Slow cooker Chicken and Tomatoes

Since I got a crock pot for Christmas this year I felt I should break in my fabulous new gadget with a homemade recipe. My boyfriend and I were really in the mood for something light and full of vegetables after all the carbs we had eaten over the holiday, so I wanted to to create something that would be comforting and warm without a lot of guilt. I love love love tomatoes and somehow incorporate them into almost anything and hand fulls of kale just brighten any dish for me. 

Slow cooker Chicken and Tomatoes

Created by Monique Avard

Ingredients:

1 pound or so of boneless chicken thighs (if you're not afraid of bone in, it adds considerable amounts of flavor but definitely makes consumption more challenging)

1 box or so of quality chicken or vegetable broth (I used vegetable broth for this one)

1 Jar of whole, diced, or crushed tomatoes. (I used Muir Glen fire roasted diced tomatoes and I didn't drain them)

1 can of your favorite white beans (you could really use any bean but I think chicken and white beans belong together)

5 to 7 cups of chopped, washed kale

1 chopped large sweet or yellow onion

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tbs parsley (fresh or dry)

2 tbs fresh chopped basil

1/2 cup white wine

1 tsp white vinegar

1 tbs vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Grease the bottom of the crock pot with vegetable oil and place chicken thighs on the bottom. 

2. Sprinkle salt, pepper, parsley, and basil over chicken evenly. 

3. Cover with chopped onion, tomatoes, beans (rinsed and drained), and chopped kale. Remember that kale wilts as it cooks so you might have to start with only a few cups of kale and add more as it cooks down.

4. Add white wine and vinegar. Then add enough broth to cover the chicken and vegetables, I have a 4 quart crock pot so the entire box didn't fit. That's ok! :)  The more broth you add, the more it becomes a soup, so add as much as you prefer. 

5. Set crock pot to high and cook for 2 hours or until chicken has reached 140 degrees, then turned temperature down to low and cook for another 2 or 3 hours until chicken has passed 165 degrees and is beginning to fall apart.

6. Consume with glee

Feeds 4 to 5 people of moderate appetite 

Rain Drops

Rain Drops

by Monique Avard

Molecules of condensation

Fall to earth

Thrown down

From angry clouds.

Water twisting as it

Is propelled to the ground,

Pummeling the planet

Like irritated rockets

Of furry.

Each drop is heavy

With torment and acid;

Hopeful to fall upon

The evidence of children’s play.

Or another day,

Fat drops lazily descend

From fluffy, gray masses.

With no pressure,

The content drops drip.

Each twirls within itself

And falls like a tear,

Warm and slow.

It slides down the side of a tree,

No where specific in mind to go.

Then each drop shatters,

And are no more.

Out On The Street

Out On The Street

by Monique Avard

Out on the street; nowhere to go,

Never thought she’d be abandoned so.

She wishes she could afford a train,

But in this dark alley she’ll remain.

In despair, her head hangs low,

Soon to have a kid in tow.

She was labeled and kicked out of school: the hoe.

But from defending herself, she refrained.

Out on the street.

Every door closed: each slammed “no”.

If only she could let them know. . .

Maybe their scorn for her would wane.

People judge and ignore her pain.

The night grows dark and she’s alone

Out on the street.

Memory

Memory

By Monique Avard

A found poem from Understanding Psychology 8^th Edition by Robert S. Feldman pg 219-221

You are trivial

And winning the game.

Comes down to one question,

You rack your brain.

Fundamental processes come into play,

Unable to recall,

Failure to retain.

A momentary flash of lightening,

A twig snapping,

The sting of a pinprick,

Echoic –

Less than a second.

Sensory, sensory, sensory.

Presentation, pattern, progressively,

This decline

Could not be recalled at all –

Less than a second.

A snapshot

Destroyed –

And replaced with a new one.

FALLING

FALLING

 by Monique Avard

Take one step off the giant cliff in front of you,

descend, let your stomach come up

into your throat, trust the air

around you, don’t be afraid

its only falling, you don’t

have to worry about

what will happen

the moment

your body

hits the

ground.

China Doll

By Monique Avard

Sitting on a shelf

Legs dangling off the side

Sand pouring

O

U

T

 from a hole in the sole.

Empty.

Just a fragile shell,

Just porcelain.

Dry.

Thin strands of hair splitting.

Paint flaking

                        O

F

F

                                                            from a ghostly complexion.

Lonely.

Just a brittle exterior,

Just porcelain.

Just porcelain

A touch tips it.

Its delicate balance broken,

It shatters upon the ground.

Just pieces.

Morning Bird

Morning Bird  by Monique Avard

The soft sway of a branch bending

Beneath the feet of a sparrow,

Sounding the morning

With its tweeting

A shrill whistle.

Another bird

Chirp chirp chirping.

The sun rises to their tune,

Flies away

And the branches swoon

From the wind that whoosh

At the flap of their wings.

And the bird sings

As it passes overhead,

Its song soothing, a noise

Of natures lyrics sung

In sweet sweeing.