Chicken Salad w/Garlic Lemon Dressing

So the other day I was home and decided to make something for dinner. I had some Roman Lettuce, and some chicken breast and said to myself, "Let's make a chicken Salad. I made a quick marinade for the chicken, chopped some lettuce, and made a quick dressing. It turned out great.

What you need:
2-3 heads - Roman Lettuce


For the Chicken
2 - Whole Chicken Breast
3 Tbsp - Agave
1/3 cup - Balsamic Vinegar
1/4 cup - EVOO

For the Dressing
1 - Lemon
Salt & Pepper (to taste)
Minced Garlic (I love garlic, so I use a lot!)
EVOO

So place the chicken breast in a small dish that can be placed in the oven. Add the Agave, Balsamic, and EVOO in the same dish. Mix it around a bit, and then place in the over at 350. You're going to cook this for about 20-40 minutes, depends on how thick your breast is.

While that is cooking, take out the Roman Lettuce and chop.

Now it's time for the Dressing. Using a container that you can cap and shake, place the following into the container in the order listed above. Place the cap on and shake vigorously.

Once the chicken in cooked all the way through, take it out of the oven and cut it into strips or large chunks. Place in the same bowl as the roman. If you'd like, you can take the drippings and add it to the salad dressing (giving it another good shake) and then toss it with the chicken and roman.

Plate and serve. This is a quick and easy meal...hope you enjoy.

A part of our body that shrinks when we eat junk food?

So I was on FB today and a good friend of mine posts a article on how eating junk food can actually shrink a part of our body. I know, I was thinking the same thing as you are right now...this can't be real. Well, it is real. Unfortunately, we aren't shrinking anything we actually would like to shrink...like our waist lines, no, that would be just too convenient. No it turns out that our brains are actually shrinking. For this this explained a whole lot.


This can lead to all kinds of discussions, such as how the poor are the ones that primarily the ones that eat junk food. That it could be a conspiracy to keep poor uneducated people in the same social economic status that they are in. Yes we could go on and on about what the implications of all this could be, but hey, I'll let you read the story for yourself.


Check it out, at "http://www.vancouversun.com/touch/story.html?id=5919814"

Honey Baked Chicken

This is something I've been trying for years to get from a good friend of mine, his famous Honey Baked Chicken. I always thought it was something that was hard to make, but it turns out, not so much.
Men, this is an easy recipe that you can make that will really impress the ladies (or fellas, whatever floats your boat).


What you need

• 2 lbs of Chicken Thighs or cut up fryer
• 1 stick of butter
• ¼ cup prepared mustard
• ¼ cup honey
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1 tablespoon of Indian Curry

Combine the butter, mustard, Salt, honey and curry in a saucepan. Cook on low heat until are ingredients are combined into a creamy sauce. Arrange chicken in a baking dish and pour sauce covering all the chicken. Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour and a half. Serve with mash potatoes and steamed carrots. Use juice and drippings from chicken to pour over your potatoes and carrots.

Caprese

Homemade Caprese

A simple to make salad that will just knock the socks off of just about anyone. If you plan on having some Italian themed meal, try this starter out. Its made very easily with some mozzarella, tomatoes, basil and salt.


Needs:
1 lb Mozzarella
3-4 vine ripen Tomatoes
10-20 fresh Basil leaves
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
Balsamic Vinegar (optional)


Directions:

1. Slice the Mozzarella and Tomatoes into 1/4" slices.
2. Place the Mozzarella and Tomatoes down alternating between the two with a basil leaf in between them.
3. Add some Salt and pepper to taste and drizzle some Extra Virgin Olive Oil on top and serve. If you like, you can also add the Balsamic Vinegar on top as well.

Easy to make, and you'll look like a pro in the kitchen...

Pesto for Two

One of my favorite things is Pesto. You can always by it in the markets, but I find that making it fresh always tastes best. Now I'm going to share a couple of recipes here, but they all fit in the same theme, Pesto.


If you search the web for pesto recipe, you're going to get a bunch of hits, but the basic recipe is generally the same, with a few changes here and there.


Basic Pesto Sauce

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese grated
3 cloves garlic
2 cups fresh basil leaves
3 tablespoons pine nuts
1 dash salt and pepper


Food Processor
Add the garlic to the food processor and mince. Next, add the basil leaves, pine nuts, and a dash of salt and pepper to the bowl of the processor. While the processor is running, slowly drizzle in olive oil through the feed tube until all the ingredients are pureed.


You may need to stop the processor at this point and scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula to get every mixed together. Now add Parmesan cheese and mix it into the rest of the mixture. If the pesto is too thick, add a tablespoon of water.

Blender
Add all the ingredients (except salt and pepper) into a blender in the order above. Start the blender off at a slower setting then increase to the second to the fastest speed. Blend for about a minute.


You should have enough sauce to cover about 1 pound of pasta. Cover and refrigerate until you are ready to use it. This should keep for 2 - 3 days in the fridge but freezes well if you want to keep it longer.


Now that you have the pesto, you can make the meal, which consists of two three parts, the Pasta, the Veggies, and the Salmon.


Pasta is the simplest part...just cook it according to the directions on the package. Veggies as simple as well. I recommend a squash medley of some sort.


The salmon is what would/could take the most time to prep.


Pesto Salmon


1 Salmon Filet
1/4 cup of Pesto Sauce (just made)
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley flakes

1 stick of butter

1 Lemon (or Lime)
Fresh Dill
salt and pepper


Pesto Butter
Take the butter and pesto and put it into a mixer. Mix until pesto and butter is thoroughly mixed. Set aside in the refrigerator.


Once you have made the Pesto Butter you can finish this dish. Take your salmon filet and place in a bake safe dish. For those that don't bake on a regular basis, the disposable trays. Pre-heat the over to 350º. While the oven is heating, sprinkle the salmon with the parsley flakes, salt and pepper. Place a lemon slice on the the filet along with the dill.


Cook covered with foil for about 20 minutes (or until cooked to desired).


Sever the salmon with the pasta and veggies on the side. Enjoy.

Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki is a very interesting dish. I can best describe this as a Cabbage Pancake. Yes, that right, a cabbage pancake. It is very easy to make, and can be very filling. For those that have friends that don't eat meat, but are ok with eggs, this is great also. Now this particular recipe I came across while shopping at Marukai in Little Tokyo. Like the pancakes that we make at home or go to Denny's or IHOP for, you can be very creative in what you decide to do with this. You can go to www.otafukufoods.com to see a few variations of what I give you here. So, what do you need?

Needs (for 3 servings of 6" pancakes):

• Okonomiyaki flour
• 1 Green Onions (I like to add more)
• Half a Cabbage
• 3 Eggs
• 3/4 cup of Water
• Okonomiyaki Sauce
• Sliced Meat (Pork, Beef, Chicken, even Shrimp!), optional

Directions:

1. Cut/Shred cabbage into thin strips. Slice green onions. Set this aside.
2. Mix water and Okonomiyaki flour in a mixing bowl. (Hint: use a bowl big enough to put all the ingredients in so you don't have to wash as many dishes). Mix until the flour has completely dissolved.
3. Mix all the other ingredients in with the batter, cabbage, green onions, eggs. Mix all the ingredients together, but don't "over mix" as the directions say. You, in essence, want everything coated in the batter (Photo 1)
4. Spread the batter in a skillet to about 6", top with your choice of meat and let that cook for 3 minutes (Hint: don't press down on the pancake) (Photo 2).
5. Flip the pancake, turning the meat side down. Cook for another 4 minutes.
6. Flip it one last time (meat side back up), and cook it for another 3 minutes (Photo 3).
7. Plate the Okonomiyaki on a plate and serve it with Okonomiyaki sauce. You can add weaweed, katsuo bushi, or anything else you like on top...now enjoy.

Photo 1: Okonomiyaki Mix

Photo 2: Sliced Meat

Photo 3: Cooking it up