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!

Chicken Paella Recipe

I've been working on some healthier eating habits for dinners for the family this past week and have posted some pics on Facebook of the yumminess so I thought that I would post some recipes on here for your enjoyment! 

Last nights dinner was Chicken Paella, something I thought was really hard but it turns out that it's super easy! Especially in the crock pot! My house smelled fantastic all day which made this so much better!

Ingredients:

1 pound uncooked boneless, skinless chicken thighs

2 medium fresh tomatoes - chopped

1 medium onion - chopped

1 medium uncooked bell pepper (I went with red for some color) - chopped

1/2 cup chicken broth

3 cloves garlic - chopped

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp turmeric

1/3 cup frozen green peas - I used a full cup since Xan loves peas at the moment

2 cups uncooked white rice - you could also substitute quinoa for this, could be yummy!

Put everything but the rice and peas in a large crock pot.  Cover and cook on low for 5 hours.

Add the peas and rice, stir and cook about another 15 minutes.  Makes about 1 1/2 cups per serving with 1 chicken thigh per serving.

For those of you following this would be a 10 point meal.

It turned out absolutely great!  Just a tip, careful with the turmeric, I got some on my hands and it most definitely turns everything it touches yellow!

Try it out and let me know how yours turned out!

Candy Cane Bark

I was perusing my email and got my daily dose of Today's Parent which featured recipes for your kids classroom parties... there was this awesome and super easy recipe for Candy Cane Bark I had to try immediately since I am still working on my Christmas baking and knew that I had everything in the house already!!

Start with the following:

One box of Candy Cane chocolate cookies

Crush up the cookies into smaller pieces, I just used a chopping board and a really big knife!

Melt an entire bag of semi sweet chocolate chips over a double boiler (the website had said to use white chocolate but I didn't have any so I went with the yummy stuff!)

While the chips are melting down, line a baking sheet with wax paper and spread all your cookie bits out.

Once the chips are smooth pour them out over your cookie bits.  Try and get some chocolate on as much of the cookie bits as possible.

The site that I was looking at said to mix the cookie bits in with the chocolate in the same bowl you were melting the chips in, however in my excited haste to make this I never made sure that the bowl would be big enough for everything...thus the pouring.

Once all your cookie bits are covered shake some festive sprinkles over the top!  I went with some Christmas sprinkles I had picked up at the Dollar store!

Let the bark harden and then break it all apart!

Et Voila! My bark isn't hard enough to break up just yet but you get the picture!!

If you would like to try out the original methods please take a look at the following link!

http://www.mommysavers.com/c/t/213002/holiday-treats-christmas-cookie-bark

Hope you give it a go and enjoy!

Stay tuned for more Christmas goodies coming to the blog! I've been doing all kinds of DIY Christmas presents that I can't wait to share!

Merry Christmas!