Clementine Chicken with Vegetables and Quinoa

Here's another original recipe, and this one turned out great, if I do say so myself!  This was the first time I have even tried Quinoa, and I am officially a fan!  This dish takes about 15 minutes to prep and another 20 to cook, so it's great for a busy weeknight.  I prepped the vegetables while defrosting the chicken in the microwave (something that I am firmly against, but when you forget to thaw your protein, what else can you do?)
Heres the ingredient list.  As usual your mileage may vary according to taste:

2 (6oz) Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts, pounded flat
2 tsp corn starch, separated
6 Cloves Garlic, peeled, smashed and minced
1 Cup medium sliced Onion
2 Cups Broccoli florets
3 Clementine Oranges, peeled, separated into segments
1 Medium Red Pepper, cut into thin strips
1/2 Cup White Wine
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground coriander

2 1/2 tsp reduced sodium Worcestershire Sauce
1 cup uncooked Red Quinoa (you may substitute brown rice)
2 cups water
Non Stick Cooking Spray

Start off by putting the cup of Quinoa and the 2 cups of water in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to low.  Simmer for the rest of the process, about 20 minutes.

Spray a large sautee pan with cooking spray and brown the chicken breasts, about 5 minutes a side, till the juices run clear.  Season as desired with salt and pepper, but remember we will be adding Worcestershire sauce later, and that will have plenty of sodium for you!
When the chicken is just cooked, remove from the pan and cover to keep warm.

Immediately add the garlic, onions and peppers to the dry pan, stirring around for less than a minute.  You want to brown the garlic but not burn it!

Add the wine, broccoli and spices, simmer for a few minutes...

...then the Clementines...

...and just before plating, stir the remaining tsp of corn starch into the Worcestershire sauce, and stir into the vegetable mix.  Let simmer for the remaining minute while plating the Quinoa and Chicken

Mound 1/2 the Quinoa in the center of the plate, slice the chicken and place on top of the Quinoa, then surround with 1/2 of the vegetables, finally splitting the remaining sauce between the plates.

Delicious!!
As a little side note, I had intended to use Soy Sauce and grabbed the wrong bottle.  While It didn't hurt anything, next time I will try Soy, and maybe a little hot chili or sesame oil.
Also,  while I am now hooked on Quinoa's nutty, crunchy flavor and texture, If the idea of a new grain scares you, you can easily serve this up on your favorite rice.  Quinoa and Brown Rice are very close nutritionally.
Below are the numbers!

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 2
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 655.3

• Total Fat: 7.4 g
• Cholesterol: 102.7 mg
• Sodium: 221.4 mg
• Total Carbs: 85.7 g
• Dietary Fiber: 13.4 g
• Protein: 57.9 g

Moroccan Ragout with Poached Eggs

In my constant search for healthy, tasty breakfasts that aren't completely carb loaded, I came across a recipe for a Moroccan Ragout.  The recipe I found had a lot of ingredients that I didn't have, including a lamb sausage.  I made this without any meat, although it would be seriously kick-*ss with chorizo... and would be seriously worse for you, SO...  for my recipe, once again I made do with the limits of my paltry pantry cabinet.
As usual, I recommend using recipes as a launch pad for your own ideas, so with that in mind, I used the following ingredients:

1 small onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled, smashed and minced
1/4 cup diced red bell pepper
1 10oz can diced tomatoes and chilies (like Rotel)
1 6oz can tomato sauce
3 whole canned plum tomatoes, diced (If I had two cans of the tomatoes and chilies I would have used that instead of the last two ingredients)

1 1/2 Tbsp Harissa (My favorite "new" ingredient this past year!  spicy and sweet and AWESOME with scrambled eggs!)
Fresh large eggs
Toast (preferably a nice crusty bread, but I made do with weight watchers whole wheat)

 Spice Blend:
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp paprika
The original recipe called for "Ras El Hanout", a Moroccan spice blend.  The name means literally: "top of the shop" and called a lot of spices that I didn't have.  Oh well, next trip to Whole Foods or Trader Joes I will have to search it out!  I also used some of the spices that were in the sausage that was called for.

First, Sautee the onion and pepper till transparent, then add the garlic, wait a minute or so, and the spice blend.  Stir this around to toast the spices a little...

...then add the tomatoes and harissa.   Let this ragout simmer at a low boil for 5 minutes or so...

then drop the eggs in.  I like to break my eggs into a bowl one at a time, so I don't get any shell in the ragout, and just in case there is a bad egg, you don't ruin the dish, or the rest of the eggs.
Put a lid on this, and let the eggs poach...

...until the whites are cooked but the yolks are still runny.

Serve on the toast and season with salt and pepper, and maybe a little more harissa, if you can take the heat!
The beautiful thing with this dish is the large amount of leftover ragout was put in a container in the fridge, and now I can make it again as quickly as poaching eggs in water!

Chicken & Pinto, Green & Red Enchiladas, take one.

Here is an easy dish that will fill you up, is tasty and relatively healthy* to boot!
I came up with this recipe my usual way. First, I decided that I wanted to make chicken enchiladas, but didn't really have any kind of go-to recipe.  So I searched my regular on-line sources, and found that there seems to be no real "standard" recipe.  So I looked through the cabinet to see what cans I had there, and I looked at the cans in my closest Italian themed supermarket to see what was offered in the limited Mexican section available to me.
I ended up with the following ingredient list:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 pound, 2 ounces in my case)
1 can Pinto Beans, drained
1 can Mild green enchilada sauce
1 can Mild red enchilada sauce
1 can diced tomatoes and chilies (Like Rotel)
1 large yellow onion (about 1 cup chopped)
2 cloves garlic (about 2 Tbsp chopped)
1 Long Hot (or whatever) Pepper (You could use a small can of chopped green chilies)
1 Tbsp taco or enchilada seasoning (I used a nice sprinkle each of Cumin, Chili Powder, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, and Pepper)
5 or 6 large whole wheat tortillas (you could use corn and be authentic, I prefer wheat.)
1 cup shredded cheese (I used sharp cheddar)

Start by poaching (somewhere between a simmer and a full boil, it keeps the chicken tender) the chicken breasts for 15 minutes or so, until fully cooked.

Pull the meat apart with two forks, shredding completely.  Set aside chicken.

While the chicken is boiling, start on the rest of the filling.  Chop your onion fine, and saute with a a bit of cooking spray in a large pan.

Remove the seeds and pith (the white stuff) from the pepper and cut into thin strips

Chop the pepper, and add to the cooking onions

Peel, smash and mince the garlic and add that as well.
You may need another shot of cooking spray.

Then add the tomatoes and chilies...

...pintos and mild green enchilada sauce.
Bring to a low boil, then simmer for a little while, until it thickens slightly...

Then add the chicken and mix well.  When it comes back up to temp, remove from heat.
We are now ready for assembly.

Spray the inside of a large casserole with cooking spray...

and stage your mixture and tortillas next to the casserole

Spoon a nice amount of the mixture into tortillas, then pick up by the dry ends, and roll in the casserole, keeping the seam underneath...

...till you are done.  Hopefully you will run out of mixture and tortillas at the same time.  I ran out of mixture with one tortilla remaining... oh well.

Pour the red enchilada sauce on top, spreading evenly, and sprinkle the cup of shredded cheese, also evenly.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or so, until all bubbly and melty.  Serve with a salad or Mexican rice.

*Here is the breakdown for each enchilada, courtesy of nutritiondata.com's recipe analyzer.  Hey, I said it was RELATIVELY healthy! The canned ingredients really REALLY jack up the sodium count, and the beans and tortillas jack up the carbs, but HEY, they ARE enchiladas!  On the good side, there is a whole lot of protein. One enchilada per serving, as made, is quite filling, and it is VERY tasty and satisfying!  As sodium is on my "bad" list, I will be looking for a better way to cook these next time.  I'll let y'all know when I do!

Hot, spicy African Groundnut Soup for a cold winter's day.

HEY! Howsitgoin?  Happy New Year!  It's been a while, and with the holidays and some travel, I haven't really had the time or energy to write.  In the spirit of getting back to things and starting off the new year on a good, healthy note, I bring you African Groundnut Soup, A la Top Chef's Carla Hall.  As with most people, I find all TV reality shows to be truly lame, with the exception of the ones I watch, and the one I like to watch without exception is Top Chef.  Go figure.    This season is exceptionally cut-throat, as it is an all-star season, featuring contestants who finished in the top three of their season, or who were, for some reason or another, ousted early from the show for one bad day in a thousand.  In other words, the cooking talent is truly top notch.  The recipe that follows is a version of "cheftestant" Carla Hall's week 4 episode winning entry.  I am used to making soup that takes a short time and only a few steps to prepare, and then cooks without my interuption.  This one has a lot of steps and a lot of ingredients, and it took forever to prepare, but the taste is unforgettable and well worth the trouble... at least once!  I have simplified a few things and altered ingredients for convenience (mainly to save me a trip to Whole Foods in the snow!), but I believe the taste profile is pretty close to the original.  Warning:  The recipe makes a lot of soup... like 12 to 18 servings as pictured.  You may want to cut it in half.
Here is Carla's ingredient list, with my alterations:
Spice Mixture
3 Tbsp Cumin
1 1/4 Tbsp ground coriander
2 tsp cayenne pepper
5 Tbsp Chermoula Spice Blend
I had to look this last ingredient up, and found out it is frequently a paste, and that the ingredients change a bit according to where you look.  I found a recipe for a dry chermoula spice blend that is as follows:
1 X ground cumin
1 X ground coriander
2 X sweet Paprika (I used 1 X smoked and one X sweet)
1 X cayenne pepper
Pinch (large pinch) of saffron threads, ground between fingers
You can make as much as you want and save what you don't use.  In my case X=1 Tbsp.
Combine these ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

Broth and Vegetables
3 Tbsp cold pressed peanut oil (I didn't have any, so I used extra virgin olive oil.  Maybe canola oil would have been a better substitute, but I didn't think of it in time, and didn't really notice in the end...)

3 large onions roughly chopped (I used 2 large vidalia onions)

1 bulb garlic, peeled, smashed and minced (this came to about 4-5 Tbsp in  my case)

6" ginger, peeled and sliced 1/4" (I used about 3 Tbsp minced)






1 28 ounce can of crushed fire-roasted tomatoes (I didn't have fire-roasted, so regular it was)
4 quarts vegetable stock (I used Fat Free, Low Sodium Chicken broth, again, 'cause that's what was in the cabinet.)
2 fresh bay leaves (If by "fresh", Carla meant "dried", then mine were fresh.)
3 pounds sweet potatoes (I had 2 1/2 pounds, the very last remains of the 2010 CSA goodies!)
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 pound Azuki beans (I used Goya "small red beans", as I could not find Azukis.  I have NO idea what difference this would make as I have never had Azuki beans to my knowledge.)
2 Poblano peppers (I used 1 long hot)
3 red peppers (I used 1 red, 1 yellow)
10 plum tomatoes
1 bunch parsley
1 bunch mint
Lime zest, to taste
Garnish
1 cup roasted, salted peanuts, roughly chopped
1 lime wedge per serving
Got all that?! OK Here we go.
First you wanna cook yer beans, as they take a while to soften.

Put them in a large pot with a good amount of water, and two bay leaves.

Boil until soft.  In my case, they took about 3 hours and never got fully, really, REALLY soft.  Sometimes that happens.  Maybe that's where the Azuki beans would have helped!  When the beans are done, drain and rinse them and set aside to cool.

While the beans are cooking, peel and dice the sweet potatoes, toss them in a little oil, add salt and pepper and roast in a 425 degree oven for 20 minutes...

until they get nice and tender and oh so tasty!

While this is all happening, roast your peppers and tomatoes on an open flame, or in a broiler.  (I didn't have fresh tomatoes until Erika got back with groceries shortly before I finished the whole project, so I didn't roast them, and I regret that.)

When roasted, put in a paper bag and close top till cool.

When cooled, peel, seed and dice the peppers and tomatoes.  Here, just the peppers.

While the peppers are cooling, start on the broth by sauteeing the onion in oil for 5 minutes.  Then add the garlic and ginger and cook 5 minutes more.  Add 1/2 the spice blend, the can of crushed tomatoes, and the vegetable stock.  Bring to a boil, and then simmer for at least 1 hour.

strain the solids out of the broth, puree in a blender with some of the broth, and then return the puree to the broth.  A nice professional china cap strainer would have been real useful here.

Return to a boil, and reduce temp to simmer.

Whisk the cup of peanut butter with 2 or three cups of broth until smooth, then return to the broth.

At this point the broth is ready, and should just be kept at a simmer.

Combine the beans, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, chopped parsley, chopped mint, and lime zest in a large bowl, mixing gently and seasoning with sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

...pretty, aint it?

Place 1 cup of the vegetable mixture in a bowl, and ladle the broth on top.

Add a garnish of chopped roasted peanuts, a bit of the remaining spice blend, and serve with a wedge of lime.

This soup is fantastic!  The layers of flavor, the texture, the heat of the cayenne, the smooth roasted potatoes, the sweetness of the beans...  This soup was well worth the time and effort, as I stated earlier, at least once!  ...All that, and it's VEGAN too, well... it would have been if I had had the vegetable stock...

Anyway... Enjoy!