A perfect warm dish on a cool fall day

I love a hearty stew in the fall. I love all the rich flavors of the fall harvest, too. Carrots, squashes–heck I want to curl up inside a cornucopia and marvel at the fall wonders.  When I think of winter squashes and hot stews I want to draw hearts on paper with the names of each dish they can create. Comfort, warmth, excitement of the seasons cool nights, crunching leaves–the bright open night sky with the stars spilling across the entire view like vibrant beacons of sparkling hope.  I love Autumn!  This dish is a great accompaniment for the mood of the season. Rich, soothing  velvety and crisp!

I used boneless skinless thigh meat in this recipe because, let’s face it, that is where the flavor is. Sure we run off and purchase chicken breast in bulk now for most recipes but in a hearty dish like this–use the thigh! The heavy cream–just a bit–ensures it will hold up with the vinegar and not curdle or do anything else in the stew you do not want it to do. Fully fat creams behave well in this recipe–and it is just a splash–or two.

Creamy Chicken Stew
(adapted from Eating Well October 2010)
serves 6
1 pound brushed clean mushroom caps
1/2 cup diced sweet onion like Vidalia or Wala
1 cup chopped white and orange carrots
1 cup fresh peas
1/4 cup water
3 cups chicken broth
2lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into bite size pieces
1 Large spring fresh rosemary
2 bay leaves
4 tbls cider vinegar
2 tbls corn starch
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 tbls Olive Oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Combined mushrooms , onions , olive oil and 1/4 cup water to a 6 quart dutch oven. Cover and cook over high heat stirring often until the mushrooms are juicy –about 6 minutes. Remove cover and cook for another 10 minutes–browning the mushrooms. Add 2 cups broth, carrots, rosemary, and bay leaves and bring to a boil. Cover the entire soup with the chicken thighs and sprinkle the cider vinegar over the meat. Lower heat to simmer and cook for 45 more minutes. Mix the cornstarch with the remaining cup of chicken broth add in the cream. Pour the mixture into the cooking soup and stir until thickened, add the fresh peas and heat for another 20 minutes. Serve warm in large baked squash bowls.

Calories per 1 cup serving: 319
Fat: 15 grams
Carbohydrates: 17 grams
Protein:31 grams

Click to see more Real Foods!

So, after flipping through some magazines I found a spaghetti frittata idea in the September edition of Health. As an aside–I hate getting a September magazine at the end of July–right now I am getting thanksgiving articles in the magazines -in the month of September magazines are encouraging me to baste the tofurkey bird and unleash the fresh cranberries.  In the words of Paul Simon “slow down you move too fast”. Anyway this recipe was about less costly meals that are healthy enough to actually prepare and share versus the mac and cheese mass produced- costs 10 cents a pound junk that most of us think of when we think of feeding a crowd for less money.I wanted to give this recipe idea a run–Spaghetti Fritatta, eh?  I needed to omit the pasta from the recipe because of the gluten and really the whole idea of spaghetti does not fit in with the level of carbohydrates we want to eat right now. I then thought that spaghetti squash would be a fun substitute to try in the recipe. Spaghetti squash is in season right now and the farm stand is over flowing with it ; since it is only 50 cents a pound it is less pricey than cheap pasta–win, win! i also picked up a ton of other veggies to toss into the mix and of course a dozen of some farm fresh local eggs. Yeah Baby!

Spaghetti Casserole
serves 4

4 cups  cooked spaghetti squash
4 large fresh eggs
1 large red bell pepper diced
1 medium hot pepper diced and seeded
3 cloves minced garlic
1 whole tomato sliced thin
1 large sweet onion diced
3 cups chopped broccoli florets
1 handful fresh basil crushed and chopped
1 spring fresh rosemary diced fine
2 generous pinches sea salt
1 tblspn Olive Oil

Optional Topping –1/4 cup cheddar cheese–shredded

Add all ingredients to a large bowl and mix well. Set in the fridge for at least an hour to marinate and allow the flavors to meld. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and lightly oil a 9×9 baking dish. Add the marinated raw casserole to the pan and bake for 40 minutes or until the dish is set.  Serve hot.

Other good ideas:

–make a large batch and store for easy lunch grab and goes
–add in chopped bacon or ham
–go heavy on the additional vegetables

Calories Per Serving: 227
Fat: 11 grams
Carbohydrate: 24 grams
Fiber: 5 grams
Protein: 11 grams

What do you love to throw on the grill?

My garden is in full glory, full of yummy treats and pretty flowers and I can’t forget to mention the weeds.  They completely got away from me this year.  So away they go and I am just trying to clear paths through the weedy jungle to get to the veggies.  I found a few pattypan squash and had lots of basil so I came up with some grilled treats.  If you are like me and lived most of your life without trying pattypan squash… go try it.  It has a similar flavor to yellow crookneck squash but the texture is better and stays firmer when cooked.  But please don’t overcook it.  Leave a little crunch in it.

Balsamic, Basil Chicken

4 servings of skinned chicken breasts (I used chicken tenders cause it’s all I had)

¼ c chopped fresh basil

3 T balsamic vinegar

3 T lime or lemon juice

1 T honey (optional)

Place all the ingredients in a large Ziploc baggie or bowl and dissolve the honey.  Mix well and toss in the chicken.  Coat the chicken well and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Heat up your grill to low heat and cook until done all the way through. Timing is so different on each and every grill so you will have to figure out when yours is done.  Just FYI- watch out for the honey burning on the chicken. Cook slowly.

Grilled Pattypan Squash

Trim your squash and slice so it’s at least ½ inch thick.  Brush on a little, maybe 1 t per serving, of an Italian vinaigrette

on tops and bottoms of each slice.  I keep a bottle of Newmans oil and vinegar dressing for easy access but you can make your own from

1T olive oil and 2T vinegar and any seasonings you like.  Next I pepper the squash and add a dash of garlic powder to each slice.  Off to the grill.

Grill over low heat, approximately 2 mins on each side.  Enjoy.

–Jamie Wilson co author to Squeaky Gourmet

Some Pizza pickings!

So, follow the basic cheesecake recipe from here: “Let Them Eat Cheesecake!” but omit the lemon and vanilla from the design.

My 6 yr old handles the sharp objects that I am not allowed to touch.

Have a helper chop finely a couple of cloves of garlic for you. This is all based on how you want your own pizza–so 2 cloves, 5 cloves–dare for more? You pick! Add that garlic to the cheese as well as a couple pinches of sea salt and a few dashes of pepper. Now,you can add all the seasoning your pallet can handled in this step of the process. We choose to add fresh oregano as well as fresh sage and sun dried tomatoes chopped fine.  Once the seasoning is added in I folded in the egg whites as well as a 1/2 cup Asiago cheese. This was going to be your crust and sauce all in one. Once this is done, pour into a well oiled spring form pan.

Once this was prepared we chopped fresh peppers, more oregano, sage, mushrooms, left over grilled pork cubed up–really–the question for you is how do you like your pizza?  You could add anything here–feta and basil with roasted pine nuts. Salami and shredded cheddar. Endless–the possibilities are ENDLESS!

Ready for some HEAT!

After we topped off the pie with what we (my 6 year old and I) deemed GENIUS  we added a bit more Asiago to the top. We put it in the oven which has been preheated to 350 degrees.  We then paced the floor for 60 minutes, checking it periodically for–pizza-ish-ness. the house was filled with the amazing aroma of a Pizzeria. We anticipated this pie to be wonderful based simply on the scent filling the air. We drifted around like cartoon characters floating along behind the smell in the air. My 6 year old would clap her hands and yell I CANNOT WAIT! After the 60 minute mark arrived I added about 2 ounces sliced fresh mozzarella and continued cooking for another 10 minutes.

Done! I wish you could inhale the aroma this was making!

Then the timer went off, we opened the oven and shook the pan to make sure it was “set” (wiggly a bit but not soupy or sloshing around in the pan) We giggled a bit as only mad scientists in the kitchen do as I took the pie from the oven to cool. I took more pictures of it, stared at it, closed my eyes over it and breathed deeply through my nose in hopes to taste the wonderful scents wafting from the pie.  Once it had cooled about an hour I placed it in the fridge. I was not sure if i could cut it that warm and wanted to see what it would be like 1) re-heated and 2) cold.

When I removed the outer ring of the pan there was a lot of run off from the vegetables so be ready for that–no need to make a mess and ruin the experience you are creating here! I set it in the fridge and took pictures of it there as well. It was like sending a friend off at the airport. Good bye, Pizza Pie, one last picture before I close the door. have a safe trip, see you soon!  I let it chill for about 2 hours then removed it and cut out a slice. It cut perfectly, held shape wonderfully and tasted exactly as i needed it to taste. See that brown crusty edge in the photos? That was made up of the Asiago inside the pie itself, it tasted like cheese crusted bread. it was wonderful! So, slice aside I returned the pie to the oven to reheat for 30 minutes. See what some of us do to create a recipe to share??

It reheated perfectly, held shape and flavor and was just perfect in every way I wanted it to be!

I served it reheated with a tossed salad in a mustard vinaigrette. The left over slice that I ate for breakfast this morning was even better–just so you know!

Ricotta Pizza Pie--low Carb--Gluten Free--Perfect!

If you use 2 cloves garlic, cancel your date!

So–it is summer, as I am sure you know. The gardens are bursting about now with fresh produce; the farm stands are a constant joy for me this time of year. I have a green thumb for plants but an inability to organize my brain to start a real garden, as I have confessed before. So, I rely on local markets to supply me with tomatoes and other typical summer selections.  This past week fresh plump tomatoes were on sale and I could not resist. Summer tomatoes are amazing, they smell like hot summer days with a hint of fresh shade. I like to take thick slices and just eat them–I never waste time trying to come up with recipes to use them in–unless I buy a lot–which I did this time!

So, it was Friday evening and I was wondering what to make for dinner. I had some fresh hand rolled mozzarella in the fridge that I am addicted to–from a local dairy farmer, basil sprouting all over my garden, garlic needing to be used or tossed as well as some corn tortillas. I also had some ground buffalo meat I was lucky enough to find on sale at the local market–OK clearly all of this would go well together–so I set to preparing dinner.  All of the kids enjoyed the meal–I test them by asking if it is a blog worthy recipe or not and they vote for me to share the recipe or keep it to ourselves. This won the blog addition vote.

Buffalo Pizza
serves 6

1 large handful fresh basil- washed
1 clove garlic
3 tbls extra virgin olive oil
3 tbls raw cashews
2 pinches sea salt

2 large fresh tomatoes
1 pound fully cooked lean ground meat
8  ounce fresh mozzarella
12 corn tortillas

Turn the broiler on high and place 12 tortillas on a baking sheet. In a food processor or  blender combine the first 5 ingredients and blend completely. Slice your tomatoes thick enough to allow one hearty slice per tortilla–do not slice thin because you want to bite into that tomato. Spread even amounts of the basil sauce lightly onto each corn crust–remembering this has the flavor in it so rub it all over the tortilla but do not sop it on and cause the crust to wilt and wither in the broiler.  Place your tomato on the sauce kissed corn crust and then spread your meat of choice over it–finally place sliced cheese over the top and place in the broiler for about 2 minutes. Watch these closely as done is a few seconds before ruined.

Other good ideas:
This is pizza–you know the other good ideas are endless!

I love this time of year in the garden–well in the miraculous growth in my yard, really. I am not an avid gardener like other people are–I compost and stir the land and then scatter seeds and wait and hope the earth will allow it all to grow. I am not the organized boxed Gardner like I want to be–rather, I look and see the ripe rich green of the natural flora of my yard and hope the seeds I scatter will follow suit.  Some do–some do not. I do not mind that some do not grow because I get over joyed with the ones that DO!

Right now I have some wonderful sage, coriander, tarragon and oregano overflowing the garden edges and seducing the air with their textured leaves and sultry green life forces. I love to just pluck a leaf or two off each one and rub them together in my hand and just inhale the fragrance of them. They smell like nature, rain fall on a hot summer night, healing and sustenance–they smell like life.  The fresh herbs do not lose any flavor in the food you add it to, cooked or raw. They dance around the dish touching it all lightly with their own voice. How can I not cook with them?

I had some chicken breast in the fridge and some new quinoa in the cupboard and they each seem to go perfectly with the fresh herbs I grabbed from the garden. Even though the settings were off on the camera ( I really need to learn how to USE this camera of mine!) I had to share the images and the recipe is really a must try. If you do not have the herbs growing in your yard–hop the fence of the neighbors and see if they do. If they also do not, consider listing your house and relocating as well as checking your local farmer markets for samples of what other people may be growing. I would also ask for some sprouts to plant since you will fall in love with this combination  and will be in dire need for more.

Quinoa Chicken Salad with Garden Fresh Herbs

serves 4

1 pound raw boneless skinless chicken breast-cubed
1 cup rinsed raw quionoa
2 cups vegetable broth
Zest of 1 lemon
2 tbls fresh lemon juice
2 whole fresh scallions
1 green bell pepper
1 handful each tarragon, sage, coriander, oregano

Place raw chicken in a bowl, add to it 2 teaspoons sea salt and cover with ice water–set aside.  Cook quinoa in the vegetable broth for about 15 minutes or until all the broth is absorbed into this magic little seed. Set quinoa in the fridge and allow to cool.  To prepare the herbs, rinse them with cold water and remove leaves from the stems. You easily remove the leaves by holding the stem upside down in your hand and then just pinch the stem between your thumb and pointer finger of your other hand and gently slide your pinched fingers down the stem–the leaves come right off.

Next heat a non-stick skillet on medium high heat–add in chicken and herbs. Cook chicken all the way through while stirring to prevent burning. Even with the raw meat, look how fantastic the herbs look–trying to restore life to the meat!

Once the chicken is cooked through add in the fresh lemon juice and remove from heat. While the chicken is still warm dice the peppers and scallion and stir into the chicken.  Stir in cooled quinoa and store in the fridge until the entire dish is chilled. Serve on a bed of cucumbers and enjoy!

Other Good Ideas:

–add different spices, anything you can think of!
–make extra and bring to a summer picnic
–add in some mango and use lime juice

I like to pack a salad with everything i can pack it with. I think the days of a slice of onion and a cherry tomato are gone–when you dress the salad right. I think the reason why people have drizzled and over dressed the salad for decades now has been because it was little more than a water grassy leaf with a few things added. Salad was more a dish where it was the “thought that counted” more than the actual dish itself.  Well–it is time to bring salad forward into the fashionably elite dishes like goulashes and soups that we throw all we can find into it. No one picks up a bowl of soup and pours oils and spices all over it to give it some panache. I have not really used traditional dressings since Susan Powter once again stopped my insanity. I avoided all fats for the 90′s decade and it is still a bit of a social phobia that I have adding oil to my salad. I can now prepare my own dressings and not worry I will wake up in the morning in an over sized straight jacket hissing out my desires for fried dough and ranch dressing. Please note it has taken a decade to evolve past those fears–so I try to be more creative than “fat/no fat” After all the salad is not black and white so why should my choices for it be the same.

This weekend i cooked up some chicken breast with some Mexican spices along with some salsa and wanted to top a bed of romaine with it. I thought–OK my family will want dressing for this salad and I will not. Quandary!  So rather than add the normal things I add to a salad, avocado, sliced garlic, cucumbers and fresh cilantro leaves–I blended them up together with a splash of rice vinegar. My 7 yr old kept telling me how much she enjoyed the dressing and how it tasted so good with the cucumbers in it. She will not eat avocado–ever. She loved it in this dressing though!

Another fantastic thing is to create fresh salsa for the salad, take those tomatoes, onions, cilantro and dice them up with some garlic and cumin along with some added bang from a hot pepper. In this salsa I had some pineapple which was about to turn the corner from over ripe to down right bad–I could hear it mumbling terrible things late at night–I knew it was time to cut it up.  You could add peaches, green tomatoes–OK you can add anything in the produce section to a salad.  So–why bury it under boring ranch dressing each and every time?

Plus–they look better don’t they?

What do you add to your salads?

North America is paying attention food makers! Movies like Food Inc. as well as books recently written; Food Rules by fabulous author Michael Pollan , are causing up a stir. More people are reading labels and wanting to know just where their food comes from. This, as Martha would state, is a good thing!  So, on that note: have you ever read what is IN tomato soup? Sure, tomatoes we think, right? Open a can of tomato soup, pour into a pan add milk or water and heat n’ eat. So, let’s examine the number one favorite brand, Campbell’s Classic Tomato Soup:

Ingredients

Tomato Puree (Water, Tomato Paste)Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup,Wheat Flour, Salt, Vegetable Oil (Corn, Cottonseed, Canola and/or Soybean)Flavoring, Ascorbic Acid, and Citric Acid.

What!? That is not tomato soup–it sounds more like the packaged ketchup at a fast food chain doesn’t it? Thinned out with some oil and water of course. Blech–not what I want to serve to the family at all–I want creamy tomato soup sans sugar and genetically altered corn ingredients. Also, why is there wheat flour in my soup? I could understand a stew but in my soup? Anyway, if you would like a healthier cleaner version of tomato soup–the answer is so tasty and simple!

Real Creamy Tomato Soup

16 ounce can organic tomato puree
1 quart vegetable broth (cheap and easy to make!)
1 cup greek yogurt ( I used full fat for more flavor)
1/2 cup pine nuts
4 fresh basil leaves
1 scallion chopped for garnish

In a large soup pan on medium heat add in the tomato and broth and stir to blend. Once this is  blended and heated through lower heat to medium/low and add in yogurt stirring well.  In a coffee grinder or food processor add the pine nuts and basil leaves and blend till it resembles flour.  Add the nuts and basil gruel into the soup and stir throughly.

Serve in a bowl topped with scallions. YUM!

Other good ideas:

–Hello grilled cheese with bacon as seen above.

I cannot say enough about how awesome salads are to have on hand for your personal path to  greatness um, health and wellness.  Jamie created this beautiful and delicious salad for all our readers to enjoy and devour! YUM!  This salad is super easy to prepare and is filled with nutrients and flavor. (seriously click the image to see how beautiful this salad is! Who wouldn’t want to eat it?)

Barley and Lentil Salad

Serves 3 or 4

½ c chopped scallions

1 c chopped carrots

1 yellow or red pepper chopped

4 ribs celery chopped

1 15 oz can of lentils rinsed

2 ½ c cooked barley

Dressing-

1 t balsamic vinegar

4 t olive oil

1/3 c cider vinegar

1 t spicy brown mustard

1 t sea salt

½ t pepper

2 t Mrs. Dash original flavor

Combine all ingredients and chill for ½ hour.  Serve over a big bed of greens.

I wanted to make something by using what I had in the pantry and freezer. I hadn’t had edamame in a while so it turned up in an easy salad.

Edamame corn salad
1 c Organic frozen corn- cook by following directions on bag and let cool
1 c Organic edamame- cook just like the corn and let cool
½ c diced carrots
1 T soy sauce
4 drops sesame oil
1 T flax or olive oil
1 T toasted sesame seeds
2 T rice wine vinegar
Sea salt and pepper to taste

Combine everything together in a small bowl and enjoy.

Other ideas: onion, scallions or bell peppers would be great in here.

Cheers,

Jamie

This recipe is part of Real Food Wednesday–check out more real food tips and ideas by visiting the blog carnival!