Slow-cooker Chicken and Asparagus with Cream Spinach

I'm moving this weekend, so for a while now I've been avoiding the grocery store and trying to make use of the random food supplies I have on hand. This started out as a way to use up a bunch of asparagus and ended up becoming a delicious dish that I am going to make again soon, because it's basic ingredients that I have on hand more often than not, and it required like 10 minutes of work. Who doesn't love that?


Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts, sliced lengthwise into 3 strips each
• 4 frozen spinach portions (or 1 cup thawed and drained)
• 8-10 stalks of asparagus, halved with tough ends trimmed off
• 3 tablespoons cream cheese
• 1/4 cup skim milk
• Salt/Pepper/Cayenne to taste

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in a slow cooker over low heat and cook for 5-7 hours, until chicken is cooked through and cream sauce has thickened. Serve hot! It's yummy over fettuccine or spiral pasta, spooned on a bowl of steamed rice, or even in a bun!

Easy Beef Chili

Chili is easy. It requires minimal work. The ingredients are cheap. It lasts all week. Go.


Serves: 6

Ingredients:

• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1 small yellow onion
• 1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 cans crushed tomatoes
• 1 can mushrooms, drained
• Seasonings: Salt, pepper, cumin, cayenne, dried basil/oregano/cilantro, garlic powder

Directions:

1. Heat a large pot to medium heat. Add the beef and cook until browned, stirring occasionally. Chop the onion and add it to the meat. Cook the meat for about 8 minutes total. Add the beans, tomatoes, mushrooms and lightly season the chili.** Simmer over low heat for 45 minutes, stirring once or twice. 
2. Taste the chili, season accordingly. Simmer 20 minutes more. Hint: You know your chili is ready to serve when the beans are super soft!

Enjoy!

 
**Now is the time you could add any additional items (see suggestions below!)

Chili Variations:

• Add 1 chopped green bell pepper, 1 cup corn, 3 cloves chopped garlic
• Swap beef for turkey, use chickpeas instead of kidneys, 2 tablespoons chopped rosemary
• Add chickpeas, peas, corn, zucchini, and ditch the beef for a vegetarian chili

Rice Soup

I first had this soup when I was in Thailand, feeling just terrible. I had been laying on the cool tiles of the patio, trying to cool down my feverish body anyway possible and mentally kicking myself for eating pad thai from a street vendor the night before. Rule #1, don't eat street food. Well, as I was laying in the shade and sipping ginger ale, one of the house keepers brought me a bowl of soup. At first I was like, no thanks I probably shouldn't have any piping hot soup right now considering I'm a furnace all on my own, but she just wouldn't leave until I was sipping the soup so I gave in. I'm so glad I did, because a few bowls later I was golden. It was magic soup!
I had to work on the chef for a few weeks before he'd show me what went into it, and I have made this every time I've been sick since then. I swear by it for upset tummies, nausea, sinus headaches, food poisoning, congestion... pretty much anything that makes you feel like a lump.

 You know what makes this soup even more magical? It is so so so easy. So easy.



Ingredients:

• 6 cups beef broth + 2 cups water
• 1/4 cup minced cilantro
• 1 cup cooked rice
• Optional: 1/2 cup cooked ground beef

Directions:

1. Simmer all of the ingredients for 30 minutes, then serve hot.

P.S. I have found that deviating from this recipe is just as delicious, such as using chicken broth or ground sausage, but I prefer the recipe I provided. 

Savory Crepes

I like to have breakfast for dinner, especially because at the actual breakfast hour I am usually not hungry for breakfast-y foods. My body has it all wrong, I wake up craving spaghetti and meatballs or steak and potatoes, and at night I could easily have an omelet or waffles. Crepes, however, are delicious at all hours because they can be filled with anything be it savory or sweet. Yay!
I will provide the basic crepe recipe, then suggestions for what to fill them with.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup flour
• 3 eggs
• 3 tablespoons melted butter (this is key, soft butter will make your crepes weird and crunchy, which is the opposite of what you're going for)
• 1 tablespoon sugar (yes, even for savory crepes)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Whisk all ingredients together, just until combined. Don't try to whisk away your troubles, if you feel like going crazy hit the gym first. These are delicate crepes, not a workout. 
2. Using a measuring cup (1/4 cup is the best, I've found), pour 1/4 cup of the batter onto a hot skillet. You want to use a large, flat skillet. Tip the pan (kind of like slow-motion swirling) to spread out the batter into a thin coating, then let it cook for about 2 minutes. Use a large flat spatula to flip the crepe and cook for about 30 seconds on the other side, then set aside on a plate (cover with a paper towel to keep warm). Repeat with the remaining batter until you've used it up.
3. Fill your crepes by spooning the filling in the middle then roll them up and serve (think burritos!).

 Filling Suggestions:
Savory

• Diced and sauteed ham, mushrooms, onions, and swiss cheese
• Ricotta and dill topped with sliced cooked chicken 
• Mushrooms, aparagus, ricotta, and tomatoes
• Cream cheese, jalapenos, bacon
• Scrambled eggs, green peppers, tomatoes, onions

Sweet

• Strawberries and whipped cream
• Nutella and bananas
• Chocolate chips and raspberries
• Cream cheese and honey
• Cream cheese and jam

Thai Soup

My mom would make this when I was growing up, and it has always been a favorite. She got the gist of the recipe from a Thai girl named Nook, who was doing a home-stay with a family we'd met in Costa Rica... although when we met Nook they were living in Arizona, and my family had road-tripped from Colorado to their house. I know, I know, my family history makes no sense, but basically if it weren't for them we wouldn't have had this amazing Thai soup that is now one of my favorite "mom" dishes. You know how your own mom makes some things like, so much better than any other mom? This is one of those things.
Anyway, it's a soup that has so many flavors and textures that it's a soup that you can make year-round and not get tired of it! To me, that's a gold star!

Feel free to add in any other veggies or nix ones on this list that you don't like. It's delicious served over rice, or just as a soup!

Makes: 4 soup servings or 6 servings over rice


Ingredients:

• 2 stalks of celery
• 2 large carrots
• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 can coconut milk
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1 can bamboo shoots
• 8-12 white mushrooms
• 1 cup snow peas
• Green curry paste (to taste, I use 1 tsp at a time!)

Directions:

1. Chop the carrots into 1/4" thick coins, slice the celery stalks lengthwise in half then roughly chop, and cut the mushrooms into quarters. Heat a large pot to medium-low heat, then add your chopped veggies. Add a little canola oil or butter (depending how naughty you feel), then put a lid on and let it cook for 4 minutes. 
2. Chop your chicken breasts into 1/2" cubes, then add to the pot. Turn the heat to medium, and let the chicken cook for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Don't worry about the chicken being cooked all the way through at this point, you want it to finish cooking in the liquid. 
3. Add the mushrooms, snow peas, bamboo shoots, coconut milk, and 2 cups of chicken stock to the pot (I start with 2 cups and go from there depending on how soupy I want my soup to be...). Turn the heat back to medium-low, and let the soup simmer for about 10 minutes. After simmering, add a teaspoon at a time of the green curry paste to taste. The more curry you add the spicier it will be! You can add more chicken stock now if you want your soup to be thinner. Simmer for 15-20 more minutes, then serve hot.

Enjoy!
Hint: this soup makes for excellent leftovers! The flavors just keep on developing, but good luck staying away from it for more than a few days, it's delicious!



P.S. Speaking of my mom, this is her b-e-a-utiful website in case you want to know more about her!

Broccoli, Prosciutto, and Cheese Casserole

I have been on a prosciutto kick lately, and tonight I put this together when I was originally craving a broccoli cheese casserole, but then I realized that I still had prosciutto leftover and I had to have it!
What I loved about this is that it's so easy that I was sitting there feeling like I was forgetting something... I mean, no seasoning, 1 casserole dish and one little sauce pot, basic ingredients... um, shouldn't I be doing something? Nope. I spent about 90% of the time start to finish hovering by the oven feeling guilty about the oven doing all the work.  Don't worry, if you really want to you can make your cheese sauce from scratch so you have something to fiddle with.



Ingredients:

• 2 heads of broccoli
• 10 strips prosciutto
• 1 1/2 cups warm cheese sauce, such as store-bought Alfredo or homemade  (recipe below)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Line a casserole dish with foil and lightly grease it. 
2. Roughly chop the broccoli heads apart, so everything is around 1" pieces. Make use of the stalks, too! Chop off only a 1/4" at the bottom, then chop the stalks like the rest of the pieces. Place the broccoli in the casserole dish and cover with foil. Bake for 15 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, roughly chop the prosciutto to the desired size (I like penny-sized pieces!) and set aside until broccoli is done. 
4. Remove the broccoli dish from the oven and remove the foil on top. Sprinkle the prosciutto over the casserole, then bake in the top third of the oven for 10 minutes (*If you are making your own cheese sauce, now is the time to do it!*). 
5.  Remove the casserole dish from the oven, then pour the cheese sauce over the top of the broccoli and prosciutto casserole, mix, then serve hot!

Enjoy! This would also be good as a topping for pasta, spooned onto slices of garlic toasts, or you can do what I did and eat it straight from the bowl!




Basic Cheese Sauce:

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese (go for the cheddar, baby!)

Directions:

1. Heat a small saucepan to medium heat. Add the butter, and once it is completely melted and just starting to bubble, whisk in the flour. Let this roux cook for 2-3 minutes, whisking occasionally, then slowly pour in the milk whisking continuously. Once the lumps are gone, add the cheese and keep on whisking for about 2 more minutes. Once the sauce has thickened to your liking, you're good to go! Pour it over macaroni for homemade mac 'n cheese, add it to steamed veggies, or use it in this recipe over and over and over. 

*I like to make a big batch of this and keep it in a large jar for about a week, so I can have homemade cheese sauce on hand!