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Spicy Sweet Chicken and Greens

March 23, 2011 in Food, recipe by traveleatlove | 7 comments

Blogger inspiration strikes again! After reading Michelle’s post for sticky chicken thighs, I had the combination of brown sugar and habanero peppers stuck in my head. Last night when I wanted to make something really fantastic, I pulled up Michelle’s post and used what I had to whip up an amazing meal.

habanero peppers

chicken broth

Ingredients:

6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs – I actually wanted them bone in, but I grabbed these in a hurry and didn’t realize until I got home.

3 habaneros, finely chopped

1/4 cup chicken stock

4 tablespoons

splash white vinegar

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

2 heaping teaspoons of grated ginger

chicken thighs

Cooking up the chicken was as easy as mixing all of the sauce ingredients and pouring them over the chicken. I cooked at 375 for about 30 minutes, checked and then increased the heat to 420 for the last 5 minutes. Apparently I put in way too much liquid, because where I hoped it would boil down into a nice sticky sauce, the end result was liquid-y. But so incredibly flavorful!

spicy sweet chicken

grated ginger

While the chicken was cooking, I zested and juiced two meyer lemons. There were bags of meyer lemons at Shaw’s, and they said “Buy me”, so I did.

meyer lemons

image

I washed and steamed up an entire bag of spinach. It amazes me how spinach cooks down to just about nothing. We easily polished off one bag ourselves.

spinach

Once the spinach was cooked, I added in the lemon zest and juice, plus a drizzle of blood orange olive oil.

chicken and spinach

I plated the chicken and spinach up with some of the sauce from the chicken, and then dove in. My husband couldn’t stop talking about how awesome the chicken was, and luckily there were a few pieces for me to send with him for lunch, along with salad. I love leftovers for his lunch; for some reason coming up with lunches totally stumps me. And since he is at his office for up to 13 hours a day, I kind of like it to be something more than a sandwich.

On another note, while I loved this dinner, I am ready to fling open the windows and to eat raw salads and other summery meals. I am tired of big red wines and slow cooked dishes. I just want to eat a giant caprese salad with fresh local tomatoes.

It looks like that is going to have to wait.

If you had to pick a favorite ingredient right now, what would it be? Mine is definitely ginger.

Tags: blood orange olive oil, chicken, cooking, Food, ginger, health, healthy recipes, meyer lemon, recipe, spinach

Miracle Broth

February 25, 2011 in Food by traveleatlove | 9 comments

Old Man Winter, I am lookin’ at you. Never in my life have I had two major illnesses in one year. The endless snow and below-freezing temperatures in this relentless winter are surely to blame.

After a few days of feeling achy, feverish, stuffy, and with a deep cough, I finally made my way to the doctor’s yesterday, where it was determined I have a virus that could leave me feeling down and out for 10-14 days. No antibiotics, just rest, fluids, and over the counter medicines. Boo. Every inch of my body hurts from the inside out.

I am incredibly grateful that I already decided not to run the Napa Valley Marathon. Otherwise, this would definitely have finished me. I guess what’s meant to be. . .

I feel pretty awful, and other than meds that knock me out, I knew there was only one thing to make me feel better yesterday, my Miracle Broth. This is not for the weak of palate, but it can definitely be tweaked for those of you who are spice-phobes.

habanero

The Miracle Broth is four simple ingredients, habanero, ginger, garlic, and organic vegetable broth.

ginger

garlic

Basically all you need to do is finely chop a few cloves of garlic, a habanero pepper, and a knob of peeled ginger and to cook them in two cups of veggie broth until nice and warm.

vegetable broth

Allow to cool enough to drink, and then sip slowly, reheating as needed. It will make you sweat, clear your sinuses, soothe your throat and might even spark a missing appetite. In the past couple of days I have not eaten much, pickles, a carrot, a cookie, and some tortilla chips, and the broth brought me back to life enough to eat dinner.

And then go back to bed.

I hope you are all avoiding this nasty flu or whatever it is. And I hope spring comes soon!

Do you crave certain foods when you are sick?

Tags: cures for the common cold, garlic, ginger, habanero, vegetable broth, winter flu

Warm Tabouli Salad

January 20, 2011 in Food, recipe by traveleatlove | 12 comments

As is the case with many healthy eaters, salads make up a large part of my diet. I have been known to have salads, with various veggie, bean, meat, and cheese toppings twice a day. But as I know many of you have found, eating salads in the winter is more difficult due to lack of local produce and salad’s general lack of warmth and comfort. Since we had yet another snow day this week, I decided to make a hearty lunch salad for my husband, who had spent over three hours in the car trying to get to his office, only to end up turning back home because of the icy roads.

I started by thawing out some frozen yellow and orange carrots from Trader Joe’s. On the particular day I bought these, TJ’s had icky looking produce. I am not sure what was up that day, but nevertheless, I went straight for the freezer.

yellow and orange carrots

The base of the salad was a Near East tabouli bulgur wheat salad mix. I prepared the bulgur wheat and spice packet according to the box directions, then set it aside.

tabbouleh ingredients

image

While the tabouli waited, I diced a small yellow onion and grated several teaspoons of ginger.

cumin

I added a palm full of cumin to the onion and ginger mixture, then sautéed it in olive oil. I added the carrots to the onions in the pan, then tossed in some pre-soaked and partially cooked chickpeas.

chickpeas

When the carrots were warm and the pan sizzling, I added the tabouli mixture along with about 1/4 cup of water, stirred well, and let it all simmer.

warm tabbouleh salad

When everything was well-blended and cooked through, I served up the salad topped with crumbled goat cheese and golden raisins. I am loving these raisins and the sweet punch they bring to dishes with lots of spices.

goat cheese and raisins

As you can imagine, this dish was bursting with different flavors and textures. The hearty bulgur wheat was nice and chewy and provided a great canvas for the other ingredients. While I didn’t make the tabouli mix in a traditional manner, I loved this dish and felt like it really gave me energy which I seem to be lacking these days.

I am starting to feel a serious winter slump. As much as I love the possibilities my new career path could provide, being stuck inside all day with dreadful weather and icy sidewalks is bringing me down.

Any advice for kicking the winter blues?

Tags: carrots, chickpeas, cooking, ginger, health, healthy, healthy eating, recipe, recipe. tabouli, recipes, vegan, Vegetarian, winter cooking, winter recipes, winter salad

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