Showing posts with label peanut butter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label peanut butter. Show all posts

Friday, June 17, 2011

What's For Dinner? - African Chicken Stew

SPICY, HEAVY GOODNESS!! A really pleasant combination of peanuts, chicken, vegetables, and spice. Initially you taste the sweetness of the peanut butter, then the red pepper kicks in after a few seconds and really adds some zip! I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com and the key to this one is keeping everything in one pan from start to finish (my dad and mom taught me that little trick). Deglazing the pan after browning the chicken and keeping all the yummys in the dish makes it that much better.

~Ingredients~

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1.75 lb of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
1 large potato, diced
1 turnip, diced
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp. salt
1 cup of water (keep adding if it thickens too much)
1 cup peanut butter
1 (15 oz) can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

~Instructions~

1. In a large metal (not Teflon or non-stick) skillet with a tight-fitting lid, heat oil over medium-high heat.  Add chicken and brown quickly. Letting your infant think that she is orchestrating the whole ordeal is wise. No hurt feelings.



(That's some perfectly browned chicken!)


 2.  Chop up any other vegetables you wish to add.  I picked a turnip! Yum!  And it makes such a pretty picture!
3.  Remove chicken from the skillet. The bottom of the metal skillet should have brown crusty stuff that looks like it is stuck to the bottom of it.  These are the yummys.  Do not remove them.  Just go ahead and add a little more olive oil and add your garlic, onion, potato, and in my case, the turnip.  Saute for 2-3 minutes.
4.  Add the cumin, coriander, black pepper, red pepper flakes, and salt.
5.  Cut the browned chicken into bite-sized pieces.
6.  Mix in the water, but make sure you have a good scraping tool. Either a metal spatula or a pointed wooden spoon of some sort so that scraping the browned chicken off of the bottom of the pan is easier.
(It should be a warm brown color like this when the scrapings are in the mix)
7.  Add the browned chicken pieces.  Place the lid on the skillet and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
8.  Add the peanut butter and garbanzo beans and mix thoroughly.
9.  Let your infant experiment with radishes that you have prepared for a garnish. I was really prepared for her to spit them out and throw them across the room expressing that her mouth was on fire, but...
Radishes were a spicy success!!!
10.  Garnish your African Chicken Stew, serve with either rice or bread, and beverage of choice! After eating it with red wine, I would advise an ice cold beer instead.  But that's just my opinion.
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Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Foodie Baby: It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

I posted on my Facebook page yesterday that it would be the day Piper tried peanut butter for the first time.  It caused a wave of comments ranging from both ends of the spectrum and I imagine that had there been a provocateur in the midst (which thankfully there wasn't), the debate would have continued for quite some time. As far as I could tell, there seemed to be two camps: The first camp believes that giving a child potentially allergenic foods increases their chances of being allergic to it as they get older and that it's best to leave them alone, and the other camp believes that if neither parent have an allergy to the food then it's basic common sense as to whether their child should be able to enjoy it or not.  I'm not one to argue with pediatricians or those performing the research, but my gut was telling me to go ahead and let Piper try it at 10 and a 1/2 months old as neither parent or our extended families have any food allergies. I bought Smuckers All Natural Peanut Butter as the only ingredients listed are peanuts and salt. None of that hydrogenated this-and-that. As for the jelly, I bought Polaner All Fruit since it seems to have less sugar and more natural ingredients.  As Piper ate her very first peanut butter and jelly sandwich I waited patiently to see if there were any reactions whatsoever and the only very obvious adverse effect was that quite a bit of it ended up in her hair.  PEANUT ALLERGY CONQUERED!!!  And in honor of this, I posted OUR FAVORITE BUCKWHEAT BOYZ SONG AFTER THE PICTURE!!





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