Do Your Best, Give Your Best

This is only a part of the 30-minute meals from Jamie Oliver.
30- minute meal? You're pulling a fast one, Jaime. Your book, Jamie Oliver 30-minute Meals has made your fans feeling flustered, stressed and panicky.  Many of them couldn't complete the cooking in 30 minutes. However, all agreed that the meals are delicious, restaurant quality.
Well, I know you didn't promise we can cook within 30 minutes.  If we have read your introduction, we would have  known this is about training and organizing in the kitchen, and with practice we can do a meal in 30 minutes.

I am not a very competent cook albeit an avid one, there is no way I can prepare a 3 course meal in 30 minutes.  I am going to pick some of the recipes from the book to cook at my normal pace and not turn my kitchen into Hell's Kitchen. With practice, I might be able to do it one day.
Today, I am cooking Jamie Oliver's Cypriot Chicken with Pan Fried Asparagus. To complete the meal, Fresh Tomato Soup with Basil from Delia Smith, adapted by Eat your heart out and Focaccia with Onion and Rosemary, a Gary Rodhes recipe adapted by Sonia from nasi lemak lover. .

This soup is incredibly easy to prepare. Delicious and healthy.

Stuff Cypriot Chicken
serves 2
Adapted from Jamie Oliver 30-minute meals

Ingredients

1/2 small bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley
1/2 small bunch of fresh basil
4 jarred sun-dried tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
50g feta cheese zest of 1/2 a lemon 2 x 180g chicken breasts, preferably with skin on and bone in
olive oil
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

Method

• Pile the parsley,basil and sun-dried tomatoes on a chopping board with a pinch of pepper and a drizzle of oil from the jar of tomatoes Crush over the garlic and then finely chop everything together, mixing as you go.
• crumble over the feta cheese and mix altogether again along with the lemon zest.
• Tear off a big sheet of grease proof paper and line up the chicken breasts on it, skin down. Using a small and sharp knife, cut into the chicken breasts to make a small opening where the stuffing can hide. You want to be able to fit quite a bit in there, but  also make it so it can close back up and not fall apart.
• Divide the filling into the chicken breasts, squashing it in and folding the chicken over to cover it.
• Put a large frying pan over medium heat with a lug of oil. Place the chicken breasts in skin side down.
• Take a new piece of grease proof paper slightly bigger than the saucepan. Scrunch it up into a ball, rinse it under the tap, and then tuck it over the chicken  as a cover.
• After about 5-10 minutes in the frying pan, the chicken should be golden underneath. Carefully turn the chicken breasts over and throw the rosemary on top. Cover again with the grease proof paper.
• After chicken is done, place on a chopping board and carefully slice the chicken. Pour any leftover pan juices over the chicken slices and serve.

I never like chicken breast, but this is very tender and really soft and flavorful from the cooking method (wet grease proof paper cover) and herb stuffing. You can use any herbs you like with the stuffing. It is best not to serve on a wooden board because the board absorbs the pan juice quickly. I cooked half recipe.

I recorded this because the foccacia was so crispy outside but soft and moist inside. I used red onion because that was what I had and also ran out of fresh rosemary.

Do Something Beautiful For Jesus (Sunday sermon)
Mark 14:1-9

I ponder on my best offering to Jesus.

Serving 
Is my best offering of Sunday School lessons thoughtfully, carefully and prayerfully prepared?

Witnessing
Is my best offering of witnessing fearful, hesitant and uncomfortable?

Walking
Is my best offering of walking closely irrelevant, inessential and at random?

Are all my best offerings for own gains, pride and glory? Are all my best offerings strained, burdened and wearied?

I am comforted to know in Colossians 3;23-24
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.


2 Timothy 2;15
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.