It's been raining all day.
It's dark, gloomy, and on the cool side.
It's a perfect day for some soup.
The hubby wanted me to make chicken tortilla soup, but I didn't have a 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes, cream, or avocados. To make it, I would have had to change out of pajamas and face the rain. I opted to talk him into plain chicken soup instead.
To start, I boiled 4 chicken breasts (all I had but bone in chicken would be wonderful here), in a large pot, seasoned with salt and garlic powder for 30 minutes.
I'm a big fan of clean broth so once the chicken was done, I transferred the breasts into a bowl for shredding (covered with broth so the chicken wouldn't harden) and I then strained the remaining broth into a smaller pot.
I brought the broth back up to a boil and then I added: potatoes (peeled and diced), carrots (peeled and diced), celery (diced), a chunk of onion (for flavor and was removed after the soup was done) and a cube of cilantro. I made sure to season (salt and pepper) the potatoes and carrots before adding them to the broth. I let everything come up to a boil for about 10 minutes.
I was originally going to shred the chicken, but decided that big, diced, chunks of chicken would be better and added it to the soup. I let it continue to cook about 15 minutes until the vegetables were fork tender.
While the soup cooked, the hubby was nice enough to make a cup of red rice for me. Recipe to follow in another post.
We topped it off with some Cholula for a kick.
It was a great choice for a not so great day.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Doomed from the get-go
Of course this would happen...
Like the minute you say you're going to diet and then eat nothing but crappy food.
I start a food blog, throw it out to the world and then I stop making food. I'm not even eating food worth talking about!
So, since I haven't made any food...we'll talk about my hubby's birthday celebration.
We had dinner at Big Mama's and Papa's Pizza, which is always delicious.
We ended the night with a chocolate mousse cake from Vons, which proved to be really tasty.
Like the minute you say you're going to diet and then eat nothing but crappy food.
I start a food blog, throw it out to the world and then I stop making food. I'm not even eating food worth talking about!
So, since I haven't made any food...we'll talk about my hubby's birthday celebration.
We had dinner at Big Mama's and Papa's Pizza, which is always delicious.
We ended the night with a chocolate mousse cake from Vons, which proved to be really tasty.
Of course, the hubby couldn't blow out the candles himself, so glad he had two helpers.
Chicken has been taken out for dinner, so something will definitely be made tonight. Stand by!
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Tonight's Culinary Feast
Tonight’s
culinary feast is…Hamburger Helper.
Only I would
start a blog to highlight the food I make and eat, and then the next day make
Hamburger Helper. Probably not my best
move, but at least I’m honest.
I seasoned
two chicken breasts with salt and pepper and then marinated them in olive oil,
lemon juice and basil for about an hour.
Then I baked the chicken at 350 for 45 minutes.
As I boiled
the pasta (I used penne), I made the sauce.
Combine 2 tbs butter (real butter), 2 tbs olive oil, some cream (I would
say about ¼ cup?), lemon juice (I used the juice of 1 whole lemon), 1 clove of
garlic (minced), basil (I used about 8 leaves, chopped using a chiffonade technique),
salt and pepper. That’s it. Oh, I also added just a ladle full of pasta
water (which was seasoned with salt prior to dropping the pasta).
On a
positive note, it’s probably better for my children than Mac N Cheese because
of the added protein.
Yesterday I
made a lemon-basil-cream pasta with chicken and broccoli. That was delicious. To make up for tonight, I’ll talk about
yesterday’s food instead.
During the
last minute and a half of the pasta boiling, I added my broccoli to the boiling
water with this awesome ladle strainer thing.
It’s amazing. I don’t know what
it’s called and I don’t have a picture, but take my word for it, it’ AMAZING!
Once the
pasta was done boiling, I drained it and added it to my sauce. I cut the chicken and added it to the sauce
and then added the broccoli. And like
that, it’s done. Minus the cooking time
for the chicken, this whole dinner takes maybe 15 minutes.
I also
served it on a platter, just to feel fancy.
I think it made the food taste better J
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Home Grown Basil - A food blog
I had an epiphany.
I enjoy food. I enjoy blogging. I have another blog: http://inez83.blogspot.com/ which started with the intention of being a food blog and turned into my personal outlet. A place to vent, to reflect, to escape. Food became an afterthought to that blog.
So, I decided to start this blog for food purposes only.
Home Grown Basil? It's a hashtag I use on Instagram. I tagged food where I used our home grown basil, and thought it would make for a clever blog title. Disclaimer: this blog is not dedicated to solely basil nor home grown food.
Hope you enjoy it.
I enjoy food. I enjoy blogging. I have another blog: http://inez83.blogspot.com/ which started with the intention of being a food blog and turned into my personal outlet. A place to vent, to reflect, to escape. Food became an afterthought to that blog.
So, I decided to start this blog for food purposes only.
Home Grown Basil? It's a hashtag I use on Instagram. I tagged food where I used our home grown basil, and thought it would make for a clever blog title. Disclaimer: this blog is not dedicated to solely basil nor home grown food.
Hope you enjoy it.
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