Semi Homemade Chicken Pho

Semi Homemade Chicken Pho... I've blogged about my love of Pho before but only eating it at a Vietnamese restaurant. I have never dared to venture on this journey at home, but this weekend at my local Mariano's I found something totally inspiring. This package called Happy Pho - made by a company called Star Anise Foods. It's a Pho kit essentially that provides the spices and the brown rice noodles, then you do the rest. I also figured this would be a perfect opportunity to use up my second week of shredded chicken and set out to prepare it last night. It was perfect & I am so excited to have found this lovely product.

First of all the ingredients are so simple and organic that there is no fear of adding something totally fake and toxic to your broth. Here is the list of ingredients in the seasoning pack.

• Organic star anise
• Saigon Cinnamon
• Dried shitake mushrooms
• Spring onion
• Black cardamom
• Ginger

I mean what isn't enticing about that list? Unless you don't like mushrooms (cough cough - MOM), then you can choose the Ginger Pho kit instead!

It also came with a package of brown rice noodle's - that ingredient list was just as impressively simplistic:

• Brown Rice
• Water
• Organic Green Tea
• Salt

I mixed this with water instead of chicken broth

The brown rice noodles and the spice packet

Happy Pho!

How to:

Bring a pot of 4-6 cups of stock (chicken or veg) to a boil - I used water and Better than Bouillon. Then add the seasoning and simmer for a couple minutes. At that point I added my refrigerated homemade shredded chicken, a few stocks of diced asparagus and let it cook for another minute or two. I tossed in the rice noodles and let them soften on a simmer for another minute and voila - insta Pho! The best part it you can add any veggies or protein you want - tofu would be a great substitution for the protein and adding something like water chestnuts or sprouts would be a good additional crunch.

I added a tiny bit of soy sauce and a squeeze of lime while it was still in the pot, then I proceeded to top it with fresh cilantro, sriracha and another lime wedge. It.was.perfect.

I never ended up using the Hoisin but kept it as an option

Dahlicious Pho goodness

A second bowl... how could I not??

I am so excited to have found their Dahlicious product and will continue to report out on them if I find new ones!

Shredded Slow Cooker Chicken

Shredded Slow Cooker Chicken... I have had a slow cooker for years, probably 6 or 7, and I don't think I have used it once. Many a time I have seen recipes that call for a slow cooker that look just fab and I think "I NEED to make that" - and then inevitably I don't. The idea of  slow cooker should be that it eliminates the labor of a meal cooked over an open flame which needs a watchful eye, however I always get bogged down by the recipe's which ask for the cook to brown the meat before putting it in the slow cooker. To me it defeats the point of why I'd use a slow cooker (though I suppose the real reason is to cook things long and slow so they are tender and full of flavor). Anyways, I'm essentially preaching to myself here.

This past week I don't know what inspired it but I just HAD to use that slow cooker. I did a quick search of the proportions one should use if they want to make simply shredded chicken in the slow cooker and I got to work. It was simple as can be. A few chicken breasts, 2 cups of liquid, some seasoning - 4 hours on high and shred with a fork. Literally...that.is.all.

Here is what I used:

• 4 Chicken Breasts
• 2 cups Water
• 2 tsp Better Than Bouillon
• 2 Bay Leaves
• Salt and Pepper

You could use 2 cups of chicken or veggie broth instead, heck you could just use water if you didn't care too much about the extra flavor. I plan to use this chicken for dinners a couple nights this week where it will be seasoned according to the meal so it wasn't essential to have much more flavor infused in the chicken than from my list above. Everything on that list is optional - except the chicken and the 2 cups of liquid. Once the chicken is ready, 4 hours on high, you can fish it out with a fork and it literally just falls apart with the slightest prodding.

Now that I've gotten past the first use of the slow cooker, if anyone has must try favorites please let me know!

Hope everyone finds this super simple and Dahlicious way that I'm learning to love chicken helpful in their weekly cooking routine as well!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner.... I actually hate that phrase but I couldn't get it out of my head, hence it had to be used.

In yoga we were told that Fall was the transient season, where we were likely to feel flighty, flakey and in the process of change. I have to say that for me winter and especially the start of 2014 has aligned much closer to that description than Fall 2013. It feels as if everything is in flux and as if I can hardly control a single thing, least of which my dinner. Despite that I have,I suppose, been cooking - and in fact even trying a few new things. But I have been so swamped with non-blog life (so sad) that nothing has made it's way onto Dahlicious in far too long.

My experimenting last week was with chicken, done in the slow cooker and shredded to perfection. I've mentioned time and time again how I loath grilled chicken so finding ways to make chicken tolerable for me is a constant battle. But this solution seemed to work quite well and I'm even going for it again this week.

I'll do a separate and brief post about the chicken process, but here is what I made with my big batch of shredded chicken throughout the week:

• Whole wheat pasta tossed in vodka sauce with chicken and roasted asparagus
• Last week was one of those weeks that was totally and utterly draining in every sense of the word. All this girl wanted was a big bowl of carbs - but the lean chicken and the fresh asparagus added a good healthful touch

• Chicken salad for lunch
• Simply mixed with a little mayo, salt, pepper, and the obligatory celery for crunch - I served it atop an arugula salad and it was perfection
• Shredded BBQ Chicken with wild rice and roasted asparagus
• This one was odd but I hadn't planned on the wild rice until I realized something weird happened to my sweet potato and had to toss it. It looks funny but it was quite Dahlicious, well rounded and yummy

• Beyond that I whipped up a quick tofu stir fry on Monday and a pretty Dahlicious Chicken Picatta with charred broccoli and onions atop a bed of quinoa.
• First I sliced the chicken breasts in half to make them nice and thin, then I dredged them lightly in flour with salt and pepper. I gave them a quick fry on high heat in a bit of olive oil until both sides were golden. Popped them in the oven at 325 to finish cooking for about 15 minutes while I worked on the sauce. Using the drippings I added lemon juice, sliced lemon, white wine, chicken stock, garlic, butter and capers (plus a few more pinches of flour to thicken the sauce up). I just kept whisking and adding more of each ingredient over a light simmer until the chicken was ready.

Hope this Chicken post inspires some of you to get creative with foods that you know are healthful staples but might not be your favorite. There will be more chicken posts to come - happy Tuesday yall!

A Week of Dinner

A Week of Dinner... So I never got to post anything this week because nothing alone seemed truly worth it. However, as a conglomerate of meal ideas I think they seem more coherent and more likely to inspire some of you to come up with balanced meals for a week. Here is a peak into what I made this week - Mon/Tue/Weds/Thurs.

Enjoy!!

• Monday - Oven Roasted Lemon Pepper Salmon, with spiralized Pesto Zucchini and sauteed Spinach

• Tuesday - Super Easy Tortilla Soup 

• Wednesday - Soy/Hoisin Marinated Cod with Snap Peas, Confetti Rice & Cucumber/Beet Slaw

• Thursday - Pan Roasted Chicken Breast with Baked Sweet Potato and Steamed Green Beans

Have a good weekend!!!

Tofu & Spiralized Zucchini in Homemade Peanut Sauce

Tofu & Spiralized Zucchini in Homemade Peanut Sauce... So I've yet to master a good Thai inspired peanut sauce even though I am constantly thumbing through recipe ideas. They just always seem so daunting. Until recently I found one that didn't feel so lengthy and really looked doable. I snapped a screen shot on my phone for the ingredients and set out to grab the few extra things I needed at the store on Sunday which included hoisin and limes.

Of course I cannot find where I got the recipe exactly but I have it saved in my photo album on my phone and I'll be putting it down on this ol blog so we can all find it handy dandy next time we are craving it.

The other piece of this meal was that, per my recent inspiration, I wanted to add a sprialized element. I decided the meal would be a sort of Pad Thai using flat zucchini noodles, caramelized onions, sauteed bell peppers and crispy tofu - topped with scallions and lime juice for a fresh kick.

The sauce goes something like this:
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup water
4 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1/2 a lime worth of juice
4 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil
2 teaspoons of sriracha or garlic-chili paste

The sauce I read also calls for 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 mashed garlic cloves - unfortunately my garlic has disappeared and I felt it was sweet enough with the peanut butter and hoisin not to need any extra sugar. Also on the list above I eyeballed everything but that is technically what it calls for. The way I made it was by placing the peanut butter in a large mixing bowl and popping it in the microwave to soften for about 10-15 seconds. Then I just added the rest of the ingredients and gave it a vigorous whisking.

Once the sauce was made I let it sit off to the side until I was ready to use it. I sauteed thinly sliced onions in one pan until they were golden brown and caramelized - while in another non stick pan I crisped up my tofu. I have found that with tofu, wrapping it in paper towels and letting the moisture drain out is really helpful for getting a nice seared crispiness on the outside - that and a non-stick pan. Once the tofu was done I set it off to the side on a plate while I sauteed sliced red bell pepper in the same pan - then I added the tofu back in a gave the pepper/tofu a quick toss in a tiny bit of hoisin and soy sauce.

Meanwhile in the onion pan I added the sauce and the spiralized zucchini and let it meld together into a perfectly dressed noodle dish.

I served up the peanut noodles first with the crispy tofu and bell peppers on top - finished with a palm full of chopped scallion and a wedge of lime.

It was seriously exactly what I wanted it to be which, if you cook a lot you'll understand, isn't always the case. Sometimes you picture a new dish one way and by the end it's something totally different. Not this one, it was exactly what I was craving and hoping for. It was hearty and super flavorful but all of the ingredients were pretty healthful - minus the sauce but hey sometimes you have to live a little -right??

Squash Spaghetti & Meatballs

Squash Spaghetti & Meatballs... No I don't mean spaghetti squash I mean squash spaghetti folks. Spiralized squash to be specific, and it was Dahlicious.

I've never had much luck with making meatballs in the past, but with the recipe that I used on the turkey meatballs for this fab soup, I figured I'd give it a go with red meat. I combined veal, pork and beef this time and browned them in the le creuset before finishing them on a baking sheet in the oven. I browned the first batch of meatballs and had 3 large ones left so I just browned the meat as if making a bolognese sauce. I really didn't have everything I needed to make a sauce from total scratch so I used the rest of the jarred Rao's from last week and it was total perfection. As a side note, you don't have to be all fancy and use 3 types of meat, you could surely just use ground beef.

I've decided that with these spiralized veggies they are really great if paired with hearty sauce - first because they actually hold up quite well and second because they are so low in calories that if they are eaten with a really light sauce (like last night's shrimp scampi) you're left wanting just a bit more.

So this version was totally perfect for a freezing, or actually well below freezing winter night. It was comforting and totally filling but you could feel pretty guilt free about consuming hardly any carbs (minus the breadcrumbs in the meatballs).

What you need:
1/3lb ground beef
1/3lb ground pork
1lb ground veal (the butcher didn't have ground veal so I had to buy a pre portioned package and ended up just using all of it)
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
3 garlic cloves
tomato sauce (jarred or homemade)
3 yellow squashes
Parsley (small palm full chopped)


In a large bowl beat 1 egg with a couple spoonfuls of water and add the breadcrumbs. Let that sit until its a paste (a couple minutes) then add the garlic, parsley, parmesan, and a bit of salt and pepper. Then add all the ground meat and give it a big mix. Form into meatballs - I ended up with 10 but only ended up using 7 as meatballs - the other became my meat sauce.

In a large pan brown them on each size with oil on high heat. Mine stuck a bit so I had a hard time keeping them in perfect shape but they mostly held up. After about 8-10 minutes browning I popped them in the oven on a baking sheet at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Add the tomato sauce of choice to your browned ground meat

Toss in your squash spaghetti

While they were bakingI broke down the remaining three meatballs, browned them & added the Rao's sauce. I let it simmer lightly while the meatballs finished cooking in the oven and while my asparagus was roasting away in a foil package also in the oven. I boiled some water and dropped the spiralized squash in for about 2 minutes before transferring right into the pot of sauce.

It was super Dahlicious and hearty but I feel pretty good about almost no carbs in the meal. Also, my garlic suddenly just disappeared from my kitchen today so the meatballs went without - and actually they were still super tasty so if you aren't a garlic lover you would be just fine to omit it.

Enjoy!

Chicken, White Bean, Quinoa Chili

Chicken, White Bean, Quinoa Chili... The original inspiration - I mean Pinspiration - came from this Post. I read it before heading to the grocery store so I stocked up on the things I saw on the ingredients list as well as a few things of my own - here is the list of what I used:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 medium onion
1 green bell pepper
1 jalapeno
1 lemon
2 garlic cloves
Chicken stock
Cumin
Salsa Verde (From TJs & this post last week )
Avocado
Quinoa (From TJs - precooked near the rices in the freezer section)

Fisrt step was getting the chicken going and normally for a soup or chili I would poach the chicken in water but tonight I decided to use the most handy dandy option of broiling. I popped the breasts on a baking sheet with a drizzle of oil, salt and pepper into the oven on broil for 10-15 minutes on each side. Once it was done I gave it a quick chop/shred and tossed it into the chili.

And now for that Chili...

I started by sauteing 1 medium yellow onion, 1 green bell pepper, 1 jalapeno pepper (deseeded for less heat), all chopped up in my fab le crueset. Next I added a little salt and 1 lemon's worth of juice ( I didn't have lime otherwise that would have been just perfect) along with a couple spoonfuls of the Salsa Verde and a can of drained rinsed white beans. I gave it a nice mix then added in a couple cups of chicken stock and a sprinkle of ground cumin as well as 2 bay leaves. I let the concoction simmer for about 30 minutes and added in the shredded chicken. A few minutes before serving I steamed the TJ's quinoa and added it to the stew/chili/soup - gave it a big mix and voila. Topped with sliced avocado it was perfectly healthful yet filling and super Dahlicious. It was flavorful with the cumin and the salsa verde and jalapeno but could be taken in so many directions - for instance adding cilantro, or even a spicy chorizo perhaps.

Garlic, Bell Pepper, Onion, Jalapeno sauteing

White Bean addition

Stock, Cumin, Bay Leaves

This would also be really easy to make totally vegetarian by omitting the chicken - it would still be quite hearty! Enjoy this filling yet healthful take on the heavier dark meaty chili that we usually turn to this time of year when its below freezing outside!

Enjoy and check back later this week for new experiments in spiralizing!!

Oh and on a totally unrelated side note I have this super simple amazing breakfast at a place down the street that I have become totally obsessed with. It isn't genius, it isn't fancy, in fact it's not even a proper breakfast that they have on the menu it's actually just 3 sides I combine for 1 meal and it.is.divine. I really need to learn how to poach an egg so that I can recreate this absolutely greatness at home. Dry rye toast, poached eggs, avocado with a squeeze of lime and salt - I mean COME ON.