Lemon Chicken Kale Soup

Here is a super fast and easy recipe for a super comforting and delicious soup.  It isn't made completely from scratch, although you can if you would like to and have the time.  I like to use kale but you can substitute with any leafy green.  This is what I make when I'm exhausted but still want to make something healthy and satisfying for the family.  This takes 40 minutes from start to finish and that includes the prep time.  That's quick!  I made this last week and now looking at the pictures, I sure wish I had some!

INGREDIENTS

1 rotisserie chicken, meat hand pulled in bite size pieces

2 boxes chicken stock

3 carrots

1 bunch kale

1 lb potatoes

1 onion

3 cloves garlic

tablespoon thyme

lemon juice to taste

I served with crusty bread and tomato persian cucumber feta salad

COOK

saute onion and garlic

add carrots

add potatoes

add thyme

saute until veggies start to brown a little

add stock, bring to boil & simmer until veggies are al-dente

add chicken meat

add kale

salt and pepper to taste

lemon juice to taste (I used 1 1/2 lemons)

I find fresh organic veggies tastier than conventional

Farm Fresh Dinner

rigatoni with asparagus, garbanzo beans and tomato

A friend at work subscribes to a organic farm delivery service that drops off a box of produce at her doorstep every week.  Lucky for me, her boyfriend, the one that actually cooks the stuff was out of town this week and I was the recipient of the box!  The box contained some fruit, green leaf lettuce, cabbage, red chard and asparagus.  It was beautiful beautiful produce.  Last night I made chicken adobo and sauteed the cabbage with garlic and oyster sauce.  Tonight's dinner really highlights the farm fresh ingredients that I had on hand and inspired this beautiful and delicious dinner.  The green leaf lettuce actually had taste unlike much of it's supermarket kin already washed and ready to go in the bags.  I did have to wash everything from the farm but the work was so worth it.  I dressed the salad simply with olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper.

The pasta was super simple.  I sauteed garlic, onion, a can of garbanzo beans and the asparagus from the farm.  Then I added a can of chopped tomato, salt and pepper to taste.  Toss with pasta of choice. That's it!  It was so delicious!

I love this farm direct delivery idea so much.  I love how you don't know what's in the box until it gets to you.  I love how the cooking is inspired by ingredients.  It's local and sustainable.  I'm sold.  This is the farm where I am http://www.farmfreshtoyou.com. I've read that this is getting popular all over the US so do a google search and see if this is available to you.  Happy cookng!

Healthy Lunch Ideas

grilled chicken breast with dino kale, sugar snap peas, quinoa mixed with sauteed mushrooms with S&P and balsamic

In our household, we've been consciously trying to improve our diet by trying to stick to lean proteins, lots of leafy greens and whole grains. We've totally converted to brown rice, spelt pasta (infinitely better than whole wheat pasta) and whole grains like quinoa and barley. One big personal hurdle was to eat healthy lunches while at work. It is too challenging to stick to healthy options when left to eat out or do take out. It is also very very expensive to eat take away healthy organic foods. I was spending up to $20 a day sometimes eating from places like Real Food Daily! Well, I got wise and put in a little effort on Sunday nights to prepare lunch items. I've been doing this for a month now and I've not only saved money but lost weight and feel great! I basically steam vegetables, make a whole grain and a protein. I try to stretch out the pre-made items by switching out the protein or adding an avocado or nuts. Sometimes at the end when I'm low on items, I'll supplement with hummus and flax bread. The following are list of things that combine well as a salad or as a group of sides like the pic above with yummy grilled chicken breast. I personally don't care for traditional salad too often but can eat lightly steamed greens everyday! Remember, try to vary your diet as much as possible and always eat whole foods. I know us cookngs love our pork and yummy comfort foods. With moderation and balancing with wholesome options, we can eat really anything we want!

Ideas for lunch items

Proteins: chicken breast, boiled eggs, lentils, tofu, tuna, pork tenderloin

greens: kale, collard greens, chard, arame seaweed, broccoli

veggies: carrots, sugar snap peas, sprouts, squash

grains: brown rice, quinoa, kashka, barley, cous cous

dressing: tahini or Annie's Asian Sesame dressing

toppings: nuts, sunflower seeds, japanese seaweed/sesame condiment

Please share your ideas for easy healthy lunches in the comments!

Chinese New Year Celebration Feast 2011

Chinese New Year 2011 

Sharing Mama Ng's Menu

Braised shiitake mushroom with oyster and 

fat choi ( might be some type of sea veggie? looks odd but fun to eat)

 Lobster with ginger scallion and chinese celery

 Foo jook tong ( bean curd soup) with mushroom and chinese dried scallops

Pea shoot stir fried with garlic and fish sauce 

 Crispy roast pork

 Steamed seabass with ginger scallion and soy sauce

 Buddha's delight ( Lor horn jai) 

quite of list of ingredients used in this dish, let's see if i can remember them all,

napa cabbage, shiitake mushroom, bean noodles, wood ear fungus, water chestnut, beancurd sticks, fat choi , snowpeas , am i missing anything else ?

sorry about the poor photo, couldn't wait to eat 

White poached chicken served with oyster and hot mustard sauce.

 Always happy with Mama Ng poached chicken, so moist and tender.

Posted a little late but better than never. 

Did you enjoy your New Year's celebration?

Top Chef All Star thoughts

Does working under extreme conditions truly measure a chef's talents? Is this the Amazing Race or Top Chef? While a fun and dynamic challenge, I couldn't help but to feel bad for these poor tired souls. Clearly, the requirement of running laps on no sleep got the better of ALL of them. The culmination, Carla puttering around the store still shopping with only under an hour to cook. All of the dishes lacked imagination and the choice of equipment baffles me. What I would have done is grab a rice cooker and an electric wok and rocked a stir fry over rice. No? Who hasn't gone to a greasy Chinese joint at 3AM after partying all night? Just sayin' Come on! But this is why I pose the extreme conditions question. Does the effort for better television destroy the potential for truly inspirational cooking? I for one am not a fan of the one-hand-tied-behind-the-back or no-utensils or no-sleep challenges.

Poor Angelo. This week I realize that he really was not getting weirder and weirder. I really did not see until now that this is a man at his Top Chef threshold. He was running on empty. The same chef who put out complex and beautiful food made salty potato soup. Sad but it was his time to go. I knew something was up when Mike was singing his praises followed by clips of uncharacteristic bro-love gestures from Angelo.

Dale won with grilled cheese and tomato soup. I'm sure it was a fine grilled cheese and tomato soup. But really? A grilled cheese and tomato soup won an elimination challenge of Top Chef All Stars with only 7 chefs left? Maybe Bravo should do a Top Top Chef Producers show.

thoughts:

Why did they even have the interior designer guy on? That was so random.

Okay, maybe having Ming Tsai judge was more random than the interior designer guy.

I wasn't a fan of the Muppet quickfire. But since Molly liked it I liked it too. Ok, I liked Elmo's "cow chips" comment.

Nice sweater Bourdain!

To Molly he's Dr. Tony!