Indian-Style Apricot Chicken

I found this particular recipe in a cookbook I picked up along the way called Incredibly Easy Gluten-Free Recipes.

(Image Courtesy of Amazon)

Indian-Style Apricot Chicken is both incredibly easy (made in a crockpot) and free of most allergens.  And amazingly delicious.

Ingredients:
6 Chicken Thighs (we only had four and it worked perfectly, with extra juice)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 Tablespoons grated fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon allspice (you can make your own using equal parts ground cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon)
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 cup chicken broth
1 package (8 oz) dried apricots
1 pinch saffron threads (optional - and I didn't use because I didn't have any)
Hot basmati rice
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (optional, and again left out)

Slow Cooker Directions:
1.  Coat slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray. Season chicken with salt and pepper.  Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat; brown chicken on all sides.  Transfer to slow cooker.

2.  Add onion to skillet.  Cook and stir 3-5 minutes or until translucent.  Stir in ginger, garlic, cinnamon, and allspice.  Cook and stir 15 to 30 seconds or until mixture is fragrant.  Add tomatoes with juice and broth.  Cook 2-3 minutes or until mixture is heated through.  Pour into slow cooker.

3.  Add apricots and saffron, if desired.  Cover; cook on LOW 5-6 hours or on HIGH 3-3.5 hours or until chicken is tender.  Serve with basmati rice and garnish with parsley.

Makes 4-6 servings.


I should have taken a photo of my plate but I was starving and it was so delicious that I completely forgot.  You will probably need to season further with salt, depending on your palate.  I found that the apricots sweetened the dish nicely, while the tomatoes provided an acidic balance.

Enjoy!

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My Momma's Granola

When we lived in Africa, my mother always made granola for our breakfasts.  For much of my life I took it for granted and would look forward to having toast or pancakes, which were our special treat on Saturdays.  Occasionally we would buy some British variety of packaged cereals like corn flakes or rice crisps, but I preferred granola over those, even if we did have problems with infestations of weevils in our oats.

Now as a grown up, I miss my mom's granola.  There is no store bought brand that can live up to it, no matter how hard they try.  And now that I can't eat gluten, I don't bother to buy cereal except for splurging a couple of times a year on Fruity Pebbles, which happen to be gluten free.

Without further ado, here is my mom's pure, unadulterated best ever granola recipe:
1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F
2. In a large mixing bowl, measure 10 cups of oats (I use Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free variety)
3. Add the following ingredients in a blender and blend until well mixed
    - 1/2 C water
    - 1 C oil (I use light olive but you can use whatever oil you want)
    - 1 C brown sugar
    - 2 tsp Vanilla
    - 1 to 1&1/2 tsp Salt

4. Pour the blended concoction over the oats and stir until thoroughly mixed.
5. Lightly grease two cookie sheets
6. Spread the oat mix over the two cookie sheets and bake for 1 hour
7. Don't forget to lick the bowl!!

I like to let the granola sit in the oven and let it all cool down together, after I retrieve a bowlful for myself to snack on.  That makes the granola drier and crunchier.

Once it's all cooled down, break it up and put it in an air tight container.  I don't know how long it stays good for because I always eat mine before it has a chance to go stale.

Variations:
I like to add flax seed, ground flax flour and pecans to mine.  For the one I make, I used only 8 cups of oats, and added 1/3 C flax seeds, 2/3 C flax flour, and 1 heaping C of chopped pecans.

You could try adding coconut, almonds, or other add-ins.  Just make sure to adjust the amount of oats up or down accordingly.

I wish I had pictures of my yummy batch of breakfast goodness, but alas, one camera has sand in it and I could not figure out where I had hidden the other one from Z.  

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Strawberry Freezer Jam Recipe

My poor neglected little blog.

I've decided I'm going to post my crafting, cooking, making, DIY stuff here, even if my projects aren't necessarily directly related to clean living.  Until I made that decision, I didn't know where to post my stuff, so I wasn't posting it.  That should increase my activity over here, too, so this blog isn't so badly ignored by me.

On to the recipe for strawberry freezer jam.

I used Ball RealFruit Instant Pectin and got the recipe from under the label.

Image courtesy of here

Recipe:
1 2/3 C prepared fruit
2/3 C sugar
2 TBSP Ball RealFruit Instant Pectin
(do not exceed more than 6 1/2-pint jars per recipe or jam won't set properly)

1.  Prepare the strawberries by washing & cutting off the tops (called "hulling"), and then slicing them.  Mash them one layer at a time using a potato masher.

FYI, don't bother dicing the strawberries.  If you make the pieces too small, you can't mash them very effectively with the potato masher.

I started with a little less than 4 lbs of strawberries.  Z had eat some for breakfast, and some had gone bad.  My strawberries were really, really ripe, and I thought that might affect the outcome, but it didn't.

Here's my prepared fruit that I mashed up in a glass cake pan.  If you want smooth no-chunk jam, then I would recommend putting the fruit through a food processor, or something similar.  My strawberries, no matter how much I mashed them, stayed somewhat chunky. 

2. Mix sugar and pectin in a separate bowl.  

I measured my mashed strawberries and had enough to double the recipe.  Make sure you adjust the sugar and pectin up or down per the amount of prepared strawberries.

3.  Add fruit to the pectin/sugar mixture, and stir for 3 minutes.

 4. Ladle fruit mixture into clean jars and let stand for 30 minutes.  Make sure you leave 1/2 inch of headspace at the top of the jar so the jam has room to expand when freezing.

5.  Put lids on the jars, put a jar in the fridge for immediate consumption, and put the rest in the freezer.  Keep for up to one year in the freezer, or one month in the fridge.

My batch of 3 1/3 cups of jam made for 6 full half pint jars.  Remember this was a doubled recipe.

I can't believe how easy it was to make jam!  And so yummy, too!  My jam tasted like the fresh strawberries that are used in strawberry shortcake.  Delish!  I'm definitely going to try this with other fruit like blueberries.

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