CEiMB - Chicken Paella with Sausage and Olives

Yes, I'm back!! Back at cooking with Craving Ellie in My Belly, where we cook up healthy and delicious Ellie Krieger recipes every week and then share our experiences. Recipes get chosen from web-based recipes at Foodnetwork.com or Ellie's books 'The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life' and 'So Easy: Luscious, Healthy Recipes for Every Meal of the Week'.

This weeks recipe was picked by one of my favorite bloggers: Margaret from Tea and Scones. And boy, did she pick the perfect recipe!! About two weeks ago I was visiting Spain to attend a friends wedding and now Margaret brings Spain to my home by picking Chicken Paella with Sausage and Olives!

Shopping for this recipe was quite easy: no need to go to specialty stores because I could simply buy all the ingredients I needed at the supermarket and market. Prepping was pretty straightforward to: cut, chop, slice everything into pieces. Then I was supposed to use a Dutch oven-type pan and couldn't find it. This was quite necessary, since the Paella was finished in the oven... Instead I cooked it on the stove.... Ofcourse as soon the Paella was cooked and I finished my plate I noticed my Dutch oven. Guess where it was..... Right next to the stove!!!! Duh!!!

On Twitter Margaret mentioned that she thought the paella was a bit bland and after tasting a bite of my finished product I agreed with her, so I added 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/8 tsp paprika powder and a bit more salt and pepper. Now it was almost perfect: a little spicy, but not to much!! Next time I might add a bit more garlic though....

For the recipe, visit Margaret at Tea and Scones. Wanna know what my fellow Ellie-istas thought of the Paella? Go here!! And if you want to join in on the fun, you're absolutely welcome!! Go visit our site to check out the rules and join us!

P.S. Don't forget to enter one or both of my giveaways:

- to win a surprise foodie package go here to Guess this Food, deadline is Friday 25th, midnight CET.

- to win a $70 CSN gift card go here, deadline is Saturday 26th, midnight CET.

CEiMB: Easy Chicken-Mushroom Quesadillas

This week I got to pick the recipe for Craving Ellie in my Belly. A while ago I saw this recipe by Ellie for Easy Chicken-Mushroom Quesadillas on Foodnetwork and since I was in the mood for Mexican food I thought this would be the perfect time to try it!

The recipe was put together quite easily. I bought presliced mushrooms, pulled defrosted chicken out of the fridge (I always buy chicken when it's on sale, cook and shred it, portion it and pop it into the freezer), and started cooking: dinner was served within 15 minutes!

I slightly undercooked the mushrooms by accident, they could have used a bit more time.
Instead of topping one tortilla with the filling and another tortilla I topped half the tortilla and flipped the other half over the filling: this made it much easier to flip over the quasadilla in the pan without major loss of content.

I served the quesadilla with some salsa and sour cream, as suggested by Ellie.
In my opinion this recipe is another keeper: easy to make and tastes great. The cumin, oregano and chili powder work great together. Next time I might just add some fresh cilantro into the mix, I love that stuf!! I ate two halfs, so actually 2 servings according to Ellie.
Overall: two thumbs up!!

One tiny detail.... I got to enjoy this dish again later last night due to heartburn. Luckily for me this was quickly sorted by taking one of the Rolaid Chews that I brought home with me on my last trip to Canada. That stuff really works fast!! I'm not quite sure what caused the heartburn this time, maybe it was the salsa, the chili powder or the cumin....

Easy Chicken-Mushroom Quesadillas

4 servings

Ingredients

1 tbsp canola oil

1 large onion, chopped (about 2 cups)

8 ounces white button mushrooms, sliced (about 3 cups)

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups cooked chopped skinless, boneless chicken breast (1 breast half)

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp dried oregano

2 cups baby spinach leaves, sliced into ribbons

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

4 (10-inch) whole gran flour tortillas

1 cup shredded Mexican cheese mix or cheddar

1/2 cup salsa

1/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream

Directions

Heat the oil in a large skillet over a medium heat. Add the onions and mushrooms and cook until the mushroom water is evaporated and they begin to brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more. Add chicken, cumin, chili powder and oregano and stir until all spices are incorporated. Add spinach, salt and pepper and cook until spinach is wilted, about 2 minutes.

Lay 1 tortilla on a flat work surface and sprinkle with 1/4 cup shredded cheese. Spoon 1/2 cup chicken and vegetable mixture on top of cheese, then top with an additional 1/4 cup cheese. Top with another flour tortilla.

Heat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray over medium heat. Carefully place 1 quesadilla in pan and cook 3 minutes. Using a large spatula, gently flip the quesadilla and cook an additional 3 minutes until lightly browned and cheese is melted. Repeat with second quesadilla.

Slice each quesadilla into quarters. Place two quarters on a plate with 1 tablespoon sour cream and 2 tablespoons salsa.

Check out what my fellow Ellie-istas thought of this recipe here.

Up next:

October 29th: Pumpkin Pie Muffins (pg 21), hosted by Oddball Oven Mitt

November 5th: Linguini with Shrimp (pg 160-161), hosted by Confessions of a Novice Baker

Taste & Create XXII: Penne in a Creamy Pesto Sauce with Fresh Mozzarella, Grape Tomatoes & Chicken

For this months Taste & Create I was paired with the lovely Poornima of Tasty Treats.
With lots of yummy dishes to choose from I picked another great pastadish: Penne in a Creamy Pesto Sauce with Fresh Mozzarella, Grape Tomatoes and Chicken. I made this when I had a friend over for dinner and we absolutely loved it: this is easy to make and tastes absolutely delicious!!

Go check out what else was made for this months Taste & Create here!!

CEiMB: Thai Style Chicken with Coconut Curry Broth, Barefoot Bloggers: Ina's Lemon Cake

This week is the first time I'm actually writing two recipes in one post. So I'm going to start with CEiMB for today's main course and end with the Barefoot Bloggers for today's dessert....

CEiMB: Thai Style Halibut Coconut Curry Broth

This weeks recipe for Craving Ellie in My Belly was picked by The Not So Skinny Kitchen, she decided on Thai Style Halibut Coconut Curry Broth. I'm not a huge fan of fish and I wanted to empty my freezer for my upcoming vacation, so I decided to use two chicken breasts. I also used red onion instead of shallots 'cause I was totallly out of shallots!

I cooked the chicken for about 20 minutes, just to make sure it was cooked all the way. I halved the recipe, but used the entire two teaspoons of red curry paste. I left one chicken breast whole and cut the other one into small pieces. Boy, this dish sure ticked all my boxes: curry, cilantro, lime and chicken: absolutely delicious!!!

One serving of this lovely dish works out to only 6 WW points!To my humble opinion this was a great pick, check our what my fellow Ellie-istas thought here.

Barefoot Bloggers: Ina's Lemon Cakes

McKenzie of Kenzie's Kitchen got to pick this months Bonus Recipe for Barefoot Bloggers, her pick was Ina's Lemon Cake. Oh my, this tastes amazing: like heaven. I didn't think it would be possible with not even the tiniest bit of chocolate in sight, but it's really good!!

In this recipe Ina combines the perfect pound cake with a lovely tart lemon syrup and a delicious lemon glaze. The cake is nice and moist, sweet but also sour. To sum it up: the perfect summer cake!

The recipe actually makes two cakes, but since I'm planning on doing a lot of baking the next couple of days I halved the recipe and ended up with one perfect lemon cake.

My one lemon cake made 14 slices, that works out to 5 WW Points per slice.

Go check out what the other Barefoot Bloggers thought of Ina's Lemon Cake here!

CEiMB: Balsamic Chicken with Baby Spinach

Well, it's Thursday today and we all know what that means: Craving Ellie in My Belly. And I am especially exited about this weeks pick. Guess why.... Because I got to choose a recipe!!! It was really difficult to decide on one recipe, 'cause The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger is filled with wonderful dishes.

I eventually selected Balsamic Chicken with Baby Spinach and Couscous. Chicken is one of my favourite meats to cook with, simply because it's so versatile and I love both spinach and couscous allthough I would never have thought of putting them together in one dish.

Since I wasn't able to find baby spinach, I simply used normal spinached: it just needed a bit more time in the pan than indicated. It took about 15 minutes to cook and I really enjoyed it! I loved the combination of the tomatoes with the balsamic vinegar. This dish is perfect for one of those nights where you don't feel like cooking, but still want to eat a healthy and tasty meal and it will definetely be made again by me!

Check out what my fellow Ellie-istas thought of the chicken here!!

Balsamic Chicken with Baby Spinach and Couscous

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 (8-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, halved
8 ounces baby spinach
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup low-sodium canned chopped tomatoes with juice
2 cups whole wheat couscous, cooked

Directions
Heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil and heat. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the chicken and cook about 4 minutes per side, or until cooked through and juices run clear. Remove the chicken and set aside.

To the same pan, add the spinach and cook just until wilted, about 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Lower the heat to medium and add the balsamic vinegar and chicken broth to the pan and stir, scraping the bottom of the pan to remove any browned bits. Add the tomatoes, bring to a simmer and cook 3 to 5 minutes.

Place the couscous in a serving bowl. Top with the spinach, chicken and balsamic-tomato sauce.

CEiMB: Buffalo Chicken Salad

Time flies when you're having fun: another Thursday had arrived and I'm happy it did, 'cause that means it's time for Craving Ellie in My Belly!!

This week AJM from You Eat Now got to pick the recipe, she selected Buffalo Chicken Salad. The recipe can be found here.

I must admit, when I saw the list of ingredients I had some doubts about this recipe. You see I love hot sauce and I love blue cheese, but simply couldn't imagine that those two would taste good when combined in one recipe.

Boy, did Elly prove me wrong!!! I decided to make this salad as a side dish with some great pasta with broccoli and cheesesauce (recipe will follow tomorrow) and served it yesterday when a friend came over for diner. We loved it! The dressing is perfect: the taste of the blue cheese (I used gorgonzola) is not too strong and the chicken is a great addition! Yum! Another recipe that I'll be making again!

Ow.... Only 3 WW Points per serving and about 1,5 for the side dish!! By the way, so far I lost 4 kilos in one month :) And if you would like to join CEiMB, go check out this site!

CEiMB: Chicken with Mango Barbecue Sauce

So, here I am again! Presenting you the strangest combination of foods on one plate you have ever seen: Chicken with Mango Barbecue Sauce (picked by Aggie's Kitchen) combined with red cabbage and cranberries, apple sauce and mashed potatoes.

I'll admit, this was not the diner I had in mind for tonight.... I wanted to serve the chicken with a nice salad, but when I came home today I discovered that my lovely romaine lettuce had changed into a slimy mess overnight.... I guess I'm just having that kind of a week!

Instead of the seeding and dicing some jalapeno peppers I found this really cool tube in the supermarket: jalapenopepper puree. Ideal: 1 teaspoon of the puree is the same as 1 whole jalapenopepper. No more accidentally rubbing in your eyes and having them sting and tearing because you forgot to wash your hands or simply didn't wash them good enough: just a simple squirt out of the tube!! Perfect.

Also I ommitted the lime juice: since I still had a peelless lemon leftover from this weeks TWD-recipe I decided to squize it before I could bin it. Then I cut the chicken into small pieces before marinating it in the sauce, thinking it would cut back marinating and cooking time (it was already about 8 p.m. when I popped the chicken into the fridge).

This dish is absolutely amazing: a perfect combination of sweet, tangy and spicy. I will definetely make this again, so Aggie: thank you for picking this recipe! One more good part: 1 serving of the chicken with sauce is only 3 WW Points!!!

Welcome Elie-istas!

Welcome back to my blog, I'm so happy to be back at Craving Ellie in Belly.
Patience is a virtue they say, so I'm going to test your patience today.

I planned on making the Chicken with Mango Barbecue Sauce, picked by Aggie's Kitchen, yesterday, but somehow my plans changed. Now I'll make it tonight.

Hopefully you'll all be back tonight to see how my efforts turned out!

New Cookbook: Hip Kip

This cute little cookbook is sold by the Dutch supermarket Albert Heijn.

It's all about chicken, which I love... I couldn't pass up on it. Especially when they prized them down to only 1 euro!!! I can't wait to try my first recipe!

CEiMB #7: Oven Fried Chicken

It's Ellie-time again!! This means another great (and light) recipe to try. MacDuff of Lonely Sidecar choose Oven Fried Chicken, the recipe can be found here. I had planned on making this recipe during the weekend, but somehow my schedule got turned upside down and I didn't make it untill tonight. It's been a busy week!!!


I was somewhat afraid that I had to skip another CEiMB, because I was supposed to be going out for dinner tonight with a former co-worker. But unfortunately she was sick so I had to eat in, which was fortunate because now I had the chance to make the Oven Fried Chicken!!

I thought I still had chickenfilets, but they had gone bad. So out of the corner of my freezer came some chicken strips. I added a little bit of tabasco to the yoghurtdip and used a little less cayennepepper in the crustdip. I halved the entire recipe so I would have three servings, but when I had dipped 2/3 of the chicken into the crustdip I had no more crustdip leftover.... So I popped the rest of the chicken back into the fridge.

I served the chicken with a vegetable stir-fry and some baked potatoes. Man, this was soooooo delicious!! The crust was nice and crunchy plus spicy, but the chicken inside was still quite moist and fully cooked. (I hate semi-cooked chicken....). I loved it and will definetely be making it again. MacDuff, thank you so much for picking this recipe!!

You should check out our site, it has had a makeover thanks to the very creative Leanne of Enjoying My Favourite Things who designed the badge above and the very talented Holly of Phemomenon who designed the new header and the badge below. Thanks girls!!

P.S. Only one hour left to participate in my Sinterklaas Giveaway!!!

Mexican Chicken Tortilla Soup

The weather is turning colder and more autumn-like here, leaves are starting to fall the trees and every day it gets dark earlier... For me this means it's time for more wintery meals, like a nicely filled, hearty and spicy soup. Browing around I found this recipe for a Mexican Chicken Tortilla Soup at For the love of cooking, ofcourse I adapted it a bit and only made half, but that was still more than enough for 3 big bowls of soup.


Shredded Chicken
1 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of any fat
1,5 cups of chicken broth or water
1,5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp sweet yellow onion, diced finely (I used red onion, cause that's what I had)
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp oregano
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients and gently boil for 20 minutes. Let the chicken breasts cool then shred with two forks.

Soup
1 tsp olive oil
1 cups of onion, diced
1/2 cup of celery, diced
1 cups of carrots, diced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped (more if you want it really spicy)
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 1/4 quarts of chicken stock
1 400 gr (14 oz) can of crushed tomatoes
1 300 gr (10 oz) can of corn
1/2 tsp of cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander seed
sea salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
1/4 a cup of fresh cilantro, chopped (divided)
3 fresh white corn tortillas

Heat the olive oil in a dutch oven over medium heat. Once hot, add onions and sauté until tender. Add the garlic and stir constantly for 60 seconds. Add the carrots, celery, jalapeno, tomatoes, corn, broth, cumin, coriander, sea salt and pepper to taste and 1/8 cup of cilantro.

Cut the 3 corn tortillas in half, then cut them crosswise into 1/2 inch strips and add to the soup. Bring the soup to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes or until the vegetables are soft and the corn tortillas have melted away. Add the chicken, taste and re season if needed.

Corn tortilla strips
2 corn tortillas
olive oil
Sea salt
Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius (400 F). Grease the baking sheet with olive oil . Rub in a little olive oil on each side of all the tortillas & lay in a pile. Cut into thin strips & spread across the baking dish then season with sea salt. Bake in the oven until golden brown - watch them carefully because they burn easily. It usually takes about 3-5 minutes.

Additional Toppings
1 avocados
dicedCotija cheese, grated
fresh cilantro (remainder from above ingredients)

Ladle soup into large soup bowls. Add some avocado, tortilla strips, a sprinkle of cheese and cilantro. Enjoy!

I didn't care much for the soft strips of tortilla that went into the soup before cooking, they didn't disolve and stayed all soft, mushy and slimey. Probably I'll omit those next time. Just found out I used flour tortillas instead of corn tortillas, maybe that's where it went wrong??

I did however love the salted crispy tortillastrips on top of the soup, in combo with the spicyness of the soup and the softness of the avocado. Definetely will be making this again!