---

‘Kids Tea Tuesdays’ has been a popular feature on the blog for some time now, so I’ve decided to shake it up a bit and bring in some fresh blood! We all have our own family favourites, store cupboard classics and frugal food tricks up our sleeves, so why not share yours with us? I’ll be sharing guest posts from fellow bloggers and also any tips, tricks or recipes sent in by you! If you like to get involved, click here to drop me a message.

This week I’m featuring Luciana’s fab chicken and chorizo paella! Luciana blogs over at wordupmum.com and covers a wide range of parenting and lifestyle topics, so if you like her recipe, why not pop over and check out her site! So without further ado, it’s over to the lovely Luciana………

Last year in the lead up to our holiday in Sitges, I started talking about Spanish food and decided it was time to start experimenting. I am Italian, so making a shift across but staying Mediterranean didn’t feel too scary and my daughter, as always, was excited to get involved when I suggested we make paella – my way! Thankfully, the Spanish are pretty flexible with their recipe, often finding variations from region to region.

My paella contains all the traditional elements but obviously, running a tight ship, means we don’t have a seafood parade with our weekly paella! This is one of my ‘go to’ recipes when we have guests and I usually nip to the fishmongers for mussels, prawns and squid to fancy the plate up but for a week night meal, that’s fast, cheap and always leaves you with leftovers for the freezer (or the next day) then this is a must. It’s full of veg, colourful and so far been a winner with almost all kids (except my son who eats white carbs to survive) and the best thing about it is, it is a brilliant dish to improvise, don’t worry if you don’t have all the ingredients, it still works! I am a bit of a hash bash, fling it all in cook so I measured out roughly when I made it last time to give you the best idea of measurements to use, this is also why I am a terrible baker (hash bash does not work with baking!).

This recipe serves 6.

Ingredients:

• 600g paella rice – I use Sainsburys own brand.
• 1 or 2 cloves of garlic depending on your preference
• 1 white onion (or shallot – whatever you have)
• 1 or 2 carrots (I cheat and buy pre cut carrot sticks that take me seconds to chop)
• A bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 2 or 3 cubes of frozen spinach (chopped, fresh leaves work also, I just always have frozen to chuck into basically everything)
• 100g frozen peas
• ½ ring of quality chorizo – I love Aldi’s
• 2 large free-range chicken thighs: skinless and boneless is the ideal (because who has time to start de-skinning and de-boning, right?) but I had bone in ones as my dad appeared at my door with 500000000000kg he got on special from his butcher (ok I am exaggerating but just a little)
• olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric for colour – don’t worry if you don’t have it, it’s still as tasty
• 1 red pepper – I use sweet or normal, whatever is in the fridge
• 1 tablespoon tomato purée
• 1 chicken stock cube ( I use low salt Kalo ones)
• 1 lemon

Method:

• Peel and finely slice the garlic, roughly chop the parsley, onion, carrot, pepper, chorizo and chicken thighs.
• So I just use a pot but you can use any large pan with a lid, chuck some oil in and put it on medium before throwing in your garlic, onion, carrot, parsley, chorizo, chicken and paprika.

• Let it fry gently and keep stirring it for 4/5 minutes before firing in the pepper, tomato puree and crumble your stock cube and stir for a minute or two before throwing in the rice
• Get it all coated and stir for another few minutes to let it get as much flavor as possible into it before adding 750 ml of water and season with salt and pepper if you wish.
• If the water is cold then pop on the lid and let it come to the boil, I usually use water already boiled out of the kettle to speed it up again and just keep mixing
• Let it simmer on low for 10/15 mins, checking constantly so the rice does not stick
• When it is almost ready, I pop in the turmeric, peas and spinach and mix it through for a further 3/4 minutes

• You are now ready to serve, pop in a plate with a wedge of lemon and there you have it, paella in around 25 minutes!

Enjoy!!

Let me know what you think of this recipe in the comments below and if you’d like to see more of Luciana, you can also find her on:

• Twitter: @LucianaL
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wordupmum/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wordupmum

The most popular Kid’s Tea Tuesdays recipes this week were:

• Very Veggie, Beef Chilli with Crispy Tortillas
• Easy Chicken and Bacon Risotto
• Chilean Style Baked Fish

Why not give one a go this week and let me know how it goes down with your family?

Have you got a family favourite that you’d like to share? Click here to send in your recipe and I’ll post my favourites over the next few weeks!!

Click here for more quick, cheap and healthy dinner ideas and follow my blog for regular Kids Tea Tuesdays! xx