Chicken, Spinach, and Pear Stew

What's better on a cold winter night than a nice bowl of stew? I would say pretty much nothing. No set recipe here, just more of a basic idea from a dinner we had recently.

The girl and I browned off some chicken thighs in one pan while sauteing onions and carrots in another. We then added the thighs to the veggie pot, and added enough chicken broth to create a stew-like consistency. The girl seasoned it using yellow mustard seeds and a few spoonfuls of mostarda (we modified this recipe slightly).

Once the mixture came up to a simmer, we added torn spinach leaves (remember, spinach cooks down a lot, so don't be stingy!). Since the mostarda already has pear in it, the girl decided to roughly chop up a pear and toss it in towards the end to enhance the flavor. We didn't let it cook for too long after that, however, because we didn't want it to become mushy. We let it cook just long enough to soften the pear and the spinach, and then it was time to eat! We toasted up fresh whole wheat rolls to soak up any broth left in the bowl.