Thanks Giada

Tonight i'm giving Giada a go. That is, I'm making Steak Involtini. It's a fancy way of putting steak and cheese together and it looked delicious on the show. Wish me (and Ms. Allclick) luck with it.

The link to the recipe is above but you are basically going to need Parm, Mozzarella, Thin cut London Broil (although we will be using a top cut of sirloin), fresh basil, garlic, olive oil and a jar of marinara sauce. Yum!

Chocolate Rice Krispie Easter nests

It's that time of the year. Easter that is. Not the time of year that I cook. My mum always makes these so I thought I'd give it a whirl this year, Americano style. So here is this quick and simple and kid friendly recipe:

6oz chocolate
4 oz rice krispies
Mini chocolate eggs

Simply melt the chocolate in a microwave (only a few seconds at a time) or I actually boiled water in a saucepan and put a glass bowl over it and melted the chocolate that way, turning off the heat when the water boiled.
Pour in the rice krispies and stir it up.
Then, divide into paper cup cake containers place a couple or three mini chocolate eggs on top and put in the fridge for at least 30 mins to set. Voila!

Substitutions: Now, these SHOULD be made with Cadbury's Dairy milk chocolate and Cadbury's mini eggs but these are ultra expensive here so I went with 7oz of Hersey's milk chocolate and Ms. Allclick likes Robin Eggs so I used a couple of those instead. Oh, and I got the Wal-mart rice krispies alternative to save some pennies. I also used a lot more that 4oz. Probably closer to 10oz. Just pour in a cup and if it still seems chocolatey add more kripies.

Hot, chickin, dippin sauce

Just time for another quick recipe; something I knocked up last night.

1 can of chicken
1/4 cup hot sauce
1/4 cup blue cheese dressing
1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles
4 oz cream cheese.

Bake for 20 mins on 350F and eat!

My advice with this one is to a) have milk on hand and plenty of chips for dipping and b) use an expensive or super nice blue cheese dressing and full fat cream cheese to get it tasting extra rich.

Cheese-topped tilapia

I'm not much of a chef but I don't mind trying out a new recipe every now and then and here's one I tried recently that I thought the Evil Twin's Wife and Chris James might get a kick out of. It's pretty simple (hence why I was able to cook it).

You need:

1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese (yum!)
2 tbsp. butter at room temp.
1 1/2 tbsp of plain yogurt (or Mayo *gags*)
1 tbsp lemon juice (although I didn't use this it would probably add to the flavour)
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/8 tsp. black pepper
1/8 tsp salt
oh and 1 bag of Tilapia Fillets

You need the broiler for this one, so fire it up. Then get a baking sheet ready with aluminium foil and then spray it with cooking spray. Next, get a bowl and mix the cheese, butter, yogurt lemon juice and the seasonings. I used extra cheese. Put the fish on the baking sheet and broil for 3 mins, then turn them over and broil for another 3 mins. Remove them from the oven and put the cheese mixture on and then put back into the oven to broil for 2 more minutes. Mmm good.

Putting on the cheese mixture can be a little tricky cause it likes to melt with the heat of the fish and the above amounts doesn't leave you with very much mixture per fish. So, you may want to increase your amounts of cheese and yogurt and seasonings so you have plenty of cheese coating.

Enjoy!