Angela’s Recipes

October 24, 2016October 28, 2016

Creamy Salsa Verde Chicken & Pasta

I tripped upon a salsa verde chicken recipe the other day that was interesting, but it did not have the veg and herbs that I normally use in my cooking, so I made my own recipe. This one makes a BIG skillet of food and is very creamy and satisfying. You can leave out the pasta and serve this over rice if that’s more your thang. :)

Creamy Salsa Verde Chicken & Pasta

4 boneless and skinless chicken thighs (about one pound), one inch dice
S/P
olive oil
1 small onion, diced
3 baby bell peppers or one small red pepper, diced
1 Tbl garlic paste or 3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp fresh thyme (optional)
2 Tbl pickled jalapeño chopped or 1 SMALL raw jalapeño, minced (optional)
zest of one lime
1.5 cups chicken stock
1.5 cups salsa verde (I use Herdez)
1.5 cups UNCOOKED penne pasta (or any small shape, can be omitted)
1 cup Mexican crema (or sub heavy cream; add more salt if using cream)
3/4 to 1 cup shredded jack cheese or Mexican mix shredded cheese
1/2 cup queso fresco to top (optional)
juice of the zested lime

Cut up chicken and season, then sauté in a large hot skillet. I used a deep chicken frying skillet for this, with a lid. Don’t crowd or the chicken won’t brown. When the chicken is browned, push to the sides of the pan and add onion, peppers, garlic, herbs and hot peppers. Sauté until translucent, but don’t brown.

Stir chicken and veg together and add lime zest. Add chicken stock and salsa verde, bring to boil. Add pasta and cook at a slow simmer, covered, for about 8-10 mins until the pasta is al dente. You may have to add a splash more stock if it gets too tight. If you omit the pasta, just cook until you get the consistency you want.

Cut the heat and add the crema and jack cheese (use as much or as little cheese as you like). Stir until smooth and creamy. Crumble up the queso fresco and sprinkle on top. Add lime juice. I added more oregano on top for the photo.

Check your seasoning and serve.

September 23, 2016October 28, 2016

Shrimp & Apple Cinnamon Sausage Skillet

Occasionally, our Kroger will have uniquely flavoured sausages, such as apple cinnamon or gyro. They are raw sausage, not the precooked kind. This recipe was born – as many of mine are – from looking at what I had in the fridge and getting an idea from a googled recipe. This is a very easy meal and very hearty. This also freezes well, so you can double this and freeze half for a quick dinner later!

Shrimp and Apple Cinnamon Sausage Skillet

Shrimp & Apple Cinnamon Sausage Skillet

1/2 pound large shrimp (or whatever size is on sale), cleaned and cut in half crosswise, soaked in vermouth
2 Tbl dry vermouth or dry sherry to marinate shrimp
3 uncooked apple cinnamon sausages (or sub the precooked kind)
1 Tbl olive oil
2 Tbl butter
2 roasted bell peppers (jarred), diced (sub 1 fresh pepper if you like)
2/3 cup halved and sliced red onion (about 1/3 of a big onion)
3-4 cloves garlic, diced
2/3 cup halved and thinly sliced fennel (about 2/3 of small head)
6-8 sliced cremini mushrooms
3/4 cup basmati or any long grain rice, uncooked
1 cup chicken stock (half stock, half water)
1 Tbl mirin
1/2 can diced tomatoes with juice (fire roasted is best)
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1.5 Tbl fennel fronds, chopped

Mix together shrimp and vermouth (or sherry), set aside. Put olive oil and butter in a large skillet over med hi heat. Open the sausages and crumble into skillet. Sauté sausage until it starts to brown. Add peppers, onions, garlic, fennel and mushrooms and sauté until soft, about 3-4 minutes. Stir in the uncooked rice to coat thoroughly. Add stock, mirin, tomatoes and spices and cover over med heat for about 10-15 minutes until rice is cooked. Add more water if it gets dry. Check seasoning. Turn off heat and stir in shrimp and vermouth. Let sit another 5-8 minutes until shrimp become pink and opaque. Turn on low heat if the shrimp are not getting cooked enough.

September 12, 2016September 12, 2016

Simple Gorgonzola Sauce

This is a riff on Ina Garten’s recipe for gorgonzola sauce. It is super cinchy and really delicious on beef or pork – or anything, really. I think it is sublime with gorgonzola dolce if you can find it. My newly renovated Kroger now has an extensive cheese bar, and I found a block of gorgonzola dolce ON SALE, which is what spurred this idea. I served it on flat iron steak and it was amazing. (See my Instagram!)

Gorgonzola Dolce Sauce

3/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp salt
pinch pepper
1 tsp garlic paste
4 oz gorgonzola dolce, in pieces (or regular gorgonzola)
2 oz parmesan, grated

Put cream, salt, pepper and garlic paste on medium heat and let it simmer for 20 mins to reduce. When the cream is reduced to your liking, take off the heat and add in the cheeses. You can put over low heat if the cheese is not melting enough. Check seasoning after you add the cheese. That’s it! Easy!

September 12, 2016July 20, 2020

Mixed Fruit Galette

UPDATED!! The dough recipe has been perfected! It makes a bigger pie and rises more.

I’ve been slowly bringing more baked goods into my repertoire. I can make a good madeleine and now I can make a pretty good galette! I use a mix of blueberries and peaches, nectarines, and plums. You can use any fruit you like, but if you use apples, they need to be VERY thin and the cook time might be a bit longer. The best part is the short dough crust! You’ll need parchment paper for this recipe. It will stick like crazy if you don’t use parchment. Trust me.

Dough
3/4 cup almond flour (grind up one small bag of slivered blanched almonds)
OR if you don’t have almond flour, just use 1.5 cup AP flour and 3/4 cup SR flour instead
3/4 cup plus 2 Tbl A/P flour
1/2 cup S/R flour
2 Tbl sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 stick butter, cold, cut in pieces
1/4 – 1/2 cup ice water (depends on the weather!)

Filling
half a pint of blueberries (check for stems!) <- use a whole pint for straight up blueberry galette 2 peaches or nectarines (or one of each, OR 3 plums), peeled, pitted, halved and sliced 1/4 inch juice of half a lemon or lime 1 Tbl cornstarch 1/3 cup sugar (white or brown, I like brown) 1/2 tsp cinnamon Glaze: 3 Tbl Apricot preserves plus 2 tsp water, warmed for 35 secs in microwave Optional but looks great: large decorative sugar crystals (specialty, by Wilton, I found it at Target) Method for dough: Put first 5 ingredients into a large bowl and mix. Cut in butter with a dough cutter. (OR put into food processor and process for 5-10 seconds just until it comes together.) Butter should be pea sized. Pour in half the water and work in with a spatula. (OR process for a few seconds.) Keep adding water until the dough just holds together and you still see the butter chunks. Some days it will be 1/4 cup, some days it will be 1/2 cup. It depends on how humid it is.
Turn out on a floured surface, give it a couple of kneads and pat into a 6″ flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 30 mins – or you can do this a day ahead.

While the dough is chilling, put fruit, lemon juice, cornstarch, cinnamon and sugar into a bowl and stir. Let it sit until the dough is ready. This step is to let the excess juice come out of the fruit, which will give a better overall galette. Stone fruit is very wet, so there will be a good amount of juice; apples, not so much.

Put 3 Tbl preserves in a small bowl with 2tsp water and warm to loosen it up enough to brush on.

When the dough is chilled, unwrap and place on floured parchment sheets, leaving the plastic on the top. Preheat oven to 375F.

Roll out dough to about 14″ diameter, 1/4 inch thick – don’t make it too thin or it’ll leak. By rolling it under plastic, you keep the rolling pin clean; the parchment makes the dough easier to move right onto the sheet pan. This is a rustic type pie, so the dough shouldn’t be perfect. Move the dough on the parchment to a sheet pan (or pizza pan) wrapped in foil. This galette will leak and you don’t want it to stick. USE PARCHMENT PAPER!!

Place the fruit filling into the center of the crust. Fold up the edges of the dough to create a rustic pie. Spoon half the apricot preserves glaze along the edges of the crust and over the filling. Sprinkle with large crystal sugar.

Bake for 30-40 minutes at 375F or until crust is nicely browned. There will be leakage, it’s ok.

While galette is hot, spoon the rest of the preserves on the crust and fruit, then sprinkle with decorative sugar again. Let cool for 15 minutes, then use a spatula to loosen the pie and remove any burnt leakage. Move carefully to a plate for serving.

Serve at room temperature.

May 5, 2016

Bariatric High Protein Smoothies

Since so much of the bariatric diet depends on blended things for the first couple of months, I’m exploring various kinds of smoothies. I’m in my last two weeks pre surgery, so I’m trying to do a smoothie for breakfast every day. Not a fan of smoothies, but it’s doable. Here’s what I’ve discovered.

I’ve said this before, I’ll say it again: GET A NUTRIBULLET. Unless you have a Vitamix or Ninja already, which I did not. These things make the best purees you’ll ever see and they are MUCH more affordable than a Vitamix.

Protein powder is your best friend. I got vanilla and unflavoured. I buy from vitacost.com and I recommend them for good prices and good quality products. They also have a 100% satisfaction guarantee, which I used with the first thing I ever bought from them, an old lady supplement that had bad side effects for me. They gave me credit and I didn’t even have to return the unused product.

Anyway, protein powder is a necessity when you only eat 1/4 cup at a time. The vanilla powder has 11gm protein per scoop and the plain has 18gm. I’ve found that the plain is fine in anything: soup, smoothies, purees, whatever. It has no effect on the end product other than just a little thickening, which is why I recommend not adding it until you are serving. I’ve been using the vanilla in breakfast smoothies and 2 scoops work fine when making about 3/4 to 1 cup. I’m trying to get the recipes down to about 1/2 cup – it’s harder than you think!

What I’ve been using in various combinations are these ingredients:
Silk Vanilla (it is fortified with more protein and calcium than dairy milk; 6gm protein/cup)
Greek yogurt (LOTS of protein: 23gm per cup! I like Fage.)
Natural peanut butter, smooth (8gm protein per 2 Tbl)
Vanilla protein powder (Vitacost brand, 11gm per scoop)
Unflavoured protein powder (Vitacost brand, 18gm per scoop)
frozen fruit; strawberry, blueberry and mango blend
Agave syrup if I want something sweet (rarely)

Fruit Smoothie (About a cup)
1/3 cup Silk Vanilla
1/4 cup greek yogurt
1/3 cup frozen fruit
2 scoops vanilla protein powder

This will blend up and gain volume to about a cup. About 35gm of protein. I’m working on smaller portions.

Peanut butter banana smoothie (about a cup)
1/3 cup Silk
1 med banana
2 Tbl smooth natural peanut butter (or ANY nut butter)
1/4 cup greek yogurt
2 scoops vanilla protein powder
2 cubes of ice if you want this cold

About 37gm protein.

Peanut butter smoothie
Same as above but no banana. Add ice if you want this cold.

I’ve seen various recommendations for protein intake, from 50gm to 100gm per day. Judging by these smoothie recipes, I’d say that getting in 70gm is totally doable even if you just drink these two smoothies all day. I’m going to try to see if I can make one that’s half a cup finished AND has 2 scoops of protein powder. I’ll update this post when I do that.

The reason people lose hair is the decreased protein intake and not taking enough B12. You MUST load up on gummy vitamins! I’ll make a separate post about that. Protein and supplements are not negotiable. Same for omeprazole (Prilosec), which is necessary in the first few months while the stomach adjusts to its new size.

I also have lots of veg purees that I intend to use for high protein soups. I’ve tried this with the unflavoured protein and it is EASY to put in 2 scoops (36gm) per 1/2 cup serving. So one smoothie and one serving of soup will give you plenty of protein if you keep the flavour profile up. I don’t like fruit much, so I’ll probably eat a lot of soups. I need flavour, which is why all my purees have onions, garlic and S/P in them. I refuse to give up FLAVOUR just because I have to eat purees! Neither should YOU.