Perfectly Spiced Paella with Saffron Rice

The hubby's birthday was yesterday and I decided to venture off and make paella.  My taste pallet has changed a bit since getting pregnant.  Creamy foods don't appeal to meal.  Savory foods with lots of spices are usually what I am seeking for.  And my dessert cravings have gone down a bit...except when I watch cake shows on TV.  Paella was a good choice because it has a lot of different spices, it's savory, and I can eat shrimp (no oysters or clams in this paella).  I found this recipe on All Recipes but I changed it up quite a bit based on my party size of 2 and my desire to add in more vegetables.  Here's what I did:

Saffron Rice
2 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 cup uncooked white rice
1 large pinch saffron threads
1 bay leaf
1/4 bunch Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped
2 cups chicken stock
1 lemon, zested

Heat olive oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Stir in garlic, red pepper flakes, and rice. Cook, stirring, to coat rice with oil, about 3 minutes. Stir in saffron threads, bay leaf, parsley, chicken stock, and lemon zest. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to medium low. Simmer 20-25 minutes.

Paella Topping
1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into pieces
10-15 baby portabells mushrooms, sliced
1 red bell pepper diced

Mix all this in a bowl and marinade

1/2 onion, chopped
12 oz chorizo sausage, casings removed and crumbled
16 oz shrimp (I bought frozen shrimp, already deveined and cooked.)
16 oz diced tomatoes
1 cup of frozen peas

Heal olive oil in separate, large skillet over medium heat. Stir in marinated chicken and onion until almost cooked.  Stir in sausage and thoroughly cook meats.  Stir in shrimp bell pepper mushrooms, diced tomatoes and frozen peas.  Cover and bring to boil.  Mix topping with rice and serve.

The rice was just the right amount for a part of 2 (with a day of left overs).  And the topping made a serving for about 8-10.  It was a lot.  Both were delicious.  The saffron rice was amazing and had a lot of great flavors and spices.  It was the perfect color of yellow too with bits of green from the parsley and red from the saffron.  The paella topping was cooked great as well.  I'd probably cut the chorizo and shrimp in half since we had so much left over.  It might be because I added in more vegetables though as the original recipe didn't have the mushrooms, tomatoes or frozen peas.