Slow cooker Coconut Curry Chicken

I love putting a whole chicken in my slow cooker for an easy weekday meal, and this recipe is so juicy and tender that I think we will be slow cooking our chicken like this many more times to come. The BF isn't a huge curry fan, but the flavors are so subtle that even he was delighted with how the chicken turned out -- hooray! The coconut milk makes the chicken extra tender, it basically melts off the bone!


Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken
• 1 can coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons green curry
• 1/4 cup sriracha
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

 Directions:

1. Do ahead: Place the chicken in a gallon-sized ziploc bag and add the rest of the ingredients. Let the chicken marinade overnight. 
2. Empty all of the ziploc contents into your slow cooker and cook over high heat for 6-10 hours. The longer the chicken cooks the more the meat will fall off the bone later. 
3. Once the chicken is cooked turn the heat off. Use tongs and a fork to take the meat off the bones, discard the bones or freeze them in a bag for making broth in the future. Let the chicken soak up the juice in the slow cooker as you prepare the rest of your meal (I like this served on top of rice with sauteed asparagus, snow peas, and basil!). Serve hot. 

Gnocchi with Garlic Butter Mushrooms and Italian Sausage

This week I bought a package of gnocchi for my first try at home and I was delighted with the results. I topped the gnocchi with mushrooms sauteed in garlic butter, piled high alongside Italian sausage -- it was sinfully buttery and delicious, but next time, homemade gnocchi!

Serves: 2 dinner portions

Ingredients:

• 2 cups gnocchi (half the package for us)
• 20 white mushrooms, cleaned and stems trimmed
• 1/4 cup butter
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 large Italian sausages

Directions:

1. Heat the broiler to 525 F. Pierce the sausages and bake 6 inches from the top of the oven in a casserole dish for 20 minutes, turning halfway through the cooking time for even browning. 
2. Meanwhile, chop the mushrooms in half. Heat a large skillet to medium heat, drizzle with oil and add the mushrooms. Stir occasionally and cook for 10-15 minutes, you really want to get a nice golden color on them! Add the butter and garlic, reduce the heat to low. 
3. When you are ready to eat - think 5 minutes to sitting down to eat, boil a pot of water and add the gnocchi. Boil until the gnocchi floats to the surface and drain. Toss immediately with the mushrooms and serve with the Italian sausage.

Beef and Bok Choy with Noodles

I have always enjoyed bok choy, but until today I never really considered buying it because, well, I'm kind of a sissy when it comes to Asian cuisine. I like to eat any and all Asian food I can get my hands on, but when it comes to actually cooking it for myself I stick with the easy and totally not authentic stuff (like my super duper easy fried rice or Thai soup).
However, I live a couple blocks from Chinatown and today while I was meandering through it, I saw piles of fresh bok choy and it just lured me in! I had to have it! And you know what? It was my first time cooking with bok choy and it was so delightful and easy and yummy that I am already dreaming of future bok choy recipes. Plus, it was a great way to use up leftover steak that we had sitting in the fridge. What can I say - bok choy is great.

So go pull on some pants and head the grocery store - it's bok choy night!


Serves: 2 hearty portions (or 2 light portions + leftovers)

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1/2 tablespoon barbeque sauce
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 3 shanghai bok choy (if you get baby bok choy, double the quantity)
• Shanghai noodles - have as much or as little as you want (or any kind of long noodle will do--think spaghetti, linguini, even udon!)
• 1 small steak sliced into strips, about 6-8 oz.
• Sesame oil for drizzling

Directions:

1.  Preheat the oven to 375 F. Heat a small saucepan over low heat and add the soy sauce, honey, barbeque sauce, and garlic. Stir occasionally and let simmer for 5-10 minutes, until sauce has thickened. 
2. Meanwhile, saute the steak with a dab of butter in a skillet over medium-high heat, 3-4 minutes. Put the steak in a small baking dish. When the sauce has thickened, pour it over the steak and let it bake for 30 minutes, basting occasionally. Turn the oven off and let it sit in the heat while you finish preparing the dish.
3. Bring a pot of water to boil and add cook the noodles according to package instructions. Save 1/4 cup of the pasta water and drain the rest, set noodles aside.
4. Slice the thick bottoms off of the bok choy, just 1/2 inch off the bottom should do the trick. Slice the bok choy in half and set aside. 
5. Heat a large saute pan to medium high heat. When the pan is hot drizzle in a 50/50 mix of canola and sesame oil, then immediately add the bok choy. Add the pasta water and let the bok choy simmer for 3-5 minutes, stirring often. Turn off the heat and use tongs to gently stir in the noodles and beef (pour in all the pan juices, that's the best part!).
6. Serve with soy sauce and sriracha for extra pizazz.

Zucchini Quiche

I love having a quiche in my fridge - I can have a slice on the go, pack some for lunch, or serve it for brunch! Here is an easy quiche (complete with a super easy crust recipe that will probably change your life) that is perfect for those moments when you need a last-minute meal.

Make 8 healthy portions
Ingredients:
For the Crust

•  1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup water
• Dash of salt, pepper, and any other seasoning you want (I used oregano in this quiche)

For the Filling

• Salt/pepper/dried oregano
• 1 medium zucchini
• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup shaved parmesan cheese
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F.  Make the dough for the crust by simply combining all the dry ingredients in a medium bowl, then mix in the oil and water until dough forms (not sticky or dry - if it's dry add splashes of oil until you get a smooth dough, or if it's too wet add flour by the tablespoon). Roll it out on a floured surface to a 10-inch round, then carefully lay it in a round cake pan (or a pie pan - I just prefer a cake pan for quiches). Place the pan in the freezer to set up while you're preparing the filling. 
2. Cut the ends off the zucchini, then slice it lengthwise. Chop into 1/4 inch thick pieces. Finely chop the red onion, and roughly chop the garlic. Heat a pan to medium heat then drizzle with a bit of oil. Add the ingredients and stir often for 1 minute. Add the apple cider vinegar, then let it cook off (about 1 minute). Take the zucchini mix off the heat and remove the pan from the freezer. Scoop the filling into the crust, spread evenly. Top with parmesan and a dash each of salt, pepper, and oregano. 
3. Beat the eggs and milk in a medium bowl then pour over the fillings in the crust. Bake your beautiful quiche in the middle of the oven for 25-30 minutes. You can check to see if the quiche is ready by inserting a toothpick - if it comes out clean it's done!

Strawberry Balsamic Jam

I've been trying to get back to basics lately, trying to DIY and re-purpose and not be such a lump, and canning is something I've always wanted to master. Yesterday I took the plunge - I bought a canning kit! I considered buying everything separate then I realized that I would be setting myself up for disaster if I didn't have the right tools (plus, how would I know that I didn't have everything?)... so I bought myself a complete canning kit. And I'm so glad I did -- it made canning a breeze and now I just want to can everything I see!

This was an excellent recipe as a beginner, and it boosted my confidence, gave me a can-do attitude... get it? CAN do? Anyway, this recipe is great for testing the water - it makes 2 jars, takes less than 45 minutes working at a snail's pace, and it makes you feel like a gosh darn pioneer.

Makes 2 mason jars
Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 quarts of strawberries (about 10 cups)
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 packet of pectin
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

Other tools/supplies: 
Potato masher
Canning kit (1 large stock pot, canning rack, jar tongs, 2 mason jars + lid/band for each, funnel)

Directions:

1.  Place the jars, lids and bands in the large pot and cover with water, simmer as you work (this sanitizes the jars/lids)
2. Rinse the strawberries then hull them (aka lop off the stem). Place them in a rimmed baking sheet then mash with the potato masher -- leave it lumpy but make sure each strawberry gets smashed apart. Now here is where you have a couple options: Place the strawberries in a bowl and add 1 cup of the sugar, let it macerate overnight then continue. Or, you can be impatient like me and just forge ahead. 
3. Pour the strawberries into a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the sugar (or the remaining sugar if you decided to let it macerate) and stir constantly, cook for about 10 minutes. Bring the strawberries to a rolling boil and add the pectin. Turn the heat down to medium low and cook for 5 minutes stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and stir in the balsamic vinegar.
4. Remove the jars and lids from the water with your tongs, set them on a clean dishtowel. Turn the heat to high--we want to bring the water to a boil. Place the funnel in one jar and pour the jam in until it's no more than 1/2 inch from the top. Do the same for the other jar. Wipe the rim, place the lid on and screw on the band to fingertip tightness. 
5. Place the jars back in the water bath (use the tongs! The jars will be hot hot hot from the jam), cover with a lid, and boil for 10-15 minutes. Use the tongs to remove the jars from the water and set them somewhere where they can sit upright and undisturbed for 24-48 hours.
6. Consume jam within 1 week of opening, but as long as the top is concave (it shouldn't pop when pressed) it will keep indefinitely. 

Note:
Shelf life-- I found recipes and blogs and articles about the shelf life of homemade canned jam, and I found that if you sealed it properly and gave it the water bath at the start, you should be good indefinitely. If you blew off the water bath, you're on borrowed time. If the lids pop when you press them, it's time to eat up. Otherwise, your jam should last through the winter. Of course, this is my first time canning jam so I doubt my jam will last longer than a week or so because I will eat it all!
Sugar-- Most recipes I found told me to have a 1:1 berry to sugar ratio, but I am not a fan of super sugary foods so I had 8 cups of strawberries and 2 cups of sugar... and it was sweeeeet. As you can see in my photo, I didn't have enough jam to really fill up the jars all the way, so I adjusted the recipe for y'all.