Crock-pot Basil Parmesan Chicken

This recipe is ridiculously easy to prepare and is super popular. You can throw the ingredients in your slow cooker in the morning (which takes about 5-10 minutes) and then you'll come home to the most amazing aromas in your home--it will smell like someone has been at home cooking for you all day!  I have some friends who are decidedly not morning people at all, and they do all the prep in the slow cooker the night before, store it in the fridge, and then just write themselves a note in the morning to take the food out of the fridge and plug the crock-pot in before they leave for work.

You can adapt the proportions depending on how many people you are cooking for.  This recipe is VERY forgiving, so measurements do not need to be exact.  The most important thing is that you never leave your slow cooker on without liquid inside it--it's just not safe.

Crock-pot Basil Parmesan Chicken

1-2 packages organic or pastured chicken thighs (I've substituted other kinds of chicken in a pinch, but I wouldn't recommend anything with bones.)
1/4 cup high quality olive oil
a splash-1/4 c cooking sherry
Sea Salt
Pepper
1-2 Shallots, chopped
1-2 Onions, chopped
1 package of fresh basil, stems removed
1/2c-1c grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/2c-2 c Chicken Broth (I usually try to use homemade pastured broth, but sometimes used the boxed stuff if I'm out.)


Make sure your crock-pot is clean, and use some of the oil to grease the crock-pot.  Put the chicken, onions and shallots in the crock-pot.  Then add Olive oil, Broth, and Sherry. You want to make sure that there's enough liquid in the bottom of the crockpot to cover about the bottom half of your chicken.  Add sea salt, pepper, basil, and cheese.

Cover your slow cooker and turn it on low.  Cook for 7-8 hours until chicken is falling apart.  If you won't be home in 7-8 hours, you can cook it longer, you just want to make sure that you have some extra liquid in there.

You can serve this on its own, or with rice, beans, or good crusty bread.

Avocado Pesto with Dandelion Greens & Pasta

What do you do when your home city is struck by a senseless act of violence?
Try a new recipe and get back to blogging, of course.

At some point I'll use a real camera, but for now
food pics from the phone will have to do!

This one's inspired by Chef Chloe's recipe, but I made some tweaks.  Soooooo Good!  This is some of the creamiest, richest pesto I've ever tried.




2 Avocados
1 bunch fresh Basil
1/2 cup pecans (mine were roasted an salted, but raw ones would have worked fine)
2 fresh lemons
1/2c (plus enough for to saute the greens) olive oil
1 bunch dandelion greens
1 handful grated salty cheese, like parmesan or asiago (optional if you are going vegan)
1/2-3/4 lb of pasta (I used gluten free pasta, but any kind would work)


Boil the pasta in sea-salted water.

Meanwhile, cut open the avocados and mash them up.  Cut open one of the lemons and squeeze all the juice into the avocados.  Blend in the olive oil, basil, pecans, salt and pepper with a food processor or immersion blender.

Saute the dandelion greens in olive oil.  Dandelion gets really bitter, even when cooked, unless you use something to take away the acidity.   The other juiced lemon, salt, pepper, and handful of cheese will help cut the bitterness.

Drain the pasta, add the greens, and toss with the rich and delicious pesto.  Fab!

Healthy Homemade Chicken Nuggets

Store bought and fast-food created Chicken Nuggets are some of the worst perpetrators of horrible food additives. I confess that I nearly gagged when I read about the ingredients in a mickey-d's nugget in Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma.

Besides most chicken nuggets being made with ingredients that are distinctly not food, they are fried in industrial vegetable oil.  The oil itself is bad enough, but the high temperatures and re-frying of a fry machine actually change the oil's chemical makeup and give it carcinogenic properties.

These nuggets are made with sesame oil and chicken thighs. To keep all of the health benefits of the oil, make sure that you never heat the oil above it's smoking point.  In this case, the oil needs to stay heating at medium heat.  Chicken thighs have natural fat in them, which make these nuggets juicy and rich.  For more on healthy fats, check out this blog post.

I had mind with a salad and
 local honey as dipping sauce.

Healthy Homemade Chicken Nuggets
1 pound chicken thighs: farm raised, pastured chicken is best (organically raised would be the next best choice)
2 pastured eggs
1/4 cup white flour (to make GF, use GF flour instead)
1/2 cup spelt flour (to make GF, use GF flour instead)
1/4 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
seasoning to taste (I used sea salt, black pepper, and oregano)
Unrefined Sesame Oil for cooking


Lay the chicken thighs flat and pound them with a meat tenderizer.  Cut the chicken thighs into bite-size pieces.  There is no need to remove the fat, unless you see a piece that is particularly large.

Mix the flours, flaxseed, and seasoning in a large bowl.  Crack the eggs into a separate bowl, and stir them with a fork.  Pour the sesame oil into your frying pan and heat the pan on medium heat.

Once the pan is hot, dip the pieces of chicken into the egg, and then coat in the flour mixture.  Place in the hot pan and cook until the sides of the chicken are completely white and the top is starting to cook.  Flip nuggets once and finish cooking the last side.  Nuggets can be stored in a warm oven.

Spicy Curried Quinoa and Greens with Semi-Caramelized Sweet Potatoes

This recipe is amazing.
I can honestly say that the meat lovers in my home don't miss it in this one at all.

I make the quinoa with homemade pastured chicken stock so that we can get the nutrients from the pastured chicken, but for those of you of the vegan or vegetarian persuasion, you can easily make it with water or vegetable stock.  Keeping the skins on the sweet potatoes retains the nutrients and fiber of this delicious root. Remember, the best vegetables for your body are ones grown without chemicals, so try to get veggies from a farmer or source that you trust.  This recipe has been adapted from one I found on the Boston Organics website.  Enjoy!

If you want a vegan version of this,
use mango chutney instead of yogurt.

Spicy Curried Quinoa with Greens and Semi-Caramelized Sweet Potatoes

4 medium sized sweet potatoes
¼ cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 chopped onion
2 cloves shallots or garlic
2-3 inches fresh ginger, chopped
2-4 tablespoons spicy curry powder
3 cups leafy greens (such as kale, chard, collards, dandelion greens) cut in thin strips
2 carrots, chopped
11/2 cups quinoa, rinsed in cold water
3 cups water or stock
3 tablespoons olive oil
Squeeze of lemon
Organic Yogurt or Mango chutney on the side

Wash the sweet potatoes and slice them 1/4 inch thick.  Then cut them in half so that you have half-circles.  Toss them with salt, pepper and olive oil.  Place them on a baking sheet covered with tin foil or parchment paper. Put the dish into a cold oven (this is important, as the gradual rise in temperature helps bring out the sweet potato flavors and gives the roasted veggies the semi-caramelized quality).  Turn on the oven to 450 Bake for about 30 min. until dark orange and soft.  At this point, you will start with the quinoa on the stove. Flip them and bake another 15-20 minutes until the other side is done as well.

While the potatoes are roasting, in a medium pot heat up the olive oil and sauté the onion in it. Then add the garlic or shallots, ginger and the curry powder and saute until sizzling and fragrant. Now add the carrots and the greens.  Add the quinoa to the pot along with 3 cups stock or salted water. Simmer under a lid until all the liquid is absorbed about 15 minutes. Fluff the quinoa with a fork, season to taste and add the olive oil.  Add a squeeze of lemon. Put the quinoa on a platter, top with the sweet potatoes.  Serve with chutney or yogurt.

serves 6.