Warm food for a cool night

Low temperatures in the 30s and 40s bring cool-weather vegetables to the table:

Roast chicken; baby bok choy sauteed with bacon and scallions; maple-glazed roasted carrots; cranberry sauce.

Mideast Style

Roast chicken spiced with coriander, cumin, and turmeric;  pita bread; feta cheese; homemade tzatziki sauce; olives; sliced tomatoes and cucumbers.

Italian style

Grilled chicken with caponata and caprese salad:

Caponata:
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 small eggplant, peeled and diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 onion, diced
1 tomato, diced
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup pine nuts
Vinegar and sugar to taste

Heat olive oil on medium, add eggplant and cook for 10 minutes or until eggplant starts to brown. Add remaining ingredients and cook for 20 minutes or until mixture has thickened. Let the mixture cool to room temperature and add a small amount of vinegar and/or sugar to taste. Serve at room temperature. This was good as a condiment for the chicken, but usually is served with bread as an appetizer.

Barbecue time

Pulled chicken (from barbecued chicken leg quarters) on a slider bun; potato salad; cole slaw:

Fall Flavors

Even though the temperatures here are still in the 90s, October made me want a fall-type meal.

Roast chicken with fresh herbs, maple-glazed carrots, and spaghetti squash casserole.

Spaghetti squash casserole:
1 medium spaghetti squash
1/2 cup grated onion
4 oz. grated Cheddar cheese
6 oz. 2% plain Greek yogurt
10 oz. condensed cream of chicken soup (undiluted)

Cook squash for 10 minutes in microwave, then scrape strands with a fork into a large bowl. Mix in onion, 2 oz. cheese, yogurt, and soup. Put into a casserole and top with the remaining 2 oz. of cheese. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

A Few Leftovers

A couple of the past week's meals:

Beer Can Chicken

Burgers on the grill

Chile, 'cause it's chilly

Winter has finally struck - today's high was only in the forties, with lows in the twenties. I made chicken chile verde and cornbread.

2 chicken breast halves, poached and shredded
6 green onions
8 oz. chicken broth
4 oz. Herdez salsa verde
1 can diced mild green chiles
1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Garnished with light sour cream, light Mexican blend shredded cheese, and avocado. Cornbread from a Jiffy mix.

Chicken Pot Pie

I'm still in comfort food mode here, hoping that my cold goes away before I have to get on a plane on Sunday. Tonight's meal was chicken pot pie.

I poached the other half of the chicken breast that I'd used on Monday. Made a cream sauce with a butter and flour roux, chicken broth, and cream. Added the poached chicken, plus some sauteed onions, celery, carrots, mushrooms, potatoes, and frozen peas. Covered with a (thawed) frozen Trader Joe's pie crust and baked for 30 minutes at 400.

Not low-fat, so I ate a small portion. But it was creamy and rich and comforting. The cold doesn't stand a chance.

Chicken soup, Asian style

We all have a cold that we picked up this weekend - the only thing for it was some spicy chicken noodle soup.

I simmered store-bought chicken broth with star anise, cinnamon, onions, ginger, and red pepper flakes for about 45 minutes, then strained it. I cooked udon noodles separately. I sliced half a chicken breast thinly and simmered it in the strained broth for a few minutes until it was cooked through. Then I put some cooked noodles into a bowl and added broth with chicken on top.

Added to the bowl from this plate of garnishes:

I can't say it cured the cold, but it made it much easier to live with.

1/2 cup udon noodles, 2 oz. chicken breast, broth and herbs: 175 calories

Chicken in Red Wine Sauce

I was going to call this "coq au vin", but it wanders so widely from the traditional recipe that it probably shouldn't be called that. One member of the household remarked that "The chicken was better than it looked." High praise indeed! I cooked the chicken in the pressure cooker, so it only took 15 minutes under pressure, and it was tender and juicy.

1 tbsp. butter
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup chopped carrots
4 chicken leg quarters, skin removed
1 cup red wine
1 cup chicken broth
1 tbsp. tomato paste
8 oz. white mushrooms, quartered
8 oz. carrots, cut into chunks
8 oz. frozen pearl onions
2 tbsp. cornstarch in 1/2 cup water

Melt the butter in the pressure cooker, and saute the chopped onions and carrots for 5 minutes with the lid off. Add the chicken, wine,  chicken broth and tomato paste, and cover the pressure cooker with its lid. Cook on high heat until the cooker comes to pressure, then lower the heat and cook for 15 minutes. While the chicken is cooking, saute the mushrooms, carrots, and pearl onions in a non-stick pan with cooking spray. After the chicken has been under pressure for 15 minutes, release the pressure and open the cooker. Remove the chicken and put it in a 200 degree oven to keep warm. Strain the cooking liquid into a saucepan and boil to reduce by half, then thicken it with cornstarch mixture. Add the cooked mushrooms, onions, and carrots to the sauce, and serve it over the chicken.

I have not done the calorie math on this recipe, but with the skin off the chicken and little added fat, it's probably not too bad.