Simply Superb Shrimp Scampi

Sometimes I find really amazing recipes at the strangest of places.  The other day, my friend Colleen and I went food shopping at Whole Foods (yes, she was brave and went shopping with Laela and I), and wound up talking to the samples woman.  She made shrimp scampi- which I generally can't stand, and made it light and lemony- not heavy, buttery and cloying like I often find shrimp scampi to be.  It was so good, I bought a pound of shrimp and all of the ingredients that she recommended.  We had it for dinner that night, and, in the words of Laela: "MMMMMM!  Yummy!  Delicious Mama!!"  Make this.  It's super simple and absolutely fantastic.

Shrimp Scampi

serves 4-6

You'll need:

• 1 lb peeled and deveined shrimp (I used frozen peeled and deveined shrimp, they only take a minute or two extra to cook.)
• Juice and zest of 2 lemons (preferably Meyer lemons)
• 6 cloves garlic
• 1/2 stick butter
• 1/2 bag baby red and green chard, cleaned and rinsed (you can add more if you like.)
• 1/2 cup white wine
• Pinch cayenne pepper (I added a little more than a pinch because we like a little kick.)
• Salt to taste
• Chopped Italian parsley

Instructions:

• Finely chop the garlic.
• Melt the butter over medium low heat.  Saute the garlic gently until very fragrant.
• Add the wine and lemon juice and raise the heat to medium high.
• Reduce the wine mixture by half, and add a pinch of cayenne pepper.
• Add the baby chard and cook briefly.
• Add the shrimp and cook just until done, 3-4 minutes. (They'll turn from clear to pinkish-white)
• Add the chopped parsley and lemon zest.
• You can serve this as is, or add cooked pasta to the mix so that it can seep up all of the delicious sauce.

Enjoy!!

Run Down Mama

There are a lot of different types of people in this world.  There are the types that can pour themselves into their jobs, ignoring the world, and their life around them for days, weeks, sometimes months at a time.  There are people that spread themselves too thin, trying to be there for every event, every person, just so that they feel like they're enough.  I find both of these types of people to be interesting, because I grew up around people like this.  Loving, dedicated, but extraordinarily different people.

I've come to realize as I've evolved not just as a mom, but as a person, I've become a bit of a challenge to describe.  Kyle laughs because in the same breath that he's calling me particular (like the house has to be "just so"), Laela will cover herself in finger paints and I'll just laugh as I dunk her in a bubble bath to let her finger paint herself and the tub.

That weird balance that I like to think I usually achieve is probably my most flattering attribute.  My worst is that I think that I can do everything.  I think I can cram in being the best mommy ever who teachers her daughter wonderful, fun, enriching things for the majority of her day (by the way, she can totally count to 10 now!).  I can cook all three meals and two snacks a day from scratch.  I can stay up until the crack of dawn when my husband gets home from second shift and hear about his day.  And retain the information.  I do all of the housework, maintain our social calendar, you name it, I do it.  My list of things that I get done in a day occasionally leaves my head spinning as my head hits the pillow. 

Being a mother is challenging in any circumstance.  But when you're sick, it bites the big one.  When you're sick and your husband has to leave for another double shift, and your baby is sick too, it can be overwhelming.

Thankfully, I have a guy who will get me sick packages before he leaves.  The kind of husband and Daddy that bundles up his girls in blankets, hands over the remote, and has ginger ale and crackers within reach of the couch.

The tough thing about being ill when your little one is ill is that you have to stay on.  You have to stay aware.  And you have to be supermommy to take care of them.

So what did I do?  I netflixed Sesame Street and we watched the Big Bird movie.  Then we snuggled in and watched a Sesame Street 20th Birthday documentary that was awesome.  After that we passed out.  I'm not a big tv person, especially for little ones, but when we're sick, that's the easiest way to chill out.  Laela and I say we're "laying like vegetables".

When we woke up, I made some tea.  Laela toddled into the kitchen, reached for a potato, and said "Mash please.  Thanks Mama."  So I boiled some water, added some salt, and threw in a rinsed potato.  I let it boil until it was for tender, added a dash of salt and pepper with olive oil, mashed it with a fork, and Laela ate it right up.  I suppose we all have our sick foods, and my little girl is a salty potato lover.

The point is that at some point, our bodies tell us when it's time to slow down.  I'm off to get some rest.

Hope that everyone is having a safe and natural-disaster free weekend.

Fajitas!!

We are big time Mexican food lovers in our house, so when I got the email from the Food Revolution to try this recipe, I went for it.  I paired it with some golden Spanish rice.

This took about ten minutes to make, and froze/reheated really well.  Give it a go!

Fajitas

Ingredients for the fajitas:

• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 medium red onion
• 8 ounces skinless, boneless chicken breast fillets
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• A small pinch of ground cumin
• 2 limes
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/16 teaspoon sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 2 x 8-inch flour tortillas
• ½ cup plain yogurt
• 2 ounces Cheddar cheese

For the salsa:

• ½–1 fresh red chile, to your taste
• 15 ripe grape or cherry tomatoes
• about ½ cup a small bunch of fresh cilantro
• 1/16 teaspoon sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 lime

For the guacamole:

• a small handful of cherry tomatoes- about ¼ cup
• ½-1 fresh red chile
• a few sprigs of fresh cilantro
• ½ ripe avocado
• 1 lime

Jamie's Tips:
•This is a great meal to prepare ahead, like a stir-fry – the trick is to prepare all your ingredients before you start cooking because once you start things go pretty fast!
•Make sure your grill pan is nice and hot before you start cooking so that the chicken starts sizzling and grilling as soon as it hits the pan.

•The trick to sizzling hot, golden brown chicken and veggies is to not overcrowd the pan. If you’re making this for 4, just double the ingredients but cook them in two pans or in batches.

•You can make the guacamole a little bit ahead of time – to keep it nice and fresh, press a piece of plastic wrap right onto the surface of the guacamole – this will keep it from turning brown.

Method:

•Put your grill pan on a high heat. Halve and seed your bell pepper and cut it into thin strips. Peel, halve, and finely slice your onion. Slice your chicken lengthways into long strips roughly the same size as your bell pepper strips.
•Put the bell peppers, onion, and chicken into a bowl with the paprika and cumin. Squeeze over the juice of half a lime, drizzle over a lug of olive oil, season with the salt and pepper and mix well. Put to one side to marinate for 5 minutes or so while you make your salsa.

•Finely chop your chile. Roughly chop your tomatoes and the cilantro, stalks and all.

•Put the chile and tomatoes into a second bowl with the salt and pepper and the juice of 1 lime. Then stir in your chopped cilantro.

•Use a pair of tongs to put all the pieces of bell pepper, onion, and chicken into your preheated pan to cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until the chicken is golden and cooked through. As the pan will be really hot, keep turning the pieces of chicken and vegetables over so they don’t burn – you just want them to lightly chargrill to give you a lovely flavor. Give the pan a little love and attention and you'll be laughing.

•To make the guacamole squeeze a handful of cherry tomatoes on to a board. Finely chop up the flesh with ½ -1 red chile and a handful of cilantro leaves, including the top part of the stalks.

•Halve the avocado, leaving the side with the pit for another use. Then squeeze the one side of the avocado over a board so the flesh comes out of the skin. Discard the skin. Squeeze over the juice of 1 lime and chop everything together until fine. Taste and adjust the flavors if needed.

•Warm your tortillas up in a microwave or a warm dry frying pan. Divide your warmed tortillas between your serving plates.

•At the table, carefully help yourselves to the chicken and vegetables straight from the hot grill pan. Just be sure to put it down on top of something that won’t burn, like a chopping board.

•Halve your remaining lime and squeeze the juices over the sizzling pan. Serve with bowls of plain yogurt and guacamole alongside your Cheddar, a grater, and your lovely fresh salsa.


Spanish Rice:
This is one of my favorite dishes.  Follow the instructions on the box/bag.  Add 2 packets of Goya Sazon seasoning, 2 cloves of crushed garlic, a small pinch of paprika, and salt and pepper to taste.  You can add kidney beans, black beans and/or olives if you'd like.  I chose not to this time because I felt that a nice simple rice was the perfect addition to the fajitas!

I hope you enjoy this as much as we did!

Roast This!

One of my absolute favorite foods is roasted chicken.  This time last year, I wrote a post called Perfect Roast Chicken.  Today's recipe is very similar.  The only difference is that I took the extra time to make a brine to marinate the chicken.  This packs the chicken with even more flavor, and keeps the chicken extra moist (especially when you're cooking it with the idea that it will be reheated).

Briny Roasted Chicken

For the Brine:

• 1/4 cup kosher salt
• 4 cups water
• 1Tb cloves
• 1Tb cracked pepper
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp onion powder

For the Chicken:

• 1 approx. 3 1/2 lb roasting chicken
• 1 lemon
• 2 carrots
• 2 celery stalks
• 1 large onion
• 1 small bunch of rosemary, thyme, and/or sage
• 1 bulb garlic
• Olive Oil
• Salt and pepper

Instructions:

To make the brine:

• In a large soup pot, combine the water and all of the ingredients.
• Bring to a boil.
• Simmer for ten minutes.
• Take off the heat.
• When room tempurature, place the chicken in the brine.  You can brine it for 20 minutes to 1 hour.

To prep your chicken:

• Preheat your oven to 475 degrees.
• There's no need to peel the vegetables- just give them a wash and roughly chop them.
• Break the garlic bulb into cloves, leaving them unpeeled.
• Pile all the vegetables and garlic into the middle of the large roasting pan and drizzle with olive oil. (The chicken roasts on top of the vegetables.)
• Take the chicken out of the brine.
• Dab it dry with a paper towel.
• Drizzle the chicken with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper, rubbing it all over the bird.
• Carefully prick the lemon all over, using th tip of a sharp knife (if you have a microwave, you could pop the lemon in there for 40 seconds at this point as this will really bring out the flavor).
• Put the lemon inside the chicken's cavity, with the bunch of herbs.

To cook your chicken:

• Place the chicken on top of the vegetables in the roasting pan and put it into the preheated oven.
• Turn the heat down immediately to 400 degrees fahrenheit and cook the chicken for 1 hour and 20 minutes.
• Baste the chicken halfway through cooking and if the vegetables look dry, add a splash of water to the pan to stop them from burning. (Be careful, this may cause the pan to steam up at your face if you're too close to it.)
• When cooked, take the pan out of the oven and transfer the chicken to a board to rest for 15 minutes or so.

To carve your chicken:

• Remove any string from the chicken and take off the wings.
• Cut through the joint and pull the leg off.
• Repeat on the other side, then cut each leg between the thigh and the drumstick so you end up with four portions of dark meat.
• Place these on a serving platter.
• You should now have a clear space to carve the rest of your chicken.
• Angle the knife along the breastbone and carve one side off, then the other.
• When you get down to the fussy bits, just use your fingers to pull all the meat off, and turn the chicken over to get all the tasty, juicy bits from underneat. You should be left with a stripped carcass, and a platter full of lovely meat and roasted veggies.

I know that this seems like a labor intensive recipe, but the truth is that the brining really is worth it.  We ate this chicken for four days, and ate it in a different way each time.

The first evening, I made the chicken with the potatoes and carrots.  The second evening, I mixed it with the lentils, chunky tomatoes and beans that I'd had ready in the freezer.  The third day, I made it for lunch.  I shredded some chicken, cut up some tomatoes, and shredded some lettuce and put it in a wrap with some swiss cheese.  On the fourth day, I had it with leftover mashed potatoes from the bangers and mash I'd made for breakfast.

The chicken never got dry, tasted great cold or hot, and froze easily.  Try it!

Bangers and Mash!

I absolutely love a really good dish of bangers and mash.  Usually, I'll have it for dinner, but when I found myself without eggs, I had to think of what would hold Kyle over until dinnertime.  This is a pretty heavy meal, so when you make this, be ready to eat!

Bangers and Mash

You'll need:

• (3) Small Yukon Gold potatoes
• (2) Bangers (I got them from the meat counter at Whole Foods)
• 1 tsp butter
• 1 cup beef stock
• 1 tsp corn starch
• Salt and pepper
• Rosemary and thyme (about 1 sprig each)
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder

Instructions:

Mashed Potatoes:

• Boil water in a medium saucepan.
• Dice potatoes. 
• Once water is boiling, add the potatoes.  Boil until fork tender.
• When the potatoes are fork tender, add the butter.  Salt and pepper to taste.
• Mash the potatoes (using a blender, mixer, or immersion blender.)

Bangers:

• Set your skillet to medium heat.
• Cook on each side for about four minutes per side.  (You want each side a nice, golden brown.)
• When fully cooked, set aside. 
• Save all drippings.

Gravy:

• Using the skillet that you used for the sausage, raise the heat to medium-high heat.  Pour in the beef stock.
• Chop and add the herbs.
• Add the garlic and onion powder.
• Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Mix cornstarch and water (about a tsp.) in a cup, and whisk into the boiling herb broth.
• Turn off the heat.
• Whisk until the proper consistency. (If it gets too thick, add a bit of water to thin it out a bit.)

To Serve:

• Scoop one serving of potatoes onto each plate.
• Slice the sausage and place on top of each plate of potatoes.
• Add gravy.
• Serve!

This was also really delicious when I reheated my other half of it for lunch with some corn.  Yum!

Monday, I'll be sharing another deliciously easy way to make roasted chicken- and what to do with some of the leftovers!  Have a great weekend!

Flatbread Pizza!

Over the last two and a half weeks, we've done a lot.  I've signed up for two mommy groups (something I was always too nervous to do in Philadelphia), made some new friends in the area, and have discovered some really great places to eat.

The only thing that I haven't been able to find is really great pizza.  For some reason, the pizza here tastes really bland.  The dough doesn't have that amazing texture that pizzza had back home.  The pepperoni and sauce are missing that really kickin' spice that you can find in PA.  Here, people eat pizza from chains.  At home, we ate pizza from the Italian neighborhood we lived in.

Last Sunday, we went to a Greenville Drive game with a mommy group that I joined.  The game was really fun and the moms' seemed really nice!  After the game, Kyle and Laela were cheering "pizza! pizza! pizza!", so we ran to the store, picked up some ingredients, and I came up with this totally tasty flatbread pizza.

This pizza is practically effortless!

Flatbread Pizza with Tomatoes, Basil, Ricotta Cheese, Pepperoni and Mozzarella
You'll need:

• 1 tomato
• 6 basil leaves
• Pasta sauce (as much or as little as you'd like)
• Fresh mozzarella (I used mini balls, about 5 will do.)
• 1 piece flatbread
• Olive Oil
• Ricotta cheese (about 4 tsp, depending on how cheesy you want it.)
• Pepperoni (optional)

Instructions:

• Heat your oven to 400 degrees.
• Brush your flatbread on both sides with olive oil.
• Toast the flatbread for ten minutes in the oven.
• Take the flatbread out of the oven.
• Using a cookie scoop or a spoon, scoop about four tsp of ricotta cheese onto the flatbread.
• Spread some sauce over the ricotta.
• Slice the tomato into thin slices.  Add the slices to the pizza.
• Add the basil.
• Add the pepperoni slices.
• Slice your mozzarella balls into halves.
• Place them on the pizza.

Bake for 10-15 minutes.  Serve!!

*Since Kyle does not like tomatoes on their own, I  made him the same thing without the tomato slices.

Meatloaf Burgers, Lentils, and Chunky Tomatoes and Bean Pasta Sauce

Life is a bit difficult right now. I've had to completely adjust our program in so many ways that I feel as if my head is spinning. Kyle is working double shifts to get acclimated to his new role. Laela is fine while we're out, but is very, very clingy when we're home. She cries every night for her Daddy. She hugs her dinosaur book and says "Daddy dinosaurs!!"


As for me, I'm just trying to keep things together. Kyle has always traveled a lot, but we always made up for it with lots of phone time, writing letters, and making sure to spend a lot of time together when he gets home. We've always tried to cram every moment of family time that we can, much in the same way that you want to sop up the gravy of a really good roast. You want to savor it, and make it last as long as possible.

Because we need this time, I've had to strive for a balance with things that I'd never really had to worry about before. I'm trying to make new friends for Laela and I, but I also have to make sure to keep the two hours a morning that Kyle's available this week, and possibly next week, free. I wasn't prepared for Laela to beg for Dada to get out of bed, but then for her to ignore him. I wasn't prepared for the tears when he left this morning. It's a lot.

Sad toddler aside- which is generally only at bedtime and morning time when Kyle leaves, things are going okay. I was really nervous about having to switch from dinner being the main sit down family meal.  Now it's all about breakfast/brunch before Kyle goes to work.

I've also had to readjust our meals in that I have to make dinner for the next day the night before. So all of the meals that I'm making from now on, with the exception of most breakfasts, are easy to freeze, and taste just as good microwaved. Just because Kyle's not eating dinner with Laela and I anymore, doesn't mean he shouldn't have a tasty, healthy, energizing meal. My focus right now is making sure that we all stay healthy.

Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing recipes that are easy to freeze, and will taste great reheated.
Here is a recipe for three things that can be frozen and reheated, and will please everyone in your house.

Meatball burgers

You'll need:

• 1 lb ground chuck (I prefer grass fed when possible)
• 1 egg
• 1 cup breadcrumbs
• 2 diced sprigs parsley (stems too)
• Salt and Pepper
• Good squirt of ketchup
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• olive oil

Instructions:

• Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl.  If your mixture feels too wet, add a bit more breadcrumbs.
• Form patties out of the mixture.
• Heat a skillet to medium heat.  If you are using grass-fed beef, keep an eye on your skillet.  If it gets too hot, it will cook faster than regular beef. 
• Drizzle some olive oil in the pan. 
• Cook each burger for 3-6 minutes per side, depending on how well done you like them.  If you plan to freeze them, it doesn't hurt to cook them a little under what you normally prefer so that when you reheat them, they don't dry out.
• To keep them from drying out when reheating, drizzle some water or broth on the burger when you reheat it.

Lentils

You'll need:

• 1/2lb lentils
• 1 cup pasta sauce
• 1 chopped carrot
• 1 chopped celery
• 1/2 chopped onion
• 2 chopped garlic cloves
• Water
• 1 bay leaf
• Salt and Pepper
• Olive oil

Instructions:

• Heat a large sauce pan to medium heat.
• Drizzle a bit of olive oil in the pan.
• Add the garlic, carrot, onion  and celery.
• Cook for five minutes.
• Add the lentils, bay leaf, and pasta sauce.
• Cover the lentils with about a 1/2 inch of water.
• Bring to a boil.
• Lower to medium low heat.
• Cook for about 20 minutes.
• Add salt and pepper as needed.

Chunky Tomato and Beans Pasta Sauce

You'll need:

• 1 cup pasta sauce (I use homemade, but you can use jarred if you want.)
• (1) 8oz can of diced tomatoes
• (3) cloves garlic, chopped
• (1) 8oz can cannellini beans
• (1) oz can red kidney beans
• Salt and Pepper

Instructions:

• Heat a large saucepan to medium-low heat.
• Mix all of the ingredients in the pan.
• Cook for ten minutes.

This is one of those meals that each compontent is delicious alone, but is also great mixed together.  Yesterday, I defrosted some of the lentils and pasta sauce and cooked it with some whole grain pasta.

Put down the premade frozen meals, and give some of the meals I make over the next few weeks, and give them a try.  I promise, you won't be disappointed!

Tomorrow!

While I really dislike putting off posting recipes, I feel like continuing to post them without photos is a bit boring.  I need tech support (Kyle), to get me all of the right cords to upload my photos!

Tomorrow evening I will share a delicious beans and pasta sauce, as well as a tasty lentils recipe that all three of us loved!

Happy Buhday Dada!

Birthdays are sacred in our house.  They're a week long celebration of well, your life.  It's not just about presents, but appreciating the person for their general wonderfulness.

Since Kyle started his first day of his new position at work on his birthday, we didn't really get to celebrate like we normally would.  Instead, we had to run all over town trying to find him proper footware for working in a plant.  When we finally got home, Laela was so tired, when she handed her Daddy his birthday pictures that she'd drawn and covered in Mickey Mouse stickers, her mumbling "Happy Buhday Dada" was quickly followed by her passing out.

So what does a wife do in such a situation?  Improvise baby.

The next day, we made Dada brownies and double baked chicken with homemade mac-n-cheese.  Veggies?  Just corn- which personally, I like to call a grain- very much NOT a veggie.  Oh, and yes, I definitely topped it off with a gigantic bottle of scotch.  Dada was a very happy guy.

For day three of the Dada celebration, I made some homemade guacamole, some homemade salsa, and some tasty tacos.

For the tacos:

I used 4 TB Penzey's Spices bold taco blend and 4TB water with a pound of ground turkey meat.

For the guacamole:
Use a fork to blend 1 avocado with the juice of 1/2 a lime.  Salt and pepper to taste.

For the salsa:

You'll need:

• 5 tomatoes
• 4 green onions
• 1/4 vidalia onion
• 1 jalapeno pepper
• The juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 1/2 bunch of cilantro
• Salt and pepper to taste

To make the salsa:

• Chop the tomatoes, onion, green onions, jalapeno, and cilantro (including stems).
• Toss together in a bowl.
• Add the juice of the lemon.
• Mix in the salt and pepper.  Taste.  Add more as needed.

Serve!

This was a delicious, simple, relatively healthy meal.  We enjoyed our salsa with some Whole Foods Sunflower and Flax Seed Torilla Chips.

Do birthdays always turn out the way that we want them to?  No.  But sometimes, life is a lot like food.  You've got to work with what you've got, put as much love and effort into it as you can, and hope for the best.

Moving, Vomit, and Smoothies with Feel Better Garlic Broth and Rice

"Sniffle."  "Cough."  "Hack."  "Whimper."

Things no Mommy and Daddy want to hear on the baby monitor in the middle of the night. 

Our baby (okay toddler, but she's always going to be my baby!) woke up sick two days into living in Greenville.  At first, it seemed like just a cold, but with each day, the symptoms just got worse and worse.  The next thing you know, Kyle and I are getting thrown up on like we're at a frat party.  Ugh.

Thank goodness my husband dealt with cleaning up his fraternity basement in college.  He always says that if you can handle cleaning up a fraternity basement (especially after a party), then you can handle just about any grossness a tiny human will throw at you.  Gotta love a man who doesn't so much as flinch (or cringe) when his daughter is coughing and vomiting on him Exorcist style.

Oh, and did I mention that the movers dropped off all 150+ boxes of our stuff the same day she started to get sick, so the apartment was like a death trap and we had to unpack like maniacs during her naps?  It's difficult enough to get unpacked with a toddler running around (ooh!  boxes to climb!  wahoo!!!), but with one who wants to get into everything and snuggle at the same time, that's not easy going.

Thankfully, Kyle is amazing and found us a really nice pediatrician.  He gave Laela some medicine, and she seems to be getting better every day.  Since Laela hasn't had much of an appetite, I've had to get a little creative with some yummy, feel-better food. 

Watermelon Water
Cut up some watermelon. 
Add equal parts watermelon and ice cold water to a cup or sippy cup. 
Serve!

This will keep your little one well hydrated, and doesn't have as much sugar as some other drinks for sick kids.  Plus, it tastes awesome!
*For a twist, you can blend watermelon and ice for a really icy treat!  Or you can make watermelon cubes by blending the watermelon and putting them in freezer trays.  You can save the cubes in freezer bags!

Smoothies 3 Ways
Fruit and Yogurt:

• Add equal parts vanilla or plain yogurt with berries and a banana. 
• You can freeze leftovers and drink them later!  Or pour the leftovers into ice cube trays and you'll have some tasty yogurt pops.  Store in freezer bags and pop out of the freezer when you want some.

Yogurt:

• Laela really likes vanilla yogurt with cinnamon.  I put in a little bit of ice, blend it, and give it to her as a drink.  You can make yogurt pops with the leftovers the same way as described above.

Fruit:

• You can use almost any kind of fruit- watermelon, berries, bananas, peaches, nectarines, etc and blend it with some ice.  You'll have a refreshing, delicious, and super nutritious treat.  You can make ice pops the same way as the other smoothies.

*some people like to add sugar to smoothies.  I don't think it's necessary.  If you taste it and it doesn't taste sweet enough, you can try some honey, or spoonful of sugar, but PLEASE taste it first.  People forget that fruit really is sweet because they have so much sugar added to things.  You might be surprised by how delicious a simple, real fruit drink can be.

Chicken Broth and Rice

I'm a firm believer in the power of a hearty garlic chicken broth to help you feel better.  This is the easiest way to make it (I didn't have any bones to make home made, and let's be real, I just moved.  I didn't have the time to make any stock.)

• (1) quart organic chicken stock.
• (1) bulb garlic, finely chopped.
• (1) handful parsley.
• (1) cup rice (you can use anything on hand.  I used basmati, but I'd have probably used brown rice if that's what I'd had on hand.)
• Salt and pepper
• Onion powder
• Butter

1.  Cook your rice according to package instructions.
2.  Add a dash of onion powder, salt and pepper to the rice (to taste).
3.  Add a little butter (according to taste) to the rice.  Set aside.
4.  Place a medium saucepan on medium heat.
5.  Add a quarter tsp. of butter with the chopped garlic bulb to the pan. 
6.  Cook for two minutes.
7.  Add the parsley, a dash of salt and pepper, and a dash of onion powder.
8.  Simmer for five minutes.

How you serve this is up to you.  Laela drank her broth and ate her rice separately.  You can put some rice in the bowl and pour some broth over it.  You can add vegetables.  You could have cooked your broth with some carrots, onions and celery (til fork tender).  I didn't because I didn't have any one hand, and even if I did, I was looking for something quick and easy.  You could also add some leftover chicken- cut or shredded up.  Do whatever you think you'd like, or if you're feeding a little one, try what you think they'll eat.  I don't know about you, but when Laela's not feeling well, it's the only time she gets fussy about eating.  So I just try to keep it as simple as possible.

Wednesday I'll post what I made for Kyle's birthday dinner!