Chicken Stew (AKA “Chicken and Dumplings without the Dumplings”)

I bought some leeks specifically for this dish and then totally spaced and forgot to use them.  I blame this on the fact that the day before I tripped over my own foot while taking out the garbage and landed with the full weight of my body on my left pinky finger, rendering that hand pretty much useless. It goes without saying, I am the clumsiest person in the universe, that is, besides my dad (sorry dad).

The good thing about having a family is that, no matter what happens (and of course, I’m blessed if all I have to complain about is a sore hand) babies still need to be held, diapers still must be changed, there are still sets of little teeth to be brushed and everyone’s still gotta eat. Being a mama forces you to WO-man up.  So, cheers to you mamas.  You are the glue.   In keeping with my not-a-New-Year’s-resolution to make weekdays easier by doing more food prep on the weekend, I made this stew, minus the leeks, one-handed.  If you're looking for something easy to make I think this fits the bill. It's kid-friendly, reheats well and warms you up on these brisk days we have as we transition to spring.   

I usually top this dish with buttermilk biscuit batter before I put it in the oven, but this time I left it as is, since my eaters usually prefer rice or brown bread anyway.

Chicken Stew (AKA “Chicken and Dumplings without the Dumplings”)

1 ½ lb chicken thighs, cut into 1” pieces

Salt and pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 large carrot, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon fresh thyme, minced

1 bay leaf

2 tablespoons of dry sherry

3 cups chicken stock

1 ½ cups milk

¼ cup all-purpose flour

1 cup frozen peas

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Season the chicken all over with salt and pepper. In a large dutch oven, heat the oil over a medium-high heat. Add the chicken to the pan and cook for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer the chicken with its juices to a bowl.

Add the onions, carrots and celery to the dutch oven and cook until the vegetables begin to soften, about 5 minutes.

Add the garlic and cook for about 2 minutes more.

Turn the heat up and add the dry sherry until almost all of the liquid has dissolved.  

Add the chicken stock, thyme and bay leaf and turn the heat down to a simmer.

Return the chicken with its juices back to the pan.  

Place milk and flour in a measuring cup with a spout and whisk until flour is completely dissolved and no lumps remain. Add milk mixture to the pot and bring to a simmer.  

Place dutch oven into the oven uncovered for about 40 minutes. Stirring once half-way into the cooking time.  

Set dutch oven back on the stove top over low heat, add frozen peas and cook 3 to 5 minutes more, until peas are warmed through.

Serve with rice, mashed potatoes or bread (or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! See below).

Keep your microphone handy in case you need to break out in song between bites. 

Emmett elected to have his stew as a second course.  Goes well with all that peanut butter and jelly still on his face.

Baked French Toast: Made with Muffins

If there is one thing I hate, it’s waste.  Food waste is the worst. Re-purposing food is a big part of my life because let’s face it, not everything works out the way I hoped it would. That brings me to muffins. Now that Eve is eating solid food she seems to enjoy feeding herself rather than being spoon-fed. So, last week I made her a batch of super-healthy protein muffins - with whole wheat flour, chia seeds, eggs, almond flour, all kinds of good stuff. She loved them.  Great.

See what I mean? CRUMBS!

What I didn’t anticipate was the mess she would make with them! Muffin crumbs everywhere. Everywhere but in her mouth or tummy I suspect. Since I put so much love and nutrition into them I didn’t want to see them go to waste - sucked up in my vacuum or in the garbage after I finally got sick of vacuuming. On a mission to save them, I came up with the idea of making baked french toast, basically bread pudding, with protein muffins instead of bread. It was so easy to do, I just cut up the muffins and soaked them in my standard combination of liquid ingredients for french toast.  I threw the whole thing in the fridge overnight and, in the morning, baked it at 350F until it was cooked through.  Let me tell you...it was a winner. With the whole family. Nothing wasted, and BONUS, all of those eggs = even more protein for my growing little ones.

Muffins, ready to be re-purposed.

I started with 4 eggs but added another one which is why the recipe calls for 5. It's a judgment call really.*

*"It's a judgement call really." This should be my motto. Who am I kidding, it is my motto.

Muffin chunks go into the egg mixture.

After soaking, a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar and it's ready for the oven. 

Even though I came up with this recipe out of necessity, I would definitely make it again. Sometimes the humblest of dishes are the most comforting.  Bread pudding was created for the same reason, to make use of stale bread. Despite it’s humble roots, these days, bread pudding makes an appearance at even the fanciest restaurants.  But I love what it represents.  

For the kids I cut small pieces of the pudding and serve with syrup for dipping. We call it french toast bites. 

Baked French Toast: Made with Muffins

Baked French Toast (the breakfast way of saying “Bread Pudding”) is a great dish to make if you are having people over for brunch.  You can follow the recipe below using muffins, bread, even croissants. If you aren't cooking for kids, add a little Bailey’s to the mix and it would be great for your St. Patrick’s day spread.

5 eggs

⅓ cup half and half or milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1-3 tablespoons maple syrup (depending on the sweetness of your muffins)

½ teaspoon kosher salt

6-8 muffins

Cinnamon and coarse sugar for topping

Preheat oven to 350F.

Add first 5 ingredients to a baking dish and whisk until fully combined

Cut muffins into small pieces and add to egg mixture tossing with your hands or a large spoon and making sure all of the muffin pieces are covered in egg mixture.

Sprinkle with cinnamon and coarse sugar and bake about 40 minutes or until cooked through (start checking for doneness around the 30 minute mark).

Chimichurri

Even before I was married or had kids I probably spent some portion of my weekend getting organized for the week ahead.  Doing some of the things that I knew I wouldn’t want to do after a long day at work (i.e. cleaning, laundry) and getting other tasks (i.e. making portable breakfasts/snacks) out of the way so that I couldn’t use them as an excuse not to go to the gym before heading into the office. Now that I have three children under the age of three, getting prepared for the week ahead takes on a whole new meaning. Buying a tub of yogurt and cutting up some fruit does not cut it if I want to have any semblance of order and sanity for the upcoming week.

By now I’m pretty good at using the weekend to get laundry taken care of, cook a few things and make sure that we have what we need foodwise to make it at least most of the way through the week.  I also try to make sure the car has gas in it (which rarely happens and I’m always full of regret when I find myself pumping gas on a dark, freezing cold weeknight with three grumpy kids in the car - bad planning!).  

One of the other things I’m not so good at remembering to do is sorting and prepping groceries once I get back from the store. The fact that I don’t do the majority of my grocery shopping on the weekend is partially to blame. I usually cram my groceries in the fridge, freezer, cupboards - anywhere there’s space - as soon as I get home from work and immediately launch into dinner, dishes, play, baths, etc. I promptly forget about the head of lettuce and bags of herbs I’ve shoved into my crisper drawer, only to find them a week later, all wilted, leaves mushy and stuck together.

This year, in an effort to do better, I’ve been focusing on preparing for the week more and getting the kids involved in the process. This means, the older two have already learned to vacuum, not very effectively, but it’s the act of contributing that matters. And Paul and I are putting more emphasis on cleaning up after activities. Isla wants to do absolutely everything “by myself!” and Emmett loves to be my little helper so I’m capitalizing on these phases while I can.

This weekend I discovered a great way that they can help me in my quest to have an organized fridge full of ready-to-eat food. The SALAD SPINNER! I can’t believe I never thought of it before. I had tons of cilantro and parsley because I had planned on roasting pork shoulder and making chimichurri to go with it but never got around to it. Ah, the best laid plans...

By the next Saturday I needed to do something with my herbs, stat. I decided to make the chimichurri anyway because it’s so good. On anything. Um, everything.  I washed my herbs and got out the salad spinner. One look at that thing and the kids were underfoot, wondering what on earth I was going to do next. I let them take turns washing the herbs, spinning them dry and pouring out the green-tinged water left behind. They had a ball.  

The bonus for me was that I was actually able to get a few pics of Emmett, my little hummingbird, always flying too fast to capture in a photo. People say you have so many photos of your first born and less and less of your younger ones but it hasn’t played out that way for me at all. Isla and Eve both love to stop whatever they are doing for a photo op and I am happy to oblige. So capturing my oldest on film was a treat.

So is the chimichurri. If you need ideas, it’s great with: any kind of meat or chicken, mixed with some greek yogurt for a dip, stirred into soft butter for an herby compound butter, or smeared on your avocado toast. Stir a spoonful into your soup if you want to feel French or add some to your vinaigrette. Now I’m feeling like I should have made more. Luckily I had Emmett prep the remaining herbs in case I run out.

Chimichurri

2 cups parsley, roughly chopped

1 cup cilantro, roughly chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

Juice of one lime

¼ cup red wine vinegar

⅔ cup good extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Pinch of sugar

Crushed red pepper flakes to taste

Throw all of the ingredients into a food processor and process until combined. Just a few seconds is fine. I know it’s not the traditional method, but it is fast and still tastes amazing. You can also make this by hand, just chop the herbs very finely and mix everything in a bowl.