Catching Up - a week of onions

Hey folks!  Sorry to leave you hanging!  I've been crazy busy the past couple weeks starting school, getting our baby registry finished and cooking up a storm!  Some successes, some not so much, but I'm here to catch you all up on the results :)

First off, as promised to all of my lovely Facebook friends, the skillet chicken chili pasta!

I swore I took a picture of this meal before Matt & I devoured the whole thing, but clearly I forgot (pregnancy brain).  So the above picture from the inspirational recipe (although I altered it significantly).

My final version, which Matt and I both enjoyed hot, but preferred cold:

Ingredients

• 1 16oz bag of brown rice pasta (I used spirals)
• 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 chopped mayan sweet onion
• 1 chopped red bell pepper
• 1 diced jalapeno pepper (don't forget to wear gloves when seeding/dicing it!)
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 cups cooked ground chicken *see note
• 1 1/2 cups diced fresh tomatoes (I used both grape & on-the-vine)
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1 can green chiles 
• 1/2 cup corn (I used frozen, but you could use fresh or canned as well)
• 1/2 cup chickpeas (I used dried that I had soaked and cooked the week before)
• 1 Tablespoon chili powder
• 1 Tablespoon ground cumin
• gluten-free Ranch seasoning mix (1 packet equivalent)
• 1/2 tsp dried cilantro

Directions

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and run under cool water to stop cooking. Set aside.
2. Heat oil in a deep saucepan or skillet. Add onions and peppers, cook stirring until softened about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook stirring for 1 minute. Add chicken, tomatoes, broth, green chiles, corn, chickpeas, pasta, chili powder, cumin, Ranch seasoning and cilantro. Stir until well combined. Reduce heat to low and simmer until ready to serve, or after simmering about 20 minutes, chill and serve cold.

*note: We had some left over ground chicken that Matt had browned and seasoned with 2 small cans of tomato juice, cumin and crushed red pepper, so we used that, but you could use any cooked chicken - grilled, rotisserie, baked... whatever you have on hand.

Aside from cutting up the veggies, this was SUPER fast and easy, and because I used the whole bag of pasta instead of just 8oz as the original recipe called for, it lasted us forever, which was good because we were both really busy last week!

I also made Pumpkin Pie Granola, but due to a crockpot death in the family, this had a bit of an issue.

I used this recipe from crockpot365.blogspot.com (I only used the 1/2 c honey, and I used all raisins - no dried cranberries) - but after 2.5 hours (of the 4 required for cooking), the crockpot breathed its last & turned off, never to turn on again.  Matt ate about 1/3 of the granola before I finished it in the oven (325* for 15 minutes, stirring once and adding raisins half way through).  I haven't tried it since I finished it, and honestly, I wasn't super happy with the burning of the oats that happened in the crockpot, so I might try to adjust this recipe for just the oven (especially now that we have no crockpot).   If you don't use honey, I'm sure coconut nectar would work just as well (and honestly would probably mix better than the raw honey I used).  I'll keep you posted on the updates to this recipe as I go.

For breakfast, I made a casserole:

I was super excited about this because even though it took a long-ish time to put together, once it was done, it was crazy simple to just take out an individual slice in the morning and microwave it for 1 min on high.  I'm normally not the biggest fan of the microwave, but I've been pretty tired this week, so it was nice to not have to work hard for breakfast.

I used this recipe from thekitchn.com - but I subbed turkey bacon for the regular bacon (we're not big pork people in our house), cooked with olive oil.  I also used 3 mostly-baked white potatoes, diced with skins on, instead of the frozen ones because they put all kinds of weird additives in frozen potatoes at the grocery store.  I try to stick as close to real food as I can.  (I thought afterwards that red skinned or yukon gold potatoes probably would have been even better).  Also, I've never been a big fan of sun-dried tomatoes, so I diced 2 on-the-vine tomatoes and threw those in instead.  It was a really tasty breakfast, and like the skillet chicken pasta, was convenient for our nuts-o week.  You could easily modify this recipe to use up whatever vegetables/meats you happen to have lying around.  I feel like all of the ingredients in this were completely optional.  You could just as easily use spinach instead of potatoes, artichokes instead of peppers, leave out the bacon entirely....  Be creative and let me know what you try!

Honorable mentions this week go to:

• KathEats whipped banana oatmeal
• KathEats carrot cake oatmeal (which I made with a peach instead of a mango, because that's what I had! It totally RULED!)
• TheKitchn arugula, apple & chickpea salad wraps (made with brown rice tortillas lightly heated with olive oil)
• Sumptuous Spoonfuls peach, pistachio (or in my case pecan) and chicken salad (although I lazily topped it with Annie's red raspberry vinaigrette instead of making the white wine vinaigrette from the recipe - still, might be my new favorite salad of all time.)
• TheKitchn braised french onion chicken (a great main dish answer to french onion soup!!)

We also enjoyed:

• TheKitchen farmer's lunch sandwiches with onion-thyme jam - I liked this, but I bought mild cheddar for Matt, who isn't the biggest sharp fan, and I probably would have enjoyed it more with sharp.  Plus, the jam gave me heartburn. #pregnancyproblems
• Bon Appetit curried egg salad (on rice bread instead of pitas - messy!!) - This was also fun as an experiment (especially since I used Greek yogurt instead of mayo), but I am still a bigger fan of plain ol' egg salad.  This one was yummy, but it was a little more tangy than I like normally.
• Laylita.com baked ripe plantains with cheese - we waited a little too long to make this and our plantains were a little too ripe, which yielded bites with a bit of fermented flavor.  Probably would have been better if we'd made them sooner.  Oops.

 Up next:

• "Use up what we have lying around the house" challenge - we're going to try to buy only eggs, milk, yogurt, butter and a few snacks this week (partially to make up for the fact that I spent twice our food budget last week in my ambition, and partially because we've had a bunch of dry/frozen ingredients sitting in our kitchen for months that need to get used!)
• TheKitchn DIY applesauce (as part one of DIY apple butter!)
• Healthful Pursuit frozen banana raspberry "muffins"
• Anne-Marie Cain cinnamon apple crisps
• TheKitchn sweet potato hash & eggs (sausage, probably not)
• TheKitchn kale & apple soup (which Matt already made, but we haven't tried yet)
• Glucose challenge - yes, I realize this is a medical test and not a recipe, but it's weighing heavily on my mind as a reactive hypoglycemic who is also pregnant and concerned about holistic wellness.  While I can 99% guarantee I don't have gestational diabetes (given that I've still had several blood sugar crashes recently), I still am *strongly encouraged* by my midwives to take this stupid test.  I'm not drinking Glucola - they're letting me sub fruit juice - but I'm still really nervous about the effect all of this sugar is going to have on my body and on Squirt.  I'll be sure to keep you posted about it!  My plan right now is to drink the juice (equivalent to 50g sugar!!) and if I'm feeling the sugar crash coming on within 30 mins, I'm going to just eat some protein and tell them I'm refusing the test.  If I don't feel the crash, I'll go to my appointment, have my blood drawn the hour after I drank the juice and then immediately stuff my face with enough cheese to feed a small country.  I've gotten very little support on this issue from my medical professionals, including my holistic doctor who's been treating me for the adrenal fatigue, so I'm frustrated.  But Thursday will bring an end to it all one way or another.  

To be continued....

The Pumpkin Continues

Well as you may have noticed, we didn't need an entire can of pumpkin for our pumpkin muffin extravaganza.  So, while I am late in posting this, the next morning, we "indulged" in pumpkin pancakes!! :)

I started with the recipe for South Beach Oatmeal Pancakes, and of course tweaked it based on what we had around the house (and doubled it - who wouldn't want double pancakes??)!

What resulted were delicious, albeit not so fluffy, tastes of fall! :)

Pumpkin Oatmeal Pancakes

1 c old-fashioned oatmeal
1/2 c canned pumpkin
5 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract (it's best if you can find the alcohol free variety), approx.
1/2 tsp cinnamon, approx.
1/2 tsp nutmeg, approx.

Blend all ingredients in blender until smooth.  I find it's easiest to layer ingredients wet-dry-wet for ease of blending.  Grease a skillet or griddle (I used a cooking spray, but you could use coconut oil or butter as well) and pour batter into desired pancake size drops.  Cook first side until bubbles appear, then flip, and cook until underside is slightly brown.  Top with your choice of butter, maple syrup, honey, fruit preserves, apple butter (I just made myself want to try that!!!), or fresh fruit.  We used butter and maple syrup, which worked out nicely.

Regarding my absence this past week, I was working at a summer camp for performing arts all week and MAN, was it exhausting!!  I was NOT getting enough sleep for this growing baby, and I paid for it with horrendous food cravings (which I tragically indulged), and a return of some unfortunate symptoms.  I gained a couple of pounds, suffered with itchy scalp (which is now improving, but not gone), and just generally felt depressed and foggy.  What did I eat you ask?  I ate a blended peanut butter cup/ice cream dessert from Friendly's, and one breaded-fried calamari.  Yep, that's all it took.  Lame.  I've also been living on carbs, and while they are technically permitted on my current diet, I've been eating them too often for my blood sugar/adrenal glands, hence the weight gain.  Now I've gotta cut back and indulge in these fresh seasonal fruits & veggies before the summer is gone!!

On a more positive note, my prenatal vitamin that I've been taking has been out of stock at Whole Foods.  Why is that positive you ask?  Because we found out that the reason they are out of stock is because the manufacturer is having a shortage of the ingredients because of the mid-western drought.  I was actually thrilled to find that out because I think that's exactly what should happen to our foods/supplements.  They should be impacted by climate changes.  It made me feel so happily natural and earthy.  :)  I may have eaten ice cream, but I'm also doing something right by this kid of mine by consuming natural, whole supplements to feed his/her growing body.

And while we're on that subject, Squirt had a little growth spurt in the last 10 days.  When we went for our first, unsuccessful anatomy scan, the little one was measuring at 19w4d - a little behind where we thought we should be, but nothing to worry about.  Now today, at our second, succcessful anatomy scan, s/he measured at 21w5d - a day ahead of our calculations!  Way to grow, Squirt! :)  Can't wait to meet you in 4 months!  (Did I really just say FOUR???  Oh my....)

Pumpkin Makes Everything Better

I cannot take credit for this post at all, because my husband was the brains behind the whole thing, but I wanted to share nonetheless so you can all benefit from his brilliance.

I was avoiding cleaning, and procrastinated most of the day.  But now, after 2+ hours of cleaning our apartment, it feels SO good to have it done!  Matt finished his cleaning jobs and then settled in to make salmon, kale and the reason for this post - PUMPKIN MUFFINS!

For the salmon, Matt "juiced the crap out of" 2 clementines and marinated the fish for about an hour (although admittedly it probably should have been longer, and probably with more clementine juice).  Then he topped it with lots of cumin, cinnamon, paprika, crushed red pepper flakes and salt - all to taste.  What do you want from the Italian?  :)  He says that is the order of spices from what he used most to what he used least.  Best of luck for those of you trying it out!

For the kale, which came from our friend's mom's garden about 2 weeks ago and still looks amazing, we just used a lazy garlic press to crush 2 garlic cloves, added a full skillet of kale (almost overflowing) and drizzled olive oil over the whole thing and cooked it til it wilted.

For the pumpkin muffins, we started out with this recipe from Dashing Dish, and made a couple of adjustments (not many):

2 eggs (instead of 3 egg whites - you could also use 2 tsp flaxseed meal mixed with 1/2 c water if you're vegan or egg-free)
6 packets of stevia (instead of 8-12, although the muffins were definitely NOT very sweet, so maybe 8 would be better)
no salt
random amounts of cinnamon, nutmeg & ginger (because we didn't have pumpkin spice).

The consistency of the muffins was perfect, but as I mentioned, they could have been a little sweeter... I'm thinking I might heat one up for breakfast tomorrow with a little butter and maple syrup - I'll let you know how that goes!  They also *really* stuck to the muffin cups, so I might grease those a bit next time, or try just using the tin, greased without paper cups.  As I adjust the recipe further, I'll keep you posted, but honestly, if you're in the mood for fall, these are a great use of canned pumpkin and super healthy!  Happy healthy eating!

Oh and a little spawn footage, just for fun :)