January 16

More snow on this holiday Monday!

Breakfast:

Leftover roasted vegetables
1 egg, sunny side up

I heated some olive oil in a pan and cooked up the veggies, getting the hot and a little crisp on the outside. Threw in an egg, viola! Comfort breakfast.

Lunch:
1/4 apple with walnut butter
leftover chicken scraps with mustard, 1/4 tomato and avocado
8 pecans
tea

Dinner:

I am a lucky lady. My husband has a knack for picking really good recipes, tweaking them and getting great results. Tonight was two winners.

Parcel of Minced Chicken with Macadamia (inspired from The Indonesian Kitchen)
Spicy Chard with Ginger (inspired from this recipe)


Ingredients:
Parcel of Minced Chicken

2 chicken breasts and 2 thighs, minced
1/2-1 C. coconut milk (or more)
1/2 C. shredded coconut milk
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 t. grated/finely chopped fresh ginger
2 oz. ground/finely chopped macadamia nuts (plus more for topping)
1/2 t. ground cloves AND freshly grated nutmeg
2 serrano chilies, seeded and thinly sliced (ours were very dry)
salt and pepper

Mince, chop, slice, grate everything per instructions above. Combine, mixing well. Fill about 6 ramekins with the mixture and top with crushed macadamia nuts. Place ramekins in a tray half filled with hot water and bake for 20-25 minutes. (Tonight my husband kicked it up to 400 for five minutes and then broiled for another 5 minutes to brown the tops.)

Ingredients:
Chard
1 bunch Swiss/rainbow chard
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger
2 sliced jalapenos (we used our extra old serranos)
Coarse salt and ground pepper
half a can of coconut milk (or whatever is left after making the parcel)

Separate stems and leaves from Swiss chard. Chop leaves and dice stems small. In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high. Add chard stems, minced peeled fresh ginger, and jalapeno slices; cook until stems soften, 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add chard leaves, cover, and cook until wilted, 3 minutes. Add coconut milk. Uncover and cook until tender, 4 minutes.

Verdict:

Delicious. The chicken would be great to pack in a lunch. Would probably be good with ground meat so all that work of mincing chicken could be avoided.
The chard could have used a little more spice. The fresh ginger and creaminess of the coconut milk offset the bitterness of the chard stems. I was excited to see a use for chard stems since I usually chop them off and compost them.

I did eat some macadamias while the were being crushed but lucky for me my kids polished them off so I won't have to worry about eating too many. And both kids enjoyed both dishes tonight. Proud parent right here!

Awesome husband continues: since we chopped up two chickens this weekend he decided it was time to make stock. We store our chicken bones in the freezer and once we have enough we make stock. The time has come and he is cooking away. What a man!