Moroccan Stewed Chicken

Yesterday is already a blur! I barely remember the day going by let alone my food. I definitely remembering that I forgot to take pictures of breakfast, a Sunbest raisin & currant biscuit, my late morning snack, a cup of Kashi Cinnamon Harvest, and lunch, boring chicken sandwich, pretzels and an orange (AGAIN!). However, I do remember snacking on a couple pieces of chocolate throughout the day, courtesy of a colleague that traveled to Germany over our holiday break. Yum!

Dinner was recipe #3: Moroccan Stewed Chicken courtesy of Women's Health.
Picture of the colorful meal in progress:


The recipe for the stew also contained a recipe for a side, which is the rice you see in the below picture.


Lauren's review: The flavor and kick of the broth was tasty. It would have made a great vegetarian stew. The chickpeas were delicious. Did not enjoy the chicken thighs.
Matt's review: Not a fan of chicken thighs, cilantro or too much spice. Not a keeper.
Final decision: Trash.

Matt and I enjoyed a bottle of Gnarly Head wine while we watched a couple episodes of Dexter last night. At least until I got too much anxiety watching (the show sometimes gives me the creeps) and I decided it was bed time. You'll notice that the price of our wine went down over the week! Back to reality I guess?!

This morning I started with breakfast in the office. Banana oats with a couple of raisins and the smallest bit of honey. It was perfect! *Kudos to me for remembering to take photos of breakfast and lunch today!*


Matt and I ran out of bread and deli meat yesterday so I had to run to the cafeteria for lunch. I grabbed a soda water, a slice of cheese pizza and a HUGE salad containing:
spinach
kidney beans
chickpeas
olives
feta cheese
tuna
red pepper
tomato
carrots
sunflower seeds
balsamic vinegar


It was a lot of food but it was good and filling. Today will be my first day back in the gym since we have returned from the Bahamas. I've been trying to give my body a chance to recover from my cough and cold. I'm 95% better and it's as good as I can let it get. My rib still hurts from coughing so I think I'm only going to try to do a lower body strength training session. It's amazing how much my gym time means to me. I've realized, over the last couple of weeks, that the gym keeps me sane by reducing my stress.

Enjoy the rest of the day!

Moroccan Stewed Chicken

Ingredients

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 large zucchini, cut into cubes
1 can (16 oz.) garbanzo beans (chickpeas)
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
chopped fresh cilantro for garnish
1/2 T olive oil
1 c chicken stock or water
1/2 t cayenne pepper
1 t ground cumin
1/2 t ground cinnamon

Place oil in a large saute pan or wide pot over medium-high heat.
Season chicken with salt and pepper and cook in pan until browned, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Add zucchini and continue cooking, stirring often.
When zucchini pieces have browned lightly, add garbanzo beans, tomatoes, chicken stock, cayenne, cumin, and cinnamon. Turn heat to low and simmer until chicken is tender and cooked through, 10 to 15 minutes. Season to taste with more salt and pepper; garnish with chopped cilantro.

ON THE SIDE: Cook 1/2c couscous per package instructions and mix with 2 T golden raisins, 2 T toasted pine nuts and 1/4 c chopped cilantro.

*I used brown rice instead of couscous and almond slivers instead of pine nuts. It was good but too much cilantro. Over powered all other flavors. Also needed a little salt and pepper.

Oven "Fried" Parmesan Chicken

After the first day back to work I was exhausted. I'm not cut out for an 8 hour work day after a week off! ;o)

I'm still getting back into the swing of picture taking, again, so I forgot to photograph breakfast and lunch. They were boring anyway. Breakfast was a cup full of Kashi Cinnamon Harvest cereal. Lunch consisted of sliced chicken breast, yellow mustard and American cheese on a slice of whole wheat bread complimented by a serving of pretzels and a tangerine. Boring!

For dinner I made my second new recipe, Oven Fried Parmesan Chicken with a salad on the side. The salad had romaine lettuce, carrots, pear, almond slices, roasted red peppers and balsamic vinegar. Dinner was delicious!

Matt's recipe review: *wide eyes* YUM!
Lauren's recipe review: Tender, flavorful and easy! A great substitute for when we're craving (evil) fried chicken!
Final decision: Into the recipe box you go!


While we ate dinner Matt decanted a bottle of wine for the evening. Klinker Brick is his favorite! It's very fruit forward zinfandel with a touch of pepper and licorice flavors. Decanting the wine took away some of the alcohol bite that you get on the back of your palette. Yum! It complimented the rest of my evening which consisted of making chocolate turtles and chocolate covered pretzel rods for my colleagues as late holiday gifts.


Does anyone have any suggestions on how to prevent the chocolate on pretzel rods from pooling on the tray while it dries? I always end up with a flat side to my pretzels, not perfectly round like others I've seen. Any suggestions for next year would be greatly appreciated!!

According to Sparkpeople, my caloric intake was almost 1400 calories for the day. It was a pretty good day! The image isn't perfect but you get the idea from the below:

			CALORIES	CARBS	FAT	PROTEIN
			1,373	143	38	94
			1,200 - 1,550	163 - 236	32 - 56	60 - 127
			0 - 177	20 - 93	0 - 18	0 - 33

Anyway, the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 c. dry bread crumbs (I used seasoned whole wheat bread crumbs)
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 t. paprika
1/2 t. garlic salt
grind of black pepper
2 T. chopped parsley
4 T. butter/margarine
3 lbs. chicken cut into pieces (I use chicken breasts)

Preheat oven to 350F. In a bowl stir together breadcrumbs, Parmesan, paprika, garlic salt, pepper and parsley. In a pan over medium heat melt the butter. Dip the chicken in melted butter butter and roll in breadcrumb mixture. Place skin side upon a lightly oiled baking pan arranging pieces so they're not touching. Bake for an hour or until chicken is cooked through.

*note: I used two boneless, skinless chicken breasts that I cut into half. I could have/should have halved the ingredients! I only had to bake them for 30 minutes and then used the broiler for a couple of minutes to crisp up the chicken a little bit. But keep an eye on it, it burns quickly!

Braised Chicken Breasts on Creamy Leeks

Here is the recipe from Saturday night.

Ingredients:

2 lb medium leeks (white and pale green parts only)
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1.5 lb total)
1/2 T vegetable oil
2 1/2 T unsalted butter
1/3 c dry white wine
1/3 c chicken broth
1/3 c heavy cream (I used half and half)

Halve leeks lengthwise, then cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces. Pat chicken dry and season with salt and pepper. Heat oil and 1/2 T butter in a 10-inch nonstick skillet over moderate high heat until foam subsides, then brown chicken on both sides, about 4 minutes total. Transfer to plate.

Add wine to skillet and deglaze by boiling over high heat, stirring and scraping up brown bits, until reduce to about 2 T, ~1-2 minutes. Add leeks and remaining 2 T butter and salt and pepper to taste, then simmer over moderately low heat, covered, stirring occasionally, until leeks are wilted, about 10 minutes. Stir in broth. Top leeks with chicken breasts and juices from plate, then gently simmer over low heat, covered, until leeks are tender and chicken is just cooked through, about 8 minutes. Transfer chicken breasts to a plate. Add cream to skillet and boil over high heat, stirring occasionally, until thickened slightly, 1-2 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve chicken on top of leeks.

Makes 4 servings.

A couple of cool articles

I got a couple of articles from my Women's Health newsletter that I thought you all might enjoy.

1. Do you know what 100 calories look like? Test your skills here.

2. Another interesting article on treadmill workouts.

3. Top $10 or less wine picks article.

4. The top 15 articles of 2009 from Healthyeats.com here.
Some of my favorites:
"5 snacks to fight off hunger"
Because I LOVE pizza "Taste Test: Frozen Cheese Pizzas"
"Good Eats for Healthier Skin"

5. "9 Foods that will help you beat stress"

Hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

First weekend of 2010

The last two days of our break from work was great! Although this probably sounds boring to most, we just stayed home and played the Wii, ate, finished a couple projects around the house and watched TV. It was perfect! I never thought a vacation at home could be so enjoyable!

Saturday morning Matt made me a delicious breakfast. Two over easy eggs with rye toast that my grandmother brought up from our favorite Jersey bakery, Pechter's . Too excited to eat = forgot to take pictures. After breakfast I ran to the grocery store. While there, analyzing all the prices, I decided one of my annual projects is going to be to figure out which grocery store is really the cheapest. I know it sounds geeky but I'm going to create a spreadsheet with the items we buy the most often and price compare the 5 grocery stores that we go to:

1. Market Basket
2. Shaws/Star Market
3. Stop & Shop
4. Whole Foods
5. Trader Joes

My theory is that Market Basket is the cheapest overall for groceries, Trader Joe's the cheapest for wine and Whole Foods (definitely) the most expensive. I'm just curious what the actual spread is.
After grocery shopping I was starving! I made a chicken, cheese and mustard sandwich on Nature's Pride whole wheat bread with a pickle and a Bud Light Golden Wheat. Yum!!! I think the sandwich was gone in a minute. Did I mention I was starving?!


Later in the afternoon while kicking Matt's butt at Tiger Wood's PGA Tour 10 game for the Wii we snacked on chips and salsa with a ginger ale. I love this game! I don't play golf but would like to pick up the sport. I think this game is good practice. I know my body thinks so! My arm and shoulders are killing me!


For dinner that night I served my first recipe over a bed of whole wheat spaghetti, "Chicken with Creamy Leeks" (I thought I had the recipe with me but I don't so it will be posted later tonight):

Lauren's review: Not as flavorful as I typically like in my meals
Matt's review: I don't like leeks.
Final decision: Trash it AND remove leeks from Boston Organics list of items.

After dinner we had some wine and watched some TV. Went to bed late. Perfect!

We woke up early Sunday morning so we could have a nice long breakfast with Matt's parents. They had just dropped off the youngest at the airport and were in town. We decided on Mooo.... Matt and I have been to Mooo.... for drinks and dinner before but never breakfast. We were so pleased with our decision! The service was fantastic and the food was delicious! Again, I forgot to take a picture which is such a shame because it was all so beautiful! Matt and I split two entrees, one sweet and one savory. For our savory dish we had two eggs over easy with extra-crispy applewood smoked bacon and homefries. For our sweet dish we had french toast with a caramelized banana which reminded us of creme brulee. Both of our meals were excellent! They also bring cornbread for the table to share. I am a cornbread critique and I have to say that this was PERFECT cornbread. The right moist consistency and with the optimal amount of sweetness. I love breakfast... and I now love breakfast at Mooo.... which is very convenient because it's right next door!

After breakfast Matt and I played another round of golf. Then we started some projects around the house. I cleaned the living room kitchen while he worked on some things in the bedroom/office. Before we knew it lunch time had passed and we both decided to have snacks so we didn't ruin our appetites for dinner. Snack time consisted of pomegranate Chobani, TJ's sesame sticks and Polar soda water. The yogurt was great, every pomegranate aril that I found was like a little surprise. I also really enjoyed my peach soda water.


For dinner we decided to have left-overs, turkey shepard pie and chicken with leeks. While dinner was reheating we sat down for a 30-minute goal brainstorm for 2010. The list is long, about 60 items, but I think they're all great! Once we were done with our brainstorming session we dished out dinner. Matt and I aren't really a fan of left-overs but we hate wasting food! It was a blah dinner.

What definitely was not blah was the bottle of wine we decided to open. Justin Isosceles 2006 blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. It was a bottle that we have been wanting to try for awhile, being highly recommended by Matt's sister and brother-in-law. We decided to celebrate with the bottle our last night off. Matt decanted the wine and tasted it a couple of times before pouring us each a glass, decanting for about 45 minutes. He said the wine was pretty young and had a high alcohol flavor initially that mellowed out after the time in the decanter. It was a great celebration.


We finished the night off watching some more TV. The list of shows and movies that we saw over the last couple days in between our Wii playing:

Glee
Talk Soup
Top Chef (I finished watching the last two shows of the season)
a couple episodes of Dexter season 4
Julie & Julia

Are you a fan of any of these shows or the movie?

It was a great vacation but now it's back to work! Good thing I like my job!

Recipe box

Last night I temporarily reorganized my recipes and emptied out my recipe box. The picture above only represents the recipes that I have in paper format. My online recipes probably double my collection. I think I have a problem!

The challenge:
Purge all of my recipes by trying a new recipe a day.

The plan:
The daily recipe will be reviewed and critiqued by Matt and myself. All "non-worthy" will get thrown in the recycling bin! Those that are delicious will make it to a savored spot in the recipe box!

The recipe box currently contains 5 recipes that I know are tried and true that Matt & I love:

Turkey (or Chicken) with Sweet Potato Dumplings courtesy of Whole Foods

Serves 8

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon (T) extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
1 small yellow onion, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
4 cups chopped vegetables (raw, cooked or frozen)
1.5 cups all-purpose flour, divided
2 cups low sodium chicken broth
3 cups (~18 oz) shredded cooked turkey or chicken (I used leftover rotisserie chicken)
1 cup mashed sweet potatoes (~0.75 pound potato mashed)
2 teaspoons (t) baking soda
1.5 cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 400F. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions, salt & pepper and cook stirring until golden brown, about 8-10 minutes. Add vegetables and cook until softened and hot throughout. Sprinkle 0.25 cups flour over vegetables, stir well and cook for 2 minutes. Whisk in broth, bring to a boil and then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until thickened about 2-3 minutes. Stir in turkey, salt & pepper. Transfer to a 9x13 inch baking dish; set aside. In a large bowl gently combine 1.25 cups flour, sweet potatoes, baking soda, buttermilk, 1/2 t. salt and 1/4 t. pepper to make a thick batter. Don't over mix. Drop batter in large spoonfuls over turkey mixture to form 8 dumplings. Bake until golden brown and cooked through, about 30 minutes.

Nutrition: 280 calories, 7g fat, 2g saturated fat, 50mg cholesterol, 640mg sodium, 34g carbohydrates, 4g fiber, 7g sugar, 21g protein

Ciao to Chopping Meatloaf courtesy of Women's Health (but they don't have the recipe on their website and I altered it a bit to my liking)

Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 pound (lb.) extra-lean ground turkey
1 egg (or 2 egg whites)
1/2 c. whole wheat panko bread crumbs (or any plain bread crumbs)
1/2 c. grated carrots
1/4 c. grated zucchini (I typically put 1 whole zucchini in the food processor and use it all)
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
1 t. dried sweet basil
1 t. dried oregano
1 t. Italian seasoning
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. salt
olive oil spray

Preheat oven to 375F. Spray nonstick loaf pan with olive oil spray. Mix all ingredients. Press into pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until there is no pink.

*We eat this as meatloaf the first night and then make meatloaf sandwiches the next night. I sometimes freeze this (only up to a week) and then reheat to make the sandwiches if we don't want meatloaf two nights in a row.

Maple-Balsamic Glazed Pork Medallions courtesy of Cooking Light

Serves 4

Ingredients:
1/4 c. maple syrup
3 T. balsamic vinegar
2 t. Dijon mustard
1 lb pork tenderloin, trimmed
2 t EVOO
salt & pepper to taste

Combine syrup and vinegar in sauce pan; bring to a boil. Cook until reduced, about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; stir in mustard. Cut pork crosswise into 8 pieces. Place each piece between plastic wrap and pound to 1/4" thickness. Heat oil in a large nonstick pan over medium-high heat. Sprinkle pork with salt & pepper. Cook 3 minutes on each side. Add vinegar mixture cook for 1 minute or until desired doneness. Drizzle sauce over plated pork and serve.

*This recipe is so flavorful and fast. One on my go-to meals!

Roasted Pork with Apples and Onions courtesy of my mother-in-law

This is a summary of what to do with a pork tenderloin for an easy and delicious dinner.

Preheat oven to 400F. Mix dijon mustard with EVOO then rub onto the tenderloin. Sprinkle the tenderloin with salt & pepper. In a large skillet over medium-high heat sear the tenderloin on all sides. Then add to the pan 2-3 chopped apples, 1 chopped onion and 1 cup water. Cook until pork reaches 160F (using a meat thermometer to check doneness).

Buffalo Chicken Dip courtesy of my friend Betsy

Makes 1 large casserole dish of dip

Ingredients:
3-4 cooked boneless chicken breasts (I poached mine)
2 8oz. packages of light cream cheese, softened
1 - 1.5 c. Franks Hot Sauce
1 c. Marie's light blue cheese salad dressing
1 c. shredded cheddar cheese

Mix all ingredients and bake at 350F until bubbly. Serve with tortilla chips.


So there you have it. All of the recipes that are currently in my empty recipe box. Lots and lots more recipes to come along with my personal review of each meal. It's going to be a busy year! Let me know if you want to stop by for a meal! There will be plenty to share.

First Post of 2010!

Happy New Year!

Can you believe that it's 2010?! I can't!

I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday season. Below are some pictures of our Christmas.

Christmas Eve dinner we were in Ogunquit with my in-laws. We were all invited to a family and friends event at Katie's Cafe. It was such a wonderful evening with such delicious food!

Some pictures of my in-laws B&B all done up for the holidays!

Bailey's own personal ornament on the tree:

After "midnight" mass we opened our gifts with the in-laws. This included our kids gift to the parents. It was such a great gift. Matt created a game where mom and dad had to fill in the blanks which would sound out their gift. Each kid had a question to help with the game. It was so much fun! We were even able to Skype Matt's sister and brother-in-law from Chicago to help with the clues! Below is a picture of my Wickert family all working hard on the puzzle.

The Chicago family Skyping:

Finally, my in-laws receiving their gift. A brand new LCD TV! Sorry that it's blurry there was a lot of excitement and movement!

My mother-in-law made us all a plate of cookies and hot chocolate for our gift opening!

Bailey hoarding his two new toys:

We had a great long Christmas celebration in Maine and New Hampshire. We finally came back to our home in Beantown Wednesday night. We celebrated New Years Eve very quietly and relaxed, sitting around in our PJs all day watching movies and playing the Wii. We finally got dressed in time to go pick up Thai food for our dinner. Then good friends of ours stopped by right before midnight to celebrate the new year!

The first two photos are shots of Boston from our roofdeck at midnight:

The Beacon Hill friends celebrating 2010 with rose champagne at midnight on our COLD roofdeck!

The new year is bringing a new start to my health and to this blog! I'm almost 100% better! I think that by the time I go back to work on Monday I should be healthy! Thank God for this week off! It's given me a chance to sleep and relax which has helped me fight off my cold! Wow... that's a lot of exclamation points!

With the new year comes resolutions. Matt and I are going to sit down tomorrow to discuss our goals for the year and years to come. One resolution that I decided on a while ago is that this is going to be the year that I clean out all of the recipes that I've accrued over the years. I'm going to try a new recipe a day (in theory) from my collection. Those that Matt and I like will get put into a newly organized collection of recipes. Those that fail to meet our tasting standards will get put in the recycling bin.

In addition to my recipe resolution I have also decided to make a resolution for this blog. My blog goals:

1. I plan on blogging at least 5 days a week

2. I will include all of the recipes from my recipe challenge along with a critique of the meal

3. I am going to try to become a better writer. My writing skills are not as great as I would like. I've already signed up for a food writing course at the BCAE and, luckily, I have a great husband who is also going to help me out.

4. Improve my photography skills. I am currently lacking an eye for photos. I hope to improve this over the year!

To start the new year right I have included photos from dinner tonight. There isn't much in the house right now for groceries so I made a "shepherd pie" tonight with what we did have. I think it was pretty good considering I winged it without a recipe!

Matt and I also enjoyed an amazing bottle of wine that you can only get at the Stag's Leap vineyard in Napa. Thanks to Matt's sister and brother-in-law we received this amazing bottle as a Christmas gift. It was very smooth and delicious. It is a Rhone style blend with Syrah, Grenache, Mouvedre and Carignane. Matt and I usually aren't a fan of European wines because of it's dirty, organic flavors but because these grapes came from California I think it was a perfect balance! We got to enjoy European variety grapes with the only the flavors that we enjoy in a California wine! Thanks Carrie and Dave!

My Shepherds Pie Recipe:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Make mashed potatoes with 5 boiled potatoes blended with 3 tablespoons fat free greek yogurt, a 1/4 cup of skim milk, a tablespoon of unsalted butter and salt & pepper to taste.

Brown a pound of ground turkey. Add in a chopped onion and 3 gloves of chopped garlic. Cook for 4 minutes. Then add in about 3/4 cup of tomato sauce.

Put the browned meat into a casserole dish then top with mashed potatoes. Sprinkle mashed potatoes with about 1/2 cup of cheese (I used a combination of mild cheddar, mozzarella and parmesan). Sprinkle the top of the casserole with a little bit of paprika (just for color). Bake for 30 minutes.

Will serve 4.

Enjoy!

Okay I'm off to kick my husband's butt (I hope) at Tiger Wood's Wii Golf. Have a great night!