Creamy Lentil Wraps with Chicken & Fuji Apple

Hot summer days mean cool summer meals. While this one does involve some cooking, it is served cool or room temperature. 

One very crisp Fuji apple, 1/2 c lentils, and 2 green onions. Prepare the lentils as directed, and meanwhile, peel and chop up the apple and green onions. 

Mix the apple and onions with 2-3 wedges of Laughing Cow Original Light cheese. 

Once the lentils are tender, drain them well, season with a splash of cider vinegar and fresh ground pepper, and add to the apple mix. 

I had intended to make lettuce wraps using these large organic Romaine leaves. The leaves had other plans though and preferred to be served as a salad base. 

While that mix cools to room temperature, pan fry (< 1T olive oil) or grill chicken tenderloins (you know YJDKIY doesn't photograph those! gross!) seasoned with a bit of Worcestershire sauce. When cooked, chop into small pieces and stir into mix. The creamy Swiss, sweet apple, earthy lentils, tangy chicken, and crispy lettuce made for a filling mix of flavor and texture. Survey says: keeper!

Survey says: most pitiful puppy face on the planet!

Two Rouxs

I think the correct plural term of roux is actually rousses, or simply just roux. Rouxs is more fun. I digress. Unintentionally, YJDKIY ended up making two back-to-back nights of the creamy-flour mix for two very different meals. I would note, though, both versions are much healthier than one might think a traditional roux would be.

ROUX 1: Garlicky Chicken & Broccoli

For this one, I simply sauted the chicken and broccoli in EVOO with some garlic powder and minced garlic. I melted a little Earth Balance (maybe 1.5 t), mixed in about 1 t of white flour until smooth, and then added about 3/4 c light soy milk, 1/4 c at a time. As I did this, I kept adding in the flour, but kept it pretty thin. Mix in a LOT of garlic powder. Meanwhile, about 1 c basmati rice was cooking. I mixed the roux in with that and tossed with the veggies & chicken. Topped with parmesan, it made excellent leftovers for lunch.

heeeeey honday!

ROUX 2: Three Bean Enchiladas

And the next night, this was in place of the called-for can of cheese soup (I didn't even know such a horrendous-sounding thing exists). Mix one can each of pinto, navy, and kidney beans with 1/2 c each chopped red onion and green pepper. Prepare the roux, starting out the same way, but mix in about 1/2 c grated jack (Ashe Co. Cheese!) and stir until creamy. Mix this into the beans, and add 3 T tomato sauce and a dash of cumin. Warm about 20 corn tortillas in the microwave (5 at a time for 20 seconds with a spritz of water) and fill with bean mix. Top with green enchilada sauce and cheese. Serve over a bed of lettuce. These were pretty good and I'll probably make them again because they're much easier than the PPK ones.

heeeeey callay!

Just for fun, there's also a third roux, but it's actually spelled RUE. They're lovely, and a propos, but wikipedia tells me they do this to your skin:

yikes! But, its also eaten in Ethiopia. How does that work!?

Guacamole Chicken Tacos

I don't know why YJDKIY didn't think of this before, but there you have it. Instead of making chicken salad with mayo and eating it on a bun, I simply cooked it, shredded it, and creamed with with avocado, onion, cilantro, and lime juice.

I had still planned to eat it on a bed of fresh local lettuce, but when I realized how close it was to guacamole, I decided it was going on taco shells! Tacos are sort of like pizza, you can make them into whatever you have on hand. Easy, quick, healthy, and delicious!

Asian Chicken Lettuce Boats

YJDKIY hasn't picked up the DSLR in quite a while. Something about rushing home (late) from work and walking the dog (late) and starting dinner (late) has not been conducive to meal blogging, so you're stuck with the solitary iPhone snap.

Last week, a friend ordered these at a Chinese restaurant and I decided I could replicate them pretty easily. I hardly ever get chicken at Chinese restaurants because I'm always excited to order tofu. These would work just as well with that. Anyhoo...

Marinate chicken chunks in mix of rice vinegar, low sodium tamari, and sweet-n-sour sauce. Heat a large wok with EVOO and toasted sesame oil. Add chicken and cook 8-10 minutes until done. Add edamames, grated carrots, and green onion. Cook until tender. Add sesame seeds and serve in romain lettuce boats (sweet-n-sour dipping sauceontheside).

Chinese Chicken Noodle Soup with Green Onions and Sesame

Quite an impressive title huh? For YJDKIY's first official Winter Harvest meal, I wanted to use those delicious green onions. Local fresh ones always seem to be spicier and hotter than the store variety, yet somehow milder than regular onions.

Nevermind that I forgot they were the star ingredient until I'd already diced up a yellow onion and had to seal it back up and put in the fridge. Doh.

This packaging cracks me up.

The recipe called for Napa Cabbage, which looked less than appealing at the grocery store (I can't imagine it's turnover rate is very respectable and it showed. Alternative?

I used Savoy Cabbage, that came all the way from Deep Gap, NC.

Cabbage is a winter vegetable and it is entering it's peak month (according to Wiki).

Chopped to pieces.

I put together a marinade of low-sodium soy, EVOO, and Sherry. And, for this meal, we reached a new milestone. I didn't think it was possible for a food photo, especially one I took, to be...well, gross. Squeamish readers shield your eyes....



...


...

Chopped up chicken marinating. GAHRHOOOOS.

I let it sit for a while and sauted a bunch of pressed garlic.

Add in the cabbage/onions. (The recipe called for a bunch of other ingredients I omitted.) Boil some water for the noodles.

Hello shutter speed.

Add in the stock and the cooked chicken strips.

Add some sesame.

Combine it all.

VOILA! Bangkok Garden right here on the Ave. Another keeper soup.

Stirring and stirring and stirring...

...my strew! Sometimes, the best laid dinner plans don't always work out. As YJDKIY headed out for a doggy walk on a chilly Sunday morning, someone pointed out it was the perfect day to use the new slow cooker, and an idea was born!

It's about this time of year that I crave Brunswick Stew. Not having access to any church fundraisers, I set out to concoct my own.

First up, 24 oz of tomato sauce, NO SALT ADDED! Mix with about 2T Worcestershire sauce.

Meanwhile, boil some chicken breasts, cool, and shred. Into the pot.

Combine 2 tiny-cubed baking potatoes and 1 diced medium sweet onion with 1-2T flour, 3/4 t chicken bouillon granules and 2t poultry seasoning. Shake well and into the pot.

Last add some frozen limas and corn. Mix it all up.

Slow cook for 4 hours, adding water and extra tomato sauce if needed. Add pepper to taste.

The resident sniffer will let you know when it is ready.

It wasn't made by RUMC, but it also wasn't full of unhealthy ingredients.

And bottom line, it was tasty. PLUS, I was cooking dinner while I was doing 12 other things.

Happy Halloween!

Chicken & Bok Choy with Soba

THIS

turned out delicious. I may never fix chicken any other way.

Poach it for about 15 minutes in water/garlic powder/kosher salt/pepper. Let it cool and shred with a fork. Meanwhile, prepare (local!) baby bok choy, carrot matchsticks, and green onion. Toss with 1T tamari. Mix 2T tamari and 1/2 c prepared sweet & sour sauce. Saute greens until tender, add shredded chicken and sauce mix and simmer. Boil soba noodles according to directions, drain and mix all together.

Grill Baby Grill

Grilled meals are so easy...and 99% local (don't think Rowan County produces much olive oil, kosher salt, or Worcestershire sauce). Potatoes & Onions (I have more of these than I know what to do with!).

Potato skins are a hard one for me. The skin is notoriously rich in nutrients and fiber (although I couldn't really find much concrete evidence on this, everyone seems to just assume it as fact). However, I think the skin absorbs toxins and chemicals in the dirt or used in mass conventional farming. In this particular case, I chose to leave them on, since I know the farmer that pulled them from the dirt in his own backyard (and his thoughts on sustainable farming and soil & water conservation). I did wash them extensively in warm water, rubbing off the thin skin in many places.

Moving on, these round zucchinis (perhaps also called globe squash) are palm-sized and tasty!

They slice up nice to fit on a grill, but WHY oh WHY did I not think to stuff them? I love stuffing things and these would be perfect. On the list for next week!

And last, Domisty Menius talked me into two chicken breasts from their farm (more on their MPU here because I couldn't stand to photograph raw chicken - in fact, I had to make the other cooker prepare it!). Everything was shake 'n' bake style! Potato-Onions got EVOO, kosher salt & pepper.

Zuchs got EVOO, pepper, garlic powder, and oregano. And chicken got Worcestershire.

Grilled by the other cooker to perfection!

Old Friends

Sat on a park bench like bookends. I think I first made this recipe in college, out of a free Kraft easy-cook recipe magazine. Yes that is like easy-bake ovens. :P

Perhaps because of how much I loathe cooking chicken, there was some in the freezer and YJDKIY had forgotten about this for years (the recipe, not the chicken, that's gross). Spinach, stuffing, pepper, tomato. The original recipe uses salad dressing as the flavoring, but despite allowing it to post for the photo here, I couldn't bring myself to use it.

Instead I seasoned the chopped up spinach and peppers with a little EVOO, balsamic, basil, garlic powder, and rosemary. It smelled so good, I really just wanted to eat the filling instead of putting it in the chicken.

See it does look like bookends. Pound out the chicken with something hard - I used a bottle of EVOO I will never use because it came from the dollar store as a white elephant Christmas present. I digress.

ACK! The other eater was kind enough to take a photo of my gooey hands rolling up the chicken, but apparently the camera revolted. Or maybe it was user error. Bake for about 45-55 minutes on 375.

Whew, that's better. Tasty and slightly fancy looking, but definitely of the college flavor variety.