Chicken with Mushrooms and Zucchini

We are going to be visiting New York City this weekend. It's our first visit since we moved. All of the plans just fell into place last night, so now we can let ourselves get excited. We have been having ongoing car problems with our 1985 diesel Mercedes (it seems to have air in the system and doesn't like to start). We didn't want to get stuck somewhere along the way, so we decided to rent a car. Now that we have transportation and a place to stay, it's time to start figuring out what and where we want to eat.

When you visit a former home town, where do you like to eat? Is there a place that just calls out to you that you must visit each time you are there?

Last night we enjoyed some chicken with mushroom and zucchini and a side of kale. The dish is very flexible-it would taste nice with some Italian seasonings and tomatoes, herbes de Provence would work well, but we went with some soy sauce, sesame oil and garlic.

Chicken with Mushroom and Zucchini serves 2
1 T butter
10 oz of mushrooms, sliced
2 medium zucchini, sliced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 T soy sauce
1 T sesame oil
1 chicken breast. sliced

Melt the butter over medium heat, and add the mushrooms. Cook until browned and remove from pan. Add the zucchini and cook until tender, and then set aside. Add the sesame oil and chicken and cook until browned on all sides. Add the garlic, zucchini and mushrooms back into the pan. Sprinkle with soy sauce and cook for a couple of minutes for the flavors to combine and to ensure the chicken is cooked through.


This post is part of Traditional Tuesdays, Tuesday Glam Party,  Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, and Hearth and Soul  Blog Hop. 

Greek Dinner of Lamb Chops and Artichoke Rice Pilaf

We have been avoiding grains and sugar for a while now, but we fell off the wagon this weekend. My husband made dinner last night and it was worthy of our break. Marinated lamb shoulder chops with an artichoke, lemon rice pilaf and sauteed spinach with garlic. It was a great flavor palate with a bold mix of lemon and garlic. My husband doesn't do anything halfway, so when he makes sauteed spinach he adds eight cloves of garlic. Check below for his big flavors for the lamb and rice.

This week we will be picking ourselves up, brushing ourselves off and getting back on track. As part of this, we picked up enough greens to have some each day.

Menu Plan
Monday - Chicken breasts with butternut squash and kale
Tuesday - Meatloaf and spinach
Wednesday- Chicken with kale and cauliflower
Thursday- London Broil with spinach and broccoli
Friday - Out of town

Lamb Shoulder Chops serves 4
1 1/2 lb lamb shoulder chops
1/2 C apple cider vinegar
1/2 C olive oil
1 T garlic powder
1/2 T oregano
1 T Dijon mustard
8 cloves of garlic, smashed
1/2 lemon, juiced
pepper and salt

Combine all of the ingredients and place in a plastic bag. Let marinate for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove the chops and garlic from the marinade. Place the chops in a cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Brown for 3 minutes per side. Add the garlic, and bake for 10 minutes.

Artichoke, Lemon Rice Pilaf 
2 T butter
1 T oil
1/4 C almonds
1 C brown rice
1 C chicken stock
1 C water
1/2 C artichoke hearts (we used marinated hearts from a jar)
1/2 lemon, juiced

Place 1 T of butter and 1 T oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the almonds and rice. Cook for a couple of minutes to brown. Add the the stock, water, butter and artichoke hearts and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 45 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the lemon juice. Let sit covered for 10 minutes and then fluff with a fork.

This post is part of Menu Plan Monday, Monday Mania, Homemaker Monday, Made by you Monday and Delicious Recipes.

Versatile Mushroom Sauce

Mushroom Sauce (dairy-free)

The best thing about our apartment in Massachusetts is our kitchen. Let me give you a little history. When we lived in Manhattan, we had a 350 square foot "1 bedroom" apartment. Apartments that size don't even exist outside of major cities. Our "kitchen" was along the wall at the end of our L shaped main room. We bought an island and a pot rack and we made it work. We actually could work together in that kitchen on opposite sides of the island. We prepared some real feasts in that tiny space.

Next we moved to Brooklyn for more space. Our apartment was a whopping 750 square feet. It had real size rooms. We even bought a queen size sleeper sofa, but the kitchen was tiny. I loved that apartment, but I hated the kitchen. Because it was a small separate room and it had a poor layout, only one person could work in that kitchen at a time. We tried to find a creative solution, but it didn't exist. While I was pregnant, I would sit in the doorway on a stool and watch my husband cook. That was the only way the two of could fit in the room together.

Our apartment in MA is about 1,100 square feet and feels more like a house than an apartment. It even has a hallway! But the kitchen is the real gem. It's as ugly as can be and looks like the "before" photos on a home show, but it has space. It is U shaped and has 3 separate counters. It has full size appliances and even a dishwasher. There is enough floor space for us to fit Baby Girl's high chair and for my husband and I to work together. We can actually cook while she is awake and playing with some toys on her high chair tray for short periods of time (by playing I mean dropping things overboard).

What's your kitchen like? What do you love about it? What do you hate about it?

Now that we have a user friendly kitchen, we really should start taking full advantage of it and start preparing some more impressive meals. Here is our little baby step in that direction. Are you looking for something to take your average dinner up a notch? We have a mushroom sauce that does just that. It's very versatile. It can be gluten free, dairy free, have a little spice - or not. My husband said last night, "I would eat this mushroom sauce on anything!" How's that for an endorsement?

First I took a photo of the mushroom sauce over hamburgers with a side of kale

But let's be honest. We smothered everything with the sauce before we ate it.

Mushroom Sauce

2 T butter

1 lb mushrooms, sliced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/4 t thyme

1/4 t cayenne (optional - for a little spice)

1/4 t nutmeg

1 C chicken stock

2 T flour or arrowroot

Splash of sherry (optional)

1 C sour cream or yogurt (optional)

1/2 C cream or whole milk (optional)

Melt the butter over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and cook until browned. Add the garlic and spices and cook one more minute. Add the chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Add your thickener and cook until the desired consistency. If you are looking for a dairy free sauce, stop right here. Your sauce is finished.

For a creamy sauce: Add the splash of sherry and cook one more minute. Turn off the heat and stir in the sour cream or yogurt. Thin the sauce with cream or milk until it reaches the desired texture.

This post is part of Works for me Wednesday, Gluten Free Wednesdays, Welcome Wednesdays, Real Food Wednesdays, and Allergy free Wednesdays.

Ditching the Sugar and Grain (at least for now)

Our cake and cupcake pans all have a new use...holding water on top of the radiators to help humidify the air.

I have mentioned in previous posts that we are taking a break from sugar and grains. Here is a little background info to explain why:

We have a 7 month baby girl. I was very determined to breast feed her, but it was not an easy road. We had problem after problem.* Just when things were starting to get a little bit more tolerable, white patches appeared in baby girl's mouth. It was the dreaded thrush! (For the uninitiated, it is a yeast overgrowth in the baby's mouth and it is passed between baby and the nursing mother.) We first tried some home remedies, but they didn't work, so we went to the pediatrician and started our first round of Nystatin. I cut out sugar and most starchy foods, took probiotics and ate fermented food. The thrush seemed to clear up, but as soon as we stopped the medicine it came right back. After our third round of medicine, I promised myself we weren't going to use the medicine again. There had to be another way...

Right about that time we moved to the Boston area, and I met a naturopathic nutritionist. I described our ongoing saga with thrush and asked if she had any advice. She suggested we both continue our courses of probiotics and that I go "Paleo" and cut out grains and sugars entirely. I already knew that would be a good idea, but she gave me the extra push to really commit. She also suggested that I take one tablespoon of raw apple cider vinegar before each meal (to make the system more basic and less conducive to the yeast) and to eat two tablespoons of freshly ground flax seed each day (this would help sweep out the yeast and provide a base for the good bacteria). She also approved of my plan to start giving baby girl some homemade chicken stock every day to start helping heal her digestive track (more on feeding babies in a future post). After 3 weeks on this plan, the thrush disappeared and stayed gone. This was over Christmas, so it was hard to avoid all the seasonal treats, but totally worth the sacrifice after 3 months of battling thrush.

Well, the story doesn't end there. After the thrush had been gone for a month or so, I started to slip. Sometimes I would forget to take the vinegar, probiotics or flax seed. I stayed pretty true to the food at meal time, but I started to sneak an illicit snack in the afternoons. I started a little ritual of a pastry and a decaf coffee in the late afternoon. It gave me something to look forward to, and seemed to help ground me in this new, unfamiliar landscape. It was my secret little treat. To top it all off, I devoured a box of homemade peppermint bark sent to us by NYC friends in just two days. Of course, my body was on to my secret. I started to develop dry, itchy red patches of skin at my hairline and behind my ears (I'm sure a doctor would diagnose it as either eczema or psoriasis). I have had a lifelong battle with dandruff and itchy scalp, but this was much worse. I knew the pastries had to go, and I had to become more serious about ditching the sugar and the grain. A couple of weeks back on the wagon, and the patches are gone.

I'm not exactly sure what the long term solution is. I'm still nursing and my first priority is to provide excellent nutrition to baby girl. I need to do more research into GAPS and other diets focused on eliminating candida that will not be too harsh for nursing mothers. I have read of issues with yeast die-off and the potential for toxins released into the mother's milk with some diets.

Have you had experiences with thrush or yeast overgrowth? How did you deal with it? Have you been pleased with the results?



*If you are a new mom, and having trouble nursing please feel free to contact me. I am not an official expert, but have felt your pain and can commiserate and offer our experiences. Although, when I was having trouble nursing, I was not reading food blogs because I was consumed with looking for solutions to my breastfeeding issues in books and on-line, so I'm not expecting my inbox to start overflowing with breastfeeding related messages. Just in case, I found Mothering and La Leche League to be helpful.

This post is part of Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade and Monday Mania at Healthy Home Economis.

Dinner Inspiration

As I mentioned in my last post, we have been trying to avoid sugar, flour and grains (more on why in a future post). These limitations have put us in a definite dinner rut of meat, winter squash and kale/chard. So I set out to find some inspiration that looked tasty, healthy and affordable. Here's what I found:

10 Grain-Free Dinners on a Budget from Holistic Kid

A delicious looking/sounding Taco Salad at Riddle Love. Also planning to check out her weekly meal plans too.

One of my favorite blogs, Nourished Kitchen, is always inspiring, but this Chipotle Chile, Chicken and Black Bean Soup looked especially appealing to me.

Do you have any recipes to recommend for an affordable grain-free dinner? Please share your dinner inspiration.



Last night we enjoyed a roasted lemon garlic chicken with baked butternut squash and sauteed red chard with garlic. Still part of our basic pattern, but it was tasty. We drizzled the pan drippings over the squash, and I highly recommend it.

Lemon Garlic Chicken
5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
zest of 1-2 lemons
1 pasture raised chicken
1/2 C Chicken Stock
2 T butter

Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees.

Mix the garlic and lemon zest together. Gently loosen the chicken skin and push the garlic and lemon under the skin. Try to evenly distribute over the whole chicken. Place the chicken into a dutch oven and add the chicken stock. Rub the butter over the chicken. Cook the chicken for 1-2 hours (until a leg wiggles easily). Remove the lid, and turn up the heat to 400 degrees and cook for another 20 minutes or until the skin is golden.