Grilled Chicken Sandwich & Chocolate Custard Pudding with a chocolate cake base topped with Whipped Cream - a perfect "ME" Lunch...

This one is for all the women out there who haven't had a "me" moment in a while... I look back at my life sometimes and see it seems to be always revolving around my family! I hardly cook myself mushrooms or paneer / cottage cheese b'coz I know there are no takers in the house. My husband and son will eat anything chicken and a few veggies here and there! So my meals are usually dictated by what everyone would like to eat. 


If any of the mother's out there have taken a moment to step back and look at their life they will notice their routine meanders around the child going to sleep and trying to fit in all household chores at that time, especially if you are a stay at home mom or doing their groceries while dropping their child to his / her various classes... have you ever gone for a pedicure and not wondered if your child has eaten or has your house-help finished all the chores??? 


Well, so last night I decided that I am going to have a "ME" day once a week and do something that only pleases me without thinking about anyone else and without feeling guilty about it later!


I know I am totally off the recipe bit but I am coming to it now... so well today, I went to the gym without worrying if the baby will miss me and that was a start! And I decided I won't eat his leftovers however hungry I am... since the baby fell asleep early - I made an easy grilled chicken sandwich for myself than I really enjoy eating and haven't eaten in ages. 


I had some leftover chicken from some soup I had made a couple of days back and shredded it to the bone. I had some hung curd from some mousse I had made yesterday and I wanted to eat something light and yummy - and this is what I came up with!


Ingredients:
1 cup shredded chicken
1/2 onion and 1/2 tomato finely chopped
5-6 jalapeños finely chopped
5-6 olives finely chopped
oregano, salt and pepper for seasoning.


Method: I sauté the onions and tomatoes in a bit of olive oil and then leave them to cool. I beat the hung curd with a fork and add the cooled onions and tomato mixture, jalapeños and olives to it. I seasoned it with oregano, salt and pepper. I sometimes add grated carrots to it also but I was out of it. I then added as much dressing I wanted to my shredded chicken and mixed it lightly.


I added the chicken mixture to my brown bread and grilled it in the toast maker using a bit of margarine. The result was a very nice light dressing for a yummy sandwich! 


By now, I was also craving something sweet and chocolaty and comforting. My husband is more of an ice-cream person and my son is more of a cake person. Well... since, today was my "ME" day I thought I will make myself this chocolate custard pudding that I have been thinking about for a while and whoever wants to eat it more than welcome. Yes, this is a slightly sinful pudding and has the texture of a mousse but since it has custard powder and milk and whipped cream I would like to think of it as a luscious pudding that slowly dissolves in your mouth.... 


Well there are the ingredients:

500grams Milk

40grams Pillsbury Custard Powder

1 tbsp Cocoa Powder (I used weikfield)

¾ cup cooking chocolate

2tbsp Sugar

½ cup low fat cream

1 box cake mix – chocolate

1 tablespoon vanilla essence

Method:

Bake the cake as per directions on the box. Cool on wire rack for about 20 minutes. 

Mix custard powder with half cup of milk and keep aside. Boil the remaining milk with chocolate, cocoa powder and sugar. When it comes to a boil add custard powder and stir continuously and stop it from forming lumps (like you are making a chocolate custard). Remove from heat and let it cool at room temperature. When the mixture is cool, add vanilla essence and whipped cream to this. Now keep the mixture in the freezer till semi-set in the bowl you have mixed it. remove it when it seems semi-set and whisk it a bit with a wire whisk so it kinda smoothens. Now you can assemble this in a big square glass dish or in individual glasses like I did coz I just thought it looked prettier - though you cannot differentiate the layers coz of the chocolate on chocolate! 

I took some liquor glasses and spooned some of the cake into the bottom. Then poured the whisked pudding into them. I topped it off with swirls of whipped cream. and sprinkles to make it a bit girly but you can dress it up more elegantly with a wafer roll or just whipped cream or have it as is!

So this was my extravagant lunch today... what the heck, there is always yoga and healthy salad for tomorrow!