Grilled Chicken with Mushroom Rice Pilaf

Chicken, Rice and Peas

I've fried lots of chicken in my lifetime. But these days I prefer to grill it. It saves on fat and starch from the breading. And it's generally healthier that way. Marinating chicken before you grill it really helps enhance the flavor. It also moistens the chicken so it doesn't get so dried out. I often do a southwestern style marinade seasoned with chile powder, oregano and garlic and perhaps other herbs and spices. But I found a great recipe on the New York Times that will give a different flavor and decided to try it.

Chicken Marinade

I won't give the complete recipe here, but it includes lemon, honey, Dijon mustard, soy sauce and garlic. And I needed to grill some chicken for my dinner on Sunday, so I went shopping. The recipe is sized for 2 pounds of chicken, but my package of boneless chicken breasts weighed in at about 3.3 pounds, so I doubled the recipe. 

I let the chicken marinate for about an hour. Then I set the rack on the second level from the top, set the broiler on high, sprayed cooking spray on my grill pan, placed the breast pieces on top, and placed them in the oven. I grilled them for five minutes on a side before turning them. I checked the temperature at about 20 minutes. The safe temperature is 165 F and they were about 145, so I gave them another 5 minutes and they checked OK. I set them aside for the meat to rest and then cut a few slices for my dinner.

While they were cooking, I made rice pilaf.

Mushroom Rice Pilaf

Ingredients

2-3 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup diced onion

4 ounces coarsely chopped mushrooms

1 cup Basmati rice

2 cups water

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp dried oregano

Method

1. heat oil in a 1 quart pot over medium heat for a couple minutes. Add the onion and saute for about 4 minutes.

2. Add the rice and stir it with the onions for a few minutes until it starts to brown.

3. Sprinkle on the spices, add the water and heat to a boil. Then reduce the heat to low and let it cook for about 15-20 minutes.

4. Add the mushrooms and stir them into the rice. Cover the rice and let it finish cooking for a total of about 30 minutes.

Serving Suggestion

Serve with grilled chicken and peas as a side dish.

This makes plenty of rice to serve with the chicken or some other dish like poached fish.

 

Sweet Potato Stir Fry with Chickpeas and Prunes

Note: this is an old post that apparently I had neglected to publish. It seems OK, so I'll go ahead and make it available.

Much of the joy of cooking comes from experimenting with the ingredients and sharing the results with friends and family.

My friend and I started with a recipe for braised eggplants by Antony Worrall Thompson, but our eggplant had gone bad.

So, we used a sweet potato instead, added a couple different vegetables (carrots and asparagus), and turned it into a stir fry.

She and I both liked it, so we thought we’d share it with you.

Here is the result:

Sweet Potato Stir Fry with Chickpeas and Prunes

Ingredients:

1 cup dry chickpeas or 1 15-ounce can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 medium sweet potato, peeled and sliced

1 + 1 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger

1 Tbsp finely chopped garlic

1 medium onion, peeled and coarsely chopped

1 large carrot, peeled or scraped and sliced diagonally

4 oz asparagus, cut into 2 inch pieces

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 Tbsp sesame oil

1 Tbsp light soy sauce

1/3 cup vegetable or chicken broth

3-4 oz pitted prunes, cut in half, then chopped into smaller pieces

2 tsp cornstarch, mixed to a paste with ¼ cup water

Directions:

1.       If using dry chickpeas, soak them overnight in 3-4 cups water. Then heat to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 3 hours or until they are tender, but not mushy.

2.       Toss the sweet potato slices in 1 Tbsp vegetable oil in a shallow baking pan or cookie sheet and spread in a single layer under a preheated broiler. Broil for about 10-15 minutes, turning and shaking occasionally, until they start brown and soften.

3.       Heat the other Tbsp vegetable oil in a large wok over medium-high heat and add the ginger, garlic, and chopped onions and cook for 2 minutes, stirring often. Add the carrot slices and stir-fry for another 3 minutes.

4.       Add the sweet potato slices, chickpeas, asparagus, and celery and stir-fry for another 3 minutes.

5.       Add the sesame oil, soy sauce, chicken broth, and prunes and bring to a boil.

6.       Reduce heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes.  Separate the vegetables in the middle of the wok, add the cornstarch and stir into the broth to thicken.

7.        Serve by itself or over cooked rice or quinoa.

 

Greetings to any of my previous readers who are still connected. And welcome to anyone who stumbles across my little blog. I hope you enjoy reading it and trying some of my suggestions.

It's been a long hiatus. Life has taken me through several jobs that didn't give me time to keep up with this sort of writing. But I am alive and well and entering a new stage of my life. I plan to resume sharing some of that with you. Last month I helped prepare a special meal at a local resource center. For my part, I made a large version of a recipe by Lauren Miyashiro for her Classic Green Bean Casserole

It seems we are both updating the recipe, since the version I saved a couple years ago called for 1 pound of green beans, 1 onion and 8 ounces of mushrooms. My impression from that was that it didn't have enough green beans. Her recent version has 2 pounds of green beans, 2 onions and a pound (16 ounces) of mushrooms. So adjust those if you like. I triple the beans to 3 pounds, left the onions and mushrooms the same, and doubled the sauce. And I think that came out about right. So that is what I specify in this recipe.

And I recommend adding 1-2 Tbsp of seasoned salt to the milk mixture before it cooks up and thickens to give it an extra flavor touch. I have been testing a special mixture from a cookbook by a friend that should go into print later this year. But until that is available, choose your favorite salt mixture.

Elevated Green Bean Casserole

Based on a recipe by LAUREN MIYASHIRO

UPDATED: Jan 10 2024

 

YIELDS:

Ingredients

• 3 lb.            green beans, trimmed
• 10 tbsp.      butter, divided
• 1                 onion, sliced into half moons
• 8 oz.           sliced mushrooms
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1-2 Tbsp seasoned salt
• 2                 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 c.          all-purpose flour
• 6 c.             whole milk
• 3 c.              French's fried onions

1.      Prepare the green beans. Wash them. Trim the ends. Slice into two or three pieces about 1-2 inches long.

 

2.     Slice and dice the onions. Slice the onions, then dice them into smaller pieces.

 

3.      Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare an ice bath: In a large pot of boiling water, add green beans and cook until bright green, about 6 minutes. With a slotted spoon or tongs, quickly transfer green beans to ice bath to cool, then drain and transfer to a large bowl.

 

4.     In a large ovenproof skillet over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons butter. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring often, until mushrooms are golden, about 5 minutes more. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, 1 minute, then transfer mixture to green bean bowl. Divide these into 2 disposable aluminum pans.

 

 

5.     In same skillet over medium heat, melt remaining 8 tablespoons butter. Whisk in flour and cook until golden, about 2 minutes. Gradually whisk in milk and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer and cook until thickened, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat, then pour over the green bean-mushroom mixture and toss until evenly combined.

 

6.     Bake until warmed through and bubbling, about 30 minutes.

 

 

7.     Top with fried onions and bake 5 minutes more. 

Here is the nutrition information for the original recipe. My version will be similar:

Nutrition per serving: 323 calories, 7 g protein, 24 g carbohydrates, 3 g fiber, 10 g sugar, 14 g fat,  14 g saturated fat, 431 mg sodium

 

Here is one of the finished meals we served to everyone who came.

Special thanks to all the people who contributed food for this event and the many people at the 

Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico for all the services they provide to our community.

Happy New Year to them and all of my readers.

Joni

Chillin' in the Kitchin'

Does anyone want a hippopotamus for Christmas?

I celebrated the end of my second week in my new job by spending most of the day cooking up holiday treats.

I started with a batch of fudge using some Lindt Supreme Dark chocolate in the standard marshmallow creme fudge recipe with chopped pecans.

I made the jam thumbprint cookies again this year as well. I used the cactus marmalade for a very dark "wish it were" green. But, I used raspberry jam instead of strawberry for the red this year.

These are basically a sugar drop cookie rolled in chopped walnuts with a little thumbprint depression for the jam.

I used the leftover walnuts from rolling the cookies to make regular chocolate chip cookies.

Then, I finished off with some gingerbread cutouts.

I'm seriously out of practice with cutout cookies. My daughter has the cookbook with the old recipe and the new recipe turned out way too soft and wet. After kneading an extra half cup of flour into the dough, I got the texture about right for the rest.

I thought about decorating them, but will probably just let the boys finish them off as is.

It's good to be back at work again. Unfortunately the first paycheck doesn't roll in till after Christmas.

Wish I could share some of the goodies with all my special friends online.

But I'll just wish you all a happy holiday and a very pleasant year in 2015!

Cheesy Quinoa Stuffed Poblano Peppers with Cauliflower

Stuffed Poblano or Pasilla Pepper with Broccoli Cole Slaw

I've been using quinoa quite a bit in my cooking lately. It has more protein than rice, but can be substituted for rice in many dishes like stuffed peppers. Also, it cooks up a bit quicker than rice. So, swapping the starch for protein can help diabetics like my honey manage their blood sugar a little better.

And, for ideas on how to use quinoa, I follow Alyssa Rimmer's blog, Simply Quinoa, where I found this recipe for Cheesy Broccoli Quinoa Stuffed Peppers.

But, I often like to adjust her recipes a little to suit my personal tastes. So, instead of the almond milk, butternut squash and goat cheese she used (which I didn't have anyway), I mixed some of my standard macaroni and cheese sauce with butter, milk, and cheddar cheese.

And, since the last of our broccoli had gone into the large batch of cole slaw we made, I roasted and chopped a little bit of cauliflower to stir into the quinoa-cheese mix. That seemed especially appropriate because one of our regular dishes when I was growing up was a baked cauliflower covered in a cheese sauce!

Lastly, her recipe calls for Poblano Peppers, which can be a little tricky to shop for here in the U.S. as I discovered. At our local grocery, I saw some "Pasilla" peppers which looked a lot like the Poblano peppers she used. A bit of Google searching and reading in Wikipedia showed that they are the same, at least north of the border.

The true Pasilla pepper is the dried form of the chilaca pepper, which is too narrow for stuffing. But, in the U.S., fresh Poblano peppers are often sold as Pasilla peppers such as I found at the store. The dried form of these peppers are called Ancho peppers.

All these varieties are low to medium in heat and comparable to the Espanola, Hatch, Big Jim and several other varieties grown here in New Mexico. But, they are generally milder than the jalapeno, chipotle and Sandia varieties for example.

So, they are a good choice to substitute for regular bell peppers that will let you give your food more zest without overwhelming the taste buds.

Cheesy Quinoa Stuffed Poblano Peppers with Cauliflower

Ingredients

1 cup dry quinoa

2 cups water

1 cup cauliflower florets

4 Poblano (or fresh Pasilla) peppers

2 tablespoons butter

1 tsp minced garlic

1/2 cup diced onion

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

2 Tbsp flour

2 cups low fat (1%) milk

1 cup grated cheddar (I suggest medium or sharp)

 Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 375F.

2. Spread the cauliflower on a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray or lined with a silicone liner and bake for 10 minutes.

3. Cut the Poblano peppers in half and remove the stems and seeds.

4. Combine the quinoa and water in a small to medium sized pan (about 1 1/2 quarts) and heat to a boil. Reduce heat and boil for 20 minutes.

5. While the water is heating, melt the butter in a larger pan (about 2 1/2 quarts) over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and onion and saute for about 5 minutes.

6. Stir in the black pepper and flour and stir these thoroughly to make a roux.

7. Gradually add the milk, a little at a time. After each addition, stir the mixture until it has a smooth consistency (except for the onions). 

8. When it starts to simmer and thicken slightly, add the grated cheddar and stir it into the sauce until it melts.

9. About five minutes before the quinoa is ready, stir the cauliflower into the cheese sauce and heat it to a boil. 

10. Spread the Poblano peppers on the cookie sheet.

 

11. When the quinoa is cooked, stir it into the cheese sauce.

12. Stuff the peppers with the cheese-quinoa mixture.

13. Bake the peppers in the oven for about 30 minutes until they are bubbly and the top has turned a darker golden color.

14. Serve the stuffed peppers with a non-starchy side dish like a tossed salad or cole slaw or some cooked green beans.

This makes four servings of two stuffed pepper halves each.

Happy eating!

Ham and Bean Soup with Green Chile

When I was growing up, one of our regular family dishes was a sort of soup made with a ham bone and some chopped up ham and butter beans. I'm not sure what my mother seasoned it with, except probably more salt. But, I didn't particularly like it, perhaps because the main flavor was the beany taste of the butter beans.

Beans are an excellent and cheap source of protein. But, they are not a good source of all nine of the essential amino acids (which your body cannot synthesize from other foods like carbohydrates or fats). You can complement them with nuts or a grain like oats or quinoa.

But, commonly they are combined with fish or a meat product like ham to give you a complete, high quality protein source in your diet.

A good tip for beans is to season them with cumin, which adds its own flavor and neutralizes the characteristic bean taste. So, I try to use it in most of my dishes with beans.

This is really a two part recipe. First, I'll give you a simple recipe for cooking up dry beans for use in other dishes. Then, we'll add the ham and other ingredients to make the soup!

Basic Chile Beans

1 pound dried beans, such as pinto, black beans, Great Northern, etc.
water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground chile, such as Chipotle or Sandia Red

1. The key to cooking good beans is to soak them properly first. So, rinse the beans 2 or 3 times to wash off any dirt. Then put them in a large pot and cover with water about 2 inches higher than the beans. Cover the pot and soak the beans overnight.

2. The next day, dump the rinse water and cover the beans again with water. Put the pot on medium-high heat.

3. Add the salt and spices. Stir the mix together and heat the beans until they come to a slow boil. Reduce the heat to medium or medium-low so that they are boiling slowly and steadily.

4. Cover the pot with a lid and let the beans simmer for about an hour and a half. They should be tender, but not mushy. They also should not be mealy, with a harder, courser texture. Generally, this comes from not allowing enough time for the beans to soak.

5. Generally, I drain off all the cooking water and set it aside for use as a broth. (I like to put a little on my dogs' food when I feed them!) Then, you can keep them in a container in the refrigerator for a week or so and take out one or two cups at a time to use for various dishes.

6. However, for tonight's soup, only drain off about half the liquid so that you can see the liquid among the beans in the pan.

Ham and Bean Soup with Green Chile

1 whole recipe of Basic Chile Beans (you can scale this down if you wish)
1 pound ham, cut into small chunks (use a bit more if you like)
1 ham bone (if available)
1 large onion, diced
1 14 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 7 ounce can mild diced green chiles

1. Cut as much ham as you can off the bone. Add the bone to the beans. Add the diced onions and stir them into the beans.

2. Cut the ham into chunks and add to the beans and onions.

3. Add the diced tomatoes and green chiles. Rinse the cans with a little water and add this to the soup.

4. Heat to a slow boil again, and simmer for about 3-4 hours. It actually should be ready to eat in about an hour. But, the flavor will develop better if you let it cook longer.

Enjoy it with a flour tortilla or a hard roll for dipping in the soup.

A good salad or cole slaw goes nicely with this, as well.

Twice Baked Yukon Gold Potatoes

It's Friday night and time to relax as I slip into the weekend. Since I gained weight yesterday despite going for a walk and doing my calisthenics, I got more serious today and skipped all the sweetened drinks.

And when supper time arrived, I wanted something light but didn't feel like poking through the leftovers (which are plentiful).

So, I found a recipe for Twice Baked New Potatoes and decided to tweak it a little for my own preferences.

Ingredients

6-7 Yukon Gold potatoes, about 2-3 pounds
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup diced green onions
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp smoked paprika
3/4 cup shredded medium cheddar cheese
2 slices bacon, diced and fried till crisp but not dry

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 425 F. Scrub potatoes thoroughly with a brush. Mine weren't quite as new as when I bought them from the vendor for a local farm, but they still had dirt on the skin. Fortunately it had dried and washed off easily with just water. Pat dry with a cloth or towel and wrap the potatoes in aluminum foil.
2. If there is a large size difference, put the largest potatoes in the oven first and set the timer for 15 minutes. When the timer goes off, add the rest and reset the timer for another 45 minutes. Take the potatoes out and check one of the large ones for doneness. Mine were still a little hard, so I kept the small ones out and put the large ones back in the oven for another 10 minutes.
3. Cut a slice off the top of each potato. Peel the skin off this slice and put the potato in a large metal bowl for mixing. Discard the skin. Using a melon baller or small ice cream scoop, remove most of the potato from the middle and add it to the bowl. If any potatoes had to cook longer, take them out and do the same with them.
4. Using a potato masher or electric mixer on low (I actually used my pastry blender), gently mash the potato pulp. Add the sour cream, green onions, mustard, salt, paprika and blend into the mashed potatoes. I used a wooden spoon for this step. Then add 1/2 cup of the grated cheese and blend it in as well.

5. Set the scooped out potatoes on a baking sheet. Spoon the mashed potato mixture into the potato shells. Place them in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes.
6. Sprinkle the remain cheddar on top of the potatoes and bake for another 3 minutes to melt the cheese.

7. Top with the bacon bits and enjoy with a light side salad or cole slaw. Our recipe uses a boiled vinegar and oil dressing, which lasts much longer than the more common mayonnaise dressing and saves on the fat!

We especially enjoyed these. I'm glad I decided to use green onions instead of the chives, because they gave a nice onion flavor to the potato filling. Also, the cheddar cheese and paprika added a slightly darker color to the natural yellow color of the potatoes themselves.

And, my exercise app estimates the total calories for the whole meal at less than 400!