I made you guys something pretty dang delicious today. I'm excited to share this Simple & Tasty Coconut & Mustard Chicken recipe with you but first a story. I came to a conclusion this weekend that you cannot be something you are not. Want to know how I came to that conclusion. Well it all started with a wedding invitation for my cousins wedding about six weeks ago. It was the perfect opportunity for hubby and I to sneak away for an overnight stay without the kids. I was SO excited for the chance to buy a special outfit and get a little bit dressed up. The outfit buying was a story in itself but one I will tell another day {hello mummy tummy}. I had visions of wearing my hair out and curling it into soft waves. I researched the best curling iron, watched You Tube videos on how to curl ones hair and went ahead and bought an expensive curling iron for the occasion. I wanted to trial this new hair style so that maybe I could step out of scraping my hair into a ponytail everyday.

See I had illusions that if these stay at home mummy fashion bloggers could have this kind of hair then why couldn't I. Mistake number one right there. They probably don't look like this even 10% of the time. So I was already setting myself up for failure. Can you see where this is going? I even practised a little with my new curling iron and ended up burning myself badly on my wrist from it. Mistake number two - wear the glove the comes with the deadly machine. My husband just shook his head at me. I should of knew then this probably would end in tears but I was determined to get my curly flowing locks.

Anyway fast forward to the day of the wedding. We had arrived at our hotel room a couple of hours in advance to get ready for the wedding there. I had about an hour up my sleeve to get ready. Plenty of time since I didn't have kids to wrangle etc. My current going out routine takes me 15-20 minutes to get ready including hair, makeup and getting dressed. I use to take an hour before kids!!!! So I set my new fang dangle curling up and turned it on to heat up. I set it on a hand towel to heat up... Mistake number three - it singed the hand towel while it was heating up it was that hot. Oops.

I proceeded then to section off my hair and curl pieces starting from the underneath like all the good You Tube videos told me to do. I thought to myself, "hey I've got this". I got half way through doing this and then CRACK, BANG and all manner of flashes of light came out of my new beloved curling iron as I placed on the bench after finishing off a curl. I stepped back with a little squeal because I didn't want to get electrocuted. Hubby came rushing in as I'd blew the fuse in our room and turned the TV off he was watching. He just shook his head at me again and then proceeded to tell me that my curling iron is a menace. We located the fuse box in the room and turned the power back on and to my dismay my beloved beast of a curling iron was DEAD. Now by this time I had about 20 minutes left before we had to leave for the wedding. Panic set in. What the heck was I going to do with half my hair curled and the top section straight. I was devastated. Mistake number four - no back up plan. My planning hadn't figured in a catastrophe of this nature.

Then mummy practicality set it. I scraped my hair into a pony tail and got on with the show. Hey I figured I wasn't the bride, no one was looking at me (well maybe a few puzzled stares at my straight versus curly bits) and even if they did think I looked funny, no one was going to remember it the next day. Who knows it could be in vogue next year. You know what, I had a blast that day celebrating with hubby and family and I couldn't give two hoots about my hair. So I figured I'm not ever going to be one of those fashion mummy bloggers with flowing curly hair. I'm The Whimsical Wife who scrapes her hair into a pony tail on a regular basis and will not be investing in other curling iron. You cannot be something you are not!!

So that was a pretty long tale about hair. Onto this Simple & Tasty Coconut & Mustard Chicken. It's getting a little cooler now and it's time to pull out the warmer comfort food. Bye bye salads. This dish was something that was brewing in the back of my mind for a couple of weeks and I finally had a chance to trial it. It was a winner. It's easy, simple and made with real ingredients. It doesn't take long to make and I bet you could even throw it all into a slow cooker if you want to be a bit more organised. I am proud to say my very fussy toddler even devoured this. I was shocked. This one will definitely be staying on the menu. Go nuts with what veggies you can pack into this dish. I ended up adding some peas and zucchini when I warmed this up later in the day after I'd made and photographed it. Serve with brown or basmati rice to bulk it up and you are onto a cracking meal. If you are watching the carbs whip up some cauli-rice like I did over here. It freezes well and tastes even better the next day. This dish also doesn't pretend to be something it's not. It's just plain delicious. Enjoy.

Simple & Tasty Coconut Mustard Chicken

Prep Time: 20 min

Cook Time: 25-35min

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

6 chicken thighs, cut into 1 inch chunks
1 onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 carrot, cut into medallions
1/2 red capsicum, sliced
1/2 green capsicum, slice
1 zucchini, cut into medallions
1/2 cup frozen peas
270ml tin coconut milk
1 1/2 cup chicken stock
1 1/2 -2 tablespoon dijon mustard
1 1/2 tablespoon wholegrain mustard
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon parsley, to garnish

Instructions:

Add a good drizzle of olive oil to a large saucepan over a medium heat.
Place in half of the chicken and cook for 5-7 minutes until brown and caramelized on the outside.
Remove from the pan and repeat with the remaining chicken pieces. Put the chicken pieces aside in a small bowl.
Add a little more oil to the pan and add in the onion and garlic. Saute until the onion is translucent.
Add in all the vegetables except the zucchini and peas and cook for a minute or two.
Add in the coconut milk and chicken stock to deglaze the pan.
Add the mustards in to your taste (i.e add less dijon if you are feeding kids etc) and stir in until combine. Add salt and pepper.
Bring the mustard chicken to the boil with the lid on. Simmer for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile get prepare you rice according to the packets instructions.
Add in the zucchini and peas and simmer on low for a further 10 minutes until tender.
Remove from heat and serve with basmati or brown rice. Garnish with the chopped parsley upon serving.

Cooks Notes

This dish can be done a slow cooker. Simply add everything in the slow cooker and cook on low for 4 hours. No longer as the vegetables could turn to mush.
This dish also freezes really well so double it up and freeze some for another meal.