One-Pot Moroccan Chicken

My kitchen is small and, I like to cook, but I am a busy lady. So, I love anything that claims to be quick and use very minimal amounts of dishes. This dish not only uses minimal amounts of dishes, it is healthy, flavorful, and really easy to put together on a weeknight after work... what else can you ask for? I found it here, but made quite a few adaptations, so here is my version...

Ingredients:
Olive oil
1 large onion, slices
1 yellow and 1 green sliced bell pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced (or a few teaspoons of the crushed garlic)
1 (14-oz.) can diced tomatoes
1 cup water
Juice from 1 lemon
1.5 lb boneless chicken breasts, but into quarters
1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted (optional)

Spices:
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
1.5 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon fennel seeds, (could use ground)
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1-2 teaspoon chopped ginger (or 1 tsp ground)

Saute onions in a few tablespoons of olive oil until soft, add bell peppers and saute for a few additional minutes. Add all spices and stir for a few minutes. Add can of tomatoes, water, and lemon juice and bring to a low boil. Toss in chicken chunks; cover and cook slowly in the liquid, about 20 minutes.

After its done, stir in chopped cilantro, let it simmer for a few minutes, and before serving top with the almonds. Serve over brown rice (I use the frozen brown rice bags from Trader Joes, mainly because I have realized that whatever other skills I might have, cooking rice is not one of them. these bags enable me to have rice with out stressing out and then ending up with a half undercooked half overcooked glutinous mass). The second day (because trust me, this makes a lot), I tossed a couple roasted small red potatoes in, instead of rice, which was also delicious!

This was really good... the flavors were unique and we really liked it. The original recipe involves mint and olives, which I didn't want, but also eggplant (which I substituted for peppers), and which I think would have been pretty good. It was also super easy- the only time investment is browning the onions, after which you basically throw everything in the pot and let it cook. You can do this! Give it a try!

Gorgonzola and Rosemary Stuffed Dates

Every once in a while, its a Sunday night, and you just want to sit on the couch with a glass of wine, watching some ridiculous movie, and having a decadent treat. This was one of those Sunday nights.

There is a bar around these parts with a delicious happy hour treat, which is bacon wrapped blue cheese stuffed dates (my cholesterol rises just writing those words). I actually own dates, because I've been trying to incorporate them into my green smoothies. I decided to try a version, but I've also been growing rosemary (in addition to Bob the tomato plant and Sheila the pepper plant).
 

Basically, now I want fresh rosemary in EVERYTHING (my egg white feta rosemary scramble on Saturday missed being photographed, mainly because egg whites don't look that awesome in photos, so it won't appear here, but man was it delicious). Here's what I came up with:

Ingredients:
-6 dates (pitted)
-gorgonzola crumbles
-a sprig of rosemary
-enough olive oil just to brush the cookie sheet

I decided that bacon wrapped anything was a little too much even for the decadent treat, so went for gorgonzola stuffed dates, each with a few blades of rosemary in it. Basically, I cut the date, put some gorgonzola crumbles in it (you don't need much), slid in the rosemary, and baked it in the oven at 400. The dates got a little dark on the side touching the cookie sheet, but it ended up tasting really good and caramelized, so it was fine.

I served it with some slices of fresh pear (because its a little intense and sweet) and it was delish! Simple and easy and would be totally impressive if you wanted to make them for guests!

Lemon Curd, Holy Smokes

I'm not sure what made me pick up some Lemon Curd on a trip to Trader Joes, but OMG am I ever glad I did.

Fruit curd is apparently meant for a dessert-like spread on scones and tarts. I am 100% on board with this, but I don't really eat enough scones to make this a viable way to make my way through this jar. I wouldn't have thought it was such an emergency... until I tasted it. It is like distilled down lemon meringue pie, and let me tell you, do I ever have a weakness for lemon meringue pie.

At any rate, in addition to the traditional uses, there are some other possibilities. One is to add a small teaspoon to sweeten up a green smoothie (by the way my green smoothie kick is still going strong). But my new favorite way is to really make oatmeal into something awesome. I've mentioned before about how much I love oatmeal, but this, this adds something special. Try it. You'll like it.

Apartment Gardening: Meet Bob and Sheila

Spring has sprung and we're getting close to summer, which means its time for my annual ritual of planting, and subsequently accidentally killing, a bunch of herbs. This year I'm optimistic and hoping to really be on top of this whole thing. So, in addition to the herbs (which hopefully I selected more wisely this year, with the advantage of now knowing that my balcony is blazingly hot and only the hardiest of plants will survive), I decided I would plant some veggies in pots, which is apparently called "container gardening".

For this project, I picked two things: Roma tomatoes, and Banana peppers, both of which I think will be able to survive in (and maybe, actually appreciate) the intense sun on my balcony.

Here is the tomato plant, aka Bob. I'm optimistic about Bob, because I've learned that Roma tomatoes are a determinate type of tomato (as opposed ot the indeterminate type), which means that Bob will form flowers at the tips of his branches, instead of growing indefinitely and eventually taking over my entire lovely yet small balcony. I still have to get him a metal supportive tomato cage, but he doesn't need it quite yet. Roma tomatoes have the advantage of being one of the few types I can actually stand, because they have a low ratio of tomato-guts to flesh. Good luck, Bob!

And now meet the pepper plant, aka Sheila. I wasn't sure about this, but I picked Banana peppers because they seem relatively skinny and hopefully less difficult to grow to a useable normal size than a bell pepper might be... but, we'll see! Good luck, Sheila!

Now, obviously they are young, but you can see they both have some fruit-bearing potential...


Fingers crossed!!!