Category Archives: Chicken

Good-bye Kid’s Menu

Here’s my goal – get rid of the Kid’s Menu at all restaurants!  I propose that all restaurants offer ½ portion meals at ½ price for their child patrons.  The restaurant could also offer a toddler some pasta or steamed veggies with butter or some grilled chicken.  This not only helps your child, it also helps the restaurant build goodwill with their customers.  Don’t be afraid to ask your waiter to make something simple for your kids even if they do have a kid’s menu.  This is so easy if your children are accustomed to fresh, simply prepared food at home.  I love the fact that my kids love the same restaurants we do.  Why limit yourself to TGIFridays when you could go to your favorite Italian or Sushi place!

Herb Chicken/Veggie Udon Dinner (20 minutes)

I always try to use up everything in my fridge on Thursday nights.  I lay it all out on the counter and start thinking.  Tonight I had 1 red pepper, 1 head of broccoli, some chicken breasts and a few mushrooms.  Any veggies will do and you can make this without the chicken.  Here’s what I whipped up:

• Boil a package of gluten-free udon noodles in salted water.
• Sautee 2 cloves of garlic and 2 shallots in EV Olive oil until clear.
• Optional:  pour about ½ cup of white wine and scrape the pan – let cook off for 2 mins.
• Add chopped veggies and a splash of chicken broth.  Cover a cook for 8-10 mins. until tender.
• Add some salt/pepper and herbs (I chopped some parsley, basil, rosemary/thyme) – fresh or a dash of dried.
• Drain the pasta (save some liquid) and pour the veggies in the pasta pot.
• Cut up the chicken and add salt/pepper.  Cook chicken on Med/High in same pan used to cook veggies.  Turn and continue cooking until no longer pink in center about 6-7 mins.  Add a little chicken broth and scrape bottom.
• Pour the pasta and veggies into the chicken and stir.  Add a little pasta liquid or chicken broth to thicken.  Top with some grated cheese.

*Note:  For the pasta, I used flat brown rice Udon noodles.  The kids loved it (so did we)!

Overfed and Undernourished

For my 50^th recipe post I thought I would share some insights from my new favorite book “In Defense of Food”.  This book has left me feeling violated, lied to and completely untrusting of government food agencies and food companies.  Michael Pollan has let the cat out of the bag about the Western Diet:

1. A new study failed to find a link between a low-fat diet and the risk of coronary heart disease.
2. The push to replace saturated fats with corn/soy products has backfired, as these trans fats are twice as bad and they are killing us.
3. Western Diseases (obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer) are linked to the Western Diet of highly processed foods and refined grains.
4. Cultures that do NOT eat the Western Diet, do NOT demonstrate the same chronic tooth decay and disease.
5. In 1973, the FDA overturned a law from 1938 that required food companies to label foods as “imitation” (even if they are).
6. To get Omega 3’s in eggs, they force hens to each flaxseed (fish oil).
7. There are 17,000 new foods introduced each year.
8. Don’t eat food your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize.
9. Don’t eat food products that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable, c) more than 5 in number or d) have high-fructose corn syrup.
10. Food with health claims on them aren’t worth eating (a banana doesn’t come in a box with a sign “high potassium” on the front).

Chicken Ziti and Broccoli:

• Drizzle some olive oil in a large pan. Chop and heat 1-2 cloves of garlic and heat in the oil.  Sprinkle a few red pepper flakes for extra flavor.  Note:  Use 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder if you prefer).
• Salt/pepper and cut 4-6 chicken breasts into bite-size pieces and brown in the oil.
• Boil pasta water and cook bite-sized broccoli florets in the water until cooked through.  Use hand strainer to pull out broccoli.  Reuse water to cook a little more than ½ pound of ziti (save some pasta water).
• Add to pasta and broccoli to chicken in the pan.  Add about a ½ cup of half & half (or milk or chicken broth), ½ cup of parmesan cheese and a juice from 1/2 lemon and stir.  Sauce will thicken quickly.
  If using whole garlic, take it out now.
• Add more salt/pepper if needed.
• Stir.  Add a little pasta water if needed to thin sauce and serve with a little more grated cheese on top.

How Can the Kids Help?

• Smash or peel garlic (after mom smashes to open).
• Add EV Olive Oil to the pan (pour until you count to 3).
• Help wash broccoli and cut into bite-size pieces (or tell Mom which pieces to cut).
• Help measure chicken broth and parmesan cheese.
• Roll the lemon to loosen juices and help squish juice in a bowl (get seeds out) or turn lemon upside down and let juice go through your fingers to catch the seeds.
• Fun Folic Acid Coloring and Activity Pages: http://www.azdhs.gov/phs/bnp/folicacid/documents/folic%20Acid%20Coloring%20Pages%20Eng.pdf

Did You Know?

• Chicken Ziti and Broccoli is a staple in Boston (especially in the North End) but is not nearly as common in Philly.
• Crops are shrinking to a few “high-yield” varieties (e.g., half of all broccoli grown commercially in the U.S. is a single variety due to its high-yield).
• The combination of eating broccoli and tomato together slowed tumor growth more than either one eaten separately.  Better check-out my Chicken Tomato-Broccoli dinner!

Same Process – Different Ingredients

I had no idea what to have for dinner tonight.  I defrosted some chicken breast and took out a can of artichoke hearts and figured I would wing it.  Alas, Chicken Artichoke – hope you like it!  All the recipes on this blog are basically the same – even Mia knows “start with a little garlic in olive oil….”.  I think the trick to cooking a variety of dinners is not in the cooking process at all but rather in the ingredients.  Don’t let Martha or Ina intimidate you, they have way more time than we do to add all those extra steps.  Plus, they have to make things look more complicated or they wouldn’t have a job.  It just seems silly that chefs keep coming up with new and complicated recipes when most Americas aren’t even cooking the very basics anymore.  Go figure.

Artichoke Chicken:  Substitute artichokes or add whatever you have (mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, asparagus).

• I like to lightly flour the chicken first (but you don’t have to)
• Cook some garlic in a little EV olive oil for a minute or so.
• Cook chicken (almost all the way) and then put on a serving dish (do multiple batches if needed)
• Add a drop of olive oil to pan, about ¼ cup of chicken broth and a splash of white wine and lemon juice (optional) and cook for a few minutes – scraping up leftover bits of chicken.
• Add a can of cut up artichoke hearts, 2 cut up tomatoes and capers (optional) and cook for about 5 minutes.
• Add chicken back to pan and let it all cook together another couple minutes until chicken is cooked through.

Cauliflower Mash:  These are just like mashed potatoes and you can add whatever  extra ingredients you want (sour cream, mozzarella cheese). 

• Boil cauliflower florets until cooked.
• Use hand blender to mash cauliflower. 
• Add a little butter and 1 TBS of milk and ¼ cup of parmesan cheese.  Mash together with salt/pepper.
• Sprinkle a little parmesan on top.  If you want to bake this to get the top brown you can or just serve right away.

String beans:

• Cook string beans  in boiling water (about an inch full).
• Drain string beans and add a drop of EV olive oil, garlic and salt/pepper.

Beets:  I wanted to use these up before the weekend.

• Peel, cut and boil beets.
• Toss with vinaigrette dressing.

What Can the Kids Do?

• Let them shake the chicken in the flour bag (or dip chicken on flour plate) – teach about washing hands!
• Help mash cauliflower and add ingredients (teach them to unplug it right away).
• Mia likes to use kitchen shears to snip the ends of string beans (no need if you use frozen beans)
• Coloring Page: http://www.cool-coloring-pages.com/plants_vegetables_artichoke.php
• How do you spell “ARTICHOKE”?  What other foods begin with the letter “A”?
• Picture of growing artichoke:  http://www.gardening-tools-direct.co.uk/blog/uploaded_images/gtd-globe-artichoke-765299.JPG

Did You Know?

• Nearly 100% of all artichokes grown in the U.S. are grown in California?
• Artichokes are one of the oldest foods
• Marilyn Monroe was the first official California Artichoke Queen in 1949.

Cheddar Sandwiches Again?!

Our kids have no idea how good they have it!   When my dad was a kid he went to overnight camp for one week where the boys played baseball, basketball, went hiking, fishing and other fun and tiring summer camp activities.  Everyday, after a full morning of fun, the boys would line up at the Mess Hall after working up an incredible appetite for lunch.  What did they find day after day after day….sharp cheddar cheese sandwiches- UGH!  But he ate them, what choice did he have – it was that or starve.  It took him 20 years to slowly develop the taste of cheddar cheese again.  Meanwhile, last week I sautéed broccoli rabe in olive oil and garlic for the salad bar at my kid’s school cafeteria for lunch.  But I guess I shouldn’t complain, my mom used to pack me 4 course brown bag lunches for school.  She even wrapped the tomato in separate wax paper because it made the turkey and lettuce sandwich mushy.  Each lunch came complete with a sandwich, fruit, chips, dessert and of course a little love note (“Have a great day Missy! Love, Mom”.  I am incredibly embarrassed to tell you that this continued through high school as any of my Gwynedd friends can attest.  Was I grateful?  Not exactly, I sold my lunch to the highest bidder so I could “buy” once a week.  Go figure.

Tomato Chicken w/Broccoli: 

This is a good dinner to make and then let in sit in the oven if you have something else to do right before dinner.  Also great for a group of 6 people (make about 10 chicken breasts).   I just made this one up as I went along!

• Heat a little fresh garlic in EV olive oil for a minute or so in a large frying pan.
• Salt/pepper (thin) chicken cutlets and dip lightly in flour.  Cook chicken in the hot pan on both sides until brown and almost completely cooked through.  Remove and place in a baking dish.  Cook in batches adding more oil if needed until all the chicken is cooked.  You can skip the flour if you like, however, it keeps the chicken moist.  Any kind of flour works.
• Pour a can of whole peeled tomatoes in the pan and smash with a spoon.  Sprinkle with some basil (fresh or dried), garlic powder, salt/pepper.   I added some broccoli florets (zucchini or spinach works too) to the tomatoes.  Cook sauce for a few minutes and pour on top of chicken.
• Bake on 350 (until cooked through about 20-30 minutes).

Spaghetti:

• Cooked some spaghetti in salted water.  Drain and toss with a little EV olive oil.
• Serve pasta plain on bottom of the dish, then spoon chicken and sauce on top.  Sprinkle with a little parmesan cheese.

Sweet Beets: 
I had a few beets in the fridge that I wanted to use up.  They added nice color and I could let them sit in the pot after they were cooked (while the chicken was in the oven).

• Peel and boil yellow beets.  Drain and add EV olive oil (or butter), salt and pepper.
• They have a great color, a very mild flavor and very nutritious.

How Can Kids Help?

• Pour flour in bowl and salt/pepper each chicken as mom dips it in the flour.
• Help mom open can of tomatoes (learn how to use can opener).
• Tear basil into little pieces for the sauce.
• Help gently smash tomatoes in the pan.
• Activity; Hen Maze:  http://www.coloring-crafts.com/printable-mazes/maze-hen-heron.html