Caricatures, chicken stew and some great offers

Hello again, I don’t suppose you expected another blog from me so close to the last one but I had a few more things to tell you about for this week, so it’s just a quickie!

Before I get to telling you about those offers there’s a few things to shout out first. I was very amused by the caricatures Tommy Cross had done for us on his Today’s Special Value shows of the Bell & Howell tac pens. He pretended to draw it during the show and then produced it as a surprise at the end which I thought was a really fun touch.

I’ve only ever had one caricature done before and it didn’t look anything like me but I thought this was rather good. What do you think? All of us presenters have our pictures outside of our presenter dressing rooms so we know who is where, so I have swapped this in, let’s hope it’s a good enough likeness for the rest of the team to know where I am!

Next, I shared a dish I was making for dinner the other night on my Instagram stories and I asked you to vote as to who wanted the recipe and it was 291 yes votes to 18 no’s so here it is!

Chicken in coconut milk, turmeric and chickpeas

This recipe is actually based on a vegetarian recipe known as ‘The Stew’. I do my own version of it though and have made a number of swaps and additions for an easy quick dish. Tilda really like this one too so I dish her up a plate before I add the chilli flakes!

You’ll need:

1 pack of chicken thighs, there were 6 in the pack I used (you can use breast too but thighs are cheaper and soak up more flavour)
1 can of Coconut Milk
1 can of chickpeas
Turmeric
2 cloves garlic
1 red onion
Chilli flakes
Chicken Stock
1 bag Spinach (you can use frozen too)
Salt and pepper to taste

Dice up the onion and garlic and fry in olive oil on a medium heat in an oven/hob-proof casserole (I use a cast iron Le Creuset) until the onions are soft and starting to brown. Empty these onto a dish and set aside. Then add the chicken with a dash more olive oil to the pan and turn the heat up a little so that you can start to brown the chicken thighs.

You can then add the onions and garlic back in followed by a teaspoon of turmeric and chilli flakes (I leave the chilli flakes ’til the end if feeding Tilda too, Ivy won’t eat it either way!) stir it in for a minute or two and then add the whole can of coconut milk. I then dissolve a stock cube or stock pot into a small amount of hot water and then add it to the pan.

Drain the water from the can of chickpeas and add them to the pan and stir in, add salt and pepper to taste. Then add as much spinach as you want, it shrinks so much you usually need to add more than you think! Turn the stew over until all the spinach is starting to wilt into it. Leave to simmer on medium heat until the chicken is cooked through That’s pretty much it.

It’s such a creamy tasty dish, I serve it with rice and naan, if you like it with a lot of chilli then it’s great with a dollop of sour cream.

If you want to get on with other things and not have to stand over the hob while the chicken cooks you can put the lid on the casserole dish and pop it in the oven to cook through for half an hour on 175. It’s quite a cheap dish to make too and you can make it go even further with more chickpeas if you want.

It’s another dish that everything can potentially come from the freezer and store cupboard. I like to have a bag of chopped frozen onions, frozen spinach etc in the chest freezer and I always have either chicken thighs or breast in there too. Everything else I usually have in the cupboard; I cook with turmeric and chilli flakes a lot!

Today’s Special Value – Thursday 3rd December – Julien Macdonald mirror

We have a really fun and glamorous round mirror from Julien Macdonald today (Thursday 3rd). It comes in 4 different colours, clear, smoked, pink and plum. It also comes in 2 different sizes to choose from a 60cm and a 90cm. The pattern around the outside of it is really fun and looks quite intricate and hand-assembled glasswork.

The colours, I hope, will suit lots of different tastes, the pink is of course very feminine and fun, the clear will suit any colour scheme. The plum, which I tried out at home (60cm), is quite dramatic and the smoke I think would go well with a modern decor. It has two metal loops on the back for hanging and will potentially make a beautiful focal point in your home. (make sure the wall you choose is strong enough to bear a mirror of this size, full instructions will be supplied and are also on the website).

Today’s Special Value from Skinsense and Abi Cleeve – available on pre-sell

If you love Skinsense then you are going to love this kit as it contains all your favourites and a brand new launch. It includes the award-winning leave-on mask which has become a favourite at home and amongst us at QVC, the double-strength retinol, customer favourite day cream, restorative eye cream and the brand new nourishing facial oil.

All full sizes and worth £168 but the Today’s Special Value Price is £42.98!! It’s a collection of targeted treatments for helping to improve the appearance of lines and wrinkles, skin tone and texture and of course hydration. It will be launching at 9pm tonight (Thursday 3rd) and all day Friday, or while stocks last. I have a whole hour with Abi at 1pm on Friday with plenty of the other Skinsense favourites too.

That’s it from me, told you it was a quickie! I hope you are doing OK this week? Apparently, there is snow coming to parts of the UK this week so stay warm, stay safe and look after yourselves.

Lots of love Katy xx

PS. As always you’ll find me on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.