I thought this avocado lime and cilantro rice would be bland for some reason, boy was I wrong. The lime flavor was just awesome and the cilantro gave this avocado rice extra flavor. Originally this dish didn’t have any peas but I thought it would complement the other ingredients rather well, besides adding more veggies to any dish is a win win situation.

Avocado is becoming one of my favorite ingredients to cook with. I love that it is super healthy. Avocados are extremely versatile so I really want to find other ways to use it in my cooking and baking.

I cooked my brown rice in a rice cooker. To tell you the truth, I couldn’t live without my rice cooker. We eat tons of rice through out the week and this inexpensive rice cooker cooks the rice to perfection. I also use it to cook quinoa. My quinoa used to be mushy and over cooked when I prepared it on the stove, but not anymore with the rice cooker.

The avocado lime and cilantro rice recipe originally comes from my blogger friend at Honey What’s Cooking. She has great recipes. This is not the only one I have tried from her blog. I know I will continue to try many more.

I actually served this rice with some grilled cheese sandwiches but you can serve this rice as is or with a protein side or a mixture of  veggies. There is no wrong way on serving this avocado rice.

On another note, the weather seems to be getting slightly better. I can’t believe how cold it has been the past 2-3 days. I really can’t take this extreme weather, especially coming from Spain. Hopefully we just have to endure it a few more years, since we are planning on moving some where else. We are not sure where to move yet butI will let you know, maybe the Caribbean…that sure will be nice.

Anyhow, I leave you with this amazing avocado and lime rice that is sure to satisfy anyone.

Enjoy!

Here you can see the pureed avocado with the cilantro, juice and salt. When the rice is done just add it with the peas and mix it through. You can add more lime if you like.

Avocado, lime and cilantro rice

Yield: 6 servings

Total Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

• 3 avocados, mashed
• 3 limes, juice
• 1 cup fresh chopped cilantro
• 2 1/2 cups organic brown rice
• Zest of 1 lime
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 tsp celtic salt
• 1 jalapeño, chopped, optional

Directions:

In your rice cooker cook the brown rice. Alternately you can cook it in your stove top. Place the peas in your microwave and cook for 2-3 minutes until warm.

In a large saute pan, or large bowl, mashed the avocados. Add the chopped cilantro, lime juice, lime zest, peas, salt and jalapeño if using. Mix the ingredients until combined.

When the rice is cooked through add it to the avocado mixture and incorporate well. Serve warm or cold. I like it warm better.

Recipe slightly adapted from Honey What's Cooking

The post Avocado, lime and cilantro rice appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.

Lately, I have been trying to put my slow cooker to work. I am trying to at least incorporate one slow cooker meal each week.

This Slow cooker Caribbean peanut chicken was absolutely delicious. I enjoyed the flavor of the thyme and peanut butter together. It was rather unique but very good.

I have been finding a lot of chicken recipes for the slow cooker. I want to have more vegetarian options so what I am trying to do is make some of my own recipes in the slow cooker and see how that works. I have done a couple that have turned sort of OK. Not perfect, but OK so I have to try these recipes again.

One important piece of advice for this Slow cooker Caribbean peanut chicken recipe:

Make sure you don’t overcook the rice. The recipe called for 45 minutes on high using white rice. I used long grain brown rice and after the 45 minutes my rice was hard so I cooked it for an extra 30 minutes. Big mistake because that was way too long. My rice came out a bit on the mushy side. It was edible but not of my liking. 45 minutes was not enough for the brown rice to cook but the extra 30 minutes was way too long. I think 45 to 1 hour will be more adequate for next time.

Anyhow, mushy rice or not, I really enjoyed this Slow cooker Caribbean peanut chicken. I will be making it again soon but next time I will be a bit more careful cooking the rice. Let me know if you try this recipe.

I hope you like it as much as we did.

Enjoy!

Here is the chicken right before I added the long grain brown rice. Cooking it 45 to 1 hour on high is sufficient but depending on the rice that you use the cooking time may vary a little bit.

Slow cooker Caribbean peanut chicken

Yield: 4-6 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs chicken breast, cut into thin strips
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 fresh tomato, diced
• 1/4 cup organic peanut butter
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 green chili, chopped
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1 1/2 cup long grain brown rice
• Fresh cilantro
• 1 lemon

Directions:

In a mixing bowl mix, with a wire whisk, mix the chicken stock, olive oil, organic peanut butter and dried spices. Add this mixture to your  slow cooker.

Add the reaming of the ingredients, except lemon and fresh cilantro, and turn the slow cooker to high. Cook for 2 hours. Sprinkle the rice over the casserole and mix well. Cook for 45 to 1 hour minutes. You many need more time depending on the rice.

Sprinkle lemon juice and the fresh cilantro over the rice and chicken when done.

Recipe adapted from Slow Cooking Cookbook

Nutrition facts calculated based on the recipe giving 5 servings.

The post Slow cooker Caribbean peanut chicken appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.

Here is recipe number two from the Tabasco 10 ingredient challenge.

This one was another easy recipe with few ingredients that it is perfect for any weeknight dinner. This recipe is full of protein and fiber, two healthy nutrition components of a well balance diet.

The preparation time is almost none existent. Besides chopping the chicken and the onion there is not much to do so if you are looking for a well balance nutritional meal that requires hardly any preparation look no further.

Again, for this recipe, I kept the amount of Tabasco to the medium side. My kids do enjoy the occasional spicy food, not too spicy, just a tad spicy, so feel free to add a bit more. My husband did and so did I so when preparing the recipe, you can double the amount of Tabasco for some extra heat.

This dinner also freezes really well. I actually do try to make a bit more quantity at each dinner so that I don’t have to cook each night. I just make sure that I take my leftover frozen dinners the morning off and I am good to go at night.

Tomorrow I will be posting recipe number three of the 10 ingredient Tabasco challenge. Another winner recipe especially on my husbands book so I hope you stay tuned for that one too.

Enjoy!

In a large skillet, over medium to high heat, add the chicken and onions and cook until the chicken has browned a bit, about 3-5 minutes. After that you can add the remainder of the ingredients and cook until the rice is tender. It will take approximately 25 minutes.

Here can see how liquid like it looks but after about 25 minutes the water will be absorbed and the rice will become tender. If you feel like the water has been absorbed and the rice is still hard you can add more water and let the rice cook an extra few minutes.

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Tabasco and it contains affiliate links. Tabasco compensated me for the time spent developing and photographing this recipe. All opinions are 100% my own. My sponsors help make this blog possible. The end :-)

No-fuss black beans, chicken and rice

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 4-5 servings

Total Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1.5 lbs of organic chicken, cut into small chunks
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 15oz canned black beans, drained
• 1 14oz canned chopped tomatoes
• 2 tbsp Tabasco® original sauce, more if you like
• 3 green onions chopped
• 2 cups brown rice, this is the one I used
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt

Directions:

In a large skillet, over medium to high heat, add the oil,  chopped onion and chicken and cook for about 3-5 minutes until the chicken has browned a bit. Add the remainder of the ingredients except the chopped green onions.

Turn the heat to medium-low and add 4 cups of water. Mix the ingredients through and let it stand, covered for 20 -25 minutes or until the rice is tender and the water has been absorbed. Make sure you keep an eye on the rice in case there is more water needed before the rice is tender.

Garnish the rice with the chopped onions and serve while still warm.

Nutrition facts calculated based on the recipe giving 5 servings.

The post No-fuss Black beans, chicken and rice appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.

Can I start by saying that this Quick General Tso’s Chicken recipe is super simple and fast to put together? If you need a week night meal that won’t set you back for cooking and prep time, this is your dish. Not only this general tso’s chicken is simple and fast to put together, but it is super delicious.

The only out of the ordinary ingredient that you will need to make this Tso’s chicken recipe is the hoisin sauce, which you can find gluten free. How great is that?

You can serve this Quick General Tso’s Chicken with stemmed broccoli which I have done and it is really perfect with it. My kids and my husband really enjoyed this version of Tso’s chicken.

I can’t say this enough, but this Quick General Tso’s Chicken is super easy to put together and delicious. If you have 20 minutes, you can make this dish. That is all you need.

Serve this chicken with brown rice and you will be good to go, and if you like, increase the quantities to have left overs in the next days to come.

Enjoy!

Place the chopped chicken in a heavy large sauce pan over medium heat and cook until almost brown, about 10 minutes. Then add the ginger and cook further for another 3 minutes or so before you add the sauce and green onions.

Quick General Tso's Chicken

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 4-5 servings

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

2 lbs organic chicken breast, cut into small cubes
8 green onions, chopped
3 Tbs arrowroot powder, or cornstarch
2 Tbsp chopped fresh ginger
2 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs sesame oil
1 Tbsp sesame seeds
1 tsp pepper flakes
Brown rice to serve

Sauce

1/3 cup peach jam
1/4 cup gluten free hoisin sauce, or soy sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
3 tsp arrowroot powder, or cornstarch
2 Tbsp gluten free soy sauce
1/2 cup water

 

Directions:

In a bowl, mix together peach jam, hoisin sauce, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, soy sauce, arrowroot powder and water. Set aside.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil. Dredge the chicken in the cornstarch and shake off any excess. Cook the chicken in the olive oil and when it is almost browned, 8-10 minutes, add the ginger and cook further for about 2-3 minutes. I cooked the chicken a total of 11 minutes or so

Add the sesame oil, and green onions. Cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the sauce mixture and bring to a boil. Simmer mixture for 1-2 minutes, or until the sauce thickens up a bit.

Serve garnished with green onions, hot pepper flakes and sesame seeds.

Recipe adapted from taste and tell

Nutrition facts based on the recipe giving 4 servings.

The post Quick General Tso’s Chicken appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.

I made this recipe for my son’s birthday party, besides pizza and sandwiches of course ;-) This one was intended to be for the adults. It was a huge success and I actually didn’t anticipate running out of it so soon.

For the birthday party I used Mahi Mahi instead, great choice, but today I had shrimp and other veggies. This dish is extremely versatile so you can replace any veggies of your choice as well as choose any protein you may like. It works well either way ;-)

Well, I am posting this one more for my friends that anything, but my followers will benefit as well because this one is an extremely tasty, fast and easy recipe to whip in no more than 20 minutes.

Enjoy!!

Curried Shrimp and vegetables

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients:

1/3 cup tomato paste
2  garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons ginger, chopped
1 tablespoon cumin powder
1 tablespoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 8 oz bag shredded coleslaw
1 lb shrimp, Chicken breast or thighs, fresh tuna, Mahi Mahi or just veggies of your choice will also work fabulously
1/2 - 1 cup water, depending on how thick you want the sauce
1 tablespoon coriander leaves, chopped
1 teaspoon pepper flakes, optional
Salt to taste
Brown rice to serve

 

Directions:

In a sauce pan add garlic, onion and pepper and cook for about 2-3 minutes. Add tomato paste, coriander, cumin and turmeric powder, pepper flakes if using and cook further for another minute. Add water and combine ingredients. Let it cook for another 2 minutes.

Add protein and coleslaw and cook for about 8 -10 (if you are using frozen shrimp make sure it is thawed out and if you use chicken you may need more than 10 minutes depending on how big the pieces are).

On the last minute off cooking add salt to taste and combine. Sprinkle coriander leaves over the top.

Serve over rice.

The post Curried Shrimp and Vegetables appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.

What can I say about this dish, this curried tuna with ginger and yogurt is JUST delicious.
This is my first time using curry powder and I really don’t know what I was waiting for. Well better later than never right?

What to love about this curried tuna besides the flavor? Well it is really simple and easy to put together. I also love the fact that you can use what ever protein you like. I bet it works really good with shrimp and chicken and if you are a vegetarian using an array of different veggies will perfectly work as well.

Next time I make this recipe I will use it with shrimp. If you like curry, this is a must try.

Enjoy!!

Curried Tuna with Ginger and Yogurt

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 4 servings

Total Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup tomato paste
• 2  garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 tablespoons ginger, chopped
• 2 tablespoons curry powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 lbs fresh tuna steaks cut into chunks
• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tablespoon coriander leaves, chopped
• Salt to taste
• Brown rice to serve

Directions:

In a large skillet add 1 tablespoon of olive oil, garlic, ginger and onion and cook for about 2-3 minutes. Add tomato paste, curry powder, cumin powder and water. Combine and let it cook for another 2 minutes.

Add protein and cook for about 10-15 minutes (if you are using frozen shrimp make sure it is thawed out and if you use chicken you may need more than 15 minutes depending on how big the pieces are).

On the last minute of cooking add the yogurt, salt to taste and combine. Sprinkle coriander leaves over the top.

Serve over rice.

The post Curried Tuna with Ginger and Yogurt appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.