Sriracha Glazed Chicken Burgers

Generally when I see a recipe for chicken wings that I want to make, I make it as a chicken burger. I do love chicken wings, but I really love burgers, especially chicken ones. In a recent issue of Everyday Food, they had a recipe for Sriracha Glazed Chicken Wings. I took the same sauce, and adapted the recipe to make chicken burgers. These were AMAZING.

Chicken Noodle Soup

My sister S had a touch of the flu last week. Since I am an awesome sister, I went over to her place to make her some chicken noodle soup. I did neglect to take a picture of the soup after I had made it, so this picture was taken the next day at work. The bowl is from Tupperware and was given to me for Christmas. If you look carefully you can see that the calendar underneath is marked on my very favorite day of the year, my birthday. (January 30!)

Baked Chimichangas

Chimichangas are deep fried burritos. I have made something close to a chimichanga before, only I pan fried them instead of deep frying. Recently I made a new attempt at chimichangas, making them crispy by baking them instead of frying.

Avocado Wraps

It's been the hottest week I have seen in a while, and for two nights this week I was making soup. Call me crazy. By last night I was ready to make a meal that required little to no cooking, and wouldn't be hot when consumed.

For the past week and a half I have been craving avocado. I make a mean guacamole (thanks to C), but I was wanting something different. Original Joe's makes a turkey club wrap that inspired the wrap I made last night.

Rebekah's Avocado Chicken Wraps

1) I started out by taking a chicken breast and cutting it into bite sized cubes. I added just under a tbsp of extra virgin olive oil to a skillet, and heated it over med-high. Once the oil was hot, I added the chicken cubes to the skillet. When the chicken was starting to brown, I topped it with a Tex-Mex seasoning. When the chicken was cooked, I took it off the heat. The whole process took maybe 5 minutes.

2) I cut an avocado in half, removed the pit, and scooped the "meat" out of the shell. Then I sliced each half into thin slices, and immediately squeezed lime juice over top. From an actual lime. This was to prevent the avocado from browning, and also because I feel avocado and lime go hand in hand. I can't have avocado without it being covered in lime juice.

3) I took a Roma tomato, cut it in half and discarded the juice and seeds. Then I diced what remained.

4) I cut a red onion into thin slivers. In the picture the red onion is missing, because I forgot to put it in the wrap before eating. Idiot.

5) I used my microwave to cook 4 slices of bacon until crisp. If you make this wrap (which I strongly suggest), you can crisp up bacon any way you wish.

6) I placed a tortilla on a plate, topped it with half the chicken, 2 slices of bacon, and half of the avocado and tomato. I should have also thrown on some onion, but as stated before, I forgot that step.

DELICIOUS. I could eat these all week long.

To go with it I made a quinoa salad that I found on FoodGawker. Quinoa is a seed, often referred to as a grain. Quinoa is really high in protein, is good for your heart, and is also gluten free. The seeds are slightly bigger than couscous, but are still pretty tiny.

The salad consists of quinoa, radish, cucumber and avocado. Like I said, I have been craving avocado in a big way lately. It's dressed with a dressing made from lime juice, olive oil, cumin and seasoning.

I really liked this salad. It was really easy to make, the cooking of the quinoa only took 15 minutes. A really refreshing break from eating soups during the hot weather we have been enjoying here.

Greek Salad and Pitza

One of the great things about the Farmer's Market is the samples. If there is something I love more than food, it is free food. I could have spent about an hour at the Happy Camel stand, doing some sampling. The Happy Camel is a Mediterranean pita bakery and deli in Edmonton. I had tried the greatest feta dip while I was there, but I figured that I would pick some up later at their store. This turned out to be a mistake, since the store didn't have any while I was there.

I did, however, get some hummus since they have one of the greatest ones I have tasted. I also picked up a package of their Sesame Za'atar (or flatbread), to make pita pizzas, or pitzas.

My original plan for the pitzas was to have the feta spread as the "sauce". Since I didn't get any I skipped having a sauce altogether, and just made them as follows:

Rebekah's Pitzas

(Serves 4)

1) Take two chicken breasts and dice them. Heat a small amount of oil in a skillet, add the chicken, and cook until browned, about two minutes. Season with salt, pepper, and a tsp of dried oregano. Remove from heat.

2) I took four pitas and divided the chicken on top them. I topped each with a handful of sliced grape tomatoes, some feta that I had cubed, and a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. I placed them in the oven at 350 F for roughly five minutes until the parm cheese had melted.

3) Once I removed them from the oven I sprinkled some slivered fresh basil on top.

They were very tasty, though I still would have preferred to have the feta spread on them as well.

To go with the pitzas I made a Greek salad. While some Greek salads contain olives, mine does not because I am not a big fan of olives.

Rebekah's Greek Salad

1) In a bowl combine:

half of an English cucumber, diced

half of a red onion, diced

1 red bell pepper, ribs and seeds removed, also diced

about half a cup of feta that has been cubed (though feel free to add more, feta never hurt anybody

half of a pint of grape tomatoes. I sliced mine, but you can leave them whole or halved

the juice of 1 lemon

about 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil

about 1 tbsp of dried oregano

2) Stir together, and let sit in the fridge for a half hour before serving

To drink, I made a flavored club soda. In a glass I placed a sliced lime, a handful of fresh mint leaves, and some raspberries. I filled the glass with club soda. Really easy, and tastes really fresh.

Sandwiches

A couple weeks ago I mentioned how much I love Frank's Buffalo Wing Sauce, when I made buffalo chicken wraps. I used the sauce the other night to make Buffalo Chicken Burgers. If you love buffalo wings in any way, you must buy this sauce, and make these burgers.

Rebekah's Buffalo Chicken Burgers:

1) Take a lb of ground chicken, an egg, and a 1/2 cup of panko breadcrumbs and mix together in a large bowl. You could also add a bit of diced onion, or some seasoning (I used about a tbsp of Clubhouse's Tex Mex seasoning) if you like.

2) Split the mixture evenly into four. Flatten into round patties.

3) Heat a small amount of vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium high. Add the patties, cook for roughly four minutes on each side. Before removing them from the skillet, cut into the middle of the patty to make sure the chicken is cooked through. (The meat should be white, and the juices should be clear!)
If you notice the chicken is browning too much you can turn down the heat, or slide the skillet into the oven and finish it off by baking at 350 F. Make sure your skillet is oven proof, of course.

4) When the chicken is finished, add 1/2 cup of Frank's Buffalo Wing Sauce to the skillet, and turn the patties over so they are completely coated in deliciousness.

5) Place the patty on the bun of your choice. I used whole wheat, and I had toasted it in the oven while the burgers were cooking.

The burgers can be topped with lettuce, or blue cheese, but I chose to just spread some ranch dressing on the bun. (I used Renee's Buttermilk Ranch, the half fat version). I served the burgers with carrot and celery sticks. Delicious and healthy!

A while back I made the following sloppy joe, and I got the recipe off of sparkrecipes. Sparkrecipes is a database of healthy recipes, and they have quite the amount. I had a craving for sloppy joes and when you search their website for sloppy joes the top recipe is Diet Coke Sloppy Joes. The main ingredients are ground beef, Diet Coke, reduced sugar ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, white vinegar and mustard powder. To make the ground beef is browned in a skillet, then the rest of the ingredients are added and cooked together for 30 minutes.

I used Coke Zero instead of Diet Coke, and regular ketchup instead of the reduced sugar variety. I will make these again, because they were quite good, but I would add some chopped onion to it. And maybe some garlic. Even though it was good, it was kind of plain.

I served the sloppy joe with a spinach salad. I just piled raw spinach leaves on the plate and topped it with Everyday Food's Shallot Vinaigrette. It is one of my all time favorite homemade salad dressings.

Stir Fries/Frys?

Today is Friday, and not only is it Friday, but it's also my friend K's birthday! If there's something I love more than Friday, it is birthdays. And if there's something I love more than birthdays, it's eye candy. Today I combined them:

Nice. Although it kind of looks like he went swimming in the Gulf that BP is ruining.

Recently I have made two similar dishes from Everyday Food. First up is Sweet and Sour Pork. The basic ingredients are pork tenderloin, canned pineapple, bell peppers, broccoli, green onions, rice vinegar, and soy sauce. I know some of you are like "WHAT? Rebek you hate broccoli!" It's true, I do. So instead of broccoli, I used sugar snap peas.

According to my sister roommate, she said that this sweet and sour sauce was better than some of the ones she tried in China. I can't confirm if this is true, but it was really good. (The picture of this dish is at the top of the post).

Next up, Stir-Fried Honey Ginger Chicken. The ingredients for this stir fry are chicken breasts, bell peppers, garlic, and ginger. The sauce is made with honey, soy sauce and rice vinegar. There is a lot of ginger in this stir fry, and I am not crazy about ginger. I like it in small doses, but I made the stir fry according to recipe, and it was delicious.

Both of these were really quick to put together. When making any stir fry, it's important to assemble the ingredients before starting the cooking process. Food doesn't take long to cook this way, and you don't want to be stuck chopping up an ingredient while another burns in the pan.

Overall, both of these were great, though that isn't a surprise because Everyday Food has yet to disappoint me.

Buffalo Chicken Wraps

I love buffalo sauce. If I had my choice any time I had wings, I would always order the buffalo style. Usually though, I am having wings with anti-buffalo flavor people and have to settle on one that we both like.

One of my biggest pet peeves about recipes with buffalo sauce, they feel that taking any hot sauce and adding some butter results in the same flavor as buffalo wings that you would order in a pub or restaurant. It doesn't. It still tastes exactly like whatever sauce you used. Only a bit richer. This made me a bit frustrated, as I tended to avoid recipes that I would have loved to try. Then one day I was at the grocery store and saw:

There is no need to add butter, and it tastes exactly like how a buffalo wing should taste! Although in the image above, the seal looks weird to me. Like someone used Paint to make it look like there is a seal. Am I wrong? (It wasn't me, obviously, since my skills in Paint are awesome, and no one would be able to tell it was fake)

I received my new Everyday Food in the mail the other day, and they had a section of sandwiches and wraps recipes. There are no links to the actual recipe, and I tweaked some things around, but the following is an adaptation from the recipe in EF for Buffalo Chicken Wraps.

I had planned on using actual chicken breasts, like in the recipe. I order chicken breasts through work, and I just got a new box on Monday (when I was making the wraps), but I left it at work. Of course. So I bought a rotisserie chicken and shredded the meat. Since I was only making two wraps, I reserved half the meat for later this week.

The half for the wraps I placed in a sauce pan, drizzled some of Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Sauce on top, and heated it over medium just to warm the chicken and sauce.

The original recipe made a blue cheese dip by combining crumbled blue cheese and plain yogurt. I had some sour cream on hand instead. I crumbled the blue cheese, and put it on my food processor with about 4 tbsp of sour cream.

I own one of those mini food processors, and it is my favorite thing. I use it all the time, since it is small and doesn't take up a lot of room in the dishwasher. I think everyone should own one.

I spread some of the blue cheese mix on a tortilla, and then topped it with some of the chicken mix, some sliced celery, carrot ribbons and shredded iceberg lettuce. (Luckily this time I bought the inorganic and it wasn't brown)

To make carrot ribbons, use your vegetable peeler as if you are going to peel the carrot, only just keep going until there is no carrot left.

These were really good. I think what I would do next time is make sure I used chicken breasts that were cut into chunks and then cooked in a pan. Rotisserie chicken was good in a pinch, but I think it would be better the other way.

I am also not the biggest blue cheese fan, I find it to be very overpowering so next time I might use a ranch dressing instead. Overall though, I really thought this was a great summertime supper.

Lettuce Wraps, Take 2

I found a recipe for chicken and cashew lettuce wraps. Cashews are possibly one of my favorite things. I used to think that a stir fry isn't complete without peanuts, but peanuts don't even compare to the deliciousness of cashews.

The wraps were easy enough to make. The recipe called for using an onion, but I used green onion instead. The sauce on the chicken is made with soy sauce, rice vinegar, and brown sugar, and I think that green onions really compliment those flavors. Not too mention, green onions taste great.

I also served them with matchstick carrots, as the wraps themselves seemed to be lacking in the vegetable department.

My biggest problem with this recipe was the lettuce. Sobeys had moved things around and the iceberg lettuce wasn't where it usually is. I finally found some that looked decent, but once at the till I figured out that I had accidentally grabbed the organic lettuce. I have no problem if people want to eat organic, but I don't really buy into it. Especially since it costs a RIDICULOUS amount of money. $2.49 for a head of lettuce? Get real.

I brought the stupid thing home anyways, and when I started to take it apart I realized close to every leaf was covered in brown spots. Oh, how appetizing. I managed to salvage some of it, but overall most of it went into the trash.

I'll take my chances with the inorganic from now on, I haven't ever bought a head of lettuce that was covered in so much brown.

Besides the disappointing lettuce, the wraps were really good. I recommend adding some more veggies like julienned bell peppers, or matchstick carrots to them. If you use green onion, keep some of it aside to sprinkle on top in their raw form.

Rebekah's Curry

On Monday night, after my terribly long day at work, I wanted nothing more than to just crawl into bed and sleep for the entire night. However, I knew that I would end up waking up a few hours later and unable to sleep for the rest of the night and I would feel worse the next day.

The weather was sort of chilly, so I thought I would make something warm and spicy. I made a curry, without using a recipe, so this recipe is my own.

Rebekah's Curry

If serving this with brown rice, put the rice on to boil before starting to assemble the curry. If using white rice, start making the rice after the curry has been assembled.

The following serves 4-5

1) Cut up two chicken breasts into bite size chunks. Heat just enough oil in a pan to cover the pan, on medium high. Add the chicken to the pan and brown on all sides (roughly 2 minutes)

2) Add an onion that has been cut into thin strips. Saute until the onion is soft and brown (roughly 2 minutes)

3) Add 4 tbsp of Patak's Madras Curry Paste. Stir to cover the chicken.

4) Add a can of coconut milk. Stir to melt the thick cream that forms at the top of the can.

5) Add a can of chopped tomatoes and a chopped bell pepper.

6) Bring to a boil, lower heat, and cover.

I simmered mine until the rice was ready, for close to 40 minutes, and it was delicious. It would probably still be delicious even if it only had simmered for 20 minutes. The only thing I would have changed from the above recipe, is I would have added the bell pepper close to the end, instead of letting it get so soft from being in there so long.

If you wanted you could also add diced carrots, or some frozen peas. (Add the carrots with the curry paste, add the peas 5 minutes before taking it off the heat). I also wanted to top it with some cashews, but I forgot to get some at the store. It wasn't too spicy, so if you wanted more bite to it, add a sliced chili.

Overall though, this dish was great.

NOTE: This curry is gluten free. I double checked all the ingredients.

Chipotle Chicken & Rice

I have been amazing myself lately. This is a loaded sentence. It can mean one of two things, I either did something so stupid that I was amazed at how stupid I can be, or that I did something really awesome. For instance, one time I where I was amazed in a negative way, happened a couple years back. I was living with my friend D, and our culinary skills consisted of boxed dinners (like KD) or calling Tante and begging her to feed us. One day I noticed that our oven was on. I couldn't remember the last time I had used the oven, so I asked D when was the last time we had used the oven and she couldn't remember either. No joke, our oven had been on for days, possibly well over a week. We also never remembered to lock the balcony door, or to bring house keys with us wherever we went, so there was a few times that getting inside the apartment involved climbing up the balcony. Amazing right?

Lately though, I have been amazed in a good way. I have been hitting the gym like a fiend, and I have noticed that my endurance is getting better. I am nowhere close to being in shape, and before it wouldn't take much to completely wind me, but now I have noticed that I can give it my all for a much longer period of time. And that feels pretty awesome.

Why am I telling you all this, even though most of you (all of you?) couldn't care? It's a way to keep myself motivated. Also, I am pretty proud of myself for sticking with it, but also seeing improvement in my endurance, and as a result my overall health. SO DEAL WITH IT!

The other night I made Everyday Food's Chipotle Chicken and Rice. As per usual I changed a few things. EF's ingredients are: vegetable oil, chicken thighs, red onion, garlic, cumin, chipotles in adobo, large tomatoes, and long grain white rice.

The vegetable oil is for browning the chicken thighs, and I swapped it for a more heart healthy olive oil. I do not like reheating red onions in leftovers so I used a Spanish onion. I added an extra chipotle because I like things spicy. I also used a 14 oz can of diced tomatoes (drained) instead of fresh tomatoes, not only to make things easier, but I find the canned tomatoes still have better taste than fresh ones this time of year. I also swapped the white rice for brown rice.

Because brown rice takes longer to cook, I added it right away instead of halfway through the cooking time.

I really love this recipe. The chicken and rice are spicy, filling, and the chipotles add a great smoky flavor. The next day for supper I made a sort of quesidilla with the leftovers. I took the chicken out and shredded it, then added it back to the rice. I cut a whole wheat pita pocket in half (the grocery store was out of whole wheat tortillas) so I had two circles, not two half moons. I brushed olive oil on one side of each (the bottom), topped one with the chicken and rice mix, added a bit of partly skimmed mozza cheese (it was in the fridge, I would have preferred a cheese like Monterrey jack), and then topped it with the other half of the pita. I place it in a skillet for about 45 seconds on each side until the tortilla was slightly crisp and the filling was warm.

I do not have a picture of this, because none of them looked appetizing. They tasted good though.

I served each meal with a spinach salad. I love fresh spinach in its raw form. I have never been big on frozen spinach, but baby spinach leaves are my favorite for a salad. I top it with chopped carrot, celery, bell pepper, and green onion.

The dressing was made by mixing a pinch of salt and pepper, a tsp of dry mustard, a tsp of honey, 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, and about half of a 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar. Delicious, if I do say so myself.

Sriracha Chicken Wraps

There's a new show on the Food Network called Bitchin' Kitchen. The host of the show is an Italian girl named Nadia G.

There are a few things I love about this show. I love the vintage style clothing she wears sometimes, and I love love love the set. I can't find a picture of it, but imagine a lot of pink, black, red, and chaos. The thing I hate most about this show, is how much Nadia G is trying so hard to come across as a hardcore Italian chick. I have no problem with Italians, frankly, I would love to have an Italian mother in law one day who will feed me all the time. Just something about Nadia G irks me. This doesn't stop me from watching though, once the show is on I can't stop. She makes delicious looking food, and throws in helpful information about ingredients all the time. I just get the impression she is trying to hard. I mean, you don't see THIS GUY

trying too hard to prove his Italian heritage. (Why yes, that is "The Situation". Jersey Shore FTW)

Last night I made Sriracha Chicken Wraps, not Italian by any means, the intro had nothing to do with the featured meal. Sriracha is a Thai hot sauce made from chilies and garlic. Those of you who do not recognize the name, you may recognize the bottle:

The greatest thing about Sriracha is it packs a lot of heat in a small amount of sauce. I prefer it to some other hot sauces that add a tangy and distinctive flavor, because Sriracha just adds heat without warping the taste of your dish. Also a pretty large bottle of it costs about $2.99. Ridiculously cheap.

The recipe for the chicken wraps can be found here, but I will give you a basic rundown of how they are made.

To make the strips, pieces of chicken are marinated in a mix of Sriracha, soy sauce, green onion, sugar, ginger and garlic. After four hours they are removed from the marinade and coated in a mix of panko bread crumbs and toasted sesame seeds. The best way to coat anything is to use one hand to carry the "wet" item and place it in the dry coating, and the other hand to scoop the dry coating on top of the item and removing it from the coating. If you place your wet hand in the dry coating you will end up with a clumpy mess on your fingers. Gross.

The coated chicken pieces are placed in a hot oven to BAKE, not FRY!

The chicken pieces themselves were so tasty, and due to time constrictions, mine had only marinated for two hours, I can't imagine how great they would be after four or more hours. They had a great spicy kick to them, and I love panko as a crisp coating for chicken.

To make the wraps, assemble a variety of vegetables and lettuce. I wanted to use butter lettuce, but my grocery store was out. I used a plain green leaf lettuce instead (though I would use iceberg over green leaf the next time). The veggies I used were thinly sliced radishes, cucumbers, red bell pepper, and matchstick carrots. I would have also liked to have some thinly sliced green onions, but I didn't have any that didn't go into the marinade.

Think of the chicken wrap like a taco. Use the lettuce for the "tortilla", the chicken as the meat and the sliced veggies for the...well, sliced veggies. And as no taco would be complete without some sauce, the wraps should have some too.

The sauce for the wraps is made from soy sauce, Sriracha sauce, olive oil, sugar, lime juice, sesame oil and dry ginger. Pretty simple, and pretty spicy.

I loved these wraps. I will be making them time and time again. The marinade is quick to throw together, as is the sauce. The veggies didn't take a long time at all to prepare, and nowadays it's pretty easy to cheat and buy pre-cut veggies.

The best part is that these are very healthy (at least by my standards), and taste pretty awesome. Even though the wraps could be deconstructed into a chicken salad, they didn't feel like I was eating a salad for supper. The chicken was very crisp, without having been fried. Delicious. I loved these.

Caramel Chicken

Last week I ended up coming down with a cold. I haven't been cooking much, unless you count making canned soup as cooking. I have been spending most of my time feeling sorry for myself and trying to convince my mom to come up to Edmonton and take care of me. No such luck.

Before I got sick I made Vietnamese Caramel Chicken. The recipe in the link uses soy sauce, and I used the fish sauce it originally called for. The recipe also says it will take 5- 7 minutes for the sugar to turn the color of iced tea. They are lying. It takes less than 2 minutes for the sugar to turn black. So my best advice is to watch the sugar very carefully. This would have been a good chicken dish if it didn't have the burnt taste to it.

If this picture looks weird to you, it's because no matter what I do, Blogger uploads it sideways. And I can't flip it. I am not talented at the Internet. Although one could say with the amount of burnt dishes I have made, I am not talented in the kitchen either.
I served this with a salad made of sliced cucumber, sliced red onion, and cashews. They were tossed with a dressing made of 1/4 cup rice vinegar, a pinch of red chili flakes, and a bit of sugar.

Overall the taste of the chicken was good. If it wasn't burnt, I bet it would have been really good. The salad was good on the side.

Lazy Nights

Sometimes I have those lazy nights where I just don't feel like running out to the grocery store. And ordering for delivery can be expensive for only one person. Which leaves the only option of using what is in my cabinets and fridge to put together a meal. Luckily, I have a semi large collection of pantry staples.

In the past week I had two of these nights. And I think I did pretty good at putting together some meals using what I had available.

Night # 1- Chicken and fried rice

I took a chicken breast and cut it into chunks. I dipped them into an egg (that had been stirred), and dropped them into a disposable freezer bag that had about 1/3 cup of cornstarch in it. I shook the bag until the chicken was coated.

I heated about a tbsp of vegetable oil in a deep skillet and browned the chicken pieces until nearly cooked. (About 2 minutes)

I removed the chicken and added another tbsp or so of oil. Then I added just over half a cup of cooked, cold rice. It's important that the rice is cold, or it won't fry. After the rice had been in there for about a minute I added a half cup of thawed peas, and a carrot that I cut into large matchsticks. After another minute I added 3 tbsp of sauce, recipe to follow.

I took the rice out of the skillet, and added the chicken back. I poured over the rest of my sauce and stirred the chicken to coat. I kept the mix in there for about 2-3 minutes so that the sauce would thicken.

I made the sauce by combining 3 tbsp each of mirin, soy sauce, honey, Chinese cooking wine, as well as 2 tbsp of rice vinegar.

Overall a really good meal that didn't cost a lot, and I have been craving it since I made it that night.

Night # 2 - Pasta Carbonara

The next night, I realized I had all the ingredients for Nigella's spaghetti carbonara, except spaghetti noodles. I substituted the spaghetti noodles for small shells. The first time I ever made this (using spaghetti), I was blown away by how good this was. This time it was good, but not amazing. I blame the shells.

Chicken Pot Pie, But Better

Growing up, there was a lot of food I couldn't stand, chicken pot pie being one of them. Some members of my family thought a great meal was heating up some frozen chicken (or beef) pot pies found ready-made in the frozen aisle of the grocery store. Bleh.

I have major chicken issues. I will not eat chicken in canned soups, or frozen meals. You cannot convince me that it's actually chicken and not some rubber byproduct. Combine that with a sludgey cream, and some carrots that are square (did I mention I also cannot eat the frozen vegetable medley? You know, the one with green beans, peas, corn and square carrots? Gives me the heebie jeebies) and you have a meal that gives me nightmares.

Homemade chicken pot pie is slightly better. I will actually eat it, possibly enjoy it, but I would much rather have something else, like a steak in butter sauce. However, I did made something similar to chicken pot pie the other night, only it's a 1000 times better.

Since this is "Redeem Nigella Lawson from the Crappy Review the Hacks Anna and Kristina Gave Her Week", this recipe is from Nigella Express. Chicken, Mushroom and Bacon Pie. Even the name sounds better the Chicken Pot Pie. Cut up chicken breast, chopped mushrooms, cooked bacon, and thyme make the filling. The sauce is made with a bit of flour, chicken stock, and 2 tbsp of wine.

Let me tell you, I would much rather have bacon than square carrots any day. The crust is actually a puff pastry topping. If you click Nigella's link it will show you what the puff pastry should look like. Mine was somewhat pretty, I guess, but it had sunk into the bowl and didn't puff a lot. I am excited to show off my pretty french onion soup bowls that I bought before LeGnome (r.i.p.) shut down.

A peek at the filling:

If I had to tally a score I would say Nigella got a point for this dish, and also for the salmon so the score as of this moment is:

Nigella 2

A&K -2 (they lose a point every time Nigella gains one)

Chicken Chili

Since I have decided to lose a size I have managed to work out once. Not at the gym, I worked out to Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. I like working out at home for a few reasons. The first one is no one else is there to hear me breathing like an asthmatic in a hookah lounge. The second is I don't have to drive anywhere, so working out takes up less of my time. And the third is I can shout obscenities at the trainer, which would be frowned upon at the gym.

The DVD is great, I hurt so much the next day which is how I judge how effective a workout is. I was going to plow through the pain and work out again, but I went to C's house for dinner and when I got home I wanted to make my lunch for the next day.

Chicken Chili (my recipe)

1) Brown up a package of ground chicken in a large pot or pan

2) add a chopped onion, and heat until onion is soft, about 2 min

3) add some paprika, a little less than a Tbsp

4) add some chili powder (however much you like, I used a little over a Tbsp)

5) add a can of black beans, kidney beans, and brown beans. Rinse the beans first though.

6) add a 14 oz can of tomatoes with chili seasoning, and a 28 oz can of plum tomatoes. Use a spoon to break up the plum tomatoes

7) If you would like, add some hot sauce as well.

This recipe is reasonably healthy, and incredibly easy. I really like the use of ground chicken in chili, it's lighter than beef and it also absorbs the flavor of the chili. You could use any kind of beans, I like black for the color, and kidney because they are my favorite. I was going to throw in some frozen corn as well, but I forgot about it when I was making it (unusual I know). Considering the amount of chili powder and hot sauce I threw in, it wasn't actually all that spicy.

I had planned on working out after making the chili, but I went to bed instead as it was pretty late. Yesterday I was going to do pilates in an effort to stretch out my aching muscles, but due to some crippling cramps I spent the evening on the couch with a heating pad trying to calm down my ovaries.

While I have been failing at exercising, I have been doing great on water intake. I hate drinking water, but knowing that it's great for me I have been making a real effort to drink a lot more of it. Even though my start off is slow, I am still feeling positive.

Little Bow Ties

My New Year's resolution to go to the gym more has been haunting me. I have yet to go to a gym this year. I didn't even realize my gym had apparently been bought out by another company. I go through a cycle that starts with me feeling a bit unhappy with myself, so I work out and eat better, then I look better, so then I start cheating just a little. Then I cheat a lot. Then I become completely self-indulgent until I get to a point that putting jeans on in the morning is like trying to stuff sausage casings.

I am not trying to say that being skinnier is better, or sexier. I believe in something called "happy weight". Happy weight refers to whatever size or weight you feel your best at. It can be any size. Currently I am larger than my happy weight and my goal is to get back down to it. The reason why I am talking about it on my blog is to be held accountable. I don't want to get to a month from now, and not be able to say I am closer to my goal.

What I am trying to accomplish overall is being able to love myself a bit more. A blog that I read quite often is Gala Darling, and she is declaring February as the month for radical self love. This may sound hokey to some of you, but personally I think it's a great idea. So many times we fall into a trap of impressing other people, when really we need to learn to truly love ourselves.

Her blog said that if you were going to follow her radical self love, to post one of her images on your blog. Throughout the next month you may see me referencing her "Radical Self Love" articles, but I will not forget about my main topic, food.

I'll start off with the salad I made yesterday, as an appetizer of course. I took mixed salad greens and topped them with chopped carrot, celery, green onion, cucumber and red bell pepper (capsicum). The point is to load the salad with as much vegetables as possible. I topped it with a shallot vinaigrette, from Everyday Food.

The ingredients of the dressing are minced shallots, olive oil, Dijon mustard, honey and red wine vinegar. They balance each other perfectly, the dressing is light, refreshing and full of flavor.

I made a chicken recipe from Rachael Ray. It's supposed to be Chicken with Wild Mushroom and Balsamic Cream Sauce. My finished product wasn't a sauce, but it was delicious nonetheless.

You start off by chopping up a ton of mushrooms (different varieties).

I meant a ton.

The mushrooms are cooked down in butter, then shallots, garlic and thyme are added. Followed with some flour, chicken stock, balsamic vinegar and cream. (There are only 3 tbsp of cream in the sauce, which isn't much at all)

The recipe calls for the cooked chicken breast to be placed on a bed of orzo and topped with the sauce. I had bought a bag of mini bow ties a while ago, so I used those in place of the orzo. (Orzo is a small pasta in the shape of large rice).

Rachael's recipe called for eyeballing a tbsp of balsamic vinegar, and I eyeballed two of them. When it comes to balsamic I always use a little bit more since I love it. I also eyeballed the chicken stock, and I must not have added nearly enough. If you make this, and you use the full amount of stock, you will end up with a beautiful sauce rather than the thick topping I had.

While not a sauce, the result was very good. Had anyone been watching me eat dinner, I think I would have scared them with the amount of voracity I showed while wolfing this down.

The "not sauce" sauce.

Look at how cute those bow ties are!

Chicken "salad"

I have a sister who is four years younger than me, but personality wise she is about ten to fifteen years older. Sometimes I feel that she would have been better suited as my older sister, rather than my younger. For instance, my idea of budgeting is taking my pay cheque for the week, making sure I cover the bills for that week, and spending the rest. My sister actually plans out the months ahead, what she will take in, and what she has to put out, and then what goes into savings. She has offered to make a budget for me, but I think we both know how it would end.

I mentioned to her yesterday about how I couldn't decide what to make for dinner. She had just read yesterday's blog entry, and was apparently deeply concerned about my arteries and she said "Maybe you should make something for your heart, like a chicken salad"

My very mature response was "Bleh"

Salad is an appetizer in my books. No one will ever be able to convince me that a plate made up mostly of lettuce is a main course. (And yes I know that salad isn't necessarily made with lettuce). I don't care how much meat is in the salad, it is still an appetizer.

Knowing she had a point about my heart, I knew I should make something loaded with vegetables. I also bought a case of beautiful chicken breasts last week so I figured she also had a point regarding the use of chicken.

Everyday Food has a recipe for Thai Chicken and Noodle Salad. I'm not really sure how this dish is labelled a salad, other than it has a lot of raw veggies in it.

The following is what I did different from the recipe:

1) I added a red bell pepper, cut into thin strips. (I have also been calling bell peppers capsicums lately. Capsicum is their real name, and it is annoying someone I work with when I call them that, so naturally I do it more)

2) I used 2 chicken breasts cut up into chunks instead of the amount they called for

3) Instead of chopped peanuts, I added toasted cashews

4) I didn't cut the cucumber into half moons, I peeled it, and then used the vegetable peeler to cut long thin strips of cucumber

5) The garnishes I used were green onions and cashews. I meant to use bean sprouts, and I even bought them, but as I write this I remembered I left the bean sprouts in their package in my crisper.

6) For the dressing I didn't have the anchovy that was optional, but I put in a few dashes of fish sauce since fish sauce's main ingredient is anchovy.

7) I used egg noodles instead of Chinese rice noodles. I have used Chinese rice noodles before, and I prefer them, but the grocery store was out yesterday

I have made this recipe countless times before, and each time I really love it. The chicken and noodles are hot, and since the veggies are raw they are crisp and taste really good. If you are making some to eat for dinner and then take some for lunch the next day, you will want to package the chicken and noodles separately from the veggies. When I make this I take a bowl and mix in what I am eating for supper, but I do not mix all of it together so the veggies (mainly the cucumber) get soggy and gross.

Delicious!

Lemony Snickets

I was thrilled to receive The Cook's Book of Everything for Christmas. I had been eyeing it up at Chapters for a while, although when it comes to cookbooks there is very little I don't have my eye on. This particular book really does have a recipe for everything. It also has an herb and spice guide which is very informative.

My grocery store has this one produce aisle, I call it the miscellaneous aisle. That aisle is home to a random assortment of vegetables or herbs that can be unusual. The problem I have with this aisle is that I can't always count on a certain item to be there. For instance, I have seen Thai basil in the aisle on occasion, but not every single time that I shop there.
When I was walking down that aisle recently I saw lemongrass, an item that I have never noticed before at Sobeys. I went home, forgetting about the lemongrass, and opened my new cookbook. No joke, I opened it up to a recipe for lemongrass beef. Not seeing this as a coincidence the next night I picked up some lemongrass and made the dish.

Lemongrass Beef

Ingredients:

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tbs grated ginger

4 lemongrass stalks, white part only, finely chopped

1.5 tbs vegetable oil

600 grams lean beef fillet, thinly sliced (I didn't know what they meant by beef fillet so I just used steak)

1 tbs lime juice

1-2 tbs fish sauce

2 tbs kepap manis

1 lg red onion, cut into small wedges

200 g green beans, sliced

To make:

1)Mix together garlic, ginger, lemongrass and 2 tsp oil in a large, non-metallic bowl. Add the beef, toss well to coast, then cover and refrigerate for at least 10 minutes

*note: when working with lemongrass, peel off the outer leaves*

2) To make the stir-fry sauce, mix together the lime juice, fish sauce and kecap manis. (Kecap manis is a thick, dark sweet soy sauce used in Indonesian and Malaysian cooking. If not available, simply stir a little soft brown sugar into regular soy sauce until it dissolves) Sobeys did not have kecap manis, so I used the soy sauce and brown sugar combo

3) Heat the wok (or large skillet) over high heat, add 1 tbs oil and swirl to coat. Stir fry the beef in batches, 2 -3 minutes, or until browned. Remove from wok and set aside.

4) Heat the remaining oil in the wok over high heat. Add the onion and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add the beans and cook for a further 2 minutes, then return the beef to the wok. Pour in the stir-fry sauce and cook until heated through.

Delicious! I have never worked with lemongrass before, and I have to say their smell reminded me of lemon wet-naps. Some people might find that to be an unattractive quality, but I love wet-naps so I didn't think this was a bad thing at all. I was skeptical of first of how lemony the lemongrass would make the meat taste, but there was a very strong citrus flavor to it. Not exactly like lemon, but lemon with a hint of herb.

The other night I used actual lemons in another recipe from The Cook's Book of Everything.
Chinese Lemon Chicken
Ingredients:
500 g (1 lb 2 oz) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 tbs light soy sauce
1 tbs Chinese rice wine
1 spring onion (scallion, or green onion), finely chopped
1 tbs finely chopped ginger
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
100 g (1 cup) cornstarch
oil, for deep frying
Lemon Sauce Ingredients:
2 tbs lemon juice
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/4 cup chicken stock
1/2 tsp cornstarch
To make:
1) Cut chicken into slices. Place in a bowl, add the soy sauce, rice wine, spring onion, ginger and garlic, and toss lightly. Marinate in the fridge for at least one hour or overnight.
2) add the egg to the chicken mixture and toss lightly to coat. Drain off the excess and coat the chicken pieces with the cornstarch. The easiest way to do this is to put the chicken and cornstarch in a plastic bag and shake it.
3) fill a wok one-quarter full of oil and heat to 190 C (375 F), or until a cube of bread dropped in the oil turns golden brown in 10 seconds. Add half the chicken, a piece at a time, and fry, stirring constantly for 3-4 minutes. Or until golden brown. Remove with a wire sieve or slotted spoon and drain. Repeat with the remaining chicken. Reheat the oil and return all the chicken to the wok. Cook until crisp and golden brown. Drain the chicken. Pour off the oil and wipe out the wok.
4) To make the lemon sauce combine all the ingredients.
5) Reheat the wok over med heat, add the lemon sauce and stir constantly until sauce thickens. Add chicken and toss lightly until the chicken is covered in the sauce.


Sadly I was in a hurry to eat so I just quickly threw it all onto a plate. As I was about to take a bite I remembered I should take a picture of it for the blog, which is why the picture seems to be lacking.
The chicken was so good. I think next time I would use honey instead of the sugar in the lemon sauce, and I would add another tsp.
I have used cornstarch as a coating for fried chicken before, and I liked the results. This time around I LOVED the results, I credit it to dipping in the egg first, but also frying the chicken twice. The chicken is very crisp this way.

Even if only half the recipes in the book turn out as well as these two did, I would have to say no home should be without it.

I can't resist making this post even longer without telling this story. A friend and I were out at a pub when we ran into her neighbors. Her neighbors turned out to be the biggest germaphobes I have ever met. They were telling us that they wash all their produce in soap and water before they will eat them. They also mentioned that they will never buy a lemon or a lime. Ever. They use the bottled lemon or lime juice. You see, one time they watched a documentary on what happens to a lemon or lime from the time it is picked off the tree, to the time it gets to one's house. At this point, you should be able to tell what kind of people they are judging their entertainment picks. During this enthralling film a lemon had been handled by 4 people who had picked their nose, which had scared them off buying lemons and limes forever.
I had a couple problems with their theory. I can understand being thoroughly grossed out by this but:
1) Wouldn't all fruit/vegetables that are hand picked off trees or wherever, also have a chance of being handled by nose pickers? Or is nose picking only limited to the lemon and lime workers?
2) If you bought a lemon or lime from the store, you could take it home and wash it in water and soap, and feel confident it is clean, but the bottled juice is made from actual lemons and limes. Are we sure the factory cares enough to wash the fruit before juicing it?
This is only one...quirk this couple had. Perhaps over time I will share what the entire, very painful, evening had to offer.