Playing catch up

Whew- last week was such a whirwind! As some of you know, my dad had his knee partially replaced on June 9th. This is his second knee replacement in less than three months, but he's doing so well! I played chauffer a bit last week, driving him home from PT, helping run errands, etc. Needless to say my schedule was a bit off from the norm so planning fell a bit by the wayside. In addition to helping my dad out, my 90 year old grandfather went to the doctor on Monday and they immediately scheduled him to have a pacemaker installed the following afternoon. His oxygen levels were way down so they wanted him to have the procedure as soon as possible so that he'd be on his way to feeling better. Things went very well, and at our father's day BBQ yesterday he was doing so well! Not only was he happy, funny, and chatty, but he looked at least 5 years younger :) The pink was back in his cheeks and it was great to see him enjoying the beautiful day. I am so grateful that both my dad and gpa are well on their way to feeling better!

Here are some highlights from food last week:

"Stuffed" Chicken with roasted potatos and asparagus
Here's a link to the recipe: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1886438

And a photo:


OK, so the plan was to make stuffed chicken breasts, until I realized that I bought chicken tenders rather than breasts. Whoops! So I made the filling, cooked the chicken in a saucepan until almost done, then spread the filling on top and popped the whole pan in the oven for a few minutes until the filling melted on top . The dish tasted great and it was so much less work than cutting, stuffing, and skewering the chicken according to the recipe. It seems like there are a lot of great stuffed chx recipes out there but sometimes it just seems like sooooo much work- I may have to resort to this method again! I found a "poultry seasoning" mix of fresh herbs at the store so in addition to adding them to the chicken filling, I also chopped them up and sprinkled them on top of the potatoes along with salt and pepper using cooking spray to coat the pan and make the seasonings stick- so good! The mix included rosemary, thyme, and sage. The red potatoes were a nice change from the sps I usually make and a great addition to the chicken and asparagus.

I also make an African Peanut Stew recipe that Molly made about a year ago. It was so tasty when she made it and even though I've had the recipe for awhile it took me forever to get around to cooking it myself. I was motivated to cook a big pot of something since P gave me an awesome new pan the weekend before. What a great bf :) If you google "African Peanut Stew" you'll find a lot of variations, but this one included:

• Onion
• Celery
• Carrots
• Sweet Potato
• Diced Tomatoes
• Fresh ginger
• Fresh garlic
• Vegetable broth
• Edamame
• Curry
• Peanut butter (I used almond butter)
• Molly also suggested adding golden raisins and Siracha (sp?) sauce, both of which were great additions
• A few other things that I'm undoubtedly forgetting

There are tons of potential variations to this recipe and it's a great one for using what you have around and varying the quantities of different ingredients according to your taste. I chose to serve it plain, and my mom served her leftovers over brown rice with fresh avocado and yogurt on top. Thanks for the great recipe Mols!

The other new recipe I tried was spiced pork chops with apple chutney. Here's the recipe link: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1880022

I've always loved chutney but never attempted to make it myself. It was sooooo good! Although it calls for dried cranberries I didn't have any so used diced dried apricot instead and loved the flavor. I served the dish with green beans and couscous and it's definitely one I'll try again. Sorry no photos, I must have been super hungry and forgotten that evening :)

Hope last week was a great one for you!