The Lean Green Bean: November 2010

Sweet Potato Crusted Cod

Hi Friends!

After last night's random dinner of another curried sweet potato and some peanut butter toast, I decided to do some cooking tonight.

Dinner was inspired by this recipe but I changed it up a bit. I seem to be on a sweet potato kick this week :)

This is an easy one. Here's what you do:

Turn this:

into this (shredded sweet potato and a little Parmesan cheese)

Create this (flour with black and red pepper)

Set up your stations:

Dredge, dip, coat and add to hot pan:

Cook on both sides until browned on the outside and the fish is cooked through:

Overall, a simple and satisfying meal. I might try baking the fish next time to see what happens.

Enjoy!
--Lindsay--

Cranberry Chicken Curry

Hi Friends!

Ever since we went out for Indian food and I made Naan, the hubby has been wanting more Indian food. Since I didn't make it to the grocery store today, I decided to try this recipe for Cranberry Chicken Curry. I had all the ingredients and it seemed easy enough.

Ingredients:

olive oil
225g boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I have no idea how much this is...I used 4 breasts)
1 tbsp curry powder (I added an extra 1/2 Tbsp)
1/4 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 apple, diced (I peeled mine)
1/2 tsp mustard seeds (I left these out)
1tsp ground cumin (I used 2 tsp of garam masala)
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves (I left this out)
2 cups canned diced tomatos, including juices
1 tsp plain fat-free Greek yogurt (i left this out because it didn't seem worthwhile to open a whole container)
1/2 cup fresh cranberries, chopped coarsely (i used more like one cup)
pinch of sea salt and black pepper
coarsely chopped cilantro, to garnish (skipped this too)

Directions:

Heat olive oil in skillet. Chop the chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces and add them to the pan, sprinkling them with all of the curry powder.

Add in the onion, apple, garam masala and ginger and cook some more.

Add in the cranberries. Since mine came from the freezer I defrosted the first batch...But the second batch I just chopped without thawing and that worked fine too.

Add the tomatoes, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook until chicken is done.

Serve over rice.

The result? It was pretty good...but it wasn't nearly spicy enough...and I even added extra curry and some red pepper. We added extra to what was on our plates and I mixed some more into to the leftovers.

The best part of dinner were the curried roasted sweet potatoes that I made. Dice a sweet potato, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with curry powder and red pepper, toss to coat and roast at 425 for 40 minutes or so stirring occasionally. SO GOOD!

I'll leave you with some cuteness :)

Enjoy!

--Lindsay--

Turkey, Cranberry & Cheese Quesadillas

Hello my friends!

Today we spent most of the day shopping. Last night we strategized:

We intended to get up around 5 this morning, but we found a couple of the tool deals online last night so we decided it wasn't really necessary. We got up around 9 and headed out.

After successfully purchasing some stuff to decorate the newly renovated bathroom, we came home and added to the Christmas decorations that we started yesterday. Here's a sneak peak for you:

Then we threw together a quick leftover turkey dinner. I was originally planning to make these paninis, and then I saw these quesadillas that were very similar and it really sealed the deal. We didn't have any brie, or any bacon cooked, so we used Muenster cheese.

Here's what you do:

Grab your tortilla, top one half with some chopped turkey and cheese of your choosing. Add some leftover cranberry sauce and heat until golden brown. Voila!

Enjoy!

--Lindsay--

Turkey Dumpling Soup

I hope you didn't throw away your bones, my friends...Turkey bones that is. They are a key ingredient in this soup. Go fish them out of the trash- I'll wait...

But for real, next time save them ok?

This soup is my grandma's recipe. My grandparents used to make the trip down to spend Thanksgiving with us when I was younger and grandma would always make this soup on Black Friday. Since I seem to be doing everything a day earlier this year, I made mine tonight.

Here's what you do:

1) Get a super (haha souper) big pot. I happen to have one that is ridiculously big. I don't even know where I got it. And this is about the only time of year I use it. But it sure does come in handy :)

2) Put the bones in the pot.

3) Cover the bones with water and add some carrots, celery, onion, parsley and black pepper.

4) Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and go busy yourself for 2 hours or so. Clean your house, take a nap, eat some leftovers, whatever... Give the mixture a stir every half hour or so.

5) By the time you're done, it'll be looking something like this, and that means it's done (Read: pretty much whenever you get tired of waiting)

6) Scoop out all the "stuff"

7) Strain if desired. You don't have to if you're sure you got all the bones out...but sometimes it's hard to tell and there might be some lurking. Also, those onions can be tricky to fish out! They're slippery little devils!

8) Return the broth to the pot

9) Chop up some more celery, carrots and onion and add them to the pot:

10) Then chop up some leftover turkey and add that too:

11) Now time for the dumplings:

Mix together 1 egg and enough milk to make one cup, 2 c flour, 1/2 tsp salt and anywhere from 1/2 tsp - 4 tsp baking powder. If you like firmer dumplings stick closer to 1/2-1 tsp, if you like softer dumplings add more. I couldn't decide how much to use so I went with 2 tsp because it was right in the middle and they turned out a little softer than the hubby and I like them...still good, just not as firm...so i've made a note in my recipe book and next year I'll use less.