Asopao de pollo

I'm trying to get back into healthier eating patterns after a few rocky (road) months, and I found quite a few appealing (and easy) recipes at EatingWell. This chicken and rice stew was fairly quick to put together, except for the chicken itself. Trimming chicken thighs is kind of disgusting, and there's lots to trim off (ugh). But the end result is richer and more flavourful than just using chicken breasts, so it's ultimately worth it.

Pasta with chicken, red pepper, and peas (risotto style)

This isn't much of a recipe - I just made up this quick pasta dish based on various odds and ends in my pantry. I had some leftover roast chicken that I needed to use but not too many interesting tidbits in the crisper. However I had no desire to head outside to pick up any other ingredients. This was a weekend for staying indoors, not heading out to brave the treacherous roads and the -19 temperature (-30 with wind chill!).

Turkey chili, redux

Since the vegetarian chili wasn't very chili-like, I ended up trying another recipe. This one seemed pretty standard and I didn't vary it too much, but I did substitute blackeyed peas for the red kidney beans. Yup, I'm quite the wild one.

As I started writing this up I remembered that I'd made another turkey chili recipe fairly recently. How original.

Chicken soup with leeks, mushrooms, and wild rice

This is quite a simple soup, but it was a nice way to use up my leftover roast chicken and stock.

Chicken stock

Nothing too exciting here - just a stock that I made with the remains of monsieur Poulet. I'm planning on freezing this until a suitable soup pops up on the menu.

Roast chicken

I seldom cook anything too substantial on a worknight. I could make up an elaborate reason for this, but why lie - it's mostly because I'm too lazy. But when I managed to leave work early today (after arriving at the ungodly hour of 7:30 for a nonexistent meeting) I decided to change things up a bit. I really scored at the Co-op market. After finding a brilliant looking local chicken (Hutterites) and some lovely fresh thyme (living thyme!), I decided that roast chicken had to be on the menu.

I very rarely roast any kind of poultry. I think the trick was finding a fresh chicken. Large frozen hunks of meat require a bit more planning than I'm used to. Plus, I'm easily distracted and would probably change my mind during the slow thawing process.

Indonesian chicken soup with vegetables and noodles

While rooting around in my crowded freezer today I found a container of leftover Indonesian chicken soup. I'd thought about eating this a few times, but never seemed to have the right produce on hand. Today was the day - the crispers are chock full of interesting produce, and I do need to use them up.

I did consider making something more elaborate tonight, but that would require a lot more energy than I have tonight. Putting up my xmas lights drained the life right out of me. (What? It's never too early for xmas lights. Right mom? :-)

Gai choy with bbq duck

While heading into the T&T market I walked by several people lined up for takeaway bbq animals. One of the ducks caught my eye, and I knew that I'd be back for him. (Well, technically just for half of him.) I had no idea what I'd make with him, or with the gai choy that I'd bought half an hour earlier. (Heck, I didn't even know that gai choy was Asian mustard greens!) So I was glad to find a way to combine the two of them in this dish.

Turkey chili

I was interested in checking out a new chili recipe, but this one ended up diverging so far from the original that it's not even close. I added turkey (goodbye vegan), dropped one of the three beans (sorry navy), changed the seasoning (hello Mexican oregano), added more ingredients (who doesn't like beer?)... but in the end it's still just a chili. It turned out to be a fairly tasty chili, although not as good as the other one... which I highly recommend.

Portuguese minted chicken and orzo soup

Well, after a brief summer hiatus I'm back ;-). I returned from my hiking trip with an appetite for some healthy (and hearty) meals and the urge to get back in the kitchen. And although I'm enjoying the lovely late summer weather, some of the food that I'm cooking this weekend is better suited for a crisp autumn day. Better make some room in the freezer...

Indonesian chicken soup with noodles

I made one final dish last weekend. I had two containers of lemongrass-infused Asian vegetable broth in my freezer, and that seemed like the perfect base for this soup. Everything about this sounded amazing, but in the end it was just... good. Not fantastic, just good. Something about the soup was a bit overpowering -- maybe the cumin? I popped the rest in the freezer and I'm sure that I'll appreciate it more once the weather cools down again.

Meat dumpling soup

This soup was inspired by one of the recipes in my Soups and Breads cookbook (by Jane Price). The original recipe called for a combination of beef and pork, but I lightened it by going with chicken. I also changed the broth entirely. I've never made dumplings before last weekend but for some reason was in the mood to try. Time consuming, but ultimately worth it.

Soba noodles with spicy pesto and chicken

I'm still on a quest to find the perfect summer salad. This dish isn't it, but it is quite tasty and pretty quick to throw together mid-week.

Chicken meatballs with tomatillo salsa

Despite the warm summer weather that we've been having I really wanted to make this recipe this weekend. Luckily the rain cooled things off a bit in the afternoon so having the oven on wasn't too bad.

I changed all of the herbs in the meatballs from the original recipe, and mostly used what I have growing in pots -- it may be an odd combination, but nothing beats that balcony terroir.

Asian pesto chicken salad

Continuing with my salad kick, this recipe was another way to use some of the nice herbs that I bought at the market. Although the original recipe called for fresh ginger in the pesto I added it to the dressing instead. This made quite a lot of pesto and I thought that the leftovers would be a bit more versatile sans ginger.

Caesar salad with Cajun chicken

I've been really craving salads recently, probably due to the summer weather we've been enjoying here in Calgary, and I had this salad twice in the past week. I just noticed that M posted a Caesar salad recipe on her wonderful blog, so I decided to post mine too. More salad recipes to follow...

Paellaya

Although I intended to cook up a storm this weekend, yesterday was a total write off. I came home from the gym after a late afternoon workout and was absolutely ravenous -- that poor meatloaf didn't stand a chance. But today I was determined to cook something interesting (yet easy). Emeril to the rescue.

Chicken masala with zucchini and cauliflower

Okay, so this is another case of me being incapable of reading a recipe. Not only did I forget that I needed to marinate the chicken, but I completely forgot to include cardamom -- despite the recipe title including the word "Cardamom". (I was a bit distracted today :-) I also altered the recipe to skip a few steps (in the interest of time and fewer dishes) and to include more veggies (cuz who doesn't need more veggies?).

Quick cassoulet

I wanted to have some bread with my supper tonight, but I was a bit too lazy to head out in search of a nice loaf (what a shocker :-). Generally this would result in a bread-less supper, but while surfing some food blogs this morning I came across a recipe for bread and it got me thinking. It's still early enough in the day, why not bake a loaf?

I used the faster no-knead bread recipe from the NY Times, but used 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose and 1/2 cup of whole-wheat flour. For some reason my dough was still a bit dry after adding the water, so I added another 1/4 cup or so (although it still didn't look very "shaggy" to me). I don't have a feel for bread making, but luckily this recipe is quite forgiving. I coated the loaf with poppy seeds to prevent it from sticking to the dutch oven -- and much like my previous attempt at this, I ended up with poppy seeds bouncing all over my kitchen. Fun!

And now for the main event... cassoulet!

Chipotle chicken chowder

I had come across a few recipes that called for chipotle peppers in adobe sauce, and was intrigued as to what they tasted like. So when I came across a can I had to pick it up. (This soup was mostly selected based on that one ingredient.) As I discovered, they are super hot. And despite the deceptively small can, I now have quite a few chipotles left. Must find more recipes... :-)