Tag Archives: cilantro

Roast Chicken with Cilantro Pesto

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Roast Chicken with Cilantro Pesto

Roast Chicken with Cilantro Pes

I make roast chicken a lot for my family. Mainly because it’s easy, and I know everyone will enjoy it. However, because I make it so often, I am always trying to come up with ways to make it differently, ways in which I can add flavor, this pesto does exactly that. It adds a ton of flavor, but requires minimal extra work. You throw all the ingredients in the blender or a food processor, push a button and it’s done! Leftover, pesto, if you have any, can be spread on bread as the condiment to leftover chicken salad sandwiches…talk about yum! If you don’t want to roast an entire chicken, you can scale this down and use just 2 chicken breasts, it doesn’t matter. I find that buying a whole organic chicken is often less expensive than buying just 2 organic chicken breasts. So I always prefer to save money and buy the whole chicken. I reinvent the leftover chicken into tacos, salad, soup or tostadas.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 45 minutes
Total time: 55 minutes

Ingredients:
1 whole Organic Nongmo Air-chilled Chicken
2 cloves of garlic
2-3 Tablespoons of Olive oil
1/2 teaspoon of thyme
Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Ingredients for Cilantro Pesto:
2 cups of cilantro
1/2 cup of olive oil
1/2 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup of toasted hazelnuts
Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Directions: Pre-heat the oven to 425F. Season the chicken generously with sea salt and black pepper, then rub it with the garlic and oil. Line a baking dish with foil, place the chicken on it and place it in the oven and cook for 45 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Meanwhile, place all the ingredients for the pesto in a blender or processor, and blend until smooth. Serve the pesto however you’d like, I smear it on the chicken, with an additional spoonful or two, so that I can dip as I go. It’s so delicious!!!! If you haven’t read my blog on How to roast Chicken, Steps to making the perfect roast chicken now would be a great time. My recipe for Roast Chicken with Lemon and Garlic works the pesto as well.

Roast Chicken with Cilantro Pesto

Roast Chicken with Cilantro Pesto

Smoked Paprika Lime and Garlic Chicken

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Smoked Paprika Lime and Garlic Chicken

Smoked Paprika Lime and Garlic Chicken

One of my favorite Mexican restaurants serves this super yummy and tangy chicken with paprika and lime. As always I love to try to recreate my favorite restaurant meals in my own kitchen. Let’s face it, it’s not always convenient to eat out, especially with a toddler who doesn’t like to sit for an hour with her hands in her lap. This chicken dish can be made with just parts of the chicken, you don’t have to use a whole chicken. I used two kinds of paprika, but if you only have one kind use that.

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total time: 50 minutes

Ingredients
1 Tablespoon of paprika
1 Tablespoon of smoked paprika
2 large cloves of garlic grated or pasted
Sea salt to taste
Black pepper to taste
The juice of two limes
Handful of cilantro
Two tablespoons of oil

Directions:
In a bowl mix the garlic, paprika and oil into a paste, then rub it into the skin of the chicken. Season the chicken generously with salt and pepper. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 425F degrees for 45 minutes to an hour until the bird is cooked through. Remove bird from the oven, pour on the lime juice and sprinkle with cilantro. Serve and enjoy! It’s tangy with a kick from the smoked paprika!

Thai style ground chicken and green beans

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Whenever we go out for Thai food my husband orders one of two things, ginger chicken or, green bean chicken. He absolutely loves these two dishes, and rarely ventures out to try anything else on the menu– unless venturing out is tantamount to him taking a few bites of my dish. I love ginger chicken, but I have yet to ever try this green bean dish that he loves so dearly. However, the ever ambitious girl that I am in the kitchen, decided to try to recreate this dish for him at home the other night. I can not say whether or not I hit the mark on what he has in the restaurant, but this dish definitely hit the mark for me! I loved it! My husband did too. He said “Mmmm…this is delicious” after every bite. You can substitute any ground meat that you choose in this dish.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minute
Total Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:
1 lbs of ground chicken
2 cups of chopped fresh green beans
1/2 cups of green onion chopped
2.5 Tablespoons of low sodium soy sauce
1/2 cup of cilantro chopped
1 teaspoon of grated ginger
2 cloves of garlic chopped
1 tablespoon of flour optional
1-2 teaspoons of chili pepper flakes
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 cup of water
Sea salt to taste.

Directions:
Heat oil in a skillet. Add ginger, onion, and garlic, and saute for 1 minute, stirring so that the ginger and garlic don’t burn. Add in the ground meat, cook until browned. Add in the soy sauce, toss, then add in the flour if using. Toss again, add in the green beans, and water, cover and cook for 5-7 minutes, or until the green beans are fork tender. Remove from heat, add cilantro, serve over brown rice, and enjoy!

What restaurant meals have you had success recreating at home?

Lemon Herb Cauliflower "rice"

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Lemon Cauliflower Herb “Rice” It Paleo, Gluten free, and Low-carb

As adventurous as my daughter is when it comes to food, she still struggles with textures. A meal for her can be made, or broken, if something is not the right texture for her. I’m constantly trying to introduce her to new foods, but at the same time give them to her in a way that she will except. Many foods that I give her end up on the floor if I get it wrong. I read somewhere that people on a low carb diet substitute cauliflower for grains and potatoes. I myself have had cauliflower mash and loved it. I decided to try to do a cauliflower rice to go along with a roast chicken I was making for dinner. It turned out to be a hit with her, and my husband loved it too. I added lemon and cilantro, but just like any rice, you can add what ever flavorings suit your fancy. This is both Cauliflower rice is Paleo, Gluten free, and low carb.

Here’s what you need:
1 large cauliflower head, stems removed
1/4 cup of finely chopped onion
Zest of a lemon
 Juice of half a large lemon
1 Tablespoon of olive oil
Sea salt to taste
Tablespoon of chopped cilantro

Equipment needed:
Food processor

Directions:

Add the cauliflower florets to you’re food processor and pulse until the cauliflower looks like this:

Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan, add the onion and cook until translucent.

Add in the cauliflower and lemon juice and zest, mix well.

Cover the pan and let cook for 3 minutes. Uncover the pan and cook an additional 2-3 minutes, stirring to prevent sticking, but allowing a little browning. Turn fire off, and add the chopped cilantro and serve. I didn’t add the cilantro to her portion, again, textures.

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North African Lamb Stew with Kale

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Lamb Stew

Lamb Stew

 

I have such fond memories of my mothers home made stews. She doesn’t make stews anymore so memories are all I have unfortunately. I’m not really a person who makes  a lot of stews at home. Let’s face it stews, good ones anyway, take time, usually hours, 2-3 hours, for them to develop a decent amount of flavor. This particular stew came out of an uncontrollable desire of mine to have lamb meat that was tender, moist, and with a gravy that was lick the pot worthy. I think I met that desire and some with this lamb stew. All of the components of this stew go together so perfectly that I’m surprised that I never though to put them together before this.  I used a pressure cooker to make this stew. Let me just say that by using a pressure cooker not only was I able to develop the flavors that make up a good stew, but I was able to do it in an hour. The beauty of pressure cookers is that they allow you to maximize the flavor of all of the ingredients you use without loosing vital nutrients. If you don’t own a pressure cooker, go buy one. They’re awesome!

Here’s what you need:
2 lamb shanks (2lbs)
5 teaspoons of Cumin
4 teaspoons of Paprika

1 teaspoon of Coriander powder

4 cloves of garlic sliced
2 medium onions chopped
Juice of half a lemon or more if you like
5 tablespoons of olive oil
1 bushel of elephant kale julienned
1 10 oz can of garbanzo beans rinsed and drained
A handful of cilantro
1 28 oz can of San Marzano crushed tomatoes
3-4 cups of water

Equipment:
Pressure cooker

Note: If you want to make this on the stove without a pressure cooker it can be done.  Just add all of your ingredients to the pot exactly as below.  Bring the pot to a full boil, lower the heat and simmer for 2 hours or until the meat is tender and you can remove it from the bone.

Directions:
Over medium heat add oil, onions, lamb and garlic the pressure cooker.  Add in the coriander, cumin, and paprika, mix well, and let cook for 3 minutes

Add tomato sauce, and enough water to cover the lamb shanks, bring to a boil then close and seal your pressure cooker.

Cook for 45 minutes without disturbing, turn off the heat and follow the directions to depressurize your pressure cooker. Once your pressure cooker is safe to open, remove the cover and discard the fat lining and the bone on the lamb shanks. At this point that should be fairly easy to do, the meat literally falls off of the bone after being in the pressure cooker for 45 minutes.

Add in the kale and the garbanzo beans, cover and seal the pressure cooker again, and cook for another 15 minutes on medium heat.

After 15 minutes turn off the fire, depressurize your pressure cooker, and remove the cover, add in a handful of fresh cilantro, the lemon juice and serve as is, or over a bed of brown rice…yum!

What is your favorite stew?

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Grilled flank steak with Chimichurri sauce

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Summer is here which means a lot of grilling at our house. Steaks tend to get boring and I’m alway looking for ways to jazz them up a bit. Enter Chimichurri sauce. It’s a Brazilian condiment, and when it’s made properly it can turn the most mundane dish into something truly spectacular! I love chimichurri on a nice peice of toasted crusty french bread. Chimichurri is also fabulous on grilled chicken, or baked fish. I’m also told that chimichurri is great on eggs, I don’t like eggs, but I bet I would with chimichurri on them. Chimichurri is so versatile I can’t imagine that there is a meat that it doesn’t go well with.

Here’s what you need:
1 lb of skirt steak
3 cloves of garlic pasted
Sea salt

Here’s what you need for the Chimichurri sauce:
2 cups of fresh parsley
1 cup of fresh cilantro
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 teaspoon of red chili pepper flakes
1/4 cup of red wine vinegar
1//2 cup of olive oil
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
Sea salt to taste

Directions: rub the pasted garlic on both sides of the skirt steak, season with sea salt, black pepper and grill for 3-5 minutes on each side.

Place all of the ingredients for the Chimichurri in a blender and blend until smooth. Serve on top of grilled steak.

Now how easy was that? Chimichurri is so delicious and it makes everything taste better. What are you going to have with this sauce?

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Lemon and Garlic Potatoes

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 One of my favorite flavor pallets is housed in the Mediterranean diet. Their use of lemons, olive oil, and fresh herbs is quite genious if you ask me. These three ingredients are so simple, and yet the flavor that they lend to a dish is simply superb!  If I had to eat one type of food for the rest of my life, Mediterranean would be it! This particular dish is my interpretation of one of my favorite appetizers at a Persian restaurant that I used to frequent. Truth be told, this dish was the best thing on their  menu! However, it was enough to bring me back to their restaurant again and again! That is until they started using frozen potatoes to make this! After that I was forced to make my own version of this beloved dish. Not to toot my own horn, (Toot! Toot!), but my version tastes a lot better.

Here is what you need
3 or 4 potatoes cut and cubed
The juice of 1 small lemon or half of a meduim/large one
1 clove of garlic sliced
3 tablespoons of chopped cilantro
4-5 tablespoons of Olive oil for browning the potatoes
Sea salt to taste

Directions
Heat olive oil in a frying pan. Place cubed potatoes in

Cook potatoes until they start to brown, tip, cook for 5 minutes on one side, brown and then flip to the other side to brown:

Once potatoes are brown and fork tender, add the sliced garlic, toss for ten to twenty seconds, just until you can smell the garlic, turn the fire off.

Add sea salt, lemon juice, and cilantro, toss and serve! If you like a little fire, add some chili pepper flakes to this…Yummy!

What is your favorite way to cook potatoes?
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