Fennel and Onion Chicken in the Crock Pot

This is adapted from a 30-minute-meal recipe by the much-loved (or much-hated, depending on who you ask) Rachael Ray. It was an easy thing to do in the CrockPot, and it was SO good.

The Recipe:
Serves 4-6
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs (I used frozen from Trader Joe’s)
1 large head of fennel, sliced (or 2 small-medium heads)
1-2 medium onions, sliced (you’ll want about as much onion as fennel)
3 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbs bacon bits or chopped cooked bacon (optional)
2 tsp fennel seeds
¼ cup flour
1 ½ cups dry white wine (I used chardonnay)*
1 cup chicken broth
½ tsp salt
2 tsp pepper

*If you don’t want to use the wine, you can use 2 ½ cups (total) of chicken broth. But the wine adds a LOT to the dish, just FYI.

Put the sliced onion and fennel in the CrockPot and top with the frozen chicken. Sprinkle/pour/distribute the remaining ingredients (liquid last) over the vegetables and chicken. Cook on low for 6-7 hours or high for 3-4. (If the chicken is thawed, cook on low for 3-4 hours or on high for 2-3 hours.)

The best way to eat this? With a generous serving of bread and butter and a glass of the wine you used in the meal. YUM.

Broccoli, Onion, Tomato, Carrot, and Jicama Salad with Creamy Dressing

I just realized that I didn't post this yesterday! SORRY!

Have I mentioned in the last 5 minutes that I love my food processor? Or how MUCH I love my food processor?!! And this salad is a perfect food processor meal! Woohoo! Of course, if you like chopping, you can do that, too. In fact, Marste just might be in 7th heaven, if she chops this. I think her body releases endorphins, or something, when she chops, because she says it relaxes her. Me, though. For me, the endorphins are hiding; chopping makes me crazy! I LOVE my food processor! Ha!

So, that said ad infinitum, use the pulse button for this. You don't want microscopic pieces, nor do you want a large piece of broccoli! Something in the middle would be good! Ha!

I fed this to 5 of us on Tuesday night, 2 growing teens, 3 adults, and occasional cubes of jicama to my dogs (who love it), and we ate it all.

6 cups small broccoli florets, chopped

4-5 slices medium brown onion, finely chopped

3-4 medium tomatoes (I like Romas, because they don't have as much juice), or 10-12 cherry tomatoes, chopped and drained (Food processors: use the pulse button 4-6 times on the cherry tomatoes, or on the regular tomatoes: cut them into quarters lengthwise and halve each piece crosswise. Pulse them 4-6 times, also! If you get foam, pour them into a collander and rinse briefly. Drain and toss them into the salad.)

2 medium carrots, shredded

1/2 medium jicama, 1/2" dice--okay, I didn't use the f. p. for this!

Dressing:

1 c. mayonnaise

3 Tbs. red wine vinegar

1 tsp. agave nectar or sugar

1/8 tsp. pepper

1/8 tsp. salt

NOTE: I like tangier salads. This salad, as written above, appeals to everyone else I know! So, if I'm making this just for me, I cut down the quantities--obviously!! Ha!--and leave out the carrots and jicama. I also leave out any sweetener in the dressing, and I add 1/4 tsp. oregano leaves. I LOVE this version!

To assemble: chop, shred, dice, etc. the ingredients and toss together. Mix the dressing and add it, a little at a time, until the salad is a consistency you like. (I like a lot of dressing, but Chelsea likes the vegetables! Ha!) Enjoy!

AMERICANIZED Taco Salad!

My mom fixed us a version of this when I was a kid! I loved it when she did! Typically, she fixed it in the summer--my family ate hot food exclusively in the fall and winter--but I fixed it all year round. Everybody liked it, including whatever drop-in guests that we had! And I usually had all the "fixings" hanging around, so it was no big deal! And what an impact!

And even I know that this bears absolutely NO resemblance to the current taco salads--or any Mexican food, period! It's great-tasting, though, if you're in the mood for a fun-food lunch or dinner! I usually made it without the meat, although my mom's version had 1 lb. ground beef or turkey, fried until it was done. She didn't add any seasonings to it, other than salt and pepper, and it made this salad very filling!

If you're in the mood for spicy, you can add Tabasco sauce or cayenne pepper to the dressing or to the soy meat. The addition of spices to the soy meat, or meat, is more contained than the dressing addition. Also, I've tossed in stray bits of jicama and/or corn I have sitting around, which adds sweetness and crunch. This is good, but the original version, left alone, is better! Ha!

For the salad:

Optional: 12 oz. package soy meat, plain

Optional: 1/4 tsp. salt

Optional: 1/4 tsp. pepper

1 head romaine or iceberg lettuce, chopped into bite-sized pieces

3 medium tomatoes, cut into 1/2"-3/4" dice

1 medium brown, white, or red onion--it depends on what I have!--chopped or diced

1 15-oz. can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (or more, if you like)

1 small can chopped ripe olives (Jenna won't remember this; I hate olives, so I never added them!)

1 6-8 oz. package good quality yellow corn chips, crushed, but not pulverized!

If you're using it, brown the meat with the salt and pepper, or the soy meat with the pepper.

You can cut stuff up during this time, or you can do it later, while the meat is chilling. To chill the meat quicker, put it on a paper towel on a plate in the freezer. Check it every 20 minutes, or so, because it actually will start to freeze fairly quickly! I learned this the hard way! Ha!

For the dressing:

You can make your own, or you can just buy 8 oz. (we like more) of thousand island dressing.

1 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup catsup

1/3 cup sweet pickle relish

Optional: few drops of Tabasco sauce

Optional: 1/8 tsp. or more cayenne pepper

Mix everything together in a container. For best results, refrigerate it for a couple of hours. On the other hand, I never plan that far ahead, and I generally use it immediately. Nobody's ever complained! Ha!

To assemble:

Put the lettuce in a large bowl--large enough to toss everything without spilling! Put the meat, or soy meat--if you're using it, obviously!, tomatoes, onions, kidney beans, cheddar cheese, and olives in pie-slice-shaped wedges around the salad. Put it on the table, so everyone can see your artistry! Now, pour the crushed chips over the top. Add the dressing, starting with about half the above recipe, and toss it to coat everything. I think this is a bit dry, so I add more dressing--like, the rest of it! I'm the type who likes a little salad with her dressing! Ha! Serve IMMEDIATELY, since the chips will absorb the dressing and get soggy pretty quickly!

To serve later: do the lettuce and the "pie wedges," cover, and refrigerate until you're ready to eat. Add the chips and dressing, and toss!

This is so good; I'm really looking forward to dinner! Ha! MMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

Spinach Grapefruit Salad with Citrus Dressing

I love salads. I even eat them in the winter, when tradition dictates warm stuff. So, we have sort of warm salads; I roast vegetables and put them on lettuce of some sort! Ha! After 35 years of this, my husband, Steve, doesn't even blink anymore! His was a meat-and-potato household, as was mine, but I think my mom was more adventurous than his was. Of course, my mom fed the four of us: 2 kids and 2 parents, while his mom fed 12: 10 kids and 2 parents! Under those circumstances, I'm not sure how adventurous I'd feel in the evenings, either! Ha! She amazes me still!

This is one of my favorites, and it's the dressing that pops it. The ingredients for the basic salad are spinach, grapefruit, and onion rings, and, like fashion, if you coordinate the colors, it's pretty enough for a party salad. Pink grapefruit sections with white onion, or white grapefruit with red onion. Either way, it goes great, color-wise, with the deep green of the spinach!

Per serving:

2 cups spinach leaves, washed and chilled

1 thin slice of onion, off a medium-sized one

1/2 grapefruit, peeled (To cut the grapefruit sections away from the membrane, run your knife from the outer edge to the inner core along the membrane walls. Remember, there are 2 sides to each section, so you're running your knife twice between each section! It's quicker the more you do it; "practice makes perfect," to be sickening about it! Ha!)

OPTIONAL: 1/2 an avocado adds creamy texture (and a yellow color, if you're using pink grapefruit and white onion). You can also add walnuts to this. (The brown color provides an "earthy" note!) These two ingredients are just filler, though; the real taste is the combination of spinach, onion, and grapefruit. Obviously, you can add other stuff, too! I wouldn't add really strong-tasting stuff, like olives, for instance!

For the dressing, also per serving:

1 Tbl. lemon juice (1 small, ripe lemon gives about 2 Tbl. juice)

2 Tbl. canola oil

1/2-1 tsp. (or a bit more) honey, agave nectar, xylitol, or sugar--sweetener amount depends on how tart your grapefruit is, so tasting--of both grapefruit and dressing--is involved here!

a few grains of salt to punch the sweetener--not enough to actually taste! 2-4 at the most! So, a tiny pinch of salt!

Stir, or whisk, to dissolve the sweetener and salt and to mix the dressing.

To serve:

Put the spinach on a plate. Separate the onion into rings and arrange on the spinach bed. Arrange the grapefruit over the onions. Pour the dressing over, and eat! MMMMM!

Mu Shu Chicken!

Yay! for Mu Shu! I love that stir-fried goodness, all wrapped in a rice pancake and topped with some plum sauce! MMMMMmmmmmm . . . Ok, I actually don’t really care about the pancake. I like the vegetables and the plum sauce. Protein is a bonus.

PLUS! It's HEALTHY! It's almost all vegetables, plus whatever protein you add. There's a little bit of fat for cooking, but other than that, the only thing you really have to be aware of is what's in your sauce. Who could ask for anything more?

The Recipe:
Serves 6-8

2 Tbs canola oil
1 onion, chopped
1 head of celery, stalks sliced diagonally into quarters (in other words, BIG pieces)
½ 10-oz bag grated carrots
1 10-oz bag sliced mushrooms
2 10-oz bags presliced cabbage
6 large green onions, white parts chopped, green parts cut into 3-inch lengths
2 cups cooked protein: chicken, scrambled eggs, steak, whatever (I usually use eggs, but had some leftover chicken to use up, so I used that in this recipe)
*Note: I do NOT add salt or pepper to this; most of the sauces you’ll put on top have salt, and that will be plenty.

Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the onions and celery, lower the heat, and allow to cook, stirring occasionally, until the celery begins to soften just a little bit, and the onions begin to get translucent.

Add the carrots and mushrooms, stir to combine, and cook until they begin to soften.

Add the cabbage and green onions, and stir gently until the cabbage begins to wilt. (Note: you might have to add the cabbage a little at a time, stirring until it wilts before you can add the next couple handfuls. Your pan will be REALLY, REALLY full.)

Add the protein and heat through.

Spoon generous portions onto plates, and top with plum sauce.

*There are LOTS of sauces that will work with this: sometimes I add oyster sauce or soy sauce mixed with chili sauce. I’ve added sesame oil, I’ve added fish sauce, I’ve added spicy peanut sauce. These particular veggies seem to go best with an Asian-style sauce, but feel free to experiment. The only flavors you’re working with are the vegetable flavors, and the sauces usually have salt, so I don’t even add that to the mix.

Summer Salsa "Soup"

This is for Emily, who needed something that her whole family would eat! Hopefully this works. :)

I love salsa. I mean, I could eat it with a spoon, straight from the container (and have been known to do just that). I’m talking about the salsa from the refrigerated section, full of tomatoe-y, garlicky goodness. I finally figured that maybe I should stop eating salsa from the container because a) it gets expensive (seriously – do you know how much those little containers COST?) and b) it’s not really all that good for you. I came up with this to split the difference. One of the things I like best about this recipe is the "build your own" component with all the add-ons at the bottom. I usually have all but the tortilla chips on hand, and I just throw things together as they sound good. It adds nice variety, and if you're serving this to guests (or families), everyone gets something they like.

The most important thing below is to make sure that you have RIPE tomatoes. Don’t even bother making this in the wintertime, and if you shoot for early summer or early fall, at the beginning and end of tomato season, it’s probably best to get tomatoes on the vine. Get the big round ones, too, not the skinny little Roma ones. You need the JUICE for this to work. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

The Recipe:
Serves 6

6 large hothouse tomatoes or tomatoes on the vine, chopped
1 medium white or yellow onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 cucumber, chopped
2 cloves garlic, FINELY minced
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
juice from 4 limes
½ -1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and FINELY minced (if you like spicy food, use the whole pepper; if you HATE spicy food, just leave it out)
¼ cup olive oil
2 10 ¾-oz cans broth (I prefer beef broth, but vegetable broth works, too. Chicken broth tastes WEIRD, though. Just FYI.)
1 pound cooked steak strips (optional – I don’t usually include them, but sometimes I need some extra protein)
sour cream, for serving
guacamole, for serving
crushed tortilla chips, for serving
shredded Mexican cheese blend, for serving

Combine everything not labeled “for serving” above in a LARGE bowl. (The picture below is a 4-qt. bowl, and it has no steak in it. This makes a LOT of soup.) Stir to combine, and (ideally) refrigerate several hours or (even better) overnight. (Note: it’ll be good even if you don’t have time to refrigerate it, but it’ll be FANTASTIC if you do.) Also, you probably will NOT need salt for this. I know, I know, I’m the salt queen, but the broth is already salted. Mix it up, let it chill and taste it before you add salt. Seriously. I’m NOT KIDDING. You might be sorry otherwise.

Serve with optional garnishes (not shown below):
sour cream
guacamole
crushed tortilla chips
shredded cheese

Less Congestion Pot Roast for Dad

This is the second dinner I made for my dad.  Beef is really too fatty to benefit congestion, but it does have some stuff he needs (iron, e.g.), and he requested it!  Ha!  I agreed, as long as it he agreed not to add potatoes, which contribute to his congestion.  So, with that compromise, here's what I did!  (And the stuff that helps congestion is in bold print!)

3 lbs. beef for slow cooking!

Salt

Pepper

1 14-oz. can beef broth

1 huge onion, or 2 smaller ones

2 large cloves garlic, chopped

4 medium zucchini, cut into 4 chunks each

6 medium carrots, cut into 5 or 6 chunks each

Into a 6-qt. slow cooker, place beef.  Sprinkle with a little salt and a lot of pepper.  Add the onion and the garlic.  Pour the broth around the edges.  Cook on high heat for 5-6 hours.

Add the carrots, making sure they're in the broth.  Add the zucchini chunks, placing them on top of the roast and carrots.  This way, they won't be completely mushy when everything else is done!  Cook for another 1-1 1/2 hours, or until the carrots are tender when you poke them with a fork.  (AKA "fork tender.)

Dad wanted bread to substitute for his beloved potatoes, so I bought him some bread made of half quinoa and half wheat, because wheat worsens his congestion, too.  I toasted a slice of bread, buttered it, laid it on a plate, put meat on it, and ladled the beef broth over it.  With vegetables on the side, he felt he'd been given manna!  Ha!  He ate all of it!

And now, I have both chicken and beef to shred for tacos and other dishes that I can use more of the peppery spices that seem to do the best work for de-congesting!  Woohoo!

I'll keep you posted on our progress!  At this point, he's actually walking farther than he was 3 days ago!  I'm excited!  He's breathing better, so he's not as breathless as quickly!  He's even feeling optimistic, so that's a plus, too!

Back to Basics: Risotto

Risotto gets a bad rep. It’s really simple, but it’s one of those things that so many people I talk to think is complicated and time-consuming, when nothing could be further from the truth. It’s a quick side dish, or an impressive main dish (if you add protein and other ingredients), and you can probably make the basic version with what’s already in your cupboard/fridge. (Ok, you might have to buy Arborio rice the first time out. Trust me on this: it’s the best with Arborio rice. Other rice will work, even pearl barley can be prepared with this method, but nothing will have quite the smooth creaminess of Arborio rice. I’m just sayin’.)

Just FYI, except for the bacon and wine, the recipe below is SUPER basic. I added the pancetta/bacon because I had some, and you can use 2 cups of stock instead of a mixture of wine and stock.

The Recipe:
Serves 4 as a side dish, or 2 as a main dish

1 Tbs olive oil
½ large onion (or ½ cup frozen chopped onion)
4 oz pancetta or bacon, chopped (if using bacon, about 4 thick-cut strips)
½ cup Arborio rice
½ cup white wine
1 ½ cup low-sodium chicken stock*
¼ cup Parmesan cheese
2 Tbs cold butter (if you’re using bacon or pancetta, use unsalted butter)*

*The low-sodium part is important, because as it reduces, the salty flavor will intensify in the rice. Same for the butter.

In a saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and the onion, and sauté until the onion becomes translucent and the bacon begins to crisp. Add the rice and continue to sauté for a few minutes more, until the rice is translucent around the edges, and the bacon is crisp.

Add the wine to the chicken broth and microwave the mixture until it’s hot. Reduce the saucepan heat to low, and add the hot broth/wine mixture to the pot, about 1/3 cup at a time. After each third of a cup, give it a good stir and continue to stir it every few minutes, letting the rice absorb the liquid before adding any more.

When most of the liquid has been absorbed, leaving behind only a vague, saucy-looking bit and the rice is chewy but not mushy, take it off the heat. Add the Parmesan cheese and butter and stir.

If you want to garnish it, sprinkle a little extra cheese on top, like the picture below.

Serve ASAP – this is not a dish that gets better sitting on the counter. ;)

Crab Quiche

YUM. What's not to love about crabby, eggy goodness in a PIE CRUST? Ok, the pie crust is optional. This will work just fine in a pie dish without the crust, as long as you are generous with the non-stick spray. I've also used this recipe to make egg "muffins." It's been a while since I did that, but I think it made about 16 muffins. Either way, it's good stuff. :)

The Recipe:
1 cup crab (imitation crab works fine, too)
1 ¼ cup sharp Cheddar cheese, grated
½ small white onion, chopped (or ½ cup frozen, pre-chopped onion)
4 eggs
1 cup milk
¼ tsp pepper
½ tsp hot sauce - optional
½ cup Parmesan cheese
1 prepared pie crust, NOT prebaked (or make your own) - optional

Preheat the oven to 450. If you’re not using a piecrust, spray a baking dish liberally with non-stick spray. (Seriously. None of that nanosecond spraying – this will need some help coming out of the pan.)

Combine the crab, Cheddar cheese and onion in the bottom of the pie crust. Mix the eggs, milk, pepper and hot sauce in a bowl, and pour it over the mixture in the pie crust. Top with Parmesan cheese.

For best results, bake at 450 for 10 minutes; then reduce the heat to 350 and bake for 30 more minutes.
OR: instead of preheating to 450, just preheat oven to 350 and bake 40-50 minutes. This is good, but not quite AS good. I’m just saying.

You’ll know it’s done when a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

This is also one of my favorite "on-the-go" lunches, because you can eat it cold or at room temperature. Either way it tastes FANTASTIC.