Oven roasted Chicken w/ home veggies & low fat gravy

Okay, so this recipie was inspired by one of my favorite places in Paris. It sits on a perfect corner on Rue Cler. It was called Cafe du Marche. My ex-husband and I would go here all of the time and I always had the same dish (and then ate half of his while he ate the other half of my favorite.) That way, if we hated the other dish- we knew we would be leaving happy with mine. It was so simple, roasted chicken, potatoes with a simple gravy/dressing and a small salad. But many of the best recipies are always the ones that use the simplest of fresh ingredients and prepare them well. No wonder I loved Paris, and all of France for that matter.


Anyway, this was a simple roasted chicken. I let Ruben wash it up inside and out while I got the veggies ready. Just a few cut baby potatoes, sliced carrot, white onion and garlic. I threw in a little water so I had pleanty of gravy. A little salt, pepper and Pappy's and we were on our way.

We let it cook up for and hour and a half and it was perfect. I could have taken out all the chicken and veggies and then thickened the gravy... but no thanks. That is just another dish and I was set. I did not even really make a full salad, just a little lettuce and it added a great crispness to the meal. It was great. We ate a little for lunch and a little more for dinner and then we are making tacos tomarrow.

The kids loved it, I loved it, it used very few dishes and it is a usefull leftover. That is one of my favorite meals ever.

Spaghetti with Bolognese Sauce- loaded with vegetables

Now, ever since I have found wheat pasta at the supers here in town- we make noodles with marinara or bolognese at least once if not twice a week. We love it especially because of how many vegetables we have in the sauce but for how easy it is to reheat the next day or use in a new way. We love making french bread pizzas the next day!

Anyway. Another reason I love this recipe is because I hardly have to chop anything at all. With my hands in as bad of shape as they are I have come to LOVE and rely on my mini-chopper. First thing in is 1/2 to a whole clove of garlic- Once chopped I put a little a container with some butter to melt, the rest goes onto a little plate, next, the onion followed bell pepper.

I heat up a little oil in my skillet and and throw those all in with some salt, pepper and Pappy's. While those are getting soft and mixing together I blend up a head broccoli florets and then 3 carrots, I usually do not peel my carrots, just wash them up really well. and put those on the little plate.

After the onions, garlic and pepper are soft add the ground beef, you could ground turkey or chicken but I have not tried that yet. Once the meat is pretty cooked, add the broccoli and carrots and mix together. If I had celery or squash I would have added it here.

Then mini chop some tomatoes and throw those in with some tomato paste. At this point I usually add some cinnamon, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes and 1/2 a chopped jalapeno.

For the bread, we just mix the garlic into the butter and let it stand at room temp for a few minutes (here it melts within minutes) Cut the bread length wise, butter and grill until golden.

We usually serve it with a simple salad and save any leftover salad for salad or sandwiches the next day.

I love this meal. And the kids love it and there is almost no limit to what you can do with it. I love having extra sauce to make french bread or bagel pizzas or lazagna. And now with the whole wheat pasta I do not feel nearly so bad.

Grapefruit Grouper

Well, I had some grapefruits to use so I started poking around online looking for recipies that would work for a grapefruit sauce on grouper fillets. I found some recipes for bbq grouper with sweet and sour grapefruit sauce so I figured it must work flavor wise. So then I started looking at some grapefruit sauce recipes in various areas. I took some ideas from a bunch of them and made this lunch. It was grouper in a grapefruit and ginger sauce, brown rice and steamed broccoli.

For the rice and broccoli is never occurs to me to us my double pot steamer. This time I remembered. I put my water for my rice on the bottom and the broccoli on the top and added the rice half way through. Though next time I will not add the pot with broccoli until my rice is already in. I just like my broccoli a little crispy.


*** One good idea to get your kids to eat veggies it to steam the veggies for the whole time that the rice is boiling and cooking and then mash the veggies into the rice. Sometimes I will add a little butter and garlic at the end. But my kids do not pick out the veggies then***

For the sauce I threw some red onion, a little garlic butter I had left, grated ginger (a little goes a long way) and some grapefruit segments and the juice and some water. I let those flavors simmer together while I got the other stuff ready. It did not take long for the sauce to start smelling really good. If I had a chili I would have thrown it in too but I did not.

The sauce turned this nice muted orange color and was smelling fantastic. I added the grouper which I seasoned with salt and pepper and left them alone for several minutes on each side, flipping once.

We plated them up and used up all of the sauce. Ours had a little too much ginger in it but it was still good. It was a very healthy and tasty lunch. And if this is not the ultimate test... my 4 year old ate every bite of broccoli florets, brown rice and grouper with grapefruit sauce. That is quite a victory for me.

Lena thought the fish was a little funny tasting. I think it was the ginger. This is one of the first times I have ever really used ginger. They had it at the store and Ruben loves it so... Hey, you try you learn.

One pot veggies and brown rice or No broth veggie soup

This is a one pot version of a dish that I made all the time. A simple mixture of veggies much like I would make chicken with vegetable soup or vegetable soup.


I started by sauteing white and red onion, yellow bell pepper and garlic after a little while I added a few hand fulls of brown rice and let it brown on all sides. I am not sure why you do this but I have seen it in a few recipes so... why not,

Then I added a bunch of water and a little chicken bullion and Pappy's. Once it started to boil I added my carrots, broccoli and chaote.


At this point I could pretty much leave it alone and let it just cook and stir occasionally.

This was a very tasty meal for the kids and I.

Stuffed Red Snapper, Corn pudding and Zucchini pudding

Torta de Elote (corn pudding) Budin de Calabcaita (zucchini pudding) with Stuffed Red Snapper. My authentic Mexican dishes for our Cinco de Mayo celebration.

This recipe was first inspired by the fact that Ruben was working in the morning and was going to be home for dinner. And it was Cinco de Mayo so I wanted to make something nice. Red Snapper is one of Ruben's favorite, it is very traditionally Mexican (especially here on the Caribbean) and I was literally walking right by the pescaderia. I picked out my fish and they cleaned it up and slit it for me. he asked me how I was going to cook it so we could decide if I wanted the head and tail or just the fillet. He said that I should stuff it. Sounds good to me.

In the cookbook, Mexico, The Beautiful Cookbook with recipes by Susanna Palazuelos, that was recently given to me as a gift I found 2 recipes that used things that I had in the house and I thought would go nicely.

The first was Torta de Elote (corn pudding)- This consisted of 8 cups of corn (I only had 4 - oh well)3/4 butter, 2 teaspoons baking powder,& 1/4 teaspoon of salt although I added some cinnamon and sugar to make more of a sweet pudding and it was really wet so I added maybe 3/4 cup of flour.

After blending the corn in my trusty mini chopper, I mixed with the remaining ingredients and put into my baking dish.

Next I made Budin de Calabcaita (zucchini pudding) The recipe for this originally called for white cheddar cheese but we do not have an abundance of cheese here so I used a yellow cheddar like cheese- I have no idea what it is called.


4 cups zucchini, boiled-drained-mashed, add 1 cup shredded cheese, 1 beaten egg, 1 cup crushed soda crackers, 1/2 cup butter and salt and pepper. I did not have individual ramekins so I used a muffin tin- they still had to be scooped onto the plate and did not hold a form. Ramekins would have been better/prettier.

I then stuffed the red snapper with garlic, sliced onion, red peppers & zucchini with salt, pepper and Pappy's. I also seasoned the outside of the fish on both sides.


For the kids I put some onions, red peppers and garlic on the baking sheet and laid the fillet of grouper I had gotten for them on top. I then sprinkled both fish with lime juice.



After cooking the corn pudding for 30 min I let it stand while I baked the fish and zucchini for 20 minutes.


The food was great. The kids loved every bite of the food and Ruben and I were thrilled with our dinners to. Dessert was also perfect at simple vanilla ice cream, fresh cut mango and cajeta sauce.

Penne with bacon wrapped Shrimp w/tomato, garlic white wine sauce

This dish was absolutely amazing. My girlfriend Jessica had recently watched an episode of Rachel Ray where they made this sort of dish and she could not wait to try it out. We did not need much. Just some garlic, onion - white and red, white wine, tomatoes (in Rachel ray they used cherry tomatoes- but the store did not have them) white wine, some bacon and some shrimp. We would have used the larger shrimp but the cocktail shrimp was all that was at this particular super.

We used spices like salt, pepper, oregano, Italian seasoning, Pappy's (obviously)and fresh from my garden we used basil- which is growing great here - and parsley.


This dish only used 2 pots which I love and the kids asked for seconds. The only thing that would make this a 100% guilt free meal is whole wheat pasta but I have not found that yet.

The first part is the only pain in the butt. You trim all or most of the fat from the bacon and wrap each piece of shrimp. . Again, we would have rather used larger shrimp but the pescaderia was not open. So we had to settle for cocktail shrimp but it was still bomb.


Fry the bacon wrapped shrimp until a little crispy in a large saute pan. Once they are brown on all sides transfer to a dish to drain. In the same pan saute onion, red onion, garlic, and tomatoes. We used 1 whole red onion, 1 small white onion, 1 small head of garlic, and 8 or so tomatoes. In the Rachel Ray one they used the little cherry ones and put them in and let them burst open. We seasoned with salt, pepper, oregano, italian seasoning & Pappy's. I went the my little herb pots ad grabbed a bunch of basil leaves and parsley leaves and threw them in at the last minute.


This dish was so good. It was the perfect dish to end what has been an amazing day. And this dish cost only 200 pesos and we bought every ingredient. And we have a ton for lunch tomorrow and were able to drink 2 glasses of wine with the rest of the bottle. PERFECT!!!! It was so good.

Tortilla Soup

Okay, there is this one place in Playa del Carmen that has wonderful tortilla soup. It is very creamy and warms you up. We had it the other day and I have been craving it ever since. I looked up a few recipes and sort of combined some and made adjustments.
Today at the fruteria we got the stuff we needed and a bunch of fruit I have never had. We are going to branch out and try new things. For breakfast I am planning on making some sort of tropical fruit and plantain crepe situation.

But tonight it was tortilla soup. Since the pain in my hands teeters between awful and absolutely unbearable, I use my mini chopper all the time. For just about everything. So in went my onion, red bell pepper, garlic and jalapeno. I threw that in some oil to soften.


I chopped up 2 tomatoes, -(next time I will use more) and threw those in too. I added some cumin and a little salt and pepper.

After about 3-4 minutes I added some chicken stock. I had made some chicken soup from scratch the other day and had set this aside. I let it boil for a and cook down.

In another saute pan I heated some oil and fried some tortilla strips. While they were draining on a towel I threw on a little salt and pappy's seasoning.

To plate the soup I put a little handful of tortilla strips, spooned some soup, added some chopped avocado, a squeeze of lime and some fresh cilantro (from my garden!!! YEAH!!!)
*** If I would have had queso fresco I would have put that on top- possibly crema as well (Mexican sour cream) But we did not. Chicken would have been really good in this too***

The kids loved this soup as well. I want to eat the last of it but I know that Ruben will want to have some of this when he gets home from work.

Ruben had a good idea... he said that he would blend it with some tortillas and then put a few strips for garnish. This would make it easy to reheat as well.

Spaghetti W/ lots of vegetables

Okay so we have had some interesting things going lately. First we tried to make home made tortellini. The Gorgonzola sauce was great but the pasta did not turn out well. But it was fun to make anyway. But since it is one of my favorite dishes I am going to make it again for Valentines day but without making my own pasta.

So today I making some meat sauce that I planned to make a few meals out of - (lasagna, spaghetti, and strata) I grabbed my little mini chopper which I just LOVE. As I am rapidly losing the battles with my hands I have come very dependant on this little device. Plus it gets all of veggies so my kids can't pick them out.

Today I was thrown a curve ball, right in the middle of sauteing my onions and garlic my gas stove dies. We ran out of gas. We have to wait for the gas truck to cruise by in the morning with the little jingle and then they take the tank and bring it back the next day. So right at that point I switched my little hotplate that we used when we first moved here. Thanks goodness. I do need to be careful because I get electrocuted often. but oh well.

So I mini chopped a bunch of random vegetables. Onion, garlic, celery, carrot, broccoli, chanote, tomatoes, asparagus, used a little chicken stock when needed for the veggies. I added some seasoning-(salt, pepper, oregano, italian seasoning, cinnamon, and Pappy's)


Before the veggies I cooked up the ground beef that I had gotten at the carcinera that day. I cooked that with the same seasonings as above as well as some garlic and onion powder.

I threw the beef in with the veggies and added the can of tomato sauce. It turned out very good and is very full of a ton of vegetables. I get my kids to eat a lot of vegetables.


I was going to make a lasagna to cook later and prep a strata to cook another day. But since the oven cannot be used I just left it in the saute pan to reheat for a whole lot of superheat. But that is okay.

Chicken stir fry

This recipe was soooo easy and tasted sooooooo good. First we had our chicken cut into bite size pieces, chopped onion, garlic, carrots and broccoli. In a small sauce pan we had some water, chicken bouillon and made some simple white rice. I would have made whole wheat rice but do not have any.

In a large saute pan we heated a little oil, garlic, onion, salt, pepper and Pappy's. Then add the chicken seasoned with salt, pepper, Pappy's and a little Mexican oregano. After the chicken was well on its way we added the carrots.
I like my veggies a little on the crisp side and my broccoli especially so I waited to add that. My mom gave me a huge bottle of Thai sweet chili sauce so I put some of that in as well. The pan was a little dry so I threw in a little water.

the end result was great. The chicken and veggies had so much flavor that even the kids did not eat too much rice. This was a hit and we will definitely be making it again.


We also made a bunch of home made OJ. We bought a HUGE bag of oranges for 40 pesos and so we have been loving that. Nothing like fresh squeezed OJ.

Spaghetti with Chorizo Meat Sauce & Chorizo and Veggie Strata

Okay, so we are going to see what we can get out of these 300 pesos. Part of my whole goal is enjoy the process of preparing food and well, shit... I have nothing else to do! So I might as well take my time. My hands go through spells of severe pain so 1 of them is usually performing at about 30% its normal ability. And when you consider that the doctors gave up on me after loosing 25% of the ability that I used to have in the first place, the hand that is having a bad day pretty much helps the potato not to roll.

Having said that, there are a few things that I have come to really appreciate in a kitchen. The first 1 is a good set of knives, cutting boards and my mini chopper. I love that mini chopper. Plus it is a perfect way to make veggies small enough that the kids cannot pick them out.

So here is a recipe that actually makes 2 meals. The first is great pasta with meat sauce and the 2nd is a great strata for a hot cooked breakfast with NO effort.

This is actually a combination meal with a girlfriend of mine. I make this chorizo pasta dish a lot for my family and then she showed me a great recipe for the next day. It is amazing.

So with my chopped onion, garlic, 1 carrot, 1 large chunk of calabasa, large handful of broccoli florets, 6 chopped tomatoes, some chopped green pepper and 1 lb chorizo we were off to cook. This is what I got at the tienda that day but you can use just about any veggies that you have.

Simply sauté all veggies, add chorizo and season to taste with anything you have or want (I always use salt, pepper, Pappy's and cinnamon) and serve over spaghetti or other pasta and garlic bread. For my garlic bread I just mini-chopper some garlic- let stand with butter and melt, spread over bread and toast.

And there is meal #1. For the 2nd meal.... read the strata recipe.

With the 2nd roll, layer bread (this recipe can be done with old stale bread as a way to use it up) and chorizo sauce and cheese (if you want) into a casserole dish. In the picture is one of my oven proof pots, I do not yet have a casserole dish. Bread, sauce, cheese, bread, sauce, cheese, bread sauce cheese, bread. End with a layer of bread on top and pat down lightly. Then beat up a couple eggs and some milk, salt and pepper and pour evenly over the bread layers.

Cover the strata and leave in the fridge over night. In the morning, start the coffee and bake at 350 or so for an hour or so and you have a hot yummy breakfast. This is so filling and substantial that it can also be made for a dinner dish served with salad instead of fruit.