Tag Archives: recipe

Cooking with the Hen – Sweet Potato and Coconut Milk Soup with Brown Rice and Lentils

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I don’t know why I decided to make a new soup recipe on a hot day in April, but oh my goodness am I so glad I did. It was filling, flavorful, and hit the spot for whatever randomness my pregnant body was craving (not to mention it’s nutritious). Henry was very interested in its creation, probably because I used a million and seven dishes to make it, and there were a lot of things to dump (two year olds love to dump anything). It took me about an hour and half of combined prep and cook time, but the end result was totally worth it.

  
The recipe below was slightly adapted from Katie at the Kitchen Door. 

Sweet Potato and Coconut Milk with Brown Rice and Lentils

Serves 6.

  • 2-3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch thick slices
  • 2 TBS olive oil
  • sea salt and pepper to taste
  • 3 TBS coconut oil, divided
  • 1 large sweet onion, peeled and diced
  • 4 tsp Penzey’s Sweet Curry Powder
  • 1/2 tsp Penzey’s dried ginger
  • 4 c. chicken broth
  • 3/4 c. orange juice
  • 1 c. coconut milk
  • 1 1/2 c. cooked lentils
  • 3 c. cooked brown rice
  • plain yogurt, for serving
  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Toss the sweet potatoes with the olive oil, salt, and pepper and spread out on a large rimmed baking sheet. Roast until tender when pierced with a fork, about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside.

  2. Melt 2 TBS of the coconut oil over medium heat in a large saucepan. Add the onion and saute until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the curry powder and ginger and saute until fragrant, 2 minutes more. Add the roasted sweet potato and broth and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes, then remove from heat and carefully transfer to a blender. Add the orange juice and coconut milk and blend until very smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set soup aside.

  3. In a small frying pan, melt the remaining 1 TBS of coconut oil over medium heat. Add the cooked lentils and saute until crispy, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat.

  4. Scoop a 1/2 cup of brown rice into each bowl. Pour soup over the rice, then top with lentils and yogurt.

  

Cooking with the Hen – Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole

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Last night for dinner the Hen and I tried a new recipe I found on Pinterest from Six Sisters Stuff (http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2013/02/poppy-seed-chicken-casserole.html), and it was delicious! We made couscous to pair with it, and the casserole was a creamy, crunchy, mass of yumminess that we couldn’t eat fast enough. And it was easy to make; I highly recommend it.

  

   

  

Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole
Ingredients:

  • 2 cups chicken, cooked and diced (I cooked it in a frying pan with 1 Tbs coconut oil and some Penzeys Sunny Spain seasoning for flavor)
  • 2 cups Ritz crackers, crushed (about 1 1/2 sleeves)
  • 1 Tbs poppy seeds
  • 1 (10.75 oz) can cream of chicken soup
  • 1 1/2 cups sour cream
  • 1/2 cup butter, melted
  • 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tsp minced garlic
  • 1 Tbs lemon juice

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Cook chicken and set aside. 
  3. Mix together chicken, soup, sour cream, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and lemon in a large bowl. 
  4. In another bowl, mix together crushed crackers, poppy seeds, and melted butter and stir until butter is completely incorporated.
  5. Spray a 9×13″ baking pan with non-stick cooking spray. Spread chicken mixture on the bottom and top with cracker mixture.
  6. Cover pan with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 15 more minutes. Eat your face off. 

  

What’s Happening Hot Stuff?

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It got up to 92 degrees on Saturday, and it felt like 102…summer is definitely here, and will remain here until at least mid-October. Therefore, we have to start our days outside earlier than I would like, or wait until early evening to play outside (and face the evil Mosquitos that LOVE Henry). Saturday morning all three of us went to Largo Central Park to play. The Hen and I play at the park soo much, but Keith doesn’t usually get to play so it was awesome he could come, too. These days, the Hen is most excited by climbing up walls, ladders, spiderwebs, rocks…pretty much everything. Sure, the swings and slides are fun, but they cannot compare to climbing as high as possible. Since the Hen is only two, this means I have to climb up after him so I can help him down, because he hasn’t quite mastered climbing down all these various apparatuses. He’s getting better all the time though, so hopefully I will be able to watch from the ground soon enough. 

 

spinning until he couldn’t walk
  
  
big spiderweb
    
little spidey
 Despite the heat on Saturday, I decided to make soup for dinner because the ingredients we had left in the fridge were perfect for it. Pinterest is my secret weapon when I want to make something using up ingredients just sitting around and this soup was delicious – Sweet Potato Corn Chowder (http://immaeatthat.com/2013/01/11/chobani-recipes-sweet-potato-corn-chowder/). I modified it a little (less onion and different seasonings), but otherwise it will now be part of our soup rotation. Hen helped me cook; well, mostly he pretended to cook his Mickey Mouse in a separate pot, but he tried shucking the corn husks and helped dump the ingredients in the pot. He is shaping up to be an excellent sous chef (boiling Mickey alive notwithstanding). 

   

we made extra corn for this purpose
   Sweet Potato Corn Chowder – serves 4

Ingredients:

  • 2 large sweet potatoes, cut into cubes
  • 1 medium sweet onion, chopped
  • 4 ears of corn on the cob
  • 1 cup celery, chopped (more is fine)
  • 1.5-2 tsp Cajun seasoning (Penzeys preferred)
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
  • 2 cups chicken broth
  • 1 cup water
  • 3 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 cup plain yogurt

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 400F. Toss sweet potatoes with 2 Tbsp olive oil, 1/8 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Stir sweet potatoes and then bake for another 15 minutes.
  2. While sweet potatoes are baking, boil corn on the cob, and then cut the kernels off. In a high powered blender, combine 1.5 cup of the corn kernels with 1 cup water. Blend until smooth. Set aside corn puree, but leave it in the blender.
  3. Heat a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add 1 Tbsp olive oil and allow it to get hot, ~2 minutes. Add onions and stir frequently for 5 minutes allowing the onions to slightly soften. Add in the celery and allow vegetables to soften for ~5 minutes, continue to stir frequently. Once vegetables are soft, add in Cajun seasoning and stir until fragrant. Turn heat to low.
  4. By this time your sweet potatoes should be done roasting so use a spatula to transfer all of the roasted sweet potato cubes into your blender with the corn puree. Blend the corn puree and sweet potatoes together until smooth. Add in 1 cup chicken broth and continue to blend. Pour this puree into your soup pot with the softened vegetables. Add in remaining 1 cup chicken broth, remaining corn kernels.
  5. Partially cover and allow to simmer for 30 minutes. Whisk in 1 cup plain yogurt and serve immediately. Add salt and pepper to taste.