Winner Winner Pineapple Chicken Dinner

Ingredients:

• one large chicken breast (1 - 1/12 pounds)
• 15 oz. can of pineapple chunks, liquid set aside, or fresh if available
• tri-colored bell peppers (1 cup total - yellow, red, green, orange, whatever you have), diced
• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• 2 stalks sliced green onions, whites separated from greens
• 1 tbsp. soy sauce
• 2 tbsp. sesame oil
• 1 tsp. sesame seeds
• sprinkle of ginger (i had a jar of the dried spice kind)

(Photo totally stolen from www.cleanfoodcrush.com)

Directions:

1. Cook quinoa according to directions. Generally 1 cup of quinoa requires twice as much water. I like to toast the quinoa for about 4 minutes in the skillet prior to adding the liquid. I also throw in a cube of homemade chicken stock to amp up the flavor. Bring to boil, lower the temp to low and allow to simmer for approximately 15 minutes or until germ curlicue has become separated.
2. Cut raw chicken into bite sized pieces and season with salt and pepper. Warm sesame oil in large skillet. Cook chicken for a few minutes on each side until cooked through. 
3. Add white part of the onion, peppers, and ginger to the skillet with the chicken. Cook until peppers become tender, less than 10 minutes. If you need to add a little more oil at this point go ahead!
4. Add the pineapple chunks and half the liquid to the pan and let everything cook down for a few minutes. Once fragrant, it is done!
5. Place 1/2 - 1 cup of quinoa on a plate (or in a hollowed out pineapple - see pics) and top with the 1/4 - 1/3 of the skillet contents and a splash of the remaining pineapple liquid. Garnish the dish with the green part of the green onions, sesame seeds, and a drizzle of soy sauce. Hoison sauce would also work as a delicious substitute.

Notes:

I used a recipe as inspiration for this dish, but I didn't have all the ingredients so I sort of just made it up as I went along. I've shared the picture from the original receipt because...I mean come on, look at that beauty. 

I've also shared a picture of my own meal since it was slightly different. It was delicious. I ran out of soy sauce, so I topped the rest with super hot sauce I got in Texas and it was a good substitute for gluten free people (I'm looking at you Jax). I also just blatantly forget the sesame seeds. Oh well. If you don't have quinoa, I'm sure rice will work - a fragrant jasmine for sure. Thinking of trying it with shrimp at some point!

 

Blueberries. Stuffed Chicken. Yum.

It is time to confess that we have had a couple real rough dinners lately. We have agreed to never speak of one again...let's just say it involved carrots and was disasterful 😆. For any of you who spoke with me on the phone that fateful day, you know the meal of which I speak.

However, in the midst of darkness there has still been much light. And last night was a bright and shiny night. A night that makes you want to cook again and raises you from the depths of kitchen despair.

Last night, we had Gluten-Free Blueberry Pie and Asparagus Stuffed Chicken. Oh my. Oh my. It was tasty. I think if Camden hadn't already married me, he would have seriously considered proposing over that meal. So, in the interest of sharing the love and deliciousness, here are the recipes!

Here we go: dinner first.

Ingredients:
1) 4 chicken breasts cut into halves for easier cooking
2) Half a package of fresh asparagus
4) 4 minced garlic cloves
5) 1/4 tsp salt and pepper
6) 2 tbsp of olive oil
7) 1/2 tsp of dried basil

Instructions:
1) Take chicken breasts and cut in half so you have two fat sides and then cut a little sliver down the middle so you have two thin flaps that are still connected (kind've like a pita bread). Since it's not for a fancy meal...basically just cut a slice in the middle of your piece of chicken into which you can put the tasty filling.
2) Rinse and then cut your asparagus bottoms off and lightly drizzle some olive oil on them (you can add a dash of garlic powder to them as well).
3) Now for the fun part: take your chicken "pitas" and put a little mozzarella and some asparagus (about 4-5 pieces) in each half of chicken. The asparagus will hang out of the sides and mozzarella will sort've spill out. But never fear! As long it all ends up in the same pan together, all will be well.
4) Preheat your oven to 425.
5) Next, on medium-high heat, pour a tbsp of olive oil in frying pan and add the minced garlic and place stuffed chicken pieces in the pan (add salt and pepper to chicken). Cook chicekn on both sides until no longer pink and just starting to get that golden brown color. (Flipping is a challenge, but just go for it and re-stuff as you go haha).
6) Take a glass baking dish and drizzle remaining oil in the bottom of the pan, adding the basil to the oil. Remove the contents of the frying pan and place them in your baking dish, trying not to overlap the chicken so as to enable it to cook evenly. Sprinkle remaining mozzarella on top.
7) (After pie crust is done prebaking...see below). Put in oven and bake for about 20-30 minutes (you want temp to reach at least 165).

Dessert:

Ingredients:
1) 1 stick of butter
2) 1 1/4 cup flour (I used King Arthur Gluten Free Flour)
3) 1/2 tbsp sugar
4) dash of salt
5) 4-6 tbsps of cold water
6) 1 1/2 packages of blueberries
7) 1/4 cup sugar

Instructions:
1) First make the crust: add flour, 1/2 tbsp sugar, and dash of salt to a bowl and mix. Then cut in the butter (I cut it into little bits so it's easy to crumble in with the flour) Add the cold water in tiny increments as needed and with a fork mash all ingredients together. Be careful not to make the dough too wet. It will be crumbly at first, but eventually use your hands to gather it into a ball.
2) Roll the dough out over lightly floured surface or just hand-press it in your pie pan.
3) Then, in your oven that was preheated to 425 for your chicken (but before you start to bake your chicken!) bake the crust for about 5 mins without any filling.
3) Next, wash blueberries and place in bowl, mixing in 1/4 cup sugar. Add it into the pie pan on  the now lightly baked crust. After the chicken is done cooking, turn temp down to 375 and pop your pie in to bake for about 50 minutes or until golden brown and berries bubbling. If the top is starting to look too brown, put some foil on top of the pie to protect it from over-baking.

And voila! You have stuffed asparagus chicken and a beautiful pie! I served mine with apple sauce and a side salad and then made some homemade whipped topping for the pie since we didn't have any in our quarantine stash. It was delicious. Hope you enjoy!

Dijon Chicken: A recipe so good it ruined all other recipes

Dijon Chicken

        Either our sense of the delicious has suffered a terrible blow at the hand of quarantine or we have discovered our new favorite meal. We liken it to a fancy Chik-Fil-A chicken and we ate it so fast we almost forgot to take a picture because the smell drew us to our plates where we truly lost all sense of decorum 😅 The meal received 5.0 stars and we haven't been willing to give out another 5 star rating since as we loved it too much to have anything else join this paragon of deliciousness on its lofty pedestal. 

So here it is. Dijon Chicken.

Ingredients:

1) We used 3-4 medium chicken breasts cut up into smaller pieces (tenderloin chicken would work great too). Adjust to the size of your crowd. We definitely had enough sauce to go over more chicken.

2) 4 tbsps of Dijon Mustard (we just used the stuff from Aldi)

3) 1-2 tbsp of honey depending on how much you like sweetness

4) A single sprinkle of garlic

5) 1 tbsp butter

6) 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream or milk 

7) 1/2 cup chicken broth and 1/2 cup water

8) A drizzle of olive oil

9) Penne pasta (enough for your group size....you can also make rice or mashed potatoes)

10) Stuff for a side salad (we did red peppers, tomatoes, craisins, carrots, lettuce and spinach, and balsamic vinaigrette from Aldi)

11) 1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese

Easy Instructions: (You can make your salad first and pop it in the fridge so it's ready to go!).

1) Cut up chicken and cook in the drizzle of oil over medium high heat until no longer pink

2) While chicken is cooking, take out a saucepan and on low heat (I went between 2-3 on my burner) pour in the chicken broth, milk, and butter and stir. Next add the honey and Dijon mustard and do a sprinkle or two of garlic powder. Keep stirring as it will take a bit for the ingredients to fully mix together (it's okay if it stays a little lumpy)

3) Put penne pasta on to boil (you could also make rice or mashed potatoes. Rice is bothering me currently with pregnancy so we just did pasta).

4) Once chicken is no longer pink, but before it is beginning to brown, pour 1/3 of the sauce into the chicken pan and continue to cook chicken, flipping it so that sauce gets on both sides. After the sauce evaporates a bit, add another third and continue to flip chicken (watch so as not to burn, but getting a little brown is great). Add the final bit of sauce and allow chicken to cook until golden brown and then turn down to low heat. 

5) Take noodles off and drain them, placing them in a bowl and sprinkling them with the parmesan cheese (making sure to mix it throughout the noodles for ultimate deliciousness 😍).

It's ready to serve! We put the chicken right on the noodles and it was fantastic. We didn't use the extra sauce on the noodles as it's strong by itself, but it's really great for prepping the chicken! Feel free to adjust the recipe and sauce to how you like it! I tasted mine as I made it to decide if I wanted to add any extra honey or garlic, etc. But the sauce will taste a little strong before going on the chicken, so in the words of Julia Child, ladle it on "with conviction" and don't be worried if it's not great tasting by itself 😆.

Happy Cooking!

Happy BEAUTIFUL Sunday! Here's our weekly step count/exercise achievement post! Keep up the good work and sending you all love from afar ❤️😊 Looking forward to posting my new favorite dinner....Special Dijon Sauce Chicken aka Fancy Homemade Chik-Fil-A and posting about my new book for the week!

Also, feel free to comment any type of exercise you are doing!

Oatmeal Banana Blueberry Goodness Pancakes

"With enough butter, anything is good.” ~ Julia Childs

The Chubby Cubby

      Having a gluten allergy in combination with a husband who loves healthy foods and gags at the sight of butter (we're working to change this as, much like Julia Child, I believe butter is one of the best parts of life 😆), makes many tasty traditional breakfast bakes a bit of a challenge. I've suffered watching friends and family delight and revel in the warm, comforting goodness of french toast, creative waffles, cinnamon buns, pancakes, etc. But, PTL, my suffering has come to an end due to a generous invitation into a new world of breakfast warmness extended to me by my almost-sister-in-law. Oatmeal Banana Blueberry Goodness Pancakes. Oh. My. Goodness. Saved. There are many, many different versions of these pancakes with as many varieties of topping and fruit and chocolate fillings as you can imagine. So I will give you the basics and let your imagination go from there! (Full disclosure, I chose one that doesn't include Greek Yogurt as it bothers my stomach, but that does exist as well!).

Ingredients:

1) 1/2 cup milk (almond milk also works great!
2) 2 Eggs
3) 1 Banana (I'm not a huge banana fan so I just used a small one)

Proof we had sun

4) 2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey (optional)
5) 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
6) 2 teaspoons baking powder
7) 1/2 teaspoon salt
8) 1 teaspoon vanilla (because vanilla makes everything better ❤)
9) Optional toppings: various fruits you like (we did blueberries), butter (if you can handle it haha), nuts,and syrup, honey or powdered sugar. Get creative!

Instructions:
1) Put all ingredients (except the toppings 😉) in a bowl and mix together.
2) Heat griddle to medium heat and spray with cooking spray.
3) Pour into small circles (or fun shapes if you're feeling silly) and then flip when they start to bubble in the middle after about 2-3minutes (beware! they are a little messy to flip). Let cook a minute or two on other side. They should be a goldenish color (see picture below ↙).
4) Serve warm and go to town on fun toppings!

Sooo GOOD

I hope these bring you as much joy as they brought to us! 😂😂 Happy cooking!

Reflections on Habakkuk and JMB's "The Minor Prophets: Volume 2"

   

         This post is dedicated to my sweet husband for his book recommendation and verbal processing with me and Alstair Begg due to his beautiful sermon on Habakkuk a couple weeks ago. I was inspired by the two of them to dive into the minor prophets over the past couple weeks, and it has been such a rich and rewarding experience. So basically, for my post today I just wanted to long-windedly discuss and say that I highly recommend simultaneously reading Habakkuk and James Montgomery Boice's book, "The Minor Prophets: Volume 2." 😊
         Habakkuk is perhaps not a typical choice for your spring quarantine reading. Experiencing the author's description of the impending judgment on God's people at the hands of the cruel and merciless Babylonians just doesn't shout "fun" or "let's brighten the day." The book doesn't shy away from hard questions and the very real terror the prophet expresses, "I hear and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me" (Hab. 3:16). Not really a quote you would put on your computer desk to inspire your Monday, right? However, despite this depiction of fear and terrible hardship, Habakkuk has strangely been the most encouraging reading I've done since our lockdown began 7 weeks ago.
         In its three brief chapters, Habakkuk covers a wide range of questions, which the author directs toward God. As James Montgomery Boice writes, "Habakkuk is profound because it raises deep questions about the workings of God in history--why God does what he does, why he does it in the way that he does, and why he sometimes does nothing" (400). Much like us looking at our world today, Habakkuk sees the brokenness, the pain, and the lack of justice for so many (Hab. 1:4). His words sound all too familiar as we think about racial and socio-economic inequities; the paralyzing fear of hearing that our loved ones have gotten sick; the fear for our economy and the future; the concerns over the state of the church and how the gospel can go forth in the midst of lockdowns; or, if you are like me, the state of your own sinful heart as you wrestle with patience with each other in restricting times; trust as we combat the sleepless nights of hurting for those around us; joy in the mundane and even in the somewhat terrifying day-to-day of living in a pandemic; issues of sphere sovereignty as we navigate the virus and our communities; and the pain of being separated from the people we love (and even the people we struggle to love😉).
         In response to Habakkuk's questioning and lamenting over the brokenness he sees, God answers Habakkuk, saying, "For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told" (Hab. 1:5). At first this seems comforting; perhaps God is planning to save them from judgment due to the reforms of Josiah, as described in 2 Kings 23? Maybe God will step in and immediately end the suffering and injustice: "Well, you've really tried so I've decided to cancel the Babylonians and bring back King David right here on the spot." That's what I would be hoping. (Or, to briefly transport it to our day and time, maybe God will step in and immediately end the pandemic and all the fear, hurt and pain?) But no, instead, God responds to Habakkuk by saying He is working to bring judgment at the hand of wicked Babylon that will surely come, later stating, "If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay" (Hab. 2:3). God's responses raise a huge dillema for Habakkuk. How can this be God's plan? To raise up Babylon to bring judgment when they as a nation are pretty much the epitome of wickedness? (Hab. 1:13). 
         My goodness. How is this comforting? As the reader we are then shocked to see Habakkuk's change in attitude from a questioning complaint to rejoicing in response to God's answers. Habakkuk's change occurs even in the face of this definite coming of a pain and judgment at the hands of Babylon (a prospect that we honestly can't even begin to imagine). Somehow Habakkuk is led to sing and rejoice in the Lord? "Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster with stringed instruments." (Hab. 3:17-19). (And not only is Habakkuk singing, he's clearly writing a song for others to join and sing as well, as the verse ends noting that it is a song for the choirmaster with stringed instruments and thus to be put to music).
         Why is this and how can this be? How can he rejoice in the Lord in the face of judgment? It is because Habakkuk has recognized that the Lord is seated on His throne and is still at work,  bringing about good even in ways that seem to make no sense to His people. "But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him" (Hab. 2:20).  And because of this reality, God gives the charge that "the righteous shall live by his faith" (Hab. 2:4). Habakkuk thus dwells on who God is, this God who is seated on His throne, and what He has done. "You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed" (Hab. 3:13). He knows God and His history of saving His people, and therefore Habakkuk has a joy and trust, and so also may we. As Boice writes, "God's mighty past acts in history amply demonstrate that he is able to save those who look to him in faith. But he has also promised to save his people and therefore will save them. The God who makes promises stands by his promises. The God who makes oaths keeps them" (431-432).
         Yes, suffering and pain and hardship will come, and, in fact, we are even assured it will (John 15:20). It may even last the entire duration of our lives (something I've watched many grapple with over the years). But, there is still a God on His throne. And He is a good God. As the author of Hebrews writes, expanding on the words of Habakkuk, "you endured a hard struggle with suffering . . . Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, 'Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.' But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls" (Hebrews 10:32-39). It is towards eternal hope that Habakkuk and we can look and have hope and persevere, living by faith, knowing that "our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all" (2 Cor. 4:17).  
         And this is why I loved these two books. Hopefully you got at least two take-aways and can glean more from your own readings of these two books. 1) There is some perspective, we don't have the Babylonians coming to conquer us (that's a real plus compared to our struggles not being able to find toilet paper or to have a beautiful 401k), and 2) even if we did, we can sing, knowing that God is on His throne, He has been and will always be faithful, and there is such a hope to come at the end. I hope this long reflection and recommendation encourages our hearts as we seek to live joyfully in the midst of quarantine. We are never to ignore the pain and deny the hardship, but we are to persevere with joy to the end.

         With love, Jack Jack. Tomorrow I will tell you about my new favorite food.....oatmeal banana pancakes thanks to my dear soon-to-be sister-in-law's ingenious cooking skills.

Drama and Perception

Hello everyone! I've been enjoying catching up on your quarantine adventures. Thanks for including me in this. I haven't been doing any baking (leaving that to my housemate...) but I have been thinking a lot about perception. Mainly, how I want to be perceived by others.

So of course I have to start by talking about K-dramas.


Korean dramas are great. They're fun and frothy and melodramatic. If you want to watch a pure-hearted character with an improbable occupation find love, this is the genre for you!

K-dramas don't show you what it's actually like to be a Korean person, obviously. But they tell you something about how Korean men and women wish they could be perceived.




If I had to boil it down, I would say the ideal perception around emotion. 

Look at those sparkly smiles

To be a K-drama hero, you've got to act cute! You're going to embrace emotionalism over mean things like success and skills and getting things accomplished. You will teach the people in your life (who are workaholics) to be silly and emotionally expressive. They will learn the value of love! Of friendship! Of family! 

Cool? Cool.

So then I watched some Chinese shows.
          

And ooooh man, were they different.

The ideal perception was about competence. To be a hero, you have to put aside your emotions and do the task in front of you.

Go is the C-drama version of chess. Characters play it only as a metaphor.

 

So. Much. Crying. They are tears of justice.

 In a Chinese drama, a hero does that task brilliantly. There are so many slow-motion shots of heroes accomplishing tasks! You've only got your wits, skills, and strict morals to help you. Your family will die. Your love interest will die. You will cry one beautiful, perfect tear and then you will continue to accomplish your gosh-darn task.

Anyway. COVID-19. Quarantine. How people perceive me.

With this forcibly imposed distance, I've been looking at my workplace like it's another culture, just as foreign as a K-drama or a Chinese show. I've been thinking about what my work ideal is, and if I really need to live up to it.

I used to think a lot about how I present myself at work. It's hard to be taken seriously in higher education when you're only 30 and have a personality like an especially nerdy chocolate fountain.

But I haven't thought about presenting a "professional" ideal in weeks. I take Zoom calls with the dean on my couch. I ask my students about the dogs I hear in the background of our video chats. I don't care when my roommate wanders into frame.

I've told myself it's because my coworkers don't care anymore, but maybe it's me who doesn't care. I think I'd rather be perceived as something a little closer to the reality of Anna: who's been stuck inside for 7 weeks, who's Going Through It Too....and who sure has watched a lot of Asian TV recently.