Chicken Tortilla Soup and a Whole Bunch More!

It is a soup sorta day don’t you all think?

Although today wasn’t all that cold. But it still felt like the day to enjoy a Mexican inspired meal.

Today started off with a somewhat cool morning and ended with bright sunshine and warmth. The high of the day was about twenty-two degrees centigrade. Can you believe that tomorrow is said to be twenty-seven?! Yeah, both Friday and Saturday is pretty much bikini weather days! The following day however will end up being thirteen degrees.

Kind of sounds like April in the Netherlands.

Not been to the Netherlands in April? Well around the end of the month right around Koningsdag (King’s Day), we get like three days of really nice and hot weather. It goes up to thirty a lot of the time. Only thing is that the days before that it is like sixteen degrees and the days afterwards it is like nineteen degrees. Both pre and post Koningsdag are rainy days while during it is perfectly wonderful.

That honestly is like it is to be this week. It is even rumoured that we are going to have snow this coming Tuesday!

Speaking of snow and cold, a woman told me something very very interesting today!

“The more berries on a tree, the more severe the winter will be!”

What tree you may ask? Not a mulberry tree, but a Mountain Ash tree!

Apparently the Mountain Ash trees are very much covered right now. So all this talk that it will be an Il Niño type of winter doesn’t seem t actually apply. Or does it? Can one actually tell the forecast for the upcoming winter?

To be or not to be a warm winter, that is the question.

Well back to my soup! Sorry for blabbing on about everything else but the food!

So I made a very simple and quick Chicken Tortilla soup. I’m someone who has made a good few of these soups and thought I would try for this one. I definitely saw why it was a twenty minute soup! I also saw that I am lacking some serious herbs and spices in my kitchen. I mean I have a whole bunch of them but I am missing two of the most critical types of spices!

• Chilli powder
• Red pepper flakes

How do I not have these for a soup such as this one is beyond me!

I got the recipe from Nutritionist in the Kitch, the direct link for the recipe can be found here. I added a few more ingredients that I feel really needs to be in every tortilla soup. I also removed a few ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 breast of chicken (283g), cooked and shredded
• 1 medium yellow onion (150g), chopped
• 1 large bell pepper (175g), chopped
• 1 small jalepeño, sliced and diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon paprika powder
• 1 can (398ml) stewed diced tomatoes
• 4 cups (940ml) chicken broth
• 1 can (398ml) red kidney beans
• 1 can (199ml) corn
• 1/3 cup (15g) cilantro, chopped
• ½ avocado, sliced
• 1 lime, quartered and squirted in each bowl (optional)
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small tortilla, sliced

Instructions:

• In a large deep pot, sauté garlic, onion, bell pepper, and jalepeño in olive oil until soft and fragrant.

• Add stewed tomatoes to vegetables and mix. Add cumin and paprika powder. Mix well before adding chicken broth to the tomato mixture. Bring to a boil and allow to simmer for five minutes.

• Now add shredded chicken, kidney beans, and corn and reduce heat and allow to boil onwards for five minutes.

• While soup is simmering, in a small frying pan heat oil up and fry tortillas until chip-like in consistency.

• Stir through cilantro and ladle into individual bowls.

• Top with three strips of the tortilla chips, top with several cilantro leaves, and top that with three slices of avocado. Now squirt some lime juice into soup if doing that.

• Enjoy!

I love love love this sort of soup. But I love anything with shredded chicken such as a normal chicken soup, an arepa, an epanada, avocado chicken salad, etc. Love it all.

Anyway, I ended up enjoying the soup with a very cool and almost luminescent looking juice! One of the best things about being in North America are having those frozen Minute Maid juices! Like this one!

Almost Glowing juice

And to go with this Limeade I am also enjoying this Limoncello scented hand cream. I now live in a very dry part of the world (however Johannesburg was also very dry), and I am in constant need of creaming my hands. I recently went to Bath & Body Works and bought about three hand creams for just $12. So beside every sink in my apartment (and luckily there’s only three) I have one of these cream bottles to soften your hands up! This is the one I have in my personal washroom.

Limoncello Hand cream

By the way, this Limoncello hand cream smells A MILLION times better than the actual Limoncello liquour. A couple years ago I tried to make a Limoncello cocktail for my little sister and I and well…. it tasted much worse than medicine generally tastes! Blegh!

And before I am done, have you all heard of the amazing story that archaeologists found the another humanoid creature that may change history as we know it? They found it just outside of Johannesburg in a cave! This creature being part Neanderthal and part cro-magnon! While watching the news they said that these humanoids had long hands like ours, however instead of being straight in length like ours, they were longer and curved to be able to climb! How cool is that!

I am just amazed by all that is discovered in this fantastic world we live in.

Anyway I am so sorry for just going on and on like crazy today.

Guess I had just so much to say! Hope you all have a fabulous rest of the day and enjoy your meal!

Happy eating… and learning!

Delicious One Pot Rice and Beans with Chicken and Cilantro

Happy Friday everyone!

I’ve had a pretty quiet week this week. From Monday through to Thursday I was completely free. So got up to some things. Took the public transport like a pro yesterday though. Went from one side of the city allllll the way to the other side. Now I know that may not seem all that impressive, but my new city is a HUGE city.

I feel like I have accomplished a lot after going from the one side of my city to the other. But I became much prouder today after having hung up a few things in my kitchen! Anyway we aren’t here to listen to my happy moments, we are here for food!

So for this evening’s meal I made a basic rice and beans dish, except it wasn’t just your normal rice and black beans dish, but a fabulous dish.

I’ve been wanting to make this recipe for a good while and finally got around to it. This recipe comes from the website Cooking Classy while the direct link for this recipe can be found here. Are you still curious to what I’ve cooked up? Well it is a One Pan Cilantro, Lime, and Chicken Rice and Bean dish. How good does Cilantro, Lime, and Chicken sound in a black bean and rice dish? Heavenly!

The recipe I followed was for four portions but I pretty much halved it.

Ingredients:

• 1 breast (283g) of chicken, diced
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 2 green onions (10g), sliced (set aside half the chives for later)
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1 cup (237ml) vegetable broth
• 1 chili pepper, sliced
• 1 teaspoon lime zest
• 2 Tablespoons lime juice
• 1 can (250ml) black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 cup (185g) white rice
• ¼ cup (15g) chopped cilantro

Instructions:

1. Heat oil in a large skillet for medium-high heat and fry chicken seasoned with salt and pepper for approx. 6 minutes, add the white bits of the green onions and garlic to the chicken and cook for a minute.

2. Sit in broth, green bits of green onion, green chili, lime zest, lime juice, black beans, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring mixture to boil. Add rice and allow to boil fully emerged in broth for a minute. Remove dish from heat while lid is on skillet and allow dish to rest for 5/6 minutes.

3. If rice is not cooked fully, return pan to medium heat and cook and toss for 1 minute to allow rice to absorb excess moisture. Remove from heat, toss in cilantro and let rest uncovered 3 minutes.

4. Top rice and beans with cilantro and green onion. Squirt some lime juice in the bowl before serving.

5. Enjoy

I am so glad that I made this meal. It was so delicious! Lime, cilantro, and green onion is the perfect combo. Absolutely perfect.

Also, have any of you heard of Ma’amoul? It is the most delicious cookie I have ever come to know. My boss likes to purchase them for us to all enjoy at work. However today while I was grocery shopping I thought to buy some for my apartment too. I probably should have been strong but I really couldn’t help myself! Ma’amoul is a shortbread pastry generally filled with dates. This cookie is a traditional Lebanese cookie and is soooo good. I’m not really a date person but these are delightful!

I hope that you get to enjoy both the rice and bean dish and the date ma’amouls! The website Cooking Classy is a great website for fantastic recipes and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Happy eating!

Green Avocado Rice

Happiness is a fresh seasonal avocado.

It really is.

I love avocado. This may be why I love living in South Africa. Avocados are everywhere and with every dish. YUM!

So for this evenings meal I had to utilize avocados!

Although the recipe is a vegetarian one, I topped it with chicken. But because the actual recipe is strictly vegetarian this is a very vegetarian post!

I got the recipe for this lovely and easy meal from Cooking Classy though the direct link to the recipe can be found here.

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cup (600g) wild rice
• 2 medium avocados
• 2 Tablespoons fresh lime juice
• ¼ cup (15g) chopped cilantro
• ¼ teaspoon cumin
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Cook wild rice as instructed on packaging.

2. Meanwhile in a medium bowl mash both avocados with a fork until smooth. Add lime juice, cilantro, cumin, garlic, and S&P until mixed well.

3. Once rice has been cooked, combine rice with avocado mixture and mix well. Serve immediately.

I sliced two chicken breasts over the avo rice mixture and placed a few leaves of cilantro on the chicken.

Honestly the avo rice tastes JUST like guacamole. How amazing is that!? Plus wild rice is delicious on its own so this was heavenly. Just heavenly.

Here’s an interesting fact for you about wild rice. I’m just learnt this and find it rather interesting at least. Did you know that one cup of raw wild rice is equal to four cups of cooked wild rice. One simple cup to four cups, wow.

Anyway, I recently bought two amazing books. I honestly can’t stop reading the one book which consists of many amazing stories. Normally I’m not interested in books that contain several stories rather than just one consistent story, but this book is FANTASTIC! This book is called 101 Kruger Tales – it’s a novel of several extraordinary stories that people experienced while being in the Kruger National Park. The other book I bought was The Elephant Whisperer which is about a man who helped elephants which were damaged by horrible people and such. The best part is that since the man died (about five years ago), every year on his birthday the herd of elephants come to his widows house and pay their respects. How lovely is that!?

If you are planning on coming to South Africa or just love exciting stories you really should get 101 Kruger Tales!

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this recipe.

Happy eating!

One-Meal Bowl with Quinoa, Cilantro, and Chicken

What is your favourite herb? And do you pronounce the H in the word herb or pronounce it as “erb”? I guess because I was raised by my Canadian mother and speaking her English I tend to pronounce the H in herb. But although I speak Canadian English, there are a lot of American things I tend to do in English. Like I spell color without the U yet I spell a lot of other things with an RE at the end. Or I add the U to certain words like “neighbourhood”.

Anyway, what was I asking? Oh yeah, what is your favourite herb?

Mine is definitely cilantro (or coriander). The fresh stuff. Yum yum yum. Though I can tell you that it is difficult to grow. I’ve failed in Holland and in South Africa. Have any of you successfully grown cilantro?

So cilantro did feature in this evenings meal.

I made a fantastic quinoa and chicken bowls. Bowls being a meal combined in a bowl.

I got the recipe from Eat. Drink. Love. – what a lovely name for a blog! The direct link for the recipe can be found here. I didn’t really make the bowl like the photos on Eat. Drink. Love., but it all tasted grand!

Ingredients:

• 2 large chicken breasts, halved lengthwise
• 2 Tablespoons lime juice
• 2 Tablespoons honey
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup (170g) quinoa
• 2 cups (470ml) chicken broth
• 1 ½ Tablespoons lime juice
• ¼ cup (15g) cilantro, chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 can (425g) black beans
• ¼ cup (59ml) water
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 ½ teaspoon cayenne powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup (40g) cilantro, chopped
• ¾ cup (115g) green peas
• 1 large tomato, chopped

Instructions:

1. In a small bowl, combine lime juice, honey, garlic, and salt and pepper then add chicken breasts to honey lime mixture and allow to marinade for 30 minutes.

2. Meanwhile bring a pot of chicken broth to boil. Once boiling, add quinoa to bubbling chicken broth and cover pot. Remember to turn down heat to low to allow quinoa to simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes and do NOT remove lid until quinoa has fully absorbed broth. Then turn heat off.

3. Mix in ¼ cup of cilantro and 1 ½ tablespoons into the quinoa. Add salt and pepper to quinoa for additional flavour.

4. In a small frying pan on medium heat, add can of black beans WITH liquid. Mix in spices and mix well. Fill ¼ cup water to can of beans and then place in bean mixture. Turn heat down to low and allow black beans to simmer for 15 minutes.

5. Then take chicken breasts from marinade and place in a frying pan at medium heat and begin to fry. Watch out that honey from marinade can cause chicken to burn easily.

6. Once chicken is cooked set aside. Once cooled begin to shred chicken for bowls.

7. When everything is ready begin setting up your bowls. Fill bowls in following order:

   1. Quinoa
   2. Chopped tomato
   3. Green peas
   4. Chopped cilantro
   5. Black beans
   6. Shredded chicken

8. Serve immediately and enjoy!

Now you do not need to fill your bowls as I have, but my mom isn’t all too keen on black beans so I wanted to remove the bean flavour from mixing in with the quinoa for her. Just to ensure it isn’t all too black bean-y. And if you want you could also add some dairy to your dish (cheese or sour cream), but I kept it simple.

Quinoa, Tomato, and Green Peas

Although it was simple without cheese or sour cream it came out great! I have to say cilantro is definitely the key ingredient in this masterpiece. It just adds so much flavour to the meal!

God, I love cilantro!

Well this meal turned out fantastically. Mom and I even went for seconds after setting up a plate for our housekeeper for lunch tomorrow. It was wonderful! The beans made the dish more Mexican, but the honey and lime made think of a more Asian meal. Which I find weird, but whatever.

If you end up making this I hope you love it as much as we did!

Happy eating!

Green Spinach and Chickpea Salad

Today is quite a sad day for the Dutch. At 6 o’clock in the evening (noon eastern time) the first airplane containing the first forty people from the downing of MH17 arrived in the Netherlands. Thousands of people laid flowers for the fallen and lined the roads while the hearses drove to Hilversum. If you haven’t been paying attention to the news as I have you can view it here.

With all the stress of the initial homecoming of the unknown people, I made dinner later than usual. But with the heat, I tried to make it with as little heat as possible. I seriously hate summer without an airco.

I made this healthy protein-packed salad. Perfect for the protein that I need in my body and super delicious. Plus it is green and I love the color green when it comes to food.

I got the recipe from here. Perfect perfect salad.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups (1- 130g can and 310g can) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 2 cups (450g) spinach
• ½ yellow onion, chopped finely
• 2 Tablespoons lime juice
• ¼ cup fresh cilantro
• ½ teaspoon agave nectar
• ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 clove garlic, sliced
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• Pinch of salt and pepper

Instructions:

1. In a food processor, add the spinach and pulse a few times until chopped very small. Add the processed spinach, drained chickpeas, and chopped onion into a large bowl.

2. In the food processor (no need to rinse the bowl!), add the lime juice, cilantro, mustard, sugar, garlic, cumin, and oil. Process until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

3. Pour the dressing on top of the spinach chickpea mixture and stir well. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let stand for about 10 minutes to blend the flavours. Serve with rice and enjoy!

This salad is absolutely amazing. I am happy knowing that I have so much leftover! Yum yum!

Mom, since I know you’re reading this you should suggest Taryn make it tonight or tomorrow at Iftar (the meal which you eat dinner after a day of fasting).

Anyway if any of y’all make this fabulous salad, I hope you enjoy it!

Also, if you are also celebrating Ramadan then you should add this to your evening meal. I think it will work wonderfully with the rest of your meal.

Enjoy your meal!

The Absolute Perfect White Fish Summer Salad!

How does one prevent smoke from making way to the smoke detector when frying some sort of meat? I know the easiest way to prevent it from going off is by opening windows and using doors or towels to “swoosh” the smoke out of the area, but really how do you not smoke up a place?

I know how to use all sorts of techniques in the kitchen but I have no idea how to prevent smoke from appearing as I fry fish or poultry.

(Well daddy, I hope you’re happy to know that my smoke detector works!)

Yes, today as I made my early dinner, I faced with a loud beeping from my smoke detector. I don’t know what I did as I tried to rip it from the ceiling, but it did finally stop (thank God!)

Besides having struggled with such a horrible (yet appropriate) machine, I also made a fantastic meal. A meal I may never make again due to my fear of having the smoke detector go off again.

I actually may never make any non-vegetarian meals ever again because of that very fear. Well after this weekend that is, because I’ve purchased a few containers of shrimp at the same time that I purchased the pangasius used in this dish.

The lovely recipe for this dish is found here.

Ingredients:

• 1 Tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 cup mushrooms, sliced
• 1 cup zucchini, sliced
• a pinch of salt and pepper (to season fish)
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 1 Tablespoon lime juice
• 2 fresh pangasius fish fillets
• 3 cups spinach
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 Tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon lime juice

Instructions:

1.        Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium high. Add the mushrooms and zucchini, season with a pinch of salt and pepper and sauté for about 5 minutes, until softened and starting to brown. Remove from pan and set aside to keep warm.

2.        In a small bowl, whisk the honey and lime juice together.

3.        Preheat a large pan at medium-high heat. Lightly coat with cooking spray. Season the fish on both sides with salt and pepper and place on the grill. Grill for about 3 minutes on each side, brushing the fish with the honey lime glaze.

4.        Divide the spinach leaves over two dinner plates. Arrange the sautéed vegetables over the spinach and top with grilled. Sprinkle the cherry tomatoes over the salads. Lightly dash with olive oil and lime juice.

5.        Serve immediately and enjoy!

I truly enjoyed this dish. Even though my fish was a bit on the burnt side along the edges, it tasted amazing! Best of all is that this recipe is for 2 people so I’ve got leftovers for a fantastic lunch tomorrow! I am excited. Especially since I do not have to fry the fish again and listen to the singing of my smoke alarm.

I feel like such an idiot because of that. I had to Facetime my mom in my distress from my incident. Instead we had a lovely twenty minute conversation.

 Anyway this meal is super light and very ideal for a summer dish. If it is hot where you’re at you should be making this white fish dish!

Enjoy your meal!