Free Friday - Chicken Kale stew

Welcome to Friday! It's the weekend and today I'm going to give you a great recipe to feed the family as well as freeze for a few lunches next week. My hint was that you were going to need a slowcooker. If you are starting with nothing but a bunch of ingredients and a raw chicken, then yes, you need this. But if you're swinging by the store on the way home and grabbing a rotisserie chicken, then no, you don't need the crock pot. This particular dish is a great, warm, comfort food, filled with hearty veggies and rich proteins. No sugar and no wheat, it's the perfect cold night stew. I realize we're headed into spring and don't worry, I'll be pulling out more recipes for salads and maybe a few cakes, but for now I was really looking for something nutrient dense and this definitely does it.

The ingredient list isn't complicated but it is full. The method isn't crazy but it can take a little bit. If you're in a hurry, make this stew ahead of time. It tastes great after being in the fridge overnight and freezes very well. I used my 6 qt pot and found it was a little too small. If you have a stock pot, definitely use that.

Also, straying from my usual butter obsession, today I've put a new ingredient on the list: coconut oil. Coconut oil is supposedly VERY good for you, has all these magical abilities and in general will save the world someday. Unrefined will give your food a light coconut magic taste and refined will just give you magic. I used the coconut oil in my chicken stew instead of butter because there's been some recent discussion about how butter is bad. I disagree to a certain extent, however, I do think I probably eat too much butter. So, if you can make the splurge (coconut oil is NOT cheap) then go for it, it's good fat.

Let's get started!

Chicken Kale Stew:

Ingredients:

3 oz butter or coconut oil

8 oz carrots chopped

1/4 onion or bunch of spring onions chopped, including green tops

3oz chopped garlic (about 1/2 head garlic)

2 stalks of celery chopped

2-4 cups water

2 tablespoons of chicken soup base

bag of frozen mixed veggies - your choice/favorite

14 oz of fresh chopped kale - I buy a huge bag already chopped

2 cans cannellini beans

teaspoon of thyme (or if you have it fresh 3 sprigs torn up)

8 large basil leaves torn

1 whole cooked chicken, pulled apart into pieces/chopped into 1" pieces

Start with some oil/butter in the bottom of your stock pot. Throw in onion, garlic, celery and carrots. Cook on medium heat till the carrots start to become tender. Add the soup base and 2 cups of water, and the frozen veggies. Stir and start to bring the pot back up to medium heat cooking the veggies. Add in the basil and thyme, beans and kale. Stir until the kale is fully incorporated into the soup and turning bright green, adding water if necessary to cover everything. Finally, add the chicken, bring the stew to a boil (add more water if you find it to be a little thick). Gently boil for 15 min to help blend flavors and serve hot. This is where your stew will end up tasting better the next day, by letting it sit overnight (refrigerated), reheating will awaken some of those flavors that weren't quite ready when it was fresh. But it still tastes great right out of the pot.

Enjoy!

Introducing Free Friday!

Sooo, this is kinda an inspiration from somewhere else, but I figured this would be a good way to get me here, writing on the blog once a week - introducing free Fridays. Basically, I'll try to come up with a simple or at least creative meal for Friday. IF somehow I can't come up with any amazing recipe, I'll make sure I post something edible. I promise not to say shrimp cocktails too many weeks in a row.

Today is for comfort food. I think I had a hard few days and decided that when you're worried about food all the time, it starts to weigh on you instead of being a good thing. Decidedly yesterday was one of those days nothing looked good. Insert reach for pasta here. Now every person out there with sugar and wheat issues knows pasta is not a great choice. There are a lot of different gf pastas to choose from: rice, quinoa, corn, amaranth. Pick a pasta you like the taste, texture and isn't too strong. Some people find quinoa to be too strong, but I really like the flavor and love the texture, it's as close as I can get to wheat. I'm so addicted to the texture of wheat - I'd never eat it again if it lost it's nice smooth, elasticky, rich texture. Ohya. I'm not supposed to eat it ever again anyway. I digress.

Watch portions of pasta very carefully, in regards to sugars. A single serving of quinoa corn pasta can have 46g carbs and that means a nice sugar crash 45 min later. Pair it with steak or shrimp, AND (yes I said and) some strong leafy veggies like kale, spinach or escarole. If necessary only have 1/2 serving. I'm a pasta fiend. I could eat a whole box in one sitting and have nothing more than garlic, butter and salt on it. yum.

So here's today's recipe (I'm going to super cheat here on ingredients so you can see how easy this would be to pick up and toss together - some work necessary but you'll be so glad you did.)

Craving pasta!

Cook 1 serving (for each person) of your favorite GF pasta

1 bottle of your favorite spaghetti sauce (yikes! or if you have your own use it but try to make it ahead so this is available!)

1/2 bag of frozen mixed veggies like squash, zuccini, carrots and whatever fun blend you want to use, red peppers, green peppers (whatever is already chopped!)

Couple handfuls of chopped kale

1 crock pot or rotisserie chicken (check labels for wheat used as a stabilizer in the marinade for these chickens)

Ok you have your pasta done in the sink with butter melting all over it. Take those frozen veggies and kale and omg /gasp (microwave them till soft) - no one heard me say that. Just get them unfrozen asap!

Open up the jar of sauce, pour into a pan or (yes you can microwave that too.) Toss the softened veggies/cooked kale in a food processor and pulse till you cannot recognize it for much more than baby food. =)

Pour into the tomato sauce.

Heat.

Place pasta on a plate, top with sauce, some cheese of your fav variety (I like mozo) and then a few slices of chicken on top.

Voila. Comfort food for the SFGF crowd. Everyone will love it. The sauce texture is amazing, the flavors pop and the balance is beautiful for when you're really craving pasta!

I realized today I have no real pictures of any of these foods or anything resembling a nice plate of wholesome foods... but I have a lot of pictures of Johnny Rzeznik. /sheepish grin. Does that help a food blog? Oh yes, I love good scenery while I eat. Ahem.

(Thank you J for your picture contribution, that is my favorite guitar of all time.)