Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Healthy can be delicious... 

Anthony and I have been trying to eat healthier and choose better options... it's been (mostly) successful and not that difficult. The other night I was craving chinese food and as much as I wanted to order Sesame Chicken and an Eggroll... I went online and found a few inspiring Chinese New Year recipes and settled on this yummy option.

And as usual, I had to tweek it to fit our tastes and lighten it up a bit. I opted to swap out the ground beef for ground chicken, used Tamari soy sauce, fresh ginger instead of pickled, 86'd the water chestnuts and chopped up some red cabbage, scallions and cucumbers. Soooooooooooooo delicious and no starch to be found.

Next time I will use a sturdier lettuce. I doubled up the lettuce and we still had a few breaks. I was actually thinking maybe next time using the red cabbage to hold the chicken and chop the lettuce. I'm a risk taker... what can I say? :)

According to allrecipes.com, the recipe yeilds 4 services (2 for us) and is 388 calories/serving or 776/person. But since I swapped out beef for chicken it was only 605/person! That doesn't seem like a lot but little changes like that add up... or at least that's what I keep telling myself! :)

High Five for Friday

I've been following Lauren at From My Grey Desk for quite some time now and love reading her "High Five for Friday" posts. The high fives have spread to other great blogs too and when I decided to expand my humble cooking blog into my humble life blog I knew I wanted to join the fun!


1. I think I'll start off my five favorite things this week with revamping my blog and sending high fives to everyone that follows!

(Yes, that is a pad of sticky notes, and yes, they are amazing!)

2. My smoosh face looking for morning snuggles... how could you resist this:

3. These delicious and slightly healthier Asian Lettuce wraps:

(Recipe here)


4. Yummmmmy strawberry yogurt cake... I need to make this:

Pinned here

5. My last favorite thing of this week was hearing all about Anthony's mom's trip to Sudan. She took some absolutely beautiful pictures of the people. I love this capture of the three boys that wandered on to their compound daily for trail mix:

Check out more pictures and learn about SUDEF

So head on over to From My Grey Desk and check out Lauren's blog as well as links to lots of other High Five Fridays!

Asian Chicken with Stir-fry Veggie Rice

This recipe was formed out of desperation and a ticking expiration date.... "What the heck am I going to do with these 2 chicken legs?" I googled and googled until I stumbled on a few Asian glazed chicken thighs that sounded delicious... so I winged it!

Asian Chicken with Stir-fry Veggie Rice

Ingredients:

2 chicken thighs

1 tblspoon sesame oil

juice of 1 lime

1/4 cup teriyaki or soy sauce

1 tblspoon honey

4 garlic cloves, crushed

ground ginger (or fresh grated if you have it)

1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes

jasmine rice - (2 cups cooked)

any veggies you want about 2 - 3 cups worth chopped

2 tblspoons teriyaki or soy sauce

sesame seeds for garnish

Directions:
Combine sesame oil, lime juice, sauce, honey, garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes and pour into a large ziplock bag. Add chicken to the bag and smoosh around so marinade and chicken make friends. Place bag in refrigerator (after checking for leaks) and marinate overnight.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove chicken from bag and reserve marinade. Place chicken in a shallow baking dish and pat the top skin with a paper towel to remove marinade. Then brush skin with a little olive oil or sesame oil. This will help the skin become delicious and crispy. Pour reserved marinade around chicken (not on top). Bake for 45 minutes.

In the meantime, measure out enough jasmine rice for the number of people, 2 in my case so I used a cup of rice and it made about 2 cups. Put your rice in a mesh strainer (so the holes aren't bigger than the rice) and rinse with cold water until the water is no longer milky. This step is super important for nice flaky light rice. You are basically rinsing a lot of sticky starch out of the rice. Cook rice according to instructions, but keep a close eye on your rice. I always find the instructions call for a much longer time than necessary. When the liquid is absorbed, remove from heat, leave covered and fluff when ready to serve.

About 20 mins before the chicken is done, heat a wok or large skillet over medium. Drizzle in oil and add chopped veggies. Stir fry until veggies are just softened and add either teriyaki or soy sauce. Continue to stir fry until veggies are done, the sauce should be mostly absorbed. Remove from heat, drizzle with a little sesame oil and a tsp of sesame seeds and toss.

Plate a scoop of rice, top with veggies and add chicken to plate. Drizzle as much of the chicken's sauce on the rice and veggies as you like. The sauce is amazing so don't skip the drizzle!

Moroccan Chicken Tagine with Couscous

Last year my office had it's annual Christmas party at a delicious tapas restaurant and someone ordered the Chicken Tagine... I had no idea what it was but it sounded fantastic. It arrived in a strange triangle cone dish and I already liked it. It felt foreign and new... The strange shaped dish is called a tagine and it's a casserole dish made for slow cooking and shaped like a cone to trap moisture and allow it to drip back into the dish. Although I'm sure a tagine would bring back that fun foreign and new feeling, my stock pot did a wonderful job!

Moroccan Chicken Tagine with Couscous

Ingredients:

4 garlic cloves, minced

1tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp sweet paprika

1 tsp salt
1 whole chicken cut up, back and wings removed (freeze and make stock!)

1 medium onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups chicken broth

1 (16 ounce) can of diced tomatoes

2 lemons, one sliced and the other juiced

2 tblspoons honey

1 cup dried apricots, chopped

1 cup greek olives or black kalamata

1/4 cup whole blanched almonds

1 cup couscous

1 handful of chopped cilantro for garnish

Directions:

In a small bowl, mix together garlic and spices and rub all over chicken pieces. Heat a heavy bottom stock pot or casserole over medium high heat. Drizzle in enough oil to coat bottom and add chicken and brown on all sides. Do this in batches so it's not too crowded to brown. Once all chicken is browned, set aside. Add the chopped onion, garlic and any remaining spice mix to the pot. Cook until soft. 

Add chicken broth, tomatoes with their juices and both lemons. Stir to scrape any bits and flavor off  the bottom. Add chicken and cover, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. 

Add in honey, apricots and olives. Simmer for an additional 15 minutes. Taste and season if needed.

At this point, my chicken was so tender it was falling off the bone and the skin had come off. I removed the bones and skin. No other recipe I've ever read suggested to do that, so if you'd like to keep them, by all means. I used tongs and roughly shredded the chicken. Simmer uncovered for about 10 mins until the sauce is slightly reduced. In the meantime, make your couscous per directions on package. In a small skillet, toast almonds over medium heat. Roughly chop almonds.

Add coucous to your bowl, ladle chicken and sauce on top and garnish with cilantro and almonds.
Absolutely DELICIOUS! You could also add a can of chickpeas at the same time as the olives. And I would have if I had them! 

Chicken Paprikash

Hungarian Paprika is one of those spices that everyone should know and love. Some people don't find that the little red tin variety tastes any different than the generic kind. Although I haven't tasted both side by side, I will say that when an entire nation prides itself on one product they call uniquely theirs, it's a matter of quality. Take maple syrup for example, have I ever tried Maine's maple syrup and known it wasn't from Vermont. No. But would I ever, EVER, allow anything but Pure Vermont Maple Syrup into my home? Hecky naw!
So with that clear example at hand, I give you:

Chicken Paprikash

Ingredients:

2 or 3 swirls of EVOO, enough to coat bottom of pan

2 lbs chicken breast, chopped into 1 inch pieces

salt & pepper

baby red potatoes

2 large or 3 medium onions, sliced from root to tip

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

4 tblspoons Hungarian sweet paprika

1 tsp hot Hungarian paprika (or cayenne pepper)

1/2 cup white wine

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

salt & pepper

2 tblspoons butter

1/2 cup sour cream

Directions:

Add potatoes to a large pot and cover with cold water. Add salt and boil until potatoes are fork tender. Drain and set aside. I prefer red potatoes for their silky smooth texture. Next time I make this dish, to add more traditional flair, I'll use chicken thighs and serve it with dumplings instead.

In a large skillet or heavy bottomed soup pot, heat oil over medium/high and add seasoned chicken pieces. Brown up the chicken and remove from pan. Don't worry about cooking it thru as it will go back into the pot to finish. 

Add onions and garlic to pot. Cook while stirring until onions pick up all the delicious bits off the bottom of the pan and start to turn a light brown. Add paprikas (and cayenne) and stir to coat everything. Add wine, broth and chicken. Stir to make sure you pick up any bits off the bottom. Turn heat down to low and simmer for 30 minutes. Taste and season as necessary. 

Stir in butter and allow to melt. Stir in sour cream so incorporated. 

Serve poured over potatoes or noodles or dumplings. Also since there is so much delicious sauce to mop up, some bread would be nice, especially rye bread. 

Pesto Gnocchi with Chicken Sausage

This weekend Jourdan came to visit from Orlando and we went to the Incubus concert in Tampa. It was the best live show I've ever seen. Great set list (although I was hoping for "Make Yourself"), great performance and energy. Anyhoo... we were hanging on the couch talking recipes and Jourdan was telling me she had made one of the Everyday with Rachael Ray recipes and how delicious it was. I decided to give it a shot. Pesto Gnocchi for dinner! I figured after talking so much about it I didn't need the recipe I could "Wing It"... well according to Jourdan, my picture didn't look ANYTHING like it was supposed to... it tasted delicious though!

Pesto Gnocchi with Chicken Sausage

Ingredients:

2 medium tomatoes, sliced into thick slices

2 drizzles of extra virgin olive oil

2 drizzles of balsamic vinegar

1 pinch sugar

salt & pepper

2 swirls extra virgin olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 links of fresh hot italian chicken sausage, remove casing

1 package of gnocchi

1 cup milk

3 tblspoons pesto

handful of parmesan

salt & pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450. In a medium bowl, mix together EVOO, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper. Marinate tomatoes while waiting for oven to preheat. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat with nonstick spray. Lay tomatoes out in a single layer. Roast for 25 minutes or until soft and "roasty looking".

In a large pot, bring water to boil. Add gnocchi and boil for 3 - 4 minutes. Drain and set a aside.

Heat a large skillet on medium with 2 swirls of EVOO. Add garlic and sausage and break up sausage while browning. If you can't find links of italian chicken sausage, look for bulk italian chicken sausage or if you like pork, then use that. This recipe would be delish with chopped chicken breasts and add in italian seasoning. Or don't add any meat and have a veggie dish instead.

Once the sausage is browned up nice, add the gnocchi and toast them up a little. Lower heat to low/medium and add about half of the milk to loosen up the bits on the bottom. Add pesto and stir to combine. Season and taste. Add more milk to control how "saucy it is". The sauce should me smooth and thick, not runny, unless you like it runny...  Add roasted tomatoes and break up a bit in mixing. Add parmesan and stir until melted.  I like to garnish with a little parm and serve with garlic bread (or cheat and pop some texas toast in instead). 

Namaste!

I try to make one dish a month from another country or culture... this week I had a craving for chickpea curry or Chana Masala. I searched and searched for recipes and decided to base it off of a recipe I found on the Candid Cooks blog.  It looked fantastic and her description made my mouth water. I made a few changes and it was phenomenal! I'm pretty excited to now have a few new spices added to my pantry and repertoire.

Chana Masala with Chicken

Ingredients:

2 tblspoon each of butter and extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp of cumin seeds

1 large onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 tsp grated fresh ginger

1 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp garam masala

2 tsp curry powder

1 tsp ground coriander (smells amazing)

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp red chili powder

2 boneless, skinless chicken breast, chopped up evenly

1 can diced tomatoes (DO NOT DRAIN LIQUID)

2 cans chickpeas/garbanzo beans (DO NOT DRAIN LIQUID)

2 tsp salt

1 tblspoon honey

1 cup coconut milk

1 tblspoon greek yogurt

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Directions:

Heat butter and olive oil in a soup pot until foamy then add cumin seeds. Cover and listen for popping, after about 1 minute add onion, garlic, ginger and all the spices. Cook over medium heat until the onions are translucent.

Add the chopped up chicken, tomatoes and chickpeas. The Candid Cook made it pretty clear there would be dire consequences for not using the canned liquid so I wouldn't temp the flavor gods and just follow directions! Season with salt and honey. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer, cover and let it hang out for at least an hour.

Before serving add coconut milk, yogurt and cilantro... allow it to heat thru and ladle over some basmati rice. And it would almost be a crime not to serve some naan along with it!