Two More Honey Marinades

I'm still working my way through the honey we received from a friend the other day.

Here are two more marinades I created:

HONEY LEMON ROSEMARY
1/4 cup honey
Juice of three lemons
Zest of one lemon
2 Tbls. olive oil
1 Tbls. chopped fresh rosemary
Salt and Pepper to taste

HONEY TERIYAKI
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup soy sauce (I used low-sodium)
1/4 cup pineapple juice
1 Tbls chopped fresh ginger
2 Tbls. olive oil
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
8 chunks dried pineapple (Weird, I know, but we had a box of these lying around. I'm sure fresh pineapple would work just as well.)

The honey lemon marinade I used on bone-in chicken breasts. I put the honey teriyaki over pork tenderloin. I marinated it over night and then put the pork and the marinade in a crock pot for about 6 hours.

Tomato Herb Chicken

Tomato season has finally arrived in Chicago. Since we got so very little warm weather this summer, my tomatoes were taking forever to ripen. Slowly over the past few weeks, I've gotten quite the harvest of big yellow tomatoes, red cherry tomatoes and red roma tomatoes. Too bad I missed a bunch while we were on vacation.

Mostly I've been eating right off of the vine, raw with just a little salt and pepper, sometimes a little balsamic vinegar. But I just had so many cherry tomatoes, I just had to find some way to use them.

TOMATO HERB CHICKEN
3 cups Cherry Tomatoes, sliced in half
2-3 Tbls. chopped herbs (I used basil, oregano and chives)
3 Tbls. olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
4 boneless chicken breasts
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

Toss all ingredients in a bowl. Spread tomatoes on cookie sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes at 350. Pour tomatoes over cooked chicken breasts. Top with cheese. Return to oven until cheese is melted (about 3-5 minutes).

This was so simple and so delicious. The tomatoes were so sweet. This would be great over pasta, too, but since I'm on this low-carb diet, that means no pasta for me. It would also be fabulous on fish.

Honey Lime Chipotle Marinade

We received a little gift from a neighbor today for picking up his newspapers while he was out for a few days. He brought us two "bear" containers of fresh honey from his friend who is a local bee farmer. One container was a little more amber and the other a more golden - both were delicious. I've never really used honey in anything, but was determined to use it for dinner tonight. I had already thawed some boneless chicken breasts and decided to make a marinade. Here's what I came up with:

HONEY LIME CHIPOTLE MARINADE
3 T Honey
2 T Olive Oil
1 teas. ground Chipotle Pepper
1/2 teas. salt
Juice of 4 limes
Zest of 1 lime

Put all ingredients into a bowl and mix well. Place 4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breast in a zip top bag and add marinade. Place in refrigerator for at least one hour. Cook as preferred.

This marinade was absolutely delicious. Not too sweet, not too spicy. We could have even added a little more salt and chipotle. You could really taste each ingredient in the marinade. This would also be great on fish.

And while we're on the topic of honey, check out my friend Mara's blog and contest. She is giving away some free organic raw honey from Tropical Traditions. Stop by and tell her Kristin sent you.

Chicken Asparagus Roll Ups at the Wedding

The scene:
The ballroom was bathed in white satin and candlelight. “Over the top” would be an understatement. Did we really need so many glasses at each place setting? Real crystal at that. It was bad enough that I was overly anxious about who would be seated next to me, but now I needed to worry about using the wrong fork or eating someone else’s bread.

I found my place card – not just any place card, but a mini-sterling silver frame with my name engraved across the top and a photo of the bride and groom inside. As I awaited the arrival of the others at the “we-don’t-have-a-date table," I glanced at the menu. Baby lettuce salad with roasted peppers and goat cheese. Choice of filet mignon with a red wine blue cheese sauce or chicken rolled with provolone, parmesan and asparagus with a creamy butter sauce. Chocolate mousse with fresh raspberries. At least I won’t have food anxiety.

Slowly the ballroom filled with people who knew the bride probably a lot better than I did. But I’m guessing not one of them knew her well enough to say what I was about to say.


CHICKEN ROLLED WITH ASPARAGUS AND CHEESE
2 boneless chicken breasts, pounded thin
6 stalks of asparagus
Sliced provolone cheese (approx. 4 large slices)
Shredded or grated Parmesan (approx ¼ cup)
Salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder

CREAMY BUTTER SAUCE
3 Tbls. butter
1 Tbls. flour
1 cup milk (I used 2%)
Salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder

Season both sides of chicken breasts with salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. (Or marinate chicken in your favorite Italian-style marinade). Sprinkle chicken with Parmesan cheese. Layer the provolone cheese on top of the Parmesan. Place three asparagus stalks at the bottom end of the chicken breasts and roll to the top. Secure with several toothpicks. Cook in 350 oven for approx 25 – 30 min.


For sauce, melt butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Add flour and whisk well for about one minute, or until flour is dissolved in butter and starts to slightly bubble. Add seasonings. Add milk slowly and whisk to combine. Heat for 3 – 5 minutes over medium heat and whisk frequently.

Lessons learned – Use lots of toothpicks. It’s pretty hard to keep chicken rolled up when it is stuffed with stuff. And you don’t want all of that cheese getting out all over the place. And, you may notice in the photo that I grilled the chicken. I wasn’t about to let a mild Chicago Spring day pass me by without using the grill. The problem was that I didn’t use enough toothpicks, and the chicken decided to stick to the grill. You can see the missing grill marks in my photo. But the rest turned out perfectly – the asparagus on the inside was tender and just the tips were a little crunchy. The dish didn’t really need the creamy butter sauce, but it sure was good. Serve it on the side if you’d like.

Asian Chicken with Green Beans and Noodles

Here is tonight's attempt to do something creative with chicken. I have a TON of sauces, mixes, and seasonings that I am determined to start clearing out. So tonight's victims were an envelope of Stir Fry mix, my last few drops of low-sodium soy sauce, and some TSG Peanut Ginger Sauce.

Asian Chicken with Green Beans and Noodles

Chicken:
3-4 Boneless Chicken Breasts
Low-Sodium Soy Sauce
1 packet Stir Fry Seasoning (used just less than 1/2 packet)
Brown sugar

Pound chicken breasts thin. Sprinkle with soy sauce, stir-fry seasoning and brown sugar (I didn't use a whole lot). Let marinate for 20-30 minutes. Grill until done (very techinical!).

Noodles:
Small serving of pasta, cooked
Handful of fresh Green Beans, cut in 1/2
1/2 Red Bell Pepper, chopped
1 Tbls. Peanut Ginger sauce (or your favorite black bean or Asian-style sauce.
1 tspn. Oil

Saute veggies in oil for 3-4 minutes. Add cooked pasta and sauce. Heat for several minutes until hot.

The chicken was really great - a little sweet, almost like that bourbon chicken you get at the mall. It probably would have been even more carmelized had I cooked it in a pan rather than the grill. Turns out the Peanut Ginger sauce was a little spicy, so it made a great accompaniment to the chicken. Still have a whole bottle of that to use.

Heartattack Chicken

Took a few days off from cooking anything noteworthy. And I've pretty much blown my diet until I get back from Mardi Gras. Nevertheless, I did something creative for dinner tonight that would have been not-so-bad for me had I really been following a low-carb diet.


Bleu Cheese Stuffed Bacon Wrapped Chicken - oh yeah, you read that right. I still had a small tub of Bleu cheese butter from the other week that I wanted to use, so I searched around for a couple of recipes and here's what I ultimately came up with.



Bleu Cheese Stuffed Bacon Wrapped Chicken


2 boneless skinless chicken breast
4 - 6 Tblspn blue cheese butter
4 slices bacon


Preheat oven to 350. Pound each chicken breast to 1/8 inch thickness (or really thin is what I mean). Place bleu cheese butter at one end of chicken and roll up. Wrap two slices of bacon around each roll. Tuck all edges in. Bake at 350 for 35 - 45 minutes.


To stick with the bleu cheese theme, I served it with pasta in a Buffalo flavored sauce (from Target).

Lessons learned: You probably don't need the bleu cheese butter, regular blue cheese would probably do just fine. It's a little tricky to make sure the chicken is cooked because you don't want to cut it open until you serve it.

Beer Brined Chicken

This post is 24 hours in the making. I was going to make this yesterday, but decided too late to brine a chicken. This was a small roaster that I was just going to stick on the grill, but found this recipe at homebrewchef.com. A friend brought over a bunch of beer we weren't going to drink, so I figured this was a good a way as any to use it. Of course, I had to change it just a little bit because of what I had on hand.



Beer Brined Chicken

1 whole roaster chicken

4 Bottles of Beer (I used Corona)
1 Cup Kosher Salt
1/2 Cup Sugar
4 Bay Leaves
2 Tbls. Dry Oregano
1 Yellow Onion, peeled and chopped
1 Lime, quartered
4Each Garlic Cloves, peeled and sliced

Water or ice to cover chicken



In a large pot, add beer, salt, sugar, bay leaves, thyme, onion, lime and garlic. Bring to a simmer for 10 minutes and remove from heat. Let cool in fridge or add ice. Place chicken in pot (or large tupperware) with cold brine and top with cold water to completely cover the chicken. Place in fridge for 6 - 24 hours. Cook as usual.



The beauty about this brine is that you can use just about any beer, herbs or veggies that you have on hand. It is the salt that helps this brine work - but won't make your meat salty. Ask Alton Brown why - I don't know.



I served it with beer bread (none for me) just to round out the night.



Well I got on the scale this morning and it showed that I lost all the pounds I gained over my three day-high carb blowout last weekend (something like five pounds!!). I've been drinking lots of water, and it took everything I had today to pass up that fresh-baked-still-hot-from-the-oven bagel at the deli this morning. Even though I'm way down for the week, I'd like to lose two more pounds before I head to New Orleans next week.

Probably no posts from me through the weekend - dinner at a friend's on Friday and indoor waterpark with the kids Saturday and Sunday. We'll see.

Also today:
Breakfast: Eggs with turkey bacon and cheddar from the deli
Lunch: Hot Dog
Snack: Chipotle Olives, Pepper Jack Cheese, Pecans

Oh, I did have a few handfuls of popcorn - like really good movie popcorn. Couldn't pass up the smell of the kids' bags from Target.

Back in the game

Since I had such a high carb weekend - and the scale shows it - I knew I needed to get back in the game yesterday. I wasn't very hungry until late, so I stopped an picked up an Unwich from Jimmy John's (don't tell the deli). Had a few pecans and almonds for a snack, oh, and a slice of pepper jack cheese. It was a little warmer here in Chicago yesterday so we were finally able to grill!! I grilled some corn on the cob for Mike and the girls, and chicken for everyone. Here's the marinade I used (you know I almost never use a measuring cup):

SESAME MARINADE
Sesame oil
Low sodium soy sauce
white wine
sesame seeds
toasted flax seeds

Mix all in plastic zip top bag with chicken and place in fridge for at least 1/2 hour.

It was really yummy and nutty.

I'm trying to drink lots of water to still compensate for the weekend. And today will be even warmer than yesterday, so after I finish a volunteer project at the girls school, I'm going for a walk.

Chicken Salsa

Didn't have time to post last night. One of the challenges at my house is making something everyone will eat. With two picky young girls it usually involves one type of meat made several ways. That's what happened last night. The girls had plain, pan fried chicken breast. For my husband and I, I took the same chicken breast, pan fried it, topped it with fresh salsa and mozzarella, then place it under the broiler for a few minutes.Now when I say fresh salsa, I mean the kind I bought in the deli section, not the kind in the snack aisle. Did you think I actually had time to make fresh salsa? Not on a Monday, anyway.

I paired my chicken breast with some Greek salad from the deli. Yum.

Other meals today:

Breakfast: 6 Blackberries
Lunch: Country Club Unwich from Jimmy Johns (ham, turkey, cheese, tomato, mayo wrapped up in lettuce - no bread)
Snack: Slice of 2% cheese, handful of pecans

Trying to drink lots of water, but keep drinking lots of diet coke instead. And, I'm starting to notice that all of my food pics are looking the same. Will try something different. :)