Chicken Stew with Vegetables and Grains

This is a recipe I wanted to try out after making a similar ready-made mix. I changed it up a little bit, adding vegetables and changing the cooking process. I imagine, it is also possible to make a vegetarian version of this stew.

2 cups mix of beans, rice and lentils
salt
garlic
rosemary *other spices
1 big onion, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
1 celery, chopped
1 - 2 pound chicken breast
10 cups vegetable or chicken stock

Wash the grains, set aside.
Heat up oil and add onions in a big pot. When onions are cooked add spices and chicken and cook for about 5 minutes. Add vegetables and cook for another 5 minutes. Add stock and grains and cook until grains are done.

Baked Chicken Drumsticks

This recipe claims to produce the best baked chicken legs. Although I like the name of the blog a lot I have to disagree with this entry. Yes, this recipe is quick and easy. But for my taste the result only gets an OK, these cannot be the best baked chicken legs. I will be on the look out for other recipes. Maybe something with rosemary or other herbs..

Peanut Butter Chocolate Oatmeal Smoothie

This is my recent favorite breakfast smoothie: Peanut Butter Chocolate Oatmeal... in a smoothie! Yum!
I substitute half of the milk for either almond milk or rice milk. But I don't want to substitute all of it because it gives the smoothie a creaminess that the milk alternatives don't.

This is what I use:
2 bananas
1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp maca powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 handful of nuts (cashews)
1/4 cup (about 1 1/2 pack) of instant oatmeal

Vegetable Soup with Chicken

I wanted to make a mushroom soup with the leftover turkey stock that was sitting in my freezer since Thanksgiving. But I couldn't get any dried mushrooms and didn't want to use only fresh ones (how are dried mushrooms a seasonal thing when you can get fresh ones all year round?).
So I improvised and came up with the following recipe.

1 onion
olive oil
chicken breast
chives, cut into small rings
salt, pepper, cumin, parsley
3 potatoes
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup chickpeas
4 cups broccoli
several stalks celery
white wine
cream
4 cups broth
8 oz of sliced white mushrooms
Cut the onion into small pieces and fry it in some olive oil in a big pot. Rub chicken breast with salt, pepper and spices and fry with the onions until done. Remove the chicken. When the chicken has cooled down a little but, cut it into small pieces. Add chives.
Cut the potatoes into small cubes and add them to the onion. Fry for a couple of minutes while stirring so that the onions don't burn. Add peas, broccoli and celery. Fry for another 5 minutes. Add some white wine and cream and the 4 cups of broth. Cook until the vegetables are done, add spices to taste. Then blend with an immersion blender.
In a frying pan fry the sliced mushrooms for a couple of minutes from both sides. Add to the chicken.
Serve the creamy soup with some of the chicken-mushroom mix and sour cream.

The result was quite tasty, but it made me realize that I need to stock up on my herbs. I only had parsley and basil and would have liked to add tarragon or rosemary.

Picadillo

This Picadillo recipe is one of my favorite recipes. I learned it from a friend a couple of years ago and have made it a couple of times since then.
It is great in tortillas as suggested in the recipe, but I like the rice version just as much. I served it with home made guacamole, grated cheddar and some salad:

Chicken Cutlets

This is a recipe from my grandmother.

Chicken Cutlets:
1lb chicken fillet
2 eggs
2 heaped tbsp mayonnaise
2 heaped tbsp potato flour
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
salt, pepper, paprika, cumin
Cut the chicken fillet in small pieces (about the size of a fingernail). Mix all the other ingredients together. Add chicken, mix well and let the mixture sit in the fridge for 6-8 hours (I only waited 30 minutes and it still worked well).
In a frying pan, heat some oil and use a tablespoon to drop the mixture onto the pan. Fry for a couple of minutes from both sides until golden.
Keeps well in the fridge for a couple of day and can be frozen.

Beans with Spinach and Cheese

Since the Christmas beans turned out so yummy, I as eager to try more bean recipes. Christmas beans are a variation of the traditional Lima beans. So I got some traditional Lima beans to try out this recipe with beans, spinach and cheese.

I cooked the beans (with pieces of carrots and celery), used frozen spinach which I fried up with onions, garlic and seasoned it with salt and pepper. I put beans and spinach in a baking dish and topped everything with cheddar and mozzarella (since I don't like feta cheese much).

The result was really yummy, especially with the cheese. When heated up the next day in the microwave the cheese melted though and around all the layers. Mmmh, my kind of dish :)

curcuma smoothie

The original curcuma smoothie recipe calls for mango and ginger. I didn't have either. But as I finally found out that turmeric and curcuma are practically the same thing, I had finally found where I could buy it and was itching to try it out in my smoothies.

Banana-Orange-Turmeric Smoothie
1 banana
1 orange
1-2 cup of buttermilk
1 tsp turmeric
some lemon or lime juice
honey or maple syrup for sweetness.
Blend well and enjoy. It has a pleasantly fresh and slightly Indian taste.