Dawn's Red Thai Curry

Living in England for three years was one of the BEST things that has ever happened to my family as far as food horizons are concerned.  Thai food has become a favorite of ours, and I am happy to present to you what my family considers "perfected" red Thai curry based upon an Instant Pot recipe I found a while back.  Be careful of using the Instant Pot for curry type dishes...we've found it makes them watery, can curdle the broth, and reduces the flavor of the dish.  I've tweaked this recipe to be made in one pot on the stove as well as toyed with ingredients and amounts.  We hope you love it as much as we do!  BONUS: Gluten free, dairy free!

1 jar Thai red curry paste, about 8 Tbs
2 cans regular-fat coconut milk
2 chicken breasts, sliced into thin bite-size pieces
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup GF soy sauce
2 Tbs lime juice
1 Tbs + 1 tsp brown sugar
1 Tbs dried Thai basil leaves
1/4 tsp salt
1 onion
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 green bell pepper, thinly sliced
2 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
1 can sliced bamboo shoots, drained

Thinly slice vegetables and set aside.  A mandolin makes quick work and a quality dish!  Thinly slice chicken into bite-size pieces.

Heat red curry paste in a large pot.  Add chicken.  Cook and stir just until chicken lightens in color.  Add chicken broth and coconut milk; stir.

Stir in soy sauce, lime juice, brown sugar, Thai basil leaves, and salt.  Add sliced vegetables and drained bamboo shoots; mix well.

Bring to a simmer and cook ~15 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.  Reduce heat if curry begins to boil as this may cause the coconut milk to separate.

Serve in bowls topped with fluffy jasmine rice.

Instant Pot Jasmine Rice:

Use a 1:1 ratio of rice to water.  Rinse rice in a sieve.  Add rice and water to Instant Pot.  Season with a little salt; stir.  Use the Manual setting to pressure cook 4-5 minutes.  Quick release.  Fluff with a fork.

D's Chicken Tortilla Chili

Wanna know what my family's TOPPEST OF THE TOP favorite meal is?  Chicken Tortilla Chili.  It's a recipe that started out as the "Super Flavor Soup" in a recent post a long time ago.  But it's been developing - and boy is it the tastiest now!  I usually use the leftover chicken from a crockpot chicken roast as well as broth made from said chicken.  You can also cook and cube your own chicken if you don't have leftovers.  Amounts are approximations as chili is the easiest recipe to add or take away whatever you want!

This yields a lot of soup.  :-)  Maybe 10ish servings or more?  My family eats two dinners from this one recipe.  Freezes well.  Gluten and dairy free!  Excellent with tortilla chips or fritos - we prefer tortilla chips as it doesn't overpower the soup as much as fritos.  But they're both good.  You can use cooked dry beans if that's your route, but use more broth to compensate liquids if desired.

~3 cups cooked chicken, shredded or cubed
3-4 cups chicken broth, or however soupy you want your soup (make your own!  cheaper and healthier!)
2 cans black beans, undrained
2 cans great northern beans, undrained
1-2 cans corn, undrained
1 can pinto beans, undrained
~2 cups salsa of choice
3-4 Tbs chili powder to taste (this is where the flavor power comes in!)
~1 Tbs cumin to taste
Salt to taste
Shredded cheddar, sour cream, and guacamole

Throw it all in the pot.  Stir it.  Heat and stir every so often.  Enjoy!

...

I'm.  Hungry.  Now.

PS Recipe...  Easy Guacamole for Two

(or one if you eat half today and half tomorrow because you are the only one in your family who will eat it...more for me...)

I used to hate avocados.  I adore them now.  Thank you, dear daughter, for being a baby in modern times and helping me branch out more.  ;-)  I make a super easy guac that I just love - there's no raw onion and no cilantro.  Eww to both.  But you can do whatever suits your fancy!

1 avocado, mashed
1/4 cup salsa of choice
Few splashes of lime juice (if I have it around, but it's fine without)
Dash of onion and garlic powders  (don't go hog wild here...you can always put in but you can't take out)
Salt to taste.

Mix.  Eat.

Pinteresting Recipes & Reviews

So the last week or two I have endeavored to actually make some of the recipes I have pinned on my Pinterest food board.  I have made bread, dessert, and a couple main dishes that I'd like to share with you.

FYI: I have included the links to the original recipes because I believe it is important to help fellow bloggers with their traffic and credit should go to whom credit is due for recipes!

Rosemary Olive Oil Bread

Though I have made quick breads before, this was the first yeast bread I have ever made.  It was quite tasty!  The reason I haven't made bread before is because I was afraid of failure.  And I saw success!  I was so nervous about making bread that I forgot to put the egg wash on until the last five minutes.  I realize now how silly I was to be afraid of making bread.  I encourage you to find something in the food world you've been hesitant to try, and go for it!

As for the recipe review... I was a teeny bit disappointed because the Pinterest user I found the recipe from said it was like the bread at Macaroni Grill.  I did think the flavor was better than Macaroni Grill, but it didn't have a hard crust on it.  Now, being a brand new bread maker, I don't know why the bread did not turn out crusty (perhaps from forgetting the egg whites)...and it certainly did NOT keep me from eating the bread.   :)  Also, I thought it needed more salt.  Perhaps sprinkling sea salt on top before baking would help.  I just put some salted butter on it which was really good.  I think you could dip it in olive oil with a little salt and pepper; and that would work, too.  I used fresh rosemary in the bread and dried rosemary on top.  I will make this again!

Beer Crockpot Chicken

The recipe will be found here.  Let me preface this review with a disclaimer (?) I started this early in the day, before I go volunteer at church for a few hours in the morning.  I don't know if I set my crock pot wrong or it malfunctioned or what happened but when I got home the crockpot was off.  I had no idea how long the chicken had already cooked but it didn't look cooked.  I needed dinner to be ready in a few hours so I re-set the crockpot for 4 hours on high.

So, I found this dry and tasteless.  I shredded two chicken breasts and mixed the meat with black beans and brown rice.  Then served it with tortillas, sour cream, cheese and taco sauce.  Once it was fixed up it tasted fine, good actually.  I saved the rest of the meat, in the freezer, to make chicken salad and maybe some sort of chicken casserole later.  I will try this recipe again because I don't know if the crock pot situation is what made it not taste as good as the reviews.

Main Dish #2: Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers
You can find this yummy recipe here.  This was so delicious!!  For people who are low-carbing, this is a great meal.  This is easy as well.  One word of warning, though it is a simple recipe, it takes a while.  I thought it would be a thirty minutes or less meal (the danger of not reading through a recipe).  It actually says to cook the onions and mushrooms for about 25-30 minutes to get them caramelized then you cook the actual stuffed peppers for about 20 more minutes.  But, seriously, don't let the time keep you from making these.  They are delicious.  I will definitely be making these again.


Dessert!:  Apple Enchiladas
This recipe is so good!  Another easy recipe.  We had this as part of my dad's birthday dinner.  We had Dawn's Chicken Tortillas soup.  I'm not sure we have posted that here but if we haven't we need to do that :)  It was fun to have a main dish and a dessert with a spanish/mexican flair.  I served vanilla ice cream along side the enchiladas.  The sauce that you make so pour over the enchiladas before baking is so good, I have thought about making it just as an ice cream topper.  I will make this again, but I think next time I may try it with cherries, since that is my Honey's preferred cooked fruit.

Let us know if you try any of these and what you think of them.  Remember Pinterest is only a worth while thing if you actually USE/DO the ideas that you pin...otherwise it is simply a time waster.

Update: Why update you ask? Well I actually typed this a while ago and forgot to publish it :P  I have another one that I did the same thing with that I will post in a day or so :)

Meat Storage: A New Method

A while back, I did a post to show you how I freeze my meat and stretch my chicken.  Well, change is sometimes a good thing to experiment with; and I'm a master at changing things up (a good AND bad thing).  I love the space-saving aspect of flat ziploc bags of meat.  But what I've learned is that it really doesn't work well for me since I have wire shelving in my freezer -- and not enough shelves.  Bags can not stand upright or else corners (or whole bags!) slip through the cracks.  Stacking flat is ok... until you barely brush against them and the whole stack slips apart.  Frustrating.  Irritating.  And downright dangerous to your feet.  (I can vouch for the fact that a pound of frozen hamburger falling on top of your foot HURTS.)  I had to come up with something new to see if I could use more vertical space in my freezer and reduce the amount of slippage that was occurring.

ARGH!  Dislike.  (Except for the ice cream...)

I had a coupon for a value pack of Glad containers which stack well and are not a huge investment if something goes wrong with them or I end up not liking the new method.  First step... wash 'em all.

I also tried out buying all of our meat for the month at one time (thank you, BJs Wholesale Club, especially for your low price on chicken... cuz it's insane everywhere else).  I've really enjoyed not buying meat every week!  Anyway, I had all my beef and chicken and all my washed Glad containers set up.  A pound of beef fit nicely in one size/shape, and a meal's worth of chicken fit nicely in a more flat, square shape.  At the wisdom of my mother and against my lazy will, I patted plastic wrap down over each serving of meat to help prevent freezer burn.  :-)

I promise I'm not trying to be a commercial for Glad brand... it just happened that way.

It didn't take very long to divide up all the meat, and I love how perfectly uniform stacks of [item] look!  I'm a sucker for organization.  ::dreams of closets like the Bed Bath & Beyond's towel area looks::

 And here's the way my freezer ended up looking.  I threw out what needed to get out, put all my bean ziplocs in the drawer, and just generally straightened things up a bit.  Look at all that vertical space now in use!  I'm still waiting to determine if I truly like this method long term, but so far so good.  I also REALLY like how I can just reach in and pull out tomorrow's meat, pop it in the fridge to thaw, and not have the slightest worry about a bag leaking raw meat juices (eww) everywhere.  Another bonus?  WASHABLE.  No more going through bag after bag after bag and buying more bags after bags.  And no, I will not wash ziploc bags -- that just negates the convenience factor they are intended for!  I'm not that un-lazy!  ;-)

Note:  Kathie has a freezer drawer which lends itself to flat ziploc bags as you can "file" them neatly.

A Great Time Saver From Pinterest

Shredding Chicken
Kathie's Tip

Ah, Pinterest, the website that I enjoy.... too much.  It is loaded with such great ideas, some of which seem a little wacky.  Well call me wacky!!  I tried something today that I thought was crazy.  I shredded my chicken breast, for chicken salad, with my mixer.  Now I have a Kitchenaid stand mixer so I don't know if you could do this with a hand mixer or not but WOW.  (I will never hand shred chicken again.  I wonder if you could do this with beef...)  I was concerned that the chicken would wrap around the paddle but it didn't.  I used two chicken breast halves.  (Side note: you know how a chicken breast looks a little bit like the African continent?  Well, did you know that is actually half a chicken breast?  A whole chicken breast is two African continent shaped pieces of meat, joined together by some cartilage.)  So, I cooked a whole chicken breast, let it cool a little, then put it in the mixing bowl and let it go.  :)  Seriously, only about 20 or 30 seconds later.... shredded chicken.  Here are the pictures to show you how it came out.

Before

After!

Poaching Chicken
Dawn's Tip

If you have a recipe you need cooked chicken for, I suggest poaching it.  If you boil chicken in water until it's done, say 10-15 minutes, it will usually be a bit dry.  You've overcooked the chicken!  I saw once on a cooking show that you can actually poach chicken.  It turns out perfectly done and moist rather than dry.  Place your chicken in a pot and cover with water.  Bring to a boil, cover and remove from heat.  Let sit 15 minutes.  Check for white centers just to be sure it's done.  Enjoy!

Freeze Your Meat & Stretch Your Chicken!

Is it just me, or has chicken been incredibly expensive as of late?  It almost never goes on sale anymore -- I even talked to my butcher about it a few months ago.  It's not just me.  He had noticed it, too, and didn't really have a good explanation other than the economy and oil prices.  However, in God's goodness yesterday, Matt brought in a random newspaper that's been sitting on the sidewalk for a few days.  It had the Safeway ad in it which revealed that they were having their last day of a BOGO sale on ground beef, chicken, and pot roast!  Woo hoo!  I admit, I felt like I needed to explain to my cashier and other customers why I had 4 four-pound packages of ground beef, 4 packages of chicken, and 2 packages of roast in my cart at 8:30pm.  It was a good sale, and I had a just-off-bedrest-but-still-pregnant friend who wanted a piece of the sale, too!  Stop looking at me like I'm a voracious carnivore!  :-)

Obviously, buying that much meat at one time means freezing it!  I thought it would be a good opportunity to share how I freeze my meat to save freezer space and stretch the chicken.  (First video post for this blog comin' up!)  By taking advantage of this sale, I saved about $40.00!

For ground beef, I use my little kitchen scale and quart-sized freezer bags.  It's a very simple process.  First, take out as many bags as you will need and flip the tops inside out.  This reduces the amount of contact your icky hands will make with the outside of the bags.  Take your hand jewelry off, and wash your hands.  Weigh out a pound of beef.  Put it in a ziploc bag.  Repeat until all the meat is measured out.  Wash your hands well!  Then, flip the bag tops back up.  Mash each flat, getting all the air out and being careful when you get to the tops to not get any meat in the "zippers."  When you're finished, stack 'em up and freeze.  Once they are frozen, you can stand them upright in a container for organization or just leave them flat 'n stacked.

Bags and scale ready!

Hubz was my photo/videographer.  Can you tell?  ;-)  Thanks for the help, Samson.

Eight meals just waiting to be cooked!

Now for the chicken.  It has always bugged me that chicken breasts seem to be hard to cook evenly because of the varied thickness.  One end is thin while the other is a big bulge.  And a whole chicken breast, for me, is a bit too much to eat.  And chicken is EXPENSIVE!  And, for whatever reason, I can not stand the taste of reheated chicken (esp. microwaved).  Something happens to the flavor, and I just can't eat it anymore.  So I try to avoid chicken dish leftovers.  All of those things added up to me one day figuring out how to butcher my chicken in order to stretch chicken dollars and avoid lots of leftovers I won't eat.  The portion sizes of the chicken may be small for our "American" serving sizes, but they are truly more appropriate for what we should be eating.  Hungry hubby or boys?  Just let them have two.  The sides of your meal should also be substantial enough for good nutrition and will lessen the need for a huge chunk o' chicken on your plate.  Instead of trying to put it into words, Hubz videoed me so you can SEE it done.  Any questions, just ask!  :-)  (Ps - I've never purchased boneless thighs before, and that is way different than butchering chicken breasts for stretching and storing.  No video on those!)  (Another Ps - Hubz said I could make the videos all spiffy with Movie Maker.  But I didn't wanna wait!)

Chicken stacks ready for freezing!

Super Flavor Soup

...that's what JG said to call it.  :-)  Do you ever have times when you make something up for dinner based upon what you have available, but it doesn't quite have the wow factor needed to be worthy of making again?  And then you wonder what to do with the leftovers?  That happened to us this week.  I threw some chicken in a baking dish, topped it with black beans, corn, and salsa.  Baked it.  I even added 4 oz. of cream cheese to the bean/corn/salsa mixture like I've seen done before.  Meh.  I did this "recipe" once before, but I must have doctored it more last time because it was way better than this week's attempt.  There was quite a bit leftover.  What to do?  Ask my mom how to make it into a black bean soup.  :-)  With her suggestions, I ended up with one of the best tasting soups ever to touch my taste buds!  So, taking a slight risk in guessing how to make this soup from start to finish rather than out of leftovers, here's the "recipe."  And if any of you have suggestions for a better name -- perhaps one that identifies the dish -- do tell!

[Super Flavor Soup]

2-3 chicken breasts, cooked & cubed
2 cans whole kernel corn
2 cans black beans (or make your own*, as I did, to save money and nutritional value!)
1 cup salsa or picante
Chicken stock, as needed
4 oz. cream cheese*
Garlic powder
Cumin
Salt
Cheddar cheese & Sour cream

Combine cubed chicken, corn, black beans, and salsa in soup pot and mix well.  Add chicken stock to your desired soup consistency.  Add garlic powder, cumin, and salt to taste (I did about 1 tsp each and 1/4-1/2 salt, I think) and cream cheese.  Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally.  I say the longer it simmers, the better, perhaps at least an hour.  Garnish with cheddar cheese and sour cream.  Goes GREAT with cornbread (which I now use honey instead of sugar -- oh my heavens!).  And having just had it for lunch, I think it's one of those even-better-the-next-day soups!

*Notes*

1) Making your own beans is super simple.  Just buy a bag.  Put the beans in a crock pot and cover with a couple inches of water.  Cook on high for 2-4 hours, making sure to keep the beans covered with water.  Check for doneness starting at 2 hours.  You don't want to let them get too mushy, especially if you plan to use the beans in soups and such (ask me how I know).  I stop cooking mine when they are still a little firm to the bite.  Then I divide them into bowls to cool, about as much as you would find in one can of beans with some liquid.  Once cooled, put them in quart-sized freezer bags and freeze them flat.  Ta da!  A bag of beans for a buck with no factory added ingredients vs. 4-5 cans of factory beans that would cost you $4+.  For my black beans, I season them with a touch of salt, cumin, and chili powder before dividing the batch.  Delish!

2) I'm sure you could leave out the cream cheese if you have sensitive family members.  I just had to include it since that's what was in my original (failed) dish.

Honey-Soy Chicken

Sorry for the hiatus...sickness has a way of making "free" time turn into "sleep" time...


This is one of my absolute favorite new recipes for chicken!  Every person in my family likes it which means it is a total success in my book.  We've grilled it and seared it on the stove, and both ways work very well.  It fits the cheap, easy, and tasty bill.  I even like the leftovers -- and I do NOT like reheated chicken.  (Something happens to the flavor in re-heated chicken, and it just makes me yak.)  Please try this recipe and tantalize your tastebuds!

HONEY-SOY CHICKEN
Serve with Veggie Stir-Fry and White Rice

6 chicken breast
2 cloves garlic, pressed
2/3 cup soy sauce
2/3 cup honey
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp black pepper
Skewers (optional, soak in water for 20 minutes if wooden)

If skewering chicken, cut chicken into 1' cubes.  If leaving whole, pound thin or fillet.  In a large bowl or ziploc bag, whisk together oil, honey, soy sauce, garlic, and pepper.  If grilling, divide marinade in half and save one half for basting.  Place chicken in remaining marinade and refrigerate two or more hours, stirring occasionally to distribute flavor well.

Heat grill or pan to medium.  Skewer chicken cubes if you're doing kebabs.  Grill or sear on each side until chicken is no longer pink in the center, approx. 5 minutes each side (baste occasionally with reserved marinade if grilling).  Meanwhile, stir-fry or grill veggies and prepare white rice.

Note: The sugar and soy in the marinade blackens the chicken (so good!), but be careful not to burn it.  Flipping several times will help prevent burning.


VEGGIE STIR-FRY

1 onion
1 yellow squash
1 zucchini
1 red bell pepper
Vegetable oil
Skewers (optional, soak in water 20 minutes if wooden)

Chop vegetables to preferred size.  Skewer if grilling, otherwise heat a small amount of vegetable oil in large pan or wok.  Add veggies and cook/stir until crisp-tender.  Season with salt and pepper if desired.  Enjoy the fresh flavor AND the colors!