Peanutty Chicken

This isn't anything authentic. It's not Thai Chicken, it's not African Peanut Stew, it's somewhere in between and full of delicious. This is how I cook. A little bit of this, a little bit of that, look up a bunch of recipes online and figure it out based on what tastes good to us. This peanut chicken is a great example of that. Chicken is shredded into a spicy peanut and allspice sauce and served over rice. It is SO good.

Ingredients:
4 chicken thighs
1 good size yellow onion, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic
1/4 peanut butter
3T soy sauce or tamari (gmo free!)
chicken stock or bone broth (I really don't know how much. Enough to thin out the sauce enough to your liking and taste)
2T all spice powder, divided
2 t. red pepper flakes
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 c. flour
salt and pepper
butter, coconut oil or some other fat to cook it in
2 cups cooked rice.

1. Dredge the chicken thighs in flour, 1T of allspice, salt and pepper. Brown in fat (don't cook through). Set aside.
2. Add more fat as necessary, add onion, cook until beginning to brown.
Meanwhile, combine peanut butter, soy sauce, 1T allspice, red pepper flakes, cinnamon. If it seems too think, add bone broth until it's thin enough for you, tasting as you go. If you're using conventional chicken stock it may get a little salty.
As onions begin to brown, add garlic, stirring until you can smell it (don't let the garlic burn!), then add sauce.
3. Add chicken back in and put the top on. Let simmer until chicken is cooked through. Check in the sauce periodically. Depending on the size of your thighs you may need more sauce. Sometimes I have to double the recipe, sometimes it's enough. It really depends on the size of your thighs. Did your chicken have a donkey or was she more svelte?
4. Once thighs are done, remove and shred. Add back into sauce.

Serve over rice, with something green on the side. We had it with some broccoli tossed in butter and salt with naan on the side. It was delish!
Hope you like it!

Menu Plan Week of July 1

Summertime, and the livin is easy!

I love this time of year. Life is slower, days are longer, food is better.

There always seems to be something fun going on and it all seems to come together this week.

There is so much going on this week around Independence Day. It is possibly my second favorite holiday. 

Cookouts, BBQ, fireworks. What's not to love?

One of my favorite things to do is The Capitol Fourth dress rehearsal. As anyone that lives close to DC knows, you don't go downtown on the Fourth. It's crazy town. There's people everywhere, it's expensive, it's hot. You just don't want to be there. What you might not know is that they do a dress rehearsal the day before that's open to the public. The whole show. It's awesome. We've seen Stevie Wonder up close and personal, for free. Last year it was Earth, Wind and Fire and Josh Turner. This year it's Barry Manilow and Neil Diamond. Not exactly my cuppa but a good time none the less. We take a picnic dinner, sit on the mall and enjoy ourselves. 

Friday marks the first CSA Day. I am doing a workshare at a local CSA. I'll man their Friday pickup and in exchange I'll get a share! More on that later. 

Saturday we're hosting a Bring Your Own Chainsaw party to clean up the mess in the backyard. We're providing beer and pizza in exchange for cheap, friendly labor.

As always, this weeks plan is messed up. It got messed up before it was even posted! Today was supposed to be meatloaf but I had to take Mr. Brown to get some medical attention for some wicked poison ivy (he has a Popeye arm!) so it didn't get made. Now I have thawed hamburger and thawed chicken - which gets made??

Monday - Supposed to be Meatloaf, corn on the cob, buttered noodles

Tuesday - Peanut Chicken, broccoli, rice

Wednesday - Picnic Dinner - tuna salad, egg salad, sourdough bread, cucumber salad

Thursday - Fourth of July! We'll be cookout hopping all day, I shouldn't have to cook

Friday - Pinto Beans in the Crockpot

Saturday - BYOC

Sunday - Leftovers from Fri and Sat. 

So why? Why do I still menu plan when we have this much going on? Because we have this much going on! It helps a lot to know where we have to be when and how it affects what we're eating. The best part is, we usually have most of this stuff on hand. Which means that on crazy weeks like this one I can plan easy peasy menus from stuff on hand so I don't have to squeeze in a big shopping trip. 

What do you have planned for the Fourth? Have a great week!

Potato and Chicken Frittata with Carmelized Onions.

Let me start this out by saying I am not The Pioneer Woman. I try to channel my girl, Ree, while I'm cooking but I can't take pictures like her. Her food looks amazing. My food looks amazing in real life but not so much in pictures. One day when I have lots of money I'll buy a fancy butt camera and take nice pictures but for now, well, just know it looks good in person.

So, now that that's out of the way, what do you do when your egg basket looks like this?

 

You make a delicious frittata for dinner!

It starts right here, with a beautiful, well seasoned cast iron pan. 

To this beautiful piece of culinary equipment we'll add 2-3 T of butter (NOT margarine, butter.)

Once the butter has melted, add one onion, chopped. You're going to cook the onion until it changes from the Before to the After pic. This should take about 10-15 minutes over medium heat.

Before

After

 

 

 

Meanwhile, peel and dice three potatoes. Three smallish potatoes are good. If you have larger ones, just one may be enough. These are the ones I used. 

They chopped up into this

 The onions should still be working at this point. 

Since those take a little bit, I like to get everything else ready. Once they're done the train gets moving and it's best if everything else is ready to go in the pan so you don't burn the garlic. Burnt garlic is gross.

Make sure whatever chicken you're using is shredded and ready for adding. I recommend about 2 cups.

Crack and beat your eggs. If you don't have a weirdo cheese hating husband put in 1 cup of mild cheddar.

Mince 2-3 cloves of garlic.

Figure out your spices.

I like some tarragon in it, along with salt, pepper and a little Old Bay.

Onions nice and caramelized? Add your garlic and your seasonings. 2 teaspoons Tarragon, generous salt, few cranks fresh pepper, 1 teaspoon Old Bay. Stir until you can start to smell the garlic. Then you're going to add your potatoes and chicken. Stir that around to combine. Make sure that everything is pretty evenly distributed. Imagine the horror of a chickenless bite!

Once you're set and happy with your chicken and potato distribution, pour your beaten eggs over the top.

Let this set up for a minute. This isn't going to cook on the stove top but you want the bottom to set up a little before you put it into the oven. You can tell when it's ready to go in the oven by the little steamy geyser holes that start to appear on the surface.

Once the holes appear, pop it in the oven and let it bake at 350 for 20 minutes, or until it doesn't jiggle when you move the handle. 

Then slice it up!

This is a hit with my usually picky husband and daughter too!

 I always top mine with shredded cheddar. If you don't have a weirdo cheese hating husband your cheese will be inside already where it belongs. 

Frittata is pretty forgiving. I had a delicious one at my Blessingway for Little that had summer squash, tomato and spinach in it. 

Have you had or made frittata before? What's your favorite combination?

Menu Plan 6/10-6/16

For information on how I menu plan, check out How I Menu Plan.

This is the last week of school! For now, I only plan for dinner, we'll see how that goes with summer upon us. Father's Day is Sunday so that's kind of up in the air. If we're home, we'll have what's planned. If not, it'll get bumped to next week.

Monday - Crockpot Beef BBQ Sandwiches, broccoli cakes, homemade french fries

Tuesday - Beef Enchiladas

Wednesday - Red Beans and Rice

Thursday- Chicken and Potato Frittata with Carmelized Onions

Friday - Chicken Pesto Pizza (this dough from Weed 'em and Reap is delish!)

Saturday - Homemade Fish Sticks, French Fries, Corn

Sunday - Burgers, Coleslaw, Baked Beans

I'll post some recipes soon! A few of these are my own, others need verification and tasting. I love tasting.

How I Menu Plan

A few months ago I started menu planning and it has made such a huge difference around here. I started when I was searching for something to make these people for dinner and pulled out a few heads of rotten broccoli and a bag of rotten green beans from the refrigerator. It was late, I had no idea what we were eating, and we were wasting food. That night, after we ate Top Ramen for dinner, I sat down and worked out the rest of the week and haven’t looked back since.

I know a lot of people plan breakfast, lunch and dinner. Around here, as it’s just Little and I during the day (and she’s still mostly on a liquid diet) I only plan dinner. As big is getting out of school next week that may change. I’ll update this if and when we do.

First thing I do is check the fridge. Did you know if you have stainless steel appliances you can write on them with dry erase markers? The front of the fridge is where I write our calendar. If there’s girl scouts, an activity at school, a night out or whatever, I need to plan around that. No big, labor intensive meals when we have to be somewhere at 6:30. After that, I open the door. Did something not get eaten from last week’s menu? Any produce hanging around that needs to be eaten? Plan your meals accordingly.

We have certain nights that we have certain things. I would die of taste bud boredom if we had, for example, spaghetti every Monday. What we do instead is a flexible day. Tuesday is something from another culture. Think Taco Tuesday, but with more options. Wednesday is beans. From Red Beans and Rice to Falafel. Friday is homemade pizza day (try this dough recipe, it’s perfect!) but that could be BBQ chicken pizza or Margherita pizza or Chicken Ceasar Salad pizza.

I try to do a big something on Sunday or Monday that we can use to make other meals. Extra points if it goes in the crock pot.

This is this week:

Monday – Crockpot chicken, asparagus, sweet potatoes

Tuesday – Taco Bowl

Wednesday - Egg Roll in a Bowl – Made from leftover chicken.

Thursday – ‘Brats and Sauerkraut (and broccoli)

Friday – Margherita Pizza

Saturday – Birthday Celebration!

Sunday – Sloppy lentils, broccoli cakes from leftover broccoli, homemade fries

I was too lazy forgot to go to the store so Monday and Tuesday got switched. No biggie. Be flexible. Life happens. Sometimes your crying baby lets you know that the grocery store is NOT happening that day. Sometimes your couch is super comfortable. Whatevs.

Do you menu plan? Any great recipes to share?