Simmered Chicken Breast, Sautéed Kale, Caramelized Onions, and Brown Rice

A request has been made for more meat heavy meals, so I made over 6 lbs of chicken. I'm not sure if you knew this, but a serving size of meat is 3 oz, or about the size of a deck of cards. At half a pound per person todays meal is almost three times the recommended serving of meat. To balance this abundance of meat I have paired the chicken with caramelized onions, sautéed kale and brown rice.

Simmered Chicken Breast
Makes 6 lbs

Ingredients:
6 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
2 Tbs olive oil
3 Tbs sweet and spicy marinade
2 Tbs liquid aminos
pepper to taste
1 Tbs cornstarch disolved in 1/4 cup cold water

Preparation:
1. Heat oil in a large pot over high heat.
2. Add chicken, marinade, and liquid aminos to the pot, stir frequently until there is no visible pink on the chicken.
3. Turn to low and cook until the largest piece is no longer pink in the middle.
4. Use a slotted spoon to remove chicken pieces from liquid.
5. Boil liquid stirring constantly until desired amount of sauce is reached, pepper to taste.
6. Add cornstarch slurry and stir over heat until sauce thickens, pour over chicken.


Sautéed Kale
Serves 12

Ingredients:
5 lbs chopped kale
olive oil
everyday seasoning (can be found at Trader Joe's)

Preparation:
1. Heat 2 Tbs of olive oil in a large pot over high heat.
2. Add kale until pot is 3/4 full so there is still room to stir. Stir constantly.
3. When kale has become a more vibrant green and cooked down a bit, add a few grinds of everyday seasoning and set aside covered in tinfoil to keep warm.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 until all of the kale is used, serve warm.


Caramelized Onions
Makes about 2 cups

Ingredients:
4 sweet onions, peeled and thinly sliced
2 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs butter

Preparation:
1. Heat butter and olive oil in a skillet over medium heat until butter has all melted.
2. Add onion and stir occasionally until onions are glassy.
3. Reduce heat to low and stir occasionally until the onions turn a lovely caramel color and have become nice and sweet.

Patricia's First Meal

Good morning gang. Today is a special treat: Patricia will be cooking her first meal for you guys and it smells fantastic. While I'm abroad there still needs to be someone to cook delicious and nutritious meals and Patricia is testing the waters to see if it will work out for you and for her. Today's meal is roasted chicken breasts with a wonderful spice rub, stir-fried veggies over jasmine rice, and a spinach salad. Let us know what you think.

Roasted chicken breasts
Serves 12

Ingredients:
5 lbs bone in skin on chicken breasts
1 Tbs ground black pepper
1 Tbs dried marjoram
1 Tbs lemon thyme
2 Tbs dried sage
1 poof garlic powder over each piece, top and bottom
1 poof sweet smoked paprika over each piece, top and bottom
juice of 1 lime
salt to taste

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven 425 degrees F.
2. Cover a baking sheet in tinfoil and place the chicken breasts on it, trim any large globs of fat.
3. Combine black pepper, marjoram, lemon thyme, and sage to make a rub and apply liberally to chicken on top, bottom, and under the skin. Apply poofs of garlic and paprika. Squeeze the lime over the chicken to add just a little extra zing.
4. Bake for 15 minutes to seal in juices.
5. Lower temperature to 350 and bake until no longer pink in the middle and juices run clear, about 1 hour.
6. Let rest for 5 minutes before carving.

Stir-Fried Veggies
Serves 12

Ingredients:
1 baby bok choy, bulbs and leaves separated and chopped
3 fist sized broccoli florets, chopped to bite size
1 green bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 orange bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 bag baby carrots
2 bunches spring onion
1/2 inch finger of ginger, peeled and minced
1 bag spinach
1 bunch asparagus, wooden bits snapped off and chopped
2 Tbs olive oil
1/2 to 1/4 tsp ground pepper
3 Tbs Braggs Liquid Aminos (optionally replace with soy sauce)
4 cups jasmine rice, cooked according to package

Preparation:
1. In a large skillet heat 2 Tbs of olive oil over high heat.
2. Saute the chopped wooden bits of the asparagus to break them down.
3. Add the peppers, spring onions, and bok choy bulbs.
4. Grind pepper over cooking veggies to taste.
5. In a separate pot steam the broccoli and the main part of the asparagus by adding an inches of water to the bottom of the pot and heating over medium heat until the veggies have turned a richer green and become fragrant.
6. Wooden asparagus ends are done when able to be pierced by a fork.
7. Set aside cooked veggies and in the large skillet heat 2 Tbs of olive oil over high heat.
8. Saute the snow peas until they are slightly floppy yet still a little crunchy.
9. Combine rice, raw bok choy leaves, snow peas, and 2/3rds of the liquid aminos.

Spinach Salad
Served 12

Ingredients:
1 bag of spinach
1 head butter lettuce, chopped
1 bunch cilantro, stems removed and chopped
1 pear, cored and chopped
juice from 1.5 lemons
4 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs eucalyptus honey
1 Tbs Braggs Liquid Aminos
1/4 to 1/2 tsp ground black pepper to taste

Preparation:
1. In a jar with a lid, combine lemon juice, oil, honey, liquid aminos, and pepper.
2. Close jar and shake dressing to emulsify, adjust to taste.
3. Combine spinach, lettuce, and pear and serve with dressing on the side so that people can dress their own salads as they like.

Mushroom Kale Chicken, Squash, and Quinoa

Happy New Year! Hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday break, I know I did. But it is back to work and back to cooking. Today I wanted to welcome people back from the holiday glut with something healthy. Everything is made with simple and healthy ingredients. The two dishes bellow are served with quinoa to round out the meal, but feel free to pair with brown rice, bulgar, orzo pasta, fresh baked bread, or any other grain.

Mushroom Kale Chicken
Serves 12

3 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs, cubed
3 bags of sliced cremini mushrooms
1 bag kale (this avoids having to wash and chop it)
2 Tbs olive oil

Preparation:
1. Heat olive oil in a large pot over high heat until it becomes fragrant.
2. Add chicken and saute until no pink is visible.
3. Add mushrooms and continue sautéing until the mushrooms start to change color.
4. Add kale and carefully stir contents of pot so that the kale is under the mushrooms and chicken.
5. When the kale has wilted and turned a brighter green, remove pot from heat and drain off liquid. (I'm reserving this for a mushroom gravy for another meal.)

Squash
Serves 12

2 acorn squash
1 butternut squash
Pinch everyday seasoning (from Trader Joe's) to taste.

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 370 degrees F.
2. Cut the squashes lengthwise.
3. Scoop out seeds and anything stringy. (I'm reserving the seeds for another meal.)
4. Cut squashes in half widthwise.
5. Place on a tray with 1/2 cup of water.
6. Bake until able to be easily pierced with a fork, 30-35 minutes.
7. Remove rind with a spoon after the squash has cooled enough to touch.
8. Chop squash and season with everyday seasoning to taste. Alternatively, use salt and pepper to taste.

Asparagus Chicken and Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

This morning I was feeling like something warming and a bit on the healthy side. I was also really tired of rice. This lead me to make a sauteed chicken and asparagus dish with mashed potatoes. Feel free to substitute fresh peas or broccoli florets for the asparagus to change up the chicken dish. To do a twist on the expected, try a different kind of potato, like purple potatoes or sweet potatoes, and add fresh herbs like rosemary or thyme.

Asparagus Chicken
Serves 12

Ingredients:
6 lbs skinless boneless chicken thighs, cubed into bite sized pieces with fat removed
3 bunches asparagus, roughly chopped with wooden bits removed
1/2 cup white cooking wine
2 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs cornstarch dissolved in water
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation
1. Heat oil in a large pot over medium to high heat, whatever you're comfortable working with.
2. Add chicken and saute until the outside of all of the cubes are no longer pink.
3. Add asparagus and stir frequently.
4. When the asparagus has darkened in color and the scent of cooked asparagus is in the air, transfer solids to serving dish leaving liquids behind.
5. Add wine and stir constantly with a wooden spoon, making sure to scrape any good stuff off of the bottom of the pot. Salt and pepper to taste.
6. When all of the alcohol has evaporated (that means no head rush when you smell the steam) add the cornstarch and stir constantly.
7. Remove sauce from heat once it has thickened and toss the chicken and asparagus in the pot, return everything to serving dish for a delicious and healthy meal.


Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Serves 12

Ingredients:
1 head of garlic (I recommend making a few heads of roasted garlic at a time, I made 6 heads of roasted garlic, just store extra peeled and in an airtight container in the fridge)
olive oil
6 lbs russet potatoes, peeled and quartered
1/4 cup butter (I used a Earth Balance Butter Substitute to make these lactose free)
2-3 cups of milk (I used lactose free milk)
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Cut of the pointy bits of the head of garlic and brush with olive oil.
3. Bake garlic for 40-60 mins, until the garlic is soft.
4. While garlic is roasting, put potatoes into a pot and add water until just covered.
5. Bring potatoes to a boil and boil the potatoes until they break apart easily with a fork, about 15 minutes.
6. Drain potatoes and return to pot to keep them warm while you mash.
7. Mash potatoes with a potato masher or fork.
8. While mashing, add butter and mash until combined.
9. While mashing, add milk a bit at a time until desired consistency is achieved. Adding the milk while mashing makes potatoes fluffier.
10. Mash in roasted garlic, salt, and pepper to taste, this means that you should taste after you add a little of each item to see if you need to add more. Always remember that you can salt something more, but you can't un-salt something.

Roast Chicken, Roasted Carrots and Parsnips, Roasted Beets and Fennel, Baked Yams, Sauteed Greens

Baking and roasting are two (of many) very similar techniques for using the oven that I'm utilizing to make the dishes bellow. The original recipes were within 25 degrees Fahrenheit, so I just put them all into the oven together at 400 degrees F because that's close enough. If the temperature had been 50 or more off, then I could not have done this. Also, certain items that cook for short amounts of time or are large and solid have a hard time going to a different temperature. The greens I just sauteed in a pan, though I think that if I do this again in the future that I will make 2 to 3 times as much due to the unexpected amount the greens cooked down. Everything is gluten free and dairy free except for the yams, which are deliciously terrible for you.

Roast Chicken
Serves 12

Ingredients:
6 pound whole chicken with neck and gizzards removed (that's all the bonus stuff inside that can be used, along with the carcass, to make chicken stock)
6 sprigs fresh rosemary to stuff inside of chicken
4 sprigs of fresh rosemary, removed from stem and minced (that just means chopped really small)
3 cloves garlic
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Stuff chicken with whole sprigs of rosemary and garlic cloves to add aroma and help keep the chicken moist
3. Run your hand under the skin covering the breast meat to make a pocket for the chopped rosemary and place chopped rosemary evenly under the skin of the breast.
4. Cover all of the skin in olive oil to allow it to crisp nicely without burning.
5. Grind salt and pepper over the skin to taste.
6. Lay on a bed of root veggies, like the carrots and parsnips listed bellow.
7. Roast until the internal temperature of the breast meat reaches 170 degrees F, about 1.5 hours.
8. Let rest for at least 10 minutes before carving to allow juices to settle, this will keep it nice and moist on the inside and the skin will be lovely.

Roasted Carrots and Parsnips
Serves 12

Ingredients:
6 large carrots, peeled and chopped into fork size pieces
6 large parsnips, peeled and chopped into fork size pieces
2-3 Tbs olive oil
Fresh tarragon

Preparation:
1. Mix all ingredients together.
2. Bake at 400 degrees F in a dish until slightly tender, about 1.5 hours, turning about every fifteen minutes. If making with the rest of the dishes listed here, make sure they still have a bit of texture to them so that not everything is mushy in the meal.

Roasted Beets and Fennel
Serves 12

Ingredients:
3 large beets, peeled and cut into fork size pieces with greens reserved for Sauteed Greens listed bellow.
2 large fennel bulbs, chopped into fork size pieces with stalks and tough parts discarded
2-3 Tbs olive oil
Fresh tarragon


Preparation:
1. Mix all ingredients together.
2. Bake at 400 degrees F in a dish until tender, about 1.5 hours, turning about every fifteen minutes. Dish is done when fennel can be easily pierced with a fork.


Baked Yams
Serves 12

Ingredients:
12 lbs sweet potatoes or yams, peeled and cubed
12 Tbs butter
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground all spice
1/2 tsp ground cloves
2 packages marshmallows

Preparation:
1. In a sauce pan over medium heat, melt butter.
2. Add brown sugar, ginger, all spice, and clove, mix until everything is combined.
3. Pour sugar mixture over yams and toss to coat. (Wash your sauce pan right away, or at least, leave it to soak or it will be impossible to clean later.)
4. Bake at 400 degrees F in a baking dish until tender, about 1 hour, stirring the yams every fifteen minutes to coat with sugar glaze.
5. Cover yams in marshmallows and increase oven to 500 degrees F, bake until marshmallows are golden, about 3 minutes.

Sauteed Greens
Makes about 2 cups

Ingredients:
1 huge bag of Power Greens
Leaves from beets, chopped into 1 inch pieces
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:
1. In a skillet over high heat, warm oil until fragrant but not smoking.
2. Add greens, you might need more than one round but they cook really fast so it shouldn't be a problem.
3. Stir constantly until the greens have wilted and turned a deeper green.
4. Put into serving dish. Salt and pepper to taste.

Chicken Fennel Quinoa, Persimmon Arugula Salad, and Baked Pears

Hope that everyone is chowing down with delight. For lunch we have a hearty, yet healthy, quinoa dish that features chicken, fennel, celery, and onion that is reminiscent of chicken noodle soup. This sturdier dish is contrasted with a lighter salad that has an arugula (also called rocket) base with sliced persimmons and prosciutto bits and a light champaign vinaigrette. For dessert there is baked pear that is spiced with clove and ginger as well as a splash of amaretto. Alas, the pears baked down a bit more than I anticipated, so if I do make this dish again I will double and possibly triple the recipe.

Chicken Fennel Quinoa
Serves 12

Ingredients:
1 small onion, roughly diced
2 bulbs fennel, diced to the size of onions
3 stalks celery, diced to onion size
2 cups quinoa
3 cups water
6 chicken thighs cut into bite size pieces
1/2 cup cooking sherry
4 Tbs olive oil, divided
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:
1. In a large pot heat half of the olive oil over high heat.
2. Saute the onion, fennel, and celery until the onion is glassy.
3. Add quinoa and saute for 2 more minutes, this helps to bring out the nutty flavor of the quinoa. Salt and pepper to taste.
4. Add water and reduce heat to low, simmer for 15 minutes or until all liquid is absorbed by the quinoa.
5. While the quinoa is cooking, in a skillet heat the remaining oil over high heat.
6. Saute the chicken, when it is half way cooked add the sherry.
7. Saute chicken until it is cooked all the way through. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
8. Combine the chicken and quinoa once everything is finished cooking.


Persimmon Arugula Salad
Served 12

Ingredients:
2 boxes of arugula (or 4 bags)
3 persimmons, peeled, cored, and sliced thin
1 package of prosciutto, broken into small pieces
Champaign dressing

Preparation:
1. Dress the arugula with the dressing to fully coat all the leaves.
2. Layer on top persimmons then prosciutto.
Optional: This salad would also do well with the addition of a light cheese like mozzarella , pomegranate seeds, or nuts.


Baked Pears
Serves 4-6

Ingredients:
6 pears, peeled, cored, and diced (choose ones that are less sandy, like the brown skinned pears rather than the green ones)
2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tbs butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In a baking dish place pear pieces, evenly cover with clove, ginger, and brown sugar, stir to combine. Dot with butter to prevent sticking.
3. Bake for 45 minutes or until they smell so good you can't wait any more. the goal is to have them be a little mushy without falling apart.
4. Top with walnuts for garnish and added richness.

Balsamic Vinegar Date Chicken with Roasted Carrots and Parmesan Brown Rice

Here I go with the baking again, but I just love it for feeding large numbers of people because it requires less unwieldy handling of large hot skillets. Meat and fruit are a combination that make me really happy, stone fruit cooks at the same rate as meat and releases juices that make the meat taste so yummy. Pair a roasted meat with a roasted root vegetable and it is a match made in heaven, all it needs is a carbohydrate and it is a well rounded and seasonal meal that leaves you time to clean up while things cook. Fantastic!


Parmesan Brown Rice
Serves 12

Ingredients:
4 cups long grain brown rice
8 cups water
1 1/2 cups shredded parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:
1. In a large pot combine water and rice; bring to a boil.
2. Cover and reduce heat to low, simmer for 50 minutes.
3. Fluff with a fork and add parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper.


Balsamic Vinegar Date Chicken
Makes 12 servings

Ingredients:
6 lbs skinless chicken thighs (if you go boneless, you only need 4 lbs)
salt and pepper
3 Tbs white cooking wine
1 Tbs minced fresh peeled ginger
1 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1 package dates (about 1 lb), pitted
1 Tbs corn starch

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Wash and pat dry chicken. Place into a deep baking dish and sprinkle the dates on top.
3. In a separate bowl, mix the wine, vinegar, and ginger.
4. Cover the chicken and dates in the liquid, then cover the baking dish with tinfoil.
5. Bake for 45-60 minutes until the juices run clear and there's no pink when the chicken is cut into.
6. Remove the chicken and dates to the serving plate.
7. Cook down remaining liquid in a skillet. Add cornstarch to thicken the gravy. Strain to remove any ginger chunks and unincorporated cornstarch globs.


Roasted Carrots
Serves 6

Ingredients:
1 large bag of baby carrots (about 1 lbs)
2 Tbs olive oil
2 cloves garlic minced
1 Tbs fresh rosemary removed from the stem and chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (if you have to, 425 F will work)
2. Open the bag of carrots, pour in the oil, garlic, and rosemary, seal the bag and shake to mix thoroughly. Salt and pepper the carrots while in the pan for an even distribution.
3. Pour carrots into a baking dish and bake for 20-30 minutes until able to pierce easily with a fork, moving the carrots every 10 minutes to prevent them from burning to the bottom.
*Optional: replace garlic and rosemary with 2 Tbs of fresh chopped dill.
*Optional: replace carrots with other root veggie, like potatoes, beets, yams, or parsnips, or a sturdy veggie, like eggplant, zucchini, squash, pumpkin, or asparagus. Cooking times will vary with different veggies, so keep an eye on it.