Category: Main Dishes

Apple Cider Chicken & Roasted Root Vegetable Medley

It’s that time of the year, ya’ll. Peaches are OUT, squash is IN. And APPLES! Did I mention it’s APPLE season? Ben and I are planning on going to Cville next weekend for our annual Carter Mountain apple picking trip. It’s so worth driving 6 hours total for 3ish hours of apple-hoarding, doughnut-nomming, cider-drinking, kiddo-ogling, dog-petting, hayriding, and jam-buying fun. (Maybe it’s less worth it for him, but at least he knows I’m the happiest lady in the world for those three hours!)

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Carter Mountain Orchard Trip (October 2013)

Since it’s fall now, I decided my “meal of the week” (read: large casserole that will make leftovers for about 12 days straight) should be some sort of roasted vegetables with an ode to apples. I was over by Trader Joe’s this afternoon, and they were sampling out little cups of the most DELICIOUS spiced apple cider, so of course I had to buy a gallon.

The result of my shopping trip was this roasted root vegetable medley, layered on top of a mixture of brown rice and lentils (inspired by my Chicken Marsala Rice Bake from a few months ago) chopped kale, and topped with chicken breasts and dijon apple cider sauce. I infused a few sprigs of fresh thyme into the cider sauce, as well as into the roasted veggies, to give it a little more harvest flavor.

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Apple Cider Chicken & Roasted Root Vegetable Medley
Recipe Type: Casserole, Healthy
Author: Claire McCormick of “Claire Tastes”
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 12-15
Ingredients
  • 2 butternut squashes, cubed
  • 1 acorn squash, cubed
  • 5 carrots, sliced thinly
  • 2 cups brussels sprouts, quartered
  • 1 small carton baby bella mushrooms, sliced
  • 1/2 red onion, diced
  • 2 tbsp olive oil, divided
  • 2 tbsp minced garlic
  • 5 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • S+P (about 1/2 tsp each)
  • 6 chicken breasts
  • 1 24 oz. carton low sodium chicken broth
  • 1 cup apple cider (I LOVE the spiced apple cider from TJ’s!)
  • 1 apple, diced
  • 1 tbsp whole grain dijon mustard
  • 1 cup brown rice medley
  • 1/2 cup lentils
  • 5 oz. chopped kale (about 1/2 bag)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375 deg.
  2. Chop squash, carrots, brussels sprouts, mushrooms, and onion, and toss in a large baking pan with 1 tbsp olive oil, garlic, 3 sprigs thyme (stems removed), garlic powder, salt and pepper.
  3. Roast 15 minutes, stir, and roast 10 more minutes.
  4. Meanwhile, heat remaining 1 tbsp olive oil in a skillet on medium high. Add chicken breasts and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sear until just browned, about 2 min per side. Set aside.
  5. Add 2 cups chicken broth, 1 cup apple cider, dijon mustard, chopped apple, remaining thyme, and extra salt and pepper. Bring to a boil
  6. Lower heat to simmering and cover. Simmer about 15-20 minutes until reduced by half.
  7. In a large casserole dish sprayed with cooking spray, spread an even layer of rice and lentils. Cover with kale and pour remaining chicken broth over top. Add roasted vegetables and wedge in the chicken breasts.
  8. When sauce is done, pour over top of chicken.
  9. Cover with foil and bake at 350 deg until chicken is cooked through and rice is al dente, about 40 minutes. Uncover and cook 10 minutes more.
Serving size: 1/12 recipe Calories: 279 cal Fat: 6 g Carbohydrates: 31 g Fiber: 7 g Protein: 27 g
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Fun tri-color carrots from TJ’s!
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Roasted Squash, Brussels, ‘Shrooms, and Onions
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More Roasted Roots!
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Just-Seared Chicken Breasts
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Apple Cider Sauce, Infused w/ Fresh Thyme and Dijon Mustard
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Ready to Bake!
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Fresh out of the oven
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Plated and served! Try topping with some goat cheese or a dollop of plain Greek yogurt!

I hope you enjoy this healthy Harvest supper just as much as we did!

P.S.Keep an eye out for a special post from our trip to Carter Mountain next weekend!

ClaireLeave a comment

Last of Summer’s Best: Turkish Tabbouleh w/ Lemon-Dill Couscous

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It’s always a sad day when you realize that that peach you were saving in the fridge (you know that peach? the one you were waiting for just the right moment to sink your teeth into, anticipating the sight of that bright orange interior and feeling the juice running down the side of your cheek) has gone bad. That’s right, badddddd. Now it’s mealy and browned in spots when you cut it open. Bummer! Luckily, theres about one square inch of it that you can salvage, but it’s really just a tease until next summer when peaches are in season again.

If you know the feeling, you know just as well as I do that it may just be time for fall. Here in NC, early fall doesn’t mean the same thing it does “up North.” We don’t start our apple picking for at least a month, and apple cider doesn’t start appearing on supermarket shelves until October. (For some strange reason, Pumpkin Spice EVERYTHING and candy corn make their debuts in late August… thank you, commercialism, Starbucks, and Cadbury.)

I don’t mind the end of summer, but I sure do miss the produce that I’ve been able to get a bounty of at the farmers’ market every week. Tomatoes, peppers, corn on the cob, and PEACHES galore! I took this gorgeous picture this week at the market, just for the colors! I can’t stop looking at it!

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Anyway, this salad makes the most of the very “best of” the last of the summer produce (including that salvaged pear!). Roasted veggies, mushrooms, and garbanzo beans blend with the salty kalamatas and a crisp lemon-dill sauce to make a perfect side dish or main. I mixed mine with whole wheat couscous (mostly because I’m lazy and couscous is as easy as stirring boiling water into the grains and letting it sit) for a Meatless Monday salad. Topped with a fried egg, a few peach wedges, avocado, crumbled feta, and a few chopped dates, this salad is a perfect combination of everything I love about summer salads. Fresh, hearty, and stick-to-the-bones-not-the-hips delicious!

Last of Summer’s Best: Turkish Tabbouleh with Lemon-Dill Couscous
Recipe Type: Salad
Cuisine: Vegetarian
Author: Claire McCormick of “Claire Tastes”
Prep time:
Total time:
Serves: 12-20
Here’s a quick make-ahead salad that I promise will just keep growing, and growing, and growing. Roasted veggies, mushrooms, and garbanzo beans meld perfectly with slightly savory kalamata olives and lemon-dill sauce to make a salad that’s perfect as a side dish or hearty enough to serve for Meatless Monday!
Ingredients
  • 2 cans garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1 container mushrooms
  • 1 container broccoli and cauliflower florets
  • 1/2 red onion, roughly chopped
  • 1 tbsp greek seasoning
  • 2 tbsp minced garlic
  • 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 1 bunch fresh dill, roughly chopped
  • juice of one lemon
  • 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 tbsp EVOO
  • 1/2 cucumber, seeded and roughly chopped
  • 1 container grape tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted
  • 1/2 cup marinated artichokes, roughly chopped
  • 4 large carrots, peeled into strips with vegetable peeler
  • Baby spinach
  • 1 cup whole wheat couscous
  • feta cheese, avocado, and pita for serving
Instructions
  1. Heat oven to 375. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients up to cucumber. Bake for 20 minutes, toss, and bake 10 minutes more. Set aside.
  2. Add cucumber, tomatoes, olives, and artichokes to food processor and pulse 2-3 seconds or until roughly chopped. Remove from processor and set aside.
  3. Add half of the chickpea mixture and pulse until roughly chopped (we’re not going for hummus here!). Add to remaining half of the chickpeas. Toss it all with the other veggies and carrots.
  4. Boil 1 1/2 cups water. In a large bowl, stir boiling water into 1 cup couscous and allow to sit for 5 minutes. Fluff with fork and add to the rest of the salad.
  5. Top with feta cheese and more lemon to taste.
  6. Serve on pita bread or over quinoa, couscous or other grain of your choice!

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ClaireLeave a comment

Crock Pot Chicken & Sweet Potato Curry

Here’s a fun new one to try! I was in the mood for Indian tonight, and wanted something that I could let stew away in the Crock Pot all afternoon so that I’d be able to smell it while I got ready for the week ahead (truth be told I will probably be smelling curry for about 3 days… our house has abnormally good insulation of heat AND smells, for better or for worse!). I decided to dream up this chicken curry and sweet potato casserole with onions, tomatoes, and mushrooms, spiced with curry, cilantro, and a heap of other Indian spices, and spread in a casserole dish over a medley of lentils, brown rice, and veggies.

It was definitely a hit! I topped it with some feta cheese (I don’t know if that really counts as “Indian,” but what the heck- it was what I had on hand), more cilantro, and a dollop of plain greek yogurt, as well as some chopped dates and a handful of sliced muscadine grapes that I’d gotten fresh from the farmers’ market yesterday morning (muscadines are apparently native to North Carolina, so does that make this an Indian-Carolina fusion meal?)

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This casserole is not only healthy, packed with protein, whole grains, and vitamins, but it was also delish! Ben thought it was a hit, too. I love the fact that I didn’t need to think about which grain I was going to use, which veggies I was going to have to cook to serve on the side, etc. Casseroles are so great because they have everything you need for a complete meal in one container! A sure time-saver for weeknight meals to come, since I will certainly be enjoying this healthy, exotic casserole all week long!

Crock Pot Chicken & Sweet Potato Curry
Recipe Type: Casserole, Chicken
Cuisine: Indian
Author: Claire McCormick of “Claire Tastes”
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 12
Here’s a super-filling and healthy Indian curry casserole that’s sure to keep you satisfied and promise leftovers to last you all week long! Spiced with red curry paste, cilantro, and a hint of lime, chicken breasts are cooked in the crock-pot with sweet potatoes, mushrooms and onions, then shredded and layered on top of a medley of brown rice, black lentils, and veggies.
Ingredients
  • 4 chicken breasts
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 onion, sliced thinly
  • 1 tbsp minced garlic
  • 1 carton baby bella or mixed variety mushrooms, sliced
  • 2 sweet potatoes, chopped into 1/2″ cubes
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 2 tbsp red curry paste
  • 4 tsp curry powder
  • 2 tsp cumin
  • 1/2 tsp oregano
  • 2 tsp whole coriander seed
  • 1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
  • 2 cups chicken broth, divided
  • 1 small can capers
  • 2 cans whole, peeled tomatoes in their juice
  • 2/3 cup orange juice
  • 1/4 cup chopped cilantro, plus more for topping
  • 1 cup uncooked brown rice
  • 3/4 cup dry black lentils
  • 1 cup chopped broccoli and cauliflower
  • 1 cup frozen peas
  • 3 tbsp lime juice
  • Chopped dates, optional
Instructions
  1. Place chicken breasts on the bottom of crock pot sprayed with cooking spray and set to high heat.
  2. In a large skillet, heat olive oil on medium-high heat and add onion, garlic, and mushrooms. Cook until translucent- about 3 minutes. Add sweet potatoes and continue to cook until tender. Stir in salt, pepper, red curry paste, curry powder, cumin, oregano, red pepper flakes, and coriander seed and stir continuously for 1 minute. Deglaze pan with 1 cup chicken broth. Turn heat down to low and add capers, tomatoes (chopping them up a bit in the pan!), and orange juice. Top with cilantro and simmer for 15 minutes.
  3. Add potato mixture to top of chicken in crock pot. Cook on high heat for 3-4 hours until chicken is cooked through.
  4. Preheat oven to 350 deg.
  5. In the bottom of a sprayed 9×13 casserole dish, layer rice and lentils. Top with broccoli, cauliflower and peas.
  6. Layer crock pot contents except for chicken, leaving behind some juice in the crock pot.
  7. Pour 1 cup of remaining chicken broth on top of veggies.
  8. With two forks, shred chicken. Add more spices if desired (I ended up adding a bit more cumin, red pepper flakes, curry paste and curry powder). Stir in lime juice. Continue to cook for about 30 more minutes to allow shredded chicken time to really soak up the flavor.
  9. Add chicken to casserole dish and cook, covered, for 50 minutes.
  10. Cool 10 minutes before serving.

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Thai Peanut Quinoa Fried “Rice”

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Thai Peanut Quinoa Fried “Rice”
Recipe Type: Salad
Cuisine: Asian, Quinoa, Healthy
Author: Claire McCormick of “Claire Tastes”
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 8
Here’s a lightened up version of your traditional fried rice, this time using quinoa instead of white rice. I used a bag of Asian coleslaw mix and tossed in some frozen edamame before stir frying it all with a bunch of Asian spices. Serve with chopped peanuts over the top to give it a nice crunch! Can be eaten warm or chilled, and you can even drizzle a bit of the extra juice from my Sesame Teriyaki Chicken (previous recipe) to give it a bit more flavor. I served mine over a bed of spinach greens with some chicken and stir fry vegetables on the side!
Ingredients
  • 1 cup dry quinoa, rinsed
  • 2 cups low sodium chicken broth
  • 2 tsp + 1/2 tsp peanut oil
  • 1 14 oz bag Asian coleslaw mix (without the creepy mix-ins they include)
  • 1 1/2 cups frozen shelled edamame
  • 1/2 cup chopped green onions
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup chopped peanuts, divided
  • For Peanut Sauce:
  • 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
  • 3 tbsp rice vinegar
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 1/4 cup orange juice
  • 1 tbsp + 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 1/2 tbsp peanut butter
  • 2 tsp chili garlic sauce (I found this next to the hot sauce at the store!)
Instructions
  1. Add quinoa and broth to rice cooker and set to cook.
  2. Combine ingredients for sauce in a small bowl and microwave in 20 second increments, stirring until smooth. Set aside.
  3. Whisk egg and 1/2 tsp peanut oil in a small bowl. Set aside.
  4. Heat remaining oil in a large wok or skillet on high heat. Add coleslaw mix, edamame, and green onions. Stir until tender, about 3 minutes. Make a space in the middle by pushing the slaw out to the sides of the pan. Pour beaten egg/oil into center and stir immediately until you see nice little chunks of scrambled egg in the mixture.
  5. Add cooked quinoa and sauce to the skillet and combine. Stir in half the peanuts and top with the other half right before serving!

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Sesame Teriyaki Chicken with Grilled Pineapple

Do you love a good umami but prefer not to send yourself into that inevitable post-Chinese-take-out-MSG-coma that you always go into because you just can’t say no to that second third helping of General Tsao’s? I’ve created a recipe that allows you to indulge in the same meaty umami flavor with about an eighth of the calories, fat and sodium that your entree of sesame chicken would provide. I used chicken thighs to preserve the satisfaction factor and keep them moist, and then I covered them in a tangy but not too heavy marinade with just the right amount of spice. I baked, not fried, them, over regular frozen stir fry veggies with the reserved marinade, and for an extra burst of sweetness to balance out the spice, served with grilled pineapple over the top. (Besides, grilled fruit just looks pretty.)

This recipe also pairs well with my Thai Peanut Quinoa Fried “Rice,” slightly adapted from Iowa Girl Eats. Enjoy!

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Sesame Teriyaki Chicken with Grilled Pineapple
Recipe Type: Chicken, Stir Fry
Cuisine: Asian
Author: Claire McCormick of “Claire Tastes”
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 8
Chicken thighs doused in a tangy teriyaki marinade, baked over stir fry vegetables makes a perfect weeknight dinner! Serve with grilled pineapple rounds and my Thai Peanut Fried “Rice” with Quinoa!
Ingredients
  • 2.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 8 thighs)
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup chopped green onion
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 1/3 cup soy sauce (use low-sodium if desired)
  • 1/4 cup orange juice
  • 3 tbsp rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp chopped fresh ginger
  • 1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • sesame seeds
  • 2 tsp peanut oil
  • 2 bags frozen stir fry or mixed vegetables
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • fresh pineapple rounds
Instructions
  1. In a large casserole dish sprayed with cooking spray, place stir fry mix and sprinkle with garlic powder. Drizzle with peanut oil and toss.
  2. Whisk together all remaining marinade ingredients (except chicken) in a small bowl until combined. Set aside.
  3. Place chicken in a large zip-top bag. Pour in the marinade and refrigerate for 1 to 4 hours, flipping once.
  4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place chicken over veggies in casserole dish and pour marinade over top. Sprinkle chicken with additional sesame seeds or green onion if desired.
  5. Bake for 40 minutes, basting with marinade every 10 min or so.
  6. Preheat broiler and broil on high for 6-8 more minutes until top of chicken is just charred! Remove from oven and allow to rest for at least 10 minutes.
  7. Optional: Preheat grill to medium heat. Grill pineapple slices for 3 minutes per side. Serve over chicken with Thai Peanut Quinoa Fried “Rice.”

 

 

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Chicken Mole Corncake with Fried Plantains

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Chicken Mole Corncake with Fried Plantains
Recipe Type: Casserole, Chicken
Cuisine: Mexican
Author: Claire McCormick of “Claire Tastes”
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 8
Here’s a fun twist on a classic Mexican dish! Top a regular cornbread mixture with some mole-seasoned chicken and top with fried onions and plantains. An easy supper that’s hearty and exotic! Serve with a freshly sliced peach and side salad.
Ingredients
  • 1 box Trader Joe’s Corn Muffin Mix and package ingredients (mine called for 1 egg, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, and 3/4 cup milk)
  • 1 tbsp mole seasoning (if you don’t have mole seasoning, combine 1 tbsp chili powder, 1/2 tsp cumin and 1/2 tsp cinnamon)
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp dried oregano
  • 1/2 tsp chili powder
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 1 tbsp olive oil, plus additional for pan
  • 4 chicken breasts
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 tsp minced garlic
  • 1 ripe plantain, sliced into 1/4″ slices
  • 1/3 cup shredded cheddar
  • fresh parsley, for garnish
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375 deg.
  2. Grease a 8×8 casserole dish.
  3. Prepare cornbread according to package directions and pour into bottom of dish.
  4. In a large ziplock bag, combine all ingredients from mole seasoning to olive oil. Shake bag to mix. Add chicken and marinate at least 30 minutes.
  5. In a saute pan, heat more olive oil on medium-high. Add garlic and onions and continue to cook until translucent, about 4 minutes. Add plantain slices and fry (add more oil if you need to) until lightly browned and fragrant, flipping halfway through. Remove from pan and set aside.
  6. In same pan, cook chicken until just browned- about 1 min each side.
  7. Top cornbread with chicken, pressing gently down into the mixture.
  8. Return onions and plantains to pan, scraping up the browned bits from bottom. Add to top of chicken.
  9. Sprinkle cheese and parsley on top of casserole, cover and bake 35-40 minutes, until cornbread is brown around the edges.
  10. Cool at least 10 minutes before serving.

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ClaireLeave a comment