Chia Seed Gel

Chia Seeds (yes, the very same Chia that you see advertised in Chia Pets) are amazing. They're tiny little round, black or white seeds (that somewhat resemble poppy seeds) that when come into contact with moisture, form a gel coating around itself. This gel coating, comprised of water and cellulose, more than double their bulk and help you to feel full with less food ('a dieter's dream' they're called) and are packed with a lot of goodness. 

Chia seeds are full of protein, fiber and have more Omega 3s per gram than salmon! They keep you feeling full longer and give you more energy than a cup of espresso. And because of their unique structure and water retention, you can turn them into a gel and use the gel to replace up to half the required fats in any recipe reducing the fat and increasing the fiber and protein. Amazing right? I'm hooked! I like to add a teaspoon of chia to my yogurt, I sprinkle it on my salads and I'm just starting to experiment with it in baking. Google Chia Seeds for yourself and read up on this amazing ancient grain. Seriously. Do it. 

A well stocked pantry (and fridge and freezer) is a beautiful thing

With a new baby arriving any day now my thoughts are turning to those first few weeks of complete and utter chaos as the fam adjusts to the new regime. With both our girls I prepared for the exhaustion by cooking like a woman possessed during those blessed weeks of nesting. I seriously went crazy. I would cook from 9am until 1am and then cry about the dishes. I've been so busy this go around though that I haven't had a chance. Instead I'm stocking my pantry with all the staples so that making dinner will be easy and fast without needing to run to the grocery store cause I'm missing 1 or 2 things for a recipe, annoying!

I try to keep a well stocked pantry year round regardless of the state of my womb. Inspiration hits me often and I don't like to wait to try out a new recipe or invent something on the fly. I buy a lot of items on sale and really stock up, like when the grocery store has pasta on for 99¢ a bag or cases of soup for 1/2 price (Canada doesn't have the amazing coupon deals the US has, I be jealous), this saves a ton of money in the long run.

With school about to start up again this is also a great way to prepare for that big readjustment. School and activities can leave a lot of parents struggling with what to make for dinner in the 15 minutes before they have to race out the door again, having everything at your fingertips can ease the strain a bit!

I've compiled a list of items I always keep on hand for anyone who would like to keep their kitchen well stocked:

Pantry
Extra virgin olive oil
Canola/Vegetable oil
Cooking spray
Chicken, Beef and Veggie broth in tetra packs
Canned Tomatoes
Canned Tomato Sauce
Canned beans
Canned soups (Cream of Mushroom, Tomato & Cream of Celery)
Dried pasta (in many shapes)
Rice
Oats
Worcestershire sauce
Mustard
Ketchup
Pickles
Olives
Nuts
BBQ Sauce

Dried Herbs and Spices
Bay leaves
Cayenne pepper
Cinnamon
Garlic powder
Onion Powder
Whole Nutmeg
Oregano
Thyme
Sea Salt
Kosher salt
Smoked Paprika
Italian Seasoning
Steak Seasoning
Vanilla Beans

Baking
Baking powder
Baking soda
Brown sugar
Granulated sugar
Powdered Sugar
Cornstarch
White flour
Whole wheat flour
Chocolate (Chips, Squares, Chunks)
Unsweetened cocoa powder
Honey
Pure Vanilla Extract
Fat Free Pudding Mix

In the Fridge
Low fat milk
Homogenized Milk
Whipped Cream
Half & Half
Yogurt
Eggs
Cheeses
Ranch Dressing
Italian Dressing
Unsalted Butter

In the Freezer
Frozen veggies (peas, corn, broccoli, etc.)
Frozen fruits (berries, pineapple, mango, etc.)
Frozen Pizza Dough Balls
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts (I get mine at M&M Meatshops, cheap!)

Fresh
Garlic
Onions
Lemons
Potatoes
Peppers (of every colour)
Green Onions
Mushrooms
Pita Bread
Naan Bread

Breakfast Drawer*
Bread
Peanut Butter
Nutella
Honey
Cinnamon Sugar Mix
English Muffins
Cereal
Oatmeal


*The Breakfast Drawer

I mentioned my Breakfast Drawer on Twitter a while back and got a lot of response on it. Everyone wanted to know WHAT it was. The Breakfast Drawer is a pot drawer in my kitchen island that has everything related to breakfast in it. I keep the bread, toaster, peanut butter, Nutella, honey, cereal, oatmeal, etc... in there. Why? Well, I have this great wish that when my kids are old enough to wake up on Saturday mornings and come down without waking us up, they can easily get themselves a bowl of cereal or some toast cause everything is all together and completely accessible to them (I keep their plastic plates and cutlery in the drawer right above the Breakfast Drawer). I like having the toaster in there cause it keeps it off the counter freeing up space and keeping the kitchen less cluttered looking. It sits on a cookie sheet to catch crumbs making it easier to keep the drawer neat and clean.

Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Creamy Mushroom Sauce

I love home cooked "Sunday" meals. Especially when they don't just have to be made on Sundays. There are a lot of ways to speed up and simplify recipes to make them accessible during the week without resorting to buying frozen lasagnas (shudder) from the grocery store.

This recipe is one of my faves. My husband's too... he's a cream sauce fiend! However, heavy cream is no longer his friend. So I make my cream sauce with acan of good ol' reduced fat cream of mushroom soup. Yes, I said soup! From a can! Get over it! It's yummy. Simply by adding a few ingredients and spices to that can you can make a yummy sauce that would be great on beef, chicken or pork. Easy right? I'm all about easy. (That didn't come out the way it sounded in my head...)

Pair this pork tenderloing and sauce with your favourite rice *cough*Uncle Ben's*cough* and you can have Sunday Taste on Tuesday Time.

Rub the tenderloin with seasoned salt and garlic powder. Give it a good massage. Then heat 2 tsp oil in a frying pan and add the meat. Brown on all sides.

Place on a baking sheet. I like to use a digital thermometer when cooking this cause nothing ruins a tenderloin faster than 5 minutes of over-cooking. You want to pull it out of the over when it reaches 165˚F. I know it says done is 170˚F but trust me, 165 is what you're looking for.

In the frying pan you seared the tenderloin in, add a wee bit more oil and brown some diced onion and mushrooms. If you prefer sliced mushrooms go for it, I like the look of the diced.

Add 2 minced garlic cloves. Mmmm garlic. Throw in a bit more garlic powder and seasoned salt too, just a smidge.

Next add your can of soup. Add 1/2 can of water as well. You want to think it out a bit but not too much, you want it thick & creamy. Turn it down to low and let it simmer while the tenderloin is doing it's thing.

When the temperature reads 165˚F take the tenderloin out of the oven and loosely wrap it in tin foil. This is where the trust comes in. It will continue to cook those last 5˚s, and by allowing the meat to rest for 10-15 minutes it will re-distribute all the juices back into the tenderloin so you have a super tender, juicy roast without losing all the juices all over the cutting board when you slice this bad boy.

Slice the tenderloin and plate topped with the mushroom sauce and your favourite rice, or potatoes, or whatever else strikes your fancy!

Print this Recipe

Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Creamy Mushroom Sauce

1 pork tenderloin (there is enough sauce for 2 tenderloins , I only do 1 cause hubs is a sauce hog)

2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp seasoned salt
2 tsp vegetable oil
1/2 onion, diced
1 1/2 c mushrooms, diced or sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can cream of mushroom soup, I use reduced fat
1/2 can of water

Instructions:

1. Rub the tenderloin with the seasoned salt and garlic powder.
2. Heat 2 tsp oil in a frying pan and add the meat. Brown on all sides.
3. Place on a baking sheet. Roast at 350˚F until internal temperature reaches 165˚F.
4. In the frying pan you seared the tenderloin in, add a wee bit more oil and brown the onion and mushrooms.
5. Add the minced garlic and a bit more garlic powder and seasoned salt to taste.
6. Add the can of soup and 1/2 can of water. Stir to combine. Turn the sauce down to low and let it simmer.
7. When the internal temperature of the tenderloin reads 165˚F take it out of the oven and loosely wrap it in tin foil allowing the meat to rest for 10-15 minutes.
8. Slice the tenderloin and plate topped with the mushroom sauce and your favourite rice, or potatoes.

Print this Recipe

enjoy!

Weekly Meal Plan - May 17-23

As I said in my last post, this weekend I asked twitter what they'd like to see more of on my blog. I got some great requests and suggestions. One of them came from @jyetman. She read the post I did a while back on Meal Planning and wanted to see my meal plan every week. As a busy working wife and mother, having a plan to follow that had recipes to go with it is something she could really use. And I'm sure she's not the only one!

So I'm happy to share my family's meal plan with you all if anyone wants to follow it.



I base my week around our schedule and my shift-working husband's hours, so feel free to switch meals around (or for easier options for your lifestyle, like take-out pizza as opposed to homemade) so it better suits your schedule. I'm going to post a PDF of this week's schedule as well as a PDF of a blank meal plan that you can use if you want to move meals around or simply create your own!

I have some of these recipes up already and I'm working on getting the missing ones posted.

This Week's Plan (for download or print)

Blank Meal Plan (for download or print)


This Week's Recipes:

Chicken Parmesan
Pork Tenderloin - will post soon
Pizza Sauce
Roasted Chicken (if you don't have a beer can bbq roaster, this is delish!)
Risotto (with pictorial!)
Lasagna - will post soon

I hope this will help some of you get organized to beat the dinner time rush, inspire others to try new recipes or have more variety, or simply provide a glimpse into what meal time is like at our house!

enjoy!

Amanda's Chicken Parmesan

I may or may not have a cheese addiction. And by "may not" I mean I totally do. This weekend I asked my twitter peeps what they'd like to see more of on my blog. I got some great requests and suggestions. One of them was for more pictorial posts for those not so adept in the kitchen (thanks @Avalea!), and another was for me to post my weekly meal plan (as per my meal plan post) every week so that some hard working moms could follow it. I'm always happy to oblige.



This is one of my favourite pasta recipes. I LOVVVVVE Chicken Parmesan. Noodles, breaded tender chicken breast, and cheese... mmmmmm. Comfort food at it's best. I have a pretty busy week ahead and I wanted to start it off right with this dish. It sounds complicated but it's pretty simple.

(Please excuse the pitiful photography, my kitchen is pretty dark in the evenings and I haven't mastered the fine art of cooking with one hand and shooting with the other yet!)

Start by placing your chicken breasts (one at a time) between some plastic wrap and pounding the living daylights out of it until it's an even thickness. This ensures even cooking, also, it's a great stress reliever after a hard day.
Ignore that sticker on my mallet, that sucker just won't come off!

Next, pat your chicken breast with some paper towel to dry them off. Wet meat doesn't bread well.

Now you're gonna need to set up a little breading station. In one shallow dish you'll need flour, which I season with some sea salt & freshly ground pepper. In the 2nd you need some eggs that are lightly beaten and in the 3rd, bread crumbs. I like to use seasoned Italian bread crumbs to which I add a little hot pepper flake action. Piccante!

Now to bread, don't worry, you can do this. First put your chicken in the flour turning to coat both sides. This gives the egg something to stick to. Then dredge the floured chicken in the egg mixture. Then move your floured/egged (is that a word, egged? it is now) chicken to the bread crumbs. Place in the bread crumbs and press down lightly to get the bread crumbs to really stick to the chicken, Then flip it over and press down again.

Heat a little extra-virgin Olive Oil in a skillet and brown your chicken cutlets until golden. They're not fully cooked yet, but don't worry, they'll finish in the oven. I'm not trying to get anyone to eat under-cooked chicken!

Transfer the chicken to a baking dish and cover with your favourite pasta sauce. Homemade or bottled, your call. Then top with some shredded mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Mmmmm. Cheese.

Bake at 350˚F for 20 minutes. In the meantime cook some of your favourite pasta to al dente.
Top your cooked pasta with more pasta sauce and a cheesy, saucy chicken cutlet. Now mangi!(that's supposed to be eat in Italian, hope I got it right!)

Print this recipe

Amanda's Chicken Parmesan

4 chicken breasts
1/2 c flour
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 c seasoned Italian bread crumbs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp hot pepper flakes
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 c shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 c shredded parmesan
3 c pasta sauce, your favourite
4 c cooked pasta, your favourite, I enjoy spaghetti or buccatini with this

Instructions:

1. Start by placing your chicken breasts (one at a time) between some plastic wrap and pounding it until it's an even thickness. This ensures even cooking.
2. Pat the chicken breasts with paper towel to dry them off.
3. Set up a little breading station. In the first dish put the flour, seasoned with some sea salt & freshly ground pepper. In the 2nd put the eggs and lightly beat. In the 3rd put the bread crumbs and add the hot pepper flakes. stirring to mix.
4. One at a time, put the chicken in the flour turning to coat both sides. This gives the egg something to stick to.
5. Then dredge the floured chicken in the egg mixture.
6. Then move the chicken to the bread crumbs. Place in the bread crumbs and press down lightly to get the breadcrumbs to really stick to the chicken, Then flip it over and press down again.
7. Heat the extra-virgin olive oil in a skillet and brown the chicken cutlets until golden.
8. Transfer the chicken to a baking dish and cover with the pasta sauce. Then top with the shredded mozzarella and parmesan cheese.
9. Bake at 350˚F for 20 minutes.
10. In the meantime cook some of your favourite pasta to al dente.
11. Top the cooked pasta with more pasta sauce and a chicken cutlet.

Print this recipe

enjoy!

Muffin Tin Lunch!

When I first got on Twitter I followed lots of different kinds of people, 1. cause I had no idea what I was doing, and 2. cause I loved seeing all the different points of views and the variety of tweets. (I still follow lots of different kinds of people by the way!) One fine day, someone posted a picture of their Bento lunch and I fell in love with Bento! The artistry and creativity that people had with food just blew my mind.

I started researching designs and looking for Bento items on eBay (there are thousands!). I had visions of creating these elaborate designs for my oldest's school lunches, you know, when she was old enough to go to school, and her lunch being the envy of the class. Then I woke up.

I haven't the time nor the energy to spend an hour sculpting rice into bunny shapes, and tomatoes into roses, especially with another little on on the way (I gets no sleep yo). But the idea of the variety, fun shapes and all the colours stuck with me.

As I was clicking around in my Bento haze I happened upon a blog post about using muffin tins to make kids lunches. It was genius! I loved all the little compartments, most kids don't like their food to touch anyways so it was a perfect vehicle for kids' meals.

A Typical Muffin Tin Lunch for My 3 Year Old

1. Peanut Butter Star Sandwiches, 2. Grape halves, 3. Pretzels, 4. Celery Smiles, 5. Peach Animals, 6. Cucumber Flowers

The muffin tin forced me to come up with a variety of different foods to fill all the compartments. I had fallen into a rut lunch-wise and I was excited to try to come up with fun things to include in her tin. I raided the fridge and pantry looking for colour and lots of different textures. I pulled out cookie cutters and got to work.

Kids will eat almost anything if you cut it into fun shapes.

I couldn't get my big girl to eat sandwiches until I started turning them into stars...

... and fruit? She wouldn't move past bananas until little peach bunnies started showing up in her tin!

And who doesn't love flowery cucumbers? Now she gets excited to see what's in all her little tin circles when she sits down to lunch.

Another satisfied customer!

Muffin Tins: Not just for kids?

As I was preparing my daughter's favourite muffin tin lunch one day, I thought to myself, this could work for me! I had been trying to lose my baby weight and as I looked at the 6 muffin compartments I saw an opportunity for variety and portion control! I lost 10 lbs in a month once I started using the muffin tin to control my lunch time feast.

A typical muffin tin for Mommy: 1. Dessert! Fat Free Jell-O with light Cool Whip, 2. Celery with light Cheez Whiz, 3. Raspberries, 4. Fat Free Ham & Light Cheese skewers, 5. Salsa, 6. Multigrain Tostitos

You're only limited by your imagination. Include fruits, vegetables, crackers, sandwiches, nuts, mini muffins, deli meats, cooked chicken, jell-o, pudding, yogurt, dips, cheese, mini bagel pizas, popcorn... anything your child likes, and maybe a few they don't like cleverly disguised as dinosaurs or piggies and see if they're gobbled up by a happy kid.

I'm about to start trying the muffin tin with my youngest, but she's still in the "turning her plate upside down and throwing everything on the floor" stage so I might give it a month or two, those fruit animals take time, I'd hate to see them fly across the kitchen!

The Benefits of Meal Planning

A week or so ago on twitter some of us were having a discussion about how much we spend on groceries in a month. This conversation somehow morphed into meal planning and @somekindofmom gave me the idea to do a blog post on meal planning. (thank you by the way!)

I am an avid meal planner. If I didn't plan out our weekly meals I would never have the complete ingredients for anything and every night at 5pm I'd be standing in the kitchen like a deer caught in the headlights wondering what to make. And I'm a stay-at-home mom, I can't even imagine what it's like for working moms to get home exhausted from a long day's work, with kids that are hungry and cranky. Not having a plan must make that time very stressful.

I thought I'd share with you all some tricks and tips I've come up with on meal planning and how it can help you become more organized and less stressed out about what to for dinner every night!

The Benefits
Having your week's meals planned out makes shopping a lot easier, and cheaper. If you have a list you're less tempted to buy stuff you don't need. It also keeps you from forgetting items and buying duplicates of things you might already have in your pantry. I display our meal plan on the fridge, which also cuts out the usual "what's for dinner?" question I would otherwise hear 50 times in a week.


Pick a shopping day
I plan my week on Friday mornings cause that's the day the weekly sales start at my grocery store. It's also one of the mornings my 3 year old is in preschool so I only have one kid to drag through the store. I try to get 90% of the items I'll need for the week, but I usually have to make one pit stop at the store later in the week to get items we've run out of, like bananas as I don't like to buy 20 at a time cause they'll be brown before they'd all be eaten (but our family does eat about 20/week!). I'll also pick up items I want to be as fresh as possible when we eat it, like kaisers for our Wednesday night burgers.

Get organized
First, I made a list of all the meals we enjoy, including breakfast foods (more on that to come), that I refer to when making my weekly meal plan. I have them organized by categories like Poultry, Beef, Pasta, Pork, Fish and Miscellaneous. I also roughly assigned food categories to the days of the week, like every Tuesday I plan a pasta dish, and every Friday is "fun meal" (pizza, tacos, etc...) night. Doing this helps me make sure we don't have too much overlap from the different categories. It also helps me ensure that we make a rotation through all our favourites and we're not eating the same 10 dishes over and over.

The next thing I do is take a quick inventory of the pantry, fridge and freezer to see what I have on hand that I can use for that week's meals.

Plan your week
A lot of people just plan their dinners, and if that's all that you need help with, then by all means do that. I plan breakfast, lunch and dinner. Why? I can't tell you how many times we've woken up on the weekend with a hankering for pancakes, or bacon and eggs only to discover we're out of maple syrup or bread. Planning out breakfast also helps to keep my kids from having toast with Nutella 7 days a week (which they would have NO problem with, but I do!). When I wake up I'm already in gear with my plan and get right to work, even if it's just toast and cereal there's no standing around trying to guess what they want. I just make it and they eat it and everyone is happy... usually (more on THAT later too).

I plan lunches for the same reason. Being prepared cuts down on the repetition. My husband takes leftovers in his lunch so I like to make sure I make a dish or two a week that reheats well and is easy for him to eat at work (ie doesn't involve a steak knife or he won't make too big a mess with).

Do your shopping, but be flexible
This week's meal plan included Pulled Pork on Sunday night. However, when I got to the store they were out of the cut of pork I use. BUT, they did have pork back ribs on sale so I did a quick switch in my head from Pulled Pork to Slow Roasted Ribs for Sunday night. Being flexible like that will help you with your shopping.

Another way you need to be flexible: "Aww, I don't want spaghetti tonight!". I sometimes find myself switching nights if we're busy and need a less complicated dish, someone is against that night's meal selection, or even on account of weather (who wants to BBQ in the pouring rain?).

When I shop I keep an eye out for deals on items that are not needed for the current week's meal plan and will pick them up to use the following week. But I try to avoid the pitfalls of the snack aisle and the cereal aisle whenever possible. I will blow my budget on cereal if I don't watch myself! Stick to your list for your core items though, no need to buy 4 bags of cookies just cause they're on sale.

If you're a working parent
Back in the days when I had a paying job, I used to prep some meals on the weekend. Things that could keep in the fridge for a few days like casseroles and lasagnas. I'd also marinate meats and wash and prep veggies. Doing this on the weekend saves time mid-week and makes it less likely you'll abandon your meal plan for fast food if you had a crazy day.

Here's this week's meal plan at our house, some of the recipes can be found on this blog, but as you can see, we keep it simple, we have a lot of little palates in our house, simple is best for now!

you can click on the image to see it larger

* "pb dinosaurs" are peanut butter sandwiches cut into dinosaur shapes with a cool sandwich cutter I have. "at party" refers to the fact we were going to be at a baby shower over lunch.

Recipes in this week's plan:

Pancakes
Taco Bake
Mediterranean Risotto

Mediterranean Risotto with Roasted Red Pepper & Goat Cheese

This was supposed to be my Valentine's Day Post. A semi-fancy dinner for the loved one in your life. However, if you follow me on twitter you'd know that just before Valentine's Day I found out I was pregnant with our 3rd little one! A fabulous Valentine's present for sure, but it's come with some unpleasant side effects, like extreme exhaustion, a queasy stomach and an aversion to almost everything food related. Not great for a food blogger!

I've wanted to post this recipe weeks but just looking at the pictures made my head spin. Thanks to a life-time supply of Peppermint gum I'm able to sit here and write about one of my family's favourite dinners.

My local grocery store has a little magazine they put out a few times a year and usually the recipes in it involves some sort of frozen, partially prepared, or unhealthy food item so I rarely give them more than a 2nd glance, but last spring they had a recipe for risotto that caught my eye. The pictures look sooo tasty and I'd always wanted to try making risotto.

Risotto can be intimidating. It's a seemingly tricky dish that, if you watch Hell's Kitchen, you'd think is impossible to get right (those chefs screw it up almost every episode!). But there's no need to be scared to try it, as long as you keep an eye on it, this dish will turn out perfectly, every time!

I'm trying something a little different with this post as I suspect some of you would appreciate some step-by-step instructions with this recipe. So taking a page from The Pioneer Woman (not that I do her any justice, I still need to master the art of taking pictures of food through steam!), I've taken a ton of pictures in hopes this will help you to try making this tasty dish. Fear not the risotto, you can do it! (The recipe with quantities will follow the photo tutorial)

Start by melting some butter into some extra-virgin olive oil

Brown some quartered mushrooms in the butter/oil combination

Add some diced red onion and sauté for about 3 minutes

Add the arborio rice and stir to combine. I like the cook it for a minute or two to develop the nutty flavour of the grain.

Add 2 cups of boiling water and 1 tsp. of sea salt and stir and then cover.

In the meantime, brown some chicken breasts in extra-virgin olive oil.
Okay, they're not quite brown here, I like to keep them a little pale, they look fancier that way.

When the water is almost all absorbed add another cup of boiling water and stir and cover. Keep a close eye on the risotto now, stirring every minute or so and adding a little more boiling water until the rice is tender. Tasting is encouraged.

When the water is absorbed and the rice is cooked fully it'll look like this... yum!

Add some spinach that's been julienned

... and some roasted red peppers. This is the product that inspired the recipe, if you want to save time by all means use it or a jar of roasted red peppers chopped up works as well. If you're feeling a little extra ambitious, roast your own red peppers! Not sure how to do that? I'll tell you how after this recipe.

With the red peppers add your balsamic vinegar (not pictured, hey, I'm new at this!) and give it a good stir.

Crumble in your goat cheese and stir lightly to mix. Slice up the chicken breasts and serve over top the risotto for a fancy meal for two or a family meal on a regular ol' Tuesday night!

Print this Recipe

Mediterranean Risotto with Roasted Red Pepper & Goat Cheese adapted from sobeys.com

1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp butter
2 c. white mushrooms, quartered
1/2 medium red onion, diced
1 c. arborio rice
1 tsp sea salt
2 c. boiling water
1 c. fresh spinach, julienned
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 c. Roasted Red Pepper Tapenade or roasted red pepper, diced
1/2 c. goat cheese, crumbled
4-5 chicken breasts
2 tbsp herbs de provence or a Mediterranean spice blend (thyme & oregano work in a pinch)

Instructions:

1. Melt butter into the olive oil in a large, heavy bottomed pot.
2. Add the mushrooms and cook until browned on all sides.
3. Add the diced onions and stir and cook for about 3 minutes or until the onions start to soften.
4. Add the rice and stir to mix. Cook stirring frequently for a minute or two.
5. Add 2 cups of the boiling water and stir and cover immediately. Quickly stir every 2-3 minutes recovering the pot after each stir.
6. In a frying pan brown chicken breasts sprinkled with herb mixture until cooked through.
7. Add more water as the rice absorbs the liquid until the rice is tender.
8. Add the spinach, red peppers, balsamic vinegar and stir to combine.
9. Crumble goat cheese into the risotto and stir lightly.
10. Slice the chicken breasts and serve over the risotto immediately.

Print this Recipe

Enjoy!
Amanda

How to Roast a Red Pepper

Turn on the broiler and place red peppers directly on an oven rack at the highest level in your oven.

Turn the peppers around as they blacken so every side becomes dark.

Once blackened on all sides remove the peppers from the oven and place into a paper bag and close for about 2-3 minutes. The steam helps loosen the skin for easy removal.

Remove the charred skin by peeling or scraping it off with your fingers or a spoon. Using a knife cut around the top of the pepper and remove the center with all the seeds.

And voilà! Perfectly roasted Red Peppers, perfect for sauces, soups, your antipasto platter or a really yummy risotto...