Today’s recipe is a dish that I can only dream of eating… Making cheesy freezer meals for Mike is kind of torturous. Mike swears these shells taste awesome. I can assure you that they smell awesome, but I couldn’t try them.
Cook pasta according to package directions, being careful not to over cook. When pasta is al dente, drain and set aside.
Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Add chicken and cook until browned and cooked through, stirring occasionally. Once cooked, remove chicken to a separate plate.
Add more oil to pan, if necessary, and add in onions and garlic. Cook, stirring frequently, until onions are translucent. Stir in spinach, cream cheese and almond milk until cream cheese is melted and mixture is creamy. Stir in cooked chicken. Sprinkle in half the Parmesan cheese and stir until evenly distributed.
Spray two 9×13 baking dishes with olive oil. Spread 1/4 cup of sauce into the bottom of each pan. Spoon filling into cooked shells and arrange in baking dishes. When all shells are filled, drizzle remaining sauce onto the top of the shells and sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese.
To serve immediately, preheat oven to 350 and bake for 20-25 minutes. Filling should be hot and bubbly and Parmesan cheese should be melted and lightly browned.
If freezing, prepare as directed using freezer and oven-safe containers. Defrost dish in the refrigerator. Preheat oven to 350 and bake for 35-40 minutes or until filling is hot and bubbly and cheese is melted.
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I am always with those that I love, surrounded by tons of good food. I’ll be honest – I really don’t like turkey that much. Thanksgiving meals are all about the side dishes to me. Stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, veggies… those are the dishes that take up prime real estate on my plate. Buried underneath all that goodness will be the smallest piece of turkey possible.
I actually made this chicken and dumpling soup a couple weeks ago after a business trip. During my trip, I ate a small-town family restaurant and got their chicken dumpling soup. It was pretty disappointing – watery with a million tasteless dumplings and no chicken whatsoever. When I finally got home, I had two things on my to-do list: 1) Give Mike a kiss and 2) Make some chicken dumpling soup. Let me tell you – this recipe was a million times better than the restaurant stuff. I’m hoping to make this soup again with leftover turkey – I imagine that the results would be just as tasty.
Chicken or Turkey Dumpling Soup
1 1/2 pounds chicken breast
6 cups low sodium chicken broth
3 cups water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 stalks celery, chopped
4 large carrots, chopped
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
for the dumplings: 1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
Place chicken, broth and water in a large pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover, and cook until chicken is cooked all the way through. Remove chicken from the pot and set aside. When cool enough to handle, shred the chicken.
Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add in onion, garlic, celery and carrot. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 – 7 minutes, or until vegetables are tender. Transfer cooked vegetables into broth.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour and 1/2 cup water until well combined. Whisk in ground mustard and thyme. Add mixture to broth and add in bay leaves and shredded chicken. Bring soup to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to a simmer, and cook for 15 minutes.
While soup is simmering, make the dumplings: Whisk together flour, thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper. Whisk in almond milk until combined.
Once soup has cooked for 15 minutes, bring it back to a boil. Drop dumpling dough by tablespoons into the soup. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until dumplings are cooked through. Remove bay leaves before serving.
I’ve been prepping freezer meals for Mike to eat when we’re apart. Whether it’s because he’s back in Appleton for work, or because I’m traveling for work, or both… I worry about him. He’s more than capable of cooking for himself (I think), but I’m happier knowing that he has a good meal waiting for him at home. I’ve made a ton of stuffed shells and baked fettuccine Alfredo for him so far. Basically, foods that I can’t eat because they’re loaded with cheese. I haven’t documented any of those meals because I haven’t had the opportunity to take photos of the finished product. I’ve now realized that that is a little silly. I’m spending hours making new meals that I’m not sharing.
Since I’m pretty sure that there can be no shortage of freezer meals in the world, here you go – my first contribution to the Freezer Meal World – chicken enchiladas.
Freezer-Friendly Chicken Enchiladas
1 teaspoon canola oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 jalapenos, seeded and minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup tomato sauce
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 cup water
salt and pepper
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast or thighs (I used both)
1 cup shredded montery jack cheese, divided
1 cup shredded white cheddar cheese, divided
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
10 10-inch flour tortillas
olive oil spray
Heat oil in large pan over medium heat. Add in onion, jalapenos, and garlic and cook, stirring often, until onions have softened, about 5 – 8 minutes. Stir in chili powder, cumin and sugar and cook, stirring frequently, for about 30 seconds. Add in tomato sauce, tomatoes, and water and stir to combine. Bring sauce to a simmer. Lower heat, and let sauce cook until thickened, about 5 minutes.
Place chicken into the sauce and cover the pan. Reduce heat to low and cook for about 15 minutes, or until chicken is completely cooked through. Remove chicken to a plate to let cool slightly.
Meanwhile, strain the sauce through a fine mesh strainer. Press down on the tomatoes and onions to push out as much liquid as possible. Place the tomatoes and onions into a large bowl and set aside. Set sauce aside.
Shred chicken and add into bowl with tomatoes and onions. Stir in 1/4 cup of reserved sauce, 1/2 cup of montery jack, 1/2 cup of cheddar, and the cilantro.
Preheat oven to 425°F. Spray a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray. Spoon ~1/3 of the filling into the middle of each tortilla. Roll up tightly and place, seam-side down, into the prepared baking dish. Repeat with the remaining filling and tortillas. Lightly spray the tops of the tortillas with olive oil. Place the enchiladas into the oven, uncovered, for 7 minutes to slightly brown the tortillas.
Remove the enchiladas from the oven and pour the remaining sauce on top. Sprinkle with the rest of the cheese.
To cook right away: Preheat oven to 375°F. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for 5 more minutes to brown the cheese. Remove from oven, and let cool slightly before serving.
To freeze: Cover the baking dish with a lid and freeze until ready to eat. When ready to eat, take the dish out of the freezer. Preheat oven to 375°F. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes or until heated through. Remove foil and bake for 10 more minutes or until cheese is lightly browned. Remove from oven, and let cool slightly before serving.
This delicious stew was accompanied by one of my biggest cooking fails. Ever.
I’ve had this recipe on my “to-cook” list forever. I was inspired by a local restaurant, Buraka. They have to-die-for peanut stew and they serve it with really, really great injera. For those of you who haven’t had injera, it’s an Ethiopian flatbread that has a spongy texture and a bit of a tang. Like a cross between a pancake, crepe and… sourdough bread? I’m not sure how to explain it, but it’s awesome.
Sadly, Buraka was forced to close at the end of October. The building it was in is being torn down and turned into another residential building. Sigh. To make it worse, two more of my fave Madison restaurants were also displaced because of this – Husnu’s and Kabul. This closing meant the end of any peanut stew and injera deliciousness. So, I set off to recreate it. I was partly successful. The stew was pretty good. The injera? A total fail. As in – the smell and taste of it made me want to curl up into a ball and die. I obviously won’t be sharing the injera recipe with you today (or ever – I don’t think I’ll attempt it again), but I do have the chicken peanut stew for you.
African Chicken Peanut Stew
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 large onion, chopped
3-inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced
8 garlic cloves, minced
3 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
1 – 15 ounce can crushed tomatoes
4 cups low sodium chicken stock
1 cup natural creamy peanut butter
1 cup roasted peanuts
1 tablespoon ground coriander
2 teaspoons cayenne, or to taste
salt and freshly ground black peppers
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
cooked rice, for serving
Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Salt chicken pieces and, working in batches, brown them in the oil. It’s important that you don’t overcrowd the pot. Set the browned chicken aside.
In the pot, saute the onions for 3 – 4 minutes, scraping the browned pieces off the bottom of the pot as you cook. Add in the ginger and garlic and saute for another minute.
Add in sweet potatoes, chicken broth, tomatoes, peanut butter, peanuts, coriander and cayenne and stir well to combine. Taste the sauce, and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper as needed. Place chicken pieces into the pot and bring to a simmer. Cover and let cook for about an hour, or until the chicken is fully cooked and sweet potatoes are tender.
Remove chicken pieces to a bowl and let cool slightly. When cool enough to handle, shred the chicken and place back into the pot. Stir in cilantro and serve hot with rice.
I’ve been a little scattered lately. I wrote up a menu plan for the week, made a grocery list, and set off to the store with Mike. We finish shopping and go back home only to find out that I had been shopping off a partially completed grocery list. This meant that I didn’t have enough ingredients to make any of the meals that I had planned on. Oops. Thankfully, I had some garden zucchini and a cute little eggplant from a coworker to work with. I whipped this up with what we did have on hand and it ended up being not only edible, but pretty darn good!
(P.S. It’s really, really good with a health drizzle off sriracha 😉 )
Curried Chicken with Zucchini and Eggplant with Pearl Couscous serves 4
for the couscous:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/3 cup pearl couscous
1 3/4 cup low sodium chicken broth, hot
for the chicken:
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 medium eggplant, cut into ½-inch pieces
1 large zucchini, cut into ½-inch pieces
1 large onion, chopped
15 ounce can tomato sauce
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 cups cherry tomatoes
Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add couscous and cook until lightly golden, about 5 minutes. Add broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover, and let cook for 10 minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed and the couscous is tender. Set aside and keep warm.
While couscous is cooking, heat 1 teaspoon olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper and cook until brown on all sides, about 5 minutes. Remove chicken to a bowl and keep warm. Add eggplant to the pan and cook for about 3 minutes. Add in zucchini and onion to the pan and saute for an additiona 2 minutes. Stir in tomato sauce, curry powder, garam masala, and red pepper flakes. Taste, and add additional salt and pepper, if desired. Stir to combine and bring to a simmer. Add chicken and cherry tomatoes to pan and cook until chicken is cooked all the way through and tomatoes burst, about 5 minutes.
Today’s Feeding America prompt: “We know that low-income Americans have to make choices between groceries, prescriptions, gas for the car, utilities, and other household necessities. After living on a limited food budget this week, how has your perspective changed about the decisions families facing hunger must make?“
Simply put? I can’t imagine it. Even thought I have limited our food budget, our scenario in no way even compares to what millions of families deal with on a daily basis. We were hungry, but we didn’t go hungry. I had the comfort of knowing that I could fail out of the challenge and get something to eat if we did run out of food. These families don’t have that option.
While Mike and I try to stick to a budget, we realize that sometimes things happen. We might need more gas one week. I might get sick and need to see a doctor or pick up some meds (Mike never gets sick…). Or my car brakes might decide to die. Or my car wipers might decide to stop working…. Yeah, my car is a trouble maker. But, we deal with these unexpected expenses. I honestly don’t know what I would do if I had to choose between gas to get to work or a meal for my family. Would I walk? Try to catch a ride from a coworker? What if someone got really sick? Do we go to the doctor? Do we pay for their medication? Having to choose between life essentials doesn’t seem right.
All these “what ifs” make it clear to me that programs like SNAP are essential for low-income families. It’s a good reminder to be thankful for what I have in life.
This Challenge is bringing about a lot of emotions. Mike and I talk a lot about food insecurity and poverty on the way to work. It’s a really intense way to start the day. Things are getting a little easier for me now. We only have 2 more days left of the Challenge and I can tell that we will have enough food. It’s still hard not having the luxury of eating whatever we want, whenever we want, but I’m starting to adjust.
Unfortunately, I think I’m also getting sick. All I wanted to do after work is eat a bowl of mango sorbet and go to bed. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t even skip making dinner because if I didn’t cook dinner that would mean I wouldn’t have lunch the next day. Blargh.
What we ate today:
Breakfast: savory oatmeal with an egg (me) and peanut butter toast with sliced banana (Mike)
Snack: peanut butter toast with 1/4 banana (me) and a cookie (Mike)
Snack: peanut butter toast with 1/4 banana (me) and turkey sandwich with mustard (Mike)
Dinner: chicken fajitas with guacamole, tortillas, and sauteed zucchini (Mike also had cheese and sour cream)
Snack: raisins
Easy Chicken Fajitas
for the chicken:
1 lime, juiced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
salt and pepper, to taste
2 boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 teaspoon canola oil
for the vegetables: 3 onions, halved and sliced into 1/4-inch pieces
2 bell peppers, sliced into 1/4-inch strips
salt and pepper, to taste
to serve: flour tortillas
sharp cheddar cheese, grated
light sour cream
guacamole (see below for recipe)
In a shallow bowl, combine lime juice, garlic, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper*. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed. Add chicken and turn to coat. Cover and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, turning every 10 minutes.
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, Brown chicken and cook until cooked through and meat is no longer pink in the middle. Remove from heat and keep warm.
Using the same skillet, add vegetables and saute until tender-crisp, about 10 minutes. Slice chicken into 1/4-inch pieces and toss with vegetables. Serve immediately with tortillas and garnishes, if desired.
*I made a double batch of this marinade and mixed half of it in with my garden zucchini! I seeded the squash, quartered it, and then sauteed it with the marinade over medium heat for about 15 minutes until tender. Delish 🙂
This guac made not being able to have cheese and sour cream on my fajita a little more bearable. I ate a ton of it. Splurging on an extra avocado during the shopping trip was totally worth it!
Guacamole
2 medium avocados
1 lime, juiced
2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/4 onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper, to taste
In a medium bowl, mash avocados with a fork. Mix in lime juice, tomatoes, onion, garlic, salt and pepper. Stir until well combined.
Today’s prompt: “How has eating on a limited budget impacted your mood? Your concentration? How has that impacted your interaction with family and coworkers?”
I’m not as happy and motivated as I normally am. My concentration is a mess. I’m constantly thinking about food – whether we will have enough, when I can eat next, why the hell is my stomach always grumbling?!, what I will do if we run out of food. It’s definitely affecting my productivity at work. I can’t say my interactions with family and coworkers has really changed. The biggest change between Mike and me is that I am constantly asking him if he’s doing ok, if he’s hungry, if I can get him anything. I’m worried about him and obviously don’t want him to be hungry. I feel bad for making him go through this when he’s trying to study for his exams.
My energy levels are l-o-w. I went for a 7 mile run after work today and it… sucked. I don’t know how else to put it. My legs felt like lead the entire time. My stomach ached. I didn’t have gum to chew. At the end, my body felt like it had just done a 20 mile run, not a 7 mile run.
Here’s what we ate today:
Breakfast: toast with peanut butter (Mike) and savory oatmeal with fried egg (me)
Snack: red grapes
Lunch: three bean turkey chili with elbow macaroni
Pre-run snack: 1/2 banana each and a couple raisins
Dinner: pepper chicken with white rice
Snack: spoonful of peanut butter (Mike)
Snack: peanut butter banana oatmeal raisin cookies
The best thing I had today were the grapes. They were so sweet and juicy and I had to stop myself from shoving fistfuls into my mouth. I brought about a cup of grapes to work and rationed them throughout the morning. Every time I finished a project or approved a contract, I got to eat a grape. Oh, and the iced tea with lemon juice I had with dinner? So good. I’m usually a plain water kinda gal, but I really needed something else to drink!
I’m not gonna lie – dinner was pretty fabulous, too. During my run I went past a couple Chinese restaurants (and a few bars… and a few chocolate shops…) and it all smelled so good. Like it was taunting me. Jerks. I was sweaty, tired, and worst of all – hungry. I wanted to cave in and get takeout for dinner, but that obviously wasn’t an option. Thankfully, this pepper chicken hit the spot! Mental note: do not run down streets lined with restaurants/chocolate shops/bars/bakeries any more this week.
Takeout Fakeout – Pepper Chicken
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/4 inch strips 1 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, divided pinch of salt 1 tablespoon corn starch 1 teaspoon canola oil 2 small onions, halved and thinly sliced 3 cloves garlic, minced 2 chile peppers, thinly sliced, optional 2 bell peppers, thinly sliced 8 ounces mushrooms, quartered 3 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
steamed white rice, for serving
Sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon of the black pepper and the salt over the sliced chicken. Dust chicken with cornstarch until well coated.
Heat canola oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, Add chicken and cook until browned and cooked through, about 3 – 5 minutes. Move to a bowl and keep warm.
In the skillet, add in onions, garlic and chile peppers (if using). Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are soft, about 3 minutes. Add in bell peppers and mushrooms. Stir in soy sauce, white pepper, and remaining 1 teaspoon black pepper until well combined. Cook for 3 minutes or until bell peppers are tender-crisp. Stir in cooked chicken and toss to coat with sauce.
Today’s Feeding America prompt: “How would this experience be different if your spouse and children were also eating off a limited food budget for the week?”
Well, I guess it wouldn’t be any different since Mike is doing the challenge with me. I actually think it would be more difficult for me if he wasn’t on it because he would have the luxury of eating whatever he wanted while I was stuck with what I’ve already purchased! That said, I think Mike would be happier if I were doing the challenge alone; he’s studying for some big exams this week and not having food to munch on has been hard for him.
Day 2 was a little more than Day 1. Yesterday, we spent a lot of time outside at the farmer’s market and just walking around outside. Today, it was raining the entire day. So, instead of doing our 7 mile run and doing other stuff outside, Mike studied all day and I worked on blog stuff. Sitting around usually leads to mindless munching for us, but this time it wasn’t really an option.
What we ate today:
Breakfast: oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins, tea, water
Lunch: sweet and sour chicken, white rice, tea, water
Snack: spoonful of peanut butter with raisins
Dinner: sweet and sour chicken, white rice, water
Snack: Mike had another spoonful of peanut butter
Late night snack: oatmeal with pepper, salt, and dried herbs
Sweet and Sour Chicken
2 teaspoons canola oil
2 chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 bell peppers, seeded and chopped
2-20 ounce cans pineapple slices, chopped and juice reserved
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons corn starch
cooked white rice, for serving
Heat canola oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add chicken and brown on all sides, 3 – 5 minutes. Add in onion and garlic and cook until onions are translucent.
In a separate bowl, whisk together pineapple juice, brown sugar, vinegar, soy sauce and corn starch. Pour into skillet and stir to combine. Reduce heat to low and add in bell peppers and cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce has thickened. Stir in pineapple and let heat through, about 1 minute.
Folks, we are up to our ears in tomatoes. Still. It’s been week after week of a million tomatoes. I did one round of canning and got 7 jars out of it. I think I’m all canned out for the season. It’s just not worth all the work.
Unfortunately, that leaves me with about 40 pounds of tomatoes to eat. Every week. I cook with them as much as I can. I bring them to work and try to pawn them off on my coworkers. I lure friends into my home and then won’t let them leave until they take some tomatoes.
Is it bad to say that I’m actually kind of sick of tomatoes? Even worse, a lot of the delicious tomato recipes I’m seeing are filled with my most recent nemesis – cheese (insert sobbing here).
Fortunately, there are recipes out there that are easily adapted to be cheese-free. This recipe happened to not only use up a decent amount of tomatoes, but I was also able to sneak in a garden zucchini and some of our garden hot peppers as well. Win!!
Chicken with Cherry Tomatoes, Corn, and Zucchini
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
salt and pepper, to taste
2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
1 lemon, zested and juiced
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups corn kernels (from 2 ears of corn or frozen)
2 medium zucchini, quartered, seeded, and cut into 1/4″ pieces
1 bunch green onions, whites sliced
2 small fresh red or green chile peppers, finely chopped
3 cups cherry tomatoes
4 cups arugula
1/2 cup parsley
Butterfly each chicken breast by cutting it in half horizontally and season on both sides with salt and pepper.
Heat oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Cook chicken 3 – 4 minutes on each side, or until cooked through and internal temperature reaches 165°F. Remove chicken to a plate and keep warm.
Add remaining 1 teaspoon olive oil to pan. Add in lemon zest, lemon juice, and garlic. Cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add in corn, zucchini, green onions, and green chiles. Cook until vegetables are tender-crisp, about 4 – 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes and parsley and remove pan from heat.
Top each chicken cutlet with a handful of arugula and a healthy scoop of vegetables.
Here I am again, yelling from the rooftops about easy dishes. It seriously doesn’t get easier than this. Broth + leftover rice + chicken = dinner. Nice, huh? Simple enough that even Mike could make this 😉 I used leftover rice from the California Rice & Beans and that cut down on cooking time considerably. Brown rice takes about 40 minutes for us to cook, but the broth for this dish was ready in about 10 minutes. Having the leftover rice meant that I didn’t have to putz around for another 30 minutes waiting on the rice to finish!
Easy Japanese Chicken and Rice Soup adapted from Eating Well
2 cups cooked brown rice 6 cups low sodium chicken broth 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar 1/4 cup reduced sodium soy sauce 2 tablespoons mirin 4 eggs, beaten 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed into 1/2-inch pieces 1 yellow squash, quartered lengthwise and sliced 4 green onions, sliced and divided
Heat broth in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Pour in sugar, soy sauce, and mirin and bring to a simmer. Add chicken and squash to the broth. Gently pour in eggs and let cook for 2 minutes before gently stirring with a pair of chopsticks or a spatula. Stir in 3 of the green onions and allow to cook for 1 – 2 more minutes, or until chicken is fully cooked.
Divide rice between 4 deep bowls and top with the chicken mixture. Garnish bowls with remaining green onions and serve immediately.
DoughSeeDough 