Lemon Chicken in a Slow Cooker

This dish serves up seasoned, browned chicken breasts that are slow cooked with lemon juice, garlic, and chicken stock. It's a wonderful 'fix and forget' recipe that is easy and pleases just about everyone. Serve with rice or pasta, or eat with a salad.

Ingredients

·        1 teaspoon dried oregano

·        1/2 teaspoon salt

·        1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

·        2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

·        1 tablespoon butter 

·        2 tablespoons olive oil

·        3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice and lemon slices (optional)

·        2 cloves garlic, minced

·        1 cup chicken stock

·        1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley

  

Directions

1.   In a bowl, mix the oregano, salt, and pepper. Rub the mixture into chicken. Heat the olive oil and butter in a skillet over medium heat. Brown lemon slices and remove. Brown chicken in this for 3 to 5 minutes on each side. Place chicken and lemon in a slow cooker.

2.   In the same pan, mix the water, lemon juice, garlic, and stock. Bring the mixture to boil. Pour over the chicken in the slow cooker.

3.   Cover, and cook on High for 3-4 hours, or Low for 6-7 hours. Add the parsley to the slow cooker 15 to 30 minutes before the end of the cook time.

4.   Serve chicken over a bed of whole wheat spaghetti, brown rice or leafy greens and sprinkle Parmesan on top!

Escarole and White Bean Soup for the last of our winter days...

Escarole and White Bean Soup                                                 servings: 6

2 Tbs. olive oil
1 small onion, sliced in 1" pieces
1 small red pepper, 1" chunks
3 cloves of garlic, pressed or minced
1 tsp rosemary
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
1 head of escarole, easily found at the grocery store, coarsely chopped
5 cups liquid (I use a combination of broth, water, and veggie bouillon
1 can (12 oz) chopped tomatoes (OPTIONAL)
1 can (1 5oz) small white beans (though if you prefer, you could do cannellini/ Great Northern White beans
salt and pepper
grating cheese
bacon/ham crumbles (OPTIONAL)

Instructions:

Heat oil in a large soup pot.  Gently saute onion and red pepper  for 10 minutes, stirring often and lowering heat to prevent burning.  Next add your garlic.  Cook for about 30 seconds and add rosemary and pepper flakes.  Stir in escarole just long enough to coat with oil and begin to wilt 2-4 minutes.  Add in water, broth and tomatoes. Cover and cook for 10-15 minutes.  With 5 minutes left stir in beans (make sure you rinsed them first!) and salt and pepper to taste.  Turn heat off.  Add 2 Tbs of grating cheese and stir.  Let stand for 10 minutes.  Serve.

Eggs Over Easy with Kraut

With all the rage about the importance of gut health, it's not surprising I started researching how to get probiotics into my daily diet. Sure I've always been mindful of eating live cultures; I eat yogurts, but now I am interested in diversifying my probiotic portfolio. Here's how it started:

The news is breaking regularly about the importance of human gut health, it's relation to immune health, overall wellbeing, and it started to get my attention. Probiotics, the microorganisms in some fermented foods, may help break down carbs and sugars, aiding in healthy digestion and better human health.

On this day, I wanted to start my day with a punch. Koreans eat kimchi, a spicy pickled cabbage condiment, at every meal, starting with breakfast.  NO kimchi in the house this particular morning when I had begun this adventure. Instead, my option was limited to what I had in stock- sauerkraut. But how could I make it into a breakfast? Probably the only way I'd eaten sauerkraut in my life was on a hotdog or with kielbasi. Protein is always a key ingredient and I knew then that I needed to make these two work. What I didn't know was that I was about to embark on would be a foodie experience that would surprise me, in delicious ways.

I heated up my cast iron pan and got my ingredients out. Once a few drops of olive oil had heated and dispersed, I crack my egg on the side of the pan and dropped it gently down. It started to sizzle almost immediately. After about 2 minutes, I added the sauerkraut; I scooped about 4 heaping tablespoons of the fermented cabbage right next to the sizzling egg. Almost immediately the two foods met and started a synergistic cooking phenomenon. I guess the moisture of the sauerkraut in some way was absorbed by the egg in the minutes. I flipped my egg easily, which both suddenly and miraculously flipped with ease as if I'd just transplanted my cast iron with a chemical-laden non-stick pan. The egg had cooked quickly and the kraut was warmed enough that it seemed appropriate to serve myself breakfast. The ease and agility of the egg lent itself to a quick swipe of my spatula, as I delivered my concoction to the plate. I added a dollop of mustard for good measure, got my fork and arrived at my table ready to dive in and see if this experiment had turned into a success.

At first, I was hesitant, not sure the two were ever meant to meet and afraid that I may have wasted food in  my haste and reckless abandon. I gently cut into my egg, allowing the egg yoke run a bit, and forked a piece of egg heaping with kraut atop. The fork delivered this bite to my mouth and I had to take a moment, or maybe I needed a second bite, possibly even a third to know what I had gotten myself into.

And what did I get myself into? ... Possibly one of the best health packed breakfasts I've had yet! Eggs over easy with Sauerkraut! It was an experience in my mouth for sure. Remember I talked about the moisture meeting the egg as it cooked, well the pairing gave way that the egg was cooked softly, gently and blended with the kraut in a way that seemed to melt in my mouth like buttah. With a little mustard for sharp flavor, I enjoyed in delight this light, nutritious packed, morning starter meal I had just created for myself.

After a successful smile settled on my face, my belly felt satisfied, my taste buds electrified, a light bulb in my idea bubble lit brilliantly and I ran to my desktop computer, opened up Google and searched eggs over easy with sauerkraut. The all mighty worldwide web showed this masterpiece to have limited fame with very few links. Ah, my day, a great breakfast and a new blog post. "I'll share my invention with the world."

And here it is. Try it, you'll see, probiotics and protein packed meal that takes literally minutes to prepare.