Aug 6, 2013

Rosemary Chicken with Sweet Potatoes


Sometimes, the best-laid plans just don't work out quite as well as you had hoped. Take today's recipe, for example. The original recipe featured flavorful chicken cooked in the slow cooker on a bed of onions and Yukon Gold potatoes. Sounds delicious, no? I figured I would eat the chicken and the vegetarian and I would split the onions and potatoes.

Fast forward several months, however, and I'm now avoiding white potatoes. But no problem; I can still have sweet potatoes. That won't change things too much; the vegetarian and I love sweet potatoes! So I loaded up the slow cooker and set it to cook for 6 hours.

Then life got in the way and I decided to give everything another two hours. But we still weren't ready to eat (we were rehearsing at home that day) so the slow cooker flipped over into its "warm" mode. Several hours later, I finally dished everything up, along with some Rice Salad with Cucumber and Dill Dressing, and, starving, we sat down to eat.

So how was it? Truth be told, it wasn't very good. The chicken was certainly tender but everything was SO greasy! And the sweet potatoes and onions had melted together (along with the chicken juice, which normally doesn't bother the vegetarian but this time, well, it just wasn't very good) into a sweet and gooey mess. Yuck!

So what did we do? I salvaged what I could. The chicken (drained and stored without its greasy liquid) ended up making many meals for the next week. Reheated (or cut up cold to form salads), it provided a delightful protein addition. And the vegetables? I kept planning to make them into a soup of some sort but, truthfully, I never had the heart to so I eventually threw them out.

Now, you may be wondering why I'm even including this recipe? Well, first of all, the flavors were really very good! I would definitely try this again, but with a few adjustments:
What else would you do differently? Do you ever have a great recipe idea, only to have it not come out exactly (or at all) as planned? Let us know in the comments!

Rosemary Chicken with Sweet Potatoes
adapted from Recipe.com

Rinse chicken, defat as best you can, and pat dry. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat olive oil. Add chicken (you may need to do this in batches, depending on the size of your skillet) and brown, 1-2 minutes per side.

Place sweet potatoes, onion and garlic in the bottom of your slow cooker. Top with chicken. In a small bowl, whisk together pomegranate juice, lemon juice potato starch, rosemary, juniper berries and black pepper. When well combined, pour over chicken. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours. Enjoy!

Aug 2, 2013

Peppery Breakfast Wrap

I get bored easily. This doesn't mean that I can't watch long plays or movies or read long books -- quite the opposite, actually, if the piece is enthralling enough. No -- it's the repetition I can't take. I don't like doing the same thing every day. Nor do I like eating the same thing every day. (The vegetarian, on the other hand, pretty much subsisted on the same 3-5 meals his entire life until we moved in together.) Even as a child, I was never content with having a bowl of cereal every day for breakfast. That might work 1-2 days a week but, after that, I would just pick at it until my indulgent mother got the hint and provided me with something else.


Now that I've made the commitment to my health to have breakfast every day (and now that cereal is off the table for me), I've had to rack my brains to come up with interesting breakfasts that I can make in the mornings that will be protein-rich, healthy and not too time-consuming. When in doubt, I just fry an egg since that takes almost no time and I can pretty much do it in my sleep.

When I get bored, I've found the best thing is to add some vegetables. This also helps in the neverending quest to eat all the produce I buy with the very best of intentions but which always seems to be just a little bit too much for two people to eat. So now I base my breakfasts around whatever vegetable is "on its way out".

This wrap, however, is one of those wonderful egg dishes that can also qualify as "breakfast for dinner". In fact, I made it for our last Monthly Cooking Adventure and everyone devoured them! It was also very easy for entertaining -- I set everything up like a buffet so that guests could make their own wraps, perfectly suiting them to their tastes. We also made rice and chickpeas and some sauteed yellow squash (see what I mean about buying too many vegetables?). The recipe below is for one person; just multiply it by however many people you're serving breakfast to. Bon appetit!

Peppery Breakfast Wrap
adapted from The Skinny Rules

Over medium heat, heat olive oil in a skillet big enough to hold all your eggs. Add arugula and cook 2 minutes, until wilted. Meanwhile, scramble eggs in a bowl. Season well with plenty of black pepper.

Add eggs to pan, lower heat and scramble (I recommend a plastic whisk so you won't scratch your pan) until they're to your taste. Remove from heat and spoon into tortilla. Roll up and eat!

Links: