Lemon Rosemary Chicken with Baby Spinach and Pear Salad

What You Need:
4 thin sliced chicken breast cutlets
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 small handful fresh spinach per person
1 pear
pinch salt and fresh ground pepper
3 tbsp olive oil

What To Do:
Preheat oven to 400
Place the chicken in a glass casserole dish.
Mix together 1 tbsp lemon juice and 3 tbsp olive oil.
Pour mixture over chicken and sprinkle salt and pepper on top.
Place two sprigs rosemary on top of chicken along with a few thin slices of lemon.
Bake chicken for forty five minutes.
While chicken is baking wash the spinach and cut the pear.
I also steamed some cauliflower in the microwave for a couple minutes.

Simple Chicken Soup

Today was a little rainy and I had some extra time so I made a chicken soup that will last us a couple days.  Cooking the whole chicken provides nutrients you wouldn't get from the meat alone, and the leftovers only get better with time.  This recipe does take a couple of hours, but only about twenty minutes of real work.  It's worth it. Easy to do, hard to mess up.

What you need:
1 whole fryer chicken, preferably organic and free range, more for the nutrients than the hippie factor.
1 large onion, peeled and sliced
2 leeks, sliced
5 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
Pinch of dry cilantro
Pinch of dry turmeric
Pinch of dry thyme
Pinch of paprika
Pinch of cayenne powder
Teaspoon minced garlic
2 bay leaves
Fresh ground pepper
Sea salt
32 oz low sodium organic chicken broth

What to do:
Place the chicken in a large pot, pour in the broth and add water till the chicken is covered.
Bring to a boil and then drop the heat and simmer for an hour.  
While the chicken is cooking, chop the vegetables.
Remove chicken and use a fork to separate the meat from the bones.
Replace the meat back into the broth along with the vegetables, herbs, and spices.
Let simmer for an hour or two.

Oven Roasted Chicken with Carmelized Shallots and Blackberry Salad

This recipe comes from  David Lebovitz.  I was looking for something quick and easy that I could do in the little time I had to work with today.  This turned out great and was really simple.  I'll make it again for sure.  I made a side of carrots and squash to roast, and put together a quick salad while everything was in the oven. Can't get much more low maintenance.

You need:
8 pieces of chicken, I used four drumsticks and four thighs, bone in
3 tablespoons of olive oil
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce, I used lower sodium
salt and fresh ground pepper
It called for 4 large shallots, peeled and minced, I used 3 and I think for me that was plenty
1 handful flat leaf parsley

For the salad:
One small handful of baby field green salad mix per person in a medium bowl
large handful of fresh blackberries rinsed and dried gently
top with pecans and dried cranberries
no dressing

For the side:
1 cup of baby carrots whole
2 small squash cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper

What to do:
In a glass casserole dish, mix the olive oil, red wine vinegar, soy sauce, salt and pepper, and shallots.
place the chicken in a single layer in the dish, and use your hands to mix the chicken with the marinade until the chicken is coated.

In a separate dish, coat the carrots and squash with olive oil and salt and pepper.

Put both dishes in a a 425 degree oven.
Turn the chicken once after about twenty five minutes, when it is beginning to brown.  Let the chicken cook for another twenty five minutes or so until the skin and shallots are nice and brown.  Let the carrots and squash cook the whole time the chicken is in.  When they are ready, remove from oven and garnish chicken with parsley.  Serve with the blackberry salad. 

Chipotle Chicken with Strawberry Salad and Sweet Potato

 Marinade 1 lb chicken breasts in glass casserole dish with Lowry's Baja Chipotle 30 min marinade
( I'll let you guess how long)

While chicken is marinating:
Preheat oven to 400

Peel and cut sweet potato into rounds of similar size (you may have to cut some into halves).
Place potato into a different glass dish large enough for each piece to touch the bottom, salt and pepper lightly, add 1 tbsp olive oil and mix with hands until potatoes are coated evenly.

Make salad
     2 cups arugula and baby spinach salad mix
     Handful of strawberrys sliced small
     Add small bits of honey goat cheese to taste
     Top with small handful of crushed pralines
     No dressing
     Set in fridge


When chicken is ready, place it and the potato in the oven on the middle rack.
Bake 1 hr and serve with salad.

Easy Taco Salad

I have become addicted to this one, its so quick and easy and tastes great. Mostly healthy too, has a little salt, but you can always go skimpy if you want.
Here's what you need:
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 lb lean ground turkey
1/2 an onion, chopped
1 avocado, sliced
1 handfull of cherry tomatoes, halved
2 or 3 heads romaine lettuce, sliced
1 packet low sodium taco seasoning

What to do:
Add olive oil to skillet and heat to medium high
Add onion and heat till they are just starting to get some color on them, four or five minutes
Add turkey and cook until done
While turkey is cooking,clean and chop the tomatoes, avocado, and lettuce
When turkey is done, add taco seasoning and water and bring to a boil
Once boiling, turn heat to low and give sauce a few minutes to thicken
Toss lettuce with tomatoes, top with turkey, garnish with avocado and maybe a little hot taco sauce

Honey Lime Chicken

Tonight was night two of the dinners we froze this weekend. Check out the post on Making Meals Ahead of Time for more info. It was honey lime chicken, and it was good. I was off work today, so I took the premade chicken out of the freezer and threw it in the crock pot about 2:30. Then about half an hour before my wife got home, I put some carrots in the oven to roast and boiled some red quinoa. The chicken was really tender, the honey and pineapple had just started to carmelize, and it was the texture of pulled pork that has smoked on the bone all day (even though it was chicken, and it had been cookin in the crock pot). Some fresh avocado was mixed in with the carrots when they came out of the oven. Sounds like a few steps, but really with the chicken already made, the rest only took me a few minutes to throw together. Will do this one again.

Curry Chicken

We tried the Curry Chicken that we made yesterday, and it was really good. Like I said yesterday, I was a little skeptical, but honestly this stuff turned out nicely. I wondered if it would have enough moisture in it to cook right in the crock pot, and it did. I just took it out of the freezer and threw it in the crock pot on high. After about half an hour I walked by and noticed it was still frozen, so I took a meat tenderizer mallet and hit it a couple times to loosen it up. After that I just let if go for a total of about three hours. Can't be much easier.

I'll post of the rest of the meals from the "Make Meals Ahead of Time" post as we eat them, and let you know how they turn out.