The Speechie Mama Can Cook…Seafood Paella – Bethesda Speech Therapy | Rockville Speech Therapy | Washington DC Speech Therapy | Chevy Chase Speech Therapy | Potomac Speech Therapy | North Bethesda Speech Therapy | North Potomac Speech Therapy | Speech Therapy For Toddlers | Speech Therapy | Speech Therapy At Home | Bethesda Occupational Therapy | Rockville Occupational Therapy | Chevy Chase Occupational Therapy | Potomac Occupational Therapy | North Bethesda Occupational Therapy | North Potomac Occupational Therapy | Occupational Therapy | Sensory Integration | Handwriting | Fine Motor | Orofacial Myology | Tongue Thrust | Thumb Sucking

It was always a challenge for me to make dinner. Don’t know why… Maybe it’s because I prefer to bake over cooking. Maybe it’s because I don’t have a toddler to make dinner for yet?!

That said, for some other strange reason I have felt a desire to cook more now that I have a newborn. Maybe it’s because I’m home with her right now… Maybe it’s because I’m always hungry… Who knows!?

All I know is now that I have a desire to cook…and when I get started the baby fusses and that escalates to a shrieking cry unless I hold her. So I have been trying to be creative with my recipes. I made a super simple slower cooker recipe I want to share with you because even with my modifications it was still super yummy. You could add any type of protein to this (e.g., chicken, beef, pork, seafood, fish)…we used lobster since it had been given to us and needed to be used!

Now…let it be known that I was going to make a fancy paella but as I tried to begin, Lily knew it… And then hysterical crying ensued! So I put all the ingredients back in the fridge and waited until hubby got home. It was already late so I decided we’d have left overs (grilled BBQ chicken doesn’t suck!) and I would make the lobster in a slow-cooker for the next days dinner. The kicker – I had to cook the lobster that night or chuck it… So I was up til 1:30am… lesson learned… I need to plan better!

Those of you over on our Facebook page have had great suggestions like baby wearing (I think I’ll order a Tula to try out), cooking earlier in the day (that works when I’m actually home), or just doing take out (ya we do that a bit… trying to eat at home more so it’s healthier and I don’t GAIN weight while breastfeeding LOL). I think the Tula and the slow-cooker/crock-pot are going to become my BFFs! But I will report back once I figure that out.

Anywho, the recipe was super yummy and inexpensive to make. Note: I didn’t use saffron threads like many recipes call for…they were $10 for the tiniest amount… That bothered me so I left them out. Would saffron threads have made a difference? What do they even taste like????

Note: I also left out the onions as hubby HATES cooked onions and ONLY eats red onion raw in guacamole (strange…I know!) Instead I used onion powder because he likes the flavor (it’s a texture/consistency thing with the cooked onions).

Here’s the adapted recipe I used to make our Lobster Paella:

INGREDIENTS

3/4 c. chopped sweet peppers
1/2 c. chopped onion (I used 1 tsp onion powder instead)
2 cloves garlic, minced (I used two HUGE pieces of garlic)
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 c. uncooked brown rice
1/2 tsp. dried thyme (couldn’t find it? maybe I’m out…who knows? I googled a substitution and used oregano instead)
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp. ground tumeric
12 oz. fresh or frozen shrimp, thawed, peeled and halved (I used the lobster we had)
6 oz. canned or pouched wild-caught pink salmon, flaked (left this out)
1 c. frozen peas

PREPARATION

Grease crock pot and add all veggies except peas. In a medium sauce pan, combine chicken broth, rice and spices. Heat until boiling, then pour over veggies in the crock pot. Cover and cook on low for 4 hours. After about 3 hours, add the shrimp, salmon and peas. Once done, let stand for about 10 minutes before serving. Serves 6.

When you’re finished you’ll have something yummy…resembling this!!! Mmmm yum!

I got this recipe from Epicurious and they got it here.