Healthy and Flavorful Chicken!

I love chicken! In every possible dish! Okay, well maybe not evvvvvery dish but you know what I mean.  It is super versatile and can be worked into a great many healthy recipes! The best part is that I have finally perfected how to make a healthier, juicier and most important, more flavorful chicken!  Here is a recipe that I used the other night that my husband and I absolutely love!

You will need:

For the chicken:

Two large thawed chicken breasts with the fat trimmed

1 cup low fat chicken broth

2 tbsp minced garlic

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

two dashes lemon pepper seasoning per breast

salt and pepper

pan seared polenta:

store bought polenta (already prepared in the tube)

1 tbsp unsalted butter

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

sauteed baby bok choy and spinach salad:

10-15 small baby boy choy - cleaned and separated

two cups of fresh baby spinach

1/4 cup low fat chicken broth

1 tsp hoisen sauce

1 tsp low sodium soy sauce

1 tsp minced garlic

Yes, I know that is a lot of ingredients but it's for the entire meal so really when you think about it, it's not that much.

So here we go! In a large, deep pan heat your olive oil and garlic over high heat.  While your oil and garlic are heating up, dash lemon pepper and salt and pepper on each side of chicken breasts.  Put into your pan and cook the outside of each breast.  Allow a bit of browning to happen on each side.  Once each side is browned up turn down the heat to medium and add in your broth around the chicken and cover.  Your chicken will almost poach in the broth while absorbing a lot of the broth flavors.

While you are getting your chicken going, heat butter and oil over high heat in another pan for your polenta.  While the oil and butter is heating, slice your polenta into 8 pieces about 1 inch thick.  Once your pan is nice and toasty ever so gently put in your polenta pieces.  I say every so gently since I was not ever so gently and I still have an oil/butter burn on my hand...OUCH!  Brown each side of the polenta until it is a medium brown color.  About the same shade as a caramel candy.  Once both sides are nice and crispy and brown removed the pieces and place on a plate with some paper town under it to absorb some of the oil.

Once your chicken is cooked through remove it from your pan and set aside to rest.  Put your heat back up to high and allow your pan to get nice and hot again.  In a small bowl stir your chicken broth, soy sauce, hoisen, and garlic.  Add your baby bok choy and spinach to the pan and allow the heat to just warm it a slight bit (only about twenty seconds or so).  Pour your liquid mixture over the greens and toss them a bit to get some of the sauce on each piece.  Turn your heat down to low and cover.  Wait about two to three minutes and toss the greens again.  After about 45 seconds you are ready to put together your plate!

I have to say that this is one of my favorites meals to make now.  I was very reluctant with the polenta since I have had some baaaad polenta.  But in this dish it was nice and crispy on the outside and buttery smooth on the inside with almost a potato quality to it.

The chicken turned out nice and moist and was full of flavor!

Give it a try and let me know how it works out for you!

Moroccan-Spiced Pork Chops!

I love to cook, I love to bake but I am definitely not one to start experimenting with spices.  I have my set spices that I tend to use, often more of one and less of another to change the taste of whatever I am making to suit the dish.  Rarely will I buy spices and marinades that aren't familiar because I am just too nervous to mess up a recipe and not like it at all!

But since I've started to change my eating habits I have also decided to change my flavor habits too.  I looooove ethnic food, if I could live at My Thai Palace I would!! Yum! And there is this fabulous place in town called Ali Baba's that has a wide blend of Indian and Moroccan cuisine.  I am really hoping that it is still open since I haven't been there since just before my son was born ... hmmmm, next date night I am thinking!

When I came across a recipe for Moroccan-Spiced Pork Chops I was all in.  This recipe pairs it with Apricot and Cilantro Couscous, which is fantastic!!

Here is what you will need:

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp cumin seeds

2 tsp ground coriander

1 pound uncooked lean only pork loin (4x 4oz boneless chops)

2 tsp olive oil

10 oz uncooked whole wheat couscous

2 cups fat-free chicken broth

8 1/2oz canned water-packed apricot halves - chopped

1 tpsp cilantro, fresh - chopped

In a large ziplock bag, mix the cumin, coriander and cinnamon (for myself using this recipe the first time around I only used half the cumin, next time I would definitely use all that it calls for!).  Add the pork pieces to the bag, seal it up and shake it up! Just an FYI, if you have and eight month old in the kitchen with you when you are doing this step it is apparently hilarious to watch and will bring about giggles!  Make sure the meat is well coated and marinate in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.

In a large deep skillet over medium high heat, cook the pork chops turning them once browned on one side. The recipe called for them to be light pink inside and said this would only take about 8 minutes...yeah, no.  It took about 8 minutes per side for that.  You can judge for yourself when yours are done.  I know not a lot of people like pork to have any pink left so use your own judgement.

While your chops are cooking, prepare the couscous following the package directions with the chicken broth instead of water.  Fold in the chopped apricots and cilantro (try not to "sample" too much of it since it will smell amazing while you are doing this!).

Plate up your couscous with the chops on top and there you have it!  This meal serves four so if you are looking to impress at a dinner with friends I would highly suggest this one as an intro into new spices!

I was going to make a side salad to add in some veggies to the meal but while trying not to mess up the chops I completely forgot which as it turned out the salad wasn't needed at all as this was a very filling meal!

In case you were wondering this would be a twelve point meal, which was pretty darn worth it!

Try it out and let me know if it has spiced up your meal plan!

Getting Back on Track!

I was so on a roll! I was doing great! And then Christmas happened! Crud!!!

It happens every year, we all know it does since it happens to nearly everyone! And if you say it doesn't happen to you well then either you have super powers or you're just plain awesome!

I was doing super awesome with my Weight Watchers goals, I started the online version just after my daughter was born and was steadily losing every week which was great! This time around I had actually kept up with my tracking and was making smart choices.  Buuuuut, then my Christmas baking started and for some nutty reason I feel the need to sample all my baking to make sure it passes muster before sending it out to people since heaven forbid the double chocolate cookies are dry!

Since my Mum passed away in July 2011, I have made it my goal to drastically cut back on all things unhealthy in my life.  I've majorly cut back on what I drink (not that there was a problem or anything like that, it's just really who needs a glass of wine with dinner every other night or every weekend for that matter).  Ps.. we found some awesome non-alcoholic wine at Costco that is more like a sparkling juice that I am in love with!

I've tried to cut out at much stress in my life as possible, but really with a two year old and a new baby there is going to be some stress so I've amended that to just try and roll with the stress a bit easier.

And last but not least I have re-joined Weight Watchers in an effort to get my weight and health to a better level.  So like I said it WAS going great but then the holidays happened.  I think at this point in my life I've come to realize that every Christmas this is most likely going to happen, so when the scale goes up for two weeks in a row I just need to suck it up and move on!! 

If you know what you're going to be seeing it somehow doesn't make it as hard to bear.  So, now that the holidays are well behind me I am getting back on track! The last three nights I have made a conscientious effort to make healthier meals for us and it's been pretty darn great! I'm loving the improved recipes that WW online has!

Friday night I went with some flavorful chicken with polenta cakes and a sauteed baby bok choy and spinach salad on the side.

Last night I made some super yummy Moroccan pork chops with whole wheat couscous and apricots...something I will most certainly be making again!

I'm trying to keep with the plan ahead so you don't get surprised method...which seems to work! So in keeping with that, breakfast and lunch are already planned out, now just need to come up with something for dinner!

I have some more crafty creations and some yummy recipes coming your way to the blog soon! Stay tuned and stay healthy!