Chicken Pasta With Avocado

This is one of my favourite lunch recipes. Great for taking to work or on a picnic. It's also a good way to use left over cooked chicken from your Sunday roast. 

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts (you can also use leftover cooked chicken)

150g penne pasta

Cherry tomatoes

Cucumber

Small tin of sweetcorn

Cheese (any hard cheese you like)

Avocado

1tsp honey

2tsp whole grain mustard

Mayonnaise 

Salt

Pepper

Method

Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and cook in the oven on 180°c (gas mark 4) for about 35 minutes. 

While the chicken is in the oven cook the pasta then drain. Set aside the chicken and pasta to cool.

Chop the cherry tomatoes in half, slice the cumcumber, dice the avocado* and throw it all into a large bowl. Cut the cheese into chunks ( I used white cheddar ) and add this to the mix.

Next drain the sweetcorn and put into the bowl along with a few tablespoons of mayo and the honey and mustard. 

Add the cold chicken and pasta and mix all the ingredients together. Serve with salad leaves and enjoy. 

*if saving the pasta it is best to add the avocado the same day as you are going to eat it. 

Crochet Mandala For Yarndale 2014

Yarndale is described as a "creative festival celebrating all things wooly and wonderful". Held in Skipton 27th and28th September the festival is a place to purchase yarny goodies, be inspired and chat to other yarnoholics. 

There are more details on the website http://yarndale.co.uk/

Lucy of the wonderful attic24 is collecting Mandalas to create an amazing display at the Yarndale festival. The information is on her blog http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2014/05/mandalas-for-yarndale.html

The idea for mandalas came from the famous cycle race Tour De France. Here is my contribution for this spectalicular display. 

I have used Dk cotton and a 4mm hook. I picked three pale colours, cream, pistachio green and peach. Two bright shades of, yellow and coral and finally a lovely vibrant indigo purple to create contrast. Towards the end of the project I decided the mandala needed brightening up a bit more so I added a round in a gorgeous tangerine colour. I think it worked well. 

 

Here we go with the first few rounds...

I love the bullion stitch, it creates a wonderful texture and looks like mini tornados of yarn. Although quite time consuming and fiddly it's well worth the effort. 

I wanted to create the spokes on a bicycle wheel in keeping with the Tour De France theme. I used the indigo here so the pattern really stands out. 

This is the finished result. The design was to be no more than 8 inches. Mine measures right on the mark. I enjoyed doing this so much I could have carried on until it was the size of a real bycicle wheel but I managed to resist.

Next I steam blocked my creation by putting my iron on it's lowest setting and hovering it over the mandala and letting the steam do it's job. Then I used white PVA glue mixed two parts glue to one part water and painted it on the back of the design. When dry it creates an amazing effect. The mandala keeps its beautiful round shape and is stiffened to make it easier to hang. 

This is a great technique to use to make projects display ready. 

And hey presto my completed crocheted mandala all ready to go on it's exciting adventure to Yarndale!