Delicious Chicken Stew Recipe for a Chilly Day

chicken stew recipe with vegetables

I’d like to think I’d be craving ice cream by now, but with a nip still in the air, my go-to chicken stew recipe is on my mind. I love this stew at any time of year, especially when I’m hungry, but want a healthy option. This variation of Giada De Laurentiis’ Chicken Spezzatino is hearty, yet fresh and light at the same time. I recently shared the recipe with a friend and she gave it the thumbs up, so I thought you all might like it too.

While Giada uses split chicken breast on the bone (which I’ve done and it does add flavor) I opt for the easier alternative – boneless chicken breast and lots of it. I also prefer to use only white kidney beans (cannellini) vs. red. I think this adds to the lighter essence of the chicken stew which I favor. My final adaptation is that while the original recipe calls for ½ cup of fresh basil leaves. I load up with one, maybe even two cups. I just love the fresh basil taste and aroma.

Hear it goes…

Chicken Stew Recipe

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2-4 stalks celery, cut
  • 2 carrot, peeled and cut
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 1 28oz. chopped, crushed or diced tomatoes
  • 1 14.5oz. can low-salt vegetable broth
  • 1-2 cup fresh basil leaves (I leave them whole)
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
  • 2-3 boneless chicken breast
  • 1 can Cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
  • Salt and pepper to taste.

Directions

Warm oil in a pot. Add onion, celery and carrot until onions are translucent. Add salt, pepper and thyme.

 

Chicken Stew ingredients - sauteed onion, carrot, celery
Mirepoix – onion, carrot, celery

 

Add chicken breast and brown slightly.

 

Boneless chicken breast with chicken stew ingredients
Boneless chicken breast

 

Add tomato and chicken broth. Press chicken to submerge and bring to a boil. Add tomato paste (I skip this if I don’t have any in) and bay leaf. Lower heat to a simmer. Allow chicken to cook through until tender and breaks apart relatively easily with a fork. Once cooked through, remove chicken to slightly cool.

 

Chicken cooking in for chicken stew recipe
Cook chicken until tender

 

Add cannellini beans and basil to the broth.

 

Basil and white kidney beans - cannellini beans
Basil and beans

 

When chicken is cool enough to handle, break apart into bite size pieces and add back to the stew.

 

chicken stew recipe
Break chicken apart and add back in

 

Let all of the ingredients in the chicken stew simmer together for 10 minutes. Take off burner and let sit for 15 minutes before serving. Remove bay leaf. Great with rice or crusty bread, but also perfectly filling on its own.

Enjoy!

 

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Mind and Body Health: Making Exercise a Priority

exercise elliptical, stationary bike and schanuzer
Elliptical or bike? Neither – Oscar always comes first

 

Only one of the exercise options shown above has seen much activity lately. If you guessed the cute, fluffy one, you’re right.  Oscar demands a daily walk and I’m happy to accommodate. The problem is, if I walk him that’s one hour gone. If I then work out, that’s another hour, if not more, gone. I know we all have busy schedules and lately I’ve really been feeling that pain, both in my mind and body. I just have not had the time, energy or inclination to make exercise a priority. I’ll admit I’ve been bogged down with other obligations and I’m obsessed with this blog. I find it hard to focus on a good workout when I’m preoccupied. If I’m not up to giving 100% to a workout I tend to think, why bother? WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!

This is not news, we know this is wrong, but not until a recent bout of daily headaches did I realize what a toll this mentality had taken on my mind and body. I’m not a person who gets headaches, but this past week I could not shake a dull, nagging pain.  It was so draining and persistent, I thought it might be seasonal allergies. Headache aside, I decided to drag myself to my new fitness studio, FYFE Training (if you’re local, check out the spinning, tabata boxing and cross-conditioning classes). I’d been feeling guilty for not going because I felt my favorite instructor, Rory, would take note. I love Rory for her great classes and music, but also because she holds me accountable!

No sooner did I get moving, and Rory kicked my butt, did the headache disappear.

I was relieved, but also pretty mad at myself for reaching that point. I should have known that my sedentary ways had contributed to my fitness funk. From now on I follow Newton’s First Law of Motion- an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion. No more lazy-day headaches for me – I’m staying in motion.

What motivates you to stay active?

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Benefits of Drinking Water: Can You Have Too Much?

 

benefits of drinking water
glug, glug, glug

“Drink More Water,” They Say

In keeping with this week’s mission to get back on a healthy track, I’ve resumed a very on again, off again effort to drink more water.  For years we’ve heard the advice to down 64oz of H2O per day. I’ve tried it and at times I’ve succeeded.  I can even remember the first time I truly set my mind to this task, a friend randomly said, “Wow Beth, your skin is glowing, what are you doing?” Ooh, I thought, there really are benefits of water. Well, like any great idea, my marathon water drinking days phased out. Why? Well, in the first place the 100 times a day I had to run to the bathroom eventually became too much.  It was uncomfortable and disruptive.

But, I’m willing to try again despite the bathroom issue and the fact that drinking more water leaves me feeling constantly cold. My question is; do the benefits of drinking water outweigh the drawbacks? It’s said that most people don’t drink enough water. When Julia had a fainting spell recently, every doctor and nurse we encountered pushed that she needed to drink more water.  She’s an athlete, so that made sense – but I was surprised at how consistent the message was.  From the ER staff at Lawrence General to two cardiologists and every nurse we saw at Tuft’s Floating Hospital, they all emphasized that the benefits of drinking water are real. If they are all saying it, then it must be true, right?

Drinking Too Much Water?

Then I remembered a conversation I had with an acupuncturist I visited a couple of years ago. We talked about my general sense of wellness and ending up at water and health.  She had me stick my tongue out and proceeded to tell me I was waterlogged.  What? She said I’m probably drinking too much water and the “foggy head” I complained about was due, in part, to drinking too much water.  “Drink when you’re thirsty,” she said. She told me that while there definitely are benefits of drinking water, you have to listen to what your own body needs. And not every body is the same, so why should we all be drinking the same recommended amounts of water per day? I was intrigued by her comments and liked her Eastern medicine approach.

I stopped guzzling absurd amounts of water and, if I’m being honest, I didn’t see much difference, but I sure as heck enjoyed not having to run to the bathroom every 15 minutes.

Water Intake: Finding What Works for Me

So now what? To drink or not to drink? I’ve decided to employ my life motto – everything in moderation.  I’ll be cognizant of how much water I drink and be sure to drink enough to reap whatever benefits of drinking water that I can, but not so much that I feel like I could float away at any given moment. I do believe there is a correlation between water and health, I’m just not sure how much water to drink for my body and my personal activity level.

Tip: When I know I could use a glass of the cool stuff, but I’m not in the mood, I throw in a splash of cranberry juice, a lime and a straw. Suddenly, it’s like sipping a cocktail.

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Healthy Eating Habits: Tips to Stay on Track

a step toward healthy eating habits
I don’t want to look!

Getting Back on Track

I hate saying “back on track,” yet I say it a lot. It’s my go-to phrase after too many weeks of poor eating and exercise avoidance the likes of a lazy sloth. I allow myself to reach a point of personal disgust when I finally say, enough! Tomorrow I’ll get back on track (it’s always a Sunday, as if starting fresh on a Monday is really going to make a difference).  The thing is, I don’t want to get back on track; I want to stay on track. I want healthy eating to be the norm not the goal that always seems out of reach. Back in January my column, Matters of Life & Beth, I discussed my success with the Dukan Diet.  That was the last time things were going well as far as minor weight loss goes.

The Not-So-Sweet Side of Sugar

Now, here I am again trying to get my eating habits under control. And the truth is, I don’t need a diet, I just need to say no to everyday indulgences and get back to day to day healthy eating. This means eating in moderation, drinking a lot more water than I do and cutting back on processed and sugary foods. My biggest problem when it comes to a healthy diet is sweets – once I start, I can’t stop. Easter really did me in yesterday. Sugar is to me like alcohol is to an alcoholic… bad, bad news. The more sugar I have the more I crave, but it doesn’t end there. The sweet stuff makes me hungrier in general, which then leads to over eating on a bunch of other bad foods.

It’s as if the sugar goes directly to my brain shutting down all sensible thoughts about healthy eating.

I spoke with Samantha McCarthy, MS/RD, a registered dietician at my gym Cedardale Health & Fitness for some guidance, and here’s what she had to say:

“The problem with sugar is that it can be really addictive. Trying to cut sugar out or at least decreasing the amount in your diet can make a humongous impact.”

This includes artificial sweeteners because it’s not just table sugar, but the sugary taste that can lead to cravings. I didn’t realize that…good info.

Healthy Eating Tips to Stay on Track

Sam also suggests being mindful of what you’re eating and planning ahead. This is probably the biggest challenge for me, but if I can make it happen, I know I’ll be glad to get off the roller coaster of good and bad eating habits. Here are her top tips for maintaining your healthy eating habits:

  1. Don’t think of healthy eating as a diet, because if it’s a diet it’s temporary. It has to be part of your lifestyle.
  2. Cut back on the sugar – if you can do that you’ll be cutting out a lot of the junk in your life.
  3. Eat a lot of fruits and vegetables.
  4. Plan and prepare ahead of time.

Today, I’m back on track and my fingers are crossed that I stay here. Thank you Sam for the great advice.

Do you have any great diet tips or healthy eating ideas that help when living a healthy lifestyle? I’d love to hear them!

To book your own session with Samantha McCarthy, MS/RD, contact her by phone at 978-373-1596 or online at Cedardale-Health.net.

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