Tuesday, 28 November 2017

Chicken Pad Thai Spaghetti Squash

I've been trying to eat less carbs (read all my favourite things - pasta, bread, potatoes, rice). Due to this things like spaghetti squash have become my friend! This recipe was adapted from this tasty recipe

Serves 4
Ingredients: 
2 Spaghetti Squash
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
1 large bulk carrot, cut into half moons
1 red pepper, diced
1 orange pepper, diced
1 small (or 1/2 medium ) yellow onion 
2 chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
2 green onions, thinly sliced (for topping)
bunch of cilantro, chopped (for topping)
1/4 cup water
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil 
2 tbsp honey
juice of one lime
2 tbsp sriracha
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 1/2 tbsp fresh ginger, grated or minced
1 tbsp fresh garlic, minced
1 tbsp fish sauce 

Instructions: 
Preheat the oven to 400 F. With a sharp knife, cut the squash in half length wise. Scoop out the inside seeds. Drizzle each half with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place open side down on baking sheet. Bake for 40 minutes & remove from the oven to let cool. 

While the spaghetti squash is cooking, mix the ingredients for the sauce (water to fish sauce from the list above) in a bowl and set aside. 

In a large pan on medium heat, add 1 tbsp of olive oil. Add in the chicken (omit this step if going for a vegetarian version!). Cook for 10 minutes or so, stirring occasionally, until the chicken begins to get some color. Add in the carrots, onion & peppers. Continue to cook for another 10 minutes until the onions begin to become translucent and the carrots begin to soften slightly. Poor in half the sauce and mix. Reduce heat to low and allow to simmer. Stir occasionally. Let simmer until squash is ready to be handled. 

When the squash is done and  can be handled, using a fork pull at the edges of the squash to create that stringy spaghetti quality. Add contents to the pan and keep the "boats". Mix the squash with the other ingredients and poor in the rest of the sauce. Add the mixture back into the squash boats. Garnish with cilantro, green onions. 

Friday, 10 November 2017

Paprika Chicken with Chickpeas

It has been almost a full year since I've posted. I'm sorry! Will you forgive me because I have a delicious recipe for you?! Adapted from this recipe. It was sent to me by a co-worker who had made it and loved it. The first time I made it I followed it exactly and it was good. Then I went to make it again, with some adjustments and it was better. Then I went to make it again with just a little more tweaking and it was the best. So now I feel like sharing it with everyone so they can enjoy it too. Also I want to start blogging again, so I thought this was a good start.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp (smoked) paprika ---- I put smoked in brackets because my paprika is in a mason jar and has been filled so many times I don't know if its regular or smoked or a mix of both. 
1 1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic power
1/4 tsp oregano
2 lb chicken thighs (I used skinless, boneless... original recipe uses skin on bone in. Either works!)
1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
1 14 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 Tbsp + 1 tsp olive oil
Zest & Juice from 1 lemon
Parsley for garnish
Feta for garnish
Optional: Spinach

Directions:
1) In a large bowl stir together paprika, salt, garlic power, pepper and oregano. Add chicken thighs and coat well. Set aside.
2) Preheat the oven to 350 F
3) Place thinly sliced onions and red peppers in the bottom of a casserole dish large enough to hold the chicken with room in between. Toss with 1 tsp olive oil and spear them out evenly.
4) Add drained chickpeas, lemon zest, lemon juice and remaining olive oil to chicken and mix well making sure everything gets some spices on it.
5) Arrange chicken & chickpeas on top of the onions and peppers. Try and get the chicken on top of everything.
6) Bake for 55 minutes uncovered. Then carefully broil for a few extra minutes (making sure to watch) to get a little extra color on top.

I served on a small bed of spinach (which wilts from the heat of everything once you plate) and topped with parsley and feta! Seriously... don't miss out on the feta. The extra cook time (55 minutes + broil vs the 40-45 minutes from original recipe was key for me. Chicken didn't dry out and it gave the chickpeas more time to soften up as I found they were not quite cooked with the 40 minutes).