52 Countries in 52 Weeks

COLOMBIA

This year is going to be the most exciting year of our lives. We are having a little baby girl in May. There are going to be a ton of new experiences and lessons to learn. Another factor is that it is going to be tight economically and as the 'travel junkies' that we are we have be creative to get our 'travel fix' this year. So we figured in case we don't get to travel anywhere we just have to bring culture into our own home. One of our favorite hobbies is to cook together. On our honeymoon to Thailand we even went to a Thai cooking class. So the plan is that we will explore 52 new countries by preparing 52 new meals within our budget and the availability of the produce needed. This week we started with a country we have never traveled to; COLOMBIA. We made:

Coconut Chicken with Coconut Rice

• 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast halves
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 3/4 cup finely chopped white onion
• 1 red bell pepper, finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 package Sazon Goya seasoning (con azafran)
• 1 13.5 ounce can coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon flour

(Arroz con Coco)

• 1 13.5 ounce can coconut milk
• 2 cups rice
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 3 cups water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1-2 tablespoons sugar

How it was supposed to look like

How it ended up looking like

It tasted delicious and was really not that hard. Rice with coconut flavor is a winner. And I was surprised how good the raisins fit in. The sauce ended up truly creamy. Too bad I had to eat it so fast because I had to rush to an appointment. 

I'm excited which country we will choose next week.