Tag Archives: household management

Making comfort food in the winter

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chicken mushroom and broccoliCooking is not my thing. What I dread more than the actual cooking is the clean up after the meal. My goal for most meals is to cook a simple, delicious meal with very little clean-up. Therefore, one pot meals are my favorite. Winter seems to scream for stick to your ribs, comfort foods made in one pot. I love them! One of my favorites is a chicken mushroom broccoli dish I’ve been making for years, though I am not sure when I came up with this recipe. If memory serves me, I think one of my roommates from college used to make it and I have twisted it into my own dish.

Anyway, if you need some comfort food, which is delicious and easy to prepare, perhaps you should try this.

Chicken Mushroom with Broccoli

I love our cast-iron Dutch oven for this meal. If you do not have one, simply use a large heavy casserole dish.

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp canola oil or other oil that won’t burn at a high temperature
  • Chicken, cut up– enough to feed your family
  • 2 cups of cracked wheat, quinoa, rice or other grain
  • 3 cups of chicken broth (if there’s not enough homemade handy, we use organic, free range, low sodium chicken broth by Pacific or Imagine)
  • 1 cup cream of mushroom soup (again if you don’t have any homemade, we use creamy Portobello mushroom soup by Imagine)
  • 1 cup of sliced mushrooms (be adventurous, use several varieties)
  • 4-6 cloves of garlic cut in half (always let your garlic sit for 10 minutes after it has been chopped/minced/crushed to allow for the chemical reaction that creates allicin, which is the chemical behind all of garlic’s health-promoting benefits –immune boosting, antibacterial, antimicrobial, cardio-tonic, and anticancer. Here’s what happens: a sulfur-based compound called alliin and an enzyme called alliinase are separated in the garlic’s cell structure when it is whole. Cutting garlic ruptures the cells and releases these elements, allowing them to come in contact and they form the magical new compound called allicin. If you don’t wait, you don’t get the healing properties.)
  • 2 cup broccoli, cut up
  • 1 cup of carrots, cut up
  • 4-5 inch strips of astragalous root (they look like tongue depressors) – Not a must, but a great herb for boosting your immune system. I like adding it to all my stews and soups during this time of year, to help us fight off any cold and flu viruses. It is not meant to be eaten, only for releasing its medicinal qualities, so remove before serving. You can find it at a Mountain Rose Herbs or Chinese herbal shops.

Coat pan with oil, sear chicken until skin is brown and crispy, then remove. Pre-heat oven to 375°. Add grain to Dutch-oven or oven proof dish (if using quinoa, wash and soak in water for 15 minutes prior to using, it helps soften it up). Add chicken broth, astragalous root, garlic, ½ of the mushrooms, ½ of the broccoli, ½ of the carrots, and then lay seared chicken (skin up) on top. Add remainder of mushrooms, broccoli, and carrots, then pour cream of mushroom soup on top, cover, and put in oven for 30-40 minutes, until chicken is done and quinoa is cooked.

Enjoy this yummy dish and rejoice in the fact that you only have one pot to clean!

What is so bad about being a control freak?

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Many people call me a control freak. I can’t disagree. The duties of being a domestic engineer have fine-tuned my organizational and coordination skills – now I am responsible for almost everything needed to run the house. Unfortunately, when one person takes care of most of the domestic tasks, no one knows where things are, what is done, when it is done and what needs to be done. It all becomes an illusion – every thing is miraculously done, very little is needed or wanted, everyone is taken care of, except when you disappear.

Recently, I had the honor of escorting my mother to a memorial service for her twin sister. This meant that I would fly my mother from Florida to California back to Florida and then fly home to New York. Mike, who works full-time would be responsible for the home, Mathew, and Dylan for a little more than a week. Of course, he is capable of dealing with this situation but I needed to let him in on all the details that went into dealing with all the needs of Mathew and Dylan.

First of all, I usually drive Mathew to school, while he takes the bus home. He could take the bus to school but that would mean an hour less of sleep for him. Since Mike works an hour north and Mathew goes to school a half hour south of the house, it makes the most sense for Mathew to take the bus. Seeing that it would be challenging for Mike to be home in time to meet the bus, I needed to find somewhere for Mathew to be until Mike comes home from work. Mathew gets off the bus around 3:45pm and Mike tends to get home after 6pm. Luckily, we have an awesome neighbor a mile away, that helped us out.

After I took care of all the possible options that Mike may encounter to take care of Mathew’s, school and busing needs, I needed to alert all the necessary parties, fill-out and submit the paperwork (allowing Mathew to be dropped off at another person’s house). I needed to let them know that Mike is in charge and will be possibly make busing changes since he might simply work from home some days. Basically, I needed to figure out every contingency plan and let everyone know.

Then, the hardest part, was to make schedules that would let Mike know what he needed to do, who to notify and when to do it. If Mathew is driven to school, takes the bus home, takes the bus to school, or if he is dropped off at our friend’s house, all contact information needed to be included. Moreover, what Mathew needed for school, because it’s not the same every day – that would be too easy. And yes, we can’t forget about Dylan’s needs too. I had to try to think of everything I do, every day so things would flow for Mathew, Mike, and Dylan. Remember, Mike works full-time and leaves the house before anyone is awake, so he simply cannot know what goes on after he leaves. He was doing me a big favor, becoming “Super Dad” while I was away. I wanted him to have all the information needed to help him. In addition, I needed to stock the house with food and other necessities. Of course, Mike can shop, but I wanted to alleviate as many extra burdens from his already hefty load.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention, all this had to be done within two days, before school was closed for the holidays and we were leaving for Florida. My organizational skills were really put to the test. Besides setting up everything for Mike and Mathew’s return to regular life, I need to prepare for a long trip. Mike and Mathew were going away for 10 days, and me for 18 days. The funny part is that, everyone had what they needed except me. I forgot to pack items, and, unfortunately, included items that the TSA guy did not approve of. See, when we normally travel, I share a bag with Mathew, which is checked. Mike uses the carry-on. However, since I was traveling to CA without them, we decided to switch bags. I completely forgot about all the “illegal” items I had in my bag until we were on the security line and our plane was scheduled to take off in less than 10 minutes. It really was too late to check the bag and save the delicious medicinal honey I made for my folks, or sun block, shampoo and conditioner I had just bought. I was in such a tizzy, I forgot to put the items in Mike’s bag and was worried about missing the flight. I failed to state that some of the items that were being confiscated were actually in a 3 oz. travel size bottles. I just wanted to be released and get to the flight on time – which I did with 2 minutes to spare. A sure way to get the adrenaline pumping.

Nevertheless, no great catastrophes transpired while I was gone. Mike did a stellar job, even though he was faced with Mathew’s first really bad cold and Dylan returned home from the kennel with pink eye.  So yes, I am a control freak but it does serve everyone well.