Cream of Chicken Coconut Soup- sans moo milk

Dying for something creamy the other night I whipped the following soup together. Red curry paste is nothing like curry powder. So if you think you wont like it...just try it. Or sub another spice.

cook 16 oz Chicken (thighs) in (approx) 16-20 oz chicken broth. (almost a full Costco size box.)
cut up the chicken after cooked. Scissors make easy work of this! I just stick them in the pot and snip away.

Add 15 oz can light coconut milk, 2 cups peppers (I dumped in a bag of frozen peppers from TJs.) Add other veggies at will. I used frozen corn but (frozen) spinach would be great as well and I noticed some online recipes added corn. Add 1TB of red curry paste. Simmer for a few minutes and enjoy! Oh..Add cilantro as an afterthought...if you like it!

Although this doesn't freeze well, it is wonderful if you store in the fridge for the week and warm it up in the mircowave.

Bento Boxes

I found this at Whole Foods but you can buy it online at Laptop Lunches. With gluten and casein free meals, a sandwich is often not the lunch food of choice. One Laptop Lunch lunchbox holds lunch for Andrew and myself with usually an apple or something extra on the side. In here we have:

• leftover salad
• cold roasted sweet potatoes
• rice crackers
• hummus
• peas

Hamburger Green Bean Coconut Curry

Those of you who know me know that I am 'good enough gal' and could never write a cookbook because I could not test out the recipes to the degree required. So...that said....I had hamburger and green beans on the fridge. What to do..what to do. DH does not do well with a ton of tomatoes so I didn't want to do the traditional 'stewish' dish. I love coconut milk. You can easily make this dish with frozen green beans...and chicken instead of the ground beef. I would use the curry PASTE and not powder but I'm guessing green curry paste would work as well as the red.

Brown 1 1/2 lb ground beef. Drain to minimize the fat. Brown 1 or 2 onions and 1 1/2 lbs green beans. Put ground beef back in pan and add 1 can (15 oz) tomatoes. (I partially drained these.) Add 1 (15 oz) can coconut milk. Add red curry PASTE to taste. I added probably 1 TBS. Let it cook down 'a bit' and serve on top of brown rice.

Pomegranate Cashew Chicken

I combined two recipes last night to make a fantastic dish. As always, my measurements are not exact and entirely substitutable...ie: various types of chicken, loose on the liquid measurements, add more or less nuts....etc....

Brown eight bone in chicken thighs in a pan and remove to a large baking dish. (I did these four at a time.) Saute one onion in pan and brown 1 cup of cashews. Add 3/4 cup pomegranate juice and 3/4 cup chicken broth. Let it cook down. Add a dash of cinnamon and a tablespoon of blackstrap molasses. Top the chicken thighs with this mixture, cover and cook 'until done.' (I cooked it for approximately 40 minutes at 350 F. Chicken thighs do not get 'over done' as chicken breasts do. )



Serve this on top of brown rice. I also made 'fake mashed potatoes' made from cauliflower instead of potatoes.

Recipes I want to try....

There are all sorts of recipes I read online that I want to try....so I will start a list here. The first blog I am looking at is Lori4SquareMom's Place...this is a flowing document...every changing. feel free to leave a comment on one you would recommend....gfcfefsf friendly please ;)

Cabbage Patch Stew (Crockpot)
Pear and Apple Crisp
Chipolte-Lime Chicken Thighs Jamaican Rice and Peas (Slow Cooker)
Sesame Red Curry Chicken with Bok Choy and Sweet Coconut Rice
Crockpot Gyro
Koren Short Ribs
SuperDuper Spaghetti Sauce

Koren Short Ribs

Sesame Red Curry Chicken with Bok Choy and Sweet Coconut Rice

Another crockpot winner- Sri Lanka Chicken

I have been flipping through OLD Christmas magazines in an effort to trash most of them. I came across a baked Sri Lanka Chicken Curry in the 1993 December Bon Appetit which I fully intended to make as written but given the schedule that day decided to do in the crockpot- with other modifications of course.

8 bonless chicken thighs (or ANY type of chicken..bone in, out...whatever)
2 cups (more or less) of chicken broth
1 14 oz can lite coconut milk
curry powder (to taste..they all have different flavors)
crushed red pepper (1/8- 1/4 tsp approximately. more if you like things hotter.)
dried onion (not the nasty dip mix)..or fresh chopped onions.
Salt as needed. The chicken broth adds

Cook for about 8 hours on low. If my chicken is frozen I cook it on high for an hour and flip it to low. Thirty minutes or so before done, add diced red pepper and fresh or frozen spinach. If you wish for a thicker sauce, mix cornstarch and water and add to the mixture before serving and stir until thickened. Add fresh cilantro as desired before serving. Serve over rice.

Ginger was also called for in the recipe and I think that would be wonderful but DH does not like ginger one bit...thus I left it out.

SCD Sweet Potato Muffins

I think it is important to blog failures as well as successes... maybe someone has an idea to help...

This morning I made SCD Sweet Potato Muffins based on a recipe from Recipes for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. Last night I cooked up some sweet potatoes in the oven. It is pretty easy to do but requires a food processor. I had a Cusinart for many years but recently got a Kitchen aid. I love it.

First puree 1 1/2 cups of sweet potatoes.
Add:

• 1/4 canola oil
• 1/2 cup agave (or honey)
• 2 TB pre-mixed Egg Replacer.

Blend well.

In another bowl combine:

• 1 cup almond flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 cup whole hazelnuts

Add to food processor and mix until well blended.

Bake at 325F for 20 to 30 minutes until a knife comes out clean. I used Pampered Chef Stoneware muffin tin and it seems to take a tad longer in that. So make sure to check them at 20 minutes or sooner based on your oven. It seemed to take a long time for these...I kept checking and they were still moist inside. After 35 minutes I took them out of the oven. still not done! fell apart and gooey inside. A few potential things I did wrong.

• Maybe too much oil in the bottom of the muffin tin?
• I used egg replacer. We can't do eggs though!
• I cut down on the sugar...and used agave vs. honey in the recipe.
• I used sweet potatoes vs. butternut squash. I actually DID bake up squash last night as well but it seemed to watery so I went for the sweet potatoes in stead. But maybe squash bakes up 'dryer' than sweet potatoes???
  

I just stuck them back in the oven actually. I'll keep you posted but thought I'd rip off this blog post.-