Thai Green Chicken Curry with Veggies

I love curry and I can't seem to get enough curry these days (pregnancy cravings in full force). I've made 3 different curry dishes in 3 days. This one was really good. As well as the lentil curry I made today, maybe I'll post that one tomorrow.

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbs coconut oil
• 1/2 an eggplant, sliced into thin bite size pieces
• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced into thin pieces
• 1 red bell pepper sliced into strips
• 1 Tbs ginger, grated
• 2 cloves garlic, diced
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 2 large chicken breasts, cubed
• 1 1/2 cups of kale, chopped into small pieces
• 1 can of canned coconut milk (use full fat not light)
• 3 Tbs Thai green curry paste
• 1 1/2 Tbs Thai fish sauce
• Fresh Thai basil or cilantro diced to garnish (I preferred it with cilantro, Tyler liked the basil)
• Serve over rice or rice noodles.

Directions:

1. Soak the eggplant in salt water for 10 minutes (this will take out the bitter flavor). Make sure the eggplant is completely covered with salt water. I had to put a bowl on top of mine to press it down in the water. Drain and rinse the eggplant.
2. Heat the coconut oil in a wok, or large skillet. Add the carrots, eggplant, red bell pepper, ginger, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Sauté for 5 minutes.
3. Add the chicken and Kale. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the meat is starting to color.
4. Pre-stir the coconut milk and then pour it in.  Stir in the curry paste.  Cover and let simmer  for 12 minutes.
5. Stir in the fish sauce and serve over rice noodles or brown rice. Top each dish with basil or cilantro.
6. *note, we added a little cashew milk to ours in addition to the coconut milk. We felt it needed more liquid. Any type of milk could be added to thin it out a bit. 

"Cream" of Chicken Soup

This is the perfect substitute for Cream of Chicken soup. The taste and texture are spot on! However the health benefits of this one includes high protein, high fiber, and no processed ingredients. Whereas a certain name brand contains processed ingredients like soy, oil, milk, and other filler chemicals that I'd rather not eat.

This recipe makes a large batch so I usually just freeze what I don't need and then thaw a container out before I need to use it. Sometimes I'll just put the frozen block and other ingredients I'm using in the crock pot and let time take care of the rest.

With this recipe a wheat grinder, blendtec, or dry container vitamix will be needed to make the white bean flour. I've used several different kinds of white beans and they all have turned out great. Cannellini, Great Northern, and Navy are all pretty interchangeable. One time I didn't have enough white beans so I did about half white and half garbanzo and the soup still turned out great! It's pretty flexible.

Also you will find this recipe on Kelly's site for Real Food Wednesday and Sunday Night Soup. Check it out for other healthy recipes!

 Bring chicken broth to a boil

 Whisk in white bean flour until thick

Cook your favorite dish using cream of chicken

  soup. 

Ingredients:

• 6 cups of chicken broth OR 4 cups chicken stock and 2 cups of filtered water
• 1 cup white bean flour
• Add in options: cooked chicken, sautéed mushrooms, sautéed onions, any cooked veggies, or herbs/spices

Directions:

1. Bring the chicken broth or stock/water mixture to a boil. 
2. Then whisk in the white bean flour. Lower the heat and stir for 3-5 minutes or until the "cream" of chicken is thickened to your liking. 
3. Now you can let the soup cool and freeze what you won't be using (this is what I do), or add in pieces of chicken, mushrooms, or veggies and then place into containers to freeze. I prefer to do my add ins later since I don't always know what I'll be making. 

Maui Zaui Pizza

Saturday was pizza night at my house growing up. We aren't talking grab the phone and wait for the pizza boy to deliver it. We are talking my dad would grind the flour, make some amazing dough, and we would have a plethora of ingredients to top the pizza's off with. Some of my favorites were BBQ Chicken, Vegetarian, Pesto n Shrimp with Feta Cheese, and of course my all time favorite Maui Zaui.

I had Maui Zaui at a friends house and I went home and told my dad he had to recreate it! So for a very rare dinner we went out to Round Table and ordered the Maui Zaui and we all agreed it needed to join our weekly pizza party menu. The secret is the sauce, which is just sweet chili sauce that you can get in the oriental section at the grocery store. 

 GF pizza dough waiting for some toppings

Maui Zaui Pizza, my all time favorite

Maui Zaui Pizza Toppings:

• Sweet Chili Sauce
• Mozzarella Cheese (regular or daiya if allergic)
• Canadian Bacon
• Bacon (pre-cook it before putting on pizza, but not too crispy)
• Green onion
• Red onion
• Tomato 
• Pineapple 

GF Crust: I found the best recipe at Gluten Free Day

• 4 1/2 tsps instant rise yeast
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• Blend 1 cup quinoa, 1/2 cup brown rice, and 1/2 cup teff
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 Tbs psyllium Husk powder
• 1  cup warm water
• 3 Tbs olive oil

GF Crust Directions:

1. Whisk the yeast, sugar, flour blend, salt, and psyllium husk powder in a large bowl.
• Or you can soak the flour blend overnight  by mixing it with 1 cup of water with 1 tsp of lemon juice or vinegar to remove the phytic acid. It's an extra step but you will absorb more vitamins and minerals
2. Whisk the warm water and olive oil together.
3. Add the oil/water to the dry ingredients and mix for 5 minutes. You can use a hand mixer, Bosch,  or Kitchen Aid. If you are using your strong arm and a spoon mix for 10 minutes. 
4. Form a ball and place in a dark warm place for 20 minutes.  Get your toppings ready while the dough rises.
5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees with a pizza stone. Place parchment paper on a pizza sheet and use a greased rolling pin to roll out the dough. Add your toppings and place the pizza in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes for thin crust or until the crust has browned and the center of the pizza is bubbling. 

Note: I recommend rolling the dough out thinner than you think is normal. It rises significantly, and my family likes a thin crust. You can see in the two pictures I posted how much it rises. I rolled the dough out as thin as I normally like my pizza (I wasn't sure it would rise a whole lot.) Then if you look at the finished pizza you can see the crust puffed up quite a bit, it was thicker than we normally like.