Crockpot Masala Chicken & Chickpeas

Hi there!

Guess what day it is?!

Um, no. It’s not Wednesday. Yet. That’s tomorrow. Patience, grasshopper.

It’s Tasty Tuesday!!

After you check out my tasty new recipe and subsequently go to the grocery store to buy the ingredients so you can have it for dinner tomorrow, don’t forget to head on over to Lena’s page to check out all the other Tasty Tuesday yumminess!

Oh wait, check out her page first. She’s got tomorrow’s breakfast covered.  🙂

 I had picked up some organic boneless, skinless chicken thighs from Harris Teeter but I didn’t really have a plan for them.

I wouldn’t recommend doing that on a regular basis. If you’re me, you might forget that you bought them, never be inspired, never come up with a plan and then they’ll go bad and you’ve just wasted money.

Wasting money is bad.

BUT, turns out I was inspired!

I decided to make a riff on Chana Masala and my Chana ma-Chicken and use my crockpot to do the heavy lifting.

Yes, Chana ma-Chicken. I told you I need work on recipe naming. #dontjudgeme

When I got home from work, the house smelled so delicious with all the lovely curry and Indian spicy smells.

You know, it just occurred to me how much that must torture my dogs when I cook in the crockpot. A dog’s sense of smell is what, a bazillian times greater than ours? Can you just imagine the anguish they must feel smelling delicious dinner ALL DAY LONG and then, they don’t even get any?!

It’s quite possible that I’m the worst doggy mama ever.

Crockpot Masala Chicken & Chickpeas
serves 4-6

2-3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 can (14.5 ounces) fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon allspice
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
Cooked rice, for serving

1. Place chicken thighs and chickpeas in crockpot.

2. In a small bowl, mix diced tomatoes and spices. Pour over chicken and chickpeas. Cover crockpot and cook on low, 8 hours.

3. NOM. NOM. NOM.

 Talk to me: What’s your favorite chickpea recipe? How many times a week do you use your crockpot?

 

 

– jennifer

Tasty Tuesday – Curried Pork in Phyllo

Hi there!

It’s time for Tasty Tuesday!! 🙂

Make sure you remember to head on over to Lena’s page to check out all the fantastic foodiness and links over there! Oh, and you’ll be excited to know – she’s one of Lärabar’s newest brand ambassadors! Congratulations, Lena! ❤

Now, onto my Tasty Tuesday input!

I was in the mood for some curry but 1. didn’t want to make one of our old standbys and 2. didn’t want to spend the money on a restaurant (even though this place is on our list of ‘hell, yeah, let’s go eat there!’).

So, I made a Curried Pork in Phyllo!

Yes, I’m aware that’s lame and I need help with recipe naming. I’ll gladly take suggestions. I can’t figure out what else to call it. Curried Pork Log just sounds wrong to me and Curried Pork Pastry evokes strange thoughts – I mean, is it savory? Is it sweet? Is it confused?

Anyway, you’ll find Phyllo dough in your grocer’s freezer. Probably in the same area where you’d find puff pastry. Which is not the same thing. Don’t get them confused. And yes, apparently Phyllo can be spelled fillo.

Each package of phyllo comes with 2 separately packed rolls. You’ll only want to use one roll for this recipe. Otherwise, it’s too much phyllo. And, while delicious, sometimes too much of a good thing isn’t good.

And no, they won’t stick together to form a wreath or a circle. No matter how hard you try, how much you cuss, cry, or beg. So, don’t even bother.

So, even though it may not be the most beautiful creation in the world, once you slice yourself a piece and take a bite, you’ll forget all about it. Warm, flavorful, curried pork nestled into a flaky crust? WIN!

We topped our individual pieces with a little of this Thai Chili & Ginger sauce for a sweet and spicy addition to the curry. It was lovely. It’s also pretty tasty if you just want to drink some straight from the bottle. 😉

Curried Pork in phyllo
serves about 6-8 people

1 pound ground pork
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1/2 orange bell pepper, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
4 tablespoons dry sherry
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Heat skillet over medium high heat. Add pork; cook, breaking into small pieces, until no longer pink. Add onions and bell pepper and cook 5-8 minutes, or until onions are translucent. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, stirring constantly, about 1 minute.

2. Mix in remaining ingredients and cook 2-3 minutes.

3. Unroll one roll of phyllo dough and separate in half (sheets should come right apart). Spread half of pork mixture on one set of phyllo and roll up; place seam side down on prepared baking sheet. Spread remaining mixture on other phyllo sheets and roll up; place seam side down on prepared baking sheet. Spray tops of phyllo with cooking spray.

4. Bake 20-25 minutes or until phyllo is deep golden and crispy. Serve immediately.

5. NOM!

Talk to me: Have you ever cooked with phyllo? What about puff pastry? What’s your favorite recipe?

– jennifer

Injury update, weekend happenings, and some stuff in my kitchen!

Hello!

I’d totally say Happy Tuesday but I’m not feeling it today.

A 4am unplanned wake-up call is my reason.

Rain drops.

On my face.

And my bed.

Roof leaked. Water came through ceiling fan. Ceiling fan was on. Water flung errrwhere…..

Mass towel casualties.

In case you wondered, yes, there was a Hellacious rain storm last night!

Lots of flooding in the area. Thankfully, all we dealt with was a little water through the roof. No flooding in our house.

Took me 2 hours to get to work today, though. #goodtimes #notreally

But, that is not what I came to tell you about today!

I interrupt your regularly scheduled Tasty Tuesday to bring you 3 things!

1. An injury update!

2. Some weekend happenings!

3. A short view of what went down in my kitchen on Sunday (since I missed posting it yesterday)!

First up, my foot.

Followed up with the orthopedist yesterday.

It’s definitely a stress fracture and it’s healing! You could see cloudiness (calcium deposits) over the 2nd metatarsal and that’s a good thing!

But, I’m still in the boot. 😦

Okay, I should clarify – she suggested I wear the boot for another week, just to give my foot a little more unhindered healing time.

But, if I take it easy, I don’t have to wear the boot.

Yeah, I’ve never really been one to “take it easy” so…..

But, it’s just a week.

No running or jumping or any type of impact activity for at least 3-4 weeks but I had expected that.

So, one more week in the boot and then, I can wear a pair of shoes! And a pair of pants!!

Seriously, it’s been all skirts and shorts (on the weekends) this whole time.

And the same stinkin’ brown shoe. *sigh*

Annnndddd, moving on….

Weekend things!

I got a hair (or two) cut!!

So simple and easy!

We were lucky enough to be able to attend the christening ceremony of the USS John Warner, SSN-785 on Saturday.

This was, by far, one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.

And the hottest. OMG, it was like 100 degrees on Saturday!!!

And, it was outside (obviously) and not under cover.

But, it was totally worth it and I would do it again in a New York minute! 🙂

Sunday cooking!

I did a small amount of food prep on Sunday.

Hey, it’s football season! It’s hard to food prep when your booty is planted in front of the television. 🙂

Anyway, I made some chocolate chip avocado banana bread.

Om. Nom. Nom.

I loosely followed this recipe – chocolate chip banana bread.

I subbed a whole avocado for the stick of butter (admittedly, probably should have only used half an avocado but I wasn’t paying attention. No matter cuz the bread is amazeballs!), nonfat plain greek yogurt for the sour cream, and chocolate chips for the cinnamon chips.

Holy. Yum.

Then, I threw down some of the best curry I’ve ever had.

You definitely need to head over to Erin’s blog to check out her recipe.

I also made some chili in the crockpot but neglected to take a picture.

Hey, with that curry ready to be gobbled, can you blame me?

Anyway, I used this recipe – Paleo Crockpot Chili – but used a pound of ground pork and a pound of ground turkey instead of the beef.  If you make the recipe as listed, it has terrific flavor but not a lot of spice.  If you want spicy chili, you definitely need to up the ingredients with the heat factor.

That said, you didn’t hear me complaining eating it over a sweet tater and topped with avocado yesterday for lunch.

source

Talk to me: Do you like your chili spicy or mild? What’s the most annoying thing to ever wake you up? Banana bread – yay or nay?

– jennifer