Tried and True -- Lemony Chicken

Similar to having a little black dress that looks great on you, is always in your closet and ready to wear (thank you, Coco!), we must also have our ready-to-prepare recipes. They can be familiar recipes from well-loved books or magazines, old family traditions, or simply meals that you've perfected that your family enjoys.


Lemony Chicken is that dish for me. I honestly don't remember why I started cooking this but I do know that my son was a toddler and this was one meal he happily shared at the dinner table with his family. And, not surprisingly, he still adores it and requests it (OK, maybe not as often as corned beef, but that's another post for another day!).

What are your old stand-bys?

Lemony Chicken

Note: Serve with fresh spinach, sauteed in a touch of olive oil and garlic, salt and pepper. A wild and brown rice combination would be a nice side as well. Or if you want to try a fun, easy side starch, try quinoa!

4 boneless chicken breasts, preferably organic
Flour, salt and pepper
Olive oil
2 cups chicken stock
1/4 - 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice, depending on taste
Fresh Italian parsley
Capers
Lemon wedges

Flatten chicken breasts with a mallet. Salt and pepper both sides of chicken and dredge lightly with flour. Heat olive oil in a large skillet and brown chicken on both sides until almost done. Place chicken in an oven-proof pan and finish in a 350 degree oven, about 15 minutes. Don't over cook.

Heat the skillet, add a teaspoon or so of flour and stir until flour is brown. Add chicken stock, a little at a time, scraping up all the bits in the pan, until all the stock is in the skillet. Simmer on medium high heat until stock is reduced by half and the sauce is a nice consistency. Add lemon juice and stir to mix. Place chicken on a serving platter and immediately cover with the lemon sauce. Garnish with chopped parsley and capers (if desired). Serve with lemon slices.
Serves 4

Hearty + Healthy = Happy

This eggplant was painted beautifully by California artist Laurel Sherrie http://www.laurelsherrie.com. It captures a warmth and earthiness of this amazing vegetable that I'm very fond of right now. When there are good looking eggplants in the store, I find myself picking up one or two just to see what I can do.

My love affair with the eggplant is new. I don't think I'd ever actually had one that was cooked properly growing up and as a result they broke my mouth out in an unpleasant rash! I think I've got it right with several different dishes, so I seemed to have cracked the code.

First, whether it's sliced or diced, I always toss the eggplant with salt and then let drain in a colander for 30-60 minutes. The exception to this routine is when I'm using the smaller, thin Asian eggplants. I just cut them and cook as intended.

One of our house favorite eggplant dishes is eggplant parmesan. I can't say that my recipe is even a recipe and it's certainly not unique! I simply coat sliced eggplant with an egg wash, cover with breadcrumbs and saute lightly in olive oil. I ladle good tomato pasta sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish and then layer in the cooked eggplant. Place one thin slice of mozerella on each eggplant slice, cover with sauce (layer this dish depending on how much eggplant you've got) and sprinkle top with grated parmesan. Cook for 30-45 minutes at 350 degrees. Serve with a side pasta tossed with olive oil and maybe some garlic, salad or oven roasted veggies and a chianti.

Just last night I made a ridiculously simple stir fry with eggplant (stir fried first and then set aside), chicken and napa cabbage in a black bean garlic sauce. Served on top of steamed jasmine rice and with (organic and frozen) potstickers as appetizers, this was a tasty but quick weeknight meal.

Then there are times when I surprise myself. I can't tell you why I put these particular items together, but the effect was wonderful. It was an unseasonably cold winter night and this Kelli original had everyone happy and warm.

Even though winter is almost behind us, please share your favorite hearty dishes. We can always look forward to next year's first snow!


Eggplant and Sausage Ragu

1 -2 eggplant(s) depending on size
1 lb. spicy or mild sausage of your choice (just stick with fresh, no additives sausage)
Olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 shallot, diced
1 jar good quality tomato pasta sauce
1/4 - 1/2 bottle red wine (a medium bodied red, like pinot noir or cote du rhone)
Dried thyme

Cut the eggplant into 1 inch cubes. Place in a colander, cover generously with salt, and leave to drain, mixing it up a bit every so often, for an hour. Rinse and dry on paper towels.
Place sausage into skillet and cook over medium heat until cooked through. When cool enough to handle, cut into bite-size pieces.

Heat olive oil in a large pan, add garlic, shallot and eggplant and saute until eggplant is lightly browned. Add sausage pieces and heat through. Add pasta sauce and red wine (you can add more as you go to get to the consistency you prefer), and thyme and simmer, uncovered, until the sauce is thick and rich.

Serve over grilled or sauteed (in olive oil) sliced polenta or your favorite pasta (penne would be great).

Serves 4-6

Serve along side steamed artichoke.

Le Regime is More Than Just Food

Le Regime A phrase my friend at http://www.marketerblog.net/ and I started using to refer to this new way of eating and being. There were rules to be followed (we'll get into those) and great meals to ponder. Yes, but le regime is not about cooking alone. To lose weight, revive that energy store and generally keep it all together, getting your body moving is essential. This is not an exercise blog (if you know me, you know better!), so I won't spend too much time on technique and abundance because I'm no expert, but I think it's important to acknowledge that the typical American family does not get the activity that it needs to stay healthy and fit. When I was at my heaviest, I wasn't doing much of anything! Something had to change and doing a little something here and there was certainly better than doing nothing at all.

Two summers ago I started taking yoga classes. I've since read that yoga is not ideal for those wanting to lose weight because the calorie burn isn't as great as other activities. Whatever. I don't mean that too flippantly, but as someone who grew up dancing (ballet, tap, modern, jazz). I thought that the workout I got during a yoga session was terrific. I think it's so important to find something you enjoy, something that won't hurt your body, and something that you can commit to do and work at to improve. I was very diligent with my 45 minute lunchtime yoga classes - 3-5 times a week. Plus, I looked for more opportunities to build in activity...a bike ride or a walk to the farmer's market on the weekend, for example. Just adding in more everyday activity made a huge difference. I haven't been able to keep up the schedule to do yoga as often, but I still try to get a couple sessions a week in and I walk every weekday morning for an hour. A Saturday morning Irish step-dancing class was a nice addition to le regime last spring. Try something new! It'll do your heard and head a world of good.

What are some of the other aspects of Le Regime? Most of them are fairly obvious...water (spring and bubbling) and plenty of it, but not over board - I start everyday with a tall glass of Perrier; real foods - do not eat anything with any ingredient that you couldn't identify on its own (if you don't read labels yet, it's time to start!); whole foods - no "altered" food (skim milk, low-fat cheese, etc.). Now, all that said, your experience and needs may be different, so adjust accordingly. The Fat Fallacy by Dr. Will Clower, was a great read for me that first summer. It helped reprogram my thinking...my thinking about what we eat and drink. The chapter on Aspartame alone is alarming.

How do you do it? What activities do you enjoy that help keep you healthy and happy? Are you active alone or with others? What's in your regime?

OK, enough of the lecture. Now that you're ready to walk (!) to the market to pick up some ingredients for a weekend treat, here's my gumbo recipe for you. Laissez les bonne temps (and your body) roulez!

Kelli’s Gumbo (adapted from various sources and experience)

Note: This is a wonderful Christmas Eve dish or even better, Mardi Gras!

1/2 cup bacon drippings
1/2 cup flour
4 stalks celery, chopped
2 large yellow onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
1/2 pound okra, sliced (frozen is OK when fresh is not available)
1 qt (plus more if needed) chicken stock
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
15 oz canned chopped tomatoes undrained
1 teaspoon salt
2 bay leaves
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp rosemary
Lemon juice to taste
1 lb andouille sausage, cooked/sliced (grilled is great!)
1 cup cooked chicken, chopped (again, grilled chicked tastes great!)
1lb crab


Heat bacon drippings over medium heat, add flour slowly and stir constantly until roux is a chocolate-like brown. This takes a long time. Add celery, onions, garlic, parsley and cook 45 minutes to 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Fry okra in a little oil until slightly browned (note: this is only for fresh okra. If using frozen, put it in, thawed, at the very end otherwise is disappears!). Add to first mixture and stir well for a few minutes. Add chicken stock, Worcestershire sauce, tomatoes, salt, andouille sausage, bay leaves, thyme, rosemary. Simmer 2 1/2 hours. Add chicken, and simmer 30 minutes more. Add lemon juice, crab and thawed okra and stir until heated through.
Serve in bowls over hot rice. Pass the Tabasco and file gumbo!
Freezes well.
Serves 10 very hungry people

In France, one egg is un oeuf

When I started following le regime a year or so ago, I read somewhere that the French do not typically eat eggs for breakfast...no eggs before noon became a rule that I follow to this day. I haven't found a lunch place that offers a good omelet or quiche near my work so I have started a tradition at home that is now firmly planted in our week: Egg Night.

Egg night is great. It's easy for me to cook and clean up and whatever the offering is and it's always good and satisfying. The children love egg night and even if they prefer one thing over another (one likes an omelet, one prefers plain scrambled this week), they never balk at trying something new. I guess they figure at this point I'd have to really mess things up to ruin an egg!

I try and change up the dish just a bit each week, but happily rotate in between favorites. Sometimes I make omelets to order, sometimes it's one family egg dish in the form of a quiche, fritatta, or souffle. No news to anyone, but I have found that it's very easy to be imaginative when cooking eggs for the main course! Whatever you have handy can easily be transformed into an eggseptional treat. We have egg night every Wednesday so my egg dish inventions have grown quite a bit! I'll continue to post new egg sensations as we go.

Any favorites you'd like to share?

This is similar to a Quiche Lorraine, but I enjoy using the Fontina cheese and prefer leeks to onion, and thyme to nutmeg. To make this a vegetarian dish, omit the bacon.

Wednesday Night Quiche

1 Puff pastry (frozen is fine or use your own recipe)
5 large eggs
1/4 cup cream
4 slices bacon
1 large leek, cleaned and chopped
3/4 cup Fontina cheese, grated
salt and freshly ground white pepper
1 tsp. dried thyme

Place pastry in quiche dish and cook in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven.

Meanwhile, cut bacon slices with scissors into small bits and saute in a skillet. Add leek when bacon is about half way done. When bacon is cooked and the leek is wilted, drain off excess grease. Note: if you're not cooking with the bacon, saute the leek in a little butter.

Beat eggs slightly and whisk in the cream, salt and white pepper, and thyme.

Spread the bacon/leeks in the bottom of the partially cooked pastry shell. Pour the egg mixture in and then top evenly with the cheese.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30-45 minutes, until eggs are set. Let cool slightly before serving.

Great with a spinach salad, thin green beans (haricots vert) steamed and then sauteed quickly with butter and lemon juice, steamed asparagus, artichoke or other seasonal green vegetable.