Steamed Aromatic Chicken Recipe

 

The last couple weeks I've been steaming chicken breast in my pressure cooker.  I've taken chicken from frozen to juicy with great speed.  Even my kids love it.  The first week  I started with a layer of herbal scraps: leek greens, parsley, and wilted basil.  Then I added 1-2 cups of water, a lightly greased steamer basket, and chicken breast.

Apple Crisp - No sugar added

My son actually requested I make baked apples.  This was very easy and tasty.  You could even skip the topping for a simple weekday treat.

Core and slice apples.  Layer them in a dish with cinnamon and spices of your choice.  I like a little salt and fenugreek.

In a saucepan or in the microwave warm margarine, butter, and/or oil. Mix in oats, cinnamon, fenugreek, and (optional) agave syrup.

Spread over the top of the apples.

Bake until golden brown.

Happy 100th Post on Cooking Outside the Box!

Repeats Including Zucchini Muffins

I began writing this blog for myself.  I wanted to record what my family liked so I could make it again.  Today, I want to mention a couple things that I have been making again, and again, and again.

My kids don't care for soup.  But I love Roasted Butternut Squash soup so much, I've been making it almost every week.  I often add some beer or Irish stout.  It seems easier every time, and the peels taste great in soup stock.

I've also made whole wheat zucchini muffins several times.  My kids love eating them, and I love knowing they're healthier than pasta.

Last week my daughter was home with an ear infection.  I asked her if she wanted to make muffins.  "I can help, for real??  Not just watch? Really help!?" was her excited reply.

She did get to really help.  Its a lot easier to be patient with only one kid home.  She counted in the prunes,  sprinkled in the salt and cinnamon, added premeasured ingredients, and did some excellent mixing.

Below is the recipe I am currently using.  Makes 24 muffins. [UPDATE: Zucchini Carrot Muffins - No Sugar Added]

1. Grate 3 zucchini and 2-3 carrots.  Put in a large bowl.
   
2. Blend2 eggs, 1/2 cup olive oil, 8 prunes, and 1/2 cup brown sugar.
   
3. Mix separately in a measuring cup:
   2 cups whole wheat four
   approx. 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
   About 3/4 teaspoon baking soda and 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
   approx 1/4 teaspoon salt
   1/2 teaspoon vanilla sugar (alternatively you could add vanilla extract straight to the set of ingredients in step #2.)
   1 cup raisins
   
4. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet by hand until the flour is just incorporated (don't blend smooth.)
   
5. Pour into greased muffin tins or a pan.  I use a soup ladle.  Silicon muffin tins don't need to be greased.  Stainless steel or aluminum do best when lightly greased and floured.
   
6. Bake at 350 F or 175 C for 14-25 minutes depending on the size of your muffins or loaf. 

Sweet and Sourdough Rolls

I tried to make bagels based on the Sourdough Oatmeal Bread recipe from Israeli Kitchen.  The dough fell apart in the boiling water, but I still got some very tasty rolls.  By substituting apple juice for water, I got a slightly sweeter dough, as well as what we call "mezonot rolls."  For observant Jews, that means instead of washing our hands in a ritual fashion and making the blessing on bread, then a full grace after meals, we say one blessing before eating the rolls and a short blessing afterward.  This can be preferable when you want a snack or when you have limited time, like at work.

Easy Brew Green Tea

I want to show you how to make quality tea without any fancy equipment.  No teapot required.



URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAxPqYIOnWs

Barley Casserole with Mallows, Tomato, & Basil

Last week I made Stinging Nettle Soup with nettles I picked near my building.  This week I collected large, round mallow leaves on the way home from dropping my daughter off at kindergarten. 


If you don't have mallows available, one thing you can take from this post is that barley can be used in casseroles like you might use noodles.  This could have been a casserole with thin layers of barley, spinach, basil, tomato sauce and cheese.  Either way, barley is a very healthy alternative to pasta, and even white rice.

Fruit Leather Flowers

 My kids and I made these flowers based on an idea I saw on Creative Jewish Mom.  Looking back at her post, I see how pretty CJM's roses look.  But without looking at her post, we made apricot poppies.  You can roll your fruit roll-ups into rose shapes by reading the link above.  Or cut circles out of the fruit leather and stick them on tooth picks with a piece of dried fruit on each side, like we did.

New Logo!

I am pleased to present the new Cooking Outside the Box logo, which will be printed on the aprons I am designing.  I want to thank my mother, Caren Hackman for working on this and trying to solidify my many ideas.  I even got to see her work via Skype screen share.  I also want to thank her friend, Susan Julien (@adpstudios), for working on the logo and giving us the whisk.  Most of all I want to thank my talented designer friend, Tzippy Lankin.  She worked with me to get from the many ideas my mom and Susan gave me to what I hope is our final design, above.  It was a real pleasure working with her and an honor to observe her skill and hear her process.  Tzippy is a professional graphic designer and jewelry artist.  You can see more of her work on Tzippy's Facebook page.



  

By the way, I've started tweeting.  You can follow me @nonrecipe. 

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Pressure Cooker Risotto with Roasted Leeks

I made this risotto in my pressure cooker loosely based on a recipe from Pressure Perfect by Lorna Sass.   You can make it in a regular pot with more stirring and slowly adding hot broth, but this post is really about the pressure cooker.

1. Sauté a large handful of chopped leeks* in oil in the pressure cooker.  Add 1.5 cups short grain rice and continue cooking and stirring until the rice starts to turn golden.

2. Add 1/2 cup white wine, followed by 3.5 cups of stock/broth and a generous pinch of salt.  Bring pressure to high.

Stock Pile - or - What I Learned from My Snails

our pet snail, "Gal" eating a carrot peel

I temporarily adopted two snails for four weeks in January.  I found one in a driveway on my way home one morning.  I thought my daughter, who was home sick, and I would take care of him until my son came home.  We learned about caring for snails and the next day decided to buy a little tank, find him a friend, and keep him for a bit.  I found that while I was gathering food for our snails, I was learning about conservation.  I could give them peels of carrots and ends of veggies that might have otherwise been thrown away.

my stock pile with peels, stems, and greens

And that is how keeping snails led me to begin making chicken and vegetable stock from food scraps.

For some time I have been meaning to start saving vegetable scraps that could be used to make soup stock.  However, it wasn't until I started keeping snails that I really started paying attention to what was worth saving.