Chicken stew and cheddar dumplings

So, I grew up eating sauerkraut with pork and dumplings.  My mom always made them with bisquick.  I haven't made dumplings in years and years.  Probably the last time I made them was with sauerkraut - and my husband was not a fan.

Last year, he got me a "One Pot of the Day" cookbook from Williams Sonoma for Christmas, I think.  Today I used it for the first time, in my attempt to try recipes from all of my cookbooks.  (See the Cookbook tab for my tally!)

The stew was quite delish, and it came with homemade dumplings!  Hubby decided that they were pretty good, probably the addition of the cheddar.  My opinion of the stew:
1.  It didn't make enough.  Only dinner for four and a tiny bit leftover for lunch.  This is despite chopping a million vegetables (carrots, celery, onion).
2.  It was heavy on the chicken - 1.5 lbs for the dish.  My own personal preference would have been about half that much, and more vegetables.  Something to tweak next time.

3 days of Indian Feasting

So Sunday was a big day.  I tried a new recipe for Crockpot Butter Chicken.  I'd share it here, but it wasn't great.  I mean, it was okay but not OMG THIS IS AWESOME.  I looked up many recipes, picked the one that matched what I had in the house (mostly), substituted Trader Joe's Thai red curry sauce for the red curry paste + coconut milk.  I know what you are thinking - Thai curry in an Indian dish?  Yeah, maybe that should have been my first clue.  Anyway, I think the problem was *mostly* the garam masala.  I don't really care for it, and this recipe seemed to have a LOT of it.  Even though I cut it down, it was still too much.

So back to the drawing board for butter chicken.

I served it with red lentil curry and roasted potatoes and cauliflower, and we ate it for days.  It was still pretty good.

Funny, when I searched my very own blog for cauliflower to see if I'd posted the roasted potato/cauliflower recipe, I found a link to a crockpot butter chicken recipe, that I apparently made 2 years ago.  I never repeated it, so it also must have been "meh".  Ah well, the search continues.  I don't know why I'm obsessed.  Well, not obsessed, but - I attended an Indian wedding about 10 years ago, and they had butter chicken, and it was awesome.

In any event, the roasted cauliflower and potatoes recipes is pretty simple: chop your veggies.  Start the oven at 400F.  Toss with the following spice mix and oil of your choice (coconut, olive, etc.):

1 tsp coriander

1 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/4 tsp cayenne

3/4 to 1 tsp salt

Roast until your desired amount of doneness, for me, that's 30-40 minutes.  It's especially delish tossed with chopped cilantro.

Chicken in the Crockpot

Wow, more than a month since my last post?  Huh, well life is certainly getting away from me.  What's been up?


End of March: spring break - trip to Disneyland with the family, including my wonderful Mother in law, who was visiting for 1.5 weeks (we miss her).


Early April: tax day!  And my husband was put on a last minute project at work, which involved lots of late nights and weekends.


Last few weeks: back injury - probably from carrying around a 25 lb toddler on one hip.  I started physical therapy (boy my left side is just all messed up from the knee sprain and back issue - and my left leg is currently 3/4 inch longer than the right because of it).


Work: ack, stress!  Lots of rumors of layoffs in the last two months which have picked up in the last week.  Current rumor: layoffs this coming week.  On one hand, hey it would be nice to have the summer off with the boys.  On the other, I'm actually really enjoying my job these last few months.


Health: I've been really healthy since that last bout of stomach flu in January!  Aside from the injuries.  I've finished one session of 21-day fix, and have been modifying the second session due to my own food preferences and injuries.  So far I've lost 17 POUNDS since the end of December, and 7 of them have been on the Fix.  (Still have 15-20 to go).


Cooking: comes and goes.  This week I did NOT make enough on the weekend.  Not sure how that happened, but I essentially had to cook every night this week.  With the work schedule, I've been getting home at about 5:30 pm, and dinner is at 6.  I am also trying to get the toddler off the "baba" (bottle), so there are some fights.  Boy, after waking at 5 am each day, working a full day, sitting in traffic to pick up kids at two different places, cooking is a challenge!  I remember the days pre-kid when we ate out every Friday.  Very tempting, but man, it's just faster and easier and healthier and cheaper to eat at home.


Crockpot chicken: I didn't know what to make today, and frankly haven't been shopping yet.  So I googled crockpot salsa chicken, and this is the first recipe that came up, so a version of it is cooking right now.


Weekend plans: Walk to the farmer's market with the toddler and do grocery shopping.  Shower and go to work for an hour, then off to my quilting meeting where I am ACTUALLY working on the baby quilt for the toddler.  Little late on that one.


Gotta go now though!

Tastes like...

I could say "chicken".  Because we grilled chicken this weekend (it was black on the outside and raw on the inside...not our best work).  And I made my standard Trader Joe's breaded frozen chicken on Tuesday.  And Wednesday we had leftover Crockpot Butter Chicken from last week (I froze it) over the mashed potatoes we had on Saturday. (The most successful dish of the "burned chicken" night.)

But what I really mean is to channel Biz and say "tastes like ass".  Because this weekend I bought some fruit at Ralph's. And it sucked.  I bought pears which were hard and tasteless, and apples that were mealy and gross.  I mean, it's October.  Apple season, right?  Ugh, how can the apples be mealy and tasteless?  They were galas.

The last two pears and the apples are getting turned into applesauce with some better fruits this weekend, from my boss's tree and the CSA.  I bought the apples before the boss brought in the fruit.

I am a fruit snob.  From now on, I will stick to Trader Joe's for apples (pink ladies, never mealy) and cantaloupe, the farmer's market, the CSA, or my boss's trees.  Actually, last week I bought pears at Tri County Produce, and as expected (based on the store name), they were quite good.

The rest of the week has gone along as planned:

Saturday: burned chicken, mashed potatoes, salad.  At 8 pm we were eating the still burned but no longer raw chicken, that was finished in the oven.
Sunday: More of the chicken made into quesadillas with guac, green beans, mashed potatoes
Monday:  The last of the chicken and some frozen meatballs, broccoli, mashed potatoes
Tuesday: Chicken fingers, tater tots, Indian spiced cauliflower

Wednesday: Crockpot Indian Butter chicken, mashed potatoes, steamed cauliflower with feta.  Now, why I didn't make the Indian spiced cauliflower the same night as the Indian butter chicken...I dunno, I'm weird that way.

Thursday: The last of the Indian chicken with some mashed potatoes and maybe more potatoes if we run out of mashed.  And...it looks like carrots.  I think that's the only veg left in the fridge.
Friday:  Wow, I thought the curry chicken would take me until then, but it probably won't.  So probably we'll have grilled cheese sandwiches with a vegetable.

Lunch for the adults is Spaghetti Amatriciana.  I cooked up a pound of pasta and it makes 10 lunches.  Plus we're eating leftover veggies, hard boiled eggs, and carrot sticks.

Breakfast for the kiddo has been pancakes that I made on Sunday morning and froze.  I've been eating yogurt with fruit or toast, depending on whether it's a workout day or not.  Toast if it's a workout day.

The mashed potatoes were quite good and not really pictured.  You can kinda see them under that curry chicken.  We got chives.  So, they have chives, butter, milk, cream cheese, and sour cream.

The Indian spiced cauliflower was great.  I used the aloo gobi spice mix.  I steamed 1/2 head of cauliflower (it was a big head) for 3 minutes in the microwave.  I then sauteed it in one Tbsp oil in a skillet until it started to brown.  Cauliflower absorbs a lot of oil.  Then I added the spices and stirred (I used 1/4 of the spice mixture, because the full recipe has a full head of cauliflower AND potatoes), and added 1/4 cup of water, covered, reduced heat, and simmered about 5 minutes until done.

On that note, I still have a kid's lunch to pack before bedtime.  On a new-mommy note, I'd like to add that my 3 month old baby has slept 8-10 hours for three nights in a row.  From about 7:30 to 4:30 or 5:30.  I may have to revise my statement that he's the hard baby.  His big brother didn't sleep that long until 8 months.

And he's so snuggly.  I'm lovin' the snuggles I get from my boys.  Pure heaven.

Chicken and Rice Casserole

So, I still have a bunch of chicken left from the two roasted chickens that we didn't eat over the weekend.  And I bought some rice.  So I decided on a casserole.  It is what passes for "winter" here in Cali.

Now, I generally don't buy white rice.  I can't remember the last time I bought white rice.  I only buy brown.  But I had a hankering, so I bought some jasmine.  Man, that is some pretty good stuff.  Everything in moderation, right?  (Says the girl who has been self-medicating with chocolate ice cream the last 2 nights.  Bad work days.)  I found this recipe on line, and it doesn't call for cream-of-something soup.  I doubled it and adjusted the add-ins.  I used fresh sauteed leeks and fresh broccoli.  No mushrooms, almonds, peppers, or anything else.  It was quite tasty.  My topping was fresh breadcrumbs mixed with olive oil and a teeny bit of parmesan.  I cooked the rice ahead of time, but it still took an hour to make this dinner.  And that was active prep time, plus 40 mins to cook.  Dinner was 15 mins late (we try to eat at 6:30 pm).

Added benefit is leftovers for several more days, especially since the spouse is traveling a couple of days this week.  So many of my pictures have been fuzzy and out of focus lately, and really, I'm too damn tired to figure out why.  So, sorry!  You want good recipes, I've got them.  You want good photography, there are MANY better blogs to read.  I love to read them myself.

Chicken Enchiladas and Strawberry Season!

Sunday night was a bit of enchilada-making, mostly the spouse making them (I had a killer headache) with my help here and there.

We bought a couple of roasted chickens on Friday, didn't eat them.  So I made chicken sandwiches and chicken enchiladas, and chicken and rice casserole (stay tuned for that one).  The rest of the chicken went into the freezer.

The enchiladas were pretty basic.  The filling was:
onions
frozen mixed peppers
chicken
black beans
cream cheese (just a teeny bit)
chili powder

I used whole wheat tortillas.

I mixed some spicy enchilada sauce from the freezer with tomato sauce to cut the heat.  Didn't work.  Still too spicy for the kiddo.  Spread the sauce liberally and topped with cheese.  I had extra sauce leftover, which I tossed.  I've started to do that more, rather than try to work it in somewhere else.  Not frugal, but it beats leaving it in the fridge for 5 days and then tossing it.

Strawberry season is here!  Bought some at the farmer's market, and made a yummy salad with mixed greens, berries, and toasted walnuts.  Almonds would be better, but I had walnuts.

Chicken Spaghetti Squash Parmesan, and my first brisket

Chicken Parm

Last night's dinner was chicken parmesan.  Now, I've made versions of this from scratch before.  As in, debone the chicken breasts, pound them out, bread them, fry them, make the marinara sauce, etc. etc.

This was not that kind of chicken parmesan.  I did use spaghetti squash instead of pasta and had to roast the squash.  It was good, but the only pesto I have left in the freezer is arugula pesto, and it wasn't as good as basil pesto would be.

Spaghetti squash chicken parm
1 spaghetti squash
16 oz marinara
olive oil
1 small onion
10 oz sliced mushrooms
2 cubes frozen pesto
4 cloves garlic
mozzarella and parmesan cheese
frozen breaded chicken tenders (From TJ's)

Slice the squash in half and scoop out seeds.  Place face down in a pan coated with cooking spray. Roast 1 hour at 375F.  Let cool.  Remove strings with a fork.

Saute onion and mushroom in oil.  Add squash strands.  Add pesto and combine well.

Spray a 9x9 pan with cooking spray. Layer veggie mixture out.  Place chicken tenders on top.  Top with marinara and the cheeses.

Bake covered at 350F for 15 min.  Increase to 375F, remove foil, and bake for 15-25 more min.  Delish!

I roasted the seeds!

Brisket

I also bought my first brisket at the farmer's market. I found a decent crockpot recipe.  And...we didn't like it.  The sauce was good, but the brisket was way too fatty and chewy.  So, maybe we screwed it up (spouse did it today - he had the day off).  How can you screw up a crockpot recipe?  Anyway, next time I just go with pot roast.

We also steamed up some baby kale and cabbage leaves and I made a cream sauce with milk, parm, cream cheese, garlic powder, and lemon juice.  I don't have a final photo, but THAT was great.

Chicken and Rice

I was originally going to make chicken fried rice.  But I didn't have the energy to make the rice ahead of time (and it's much better if you do).  And I also didn't feel like dirtying another dish.

So I made the chicken and rice all in the rice cooker.  And except for the fact that I added the peas too soon (and they got gray), it was very good.

Chicken and Rice in the Rice cooker:
1 cup brown rice
2 cups water
1/3 to 1/2 cup leftover pan juices from roasting the chickens (see note below)
1 cup frozen peas
2 large carrots, chopped
1 chicken breast, chopped
1 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce

Note: The Fine Cooking recipe for citrus roasted chicken recommended saving the pan juices to use as flavoring later.  I saved about a cup of it.  1/3 was chicken fat that solidified in the fridge.  I skimmed off most of the fat, leaving about 1-2 Tbsp.  I put that and the rest of the pan juices that had also solidified into the rice cooker.

Into the rice cooker: brown rice, water, pan juices.  Press go.

About 15 minutes before it should be done (45 min later), add diced chicken and carrots and stir.  I also added the peas, but I'd recommend adding them even later.  When the rice cooker is done, stir well and eat!

Top with a little soy sauce.

Chicken and bean burritos

I have been ON FIRE this week.  After cooking up that chicken on Sunday (well, 2 chickens) I've been morphing those babies into many meals, including chicken burritos, chicken sandwiches, chicken and potatoes, chicken salad...

One night was chicken and bean burritos.  I made a pot of pintos last week and used some in a sausage and bean crockpot extravaganza.  The remaining pintos went into the freezer, destined for these burritos.

The filling contained:
1 chicken breast, cut up
3-4 cups pintos
1/3 bag frozen peppers and onion
some salsa
garlic powder
S&P

As usual for me, it's all about the toppings.  Now, you can't see the toppings here (they aren't on here yet), but I had shredded local cheddar, sour cream, salsa, and some fabulous guacamole (the avos are really good this year...so creamy).

We had broccoli on the side, but after the burritos, I wasn't hungry so I took it for lunch.

Fine Cooking - Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread and Roast Chicken

So, I started getting Fine Cooking by subscription recently.  My son's school was selling magazines, and this is one that I will buy whenever traveling for airplane reading.  I get good tips and recipes, including ginger-glazed carrots, that stay in my repertoire.

This month was no exception.  They had a good article on roast chicken (I know, me? roast chicken?).  And on how you can roast two chickens and eat for a week.  It used to be that one chicken lasted us two weeks, but we were mostly vegetarian then.  Now we are three people, and I've learned that it's easier to maintain my weight if I eat more meat, because I get less hungry.  Too many carbs = hunger for me.

The recipe this month was for citrus roasted chicken.  I did not buy two whole chickens and break them down myself as recommended.  I did not buy two cut-up chickens from the farmer's market, at $23 each.  I did buy two cut-up kosher chickens from Trader Joe's, at $10 each.  Sometimes, you compromise.

I edited the recipe a bit.  I generally don't buy whole lemons - my neighbor has a tree.  In season, I pick 'em (with his permission), and then zest and juice them and freeze both in ice cube trays.  So, I used 4 cubes of juice/zest.  I didn't use oranges - I subbed our tangerines from our tree out back.  I also didn't read the recipe until 2:30 pm, so the chicken didn't get the recommended 6-12 hours of marinating (only got two). I also edited the cooking temp/time for my oven, and for the fact that I forgot to reduce the temp. It was still quite tasty.

Citrus roasted chicken
2 chickens, cut into 8 pieces each (legs, wings, thighs, breasts)
4 Tbsp olive oil
4 cubes of lemon juice/zest (about 1/3 to 1/2 cup)
3 tangerines.  Zest and juice two and slice the third.
8 cloves garlic, pressed
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 Tbsp honey
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
S&P to taste

Mix the lemon juice, tangerine juice and zest, garlic, soy sauce, red pepper flakes, and honey.

Place the olive oil in a roasting pan large enough for all the chicken to lay without overlapping (I use my turkey roaster).  Swirl it around.  Place the chicken in the pan.  Pour over the marinade.  Cover with plastic and refrigerate up to 12 hours, but two will do if that's what you've got.  Or 1/2 hour.  I don't know.

Preheat oven to 425F.  When ready, turn chicken to skin side up and add salt and pepper.  Roast for 45 mins at 425F.  The skin is supposed to get brown. Mine didn't really, and that's with doubling the recommended time at 425F.  Reduce heat to 375F and cook 15 more minutes.  My oven is low and slow, so I always need to up the recommended baking/cooking time.  Just saying.  YMMV.

I served this with fried potatoes and kale chips.  Gotta have the messy kale chips the night before the cleaning person comes.

The leftovers are destined for chicken salad sandwiches, chicken and bean burritos, and maybe some chicken fried rice.  I saved some of the pan juices.  They recommend risotto, but I'll probably go with the fried rice.

I also started the day by trying out cinnamon raisin swirl bread from the same issue.  Again, my house is on the cool side, so even with extra time on the stove top with the stove on warm, it didn't quite rise like I wanted it to, so the bread is a little bit dense.  But still delicious.  Should freeze a loaf so it doesn't go bad.

The recipe calls for using the stand mixer, so it really wasn't that hard.  I started at 7 am and was done at 11 am.  Next time I might try the bread machine though.

Roast chicken and vegetables

It looks a lot like what we had for Thanksgiving, except with chicken parts.  The veggies were sweet potatoes, onions, and carrots.  Served with broccoli.  I wasn't hungry, so I ate it later, cold.  Had it for lunch today too.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a low-key chill Thanksgiving.  With a cold, I just wasn't feeling up to being social, since our first set of plans fell through.  I declined other invitations so that I could nap.  We ended up watching way too much TV: Madagascar, then back-to-back Willy Wonkas (both versions).
Our dinner was simple, but still not ready on time (1/2 hour late).  Figures.  We did my favorite Ina Garten chicken recipe on a bed of vegetables.  I'm going to say it: how come the chickens at the farmer's market don't come with giblets anymore??
We started by chopping onions, carrots, yukon potatoes, and sweet potatoes and putting them in our roasting pan with olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Then you put the chicken on top and roast 1.5 to 1.75 hours.  Remove chicken, and let rest before carving.  The veggies get all caramely and delicious.

 

My husband made his grandpa's famous cornbread stuffing.  (It was missing something this year.  We aren't sure what.)

We weren't feeling up to homemade rolls, so pillsbury to the rescue!

Here's my plate before:

And here's my plate after:

I just wasn't that hungry.  Of course, I passed out at 8 pm, woke up at 1 am.  I've been awake for an hour, so I finished off my plate with a glass of milk, and I'm hoping it will put me to sleep soon.  Ugh.

The Life of a Chicken

No, not really.  Just the progression of a chicken.

Step 1: chop vegetables.  Here we have delicata squash, sweet potato, onion, bell pepper, broccoli, carrot.  Toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper, put in a roasting dish.

Steps 2-4:  Stuff a chicken with lemon, thyme, rosemary, and garlic.  Salt, pepper, and butter the outside.  Place on top of vegetables and roast.

Step 5:  Carve pumpkins with your family (and roast the seeds!)

Step 6: Take the chicken out of the oven and admire.

Step 7: Enjoy! With Kale chips!  But feel bad that you bought a free range chicken that was fed corn and soy feed.  Not fit for chickens.

Step 8: Throw the carcass (along with a second one from another chicken made elsewhere...maybe Costco) with some bay leaf into the crockpot and let it cook on low all night to make stock.  I got about 14 cups of stock.

Step 9:  Make a big pot of cream of broccoli soup from America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook with your chicken stock (you'll still have some stock leftover).

Step 10:  Enjoy your soup with some chicken tacos from leftover chicken.  That's home-canned salsa on there.

Step 11:  A couple of days later, think: "oh crap, what are we going to eat for lunch, we are out of vegetables, and soup does not travel well by bicycle".  Throw some brown rice into the rice cooker with 2 cups of chicken stock.  When done, add in a can of black beans, the last bits of freezer bags of corn and peppers, some cumin, garlic powder, salsa, and oregano, fresh cilantro, and the last of the chicken.  Enjoy for lunch for 3 days.  Store in the rice cooker pot to decrease dish washing.

Step 12:  Remind yourself that you still have 6-8 cups of stock in the freezer.  Take a deep breath and realize that you aren't cooking at all for dinner this weekend due to various events.  Start planning daytime cooking anyway so you don't starve next week.

Roast Chicken and Vegetables

This is, perhaps, my favorite meal ever.  Ina Garten is pretty awesome, and this recipe never steers me wrong.  Since I am doing the "Primal 30 day challenge" (albeit badly at times...I cannot seem to give up the bread or beans 100% -  maybe 90%), I thought it would be a good choice.  One of the carbohydrate heavy vegetables that are recommended in moderation in the Primal plan are sweet potatoes and winter squash.

Well, it's sweet potato season, so I thought I'd give that a try.  I don't think I've ever seen them at our local farmer's market.  Potatoes must not grow well here.  But after scouring the big market on Saturday, I found one guy in the last aisle with sweet potatoes.

So I followed Ina's recipe here, and for the vegetables, I used a bed of sweet potatoes, onions, and carrots.  I was disappointed that the particular chicken vendor I chose at the market has stopped giving the giblets with the chicken.  The livers are my favorite part.  Next time I'll try the other person (we get our turkey there for Thanksgiving).

I roasted two chickens, which is just as easy as one.  My neighbor has a lemon tree and wasn't home (and lest you think I am a thief, has told us many-a-time to help ourselves).  I kept one chicken for dinner and leftovers and sent one over to the neighbors' (a different neighbor).  We both have kids, and we both have two working parents, and we both know what a chore cooking every night can be.  I got soup in return. :)
The best part about this recipe is that the chicken fat and butter run down the chicken while it roasts and coats the vegetables.  They get all carmel-y and fatty and delicious.  Best is that there are leftovers for tomorrow's lunch, and maybe another lunch after that.

I got a new plate!

Leftover mother's day vegetables on one side, with the leftover chicken added to a stir-fry on the other side.

Mother's Day

Not a big post today, just some pics:  Breakfast (made by my honey) pancakes with strawberries.

Dinner: we made together: roasted chicken (Ina Garten's recipe) in a bed of root vegetables (that soak up all the chicken flavor), steamed green beans.

Baked Chicken Legs and Salad

These days, Tuesdays are tough to plan for.  We've run out of last week's CSA veggies and don't know what we're getting this Tuesday.  So today, I planned for chicken and "side".  We ended up with mixed greens and some arugula, so the side was clear.  It was also pretty easy to make a salad (washing the greens first).  Today we rode our bikes to work (10 miles).  I ride to work, spouse rides home (more on this at a later post).  Our bikes ride on the back of the car the other direction.

I buy organic free range chicken legs for $1.99 /lb at Trader Joe's.

Roast chicken, succotash, and pasta

Not all on the same night. This is what happens when you don't have time for regular posts.

We had some friends over for dinner on Saturday. I was going to make my standard "roast chicken parts" from organic, free-range chicken. But, the store was out. So I bought a whole organic free-range chicken, and roasted that. I say "my standard" because I really don't cook meat a lot. I've managed to figure out how to not ruin chicken (baking/roasting), salmon when I get it from the neighbor (pan-frying) and beef (in stews). I generally pull out this expertise when friends visit. Because normally? I'm happy with beans, rice, and vegetables. Which we ate a lot of this week.

My favorite roasted chicken recipe is here, and it's cooked on a bed of veggies. Now, the veggies usually get very cooked (aka, almost burned). And this day, well, I wanted to cook some more pumpkin muffins, which required a lower oven temp, so I went with that. This meant the chicken took 10 mins longer, but still was tasty. I had two small butternut squash, so we cooked the chicken on a bed of squash and onion. Boy, was that squash good. My friends liked it too "it's tasty - oh wait, it was the bed of the chicken". Yep, you got it, soaked in chicken juices. When you buy whole organic chicken at the farmer's market or the stores here, you get the giblets too, which is awesome for me. My friend loves the neck and I'm a big fan of the liver. I saved the carcass for stock. I mean, if I'm going to eat an animal, I don't want to waste anything.

Remaining food for the week includes a homemade succotash of a sort. The lima beans, green onions, carrots, and zucchini were all from our CSA. We ate a lot of pinto beans, then I made a pasta on Wednesday. I used whole grain pasta and frozen veggies, and the PMS told me to make a cream sauce. So I dug out my weight watchers cookbook and made a slightly more-waist friendly alfredo sauce than the traditional drenched-in-butter type.

The last week of the CSA was today. We got kale, lettuce, radishes, pumpkin, garlic, zucchini, cucumber, oranges, and tongue of fire beans. Don't feel sorry for me though, because the new season starts in 6 weeks. Yep, a 46 week CSA. I love California.

Chicken Tikka Masala and Root Vegetable Chips

I can't believe I attempted two new recipes on a weekday. Really, my son's been sick all week, and I've been home a couple of afternoons, or I wouldn't have attempted it. My poor hubby had a lot of dishes to do.

(Yes, he picked up a stomach bug on the camping trip. Which is why we've been too busy to give any update other than photos. Like, how cheap and fun it can be to go camping.)

I discovered this recipe on Joanne's blog. If you've not visited her blog, you should. That girl can cook. I was really excited to try it, knowing that I even had almond milk! No cream in the house, but I was going to leave that out.

Then I discovered that my almond milk is vanilla flavored. Oops. So I used soy milk. I also cut back on the heat for the family (even though my son hasn't been eating lately).


Chicken Tikka Masala
Serves 4, adapted from Joanne's adaptation from Meeta over at What's For Lunch, Honey?

Marinade
1 1/2 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs (Organic, free range): $7.34
2/3 cup plain yogurt: 0.47
juice of 1/2 lemon: 0.38
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated: 0.05
2 tsp ground cumin: 0.05
1 tsp ground cinnamon: 0.05
1 tsp chili powder: 0.05
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
salt

Tomato Gravy
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes: 1.15
1 cup soy milk: 0.50
1 Tbsp corn starch: 0.05
2 cloves garlic: 0.10
pinch red chili flake: 0.05
2 tsp cumin: 0.05
2 tsp paprika: 0.05
1 Tbsp butter: 0.06
salt and pepper

Total: $10.40 for about 5 servings. I know the recipe says 4, but it's closer to 5 for us. $2.08 per serving. Higher than my normal, I know, but it's not vegetarian and I'm kinda past buying cheap chicken. I've seen too many movies and read too many books.

Mix the marinade in a bowl and toss the chicken with it. Cover and marinate a few hours, or longer if you like. When ready, grill it or broil it. I used the George Foreman.

To make the tomato gravy: melt the butter in a pan. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant. Add the cumin and paprika and red chili flake, saute a couple of minutes more. Add the tomatoes and cook until they are nice and soft. I mushed mine up even more with a spatula.

Mix soy milk and corn starch.

As you are cooking the chicken (I did mine in batches), take of the grill and let rest. Then cut into pieces and put into the gravy. Add the soy milk/corn starch mixture. Simmer the chicken pieces in the gravy for about 10 more min. Add salt to taste.

We served over brown rice and quinoa cooked in the rice cooker. (50 cents for about 3 cups, or about 4 servings)

I also tried Bittman's baked root veggie chips with potatoes and beets. They were tasty! But the beets were still a little bit chewy. They don't cook at the same rate as the potatoes.

Roast Chicken

A little history...one of the main reasons I started this blog was because of roast chicken. And pizza. See, I was trying to "master" these two items. And I would have some successes, some failures. I decided that a blog to record my successes would be the best idea...and improvements could be logged also.


Oh, how times have changed. For one thing, we are 90% vegetarian. What happened in the meantime? You name it. Fast Food Nation, The Omnivore's Dilemma, What to Eat, Food Inc., The Way We Eat, The China Study...among others. I don't actually have a philosophical problem with the fact that an animal died to feed me. I grew up in the country, with an uncle who had cows and chickens, and cousins and brothers and brothers' in law who hunted and fished.


What has happened over the last few years is my acknowledgment of the suffering that animals go through in CAFOs and factory farming. The bucolic splendor of cows grazing and chickens pecking is not the reality of your grocery store steak or chicken. When I started this blog, it was all about the almighty buck. It wasn't just cooking a roast chicken from the store, but one that was purchased on sale at $0.59 a pound.


While I don't really need to be all that frugal about food anymore, I really cannot bring myself to spend $100 or more a week on meat, which is what it would cost to buy it all locally/organic at the farmer's market (which I can do). A 5-lb chicken on sale at the store is about $3. An organic 3-lb chicken from Trader Joe's is more like $9. And a free range local chicken is $12 (and the taste is MUCH better than the store chicken). Beef can run $6-12 a pound.


One way that I've adjusted to my new understanding of factory farming is to just simply eat less meat. I am likely to cook it about once a month. One chicken, maybe some sausage, maybe some fish. I am also likely to use one 14-oz can of salmon for dinner a month. We also will eat what we are served in other folks' homes. We've eaten about five chickens in the last year. Limiting our meat to this amount means that I can afford to spend $12 on a chicken. We also only eat about one dozen eggs a month, which makes the $4.25/dozen at the farmer's market do-able.


Since I don't cook meat very often, and really hate to ruin it, I am usually on the lookout for something that I can't ruin. There is lamb at the farmer's market. I've never cooked lamb, and I'd hate to (pardon the pun) butcher it. But I've pretty well mastered roasting a whole chicken or parts, and baking a tri-tip.


My favorite whole roasted chicken recipe comes from Ina Garten, and is found here. I always adjust it a bit. I can't bring myself to use a whole head of garlic. I tend to buy a 3-lb chicken instead of a 5-6 lb chicken. I noticed that 425F is a little high for my vegetables, so I reduce the temperature to 400F. But the taste of the vegetables when they've been basted with the rendered chicken fat (the chicken roasts on a bed of veggies) is divine. I always save the carcass for stock (especially at $9 a chicken).


The frugality of this dish will depend on the ingredients. For vegetables, this time I used potatoes (the last of a bag at $0.50 for 5 lb), carrots, onions, and beets. The vegetable choices are numerous. And the chicken - if your budget runs along the lines of the $3 chicken, then this recipe can be made for the following:



Chicken and Vegetables
1 whole chicken: $3 to $12
1 medium onion, sliced thick (don't separate slices): 0.30
1 lb potatoes, diced into 1 inch chunks: 0.10
3 medium carrots, sliced into 2 inch chunks: 0.36
1 Tbsp canola oil: 0.04
salt, pepper, and thyme: 0.05
1 lemon to stuff in the chicken: 0.30
5 cloves garlic for the chicken: 0.25
1 Tbsp butter: 0.10
Total: $4.50


This provides enough vegetables for one meal for the 3 of us. The chicken, even for the 3-lb chicken, leaves enough leftovers for a couple of more meals, and even more to put in the freezer for later. The carcass will make a good stock. This meal can be stretched.


I am less likely to use the chicken in a pasta dish or enchiladas or a casserole, based on the cost. I find that it's very tasty on salads or sandwiches - a way that you can really TASTE the chicken. Especially considering the cost of my chicken.