Short on Time to Make Dinner? Try Sesame Lemon Chicken

Sesame Lemon Chicken

I hope everyone is ready to have a great 4th of July tomorrow. I'm all set, I bought the last of the food items that I needed tonight. Tomorrow I just need to cook everything and then enjoy my efforts. My town always has fireworks on weird days and tonight is no exception. Instead of having fireworks on the 4th they are having them this evening. So I will not be going bed to at least 11 since I can't sleep through very loud noises or explosions. My kids are excited though and we can see the display from our front window so at least I can enjoy everything from my living room. Our three dogs on the other hand will more than likely be less than thrilled. There are nights like tonight when I am low on time and I look for meals that are quick and take little effort. Today I tried a new recipe for Sesame Lemon Chicken from the July/August issue of the Food Network Magazine.

This recipe has 13 ingredients. It takes 35 minutes of total time, 30 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I did make a few changes to the original recipe. First I can't eat pita chips so I left them off the salad. The most important change that I made was to use the entire amount of rub on the chicken. There was no were near enough rub for both the chicken and salad. So instead I used all the rub on the chicken and made a homemade vinaigrette from the blackberry sage vinegar I blogged about earlier. Finally my broiler has been broken so I cooked the chicken at 425 until it hit 170 degrees, about 25 minutes.

The rub on the chicken turned out really well. I'm glad that I made my own vinaigrette for the salad. The homemade dressing was delicious and perfect as a side with the chicken. If you are going to use the rub to make the dressing I recommend doubling the recipe or there will be no where near enough. The skin on the chicken was perfect, nice and crispy.

For the recipe go to Sesame Lemon Chicken.

Perfect For Summer Grilling Season: Grilled Chicken Thighs with Cucumber Mint Salad Recipe

Grilled Chicken Thighs with Cucumber Mint Salad

There are weeks I love complex meals. I will spend hours in the kitchen making the perfect recipe. Then there are days like today where I want simple comfort food. Hence why I currently have pinto beans in the crock pot and I will be making cornbread later in the afternoon. There is something about the beginning of summer that makes me want to have something warm and comforting one more time before the weather and humidity make me want nothing more than cold iced tea and lemonade. To me pinto beans are not only part of what I love about West Virginia, but they make me remember what I love about food and cooking, sometimes the simplest of dishes are the best. One simple dish that I love in the warm summer months is salad. Cold side salads are such a great option, they are cool and refreshing. Last week I tried a new recipe for Grilled Chicken Thighs with Cucumber Mint Salad from the June 2013 issue of Eating Well magazine.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes 35 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 4 servings. I did make changes to the original recipe. First since I have three males to feed I doubled the recipe. One chicken thigh for each person just wouldn't have cut it. I think I may be the only food blogger that does not have a mortar and pestle, so for the garlic paste I used the side of a knife. I use this method frequently and it is a perfect substitute. My outside grill is still out of commission so to cook the chicken thighs I used my indoor electric grill. It would also work well under the broiler.

To me the star of this dish was the cucumber salad. It was light and the perfect palate cleanser for the chicken thighs. The flavor of the rub on the chicken was great and would work well with other cuts of chicken (such as breasts) or even fish. At under 2 dollars a serving this is an inexpensive meal option for summer.

For the recipe go to Grilled Chicken Thighs with Cucumber Mint Salad.

Recipe for Grilled Chicken Salad with Tahini Yogurt Dressing and Fresh Mint

Grilled Chicken Salad with Tahini Yogurt Dressing and Fresh Mint

With the weather getting warm this week grilling season is definitely coming. My husband still has our charcoal grill in the basement with the promise that he will be fixing it up soon. Since it has sat downstairs for two years I am beginning to think that he is lacking motivation. Of course I could work on it, but my to do list is long enough that adding anything to it just wouldn't happen. Since my outdoor grill is out of commission I utilize my indoor electric grill or my stove top grill pan. Both are great options and I use them frequently. The beginning of summer in my household also means cold salads and sides. I love combining grilled meats and cold salads into one recipe. This week I tried a new recipe for Chicken Salad with Tahini Yogurt Dressing from the June 2013 issue of Food and Wine magazine.

This recipe has 14 ingredients. It takes 40 minutes of total time, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 6 servings. I did make a few changes to the original recipe. First I used 2% Greek yogurt instead of whole fat yogurt. As I talked about in the intro I used my indoor electric grill to make the grilled chicken thighs. I am not a fan of hot chicken salad, especially in the warmer months so I allowed the salad to sit in the fridge for 15 minutes before serving. This allowed the chicken to cool and made for a better flavor. Finally, I served the salad over white rice. It would also work well with flatbread.

Yogurt dressing is always popular in my household. We also are big fans of grilled chicken. However, this recipe only received an okay from my family. The thighs were almost too moist for the rest of the salad. There was a lot of flavor in the recipe, which I liked, but it didn't stand out from other chicken with yogurt sauce recipes. I would suggest increasing the amount of chipotle, adding a small amount of cumin and serving the salad with Naan or pita bread. Making it more like a wrap or sandwich would help the recipe be even better.

For the recipe go to Chicken Salad with Yogurt Tahini Dressing.

Grilled Chicken Shawarma

Growing up my father was a huge red meat eater. He absolutely loved steak, burgers and stews. I on the other hand would chose fish and chicken if given the choice. To this day I still love grilled chicken over steak and sausage. However, my husband and two boys love red meat. When I say love, I mean really love red meat. In particular bacon is a favorite of theirs. If they could eat bacon at every meal they would do so happily and see nothing wrong with doing so. While I do love bacon, I have been encouraging my family to eat more chicken and fish. Luckily my two boys have discovered they love any type of grilled chicken. They get very excited when I take out the indoor grill and start grilling chicken. Last month I tried a new recipe for Chicken Shawarma from the August issue of Family Circle magazine, which with 35 grams of protein looked perfect for my active family.

This recipe has 13 ingredients. It takes 20 minutes of prep and 10 minutes of broiling time and makes 6 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and made no ingredient modifications. I chose to use naan instead of lavash bread. I love naan and use it frequently. Instead of broiling my chicken I used an indoor grill. The broiler on my oven has been broken for months, so obviously I am unable to use it. Using the grill was perfect for this recipe and I think it would work better than the broiler in the first place. It took approximately 10 minutes for the chicken thighs to cook on the indoor grill. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

The chicken in this recipe turned out delicious. I think modifying the recipe to use the grill instead of the broiler was perfect. I would use this method again if I made this recipe a second time. My two kids really liked these sandwiches. The fact that they can be held was something that my kids really liked and the flavor of the chicken was delicious. Now that I'm not eating gluten if I was to make this recipe again I would eat it as a salad. The chicken would be great as a salad and would only need a very light vinegar dressing. Overall, a very easy and child friendly recipe.

For the recipe go to Chicken Shawarma.

Chicken Shawarma

My two kids and I love sandwiches. I make homemade bread weekly and every week my kids and I fight over sandwich ingredients. We all have a major peanut butter craving and I am not afraid to say that peanut butter is probably one of my favorite foods. I have tried giving it up over the years, but I always go back. My peanut butter obsession seems to go back to when I was little and we had very little money. We had to stand in the line at the church food line and the best part of the experience was the peanut butter. It came in huge jars and I loved it. I would literally eat it out of the jar with a spoon, sometimes actually squirting honey into the jar to combine and eat. Now that I'm older, while I still love peanut butter I have forced myself to branch out and try new sandwich combinations. One of my favorite sandwich fillings is grilled chicken, so I was very excited when I saw a recipe for Chicken Shawarma in the March/April issue of Eating Well magazine.

This recipe has 13 ingredients. It takes a total of 45 minutes, all of which is active and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients and made no ingredient modifications. I chose to use whole wheat pita bread, I try to use whole wheat whenever possible. I found a beautiful tomato at the farmer's market which worked perfectly for this recipe. Since I used an indoor grill my total grilling time was closer to 4 minutes per side. I weighed out my chicken breast to ensure proper amounts, I encourage anyone that doesn't have a food scale to buy one. They really are worth the money and can make a huge difference in recipes! Normally I would have used fresh lemon juice, but I completely forgot to buy lemons, so I used bottled instead. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My three-year-old loved these sandwiches. I wasn't sure if he would eat the sauce or turn up his nose, but he ate his whole serving. At first I thought that the chicken was too salty, but once the sauce was added to the sandwich the taste was perfect. The recipe states that it makes four servings, but my family eats a lot of meat so this dish made more like 3 servings. I would suggest doubling the recipe if you have a meat eating family like I do or if you want leftovers. Overall, a popular new sandwich recipe in my house.

For the recipe go to Chicken Shawarma.

Womans Day Seared Tilapia with Pineapple and Cucumber Relish

My oldest son loves fish. Any time that I prepare a fish dish he eagerly eats his serving and then goes around begging for more. I love how easy fish is to prepare and it's a great solution for a busy weeknight meal. Growing up my mom only prepared salmon, which I love, but after moving out on my own I taught myself to appreciate a larger variety of fish. Currently I try to prepare at least one fish dish every week or two. I would prepare fish even more if it was less expensive and I could get my meat eating husband to be convinced that bacon isn't its own food group. As I was looking through the January issue of Woman's Day Magazine I came across a recipe for Seared Tilapia with Pineapple and Cucumber Relish, which looked easy and full of protein.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes 20 minutes of total time, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I actually had to go to multiple stores in order to find non-farm raised tilapia, but I was finally able to find some. I had no problems finding any of the other ingredients and made no modifications. I chose to seed the jalapeno since my five and three-year-old were eating it and they are hit or miss with eating spicy foods. In order for the fish to not stick I used slightly more oil than suggested by the recipe. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

Fish recipes are great weeknight meals. They save time and are always popular with my children. This recipe has 40 grams of protein and 9 grams of fat per serving and took less than a half an hour to prepare. The relish was delicious, my husband added rice wine vinegar to his dish and thought that it enhanced the flavor even more. Overall, a healthy and easy fish recipe.

For the recipe go to Seared Tilapia with Pineapple and Cucumber Relish.

Everyday Food Chicken Koftas with Cucumbers and Yogurt

If left on their own the three men in my house, would more than likely eat pork at every meal. Yesterday my two youngest children successfully finished off an entire packaged of apple wood smoked bacon (don't worry it was cooked!). While, I appreciate pork as much as the next person, I also want my family to eat a well rounded diet, with a larger portion of white meat. Each week I try to make one vegetarian, one chicken, and one fish recipe, to both expose my children to new tastes and to make sure we all live a long healthy life. The one form of chicken meat that I have a harder time appreciating is ground chicken. Oftentimes, I find the meat to be dry due to its lack of fat. Therefore, I am always looking for new recipes involving chicken meat, and I was intrigued when the June issue of Everyday Food magazine had a recipe for Chicken Koftas with Cucumbers and Yogurt.

This recipe has 11 ingredients and I was easily able to find everything at my local grocery store. I normally grind my own chicken fresh, but for this recipe I used frozen ground chicken that I had made at an earlier date. My total prep and cooking time was approximately 30 minutes. I followed the recipe as stated, with the exception of adding 1/2 teaspoon of cumin as suggested, I made no other modifications.

Since I cook and bake so frequently, I am bound to run into recipes that are less than stellar. This recipe ended up being one of those occasions. My husband and I were not fans of the chicken being formed into patties. The chicken was dry, I would have preferred it crumbled and my husband thought it would benefit from the patties being as thin as a fast food burger. There was too little sauce for the amount of meat and I was not a fan of the mint being loose instead of incorporated into the sauce. I think that this dish would have benefited from the addition of more spice to the chicken patties. I love finding healthier ways to make common dishes, but this is one recipe that I will stick to the traditional lamb version, the taste is so much better!

For the recipe go to Everyday Food Chicken Koftas with Cucumbers and Yogurt.