More than just chicken and rice

So I've been cooking a little bit again... but due to my situation the food has been so boring it's not worth writing about.  Until now!  I stumbled across something that turned out surprisingly good, good enough that I want to remember it and make it again!

I accidentally made rice taste like stuffing*.  Not bad, right?

Secret Ingredient Chicken and Rice Casserole

• 2 large-ish chicken breasts, cut into (roughly) bite-sized pieces
• 5 or so carrots - washed, peeled, and chopped
• 1 medium zucchini - quartered lengthwise and chopped
• 1.5 cups of white rice (you could probably use brown, but I had white)
• 1.5 cups leftover mushroom broth
• 1 cup water
• Olive Oil (1-2 tsp?)
• Salt (1/2 to 1 tsp? Husband likes salty rice)
• Random spices - I used about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon each of oregano, cardamom, and really old curry powder
• and the secret ingredient...  1 can of coconut milk!

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Place rice, oil, and salt in a large glass baking dish (i used 13x9 i think? the really big one).  Mix up until all the rice is coated with oil and salt.  Add more oil or salt as desired.
3. Add in other chopped up ingredients, and mix up.  Attempt to distribute evenly.
4. Mix coconut milk, broth, and water in a bowl and carefully pour over everything in the glass dish.  Everything should be just submerged - if you need more liquid add a little more water or broth.  (I was trying to save dishes and didn't quite mix them all first, i don't think it mattered much... but if i wasn't so lazy/making-things-up-as-i-went, i would have pre-mixed)
5. Sprinkle desired spices over the top, and place in oven.
6. Bake for 60-90 minutes, until chicken and vegetables are thoroughly cooked.

The chicken was done for me after an hour, but the carrots were still a bit crunchy.  I turned off the oven and left the casserole in there while i ran to the store, and when i came back the rice had soaked up all of the liquid and the carrots were just right.  The chicken had started to dry out, but only just, and still tasted great.  I have no idea why it tasted like stuffing... maybe the mushroom broth did it?  I should point out that there was  no coconut flavor, just lots of richness somehow. (I've heard coconut flavor can depend on the brand, i used Thai Kitchen Organic). Hopefully the good results of this experiment weren't a fluke, I'll definitely be trying it again!  This would also work well with other vegetables mixed in... I'm not very adventurous these days so I'll stick to carrots and zucchini for now.

*disclaimer - I had a cold and I'm pregnant, so my taste buds might be a little wacky.  Regardless of whether or not it really tasted like stuffing, I thought it was good and husband really liked it too!

Rawr!

I made another one, and it came out much better! Definitely will continue experimenting with this!

I'm a lion!  I have a tail, you just can't see it!

New fun!

 So my hobbies have turned more towards things that allow me to sit on the couch these days... and I was starting to get bored with baby blankets (all my friends are having babies too).  But when I was at the store buying more yarn the other day, I picked up a little book of animal patterns... this was so much fun to make!

It's supposed to be an elephant... but as husband says, it's a pig with big ears who told too many lies.

I gave him a silly face :)

 It was really easy to make all the pieces... not so easy to put them all together.  He's a little lopsided, because I ad-libbed (as usual) when I didn't have the right hook size for the pattern, and then ran out of one of the yarns.  Also, turns out I can't count and follow a pattern very reliably, so he's a little fatter than intended, and so are his legs.  And I purposely made his ears bigger, because he looked like a mouse with the recommended size!  All in all, he's got a lot wrong with him, haha, but it just adds to his character.  He's a great little elephant, I can't wait to give him to a deserving little kid!  And I can't wait to experiment with some more crocheted stuffed animals :)

In case you're interested, the pattern that I botched up came from this book.  Other amazon users have uploaded photos of their elephants... look much more like elephants than mine, haha.  But it's my first time!

Feeeeed Meeee.....

Remember this guy?

Cranky old man who lives in my stomach

I think he's even crankier now that he has a roommate.  Either that, or I'm going to give birth to Benjamin Button  (who doesn't want their child to be as good looking as Brad Pitt?).

Feeeeed us!!!  (my hair is longer, but MS paint still doesn't have the right color)

Moral of the story.... I'm hungry!!  Yaaaay almost lunchtime!  (does it count that I ate a piece of quiche about 15 minutes ago?  No, right?)

Maybe I'll cook this week

So I realize that I've been a pretty terrible blogger.  But I've got valid excuses!  If you want to hear them, listen up, because I don't plan to talk about them very often (at least not as the subject of any posts, they both deserve their own blogs, which most people would not be interested in reading).

1.  I'm Pregnant!!  YaaaaAAAAAayyyyyYYYY!!  (Like Snooki!)
2.  I've been diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis.  Booo!!  (Like JFK?)

Both seem to be related (at least hormonally), and both have meant that I haven't spent much time in the kitchen during the past few months.  I had lots of food aversions in the beginning (and was also a little bit afraid to eat), but now my appetite is on fire, and my medication seems to be improving my digestion.  I avoided the stove like the plague for a while (unless it was baking french fries or hash browns), but that's all changing fast, and at the rate I'm going the past few weeks I'll be cooking up a storm again in no time.  In fact, I'm thinking about baking some cookies in a few minutes, so that I can eat them all.  Seriously, all of them.

Here's how things have been going down:

Right after the positive pregnancy test -

• LOVED avocado, chicken, eggs, and chocolate milk.

First trimester -

• HATED chicken!!!  Could not be in the same room as it!  
• Also hated pretty much everything else, including chocolate (I never thought I'd see the day!)
• Crazy heartburn, so nothing spicy, and no tomatoes, peppers, or onions.
• Survived on noodles with parmesan cheese, peanut butter, and any type of fried potato.  Salt and Vinegar chips amazingly seem to cure nausea (even though the idea of them sometimes caaaauses nausea...).  Also Blueberry "KIND" bars were tolerable.
• Too tired to eat anyway.

Month 4 -

• Crazy craving for chicken nuggets.  Also into cream cheese, and still loving potato chips.  
• Less nauseous, but still tough to find anything appealing.
• I want spicy food, but still can't eat it.
• Less tired... but still really freaking tired.

Month 5 -

• I now dip the potato chips into the cream cheese.
• Ice cream!
• Loving fresh fruit (though because of colitis I can't eat much of it)
• Still not into any vegetables (colitis says "no" to a lot of these too)
• Eating most things again in small amounts (even chicken!), except spicy food.  But the idea of cooking still makes me tired.  Plus, tons of the stuff in my normal repertoire is either spicy or includes cooked tomatoes... not so great for heartburn.  So I need some energy and creativity!  The other night I boiled noodles, sauteed half a kielbasa, and mixed it all together with canned broccoli and cheese soup.  I called that cooking.  Not very delicious, but progress!

So as you can see, writing about life (and being hungry) has not been very high on my list.  But I think it might be coming back into favor sometime soon, as my appetite is going crazy!  And (some of) the plants in my garden are growing even faster than my baby (who is allegedly somewhere between a banana and a cantaloupe this week... though in my experience those are two very different sizes!)!

I went on vacation!

We went to Spain again!  And ate sooooo much delicious food!!!!!

Here are a few highlights:

• Pastries for breakfast every day*
• Ice cream almost every day (it was vacation afterall!)
• Pa amb tomaquet* (no idea how to spell... basically bread slathered with oil, salt, tomato, and sometimes garlic)
• Chorizo cooked in cider 
• Creamy artichoke soup
• Simple potato salad - potatoes, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, onion?, garlic?, lots of olive oil
• Fried everything* (fish, vegetables, croquetas de jamon y queso) 
• Shrimp and bacon "quiche" (definately not quiche, but that's what they called it... more like a souffle or frittata? Slathered in a mayonnaise sauce, sounds gross, but DELICIOUS!)
• Mushrooms stuffed with bolognese-type meat sauce & zuchinni, topped with cheese
• Tortillas (Spanish omelets)
• Churros* con chocolate (only when fresh though!)
• Some kind of special spanish region stew - beef (like brisket?), potatoes, kale, white beans, and broth.  So simple, but SO flavorful!
• Grilled (on a griddle, not a grill) mushrooms, the weird flat kind (called setas in spanish)
• Roasted artichoke hearts, topped with crunchy onion pieces and ample olive oil

Things I missed out on, but others enjoyed:

• WONDERFUL WINES!!
• Cured hams (serrano, iberico, etc) and meats (varieties of morcilla and chorizo)
• Lots of awesome cheeses 
• Good looking little sandwiches and tapas with mystery cheeses and meats
• Purposely undercooked scrambled eggs served over super fried and salty french fries

I'm very excited to try and recreate a few of these dishes!  And someday in the not too distant future (in late October), I'll be able to pour myself a glass of some delicious Spanish wine like the ones I passed up this time around... and I will likely close my eyes for just a moment, and try to imagine I'm still on vacation... because I'm sure I'll be exhausted!  Estoy embarazada!  Ya tengo 18 semanas :)  I probably ate a few things that I wasn't supposed to, but I tried my best!  And everything was delicious!

*I couldn't survive on pregnancy restrictions AND gluten free diet, so I ate a lot of gluten.  I did my best to have only "fresh" things (no packaged and processed items).

Spring Cake!

My parents came down for a bit this past weekend, and my mom brought me a really cute cake!  

 It's a sunflower!  (and gluten free! Mmm!)


Thanks Mom!!







Note: I've eaten a lot more of it in the time it took me to upload this picture

I cookied!

I cooked this weekend, for the first time in quite a while!  I made Potato Leek Soup, and some pretty healthy (though not low fat) cookies!


Simple Potato Leek Soup with Ham

• 1 tbsp butter, cut into pieces
• 3 Leeks, white & light parts only, rinsed and chopped
• 5 or 6 potatoes, peeled and diced (i used red, cut up tiny for faster cooking)
• about a cup of diced up ham (i used about 1/5th of a ham steak, cut up tiny)
• little bit of ground or fresh thyme (i used about 1/4 tsp ground)
• little bit of ground or fresh oregano (i used about 1/4 tsp dried)
• 2 big bay leaves
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 6 cups of water

1.  In a large pot, melt butter over medium heat.  Add leaks and stir occasionally to soften, about 5 minutes.
2. Add Ham, stirring until fragrant
3. Add dried thyme and oregano(and salt and pepper if desired), stir well
4. Add water, potatoes, and bay leaves, bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are soft.
5. Remove bay leaves, then mash or blend as desired (I used a masher to break up the potatoes until the soup had a slightly creamy broth, but i didnt use an immersion blender because i didn't want to destroy the ham).
6. Serve with Salt and Pepper to taste.  Yum!

Healthy-ish Everything Cookies!

• 1/2 cup grapeseed oil (i only had about 1/3rd cup, i made up the difference with applesauce)
• 1/2 cup flour (i used Pamela's gluten free baking mix)
• 1 cup almond meal
• 1 cup quick cooking oats
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut (the kind i had was more like ground, unsweetened)
• loose 1 cup of brown sugar (i think maybe this was too much, the coconut added to the sweetness)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup raisins (i used golden)

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Mix together oil (and applesauce), sugar, vanilla, and egg until well combined
3. Stir in flour and almond meal
4. Stir in coconut and oats
5. Stir in chocolate chips and raisins
6. Using 2 spoons or wet fingers, add globs of sticky dough to a parchment lined or greased baking sheet (or 2) in desired cookie sizes, pressing until relatively flat (these don't spread while they bake).  These get pretty chewy once they cool down.  Make thinner for crispier cookies.
7. Bake for about 20 minutes, until they lose their sheen and are slightly brown on the edges.
8. Enjoy!  

These would probably also work fairly well as bars, though maybe a little less sugar would be wise if planning to eat for breakfast.

Man sweater

I have a confession. Sometimes I shop in the men's section. Better bargains! One of the best shirts I ever had was a boy's (as in child) size large, and I was almost 25!

This morning I've been caught in the act. Here's a sneaky picture of the man asleep next to me on the train... As well as a sneak peek at my own outfit for the day. On the plus side, I now know that I'm not the only person on the train who doesn't buy all of my clothes at Anne Taylor and brooks brothers, this was a $10 old navy sweater! Take that Fairfield county!

 

10 AM Update:  Ok, so upon closer inspection, my sweater has purple lines on it and his doesn't.  I wasn't fully awake yet.  So maybe his is from brooks brothers afterall... but what a scare!  And at least my $10 sweater can be confused with an expensive one...

Ice cream!

I got an ice cream maker attachment to my mixer for Christmas!  Yaaaay!  Thanks Sissy!  (And husband thanks you too!)  It's kind of intimidating to make ice cream for the first time, so many rules about refrigeration and you have to cook stuff and then cool again and oh man so much prep time I had no idea... BUT IT'S WORTH IT!  MMMmmmm!!  For my very first try, I made simple vanilla, following the recipe that came with the bowl (ridiculous number of egg yolks, cream, half and half, vanilla, pinch of salt).  When you first make it, it's soft serve, and later on when you put the leftovers in the freezer, they get hard as a rock.  I'll have to work on that.   

Best vanilla ice cream I'd ever had (except for Carvel!)

I added some strawberries, and it was kind of melty, mmm

Then, I made another variety of vanilla, which i think was even better!  But Husband didn't like it.  I loved it though!!  I didn't have any vanilla, so I used 4 tsp of real maple syrup.  And i didn't have any regular sugar, so i used brown.  WHAT A DREAM!!  Buttery flavor, not maple-y, next time i'm going to mix in some crushed nuts!  (And I learned on this batch that it's ok if you accidentally cook your eggs too much, push it through a fine strainer and it all works out A-ok!)

And then it gets even better.  This past weekend I tried the "lazy" method of ice cream making.  No cooking, no waiting as long as you already had the bowl in the freezer!  Here's what you need:

• 1 can of evaporated milk (i used 2%)
• 1 can of condensed milk (we always have plenty of this since it's husband's favorite "food")
• 1 cup of milk (i used 2%)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp peppermint extract
• handful or 2 of mini chocolate chips

mix them all together (except for the chocolate chips), put in the fridge if you're worried about mixture not being cold enough (or refrigerate cans first maybe?)  I refrigerated for like 5 minutes, not really sure why I bothered.  use your ice cream maker as directed, mix in mini chocolate chips at the last minute.  Mine was extra soft serve, i guess the mixture wasn't cold enough to begin with, but oooooh sweet satisfaction!  so tasty, and so little effort!  Froze up alright, lots of ice crystals though, i think all of my problems are base on the fact that there was too much water and too little fat.  I read that adding some corn starch or using whole milk can fix that... i'll try it next time!

Each time I've made ice cream so far, I've put it in 2 containers and hidden one in the freezer so that Husband can't eat it all on the 1st day!  So far the record is 4 days with this rationing method.

Christmas Day Menu!

Again, I'm a month late with this post... but so what!  The food within will be delicious any  month of the year!

My mom, sister and I all loooooooove to cook.  And we as a family (including our men) looooove to eat!  So we planned and planned, and came up with the perfect christmas menu!  Every effort was made to accomodate our added dietary restraints this year, no wheat for me, and no salt for dad.  In the spirit of Christmas Dad and I both made a few exceptions... and all in all it was a fantastic menu!

Breakfast

• Crockpot overnight oatmeal - ammaaaaaazing!!  We tweaked the recipe slightly, using cranberries and raisins instead of the other dried fruits, and added maple syrup, walnuts, bananas and milk as mix-ins upon serving. Also, I ate this for like a week, it makes a ton of oatmeal.
• Sausage and Egg Quiche - mom made her own no salt sausage!

Snacks

•  Variety of cheeses and crackers

Starters

• Ad-libbed white bean, sausage, and kale soup.  My sister is so good at this!
• Arugula, fennel, and nut salad - Mmmm... another great find by sissy

Dinner

• Filet Mignon
• Mahi-Mahi
• Braised Celery - tasted surprisingly like stuffing
• Mashed root vegetables (sweet potato, potato, and turnip)
• Peppercorn gravy

Dessert

• Chocolate Chip Bourbon Pecan Pie - Really easy!!  (but I wasn't very happy with my first attempt at pecan pie... it was totally ruined by the gluten free store-bought crust, making my own next time!
• Variety of cookies!  (went to a cookie exchange party!)

Yaaaay Christmas tree!!

Christmas Treats!

Ok, so I wrote this a month ago, and never posted it.... better late than never!  More coming soon!

Things have been a bit crazy during this holiday season, and my kitchen has been busy!  Things have been busy enough that I've done a very poor job of documenting my culinary adventures.  Maybe next year.

First, I made gluten free cookies!  I experimented a bit, and made some delicious lemon pecan shortbread cookies.  I was able to convert them from traditional to gluten free pretty easily, since I had read that rice flour is one of the secrets to a super crumbly shortbread to begin with.  So here we go:

Gluten Free Lemon Pecan Shortbread
(adapted from better homes and gardens)

•  1/2 cup all purpose flour (I used bob's redmill gluten free mix)
• 1/2 cup rice flour
• 1/4 cup almond meal
• 1/4 tsp xantham gum
• 1 cup butter
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
• 2 tbsp finely chopped pecans
• bunch of half or whole pecans

1. Preheat oven to 325
2. Combine everything in a medium bowl, until you get a crumbly ball of dough.  It will take a while, I don't have a pastry cutter so I ended up using my hands, which melted some of the butter, whatever, it worked.
3. If you  melted all the butter with your hands, refrigerate for a little while (30 min?).  Or not, in which case you'll probably end up with thinner but still delicious cookies!
4.  Roll out dough until about 1/4 inch thick, use a pizza slicer and cut up dough in a grid-like fashion.  Transfer dough to cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (or lightly greased), and press a piece of pecan into the top of each.  You can place them pretty close together, they won't spread much since they're so thin and no pouffy ingredients.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes, then cool.  Voila!  Makes about 20 1.5" squares?  (fills a cookie sheet)

THESE ARE FANTASTIC!!!!! Some of the best cookies I've ever made!  I didn't take any pictures, but trust me they're delicious.  They're not very sweet, they'd be perfect for tea time, but i took them to a christmas cookie exchange party and they taste really weird after eating lots of sugary foods, I guess my tongue got overwhelmed by all that other sugar.  So if you bring these to a cookie tasting party, make sure everyone tries these first!

I also made these lemon-raspberry pinwheel's in a gluten free version, which some people really liked, but I was kind of indifferent to them.

And then I made these delicious nuts!!

Mason jars from Agway, and ribbon and fabric from Walmart... easy gifts!
The large one is for my boss since he's a nut-aholic, he ate the entire jar in one day.  That's a pint!

Liz's cinnamon sugar nuts 
(I dont know where the original recipe came from, I looked at a whole bunch and combined)

• roughly 6 cups of raw mixed nuts (I used almonds, walnuts, and pecans.  I also did once with just almonds, but the walnuts and pecans really added to it!  The walnuts are my personal favorite in this recipe :)
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 cup to a cup of sugar (depends on how sugary you want your nuts... I'd start with 1/2 and you can add more later)
• 1 tsp of cinnamon (again, you can add more if you're cinnamon crazy)
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp water

1. Preheat oven to... oh no!  I can't remember!  I'll look it up and post later...not very hot, something like 250, we're going for low and slow.
2. In the biggest bowl you have, whisk egg white, vanilla, and water until lightly foamy
3. Add nuts, and stir until all the nuts are wet.  (If they're really wet, you could add more nuts if you wanted to)
4. in a small bowl or measuring cup, combine sugar, cinnamon, and salt, then pour over nuts.  Mix well until all the nuts are coated, it's easiest to use your hand.  
5. Spread out on 2 large cookie sheets, I coated mine with parchment for easy clean up, I suppose lightly greased or possibly even aluminum foil would work too.  
6. Bake for roughly an hour, stirring nuts around every 15 minutes or so.  More often would be ok, if they start to burn it progresses pretty quickly!  Luckily, they still taste decent slightly burnt :)  Let cool before you eat, because they're delicious and addictive and I don't want you to burn your tongue! 

Mmmm.... now I'm hungry!