times I can declare that it is brilliant and perfectly suited to the theme of the movie.

Going Oriental- Chicken and Lychee Salad

I wanted the first recipe on my blog to be one which was unlikely to FLOP and I therefore decided to try a Salad...with a difference. The best thing about this salad recipe is that you can add and remove ingredients as your taste buds instruct. Although my photography and food display techniques still need a bit of work (refer to picture below) I'll admit that this salad was incredible and received great reviews from the testing team, AKA my family and boyfriend :-)  



If your end product looks like this... you've done it right :-) 


Serves- 4 (or 2 if you're hungry)

The Ingredients

Satay Dressing
1/2 c mayonnaise (low or full fat)
3T peanut butter
1 clove garlic (pressed or finely chopped) 

Salad
1/4 c soy sauce
2T olive or avo oil
1T white wine vinegar
1t grated fresh ginger
1 pinch dried chilli flakes
400g chicken fillets (skin removed and cut into strips)
2t sunflower oil
3 handfuls of spinach leaves (cut up fine)
400g lychees (fresh or tinned)
4 spring onions
2 medium oranges (peeled and sliced)
2 plums (pitted and sliced)
3T roasted sesame seeds
1/2 cup roasted almond flakes

The Method

Make the dressing by whisking all the dressing ingredients together, and then set it aside.

Mix the soy sauce, olive/avo oil, vinegar, ginger and chilli flakes together in a bowl. Place the defrosted chicken strips into this marinade and place in the fridge for 30-60 minutes.

Heat the sunflower oil in a large frying pan. Then place the chicken strips in the pan and stir fry them, on high heat for about 3 minutes until they are cooked through but still soft and juicy. Leave these aside to cool.

Place the spinach leaves, lychees, spring onions, oranges and plum slices in a bowl and mix it up. Cover this with the cooked chicken pieces and sprinkle with almond flakes and sesame seeds.

Drizzle the salad dressing over the salad

Serve and enjoy 

From small beginings to great things!

Well this is my first official blog post, and I hope that it is the first of many interesting and awesome posts about the world that I live in. It has officially taken me 4 hours to set this blog up, due to an excessive amount of thinking and consideration that went into answering the countless 'set up' questions asked by Google regarding everything from my interests to my gender, which should have been easy to answer had there not been 3 options...Male, Female and other. However I have managed to focus my short attention span on the setup process for long enough to get to the point of the daunting FIRST POST:-)

My blog is not focused on a specific topic, hobby or interest, as my biggest interest right now is coffee/cappuccinos/lattes/espressos and I'm sure no one wants to read an entire blog about caffeine. So instead I hope to introduce you to the randomness of the life of a 20 something South African blogger...

In Memory of Frank Sinatra on his birthday 12 December, I wanted to share this quote by him:

"Luck is only important insofar as getting the chance to sell yourself at the right moment. After that, you've got to have talent and know how to use it."