Deva by Definition

A Simple Recipe for Chicken and Noodles

As soon as the weather begins to get cold, The Boy and I start craving hot and home style meals. One of our favorites is chicken and noodles. It's warm, comforting, and delicious. Being easy to make, it stays in our meal rotation throughout the winter months. I love to serve it on blustery cold days in the dead of winter’s cold, but it is also perfect during those crisp and bright days in October, just after the leaves have begun to change.

This recipe is simple, and you can make it as soupy or noodle-filled as you would like. I like to add peas and carrots to mine, but you can add any vegetable you feel would be at home in a bowl of hot chicken soup. The recipe as written makes six servings, or four with leftovers.

Ingredients:
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed
3 14-ounce cans of chicken broth
2 carrots, cut into 1/4 inch thick rounds
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2-4 cups dry egg noodles
black pepper, to taste.

How-To:
1. In a large stock pot over medium-high heat, combine your chicken, sliced carrots, garlic powder and broth. Bring to a simmer and cook for ten to fifteen minutes, until the carrots are tender and the chicken is cooked through.

2. Reduce heat to medium and add your noodles - up to 4 cups, depending on how soup-like you want your dish to be. Remember the noodles will absorb the broth as they cook, so ensure that all of the noodles you add are able to be submerged in the broth. Allow to simmer until the noodles are cooked through, approximately five to seven minutes.

3. Remove from heat and add pepper to taste. Serve hot with a side of buttered rolls or crusty Italian bread. This is fantastic on frigid days, or after an afternoon spent playing in the snow.

Enjoy!

It’s Been a Week Since Our Stove Died…

Ever since our stove decided to stop working in a spray of sparks, we’ve been having to get creative with our cooking and our meals. I’ve used our toaster oven more this week than I have all of last year, and our grill is seeing more action than it has since October.

I’ve discovered that a lot of our favorite meals can be made in the crock pot, and have already made a couple yummy soups. I was really impressed with how this potato soup recipe turned out. It was creamy, delicious, and rich. We added the bacon to our individual bowls of soup instead of to the crock, and I omitted the onions – but it was amazing!

I’ve also tried my hand at making some chicken and noodles using the crock pot, and ended up with some of the best chicken I’ve had in quite a while. It was tender and broke apart easily, and was juicy and full of flavor as well. Along with the noodles, we had a yummy, protein – dense dinner, and have leftovers to eat later this week.

Our microwave has also been getting quite the workout, with leftovers galore. There have been a few nights where we’ve enjoyed sandwiches or have gone out for dinner, but for the most part, we’ve been exercising our creativity by using the equipment we have. Tonight we enjoyed one of our favorite heat-and-eat meals: loaded baked potatoes – made in the microwave, and later this week we’ll be trying out recipes for jerk chicken and carnitas in the crock pot - two of my favorite meals!

Granted, I would love to enjoy some homemade, iced, sweet tea. I also want to bake a cake - which my toaster oven cannot handle. Maybe an Easy-Bake Oven-sized cake, but not a full-sized, layered, birthday cake. For now,though, I am glad to have the opportunity to exercise creativity in the kitchen, try out new recipes, and learn new ways to fix some of our favorite stand-bys. I really hope we get back in order soon, but until then, I'll keep doing what we have been doing, and trying new things. Maybe we'll find some new favorites and new stand-by meals while waiting for our oven to be repaired (or replaced). 

What is your favorite slow-cooker or microwave recipe?

“We should try to make Japanese-style curry sometime.”

Back when The Boy went to Japan, he texted me lots of pictures of the various foods he was eating while there. He ate a lot of sashimi, sushi, Okonomiyaki, Oyakodon, ramen, and curry. Yes, curry.

Since his return, I’ve definitely made efforts to recreate some of his favorite Japanese dishes. I’ve had a lot of success with Oyakodon, and it has become a regular addition to our weekly grocery rotation. Eventually I want to try to make some ramen, as he described it as very different from the ramen I buy in the grocery store – full of big medallions of beef or pork.

Most recently, though, we’ve been enjoying Japanese-style curry. You see, not too long after The Boy got back, I made Indian-style curry for dinner, and after we finished, he said to me “we should try to make Japanese-style curry sometime.”

I was very intrigued, and after asking him dozens of questions about the Japanese curry he enjoyed while away, he told me about Coco Ichibanya, the curry restaurant he went to. Upon Googling, I discovered that their curry looked very different from the curry I was used to – it looked more stew-like, less tomatoey, and very good.

More searching led me to discover that there are several brands of Japanese curry mixes on the market, and I was eager to see if we could find one at the grocery store to give it a try. We were both excited when we found some, and a few days later, we made an attempt at making the curry.

The instructions were simple: saute together a pound of chicken or beef cubes and diced onion, simmer with two-and-a-half cups of water, add the curry, and serve over rice. The curry mix was interesting to me because it came as a bar – not a powder – and once added to the water and simmered, it would thicken into a rich, smoky and spicy sauce.

Following the directions on the box carefully, a half hour later we had thick, rich curry, ready to serve over sticky rice. We each filled our bowls with rice and a generous helping of the curried chicken, and, using spoons, dove in.

It was delicious, salty, smoky, with a hint of spice. The onions added a depth to the sauce flavor, and each chicken-and-rice filled bite burst with warm, comforting flavor. It was like the pictures suggested: stew-like and definitely different than the curries I grew up enjoying. We had lots of leftovers once our bellies were full, and reheated they were just as delicious as they were fresh off the stove.

If you can find Japanese Curry Sauce mix in your supermarket, I highly recommend you try it out. It’s delicious, filling, and incredibly easy to prepare. The medium-spiced curry has enough spice to give it heat, but it’s not overwhelming. I’m happy to have this dish in my meal-time rotation.

What is your favorite way to enjoy curry?

Cooking from Everyday Food

My mom recently got us a subscription to Everyday Food Magazine. I love it because it's basically like a small cookbook in my mailbox every month. In fact, my favorite cookbook is an Everyday Food compilation, and I'd say we use it more often than any of our other cookbooks. The pages throughout my cookbook are spattered from cooking, and the book often falls open to our most-frequently-made dishes.

Our first issue of Everyday Food arrived not too long ago, and after I eagerly read through it, I bookmarked a few recipes for us to try. The most recent issue is filled with a plethora of lighter recipes, which I am finding perfect for after-the-holidays (and going into Valentine's Day!). The recipes that stood out to me were a Chicken Tortilla Soup, Braised Chicken Thighs, and a few recipes for desserts!

The Boy and I decided last week that we wanted to try one of the bookmarked recipes, and settled on this one: Braised Chicken Thighs with Winter Vegetables. The recipe looked fairly easy, and even though the cooking time was a bit longer than I'd prefer, it sounded like a good and filling one-pot meal.

When we went grocery shopping, we were able to find all but one of the ingredients: the savoy cabbage. We made the decision to make the recipe without, rather than change plans. Because of the amount of time needed to put this meal together, we made it for Sunday dinner, after I got back from a seven-mile run.

The recipe was easy enough to follow, and I was lucky to have an oven-proof skillet. There was a lot of sautéing and taking the pan in and out of the oven, but overall, I found the recipe to be more hands-off than anything else. While the chicken was braising in the oven, the house smelled incredible: like bacon and chicken, onions and carrots, mustard and garlic. We couldn't wait to dig in once the pan was out of the oven and on the table.

My first bites were incredible: the chicken was tender and flavorful, with a hint of the Dijon mustard used in the braising liquid. The potatoes and carrots were perfectly cooked - soft, without being mushy. Neither The Boy or I liked the apples - they seemed to absorb a lot of the Dijon flavor, to the point of being overwhelmingly mustardy, but everything else was lightly flavored. The bacon added a rich, almost smoky quality to the chicken and vegetables, and was a nice compliment to the chicken. I would absolutely make this recipe again.

Have you made any fun recipes lately?

Oyakodon

What do you get when you combine all of this:

With some chicken, onion, egg, and rice? You get this:

Oyakodon! The Boy told me not long after returning from Japan that this had been one of his favorite meals while there. It sounded simple to make – as well as delicious – so I decided to see if I could make it at home.

Googling extensively led me to this recipe. Surprisingly, we were able to find all of the ingredients at our grocery store. It took some hunting through the international section, but we eventually had everything we needed to put together a delicious and filling meal. It took about twenty minutes to assemble – including fixing the sticky rice – and once it was finished cooking, we were ready to eat!

I mixed mine all up in my bowl, and dove right in. It was delicious – hot, light, and definitely filling!

We enjoyed our oyakodon along with some miso soup. I finished mine before taking a picture, but it was amazing.

We did eat our meal with chopsticks, which was surprisingly efficient! I am so happy I decided to try to fix this dish. We definitely will be enjoying it again in the future!

Dentist + Date Night

Today got started off with a delicious breakfast of eggs in a basket.

It was delicious – buttery, crunchy, and super filling.

Breakfast was followed by errands, lunch, and a trip to the dentist. I was hoping for a good visit, and it ended up being great: I had NO CAVITIES! I picked out a toothbrush and headed home.

The Boy was checking movie times when I got home, and we decided we wanted to do an early dinner before going to a movie. It had been a while since we’d gone for a date night, and I was excited to spend an evening with The Boy.

We decided to head to a steakhouse for dinner. I didn’t take any photos tonight, but I enjoyed some yummy salad, salmon, and steamed veggies. It was delicious! The Boy and I talked about his trip and the upcoming weekend, and enjoyed a really good meal together before heading to the movie theater to see Moneyball.

After reading Moneyball this past week, I wasn’t sure what to expect of the movie. Normally, movies aren’t much like the books they are based on, but this one was amazing! The movie followed the novel almost perfectly, and I loved watching the story unfold. It was well-paced and never dragged – I was actually surprised when the movie ended!

Once we made it home this evening, we enjoyed some ice cream and TV, and now we’re getting ready to head up to bed. I’ll be back tomorrow – have a great night!

What is your favorite date-night type activity?

#fitblog: Makin’ Time to Sweat!

Tuesday night got away from me. By the time dinner was cooked and on the table, it was well past nine o'clock. I was hungry, and so The Boy and I dove into some parmesan alfredo. Sadly, by the time we were finished eating, I had missed the Fitblog chat. The theme of this week's chat was "Makin' Time to Sweat," which I took and take to mean managing your time to fit in workouts! The chat was hosted by Alyssa of Life of Blyss, and she asked some rockin' questions. So, here goes!

Q1: What are you willing/not willing to give up in order to fit in a good sweat session?

I am both willing and unwilling to give up sleep. I have a 15-minute rule: if I have the opportunity to go back to sleep but am not sleeping within fifteen minutes of looking at the clock, I get up and get my sweat on. It could be going to the gym to lift or ellipticize, or hopping on the treadmill in the living room. Sometimes, I get up and do yoga while watching "The Today Show." I don't workout in the evening, though, only morning, so I would say that I won't give up my after-work time to workout, because that is when I am unwinding and catching up the household stuff!

Q2: At what time of day are you most productive in your workout?

Morning, definitely morning. The gym is mostly empty, there is always a trainer around if I need assistance with anything, and I get my day started by gettin' my sweat on.

Q3: How do you get over that "I have no time to exercise today" guilt?

I look at my week's exercise in a macro view, instead of honing in on one or two days. I am not a hamster so I don't want to work out every day (and I burn out quickly when I do), so if I miss a scheduled workout, I look at everything else I've accomplished for the week.

Q4: What is your #1 time-saving secret?

Planning out meals in advance, and packing my lunch the night before. Planning meals out makes my grocery trips take under an hour. Packing my lunch the night before gives me an extra 5-15 minutes to get other things done in the morning - like sleep in, or pick up stuff at the store, or just to catch up on my blog reading.

What about you - what is YOUR #1 time-saving secret?

Girls’ Night Out

Last night, I had the pleasure of spending time with this lovely lady

For a girls’ dinner out!

We hadn’t seen each other since going to a ballgame held by our Alma Mater’s alumni association six weeks or so ago, and it was nice to catch up over some burrito bols at Chipotle!

We talked while we ate – and ended up staying at Chipotle for over two hours! We talked about everything under the sun – relationships, work, families, pets – all while getting caught up with one another. We jumped from topic to topic, dispensing words of wisdom, advise, and just funny stuff going on in our lives.

Being a Wednesday night, though, we couldn’t stay and chat all night, and eventually our night ended all too soon, as we both had to be up early Thursday morning for work. We had a blast visiting, though, and want to hang out soon – two hours wasn’t enough time to catch up about everything.

Sadly, it is late again tonight, and I must go to bed. I will be back tomorrow with a fun post for you!

What do you like to do with your best friends?

Just a bit Forgetful

Last night’s dinner was tacos. Delicious tacos with beef, black beans, salsa, and cheese, all wrapped up in flour tortillas. There were leftovers, as there often are, and I decided when packing my lunch this morning, that the tacos were so good I wanted to have them again today. I loaded up my lunch bag with everything I needed to recreate this:

…or so I thought.

When lunch time rolled around this afternoon, I reached into my lunch bag, and pulled out a container of black beans, a container of beef, salsa, and a baggie of cheese. It was at that very moment that I realized I forgot one crucial part of my taco: the tortilla. I must hve forgotten to wrap one up in my flurry to get ready this morning. This made me just a bit sad, for what is a taco, without the shell?

I hadn’t packed chips, so nachos were out of the question. The snacks I packed weren’t enough to make a lunch out of, so, I did what I had to: microwaved the beef and beans, mixed them together with the cheese and salsa, and ate the mixture with a fork.

It looked amazingly unappetizing, so I decided not to take a picture. It tasted just as good as a taco, but without the shell. I missed the added flavor and texture of the tortilla – and I missed the chips, which would have added a much-needed crunch to my lunch!

While I was a little forgetful this morning, I reminded myself that it could have been worse: I could have left my lunch on the counter, or remembered the tortilla but forgot the filling. Regardless, my lunch was tasty AND filling. Next time I pack tacos, though, I think I’ll double-check my lunch bag before leaving.

Have you ever forgotten some – or all – of a packed meal? What did you end up doing?

Ready for Bed

I am ready for bed, so this is going to be a quickish post. I was up pretty early this morning and keep thinking it is later than it is. It’s been a fun day, and I got to visit the library on my way home from work this evening to browse and check out some fun books. Once I’d gotten my books, I headed home.

My eyes were feeling dry and my stomach when I walked in the door, and I was ready to take my contacts out and fix something to eat. We have some leftovers in the fridge that need to be used up, so I opted to have a leftover night, diving into fajitas I had leftover from Sunday.

It’s a little blurry and messy, but was delicious. I had my fajita with some tortilla chips and a bit of chocolate cake before settling in to watch the Reds game and participate in the #fitblog chat.

Of course, the cats had other ideas, and instead of staying the whole chat, I ended up logging off about halfway through to play with them – they were feeling super playful tonight!

By the time we finished playing, the ballgame was over and the Reds had won. The cats were worn out and I was bitten by the baking bug, so I decided to bake a batch of Julie's pumpkin-oat muffins!

They JUST came out of the oven and are still too hot to eat, but they smell incredible. My house smells like pumpkin pie. I cannot wait to crack into these in the morning for a wholesome, pumpkinny breakfast!

I’m going to do just a little more blog reorganizing before climbing into bed. It looks like the renaming project might be finished by the weekend! As soon as everything is good to go, I’ll let you all know.

Have a great night!