Chicken Gumbo

This recipe was SO good! It was perfect for a chilly and rainy Monday night. The only thing that I didn't like about this recipe was that it did take a while to cook (about an hour - 40 mins. prep, 20 mins. simmering). But I'm sure that if I were to cook it again it would be faster because I probably could have saved some time if I had cooked things in a different order.

This recipe came from The Perfect Recipe for Losing Weight and Eating Great by Pam Anderson. Originally it was chicken and shrimp gumbo, but I decided not to use shrimp because seafood is a little too expensive for my food budget right now. Honestly, thinking about how good it was and what kind of flavor it was, I think it wouldn't have been as good with the shrimp and I'm definitely glad that I chose not to put some in.

For my ingredients, I used two 14 fl.oz. Shaws brand chicken broth and 1/2 of a 28 oz. can of Shaws brand diced tomatoes. The original recipe called for okra, but I used about 3/4ths of a box of Shaws brand frozen spinach instead. For the chicken, I used 4 links of chicken sausage from Shaws and cut it into small pieces (hard to do because it wasn't a very firm sausage), then sautéed it in a pan with vegetable oil and garlic before putting it in the soup kettle to simmer. I bought an onion and the garlic from PriceRite. The recipe originally called for only one carb for the soup (it gave a list of carbs to choose from to add to each recipe), but instead I did half rice and half pasta. I got 5-minute rice and miniature shells pasta from PriceRite also.

The hardest part of the recipe was actually cutting up the onion. I guess I didn't really know how to dice a whole onion and it was really hard and took forever. Most of the blame should go to the knife I was using because the knives where I'm living aren't the sharpest, but I'm definitely going to look up the correct way to dice an onion next time a recipe calls for that.

And, yes, my soup in the picture is in a tupperware container. This is because, for some reason, the house I'm living in doesn't have bowls. I'm not sure why, but it means that I frequently have to use my tupperware for bowls. And, yes, I realize how "poor college student" this is of me... but, hey, it's the name of my blog, I mind as well live up to it.

What I Learned: DO NOT under ANY circumstances attempt to simmer oil in a kettle with the cover on. This WILL result in a fairly large fire and putting it out with water WILL fill the entire bottom floor of your house with a generous amount of smoke which probably would have set off the fire alarm if most of the windows hadn't been open at the time. Trust me.

Shrimp and Sausage Gumbo

The Perfect Recipe pg. 114

Ingredients: 1 quart chicken broth
Can (14.5 oz.) of petite diced tomatoes
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 medium-large onion, cut into medium dice
6 oz. chicken sausage, sliced thin
6 oz. medium peeled and de-veined shrimp, halved lengthwise
1 celery stalk cut into small dice
6 oz. frozen spinach
1/4 cup long-grain white rice
1 medium yellow bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into medium dice
Directions: 1. Microwave broth and tomatoes in a 2-quart Pyrex measuring cup or similar-sized microwave-safe container on high power until steamy hot (about 5 minutes).
2. Meanwhile, heat oil in a Dutch oven or small soup kettle over medium-high heat.
3. Add onion and sauté until soft and golden brown, about 5 minutes.
4. Add chicken, vegetables, and rice, along with hot broth mixture. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to low, and simmer, partially covered, until vegetables are tender and flavors have blended, about 20 minutes.
5. Turn off heat. Stir in shrimp.
6. Cover and let stand to allow flavors to blend, about 5 minutes. Serve.