Stuffed Chicken breasts with mushrooms & thyme. Followed by baked vanilla cheesecake with a summer fruit coulis

Had a tennis match first thing this morning, followed by a picnic and kayak trip on the Swan River with friends.  This only left me 2 hours in which to finish these recipes. The chicken was relatively easy to make, but instead of pan frying the breasts, I baked them in the oven for a healthier and less time consuming option. The chicken breasts were large, so I cooked 3 between the 5 of us and served them in slices. To give a bit of "va va voom" to the sauce, my father advised that I add some cream to the mushrooms - yum! I served the chicken with kale and new potatoes.
For similar recipe go to:
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/10031/mushroomstuffed-chicken-with-lemon-thyme-risotto

Ratings:
Taste: 6
Appearance: 6 
Difficulty: 5

This was a classic American style cheesecake. Very easy to make, but difficult to find genuine digestive biscuits in Australia. So I had to settle for Granita biscuits (a harder, dryer substitute). The fruit topping was delicious and cut through the sweetness of the cheesecake. Trying to photograph the final plate was a challenge, I had to try hard to stop it looking like road-kill!!
For similar recipe go to:
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2869/new-york-cheesecake

Ratings:
Taste: 10
Appearance: 8
Difficulty: 5

Seared Tuna in a sesame seed crust with Tabbouleh followed by Peach Tarte Tatin

I got back from hiking on the Bibbulmun track after 5 days and 51 kilometers through the bush. Very  dirty, very stiff calves and an absolute hatred of flies! I had more free time on Saturday to cook (with the exception of a decent lie-in!) so cooked for my Parents & Grandparents - we children had homemade pizzas (made by my mother.) Bought the sashimi grade tuna from the Boat Shed, for those who don't know, this is Harrods food hall in Perth with equivalent prices! And dangerously, just a short walk from our house. The tuna was very easy to cook, once it was marinaded it took approx. 30 seconds on each side to cook, which left it very pink in the middle. Apparently, as lovely sat he tuna was, it needed a bit more 'bite', so my parents added some soy sauce. I made the tabbouleh in advance and served it at room temperature. Sadly at short notice I couldn't find bulgur wheat, so instead I used cous cous, which was equally nice and went well with the tuna.

For similar recipe go to: Tabbouleh
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/25915/super+easy+tabbouleh
For similar recipe go to: Tuna
http://www.food.com/recipe/seared-sesame-crusted-tuna-89826

Ratings: Tabbouleh                                                              Ratings: Tuna
Taste: 9                                                                                  Taste: 8
Appearance: 10                                                                    Appearance: 8
Difficulty: 2                                                                           Difficulty: 3


Peach Tarte Tatin
I cooked this dish in a special copper tart tat in dish from Normandy. This is a summery variation of a French classic, apparently mango slices would also work well. The recipe states that this should serve 6 people, but with my Grandfather at the table, it only served 4 1/2 (the 1/2 was me!) Trying to get the skin off the peach and the flesh off the stone was awkward. I also learnt, just in time, to flip the dish away from me to get the dessert out of the pan! Served a la mode!

For similar recipe go to:
http://recipes.coles.com.au/recipes/2545/upside-down-peach-tart/

Ratings:
Taste: 10
Appearance:
Out of the oven 8
Cut up 5
Difficulty: 4

Lamb and Apricot Tagine and Mixed Berry Fool

Tomorrow I am going on school camp, hiking on the Bibbulmun track in Southern WA. We need some healthy energetic food for the long and arduous trek. We have to be at school at 6:30am so my friend Hayley is staying the night. She is celiac, so this is a perfect recipe for her because there is no gluten. The lamb is accompanied by couscous and broccoli.
We have a beautiful Le Crueset red tagine, sadly it is not big enough to cater for 8 of us (my Grandparents are still here!). I am therefore using the old faithful copper casserole dish, which is large enough to feed a rugby team! The lamb tagine tasted to me, like a cross between a curry and a sunday roast, but with lovely spices. It was definitely more stew than tagine and would benefit from the apricots being cut into smaller pieces. It was a 'nice' dinner, but not my favourite!

For similar recipe go to:
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/19945/lamb+and+apricot+tagine

Ratings:
Taste: 8
Appearance: 6
Difficulty: 4

With this all this is happening I decided to make something nice and easy for dessert. I adapted the strawberry fool recipe from the Masterchef Cook Book and made it healthy, by swapping double cream with yoghurt. I used mixed summer fruit and topped the dish off with mulberries from the back garden. Top Tucker!

For similar recipe go to:
http://www.goodfood.com.au/good-food/cook/recipe/mixed-berry-fool-20130725-2qllx.html

Ratings:
Taste: 9
Appearance: 9
Difficulty: 1