Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Let's just come out and admit it, fellow chicken lovers: chicken can be dry. It can be one of those things you put in your mouth, knowing that you can only chew each morsel a certain small number of times, or you will simply be unable to swallow it. And yet, I do like chicken breasts when they are cooked nicely and still moist and juicy (yes, yet another reason I'm not a vegetarian). I'm therefore always on the lookout for recipes that don't create slabs of chewy, dry chicken with the texture (and taste) of clumped sawdust, but through which I can actually celebrate my love of chicken. Many of these are slow cooker recipes, since I find the slow cooking process in an enclosed dish often preserves the moisture lost through other cooking methods. This recipe is an exception though, since it is a simple pan-fried chicken dish, but one with a lot of flavor. Moreover, it contains sour cream. If my son is informed there is sour cream in a dish, you can be pretty sure that he will eat it, and in large quantities. Not sure why. Not sure I need to know, quite frankly. If it works, don't question it.

The original recipe came from Clean Eating magazine. Now often I like my food dirty - yes, sugar and butter are staples in my house. I believe in everything in moderation though, and we can only continue to eat the unhealthy things if we balance out our diet with some healthier options, like this dish for example. The advantage of this one, is that no one knows they are being healthy.

Dijon Chicken
Serves 5

1 1/3 cups brown rice
5 chicken breasts (skinless and boneless)
1 1/2 tsp paprika
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground black pepper
2 TBSP olive oil
2/3 cup reduced fat sour cream
2 TBSP Dijon mustard
2 TBSP fresh lemon juice
2 TBSP fresh chopped basil
4 packed cups spinach, coarsely chopped
4 tsp finely grated lemon zest

1. Cook rice according to directions, drain and set aside.
2. Sprinkle both sides of chicken breasts with paprika, salt and pepper.
3. Heat oil in large skillet over medium/high heat. Add chicken and cook for 5-6 minutes each side, until cooked through. Remove from skillet and transfer to a plate. Cover and set aside.
4. Reduce heat to medium/low and add sour cream, mustard, lemon juice and basil to skillet. Stir until heated through, scraping off browned bits from bottom of pan (around 20 seconds).
5. Uncover chicken and slice into strips. Spoon 2 TBSP of sour cream mixture over the top, dividing evenly. Cover again and set aside.
6. Add rice, spinach and lemon zest to remaining sour cream mixture, along with 1/2 cup water. Taste and season with more salt if necessary. Stir gently until spinach is wilted (about 20 seconds).
7. Spoon rice mixture on to plates and top with chicken.

I'm supposed to feed them as well?!

My husband is away this week for work. To put it bluntly, this means I am the only driver in the house, and spend much of my afternoon and early evening on the road somewhere between school, ballet, track, drum lessons, and basketball. And there is no drive-thru Starbucks for miles. Seriously. And then, as a loving parent, I'm supposed to give them a healthy, filling meal for which we can all sit down at the table together. This is me, briefly taking my eyes off the road to look at the camera and lament my fate:

Given the logistics of this gas-fuelled marathon, getting a meal on the table that does not involve tater tots and chicken nuggets, or a speedy trip to Chipotle or In'n'Out Burger is problematic. Don't get me wrong, all of those things are probably on the menu this week, but it's nice if we don't have to rely on them every night. Fortunately, I have my slow cooker and my bread maker, and a few recipes that involve just shoving everything into those machines (being just careful enough to remember which is which!) and letting them do their thing while I curse traffic lights, beg one child not to keep opening and closing the car windows, fight over which radio station to listen to, or reassure one child or another that everyone is late every once in a while, don't fret, they won't miss anything....

Some slow cooker recipes ask you to brown things, bring things to the boil, sauté etc etc before adding stuff to the machine itself. Whilst I love nothing more than stirring a bubbling pot or caramelizing the odd vegetable when I have the time, this week is not it. This recipe fortunately made no such demands upon my time. It also made quantities such that my family not only ate their fill at dinner time, but also have it for lunch today, and I have a tub in the freezer. The recipe comes from one of my new favorite books: The Great American Slow Cooker Book by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough. My only tweak was to add some more vegetables, since I needed a one-pot meal with no sides required!

Chicken Goulash Soup
Serves 10

8 cups chicken broth/stock
2 3/4lbs skinless boneless, chicken breast, chopped into 1" cubes
2 1/2 14oz cans diced tomatoes
1 1/4lbs peeled and diced baking potatoes
2 large green bell peppers, coarsely chopped
2 large onions, chopped
5 TBSP mild paprika
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 TBSP caraway seeds (optional)
1 tsp salt
3 cups chopped fresh spinach
2 cups chopped fresh kale (thick stems removed)
sour cream and chopped parsley to serve

1. Mix broth, chicken, tomatoes, potatoes, bell pepper, onion, paprika, garlic, caraway seeds (if using) and salt in the slow cooker.
2. Cover and cook on low for 5 hours (or 3 hours on high).
3. Add spinach and kale and cook for 15 minutes on high until wilted.
4. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of chopped fresh parsley.

Every so often...

Every so often, I get it right as the chief nutritional provider in this house. It isn't an overly frequent occurrence, so my head remains its usual size, but just every so often, there is a moment, when it really looks like I know what I'm doing, when there is something on the table that is not only eaten by all, but enjoyed by all, and is a reasonably healthy offering. Like I said, not every day, but often enough that I keep on trying!

This dish was one such offering. As I have mentioned on numerous occasions, the Farrar juniors are not mad keen on anything which could be described as spicy. It isn't the flavor that bothers them, but rather the heat. The air of suspicion when presented with Thai or Indian food is palpable. What I liked about this dish is that it captured the flavors of Thai cuisine, but didn't have any heat. No chiles in sight. Obviously, there must be an antithesis to the Farrar family somewhere on earth, and if they are cooking this up, they could easily add a few chopped Serrano chiles to satisfy their less heat-averse palates. But for us, this did nicely. May it go down equally well at your table. And if it doesn't, just remember, every so often is good enough!

Slow Cooker Coconut and Peanut Pork
Serves 5

2 lbs pork tenderloin, chopped into 1" chunks
2 cups chopped red bell pepper
1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
2 TBSP rice wine vinegar
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1 14oz can baby corn spears, chopped
3/4 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup chopped green (spring) onions
1/4 cup chopped roasted peanuts
lime wedges
jasmine rice

 1. Place the pork, peppers, teriyaki sauce, vinegar and garlic in slow cooker stoneware. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.
2. Add peanut butter, corn and coconut milk to the slow cooker and stir well. Cook on High for 15 minutes until heated through.
3. Serve on a bed of jasmine rice, sprinkled with green onions and peanuts, and with lime wedges to squeeze over at the table.

Carnivores rejoice!

I know the vegetarian lifestyle is healthy, don't get me wrong, but I don't like 'forbiddens' in my diet. Not because I necessarily disapprove of vetoing things per se, but rather because I have zero will-power, so therefore giving up anything (except perhaps peas) would be nigh-on impossible, let alone unpleasant. I admire the strength of will exhibited by many of my friends (and indeed my own mother) when it comes to going vegetarian, and since they are all gorgeous healthy individuals, they are a great advert for a meat-free diet. But I will not be joining their ranks.

A good beef stew is one such thing which I confess I would not, nay COULD not, decide to forgo for ever and ever. So while I aim for our family to be meat-free at least two days per week (and often more), some days, we embrace our carnivorous tendencies wholesale, and indulge in some red meat. I console myself by often attempting to find more healthy recipes, which, while they include meat, have other more virtuous ingredients, like whole grains.

This recipe is one such example, containing as it does, hulless barley. It attracted me also because of the interesting combination of rosemary (which grows rampantly in our garden, so is technically free!) and orange. And because it comes from Judith Finlayson's The Healthy Slow Cooker, one of my favorite cookbooks, so it was pretty much a guaranteed winner. Thanks again Judith!

Beef and Barley with Rosemary and Orange
Serves 6

olive oil
2 lbs trimmed stewing beef, cut into 1" cubes
10 oz sliced cremini mushrooms (or any mushroom will do)
3 onions, finely chopped
4 stalks celery, diced
4 carrots, peeled and diced
4 cloves garlic (minced)
4 sprigs fresh rosemary
grated zest and juice of 1 large orange
1 cup hulless barley (you can use pearled, and it may take less time to cook)
3 cups beef stock
1 1/2 cups red wine
salt and black pepper
fresh parsley

1. Heat 1 TBSP of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and brown the beef in batches (about 4 mins per batch). Transfer to slow cooker stoneware.
2. Add another 1 TBSP oil to the same skillet and sauté the mushrooms until lightly seared (about 2 mins). Add to the slow cooker.
3. Add the onions, carrots and celery to the pan and cook until the carrots are softened (about 7 mins). Add the garlic, rosemary and orange zest and cook for a further minute. Add barley, orange juice, stock and wine and bring to a boil.  Season to taste with salt and pepper, then transfer to slow cooker and stir well.
4. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 4 hours. Garnish with parsley to serve.