Chicken Succotash with Gingered Sweet Potato Toss

I'm sharing this recipe, that I found in a November/December 2010 issue of Clean Eating (so I am very behind in reading through magazines I bought at a library sale many moons ago.....).  I did look on-line but the recipe was not on Clean Eating's site.  So here you are.

It's a penny pinching recipe too!  

Chicken Succotash
With Gingered Sweet-Potato Toss

4 4-oz boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
8 oz. green beans, trimmed and rinsed
1 lb. sweet potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped into 1-inch cubes
3 cloves garlic, sliced into thin rounds
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 tsp. ground ginger
8 oz. frozen corn
Pinch sea Salt
Sweet Paprika, to taste
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste.

One:  Remove any visible fat from chicken, cut breasts into 1-inch cubes, and set aside.

Two: Fill 2 medium pots halfway with water and bring to a boil.  Add beans to 1 pot and turn heat down to medium.  Simmer beans for 5 minutes; drain and set aside.  Add potatoes to second pot, reduce heat to medium and simmer for 8 minutes; drain and set aside.

Three: In a small nonstick pan, saute garlic in 1 Tbsp. oil over medium-low heat for 2 minutes.  Add ginger and cook for 1 more minute, then remove from heat immediately.  In a small bowl, mash garlic-ginger mixture with a fork until it's a smooth paste.  With same fork, stir paste into potatoes.  Chop cooled beans into 1 inch pieces.

Four: Heat remaining 1 Tbsp. oil in a non-stick pan over medium-high heat.  When oil is just beginning to sizzle, add chicken and saute for 3 minutes.  Add green  beans and corn and continue to cook for another 2 minutes (The chicken will finish cooking by method of poaching, thanks to the liquid from the vegetables).

Five: Using a slotted spoon, lift vegetable-chicken mixture from pan, letting liquid drain out, and place 1 cup mixture onto each of 4 plates.  Season with salt, paprika, and pepper.  Serve alongside 1/2 cup potatoes.


NOTE:  I did not slice my garlic.  I simply minced it and it worked fine.  I used organic chicken of course, and corn and beans we blanched over the summer and froze.  

Taste?  Well, we thought the main dish was bland in taste, so I minced garlic into it while it was finished cooking (chicken, bean, corn mixture).  You may want to taste test and season with your favorite spices/herbs. I did not measure my corn, I simply pulled a bag that I froze and used all of it.  Same with the beans.


However, my kids devoured this and ate all of their sweet potatoes!  That's a bonus for budget meal, and being able to provide a very healthy meal too.

It is a lot of stove-top cooking, but worth it.     
 

         

From the Gratitude Journal . . .

 . . . I am thankful for wind and sun.


. . . I am thankful that we found Nellie (our lost araucana), and she is safe and sound. I wish I had a photo of her to share.  She is very pretty.  I'll try to do that soon.

 . . . I am thankful that my son caught the owl in the coop before it could kill the rest of our chickens.

. . . I am thankful for beautiful sunsets.

. . . I am thankful for calm weather, so I can turn off my corn/pellet burner to save on pellets today.

. . .I am thankful for honest friends.

. . .I am thankful for God's timely reminders and Love.  

 

 

Locks of Love

I am finally shipping my hair donation, to Locks of Love.  I had to wait for Hubby to get paid.

You can see the length that was cut off. The ruler in the photo is a 12 inch ruler.

Face to Face with a Great Horned Owl ~ The Story

I am sorry to say that I don't have photos.  In the "heat" of the moment, we were more concentrated on saving the chickens.

My son is typically the one to close the chicken coop at night.  Every night the chickens have been putting themselves to bed, but now it gets darker, faster.  The bulb in the heat lamp broke a few days ago too.

By the time my son got to the barn to shut the coop door, and lock my ladies and Sparta in nice and tight, he flipped on the light to discover an owl inside the coop.  And one barred rock chicken had been mutilated.

The kids came and got us, and we tried to figure out how to get it to fly back out.  The dark barn was simply an invitation to it, for a night time snack.  Unfortunately.

We kept all the lights on and as we were on the side of the coop, talking normally, trying to encourage this monster to leave, it flew out and up into the loft.

This owl, was like nothing I have ever seen in the zoo. It was much taller than our chickens, maybe 1 1/2 feet to a bit taller, and very mean looking.  How mean?

Well, this morning, we e-mailed the park ranger to ask if they are protected.  (a portion of this post is now removed due to people flooding my inbox, telling me what I already know - be assured that our family would NEVER kill a protected animal) Hubby did tell me right away that he thought owls are "protected."  

We've never had an owl here, just red-tailed hawks, that we feared would eat our chickens.

We looked up the parks guide on owls in our state, and our jaws dropped.  We had no idea that we were messing with the big kahoona of our state's owls - The Great Horned Owl, who reaches as tall as 22 inches with a wing span of 44 inches, and tallons that are know to go at humans (without hearing them coming at you - Gulp!)

Humans!  Good thing we had long sticks in hand, but then again, we could have been badly hurt.   We had no idea what we had before us.

One araucana is still missing, as she ran out of coop, and to save her life.  Blood covered Sparta (rooster) didn't stick around either, but all are back inside, despite the one the owl killed, and one araucana.  

We shut the coop for the night, but will need to go in search Nellie (nervous Nellie).

The girls told me this morning, my son went up into the loft, opened a window, and got it to fly out of the barn.  He is still in bed, so he has no idea what he was messing with yet.  Gulp.

Being a homesteader/farmer is definitely not easy some days.          

Creative Ornament Challenge

I've been busy updating my S.C.R.A.P. blog, and adding more handmade ornaments.  Over the summer, I collected all of the clothespins that broke, saving the pieces for a special project.

I put together a snowman from some of the parts, and have now challenged the kids to create one by themselves.

The first one to make one, was my soon-to-be 11 year-old daughter.  

She made her ornament into an angel, using feathers, scrap fabric, glitter and a bead.  

I'm still waiting on the other kids to finish theirs.  I think they need a little Christmas mojo, to get them going.   

Take a look at S.C.R.A.P. to see them. 

Local Food Pantry Supply Low

Food pantries in our area are in need of donations.  I recently put together an e-mail, encouraging my farmgirl friends to donate this season. 

The sad part is, that most of America today, is suffering with their own income.  Most people are already barely making ends meet with raising kids, school costs, let alone put food on the table (healthy food at that).

I was able to collect $25.00 from all the letters (and phone calls) I mailed out, and it came from a food manufacturer in Michigan.  Then I remembered that my husband's employer will donate $300.00 to a charity of our request, however we needed the correct information in a short amount of time.  With luck, we were able to have his employer donate $300.00 in his behalf, to an are food bank.


I also offered to write up a flyer to present recipes for homemade detergent, which is another item visitors of the food pantry need.  I was told that people would not pick it up nor be interested in it.

I am actually considering holding free classes (or by donation) to any family in a financial bind, on how to make healthy meals on a budget (dried beans, fresh veggies and fruits included), and how to make homemade cleaners.  I think people just get absorbed into the convenience of quick and easy, and think "homemade" is too time consuming.  I think people might even be a little scared to try homemade anything, when they are desperately trying to feed themselves, and their families.

Tidbit:  A recent newspaper article stated that food pantries, in our state, are being used more often, than when they were throughout the recession. 

Tiger gets Treats ~ Mousing Around

Two days ago, Tiger caught a mouse in my kitchen.  While we scrambled to catch both of them, without losing the mouse, my son and I failed. 

The mouse ran off into the utility room.  Tiger sat there all day and night waiting and waiting.

Then the next day, one of the girls starts laughing, as Tiger had his head buried in my son's shoe.  We didn't think anything of it.

...and then the day after that, my son brings me his shoe.  In it, is a dead mouse - HA HA HA HA!  Good kitty!  See my daughter's blog at : Life as Teen Farmgirl for a photo.