Slow Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala

One of Eammon’s favorite dishes is Chicken Tikka Masala so when I saw this slow cooker version at Julie’s Table for Two, I just had to give it a try.  The smell of it cooking all day drove us crazy as the aroma was gorgeous and when we tasted it, well pure perfection.  I actually got all the ingredients mixed together in the crock insert of my slow cooker the night before I planned to make it, left it in the fridge over night and in the morning, popped the ready-to-go crock in the crockpot, turned it on and a few hours later we were enjoying a delicious meal…and only the crock to clean up!  Make this dish, you won’t be disappointed.

Slow Cooker Chicken Tiakka Masala  (slightly adapted from here)

• 3 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 TBS. fresh grated ginger
• 1 - 29 oz. can tomato puree
• 1 1/2 cups Greek yogurt 
• 2 TBS. olive oil 
• 2 TBS. Garam masala 
• 1 TBS. cumin 
• 1/2 TBS. paprika 
• 1 tsp. sea salt, or to taste
• 2 – 3-inch pieces whole cinnamon sticks 
• 1 tsp. fresh ground black pepper 
• 1 TBS. cayenne pepper, more or less depending on your heat preference
• 2 bay leaves 
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 TBS. cornstarch 
• cilantro, for topping

Place everything up to and including the bay leaves into the removable crock of a slow cooker.  With a spatula, stir to combine everything and make sure the chicken is coated well.  Refrigerate overnight or use immediately.  When ready to cook, place the crock into the slow cooker, cover and cook for 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high.

When done, in a medium bowl, whisk together the heavy cream and corn starch, then pour the mixture into the crockpot and gently stir. Let cook an additional 20 minutes to thicken up.

Serve hot over a bed of rice and garnish with cilantro.

Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days, this recipe also freezes and reheats beautifully.

Enjoy!

Favorite Fall Recipe - Savory Corn Crumble

Weather wise I am truly a summer person, always telling people that the happiest day of my life was the day I sold my snow blower and moved from Boston to Georgia, thus leaving the snow and super cold weather behind.  Fall though is my favorite time of year when it comes to cooking because I enjoy heating up the house making delicious smelling recipes which warm both the body and soul.  Soups, curries and casseroles are my favorites to make as they generally take little work, feed us for days and are the perfect comfort foods. 

On my Moments with Maisie blog I have spoken numerous times about our garden and though we don’t plant a fall garden it’s late in the summer season is when we get our butternut squash harvest and some years it’s crazy huge so we’re always looking for delicious ways to enjoy the squash like in my Roasted & Curried Veggie Soup.  Ever since I was a little girl I have loved butternut squash so when I was asked by Foodie Blogroll to participate in their Favorite Fall Recipe promotion*** and that it was Savory Corn Crumble with Butternut Squash, Spinach and Feta from Ivy of Kopiaste, well I just had to join in.  I hope that you’ll check out Ivy’s recipe, my easy Roasted & Curried Veggie Soup and though it doesn’t contain butternut squash, one of our favorite comfort food casseroles…just click on the casserole picture at the bottom of the post.  Oh and with our large butternut squash harvest, I’d love if you’d share some of your favorite butternut squash recipes, leave your recipe and or link in the comments. 

 

Savory Corn Crumble with Butternut Squash, Spinach and Feta, recipe by Ivy Liacopoulou of Kopiaste…to Greek Hospitality

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Baking time: 1 hour

Serves: 1 baking dish (about 12 pieces)

Ingredients:

Filling:

• 2 lbs butternut Squash, grated
• 1 lbs spinach, squeezed
• ½ cup olive oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 lbs feta, crumbled
• ½ cup parsley, finely chopped
• ½ cup fennel fronds, finely chopped
• Salt (with caution) and freshly grated black pepper
• A pinch of cumin

Crumble:

• 1.5 lbs corn meal
• 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 200 ml Greek yogurt 2%
• 4 eggs
• 1 tbsp salt

Additional ingredients:

• 3 tbsp margarine divided (to grease the baking tin and to add on top)

Directions:

1. Grate the pumpkin and mix all the filling ingredients.
2. In a large bowl add the crumble ingredients and mix using your hand until the ingredients are well blended to form the crumble. If you still see corn meal, add more olive oil, if necessary.
3. Grease a 35 x 25 cm baking tin with 2 tbsp margarine. Add half of the crumble on the baking tin.
4. Add the filling on top and sprinkle the remaining crumble on top of the filling.
5. Add the remaining margarine in small pieces scattered all over the baking tin.
6. Preheat oven to 180o C / 350o F and bake for about 1 hour or until the crumble is golden on top.

Serve as a main dish, a side dish or a snack.

Below is one of our favorite fall comfort foods though it doesn’t contain butternut squash it’s totally delicious!  Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole, click on the picture to be taken to the recipe.

 

***This sponsorship is brought to you by GLAM Media who we have partnered with for this promotion.

Enjoy!

Mango Melon Banana & Chia Smoothie

For this month’s Crazy Cooking Challenge the participating bloggers were challenged by our hostess Tina, of Moms Crazy Cooking to find the ultimate smoothie recipe.  The way that the Crazy Cooking Challenge works is that each month there is a dish that our hostess Tina challenges the participating bloggers to make.  We all go out searching non-celebrity blogs looking for what we think is the ultimate recipe for that dish and once we find it, we make it and then all on the same day we do our post featuring the recipe and the blog where it was found.  As I said, this month the challenge was to find the ultimate smoothie recipe and in our home Eammon is the big smoothie lover.  One of his favorite flavors is mango so when I came across Chaya’s Mango Melon Smoothie on her blog My Sweet and Savory I knew that I had found my recipe.  I only made two little additions to Chaya’s recipe in that I added 1/2 of a frozen banana which thickened up the smoothie a bit more and added another flavor and I also put in a tablespoon of chia seed gel just because I love adding it to our diet anyway that I can.  Eammon really loved his smoothie and I loved that I got some fruit into him.

Mango Melon Banana & Chia Smoothie 

• 1/4 mango, cut into chunks
• 1 slice of melon, cut into chunks
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 TBS. chia seed gel
• 1 cup low-fat vanilla yogurt

Place all ingredients into a blender and process until it’s the consistency you desire.

Enjoy!

My previous Crazy Cooking Challenge entries:

Grilled Cheese Sandwich Challenge: Totally Outrageous Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese Sandwich 
Blueberry Muffins Challenge:  Skinny Blueberry Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins 
Spaghetti with Red Sauce Challenge:  Tomato Sauce with Onion & Butter 
Chocolate Cake Challenge:  Double Chocolate Meyer Lemon Mousse Cake 
Chicken Noodle Soup Challenge: Thai Chicken Noodle Soup 
Fudge Challenge: Biscoff Fudge 
Mashed Potato Challenge: Aloo Tikki 
Chocolate Chip Cookie Challenge: Chocolate Chip Gingersnaps 
Mac & Cheese Challenge: Velvety Mac & Cheese

Strawberry Soup

Strawberries and Cream, those are this month’s Improv Cooking Challenge ingredients assigned by our hostess Kristen of Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker.  I went back and forth thinking about all the wonderful and delicious things I could make with the assigned ingredients but after enjoying delicious cold fruit soups every lunchtime during our recent 2 week transatlantic cruise I decided that I needed to make my own cold soup.  I did a bit of searching on the internet and the recipe that kept coming up as a standout winning recipe was the Strawberry Soup from the 1900 Park Fare restaurant in Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. 

I scaled back on the amounts in the recipe as I was going to be the only one eating the soup as it’s not Maisie “safe” and Eammon doesn’t care for cold or fruit soups, but had I put this in a glass and told him it was a smoothie he would have gobbled it down and loved it!  I was happy to have it all to myself as the soup was absolutely delicious and when you read the recipe, beyond simple to make.  I wish that Maisie could enjoy this soup as it would be so special to serve for a Princess lunch.  With strawberries in season, this is a perfect soup to make and enjoy.

My previous Improv Cooking Challenge entries:

April 2012  Peanut butter & Jelly:  Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars  
March 2012  Potato & Cheese:  Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole 
February 2012  Ginger & Carrots:  Shrimp & Avocado Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing 
January 2012 Lemon & Sour Cream:  Ponderosa Lemon & Sour Cream Tart 
December 2011 Eggnog & Cranberries:  Eggnog Popovers with Cranberry Butter 
November 2011 Pumpkin & Cream Cheese:  Praline Pumpkin Cheesecake 
October 2011 Caramel & Apples:  Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies 

Strawberry Soup (Adapted from here) 

• 1 lb.strawberries (frozen variety with no added sugar, thaw with juice)
• 6.4 oz. heavy cream
• 0.8 oz.sour cream
• 1.2 oz. vanilla yogurt
• fresh strawberries for garnish
• sour cream for garnish
• fresh mint for garnish

Using a blender mix together the strawberries, heavy cream, sour cream & yogurt until smooth.

Chill.

Shake well before serving. Add a dollop of sour cream, fresh strawberries and mint leaves as garnish.

Makes 3 servings.

Enjoy!

Fruit, Nut & Poppy Seed Chicken Salad

I was very excited this month when I received my Secret Recipe Club assignment as I was assigned Amy’s A Little Nosh, a blog which I have followed for a long time and one where, when I have my act together, I participate in her weekly Tastetastic Thursday blog hop.  Since I’ve been a long time reader of Amy’s blog it didn’t take me ages and ages to find a recipe that I wanted to make as I already had a few of hers saved in my “need to make” file.  For some reason most of the recipes included using chicken like her Spicy Honey-Brushed Chicken Thighs, Sweet and Sour Chicken and the one I chose to make, Amy’s Chicken Salad.  Part of the reason I chose Amy’s Chicken Salad was, I was asked by Maisie’s gym to make lunch for the judges at a gymnastics meet the gym was hosting and they happened to request chicken salad on croissants so what better time to try out a new recipe.

One thing that I really liked about Amy’s recipe was that she made it sound adaptable to whatever added ingredients you’d choose to include.  I have to say that this chicken salad was the hands down best chicken salad I’ve ever eaten and it only got better the second day once all the flavors really came together.   I really loved the sweet little bites of apple and cranberry and the little added cinnamon crunch of the cashews was always a nice surprise.  The combination of yogurts, sour cream & mayonnaise gave a creamy richness and because I used some honey yogurt, just a touch of sweetness.  This is now my go-to chicken salad recipe and I know that this summer it will be served time and time again in wraps, sandwiches and atop salads.

Fruit, Nut & Poppy Seed Chicken Salad (Adapted from here) 

• 2 lbs. boneless, skinless white meat “Rotisserie” Chicken, cut or pulled into small bite-size chunks
• 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries 
• 1 large Fuji apple, peeled, seeded & cut into 1/8-inch dice
• 1 cup coarsely chopped cinnamon cashews
• 2 tablespoons poppy seeds 
• 6 oz. plain Greek yogurt
• 6 oz. honey Greek yogurt
• 8 oz. sour cream
• 8 oz. Hellmann’s real mayonnaise 

In a large bowl mix the yogurts, sour cream and mayonnaise together.  Add the chicken, dried cranberries, apple, cinnamon cashews and poppy seeds and mix together.  Enjoy immediately or for even better flavor, cover and refrigerate overnight. 

Enjoy!

My previous Secret Recipe Club Recipe Posts:

Broiled Sushi 
Health(ier) Peanut Brittle 
Crunchy Fudgy Heart Bites 
Texas Chicken with Lime Butter 
Pork Belly Soup with Collard Greens 
Thin Mint Irish Coffee 
Levain Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies 
Welsh Cakes 
Nutella Crêpes 
Cilantro Lime Chicken 
Holy Guacamole 
and
Home Style Chicken Curry

Skinny Blueberry Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I seem to have an addiction, but it’s not what you might think.  It’s not to muffins, blueberries or even to my much adored lemon, it’s an addiction to my monthly recipe challenges, The Secret Recipe Club, The Improv Cooking Challenge and today’s Crazy Cooking Challenge.  Here’s why I say that I have an addiction… The way that the Crazy Cooking Challenge works is that each month there is a dish that our hostess Tina, of Moms Crazy Cooking challenges the participating bloggers to make.  We all go out searching non-celebrity blogs looking for what we think is the ultimate recipe for that dish and once we find it, we make it and then on the same day we do our post featuring the recipe and the blog where it was found.  Well this month we were challenged to find the ultimate blueberry muffin recipe.  Sounds easy enough as the internet is littered with food bloggers who have posted gorgeous blueberry muffin recipes to their blog so finding one is up to what really just suits your fancy.  My problem though is that I’m anaphylaxis allergic to blueberries so as a general rule, I don’t cook with them.  But…BUT… I have participated in the Crazy Cooking Challenge since the beginning and I just couldn’t miss a month, so I was going to make it work.

My friend Lisa (yes Lisa is a popular name) is doing Weight Watchers (and doing great at it I might add) and she recently had surgery so while she was recovering I brought her dinner one night.  For her meal I decided to make Slimmed Down Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole and I also wanted to bring her some WW friendly sweet treats.  I decided that her sweet treats would be my blueberry muffin challenge.  Up front I knew that I wasn’t going to use fresh or frozen blueberries but rather blueberry yogurt as I felt it would be safer for me.  I then set out searching the internet looking for my, well really Lisa’s, not me Lisa but friend Lisa’s, ultimate blueberry muffin recipe.  I knew that the recipe I would choose needed to include yogurt and because of Lisa’s diet I wanted to avoid recipes which included a lot of oil, butter or eggs.  In my search I decided to look for recipes which included yogurt (my blueberry addition) and applesauce in place of the fat and as far as the sugar, well that I knew I could easily substitute.  When I happened upon Ruth’s She-Fit.com and her Skinny Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins, well I knew that I had found my recipe.  I’ve heard that lemon and blueberry go fabulously together and with Ruth’s recipe all I had to do was swap out her lemon yogurt for my blueberry yogurt, easy-peasy!!  I held pretty true to Ruth’s recipe just switching out the yogurt flavor and I didn’t bother with the additional sprinkling of Splenda on top of the muffins.

As the muffins cooked the house smelled absolutely delicious and I do wish that I was able to sample one of the muffins but Maisie (because of her food allergies) and I (because of my blueberry allergy) had to just watch as Eammon was our taste tester. 

The results, both Eammon and Lisa had thumbs up for this recipe and said that even though it’s skinny and healthy you’d never know it as these muffins were moist, tender, delicious and full of flavor.  Sounds like a winner to me!

Skinny Blueberry Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins   (Adapted from here)

• 1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour 
• 1 tsp. baking powder 
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 c. Splenda
• 5.3 oz container fat-free Greek fruit-on-the-bottom blueberry yogurt
• 2 TBS. fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 Cup unsweetened applesauce 
• 2 large egg whites
• grated lemon peel of 1 fresh lemon
• 1 TBS. poppy seeds 

Preheat oven to 350F.  In a medium bowl mix the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda and Splenda together.  Add the yogurt, lemon juice and applesauce, lemon peel and poppy seeds.  Stir to combine.  This will make a very thick batter.  In a separate bowl whip the egg whites to stiff peaks.  Add the egg whites to the flour mix and fold in.  Spray a muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.  Using a large cookie scoop place approximately 1/4 cup of batter into each muffin mold.  Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes, until a tooth pick inserted in the muffin comes out clean.

Enjoy!

My previous Crazy Cooking Challenge entries:

Spaghetti with Red Sauce Challenge:  Tomato Sauce with Onion & Butter 
Chocolate Cake Challenge:  Double Chocolate Meyer Lemon Mousse Cake
Chicken Noodle Soup Challenge: Thai Chicken Noodle Soup 
Fudge Challenge: Biscoff Fudge 
Mashed Potato Challenge: Aloo Tikki 
Chocolate Chip Cookie Challenge: Chocolate Chip Gingersnaps 
Mac & Cheese Challenge: Velvety Mac & Cheese

Slow Cooker Chicken Curry

The other day I was really craving Chicken Curry and rather than spending 45 minutes in the car round-trip, going to my favorite Thai place to pick some up, I decided to make it myself.  Last week I made a batch of Tom Yam Ghoong (Spicy Thai Shrimp Soup) so I figured that I had all the necessary ingredients in the house.  I knew the flavor that I was going for so I put on my chefs hat and used all my creative juices and made this recipe up as I went along.  Something unusual for me though, I decided to use a slow cooker which I generally don’t like using but it worked perfectly, the chicken was tender and the sauce, well it was absolutely divine with a perfect balance of spicy, hot, creamy, sweet and sour.  I’m glad that I kept track of the measurements as I went along because I will be making this curry again…and in the crockpot because it was sooooo easy!  

Slow Cooker Chicken Curry

• 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced in thumb sized strips
• 2 TBS peanut oil (or oil of your choice) 
• 2 large onions, minced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 fresh Thai red chili peppers, left whole
• 2 TBS grated fresh ginger root
• 6 TBS Jamaican curry powder
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp paprika 
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper (more or less to your taste)
• 4 bay leaves 
• 12 Kaffir lime leaves 
• 2 TBS Thai fish sauce
• 3 oz. tomato paste
• 3 TBS palm sugar 
• 2 – 14 oz. cans lite coconut milk
• 1 large lime, juiced
• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt (I used fat-free)

In a large skillet heat the oil until hot and then add the minced onion.  Sauté until the onion is caramelized.  Add the chicken, caramelized onion, minced garlic, Thai chili peppers, grated ginger, curry powder, cinnamon, paprika, turmeric, cayenne pepper, bay leaves, Kaffir lime leaves, fish sauce, tomato paste, palm sugar and coconut milk to a slow cooker and stir to mix well.  Cook on low for five hours.   Once the curry has finished cooking, stir in the lime juice and the yogurt. 

Enjoy!

Mint Lassi

Thursday night I attended a Indian cooking class and though everything made and served was delicious (and those recipes will be coming) one real standout for the evening was the mint lassi which was served at the beginning of the class.  In the past I’ve only made and tried mango lassi which is sweet and creamy like drinking a fruit smoothie so nothing oh-too adventurous, unless you consider the addition of cardamom adventurous.  So last night when I was handed a glass of mint lassi I honestly was a bit hesitant as I didn’t quite know what to expect.  Then I thought about it, mint ~ love it and drink mint tea all.the.time, yogurt ~ eat it almost everyday, cardamom ~ nothing new there and some sugar ~ well I do have a sweet tooth.  So I knew that I liked all the individual ingredients and honestly I’ll try almost anything once, so I gave it a try and am I glad that I did because mint lassi rocks!!  I enjoyed the drink so much Thursday night that first thing the next morning I went out to the weed patch garden and picked fresh mint so that I could enjoy my new found treat again.  We weren’t given a recipe or amounts but were told that the drink can be made as minty, sweet or creamy as one desires.  But I’m thinking that no matter how it’s made, this mint lassi is refreshing and light and a perfect drink for a hot summer afternoon.

Mint Lassi

2 cups loosely packed fresh mint leaves
1 cup plain yogurt (I used fat-free)
2 cups ice cubes
seeds from 4 green cardamom pods, pods discarded
4 TBS. Whey Low Gold (brown sugar, agave or sweetener of your choice)

mint leaves for garnish

Put everything but the garnish mint leaves in a bender and process to a slushy consistency.  Pour in glasses and garnish with fresh mint leaves.  Serves 4.

Enjoy

Mango Lassi

Now that the temperature outside is heating up my thoughts turn to cold, refreshing fruity blended drinks like my Melon Agua Fresca…can’t wait for our melons to come in so I can enjoy those again.  I also love creamy fruity drinks and whenever we go out for Indian food I always enjoy a mango lassi.  Lassi is so simple to make at home, I don’t know why I don’t make them more often as all three of us really enjoy them and they can actually be quite healthy.  On Wednesday Maisie and I went to the Dekalb Farmer’s Market and they were giving out taste samples of canned mango pulp.  Maisie absolutely loved it and since they had it at an awesome price I picked up a case so we’ll be enjoying mango lassi and other mango flavored treats this summer.

Mango Lassi

30 oz. frozen or canned mango pulp or fresh mango
1 1/2 cups plain yogurt (I use either store bought or homemade fat-free Greek yogurt)
2 cups milk (I use skimmed fat-free)
1/8 – 1/4 tsp. ground cardamom
sugar to taste (I generally find it sweet enough so I don't add extra)
ice cubes

In a blender combine the mango pulp, yogurt, milk and cardamom and blend until smooth.  Taste and if needed add sugar a little at a time.  I prefer to then pour the mixture over ice but alternately you can add a few cubes of ice to the blender and blend into a thick frosty drink.

Enjoy!!

Chinese Five Spice Wings with Labneh & Cilantro Dipping Sauce

We adore hot and spicy wings and these with the combination of Chinese five-spice and cayenne are right up our alley.  They are easily made in the oven, which is great as I really don’t like frying, but they still come out nice and crispy.  The dipping sauce is a nice cool foil and because it’s dairy it helps cut the capsicum.
Chinese Five Spice Wings with Labneh & Cilantro Dipping Sauce

• 20 whole chicken wings, cut into flats & drumettes, tips discarded
• 4 TBS. Chinese five spice powder
• 2 TBS cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt 
• 1 tsp. fresh ground pepper 

For dipping sauce:

• 1/2 cup labneh*
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup Mayonnaise 
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 clove of garlic, finely minced
• 1/2 cup of finely minced cilantro
• sea salt & ground pepper to taste

Pre-heat oven to 500F.

In a large bowl mix together the five spice powder, cayenne, salt & pepper. Add wing pieces and toss to coat until all the spices are attached to the wings. Lay the wings skin side up on an aluminum foil lined baking sheets and bake for 25-30 minutes.

While the wings are cooking, mix together all the dipping sauce ingredients and allow for the tastes to blend.

Serve the spicy wings with the cooling sauce.

* you can substitute 1/4 cup sour cream mixed with 1/4 cup cream cheese for the labneh.
Enjoy!