Multiple Myeloma Chicken Linguini Recipe

  Hey folks . . . one of my passions is cooking so I thought I would start posting some of my favorite recipes to the Steemit community.  Each one I post has an origin somewhere so I will try to provide some details on where or how I came up with each recipe I post.

Back in June of 2013 I started to have shortness of breath out of the blue.  Over a a couple of weeks time frame the problem got so bad that I could not climb three or four stairs without getting so out of breath that I had to sit and pant for 10-15 minutes to get my breath back.  Being a guy around 50 years old doctor's visits were not really high on my "to do" list so I tried to tough it out and see if things would get better . . . they didn't.  I ended up driving to the emergency room at the nearby hospital and once they did some initial tests on me they immediately admitted me.  This was the first time I had been hospitalized since I was 7 years old.  

The hospital I was in, Henry Ford Hospital in the northwest suburbs of Detroit, happened to be a newer facility and the private room I had was literally as nice as a Hilton hotel room.  The other thing that really surprised me was the easy access to food and the quality of the food that was served.  

Anyway, to make a long story (somewhat) short, the doctors found that I had acute kidney failure and my hemoglobin count was around 2.3 (or something close to that).  For those that don't know, hemoglobin is the chemical in your blood that carries oxygen throughout your body.  A normal hemoglobin count is 13 or better!  My count of 2.3 was the reason I was having shortness of breath - I literally could not absorb enough oxygen into my blood.  What caused this you ask?  The root cause of all of my problems was a form of blood cancer called multiple myeloma.  It is a cancer that effects the plasma cells in the blood and bone marrow.  Because the myeloma was creating all of this "debris" in my blood (called light chains) my kidneys were shutting down because they were becoming clogged up.  

To get my kidney function back to something normal they put me on a strict diet where things that were bad for my kidneys, like calcium, were verboten.  So for about a week my choices of food from the hospital were extremely limited.  That said, I found one dish they had that I could eat that was awesome . . . . some days I would eat that dish at least twice a day.  This is where I found the dish that is the focus of my recipe today - I call it chicken scampy but I have no idea if it is really a "scampy" dish or not . . . . 

Ingredients

• 3/4 to 1 lb. of chicken breast (deboned)
• 16 ounces of fresh sliced mushrooms (white or portabella)
• 1 large red pepper1 quart of chicken base
• Powdered chicken bullion (HerbOx is the best)
• Olive oil
• Spices: Black pepper, Italian seasoning (or oregano), garlic salt
• Corn starch
• Linguini (1 lb. box or more)

Preparation

The best type of pan to cook this type of dish in is a "wok" type skillet.  The one I use is 12" in diameter, about 4" deep and has a ceramic, non-stick coating on the inside.  If your pan doesn't have a matching lid get one of the "universal" pan lids to cover it during simmering.

• Put about 1/4 cup of olive oil in the pan and pre-heat the oil at about "6-7" (out of 10) on an electric range - medium/high heat.
• Cut up the chicken breast into bit size pieces and place in the hot oil.  Add pepper, garlic salt and italian seasoning/oregano to the chicken to taste as it is browning/cooking.
• Cut up the red pepper into small pieces and add to the chicken/oil mixture - stir ingredients thoroughly.
• After chicken/pepper mix has been cooking for about 5 minutes dump the lb. of sliced mushrooms into the mix and again, stir ingredients to coat mushrooms with the oil/spice mixture.  Add additional garlic salt to the mushrooms if desired (I love garlic salt!).  Reduce heat to about "2-3" on an electric range and let sit until mushrooms are cooked.
• Once mushrooms are cooked add chicken base to the pan and bring to a simmer.  Add 4-8 teaspoons of powdered chicken bullion and stir to dissolve.
• Put heat on low setting and cover pan. Let simmer for at least 30 minutes.
• Half way through the simmering of the chicken, pepper, mushroom sauce cook, rinse and drain the linguini.
• Mix 2-4 heaping tablespoons of corn starch with just enough water to make it liquid and pour into the sauce mix while stirring continuously.  Add enough starch to the sauce so that the consistency is like medium thick gravy.

Spoon the thickened sauce over a bed of linguini and serve with garlic bread and a salad of choice.

Bon appetit!!!