Galinha Ensopada, Soupy Brazilian Chicken

Hope you all had a great Cinco de Mayo.  While you may be tired of Mexican food, hopefully you still have room for some Brazilian goodness.  My lightened up Brazilian Chicken Strognaoff recipe is one of the most viewed and searched for blog entries that I've done.  I wanted to take a stab at another Brazilian recipe and saw a picture of Galinha Ensopada and thought it looked delish! 

Galinha Ensopada (Soupy Brazilian Chicken)

1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp parprika
1 can plum or diced tomatoes
1 can hearts of palm, cut into bite size pieces
1/2 cup green olives
3 green onions
1/4 cup cilantro
2 cups chicken broth
2 lbs chicken (I used BSC Breast, but it would probably work great with thighs as well)
Olive oil
Flour

1.  Heat pan with olive oil and season the chicken breast with salt and pepper.  Gently dredge the chicken in flour, shaking off the excess.  Then sear chicken on both sides for a couple of minutes and remove from heat.  *Let's be honest, this probably would be best with chicken thighs (bone-in and with skin on), but since I'm trying to keep it light I used boneless skinless chicken breast.*

2.  Add onion, garlic, paprika and tomatoes to pan.  Once the onion has softened, add in chicken stock and bring to a boil.

3.  Slightly reduce heat and cover and let simmer for 20-25 minutes.  Add chicken back into the pot when there is 10 minutes left to go.  Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

4.  At the end add in hearts of palm and olives and cook for another 5 minutes on low.   

Garnish with green onions and cilantro.  This dish is traditionally served with polenta, but it would probably also be great over rice.  I served this with the slice and bake roll of polenta.  The Brazilian and I enjoyed this dish but both agreed that chicken thighs would have made it better since the breasts did feel a little dry.  I totally love the addition of hearts of palm and olives in this chicken dish, I may or may not have stolen some hears of palm off the Brazilians plate when he wasn't looking...  :)

Protein Acai Bowl

Acai Bowls are one of my most favorite breakfast treats or afternoon snacks.  If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you know I am obsessed with Acai Bowls.  By now I'm sure you have heard of Acai and it's wonderful health benefits.  This fruit which hails from Brazil, has gained a lot of popularity in the past several years.  During one of my trips home to Hawaii it seemed that the Acai Bowl had swept the island and this delicious treat was available everywhere.  One bite and I fell in love!  To the simple eye it might look like a simple parfait, but somehow it's so much more than that. 

One of my favorite places to get an Acai Bowl when I am home is at Blue Hawaii in Ala Moana Shopping Center.  I have yet to find an Acai Bowl as delicious as any that I've had in Hawaii, in a pinch I will go to Robeks or Jamba Juice to quench my Acai cravings.  That was until I discovered these Acai packets at Whole Foods and could make my own!  I've been playing around with adding Protein Powder into the mix and I love the results.  This is a breakfast that will keep you full till lunch. 

Acai Bowl at Blue Hawaii

Protein Acai Bowl

1/2 of an Acai Smoothie Pack
6 oz Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze (Or any other liquid you want to substitue)
1 scoop Banana/Vanilla Whey Protein Powder
1 cup frozen berries (I used strawberry and blueberry mix)
1 Tbsp Flaxseeds
Honey
Granola
Fresh Fruit (Sliced Banana, Strawberries, blueberries, etc)

1.  Run Acai smoothie pack under water for a couple of seconds.  Snap frozen pack in half, cut open and place half into blender. 

2.  Fill blender with almond milk, protein powder and berries and blend until a smooth consistency.  *You can add more liquid if you would like to turn this into a smoothie*

This pic has sliced banana's but I actually like it better without when adding Protein Powder

3.  Pour mixture into a bowl.  Top with a couple handfuls of granola, sliced bananas and berries.  *At this point if you wanted to add in additional nutrients like green tea powder, spriulina, noni juice, flaxseeds, etc layer it on to the Acai mixture* 
4.  Drizzle honey over entire mixture.  *The better the honey you have, the more awesome it tastes!  In Hawaii one of my favorite places uses locally grown Lehua Honey which kicks it up a notch*

The combinations for this are endless.  Yesterday I added some spinach into my Acai mixture and squeezed some lime over the mixture to give it some added freshness and tang.  Hope you give this a try, Acai Bowls are the new parfait!!  I really hope this gets more popular in LA, cause I would love to find a place like Blue Hawaii up here, for when I'm out and about.

Brazilian Chicken Stroganoff for the Brazilian

My boyfriend, the "Brazilian" is originally from Brazil, and often talks about how he misses the great food from there.  He is also my work out partner and the trainer put him on a healthy eating program as well.  However, the Brazilian is blessed with great metabolism, so his diet- while low fat, is focused on helping him put on weight/muscles.  Sadly he does not cook, but I thought I would surprise him and attempt to create a healthy version of Brazilian Chicken Stroganoff to eat over the long weekend. 

If you've never had Brazil's version of Stroganoff, they traditionally use a tomato base and a heavy cream which makes it dreamy... In Brazil this dish is typically served over rice and topped with crisp potato sticks (like Piknik stick chips).  This dish is so popular in Brazil that it's served in fast food chains, as a topping on pizza, baked potatoes and other creative creations. 

To lighten it up I nixed the heavy cream and substituted Greek yogurt.  (If you haven't jumped on the Greek yogurt bandwagon do so ASAP!)  Greek yogurt is great as it is super creamy, low in calories and packs in extra protein.  My three favorite brands to use are Fage, Chobani and the Trader Joe's 0% Fat.  My attempt below is a combination of 3 different recipes that I found online. 


Brazilian Chicken Stroganoff

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 onion minced

1 clove garlic minced
1 teaspoon salt

1 basket white mushrooms (sliced)

1 lb chicken cut into 1 inch cubes
1/2 cup fat free chicken stock

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons ketchup

3/4 cup Greek yogurt or non fat sour cream

1.  Put the chicken, garlic, spices and 1/2 the onion in a bowl and mix.  Let marinate for at least 1 hour. 

2.  Heat up olive oil in pan and add in the rest of the onion and mushrooms and saute until tender.  I ended up adding in a variety of dried mushrooms in as well, since I thought it would amp up the taste.

3.  Add in the chicken with marinade, let chicken start to brown.   Add 1/2 cup of chicken stock (I've seen some other recipes use cognac or wine, which I'm sure is yummy, but since we are trying to keep this healthy I went with the chicken stock) to make a thick sauce.  Cook for 5 minutes on medium heat or until chicken is done.  If mixture looks dry add in a splash more chicken stock. 

4.  When done mix Greek yogurt, mustard and ketchup in a bowl and add in to pan. Mix briefly and serve with potato sticks.

Notes: In hindsight I wouldn't cook this again in my cast iron pot, since it didn't provide a nice brown on the chicken.  I might also use the 2% Greek yogurt since the 0% seemed to separate a little (maybe due to the protein?), though the taste was fine.  Oooh an even better choice instead of the chicken broth + Greek yogurt might just be a low fat cream of mushroom soup! 

Served over brown rice with sauteed spinach

This dish is traditionally served with rice and maybe some Pan de Queso.  I ate it over brown rice and the Brazilian had it over some mashed potatoes (his healthy complex carbs).  Below is the instant mix to make Pan de Queso (cheesey breadballs) and the potato sticks I got from the Brazilian market by my house. 



Brazilian yumminess