Tag Archives: healthy recipes

Black Beans and Rice…Fancy Style!

Happy 2012!

Everybody make some stellar resolutions for the new year? I did! …I resolve to see Paris in the spring (or summer)! …That’s a resolution, right? I haven’t thought all that much about it yet, but I’m going to figure out how to make it happen!

My holiday weekend was spent working the early shift, which to be honest, does not agree with me! I’m a complete night owl! When I wake up at 4am (give or take a couple hours…), I’m worthless by the time I get home from work. I don’t want to clean. I don’t want to exercise. I don’t want to cook. All I want to do is sit on the couch and watch Lifetime movies. Lame (and incredibly embarassing!), but true. Sometimes I force myself to get things done, but I’ve got to say…it ain’t easy!

After work yesterday I had good intentions. I stopped at the grocery store, Bon Appetit in hand, and filled my cart with veggies, organic chicken breasts, and beans. I even bought a bottle of sparkling pink grape juice (Piyush doesn’t drink…and I had to be up early for work). I planned on making an easy…but awesome New Years Eve dinner since neither Piyush nor I wanted to go out. Well, that didn’t happen! Sometimes good intentions aren’t enough. I needed motivation, but must have hit my yearly limit…because I found none! …We ordered sushi instead, and I promised myself I’d definitely cook the next day. Piyush and I enjoyed our sushi dinner (kind of. It wasn’t the best…) and then I went to bed at 8:30pm! That never happens! He woke me up at midnight to give me my New Years kiss, then he went back downstairs to watch golf, or something. I had a full 8 hours of sleep, and it was wonderful!

Once work was over, I came home and started preparing for dinner. This way I couldn’t decide to be lazy. I poached the chicken breasts and made the apple salsa. I was trying a new recipe I saw in January’s issue of Bon Appetit: Black Beans and Rice with Chicken and Apple Salsa.

As I was paging through the magazine, the recipe jumped out at me…and I knew I wanted to make it. Well, I mostly wanted to eat it…but it had to be made to be eaten. This recipe was super easy and really flavorful! Like, really flavorful! I think the apple salsa was my favorite part!

I made a few changes to the recipe, but they were pretty minor. First, I don’t like rotisserie chicken. Sure, it’s incredibly easy…and cheaper than organic chicken breasts, but there’s something about the flavor that doesn’t sit right with me. I think they’re too salty. Instead, I poached two chicken breasts in a pan with enough water to cover them. I threw in a bay leaf and a few spices…and wham! In addition to my super tender chicken, I also had homemade broth. It didn’t have as much flavor as stock that simmers all day long with bones and herbs, but I’ll tell you one thing. It was way better than canned or boxed broth that has ingredients listed that I don’t even know if they’re safe to consume. Bought chicken broth usually has that “off” flavor, anyway…and if you get the organic unsalted stuff, it’s expensive!

A quick note on the organic thing, we don’t buy everything organic. We’d be broke if we did. Meat is one item I really try hard to purchase as either organic or straight from the farmer who raised it, though. It doesn’t always happen, but I get sorta creeped out by a lot of the things I’ve read about hormones and slaughterhouses…and to be honest, I want to eat the meat for what it is…not for what chemicals it was injected with.

Back to the recipe, I also cooked the rice (white rice, because it’s what we had on hand) in our rice cooker in some of that homemade chicken broth. The recipe didn’t specify to rinse the beans, but I definitely did. That bean goo creeps me out…and they’re doused in so much unnecessary sodium. A quick rinse cured both those problems.

I’m so glad we have a lot of left overs and I can’t wait to gobble up that apple salsa again tomorrow! Wooo! Wooo!

The Recipe:

Black Beans and Rice with Chicken and Apple Salsa

Adapted from Bon Appetit (link to recipe here)

1 cup chopped peeled Granny Smith apple
1/2 cup chopped cilantro, divided
1/3 cup finely chopped red onion, divided
1 teaspoon (or more) fresh lime juice
1/3 cup finely chopped green bell pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground coriander
3/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
3 cups low-salt chicken broth
2 15-ounce cans black beans, rinsed and drained
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 cups cooked brown or white rice
1 2–3-pound rotisserie chicken, skin discarded and meat shredded
4–6 lime wedges

Directions:

Combine apple, 1/4 cup cilantro, 2 tablespoons onion, and 1 teaspoon lime juice in a small bowl; toss to coat. Set apple salsa aside.

Combine remaining onion, bell pepper, and oil in a large skillet. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until completely softened, 6–7 minutes. Add garlic and next 3 ingredients; stir constantly for 2 minutes. Stir in broth and beans; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium; simmer briskly, mashing some of the beans with the back of a spoon and stirring often, until sauce is thickened, 8–10 minutes. Season with salt, pepper, and more lime juice, if desired.

Divide rice and beans among plates. Top with some chicken and apple salsa. Garnish with remaining 1/4 cup cilantro and lime wedges.

Indian Dinner in an Hour!

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Today I woke up craving Indian food. It’s been awhile since I’ve had a really amazing, homemade Indian dinner. Too long, actually. As good as the Indian restaurant can be, it never really hits the spot entirely. Last time we were there, all I wanted was lamb curry; and that’s what we ordered. But what we got was overcooked lamb in a so-so gravy. Not at all amazing. Piyush and I left with full tummies but we were both a ~~little~~ lot disappointed. Sometimes I just don’t want to cook though…and most of the time I regret it. Continue reading →

Not So Fancy Frittata

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We eat a lot of eggs in this household. They probably comprise about 25% of our meals, now that I think about it, and we always have a dozen or two on hand. When we want some food quickly and I don’t feel like standing over the stove for hours and hours on end (am I being a little too dramatic?), I can usually crack a few eggs and have supper finished in no time (I can also crack a few eggs and have some cookies…or creme brulee in no time too, but that’s another story!).

Aside from being convenient, eggs are also quite beautiful in that they’re so diverse. I can’t think of any other ingredient that can be prepared over 100 different ways, taste completely different, and you can still recognize what it was in its original form. How beautiful is that!?

I didn’t really feel like cooking a nice dinner tonight. It’s my day off. I had absolutely nothing planned today. It’s not often that I have no idea what to do with myself, and although I could have spent all day making some fabulous food…I just didn’t want to. Before you start thinking about how lazy I am, let me just reassure you that I did change out of my pajamas. I brushed my teeth too! I even made it out of the house today, and managed to do the dishes! So, the day wasn’t lost completely. I mixed up some bread and I even went thrifting.

I love thrifting. You never know what you might find. Once, a couple months ago, I found a Le Crueset Bistro Grill Pan. This pan retails for around $120, and it’s been on my wish list since I discovered my love of cooking. It was calling to me as soon as I walked through the doors of the store, and begged me to save it from being surrounded by mismatched storage bowls and containers full of butcher knives (scary!). The pan looked pretty new, like it had been used once and the previous owner had no idea how to properly clean it, is my guess. It was even the same color as my cast iron pan (awesome!). But the best part, it had a price tag of $2.50. SOLD! Today I didn’t find anything nearly that cool, but I did get a new winter jacket. Okay, not new…but new to me! It’s at the dry cleaner as we speak. I also found Piyush some new golf shirts. They still had the tags on them and were major brand name steals. $4 for a $90 dollar shirt…tags still attached, yes please! Anyway…

When I got home I realized that the bread dough I had mixed together was ready to be shaped. It had risen so much that it was like 6″ taller than the bowl. Oops! Luckily I had covered it with plastic wrap before I put the lid on so it didn’t get all crusty. Piyush got home from golfing so I asked him to help me. Afterall, the rolls were actually for him to take to work tomorrow to share, so I thought it was appropriate for him to learn how to shape buns. He did a good job!

While the rolls rested for their final rising, I threw dinner together. I’ve never made a frittata but it sounded good and was even healthy (not to mention cheap!) You could really add anything you wanted to the frittata, it’s definitely nothing fancy. I used some ham that I chopped up, a carton of mushrooms, arugula, some herbs I had laying around and goat cheese. Oh how I love goat cheese!

I sauted the ham, mushrooms and arugula in a little olive oil until I was satisfied with their doneness.

Then, I added 6 eggs that I had beaten with a little salt, pepper and cheese into the mix. I let it cook until it just began to set, then popped it into the oven which was set on “broil”. This dinner came together so quick, probably less than 15 minutes. When it was done I cut it into 8 triangle pieces. It looked like an egg pizza!