Grandma's Kitchen Table

Whole30 Thursdays - Curry Chicken Salad

       This week Margaret and I went with an easy cold lunch option, perfect for these hot summer days.  We made Curry Chicken Salad, found on page 18 of Whole30 Fast & Easy.

       Using W30 compliant ingredients:  chicken, mayonnaise, lime juice, cilantro, curry powder, salt, apple, celery, red onion, carrots, green onions, and cashews. (I used parsley rather than cilantro and chives rather than green onions.)

       Chicken Salad is something I love making and changing up, depending on the ingredients that I have on hand, and what flavors I am craving at the moment.  It's always fun to try a new recipe...and this Curry Chicken Salad is just wonderful.  It is full of interesting flavors and character, all the ingredients work well together.  Best of all, I usually have each of the ingredients on hand, so no special trip to the grocery store, etc. 

        Always a fan of lettuce cups and wraps, I served this on a small plate in lettuce cups with slices of yellow bell pepper for my lunch. It was even better the next day after all the ingredients spent the night together.  Definitely a recipe worth repeating, it was all delicious and filling, a perfect lunch.  Next week we plan to make BBQ Pulled Chicken Wraps on page 15. 

        While we will not be posting the actual recipes from the book (we encourage you to honor the author and to buy the book so that you can own the recipes yourselves), we will share our photos and  ingredients and comments on each. If you would like to join in, just leave the link to your post so we can come and read all about it.  Even if you aren't eating Whole 30ish, the recipes and food are wonderful and fit into any meal plan. 

Whole30 Thursdays - Spicy Red Pepper Chicken Skillet

       Over the past 11 years, Margaret and I have cooked and baked together, blogging many recipes over those years reflecting our interests and styles.  Currently we are both cooking and eating Whole 30ish...sometimes being strict adherents and sometimes not, but always enjoying trying the recipes together.  This week we decided we would cook together from the latest Whole 30 Cookbook titled Fast & Easy.  When browsing the pages of the book, we both came to the conclusion that we pretty much wanted to make all the recipes sooner or later.  While we will not be posting the actual recipes from the book (we encourage you to honor the author and to buy the book so that you can own the recipes yourselves), we will share our photos and  ingredients and comments on each. If you would like to join in, just leave the link to your post so we can come and read all about it.  Even if you aren't eating Whole 30ish, the recipes and food are wonderful and fit into any meal plan. 

        The first recipe we made together was this week and is Spicy Red Pepper Chicken Skillet, page 111.  The photo leaves a lot to be desired...,this was before we decided we were planning on blogging this, I  just snapped a quick photo to text Margaret when we finished making it so she could see what mine looked like, so here it is in all it's glory, messy plating and all.

        The recipe could not be easier.  The ingredients;  olive oil, chicken, salt, pepper, bell peppers, onion, garlic, diced tomatoes, chicken broth, red pepper flakes, and fresh basil.The recipe calls for bone-in skin-on chicken thighs but I prefer to use boneless skinless thighs (makes it cook faster and easier to eat without the bone).  It all comes together in less than 30 minutes.  I divided the recipe by four so that I could make just a single serving for myself for lunch and to see how the recipe performed and what, if anything, I would like to change.  It was so good, I wouldn't change a thing. 

       While I had cooked off the entire four portions of chicken, I could easily warm that up for this next new batch, and I had grilled peppers and onions with dinner so I had some of those leftover...the long and short of it is that this recipe is just as good using leftover chicken and vegetables and goes together in minutes...I reduced the tomatoes before adding everything else to give them the same sort of depth of flavor as the other things.  You can control the spicy aspect by your judicious (or not) use of the red pepper flakes. 

        This recipe will be a repeat often for ease of prep, good for you food aspects, and most of all, the tasty goodness of it all.  First recipe is a hit out of the ballpark as they say.

        These are the recipes from Fast & Easy that Margaret and I are making in July in case you would like to jump in at any time and cook with us:  July 5 - Spicy Red Pepper Chicken Skillet (page 111), July 12 - Curry Chicken Salad (page 18), July 19 - BBQ Pulled Chicken Wraps (page 15), and July 26 - Fruity Chicken Chopped Salad (page 26).  We post on Thursdays.

TWD Dorie's Cookies: Cast-Iron Pan Chococlate Chip Cookie Bars

      The Dorie's Cookies group recipes for July are Pistachio-Berry Slims (page 325) and Cast-Iron Pan Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars (page 53).  This week I chose to make the Cast-Iron Pan Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars.
       Ingredient list:  apricots, flour, baking soda, butter, sugar, brown sugar, salt, egg, vanilla, coconut, and chopped chocolate.   
       The recipe is straight forward, it goes together quickly and easily.  The best part is that you just dump it all into a skillet and bake it in the oven, so easy.  I happen to have (thank you Margaret) a small little perfectly seasoned 6" cast iron skillet that would be perfect for a quarter of the recipe...you know since there are just two of us here these days and only one of the two eats chocolate.  You can mix it up and bake it right alongside your dinner, producing a lovely dessert ready after dinner when you are wanting that sweet little something to end the day.

          Mark's thoughts are that they were very tasty and worth repeating. He couldn't really taste the apricots so I will maybe increase the amount for those next time for him as he loves apricots.  All in all, a great little chocolate chip cookie bar. 
       The Tuesdays with Dorie group is baking from Dorie Greenspan's book, Dorie's Cookies.  The posts are the first and third Tuesdays of the month and can be linked at the main Tuesdays with Dorie website here.  You can also find the information on joining in and/or see the posts from those in the group baking along at this location.