What's Cooking Wednesday | Sage, Bean, and Spinach Soup

 
You guys are going to like this week's recipe.  (That is, if you like soup.  With pasta.  And beans.)  It is SO EASY, so tasty, and so perfect for dinner on a cold winter day.

Also, not to brag or anything, but I completely invented this recipe myself, based on ingredients that I had on hand.  I must say, I was very, very pleased with the results.  Even E loved it!

And did I mention, it is really really easy to make? 

What You Need:

• 2 onions, chopped (I used one white/one red)
• 5 cups chicken broth
• 4 cups beans (Any kind will work, but I think red or white beans would taste best in this soup.  Also, make sure you rinse them if using canned, otherwise your soup will be super salty.)
• 5 cloves of garlic, diced
• 2 TBSP sage, chopped (I used sage left over from my garden, that I had frozen in olive oil)
• 1 cup spinach, chopped
• 1 cup pasta (I used whole-wheat rotini)

What To Do:

Combine all ingredients, except for the pasta, in your crock pot.   

Cook 4 hours on high, or 6-8 on low.

Then, add your pasta during the last 30 minutes of cooking.

 

Voila! Dinner is served. :-)

What's Cooking Wednesday | Sweet and Spicy Crockpot Chicken

This week's What's Cooking Wednesday is brought to you by Steph at The Kat Almanac.  Enjoy! 

So B likes his root beer. Or I should say he likes fancy root beer. Before I got him a soda stream for Christmas, I used to frequently pick up this Hansen’s Root Beer. I accidentally picked up diet one day. And it tasted like butt. So it sat in the fridge for what feels like forever. Until today. Today I decided was the day to get rid of this pop!

Now I know starting off a recipe with an ingredient that I have previously stated tasted like butt is probably not a good idea. However, trust me. It was good! Just the the right amount of sweet and spicy. And you don’t have to use root beer. Any kind of dark pop would be fine: Coke, Pepsi (if you are into that…. I’m a Coke girl can you tell?), Dr. Pepper would all work fine. Pair it with some grits and zucchini and you are good to go!

Sweet and Spicy Crockpot Chicken

Ingredients

Chicken breasts (use however much you need… if you have too much liquid that’s ok)
2 cans of dark pop (I used root beer)
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp dry mustard
1/2 tbsp cayenne (go easier if you don’t like the spicy)
1 tbsp sesame seed oil

Method

Take your root beer and add it to a crockpot.



Then plop your chicken down in there.

Then comes the spices.



Yes we buy cayenne in bulk. And yes it gets it’s own container. What can I say? The south has definitely rubbed off on us!

Then my secret weapon: sesame seed oil! Seriously if you don’t have this, go out and get it. It adds a really great smokey flavor! I drizzle it directly onto the chicken.



Then cover your crockpot with a really cool cookie sheet. Oh, you have a lid for your cookie sheet and don’t use a cookie sheet? You must be real special.

Just let this hang out for about 4 hours on low and it will cook up perfectly!



This is what happens when you take a cookie sheet lid off: massive amounts of steam!!

When it is done you can either take the whole breast and plate it like so



or you can shred it…. my favorite vehicle for chicken! And in the background you can see B’s favorite method: a taco! Yes friends, feel free to toss it in a taco!



Enjoy!

 

What's Cooking Wednesday | Honey Sesame Chicken

Yesterday, S requested something "chickeny" for dinner.  I wasn't really quite sure where I was going to take that, until I remembered I had pinned this crock pot honey sesame chicken recipe.  It did not disappoint!  I made a few slight changes, and was quite pleased with how it came out. 

What You Need:

• 4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 3/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
• 4 TBSP sesame seed, divided
• 1 tsp chili powder (or more to taste)
• green onions, sliced (for topping)
• rice, prepared (for serving) 

What To Do:

Toss the chicken breasts in your crock pot.  (Mine were frozen solid, and I just threw them in there anyway.)

Gather the rest of your ingredients.

 

Chop up your onions and garlic.

 

Throw the chopped onions right on top of the chicken. 

Combine the ketchup, honey, brown sugar, soy sauce, chili powder, garlic, and 2 TBSP sesame seeds in a bowl, and mix to make a sauce.

Pour the sauce on top of the chicken and onions.  (Use a spatula to spread it around and coat the chicken as best as you can.)

Cook for 4 hours on high, or 6-8 hours on low.  

Then, remove the chicken from the crock pot and shred it into small chunks.

Return the chicken to the crock pot and mix it around, so that it is coated in the remaining sauce. 

Let the chicken soak in the sauce while you prepare your rice and slice up your green onions.

Serve over rice and top with green onions and the remaining sesame seeds.  

YUM!

Also, since this recipe is dairy-free, I served E up a toddler-sized portion.

She DEVOURED it.  

This is what was left... of her second serving (plus some random chopped up green beans). 

So, there you have it...  An inexpensive, quick and easy, kid-friendly dinner!  I will definitely be making this again at our house. :-)

Hidden dairy is the devil

Yesterday, I accidentally fed E dairy.

Today, I can report with certainty that she has not yet outgrown her dairy allergy.*

I feel SO badly for her.  She has had three terrible poopy diapers today already, and her little bum is bright red and covered in weeping blisters.  We are treating it but she just keeps pooping, and every time she does, the diaper rash gets worse.  :'-(

So, what was the culprit, you ask?

Carrots.  Yes, CARROTS.

E loves carrots, and I found some frozen "honey-glazed" carrots at the store that I thought would be perfect for her.  I was in a rush and just quickly threw them in the cart without examining the ingredients.  I mean, they were just frozen carrots, right?

Well, I cooked some for her yesterday, and as she was eating them, I noticed they had a bit of a sauce on them.  I tasted it and noticed it looked a little creamy... uh oh.  I immediately looked the product up on the manufacturer's website, and sure enough:  "CONTAINS MILK AND WHEAT INGREDIENTS."

WTF?!  Since when do vegetables have dairy in them?  (Or wheat, for that matter?)

Of course, I immediately took them away from E, but she had already eaten several of them and the damage had apparently already been done. 

I feel like such an idiot!  I am usually SO good at reading nutrition information and ingredient lists and keeping dairy out of her diet, but this one completely slipped through the cracks.  I didn't even think to read the ingredients on my bag of VEGETABLES.  I am apparently going to have to be even more vigilant in the future.


[*On a related note, S believes that E likely has a dairy allergy vs. lactose intolerance.  I thought people just used the two terms interchangeably to mean the same thing, however, S explained that people with a dairy allergy have an allergic reaction to one or more of the proteins in dairy, whereas an individual who is lactose-intolerant is unable to digest the sugar (lactose) in dairy.  Interesting distinction, no?  But since E can tolerate dairy in my diet, S suspects that she is able to digest lactose (and is thus not lactose-intolerant) and is instead allergic to one of the milk proteins.  Anyway, not a crucial point for this post, but I thought I should clarify and make sure I'm using the proper terminology!]

What's Cooking Wednesday | Three-Bean Chili

This week's recipe is super delicious, super easy, and super adaptable to your preferences.  I made ours vegetarian, as we have made it a goal to have at least two meatless meals per week, but you could easily make it carnivore-friendly by throwing in a pound of ground beef or turkey. 

What You Need:

• 1 1/2 cups beef or vegetable broth (I used beef bouillon, prepared)
• 1/2 cup dried minced onion
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 cans chili-ready diced tomatoes, with juices
• 2 cans chili beans, with chili sauce
• 4 cans whatever other beans you have available (I used pinto and red kidney beans), drained
• 1 can corn, with liquid
• 1 can Rotel-style chilis and tomatoes, with liquid

 
What To Do:

Grab your crock pot.  Throw in a slow cooker liner, if you so desire.  I always line mine with these bad boys:

 

I highly, highly recommend them.  No, Reynolds did not pay me to say that.  Yes, I wish they would.

Open all of your cans.  Drain the beans (but do not drain the chili beans, tomatoes, corn or Rotel).

Collect your spices.

Dump everything into your crock pot.

I told you this was easy!  ;-)

Give it a stir.

Put the lid on and cook for 4-6 hours on high, or 6-8 hours on low.  That's it!

We garnished ours with some cheese and sour cream, and it was delicious!  The spice wasn't as hot as I would have normally made it for just S and me, but we like our foods super spicy, and wanted E to be able to eat this also.  (For the record, she loved it!)  However, you can definitely make it more or less spicy to suit your preferences.

Enjoy!  :-)

What's Cooking Wednesday | Shrimp Pad Thai

This week's What's Cooking Wednesday is brought to you by Steph at The Kat Almanac.  Enjoy!

So you know that the Stay at Home Attorney and I have started this weekly cooking series. Each week we will trade off sharing recipes. It is my turn this week. And now I have stage fright. I don’t know why. I have posted recipes here before. But now that it is a “thing”, I can’t decide what to post! I make this shrimp pad thai and its good. I know its good. Big Kat requests it all the time. So why am I being a baby about it? Eh, who knows! First time jitters maybe?? I should mention though that the SAHA is the photographer amongst the two of us and my pictures will be taken in the evening with a dirty cutting board, with about 10 pots on the stove and a baby hanging on my leg. So if you are looking for food porn, please go elsewhere.

Ok, now that that’s out of the way: shrimp pad thai! I do a lot of Asian cooking because I find that it lends itself easily to gluten free cooking. Did I mention I’m GF? Well there. I am. Anywho, this recipe is adapted from the Whole Foods Cookbook (Petusevsky. New York: Clarkson Potter Publishers, 2002). <------- Yes I did just throw up a citation for you. I couldn’t find a web source for the cookbook and I’m a stickler for a source so there you go. Once a historian always a historian people!

Ingredients

1 box of rice noodles (I used a rice spaghetti that was on sale)
1/4 cup canola oil
3 cloves of garlic minced (or 1 1/2 tsp)
2 tsp of red chili paste
1 tsp sugar
3 tbsp fish sauce
1/4 cup water
1 egg
1/4 cup scallions (I didn’t have any so I omitted them)
1/2 cup snow peas julienned (again, no snow peas in my arsenal so skipped these too)
1 1/2 cup bean sprouts (Ok. You caught me. I didn’t want any veggies tonight so no sprouts either)
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 pound of shrimp (if you don’t have shrimp, you can really substitute any kind of protein: chicken, beef, tofu)
1/2 cup chopped peanuts

Put your water on to boil for the rice noodles. When the water comes to a boil, add noodles and cook till water just returns to a boil. Remove noodles and run under cold water and set aside.

 

 

Meanwhile, heat canola oil in a wok or large saute pan. Combine garlic, chili paste, sugar, fish sauce and water.

 

Cook together for about 5 minutes. Sauce will slightly thicken. Beat the egg then add to the mixture and stir constantly until eggs are soft set.

 

When the sauce is thickened, add your shrimp.

 

Cook for 2 minutes and then add the noodles, toss and saute for 5 minutes.

 

If you are cool and like to eat your veggies, you may add the scallions, snow peas and bean sprouts now. Also, kick in those red pepper flakes and lemon juice. Heat through for about 2 or 3 minutes.

Garnish with peanuts.

There you go. One of my favorite quick, go to meals.

Lactose Intolerance

Last week at E's one-year appointment, her doctor confirmed what S and I have suspected for a few weeks now -- that our little lady is lactose-intolerant.  I'll spare you the disgusting mucousy poopy diapers details, but suffice it to say she has every textbook symptom each time she consumes dairy.
 
We first noticed when she had yogurt the week before her birthday.  She was really fussy and gassy and had a terrible diaper afterwards.  We already thought she might have issues with dairy, because she also could not tolerate lactose as a newborn (I had to cut all dairy from my diet until she "outgrew" it around 4-5 months old), but we wanted to test her a few more times to be sure it wasn't a fluke.  She then had homemade buttercream frosting (pure butter + sugar) twice the week of her birthday, and cottage cheese a few times after that, and was fussy and had all of the other symptoms every single time.  So far, it seems only straight dairy upsets her stomach; dairy ingredients baked into something else (i.e. in cake or bread) don't seem to bother her too much, thankfully.  Her doctor suggested starting her on soy milk instead of whole cow's milk (we hadn't tried cow's milk yet, for this reason), and then every few weeks offer her a small amount of dairy to see if she develops a tolerance for it.  If not, she will be officially tested at 18 months, and we can go from there. 

I am happy to report that so far, she seems to be doing great on the soy milk.  We started her on it last week, and so far she seems to really like it and has drank (drunk?) it without complaint.  However, I feel like I am kind of hitting a wall in choosing foods to give to her, especially for breakfast.  I try to make sure she gets multiple servings of fruit/vegetables, a protein, and a grain every day (and at least two of the three at each meal), but I am stumped as to what to feed her in the morning.  She can't eat oatmeal (it makes her vomit), and obviously can't have yogurt.  So far I've just been giving her dry cereal, fruit, or eggs, which I'm sure is going to get boring quick.

Any suggestions for lactose-free breakfast ideas?