Bruschetta Chicken with Avocado and Balsamic Drizzle

OMG was this good. This is a perfect example of how the right combination of super simple ingredients can produce something 100% fabulous. Brian and I loved this dish – a keeper!

Crispy Baked Chicken Cordon Bleu

This is a super easy way to make stuffed/rolled chicken of any kind – in this case, I used ham and thin slices of swiss cheese. These are coated in a crispy panko coating and baked until crispy on the outside and moist and cooked through on the inside. Also, and this really is an unnecessary addition and a bit of an indulgence, since I try to avoid super processed foods, but I ALWAYS heat up Campbell’s Golden Mushroom soup thinned out with a little water or chicken broth to use as a sauce. It’s delicious and mandatory for me, mostly because that’s what my mama does.

Chicken Pot Pie Biscuits

Biscuits filled with homemade and healthy chicken pot pie filling. Comes together in about a half hour and is perfect when you want a dose of comfort food with a nice hit of veggie goodness.

Slow-Cooker Moroccan Chicken Stew

It’s recipes like this one that make me love my slow-cooker. Browning the meat ahead of time adds so much to the flavor and texture of slow-cooked foods. Bone-in chicken legs and thighs in a flavorful broth seasoned with cumin, cinnamon, coriander.  The apricots and the chickpeas add great texture too. Serve with some whole wheat couscous and some middle eastern flatbread – yum.

Tomato-Almond Pesto over Seared Chicken

I saw Lidia Bastianich make this pesto with basil, tomatoes, almonds, and grated cheese and knew I had to make it. I loved that she served it over chicken instead of the typical pasta, so that’s what I did too. It is a fantastic way to fancy-up a simple piece of chicken!  Delicious!

Cashew Chicken

I don’t cook a lot of asian fare around here but I still have a fairly well stocked asian pantry because I’m a hoarder food shopping enthusiast. Even so, I was drawn to this recipe because it looked simple and the ingredients weren’t too exotic.  I added a bunch of extra veggies and doubled the sauce because I like things saucy, especially when served over rice.

No Butter Chicken

NO butter chicken! I love me some butter chicken, a classic indian curry which usually relies on a few tabs of butter to add silkiness to the sauce. Not this one! And it’s still totally delicious. This is a cinch to make, and thanks to a well-stocked spice cabinet and pantry, I can whip this up any time I crave indian takeout, which is at least once a week! Score.

Buffalo Chicken Tacos and a Great Loss

It’s been a rough 24 hours for our little family. Last night, our little baby Pickle suddenly passed away. Pickle, our 5-year old calico kitty with giant double paws that looked like oven mitts, a ridiculous love of dairy (especially laughing cow cheese), and even more ridiculous fear of heights. Pickle, buddy to “little brother” Bert and lap-sitter on anyone who walked through our doors.

She was a pretty special cat and kept me company through a lot of good and bad times, so we’re really mourning this loss in our family. Our other sweet cat, Bert, was loyally by her side as she was failing, and he is noticeably upset today — not knowing quite what to do with himself.

Pickle is the little baby on the right in this pic. Bert is in the bag, per usual. Check out those ample paws!

She and Brian adored each other. I used to joke that they were dating and used to lovingly call her a little slut — she owned it.

He’s pretty devastated.

What does all of this pity party have to do with Buffalo Chicken Tacos? Well, nothing, really, except for the fact that this is what I made for dinner tonight and for a moment, both Brian and I were happy, enjoying our yummy meal, and not thinking about the sad thing that has so quickly changed our lives. Make this next time you need a distraction – it works.

Lighter Chicken PIccata

I don’t think I’ve ever talked about workouts on this blog before (except maybe for a passing thought about needing to get to the gym after a particularly decadent post), but I wanted to mention that I’m currently in the middle of week four of the exercise portion of Jamie Eason’s Livefit 12-week Trainer and absolutely LOVING it. The first phase (month) of this program is straight up strength training and I’ve been trying to track my nutrition pretty closely as well to see where I’m at. I find that I consume way less protein than my body needs, especially while trying to build serious muscle, so I’ve been looking for more protein-dense meals lately. Lean chicken breast is a given, so I have been enjoying trying some ‘basic’ / classic chicken recipes lately. Chicken piccata sounded particularly appealing since I heart capers (and garlic and lemon and wine…). This meal is a relatively easy weeknight dinner with great, fresh flavors. Enjoy!

P.S.: If you want to hear more about Livefit, let me know and maybe I’ll do a post covering it!

Cool Ranch Buffalo Chicken Nachos

I love football so much. Actually, not really, but I do love that it lets me get away with serving food like this for dinner.

Ina’s Chicken Chili

I definitely have a love/hate relationship with foodnetwork.com. First, the website is generally awful and it’s often impossible to actually locate a recipe you might have seen on any given show. They have a knack for naming them something totally different than that on the show itself. Am I right? Second, and I admit that this is largely my own fault, I am often convinced into changing the recipe from how it was originally written based on user comments. Which is kind of dumb, since I don’t know these people and virtually any person can write a comment. After reading lots of reviews that said this chili was super bland as written, and that many people tripled the spices, etc., etc., I caved and decided to double the spices and take it from there. Let’s just say I should have trusted Ina (who I love anyway), because it was way too spicy! I can only assume that those commenters have really old, weak spices because I think it would be very flavorful as written (and that’s how I’ll write it below, except for my addition of white beans, which I really liked).

Overall, the recipe is very tasty and light, but just be careful not to overcook the chicken during the roasting process as it will continue to cook in the stew.

Parmesan-Onion Crusted Chicken

Gawd, I wish this wasn’t as tasty as  it was! Since I’m apparently a huge food snob, the idea of this recipe was something totally eye-roll worthy. I mean, it comes from the Hellmann’s website. But tonight, I wanted something different to do with the chicken breasts I had defrosted and this recipe that I had seen on the blogosphere came to mind. I figured, what the heck. And the result? Seriously, the tastiest chicken I have had in a long while. Moist, rich tasting — and with the addition of the, gasp, onion soup mixture — SUPER flavorful. Try it when no one’s looking — it’s delicious.

Pan-Roasted Chicken Leg and Gnocchi with Brussels Sprouts

So over Christmas I got some heat from a few family members about slacking off on my blog. I was a little taken aback…I mean, I feel like I cook almost every damned day, but I guess it’s true — I’m definitely not posting as frequently. I think this is partly because I really actually like my favorite recipes and tend to make them over and over again, but also because if I’m trying to eat healthy, who wants to see/read about a boring dinner salad? Or, conversely, when I talk about eating healthy then cave in and make an ohmygodsogood mac & cheese, do I always post that? Nopers. These reasons, along with my growing photo snobbery, perhaps are why I’m not posting as frequently. Quality, not quantity, maybe? Anyway, I’m gonna try to keep it real.

For instance, this recipe. Roasted chicken with some simply roasted brussels and some fried gnocchi. The brussels — a super basic Ina Garten recipe in my head. The gnocchi — something I saw on Nigella’s show a long while back that suddenly popped in my head tonight. Probably not something I would normally have posted. Not that it wasn’t really delicious (which it was!), but it just seems like such a simple meal. I didn’t really follow a recipe for any of the dishes (but can vaguely remember the origins), it was a bit of on-a-whim meal. That said, my cousin’s voice still lingered in my head and I decided this was the kind of dish that I used to post at the start of this blog — in fact, these were the types of dishes that I started this blog for. To document, file away for future reference as something I would certainly like to make again. Well, consider it posted and filed.

Lemon Rosemary Chicken with Cheddar Grits and Roasted Asparagus

Usually I’m pretty modest (if not critical) when eating my own food, but tonight, I can honestly say that this dinner was something you could easily find in a restaurant — and it’s so basic. I had some chicken breasts staring at me from the fridge (what a conundrum) so I pulled out my trusty 3-ring binder of recipes and looked for something to cook under the “chicken” tab. This binder contains both tried and true recipes, and also new recipes that I want to get to eventually.  I wanted something comforting enough to block out the “order pizza” chant that was in my head since about 3pm today. But, since we’re trying to watch what we eat, I wanted whatever we made for dinner to be fairly healthy and also pretty straightforward. While starches are a bit of a no-no for us right now, these fluffy, creamy, cheesy grits sure are a lot better than a large pizza. This is harm-reduction at its best. Like how I justified that?

Roast Chicken with Fennel and Squash

BIG welcome to fall. My favorite season has unofficially arrived and I’m just thrilled about it. Tonight, after a very very long week, I roasted this lovely chicken, mashed some sweet potatoes, slipped on some nap socks (favorite), and popped a movie in to watch with the kiddos who are visiting for the weekend. Ahhhhhhhhh.

These sweet dumpling squash came from a bit of an informal vegetable swap with a co-worker — I had never actually heard of them before, but they reminded me a lot of acorn squash (easy swap out). The fennel practically candies in the oven and is sooo addictive. Next time I will use two bulbs. Enjoy!

Healthier Buffalo Chicken

This dish was inspired by a recipe I yanked out of Brian’s Men’s Health mag (i love this mag, too). It was written as a sandwich, but we decided to cut out the roll. I have to say, this was so good and so easy! It’s nice to not over-complicate dinner every once in a while.

Chicken Korma (finally)

You’ve seen one or two korma recipes on this blog here, and that’s because I keep trying and trying (and trying) to mimic the smooth, creamy kormas I have in indian restaurants (and seemingly never at home –until now!). Keep in mind, this is one of my favorite dishes of all time and I have very high standards with it.

Well, people, I’ve got the best homemade chicken korma to date here. Absolutely restaurant quality and amazingly delicious. Yay!

Chicken, Mushroom, and Roasted Corn Tostada

These tostadas were a delicious lunch. Think giant nacho chip, which is never a bad thing.

Baked Stuffed Greek Chicken

I love a good stuffed chicken breast, but I love even more when I have all the ingredients I need on hand when a particular craving strikes. Since my list of recipes-to-try grows more ad more each week, I also love knocking one off the list from time to time. I ripped this out of RR’s Everyday Magazine because it looked like an easy, healthy weeknight recipe.  I served it with English Peas (recipe soon!) and my standby cous cous.

Mustard Chicken

Everyone needs a new chicken recipe from time to time — and this one is yum. This recipe is all about the sauce. Mustard is one of my favorite things ever, and I love anything involving a sauce. Try it when you’re in a chicken rut!