New recipes.

Well as some of you know my husband is currently deployed. So in order to keep things going and give myself something fun to look forward to I have decided to get a little Julie and Julia on you. I have gone through quite a few cookbooks and I will be making all of the recipes in them that I cannot make while my wonderful husband is home. He and I most definitely do not see eye to eye on what tastes good all of the time. He is a meat and potatoes kind of a guy, and I am more of a chicken and veggies girl. Since I generally cook in a way that makes him and my children, who eat like him, happy; I am really excited to try some new things.

I will not be pulling from any one cookbook, and as some of you already know, I will not be following the recipes exactly. I will however post the original recipe, as well as the changes that I made. I will tell you when it was good and when it was really bad. If you have any recipes that you LOVE that you would like me to try please share them, also if you have any recipes that you have been wanting to try but are afraid to share them with me and I will see if they would work for us. Some of the parameters that I am trying to follow are... no diary, no red meat, and little to no wheat. This is because I am trying to eat for my blood type.

Today will not be the start of this, but I will share a recipe that I made last week when I was home with my family. It turned out really well, with the picky children asking for 3rds. So sorry no pictures.

Chicken and Artichokes in Wine Sauce
from Blood Types Body Types and You by Joseph Christiano

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts cut in half
1/4 c spelt flour
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dried thyme
1 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
Pinch oregano
2-3 cloves garlic
1/2 c white wine
1/2 c chicken broth
3-4 sliced artichoke hearts packed in water
1/4 c fresh chopped parsley

Rinse chicken and pat dry. Dredge chicken in flour. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Cook chicken 3 minutes on each side.

Reduce heat. Add dried herbs to skillet with remainder of the olive oil. Distribute herbs evenly. Add wine, chicken broth and artichoke hearts to pan. Cover and let simmer for 10 min. Stir in parsley.

DD's notes.
1- I used 8 boneless skinless tenderloins instead of breasts cut in half.
2 - I put the flour in a Ziploc baggy with the dried chicken and just shook it all around.
3- I used 1T olive oil and 1T butter when browning the chicken.
4- I bought whole artichoke hearts and used the whole can so there were actually 5 in the recipe.
5- I used white cooking wine instead of drinking wine, the salt helped in my opinion.
6- This was served over angel hair pasta, made of spelt. It turned out wonderfully, tastes just the same as regular pasta.

Homemade Hummus.

Yes I know that there are a million recipes for Hummus out there floating around, but since it is a favorite around our house and I make it differently than most people I figured I would share mine.

Please ignore the dent in the right side, the girls couldn't wait and started eating before I got the camera out, as you can see this is a winner at our house even with my ultra picky kids.

Hummus

1 can organic garbanzo beans.

1/2 lemon for juicing

Olive Oil (I like to use the light)

Garlic salt
Southwestern seasoning.

1) Drain and Rinse Garbanzo beans. Place in food processor or blender. Add fresh lemon juice (I like to first juice the lemon into another container and remove the seeds) you should get approx 2T. Add 1/4 c Olive oil.

2) Pulse in blender/processor until the mixture is thick and not moving much (don't burn out your motor). Add 1 t garlic salt and 1t southwest seasoning (without salt, I use Pampered Chef). Also add another 1/4 c olive oil. Pulse or blend until mostly smooth.

3) Scrape down the sides add a second teaspoon of southwestern seasoning to taste. Also add olive oil if need be. Blend again until the mixture is smooth, about the texture of re-fried beans.

DD's notes: These measurements are not exact, watch your mixture and your machine, taste frequently, be involved in what you cook.

You can use any seasoning mix that you enjoy, I have used Italian, Asian, and Curry all with good results.

The flavors will intensify with storage, so if you are making this ahead of time under season and it should be good, you can always mix more spice in last minute, you can never take it out.

~DD