Rainy Day Lunch

I've been craving lentil soup ever since the weather started to get cold. Yesterday, I made The Barefoot Contessa's Lentil Vegetable Soup. It made the whole apartment smell amazing, and it has tons of flavor. But I had to modify it a bit - it makes so much soup I didn't have a pot big enough! It calls for a lot of veggies, so be prepared for a lot of chopping. I started cooking it in my round le Creuset dutch oven, but when I started adding the stock, I needed to switch to my larger oval dutch oven. And I still couldn't fit the 3rd quart of stock, but it seemed fine with 2 quarts of stock. (And my freezer is now packed with ziplock bags of the soup!) I also used my immersion blender to puree some of the soup to give it a creamier texture. The recipe calls for finishing the soup with either red wine or red wine vinegar. I tried a bowl with a splash of vinegar, which was nice, but I finished the rest of the soup with red wine, and I definitely prefer how that enhances the flavors in the soup.

Today I had a bowl of the soup with a toasted turkey and cheese sandwich. It was the perfect warm and hearty meal for this cold and drizzly day!

Orange Chicken

I'd like to try to get this blog going again. Sorry for the long hiatus - my work schedule has changed and I've been making a lot of old favorites for dinner, rather than trying new things. But with the change in the weather, and a renewed interest in eating healthy meals and avoiding take out, I'm going to try cooking new meals and documenting them. I'm also hoping to do a better job of keeping the fridge, freezer, and pantry stocked, so I have food on hand to heat up after work when I'm feeling lazy.

This afternoon I made an Asian-inspired orange chicken. It took about 3 minutes to prepare before throwing in the slow cooker, and it's all ingredients I usually have on hand.

The Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (just under 1 lb), cut into chunks
2 Tbsp flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp low-sodium soy sauce
2 Tbsp hoisin sauce
1/2 tsp chili garlic sauce (This isn't the photo, since I realized the sauce needed something else after tasting it)
1 cup frozen green beans

The Directions:
- Combine chicken, flour and salt in ziplock bag and toss to dredge the chicken pieces. Shake off excess flour and put chicken pieces in bottom of slow cooker. (I used my 4 quart slow cooker, but this would fit in a 2 quart)
-Whisk together orange juice, vinegar, soy sauce, hoisin, and chili garlic sauce in small bowl, and pour over the chicken. Cook on high for 4 hours, or until chicken is cooked through and tender.
-Add beans to slow cooker for last hour of cooking time. (I think I cooked the beans too long - next time I'll just throw them in for 20 minutes or so.)

This was DELICIOUS! It was so easy to prepare, and cheap! I splurged on organic frozen green beans and organic 100% tangerine juice, but it would be just as good with any frozen veggie and any orange juice. I served this over brown rice, which soaked up all the extra sauce. It was excellent - a perfect balance of sweet, tangy, and a bit spicy. I think this is going to become a super easy regular dinner in our house!