Jamaican Brown Stew Chicken with Rice and Peas

This is one of my favorite Jamaican meals. Normally, this is made in a stew pot and the chicken cut up and browned in a frying pan. I thought it would be easier if I made this in my crockpot. I love throwing a whole chicken minus the gibblets into the crockpot with some aromatic vegetables like celery, onions and carrots and some seasoning. The chicken becomes so tender this way that you won't need a knife to carve the chicken because the meat falls off the bones.


Another staple in Jamaican cuisine is Rice and Peas, which is really rice with kidney beans. I like to use brown rice in all of my rice dishes. This particular dish uses coconut milk, which is simply, fresh coconut steeped in hot water. I have never made my own coconut milk because it's more cost effective to buy it out of a can. Plenty of Caribbean dishes use coconut milk as well as cilantro. A quick observation, Thai food also utilizes the same ingredients.


Ingredients

•  1 whole chicken (about 3lb)
•  A splash of lime juice
•  1 teaspoon of salt
•  1 teaspoon of pepper
•  1 onion, chopped
•  3 stalks of scallion, chopped
•  1 hot pepper (ideally scotch bonnet), seeded and chopped
•  1 sweet pepper, seeded and chopped
•  3 cloves of garlic, minced
•  1/2 inch of ginger, minced
•  3 tomatoes, chopped
•  Oil for frying
•  3 sprigs of fresh thyme (or 3 teaspoons of dried thyme)
•  2 tablespoons of soy sauce

Instructions

1. Wash the chicken with lime juice and rinse.
2. Chop the chicken into small pieces or you can leave whole
3. In a bowl, season the chicken with salt and pepper. Add the onion, scallion, hot pepper, sweet pepper, garlic, and ginger. Marinate for at least an hour to overnight.
4. Scrape off the onions, scallions, hot pepper, sweet pepper, garlic and ginger from the chicken and save the vegetables. In a large pan, working in batches, brown the chicken on all sides. 
5. Once the chicken is browned, add the chicken to your crock pot along with the reserved marinade. Pour in the soy sauce and set the crock pot for low heat.
6. I like to cook this slowly for about 6-8 hours. Which is why it's best to do right before you head out to work.
7. The chicken will release a lot of juice because it's cooking so slow. If you're home, it's good to spoon some of those juices on top of the chicken so the top doesn't get dry. 
8. When done, you should be able to scoop out a spoonful of the chicken. Plate it over the rice and peas. Serve with a simple side salad of lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, and tomatoes. I like to mix up my salad dressing by using lemon juice instead of vinegar.

Easy Kielbasa Dish

What I love about this meal is it's simplicity and how budget friendly it is. The recipe cost approximately $4. So it's really $1 a serving. It's also a comfort food to me and another easy way for me to eat more vegetables. The kielbasa flavors the vegetables, so you need to be a bit stingy with the salt and pepper.

This is a quick meal. Perfect for those nights when you don't feel like cooking but don't have the money to order take out.

                                                                                                          Ingredients

• 1 package of kielbasa. (I normally like to use all beef, if you want to lower the calories and fat this works great with turkey kielbasa.
• 1 package of frozen mixed vegetables (Use whatever frozen vegetables you have on hand. No matter what vegetable this dish will turn out right. 

Slice up the kielbasa and add to a pot or frying pan of any kind. Add the frozen vegetables along with a little salt and pepper. Turn the burner on to medium-high heat and cook until the vegetables are warmed through.

This should take less than 15 minutes.

Buttermilk Roasted Chicken Drumsticks

I love this recipe. I used to only eat the white meat of chicken, but since I've been doing a lot more cooking, I've found that chicken thighs and drumsticks pack a lot of favor. You can use any part of the chicken. I'm thinking of using a whole chicken to roast. This recipe packs a lot of flavor. It's important to let the chicken soak in the buttermilk mix for as long as possible so the flavors seep deep into the chicken. I think this is so much better than fried chicken. It's a lot easier to make.

The original recipe calls for vegetable oil. I think it dilutes the flavors.

This also makes a great gravy. I didn't use it in this one. But it is great on top of mashed potatoes. There is a little sweetness to this dish as well because of the maple syrup.

You can also use other spices like sweet paprika for a more Hungary type dish or even gram marsala for an Indian flavored type of dish.

Ingredients

1. About 12 chicken drumsticks (about 3 pounds total)
2. 3 cups buttermilk
3. 2 garlic cloves, skins removed and smashed with the flat end of a knife
4. 1 tablespoon crushed peppercorns. See note.
5. 2 tables salt
6. 1 tablespoon ground cumin. See note.
7. 2 tablespoons maple syrup. See note.


Instructions

Pour the buttermilk, garlic, pepper, salt, cumin and syrup into a large freezer bag and close. Shake the bag to mix the ingredients. The color should be a light brownish color.

Add the chicken to the bag and refrigerate overnight. If you need to make this right away, leave the bag in a bowl in a sink for 30 minutes or up to 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Take the chicken pieces out of the bag and shake off the excess marinade. Place the chicken in a foiled roasting pan (so clean up is easier). Cook for about 30 minutes or until brown and the juices are bubbling. I like mine a little bit scorched.


Notes: A pepper mill is an essential part of any kitchen. You have more options to flavor your dishes. You can grind the black pepper small or have large cracked chunks.

Notes: You can use regular syrup if you're on a budget and can't afford the real stuff. But the real stuff is sooo much better!

Notes: If you have a spice grinder, use whole cumin seeds. Dry toast them in a frying pan until fragrant and then grind them. It is so much more flavorful that way.

Healthy Vegetable Beef and Barely Soup

When it comes to winter, I crave soup. It's so nice to wrap your hands around a nice bowl of steaming soup while it's chilly outside. I also love Chili, which I will be making in a few days. I have tried and tried several different types of pre-made soups, but they all have that kind of canny, artificial taste that I can't stand, and that includes the organic canned soups. Below is a very healthy, low fat, fat that takes all day to make but is totally worth it. If you're single, like me, you can divide up the soup in low cost canning jars and freeze them or give them away. It's also a pretty cheap meal.

Ingredients

2 lb soup bones

Root vegetables, washed and halved (2 parsnips, 2 turnips, 4 large carrots)

2onions, halved and stuck with 2 cloves in each half

4 to 5 celery stalks, including leaves

1 cup parsley

2 cloves garlic smashed

Salt

Pepper

1/2 cup barley, rinsed.

1 lb beef stew meat, cut into smaller pieces. Cut off any fat

1 package of frozen mixed vegetables

1. In a large pot, add the first five ingredients and cover with water. Heat the mixture through on medium low heat for three hours. Season with salt and pepper. Check on the soup periodically after an hour and season with salt and pepper to taste.

2. After three hours, strain the soup into another pot. You should be left with a broth. At this point, you can chill the broth and scrape out the fat when chilled and use the broth for something else, or you can continue on to step three.

3. Add the barley, beef and frozen vegetables and heat on medium low for an hour. 

Note: Fat will accumulate at the top of your soup. You can chill it and then scrape out the fat. There shouldn't be a lot of fat, if you chose lean meat.

Nutrition

Calories: 112

Calories from fat: 32

Total fat: 4g

Saturated fat: 1g

Cholesterol: 24mg

Sodium: 551mg

Total Carbohydrates: 10g

Dietary fiber: 2g

Sugars: 0g

Vitamin A: 24%

Vitamin C: 4%

Calcium: 3%

Iron: 6%

The Benefits of Green Tea

I've stated before that I'm obese and that I want to lose weight. I have my ups and downs. I gain weight and then lose it. It's a vicious merry-go-round. I also suffer from depression and I have high blood pressure.

Uncontrolled high blood pressure is serious. It could lead to kidney failure. I'd rather not have to go a dialysis clinic 3-4 days a week. That would suck.

So after reading Jackie Warner's book, "This is why you're Fat," I decided that I'm going to drink green tea to see how it would affect my body. According to a English study, subjects were told to drink four cups of green tea a day and to not change their diet. The study concluded that green tea lowered the subjects blood pressure when compared with a controlled group. They also found that the subjects lost body fat and body weight.

Another English study found that after digesting green tea, fat oxidation rates increased, which means that the rate at which your body breaks down fats (lipids), which are large molecules into smaller molecules that your body can use. The study also suggested that drinking green tea can improve insulin sensitivity.

A Slovenia study found that green tea is beneficial to oral hygiene.

A study showed that women who ate mushrooms and green tea was linked to a 90 percent lower occurrence of breast cancer.

An American study found that green tea can increase T cells in the body and boost the immune system.

Studies have shown that green tea has had a positive affect on mood and cognative disorders as well.

So hopefully in two weeks I will be a couple of pounds lighter, without really dieting.

Quick tip

I have a lot of frozen fruit in my freezer. There was a time when I drank a lot of protein shakes. To cut down on the fat and to mask that protein powder flavor, I would add frozen fruit, the powders, water or milk and blend.

However, I've been super lazy when it comes to the protein shakes. So now I have a freezer full of frozen fruit like blueberries, raspberries, whole strawberries and pineapple chunks.

I had a great idea, add a couple pieces of frozen fruit to my water. I was out of ice cubes. The frozen fruit acted like an ice cube for a bit longer than a normal ice cube. And when the fruit thaws, it sweetens the water. I like using big pieces of fruit.

It reminded of this time, I went to this restaurant in Lincoln Park called Lettuce Mix or Leafy Green (there was some legal dispute with the name). They had this huge jug of water filled with fruit. Here's the recipe:

1 glass or plastic pitcher (you can use your Brita pitcher).
Slices of apple, preferably granny smith
Slices of strawberries
Slices of oranges
Slices of lemons
A couple of leaves of mint

Put all of the ingredients in the pitcher, pour in the water, and let the fruit "steep" for a few minutes. You will have a very refreshing glass of water.

Who loves mussels?

I'm not a huge mussels fan or mollusks for that matter. But every now and then, I have a craving for mussels. So the other day, I was at my favorite grocery store, Whole Foods, and they had them on sale for $4.99 a pound. Coincidentally, I had just watched Top Chef, where Antonia made that dish of mussels. I had to make this dish. Here's my version of Antonia's dish.

When buying mussels make sure that your fishmonger checks the mussels and throws out any that are open and don't close when you tap them.

Cleaning Mussels:

1. Scrub the sand and grit from the mussels with a brush. I have a special tooth brush that I use for the purpose.
2. Remove the beard. You can just pull it off, but sometimes you need a little assistance, and that's where a needle nose plier comes in handy.

NOTE: You want to clean your mussels right before you cook them. Once the beard is removed, it won't take long for the mussels to die. If you buy them already cleaned, used them right away. If you're not using them right away, store them in open container with ice.

Ingredients

• 1/2 large fennel bulb
• 1 shallot
• 3 tablespoons garlic
• Olive Oil
• 1/2 cup dry white wine (I used Sauvignon Blanc)
• red pepper flakes
• 1lb mussels
• 1 tablespoon of thyme
• Good crusty bread, like French

Directions:

Warm a large sautee pan with medium heat. Pour enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan and a little extra to soak up with the toasted bread.

Sautee the shallots (onions if you don't have any) and fennel until soft. About five minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Next add the garlic and sautee until fragrant.

Add the wine, thyme, red pepper flakes and mussels. Stir so all of the fat covers the mussels. Then cover for about 3-4 minutes.

Butter and toast thick slices of the bread in the broiler.

When the mussels are done they will open.  Remove from heat. Stir once more to get some of that garlicky goodness inside the mussels. If they haven't opened after four minutes, throw them away.

Pour everything into a big serving bowl. Serve the toast along side for dipping.