Lazy but Tasty: Niçoise Salad & Microwaved Chocolate Cake

Tonight was one of those nights I couldn’t be bothered cooking a full warm meal but that doesn’t mean I compromised on wholesome (disregard the cake) and flavourful. I could have just torn open packets of Indomie but I already did that for lunch 😳 (yes, one of my guilty pleasures; I can so hear my mom ranting about MSG and hair falling..heheh..MMMmmmm..all the more yummier when you add a fried egg on top and some wilted greens on the side)

Anyway, noodle temptation dissipated and jungle of homegrown lettuce beckoned so I got my scissors and snipped a basinful of cos lettuce; there were also some green beans left in the fridge that I harvested the other day. Armed with my giant can of tuna, a punnet of grape tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, anchovy fillets and leftover dijon mustard vinaigrette, I made hasty work of boiling the potatoes and eggs and voila! a Niçoise salad of sorts. The only usual suspects missing were olives and capers.
When I feel less lazy, I will invest in some beautiful tuna steaks instead of the canned version and will sear them just on the outside but still pink inside. When I feel less lazy, I aim to make it look like this:

This, was a gorgeous salad I ate at City Wine Shop on Australia Day and I practically swooned over the softly boiled egg, the wonderfully seared tuna, the bite from the anchovy fillets (which went so well with the egg) and the slightly creamy dressing on the beans. YUMNESS!

Anyway, back to my dinner tonight, J & I decided to eat in front of the TV, whilst watching a movie hence the set-up in the first photo. I decided to throw in a last minute dessert and took laziness to a whole new level with microwaved cake. Indeed I was that lazy; I think the whole cake was done in under 10 minutes or so from preparation to cooked product. J was certainly stunned and a little perplexed when I plonked the whole cake in front of him before he even finished downloading the movie subtitles.
Finesse flew out the door; no measuring cup, spoons or cake tins; just a plain old dinner spoon and a medium-sized corningware dish and in it, 5 tablespoons of self-raising flour, 5 tablespoons of brown sugar, 1 1/2 tablespoons good cocoa powder, 1 egg, 2 handfuls of chocolate chips, leftover cream (100ml I’m guessing from the looks of it) and enough water to form a batter; heck! I didn’t even bother with butter, just grabbed the nearby cooking olive oil and poured it in (probably 2 tablespoons there); gave it a mighty quick stir and zapped it in the microwave oven for about 3.5 minutes. Done! Let’s Eat!…
And then I took a spoonful of cake in my mouth and I was throughly surprised! The last time I microwaved a cake in a mug, it came out dry and hard; disappointing. But not tonight; it was beautifully moist, almost like a steamed sponge pudding! It was a revelation!

Lazy or not, overall a tasty treat.

Note: Microwaved cake is best eaten fresh on the day; it will become dry and hard the next day but this can be fixed by re-warming a small portion in the microwave for about 10-15 seconds on high (any longer and you might end up with charcoal)