Chicken and Cilantro Soup

I love El Pollo Inka. It's Peruvian restaurant in LA (there are four locations) and has been a favorite of both Monkey and myself since high school. If you go at lunch, they give you a bowl of the most delicious chicken and rice soup to accompany your meal. Luckily this recipe has been posted on their website (thank you Monkey for finding it).

On Sunday, I finally got around to making it, using the homemade chicken stock I made last week. YUM. Exactly as it is in the restaurant and oh so easy to make. For added convenience, I used frozen veggies instead of cutting up my own green beans, corn, and carrots, as I suspect the restaurant probably does as well. With extra lime juice, this soup is ridiculously addicting. I ate a huge bowl yesterday, another huge bowl for lunch, and will be eating another bowl tomorrow.


Peruvian Aguadito de Pollo (Chicken and Cilantro Soup)
Yields: 6-8 servings

1 whole chicken (2lbs) cut into 8 pieces
2 medium peeled potatoes, diced (6 pieces each)
6 T rice, washed and strained
1 celery stalk
1 T fresh chopped garlic
1 T salt or to taste
8 C water
1 bunch cilantro blended in a 1/2 cup of water
1/4 C green beans - cut into 1 inch pieces
1 carrot - cut into small dices
1/4 C corn kernels
1/4 C green peas,
2 limes cut into 4 pieces

Place water with chicken, potatoes, rice, celery and garlic into a medium pot and bring to boil over heat; once boiling, reduce to medium heat for 20-30 minutes (or until chicken is tender) occasionally stirring.

Add the cilantro mixture, green beans, carrot, corn and green peas.
Remove the celery stalk and chicken. Discard the celery. Separate the chicken from the bones and shred into chunks. Place back into the pot.

Let simmer for 5 more minutes and add salt to taste.
Serve hot with a piece of lime on the side to be squirted when eaten.

When Badge is Away...

...the Bunny shall play!! And by "play", I mean "eat all sorts of junk food normally prohibited by Gestapo Badge".

Badge left this morning for NY, to return Friday night. For dinner, I debated getting chicken mcnuggets or pizza hut buffalo wings. In the end, mcnuggets won out. I haven't eaten McDonald's in 3-4 years so I think this little lapse is perfectly ok :). Once again, I blame the baby. Yeees...the baby made me do it...

Chicken with Olives and Feta Cheese

Last night was a near disaster. I was planning to make Ina Garten's Indonesian Ginger Chicken but then realized after yoga class, that I was supposed to marinade it overnight. Doh! Panicked, I scoured my recipe book and stumbled upon this oldie but goodie from Monkey.

Easy...check.
Tasty...check.
Fast...check.

Unfortunately, I didn't have all the ingredients but I was sold on the dish so I hustled my butt over to Von's. While there, I couldn't help picking up a big bag of Stacy's cinnamon sugar pita chips and flaming hot cheetos (I blame the baby).

Once home, there was a flurry of cooking resulting in a delicious and filling meal. Definitely worth making when it's so cold out (cold by SD standards).

Chicken with Olives and Feta Cheese
Courtesy of Monkey

2 lbs chicken thighs with skin and bones
1 tbs olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes in juice
3/4 cup kalamata olives, pitted, sliced
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 1/2 tbs chopped fresh oregano or 2 tsp dried
2/3 cup crumbled feta cheese

Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and saute until brown, about 4 min per side. Transfer chicken to plate. Pour off all but 2 tbs drippings from skillet.

Add onion to drippings in skillet. Suate over medium heat 3 min. Add garlic and stir until fragrant, about 1 min. Add tomatoes with juices, olives, wine and oregano. Return chickena nd any accumulated juices to sauce, bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until chicken is tender and cooked through, about 25 min.

Transfer chicken and sauce to platter. Sprinkle with feta cheese and serve. Great served with orzo.

The Jig is Up

Well, it's time to come clean...I'm pregnant!

Badge and I have a bun in the oven. We first found out over Christmas break when I missed my period (which was a shocker because I was absolutely convinced I was going to get it). Had I know I was pregnant, I might not have gotten quite so obliterated at Kimbo's holiday party just weeks before. Oops.


But there it was, the plus sign. After taking the test, Monkey, Ferret, and I examined the results quite meticulously. After some lengthy discussion, we three engineers reached the sound conclusion that yes indeed, I was pregnant. My mom of course was ecstatic. Later that week, we had dinner with Spike and Frog and surprised them with the good news.

Shortly afterward, I started getting nauseous and extremely tired. I guess the first trimester symptoms hit me early. At week 8, we went to my doctor's and had our first ultrasound where we saw our little peanut baby and it's heartbeat. Crazy!


Last week, we went back for our 12 week check up and preliminary screening. This time we could actually see the baby moving around in jerky puppet like movements.


I'm not starting to show yet but it has been quite uncomfortable to wear tight fitting clothes. At this point I just leave my pants unbuttoned and hope people don't think I'm a slob. Unfortunately, I've had to give up Atsuro's crazy yoga classes on the weekend and take up work yoga (more tame) again. Running has been non-existent. At best I do elliptical when I have the motivation to hit the gym. And of course I'm eating like a maniac.

My due date is August 30th. Commence baby obsessions!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! Badge left this morning for a 3 day Vegas trip for work, but not before leaving me this little Valentine's. How cute is he?? I was giggling like a schoolgirl when I found it after work.

With no one at home to chastise me, I immediately set out for a decadent In & Out meal: double double, fries, and strawberry shake. It's been over a year since I ate In & Out, and I consumed every last bite. It was delicious.


What else has been happening? My mom and Uncle Jamie came to visit this past weekend. They kindly cleaned my garden while I laid on my ass and finished reading The Gathering Storm. Yes, that would be the first in the 3 part finale to The Wheel of Time series. This series is the ultimate in nerdy fantasy books. Monkey got me hooked on it in high school. Since then there have been many books, each of them about 1,000 pages and crammed with complex plot lines. Sadly the original author passed away before he could finish the series but he had the ending partially written with lots and lots of notes. The new author seems to have picked it up quite seamlessly.

Otherwise, work is work. Last week, I was rather grumpy and irritable, all of which culminated on Friday. On that day, everyone and everything annoyed me to no end. Maybe I was just super tired and therefore had no patience. Whatever the reason, thank god for the weekend, that's all I have to say.

Steak and A1

I love A1 sauce. I mean really love A1 sauce. I'll eat it on anything.


Tonight, I made filet mignon with baby broccoli and sweet potato mash. The best part of making steak at home is that I get to smothered it in A1 sauce without facing the social stigma that's sure to be lurking at a fancy shmancy restaurant. For the mash, I used Japanese sweet potatoes which are super flavorful. And for dessert, we had cookies & cream ice cream.

Couch time.

Restaurant Review: The Mission

Alright, I'm back. I swear. No more lazy blogger.

Let's talk food.

Badge and I finally made it to the Mission (North Park) for brunch last weekend. It's been on my to-do list for oh 4-5 years now. There was a line but the wait was only 15 minutes so no big deal. Once seated, I had myself some sort of coffee float shake. It was exactly like a root beer float (complete with whipped cream) except it had iced coffee instead of soda. Strange but delicious.

Though there were many tempting things on the menu, I had to try the french toast since I had read amazing reviews about it on yelp.


This dish did not disappoint. It was absolutely amazing. Best french toast I've had in a loooong time. This iPhone pic really does not do it justice. As per usual, Badge and I over ordered. We both got the french toast PLUS a side of eggs and potatoes each. Check out large plate #2 below.


We left the restaurant stuffed and satisfied.

In fact, we were so satisfied that we decided to go back again yesterday. This time, I got the blueberry cornmeal pancakes of epic proportions and Badge got the chilaquiles. I washed my food down with a mocha milkshake mmmm. The pancakes were tasty but I couldn't help wishing I had gotten the french toast instead. The chilaquiles were ok, a bit bland. Thank goodness there was plenty of pancake for Badge to assist with.

Verdict: great brunch spot. I may need to go again next weekend.