Simple Asparagus, Mushroom and Chicken Risotto

Wow. It's been awhile. We had our son, Elliot, on July 15th! He came in at a whopping 11 pounds 2 ounces and 22.5 inches long. :) He's now a big ol' 4 month old with 2 teeth (that he's had for two months!). He keeps us on our toes, so we haven't had as much time to document our cooking adventures. Sorry about that!

I've got a quick little recipe today that serves 3-4 people. No pretty pictures for this one. Jacob is a slow poke when it comes to taking photos and I was too hungry to wait. Hehe! Again, I must emphasize the importance of fresh, local, and preferably organic ingredients. Treat yourself. It's worth it to spend a little extra dough (wah wah, bad food joke) on your food. This is the stuff that fuels you and you deserve PREMIUM! :D Okay, enough jokes. Seriously though, buy local, buy fresh, and buy organic. Reduce your carbon footprint and help yourself be healthier and eat tastier food. I'd also like to add a special shout out to Healthy Family Farms, our favorite place to get chicken and pork products from. We get one of their pasture fed (no corn/no soy) birds every week and it never disappoints. This recipe uses leftovers from our weekly roasted chicken in two ways - the shredded chicken itself and the deliciously potent stock we make from the carcass. Yay Healthy Family Farms!

Here's the recipe...

Simple Asparagus, Mushroom, and Chicken Risotto
- Chicken Stock - 3 cups of stock - we make ours from our chicken leftovers. If you don't have enough, just use a cup of water and add extra herbs
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1-2 tablespoons butter
- 1 cup Arborio rice
- 1 small red onion, chopped into 1 inch pieces
- 1 bunch of asparagus, fresh. Chop into little 1/2 inch to 1 inch pieces.
- 6-8 small brown mushrooms, fresh. Slice 'em!
- Left over roasted pasture fed chicken, shredded. (This is leftover from our regular Roasted Chicken & Veggies on Sundays.. a recipe will be coming in the next few days for that!)
- Thyme, Garlic, Pepper, Salt to flavor as you prefer. :)

1. Saute onion with butter and oil for 2-3 minutes
2. Still in rice and cook for 1-2 minutes
3. Add water, simmer until moisture is almost completely cooked off. Then, do the same, about a cup at a time for the stock. Be sure to keep on stirring this. Stirring is important to get the texture correct!
4. When you add the last cup of stock, be sure to add the mushrooms, asparagus and leftover roasted chicken. :)
5. Once it is creamy instead of "wet", you're done! Serve warm. Feel free to sprinkle some parmesan cheese on there.

Takes about 30-45 minutes, depending on how slow you simmer. :) I usually chop the veggies while the first two cups of liquid simmer to save on prep time.