The Celebration of Camouflage

2014 (and Austin) in the rear view with a photo-bomb
by our son

Welcome, 2015. I have to admit, the end of 2014 was a little exhausting and let’s just say that my normal healthy eating habits checked out for the entire month of December. Ok, maybe they started burning out sometime in November.

Now that you’re here, 2015, I have to make a few confessions and commitments before we can start our year-long relationship. I will probably have more than my fair share of French fries, butter, chocolate and wine this year but my mantra will be “everything in moderation.” My focus will be on healthy eating rather than yo-yo and what’s-the-latest-fad dieting. I will push my kids to eat more fruit rather than combinations of starch and cheese for snacks. I will put more vegetables on our dinner table but they will be hidden from my children. And that’s one of my confessions.

Several posts ago, I talked about how I use food to motivatemy children. The truth is, I also sneakily camouflage vegetables in dishes that they love. My kids have a psychic ability to sense a vegetable with their headphones on, playing on the computer and before the dish hits the dinner table. I found the key to successfully sneaking veggies is to be sure that the color of the vegetable matches the main dish and the flavor profile of the hidden food is complimentary or neutral to the main dish.  The mac and cheese with cauliflower puree – huge bomb. The color worked but the taste profile of the cauliflower overpowered the mac and cheese. But, add broccoli or carrots to a red sauce and blend it all together and serve it with pasta, or chocolate bread made with zucchini or a verde sauce with spinach – all successful. 

Which leads to another confession … when the kids eat their veggies and don’t know it, I always smile sweetly in their direction while my inner voice roars “hahahahahaha” in an evil laugh kind of way.

Chicken verde stew with condiments

Chicken Verde Stew with Secret Spinach and brown rice

Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 6 garlic cloves
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 jalapeno
• 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast or combination of chicken breast and boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 3 cups tomatillo verde sauce such as Herdez
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder (take this out if your family isn't into spicy)
• ¼ cup cilantro
• Juice of ½ roasted or regular lime*
• 1 to 2 cups baby leaf spinach
• Brown rice, cooked and to be served with stew

Chopped cilantro

To serve with stew as condiments:

• 1 avocado, diced and stirred with juice of ½ a lime
• Chopped cilantro
• Shredded Monterrey Jack and/or cheddar cheese

What to do:

1. Finely chop garlic, dice onion and red bell pepper.
2. Slice jalapeno in half and take out seeds and dice. If you want more spice, keep seeds and dice.
3. Cut chicken into bite-sized cubes.
4. Heat oil in pan and add garlic, onion, red bell pepper and jalapeno. Let cook for 3-5 minutes until onions turn a little translucent.
5. Add chicken and let cook until pieces are just cooked through. If slightly pink, that’s ok too.
6. Place mixture from pan into a crock pot.
7. Add chicken stock, verde sauce, spices, ¼ cup of cilantro, lime* and stir ingredients until blended.
8. Set crock pot on high for 2 hours.**
9. About 30 minutes before the timer on the crock pot goes off, add the spinach and stir. I recommend you chiffonade the spinach before adding it (so the kids don’t see a huge leaf). To chiffonade, you just cut the spinach into long, thin strips. If you don't think you'll remember to do this, you can add the spinach along with the verde sauce, spices, etc. 

Serving:
Serve with brown rice at the bottom of the bowl and ladle some of the stew on top. I put all of the condiments at the table and let people dress the stew as they wished. 

A few notes:
Making home-made salsa verde isn't hard at all - it just requires an oven and blender. You roast the tomatillos (with the paper skin removed), jalapeno and onion in the oven until browned then blend it all up. Since I didn't have time to do my own (or the ingredients), I used the Herdez salsa verde which is one of my favorites. On a total side note, you can blend the Herdez with an avocado, about a 1/4 cup of chopped cilantro a little lime, salt and pepper and it makes an amazing dip or sauce for tacos, eggs and just about everything in between. 

* To roast or grill a lime, just cut a whole lime in half and slightly salt each side on the pulp side. Place the pulp side down on a grill pan or barbeque until the dark grill lines appear. You can use a regular lime as well. 

** I only had 2 hours before dinner and the stew turned out great. But, I think it could have gone an hour longer and still been as good with the flavors mellowed a bit.