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This weeks Craving Ellie in My Belly is Chicken Sate with a Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce. It was chosen by the hilariously funny Cathy of The Tortefeasor. It can be found at the aforementioned Food Network link or on page 54-55 of The Food You Crave. This is in the appetizer section of the book, but I decided to make it into dinner portions and serve it with some rice.

This recipe starts with marinating the chicken in a mixture of chicken stock, lite coconut milk, soy sauce, shallot, garlic, fish sauce, brown sugar, lime zest, and ginger. I marinated my chicken for about 8 hours instead of the 1 hour Ellie suggests. The chicken was very flavorful on it’s own and my favorite part was the flecks of lime zest that stuck to the chicken from the marinade.

I enjoyed skewering the chicken but I only got about 6 skewers instead of 8. I guess I over stuffed my skewers, but it really did not matter since it was just the two of us. I did only use 1 pound of chicken breast and I felt like it was a generous amount of chicken for dinner. I couldn’t finish it all. However, Nick, who increasingly complains that he is always so hungry finished all of his and the rest of mine.

The peanut sauce was very good, similar to but definitely not the same as the sauce from the lime peanut noodles that we made a few weeks ago. The dipping sauce was made from peanut butter (I used up the rest of my homemade PB ), chicken broth, soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, lime juice, garlic, chili flakes, red curry paste, and shallot. I think I liked this sauce better, and I was pleased to see that Nick enjoyed it as well. I was worried that this would end up being a pizza night because he is not a big fan of peanut sauces or sauces in general on his chicken. However, to my pleasant surprise he not only tolerated but sincerely liked the sauce. I left out the red pepper flakes because I don’t really like any heat in my food. Though I did think the sauce still had a bit of a kick from the green curry paste (the store was out of red curry paste - but they smell the same to me - very strong and kind of gross).

Instead of tossing the leftover coconut milk I decided to make some rice with it. I combined 1 cup of light coconut milk, 1 cup of water, 1 cup of uncooked basmati rice, 1/4 tsp of grated fresh ginger, and a splash of lime juice. Just cook it up like you would normally cook rice, this took about 15 - 20 minutes. The rice was very creamy and it definitely retained flavor from the coconut milk. Though I could not taste the ginger or lime at all, so if I make this again, I would increase both.

Overall this was a very tasty dinner and I would absolutely make this chicken and the dipping sauce again.

Bruschetta has been around for a long time, like 15th century long time. It originated, of course, somewhere in central Italy. The word bruschetta is derived from the word brucare which is of Roman dialect and means “to roast over the coals". (Thanks Wikipedia). I think a lot of people assume that bruschetta refers to the delicious topping on this Italian snack, but it in fact refers to the grilled bread.

It seems to me that the most traditional type of bruschetta is topped with a raw tomato and basil combination. Since Nick and I both do not like raw tomatoes this is not something that we would normally eat. However, since bruschetta was July’s Recipe to Rival challenge, and it is easy and inexpensive to make, I figured we may as well try this recipe out.

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Well, these oven baked onion rings are a favorite in our house. I have been making them for a while. long before I joined Craving Ellie in My Belly.

They are rings of sweet Vidalia onions, coated in flour, then buttermilk, then crushed baked potato chips. Ellie’s version calls for cayenne pepper, but I like to add other dried herbs as well to spice up the flavor a bit. Though I think the key to making these great is to ensure that you cut your rings nice and thick, this way you get a crunchy outside with a sweet soft onion inside. If you cut them too thin, they will just be brittle overcooked onions.

I have posted about them before, so I am not going to elaborate too much on them here. I will provide the recipe with my flavoring adjustments.

This was a great pick by Mary Ann of Meet Me in the Kitchen. I hope everyone else enjoyed these as much as we do.

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This week MacDuff of Lonely Sidecar chose the Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe, and her pick was a Lobster Roll. Yum! To me, nothing says summertime like some great seafood, or to be more specific, shellfish.

I am a shellfish addict - shrimp, lobster, mussels, and my favorite littleneck clams. I will eat it all in almost any form you can think of to prepare it.

So I was excited to try this recipe out. I originally planned to make it with some lobster that Nick’s sister and brother in-law were bringing down from Rhode Island over 4th of July. However, I forgot. So I ended up making it earlier this week with some jumbo shrimp.

The recipe really is the dressing which consists of mayo, greek yogurt, celery, scallion, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. It was pretty good. I ended up using only a little bit of the dressing on my sandwich, but Nick put a bunch more on his and really enjoyed it. It was a tad bit bland, which some members mentioned on the Tell All, so I added more salt and some celery salt to this mixture. The dressing kind of reminded me of coleslaw dressing, and there was already celery in it, so it seemed natural. MacDuff also suggested using Old Bay on the Tell All, which I totally should have thought of, but I had already made them.

I don’t really know much about what an authentic lobster or shrimp roll is supposed to be, so I don’t know how this compares. Though I can imagine that those sandwiches have mayo and maybe sour cream on them. I also did not serve these on a hot dog roll because I had some baguettes in the house, so I am sure that made a difference texture wise.

This wasn’t one of my favorite Ellie recipes, but it was still an enjoyable dinner. What I liked even more though, was this Rice and Lentil Salad that I made courtesy of Giada DeLaurentiis. The salad was fantastic! You should try it out.

I was not introduced to real barbecue until a few short years ago. I think the first true pork bbq sandwich I ever had was on my first trip the the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Truth be told, I was not that impressed. I think it was the ridonculously vinegary sauce. I love a sweet and tangy BBQ sauce, but whatever I had was not enough sweet and too much tang.

Anyway, last year, Nick decided that it would be a good idea to build a smoker. Needless to say, we had many months of great summer BBQ’s with a variety of smoked foods, including multiple pork butts. So this is what really ignited and cemented my love of smoked food and true barbecue.

Unfortunately, pork butt is not a lean cut of meat. In fact, part of the reason why the pulled pork is so good is because slow cooking it upwards of 10 hours allows all the fat to melt into the meat, making it extra tender and flavorful. So when I saw Ellie Krieger make some delicious looking pulled BBQ chicken sandwiches I knew I had give them a try. Could I satiate my cravings for good barbecue in a healthy way. Barbecue purists would say no, but I say yes.

Ellie uses a store bought rotisserie chicken and a quick homemade barbecue sauce. I added some homemade coleslaw to them and served them on some homemade rolls. This was unbelievably good. They can’t compete with a real pulled pork sandwich, but they are a great easy weeknight healthy alternative. I will be making these again and again.

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Did you know that chickpeas were one of the earliest cultivated vegetables? Like 7500 years ago. That would be 5491 BC. That is a long f’ing time ago.

However, the ladies over at Recipes to Rival told me that this month I would be deep frying chickpeas. Falafel and chickpea fries. Okay, twist my arm.

I generally try to avoid fried foods. I like to save my fried food intake for particular things that I know I love and will be worth the fat and possible belly ache that I get from too much fried stuff. A fried fish sandwich from a stand near Nick’s childhood home in PA, homemade French fries, good tempura, or fresh yeast doughnuts are all evil temptresses to me. I usually give in to them.

I debated baking these falafel and chickpea fries, but decided to just do it up right and deep fry. It had been a while since we deep fried anything anyway.

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Fried fish is awesome. There is a stand at the farmers market by Nick’s parents house in PA that has the most amazing fried halibut sandwich. They coat the fish in dry pancake mix, then egg, then panko and deep fry it to deliciouness. On a potato roll with their homemade cocktail sauce, it is heaven. I would eat one for every meal if I could, but alas, I cannot.

So let’s be real here, these baked fish fingers leave a lot to be desired if you are looking for some deep fried goodness. However, they are pretty delicious and smothered in this guilt free yogurt tarter like sauce, they are even better.

I am so glad that Anne from Rainforest Recipes chose these Crispy Fish Fingers as her pick this week for Craving Ellie in My Belly.

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This week’s Craving Ellie in My Belly was Garden Risotto and was chosen by Jessica of A Singleton in the Kitchen.

I love risotto, so I was psyched to make this. It turned out great and was a nice light dinner filled with lots of yummy vegetables, and also made for great lunch leftovers.

I did make some changes to the original recipe:

1. I added garlic, mushrooms, and 1 teaspoon of dried thyme. This was all sauteed, along with the onion.
2. I blanched the asparagus in the chicken broth before I started cooking the rice, instead of using the microwave.
3. I added additional cheese of course, about 1/2 cup parmigianno total.

I ended up using about 6 cups of my homemade chicken stock and just added it by the ladleful until the rice was al dente. It took about 20-25 minutes to cook.

Before:

After:

I wish I had more leftovers to eat! This was such a pretty dish this week with all those eye popping green vegetables.

Sorry this post is so short. I just spent a long overdue hour at the gym and I am tired and ready to sink into bed. I can’t wait to see what all my other CEiMB girls thought of this one.

This is a ridiculously good and easy recipe, which I adapted from a recipe I found in a Weight Watcher’s cookbook. I make this at least once a month for dinner, and it is always so hearty and satisfying. The chicken breast is seared and then boiled in flavorful chicken broth, so it comes out nice and juicy, served alongside a pungent vegetable saffron rice. I don’t know much about Spanish cooking, and I am sure that this is not necessarily a traditional Arroz Con Pollo, but it is too good to care about some pesky authenticity.

I was actually inspired to make this after watching the Arroz con Pollo Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and me and my sister pranced around rolling our r’s saying “Arrrrrroz Con Pollo” for days. I couldn’t get it out of my head, and when I saw a recipe only a few days later, I knew I had to make some. (If you are looking for something more authentic, I think the above Throwdown link should do it for you).

I hope you find some time to make and enjoy this tasty and healthy chicken dinner.

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Chances are you’ve never seen a veal breast. I know I hadn’t up until recently, when my local supermarket found itself with some mistakenly ordered whole veal sides.

A veal breast is the same cut of the cow as a brisket. Since the veal is so much younger, it hasn’t had the time to develop quite the same marbling and fat layer that you would find on a brisket.

It is however, delicious. After contemplating a preparation for half a day or so, it struck me. A roulade. Jump with me to see how it’s done!

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