New Recipe Reviews – Hit and Miss

I made two new recipes last week: (1) One Pan Broccoli Cashew Chicken and (2) Creamy Vegan Gnocchi with Garlic and Kale. With all this extra time at home I figure I might as well try a few of the 900 meals on my Pinterest page that I haven’t gotten around to yet.

HIT

One Pan Broccoli Cashew Chicken

To be honest, I had made this one a few times before last week so I already knew how good it was but with a few minor adjustments I confirmed it needs to be a regular in the recipe rotation. Chris and Joey LOVED it, it’s super quick, healthy and a must try! The recipe just calls for broccoli but if you have extra veggies why not throw them in? The added carrots were delicious. Also, this last week I had extra chicken thighs so I made it with chicken thighs instead of chicken breast and it really was so much better. It’s funny – I NEVER used to cook/eat chicken thighs – but here we are cooking all the thighs!

Ingredients

• 2 boneless skinless organic chicken breast or thighs (trimmed of fat and cubed) – try the thighs!
• 2 tablespoons avocado oil
• 1″ chunk ginger, grated or finely minced (or the Gourmet Garden Ginger Paste I buy at QFC and like to keep on hand in fridge; the paste makes life so much easier)
• 5 fresh garlic cloves, finely minced (I recommend buying a large jar of minced garlic to keep in the fridge)
• 1 cup roasted cashews
• 2 cups broccoli florets and 2 cups cut carrots
• 1/2 cup bone broth (or regular broth)
• 1/4 cup coconut aminos
• 2 tablespoons honey

Instructions

1. Add healthy fat of choice like avocado oil to a pan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and ginger, stirring occasionally for 1 minute.
2. Add the chicken and season with sea salt, stirring occasionally for 3-4 minutes until there is no more pink in the chicken. Add the cashews, broccoli and carrots stirring occasionally for 1 minute.
3. Add the bone broth, coconut aminos and honey, stirring occasionally for 9 minutes or until the sauce has slightly thickened, the broccoli and carrots are tender and chicken is cooked through.
4. Remove from heat and allow to rest for a couple of minutes then serve immediately.
5. Eat as is or serve over brown rice, quinoa, or Trader Joe’s cauliflower fried rice!

Recipe adapted from Recipes to Nourish

MISS

Creamy Vegan Gnocchi with Garlic and Kale

Chris has an issue with any meal that has the word “vegan” in it so I knew it wasn’t going to fly as is. So, I added chicken sausage and swapped the regular Gnocchi for Trader Joe’s Cauliflower Gnocchi. Other than those changes, I followed the recipe and made the creamy garlic cashew “sauce” it calls for. I’d seen this idea of making a creamy pasta sauce out of cashews and had been wanting to try it! I thought it was okay; Chris had about three bites and with some prompting on my part said it was top 10 worst meals I’ve ever made. Ha! I will tell you I did not take a picture because it wasn’t remotely pretty like the recipe linked above. I make the Trader Joe’s Cauliflower Gnocchi and Kale Vegan Pesto all the time (with some meat of course) but I won’t be making this one again!