Comfort Food: Quick & Easy Arroz con Pollo

When the weather outside can't make up it's mind...and turns from hot to cold again I tend to want something warm and yummy for dinner.  Comfort food comes to mind.

Don't you think comfort food is somehow filling and soothing in your tummy?  I love being able to put together something quick and have it turn out to be a bed of comfort for me and MGG while we sit down and relax after a hard day. Accomplishing this during the week calls for creativity.  Boy! I got the perfect solution for you.  Today's dish is Arroz con Pollo which translates to "rice and chicken".  

I don't think you can get better than a chicken and rice dish. Did you know there are famous chicken and rice dishes all over the world?  Hmm, there must be something to that!

This is my version of the Mexican restaurant style, Arroz con Pollo.  I used to order this all the time when we went out. Lately, it doesn't seem to be making an appearance on the menus.  So I make my own!

To make this dish easy, and a great weeknight meal I start with using leftovers.  Yep, that's right...leftovers.  This dish is like a casserole where you throw the ingredients in, bake it, and voila! dinner is served.  So it is a perfect base for using leftovers.  

Earlier in the week I roasted chicken for dinner.  Planning ahead I cooked several extra chicken breasts knowing that I could use them in other dishes such as salad, soups. tacos, including this comfort food dish today.  You can see my Roasting 101: Chicken Breasts recipe here.  It really is the best way to roast chicken and turn out juicy, tasty, tender breast meat.  

The next day I served my Easy Mexican Rice with some carne asada we made.   Again I made extra to use in this dish.  All I did to enhance this dish was to add some diced tomatoes to give it a little more pow!

That's the basis of the dish...but don't forget the cheese! Oooey gooey melting cheese all over the top just make this dish ring.  

I made them in ovenproof individual serving bowls which came out cute.  You can put it all in one baking dish if you like.

Enjoy some comfort!  Your hearts will sing!

Quick & Easy Arroz con Pollo

serves 4

2 roasted chicken breasts, shredded (pre-made)
4 cups of Easy Mexican Rice (pre-made)
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
2 cups Cheddar Cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spay a 2 quart baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Place the rice in a medium sized bowl.  Add the drained tomatoes and stir to incorporate.  Add rice mixture to the prepared baking dish.  Top with chicken and mix a little to mix together.  Top with cheese.

Bake covered with foil for 30 minutes or until cheese has melted and ingredients have been heated through.  Serve.

Orange Nutmeg French Toast

Just coming back from a wonderful vacation made me want to try my hand at a breakfast with a citrus twist.

We had some terrific breakfast in Hawaii that you can read about here.  One thing MGG had that I just drooled over was french toast.  I love me some good french toast.  Even if you eat it in Hawaii there is something about the atmosphere that makes you feel outdoorsy, healthier and fit.  So I tell myself that if you eat this over there that you are not really being that bad.....you can work it off with a nice swim, kayaking, paddle boarding or snorkeling.  (Ha! Good justification right?)

One thing that scream tropics is all the fresh fruits.  So I wanted to bring that into the dish with the orange extract and the zest.  You can get the orange extract here.  this is a great items to have on hand for cake batters, muffins, etc.  Almost anything you would use vanilla for you can substitute this flavor....it's yummy.  To go along I wanted to bring a little warmth so I thought cinnamon was typical, so let's mix it up a little and use some fresh grated nutmeg.  Oh so good!

The rest is simple, and just like basic french toast.  I used a loaf of day old french bread, which had perfect texture to soak up the custard.  This dish was just perfect, and exactly what I was looking for.  An ode to our favorite breakfast restaurant in Hawaii!  Aloha!




Orange Nutmeg French Toast

Serves 4

2 eggs

½ cup fat-free milk

½ teaspoon orange extract

½ teaspoon orange zest

1/4 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg

8 slices French bread

Powdered sugar, or maple syrup

In a shallow bowl, combine eggs, milk, orange extract, zest, and nutmeg. Whisk until well blended. Set aside.

Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat.

Dip bread slices into egg mixture, coating both sides of the bread.  Place in hot skillet.  Cook on first side until golden brown, about 3-4 minutes.  Flip and cook the other side another 3 minutes.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar or drizzle with warm syrup. 

Food in Paradise

Hi everyone!  I'm glad to be here posting today because I have some exciting dishes to share with you.

MGG and I just got back from a wonderful relaxing trip to paradise! Paradise being Hawaii that is.
It's been such a long time since we had a real honest to goodness vacation full of luxury and pampering, plus a huge dose of relaxation.

I love Hawaii and haven't been back for many years, so it was time.  Plus, MGG had never been before so we had decided on a spur of the moment trip, pulling out all the stops and went 1st class all the way from the plane ride to the resort.  Wow, talk about being spoiled!  I certainly resisted coming home.  I was thinking of all kinds of sneaky ways to get us to stay..a day, a week more, or.like forever!

But unfortunately my antics didn't work and we had to return home.  Totally relaxed, but not ready to go back to work.  Dang work....who made up that duty anyway?

One of the best things other than the views, was the food, which is what I wanted to share with you today. We stayed at a resort that had about 8 different restaurants.  This was perfect because we had a choice of gourmet tropical restaurants, Asian cuisine, and some down home favorites such as burger joints, ice creamery (excellent homemade ice cream!) and even pizzas (with a Hawaiian twist as well).  

A friend of my highly suggested that we try CJ's New York Style Deli for downhome diner style breakfasts. The first day we headed over there and found it was a wonderful quaint deli style restaurant that was open air style.  Everything over there is pretty much outdoors.  The best thing about this restaurant was the hidden talent of the chef!  Wow!!!  The food was so good that we ended up eating there several times.  You can tell by my pancakes below, and MGG's french toast that the food is generous.  These were both so light, tender, and fluffy that I knew I was in heaven just by the food.  Oh and bringing in the 'tropicalness" to the dish was the coconut syrup they served with the dishes.  Man oh man!  Excellent stuff, not overly sweet like you would think.  I have to recreate that for sure.

Walking around the village we ran across a great little store called The Honolulu Cookie Company.  The make homemade shortbread cookies.  They are darling little cookies shaped like pineapples and they come in all sorts of flavors.  From standard shortbread, to lichee fruit flavored ones.  This was a gem of a store.  We picked out a sample of our favorites to take back with us as you see here.  Pineapple happened to be may favorite and MGG likes the dark chocolate dipped ones.

We also took a day to tour the island.  This was just fabulous, seeing the more rural side of Hawaii. Stopping at roadside beaches, hiking, and touring temples made for a fun filled day.  When we returned we sprang for a huge salad.  This Chinese chicken salad we picked up at a local restaurant was outstanding.  Again enough food fro two to eat.  And we did!

We ate a variety of dinners while we were there.  From Japanese food served Benihana style to upscale tropical cuisine.  Hawaii is full of gourmet dining.  The fresh fish was outstanding.  MGG had a field day eating the sushi, and mahi mahi.  This particular night we dined at the Tropics restaurant on the beach.  Watching the sunset I had to partake in some tropical libation.  My dinner consisted of a heavenly steak that was so tender and juicy.  Served with garlic mashed potatoes and island vegetables.  MGG had mahi mahi this night and I forgot to take a picture of it because I was so enthralled with my steak.  Oops!

We were so full from dinner that we ordered a dessert to go. After a late night evening in the resort bar listening and dancing to Hawaiian music (love it!) we headed back to the suite for dessert out on the lanai. We shared a key lime cheesecake adorned with a mango sauce and another shortbread cookie.  Sublime!

So if you ever find yourself in Hawaii take the time to enjoy the cuisine.  All the chefs are outstanding and the food is absolutely deslihhhh!