Chicken and Lentil Soup

What do you do when you desperately need to go grocery shopping, but it's way too hot to even think about going outside?  Or you're just too lazy busy to leave your hectic domain?  Or maybe you stayed up past 4am trying to watch the Delta-Aquarid meteor shower and you don't have your life together today? Ahem. None of those apply to me.  Promise.

So what do you do?  Pinterest.  Obviously.  Because I cannot feed my entire family on just two chicken breasts (which, at this point, are still frozen).

Or can I?

I'm desperately looking around my kitchen trying to get an inventory.  Let's see, I've got some veggies, tomato paste, some lentils... I can do this.  I found a very inspiring chicken and lentil soup recipe, and upped it.  What do I call it? A whole bunch of delcious stuff thrown into a pot.  With grilled cheese.  That's too long.  Whatever.

Problem: the chicken is still frozen.
Solution: cook it while I prep the rest of my ingredients.  Drizzle with avocado oil, season both sides with salt and pepper, bake at 375°F for about 25-30 minutes, or until cooked through.

This would be an amazing recipe for some straggling left over chicken.  And it would take less time.

Side note about tomato paste: even though it comes in a teeny tiny can, you never really ever need that much.  You can put it in a Ziploc bag, divided in sections, and freeze it.  Just break off a piece whenever you need it.  Like so:

Shown frozen with two sections missing.  I would guess they're about a tablespoon each.

What you'll need:

• 2 large chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
• 1 cup dry lentils, rinsed
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 1 carrot, diced (I actually had about 6 baby carrots, which worked wonderfully)
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 can cut green beans, drained
• 1 cup frozen corn (coincidentally, the exact amount I had on hand)
• 3 Tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 Tbsp paprika
• 4 cups chicken broth
• Avocado oil
• salt and pepper

What to do:

Heat a large drizzle of oil in a large pot over medium heat.  Add onions, garlic, and carrots and cook for about 4 minutes, until onions are soft.  Add seasonings and lentils and stir until well combined.

Add in the rest of the ingredients: chicken, green beans, corn, broth, tomato paste.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and let simmer for about 25 minutes, or until lentils are soft.  Season with salt and pepper.

And that's it!  Serve it up with some grilled cheese sandwiches and enjoy!

Tip: if you like a more soupy soup, you can add about 2 cups of water.  We like thick soup in my household.  For some reason, my husband is against eating with spoons and would rather sop up the broth with bread, or grilled cheese in this case.

Prep time: about 30 minutes if you have to cook the chicken
                  about 5 minutes if chicken is already cooked

Cook time: 30 minutes

Makes about 6 servings.

Spiced Shrimp with Israeli Salad and Couscous

We recently subscribed to Hello Fresh, which is basically a meal plan delivery system. They send you fresh food and recipes every week to keep your dinner time from getting too boring.  If you're interested in trying it out, you can get $40 off your first box here.

Our dinner was getting boring, and my husband had had enough of it. So far I have really enjoyed the stuff we've been making.  This one was especially fun to make because I have never had any kind of Israeli dish.  Turns out that it is the perfect meal for this crazy summer time heat (imagine that... Israel).  It is so light and fresh and won't bog you down, and I just couldn't not share it.

Looks pretty close to the picture on the recipe!

What you'll need:

• 20-24oz shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 cup Israeli Couscous
• 2 small red onions, one finely diced, one cut in 1-inch cubes
• 2 Persian cucumbers, finely diced
• 1/2 oz fresh mint leaved, finely chopped
• 4 Roma tomatoes, cored and seeded; two finely diced, two cut into 1-inch cubes
• 2 lemons, zested and halved
• 6 oz plain yogurt
• 2 Tbsp southwest seasoning
• olive oil
• salt a pepper to taste

What to do:

Preheat oven.  Set the broiler to 500°F.

Cook the couscous: Heat a large drizzle of oil in a small pot over medium heat.  Add about 2/3 of the diced onion and all of the couscous.  Cook and stir for about 2-3 minutes, or until the onion is soft.  Add 4 cups of water and a dash of salt.  Bring to a boil, then simmer on low for about 15 minutes, or until the couscous is cooked through and water is absorbed. (I actually ended up doing this wrong. I think I cooked it on too low of a temperature and ended up with too much water when the couscous was done cooking.  If this happens, just drain the water out with a colander and return it to the pot.)  Cover and set aside in a warm place.

Make the yogurt sauce: In a small bowl, combine half of the lemon zest and mint, all of the yogurt, a squeeze of lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste.

Make the salad: In a medium to large bowl, stir together the remaining diced onion, lemon zest, and mint, the cucumber, diced tomato, a sqeeze of lemon, large drizzle of oil, and salt and pepper.

Cook shrimp and veggies: Toss the shrimp, cubed onion, and cubed tomato in a drizzle of olive oil, all of the southwest seasoning, and salt a pepper.  Spread out evenly on a baking sheet and broil about 5-6 minutes, turning about halfway through.  Everything should be lightly charred when done.

Plate it up! Combine the salad and couscous.  Taste and see if it needs more salt and pepper.  Serve the shrimp and veggies on top of the couscous salad and top with the lemon-mint yogurt (as pictured).

Enjoy!

Here is what Hello Fresh's dish looked like (mine is pictured above):

They used skewers; I did not. I also plated less couscous salad because I cannot eat that much.

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: about 15 minutes

Makes about 4 servings.

Super Easy (and delicious) Beef Stroganoff

One of my personal favorites to make, this dish is one that can be thrown together at the last minute if you're in a hurry or just don't really feel like cooking much.  Plus, it's delicious.  Much better than Mr. Helper.

What you'll need:

• 8oz of pasta (typically egg noodles, but I used bow ties this time)
• 1lb ground beef
• 1 cube beef bouillon, crushed
• 1 can cream of mushroom
• 8oz sour cream
• 2oz half and half (milk works, too)
• salt and pepper

What to do:

Cook the pasta in a pot of boiling water and drain.

While the pasta cooks, heat a large drizzle of avocado oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the ground beef to the pan, season with salt a pepper, and chop up into bits as it cooks through.  Drain and return to the skillet.

Add sour cream, cream of mushroom, half and half, and bouillon to the pan.  Stir until well combined and heated through.  Salt and pepper to taste, then stir the cooked pasta into the mixture.

Serve it up, and enjoy!

Makes about 4 servings.

Prep time: about 3 minutes

Cook time: 10-15 minutes.