Shrimp, Chicken and Tofu Stir Fry

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all are enjoying the new year so far. I know that many people have made New Years Resolutions that include getting healthier, working out more and being overall happier with yourself. Ben and I are part of this group that made these resolutions and we've both stuck to it for the past 6 days. :)

The past few nights for dinner I've been experimenting with an Asian vegetable mix, and tonight Ben and I added Shrimp, Chicken and Tofu to the mix. It turned out really good. I accomplished making two new things (Shrimp and Tofu) and succeed in part of my resolution to try and eat more balanced, healthy meals. On my own I tend to not eat enough protein so experimenting with Tofu and Shrimp tonight was very exciting. I did try the shrimp, however I have to say it is not on my list of seafood that I like. Ben ended up eating 5 and 3/4 of the 6 shrimp we cooked.


Ben and I agreed that it was a great meal, easy, super fast and great for you. I'm not sure anyone would be looking for anything different in the New Year.


Shrimp, Chicken and Tofu Stir Fry

1 boneless skinless chicken breast
6 large shrimp, peeled and devained
1/4 block extra firm tofu
1/2 tsp chopped fresh ginger
6 Tbsp low sodium Soy sauce
1 tsp hot sesame oil
3 cups Oriental Style frozen vegetables*
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
salt
pepper
rice noodles (we followed the packaging and made about 2.5 servings at 150 calories per serving)

*French green beans, onions, broccoli, and mushroom mix.

Slice the raw chicken breast into bite size pieces. I cut the chicken on an angle so that the slices were thin and would cook as fast as the shrimp. Add the chicken and shrimp to a bowl with 3 Tbsp Soy sauce, 1/2 tsp hot sesame oil and the ginger. Let marinate for anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour (or more if you have the time.) Slice the tofu into whatever size pieces you want to use and set aside.


Cook the rice noodles according to the package. While the noodles are cooking place the vegetables in a sautee pan, and let cook until warmed through (about 5 minutes) add the shrimp, chicken, tofu and marinate mixture to the pan. This will all cook very quickly, you will only need to make sure that the chicken is no longer pink and the shrimp is just turning white and pink. Add the rest of the soy, oil and the spices. Stir to combine.


Drain the rice noodles and spoon the vegetables mixture on top and pour any extra liquid over everything. This made two servings perfectly. Eat and enjoy, we did!

Pulled Chicken Chili

Ben and I were going to make dinner last night, but those plans got derailed due to a need to return some Christmas gifts. (Ben ended up with great stuff he would have never bought himself...so it was a very successful return.) So tonight I decided that we'd make something, invent a recipe based off of a few others and have a delicious dinner.


This pulled chicken chili is based off of a Chipotle-Black Bean Chili from Cooking Light. I knew that Ben would need some meat in this meal, beans and tomatoes may hold me over, but Ben would be hungry in 10 minutes. So I wanted to add chicken. I love that pulled chicken texture (in my Mom's chicken soup she chunks the chicken in to hearty pulled mouthfuls) and this was what I thought would put this Chili over the top, make it that extra something special. Mouthfuls of chili soaked chicken, juicy and yummy.



Pulled Chicken Chili

1/2 tsp olive oil
2/3 cup diced onions
1 diced bell pepper*
1 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp cumin
Cayenne pepper, to taste (optional)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 chicken breasts, boneless skinless
3 tbs chipotle salsa
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes, with the liquid
1/2 cup chicken broth OR water
1 15 oz can black beans, drained
1 4.5 oz can diced green chilies, drained
Cilantro, to taste

*We used a yellow bell pepper, any color you prefer will work.


In a medium sized pot, heat the oil and add in the diced onion. Let cook until translucent. Add the bell pepper, chili powder, cumin, salsa, and tomatoes. Bring this mixture to a boil (if you want your chili extra spicy like I do add the cayenne pepper in with the other spices.)

Meanwhile, salt and pepper the chicken breasts. Place the chicken in the pot with the tomato mixture and let simmer for 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. The liquid in the pot should cover the chicken. If it does not, you then need to add the chicken broth or water. This is so that the chicken cooks evenly in the liquid. The amount will depend on what size pot you use and how thick your chicken breasts are. We used about 1/2 a cup. Let simmer uncovered.


Remove the chicken from the pot and shred with two forks. Add the beans, green chiles and the chicken back in. Bring back up to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for about 10 minutes. Right before serving, toss in a bit of chopped cilantro. Stir to combine and then ladle into bowls.

You can serve the chili on top of some white rice or sprinkle some cheddar cheese on top. Plain's good too!


Ben and I both went back for seconds. This is a must make. So good!

Roasted Vegetable Quinoa and Chicken

So I wanted to try Quinoa, and I've wanted to try it for a while, but I was told all the healthy benefits of eating it and decided it was time. I looked up a few different recipes online and figured out that roasting some vegetables and mixing it with the quinoa would be the best first try of the grain. (Technically it is not a grain and is from the spinach/swiss chard family.)


Quinoa

1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
1 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 onion
1/2 yellow pepper
1/2 orange pepper
6 or 7 small tomatoes, cut in half


First you need to rinse the quinoa, just by soaking it in water for a little. Bring the water to a boil in a small sauce pan, add the quinoa and leave it uncovered for 15 minutes or until all the water is absorbed. While the quinoa is cooking place the vegetables (skin side up) on a greased pan under the broiler. It will take 5-10 minutes until the vegetable start to brown, take them out and chop into about 1 inch pieces. Our tomatoes had to come out before the rest of the vegetables, but just watch them. Once the quinoa is cooked add the veggies, salt, pepper and olive oil. Stir until combined and plate.


We ate this with just some sauteed chicken breasts with salt, pepper, chyanne pepper and oregano.


Quinoa is good. The texture was very interesting a little crunchy but creamy too, there was not a lot of taste to the quinoa, but the roasted vegetables and the chicken defiantly made it a good meal. Would I make it again, yes. Would I find a recipe to incorporate more flavors, yes. With all the health benefits it's kind of hard to argue with eating it...you just have to bump up the flavors of the other things you are pairing this with.

Spicy Chicken Soup

Ben and I made our first dinner at my new apartment. It was spicy, yummy and quick. A perfect mid-week dinner.


To figure out what we wanted Ben and I listed the things that we were craving. I said I wanted spicy, Ben said soup, I asked chicken? and Ben agreed. I then searched for something that would match our key words on Cooking Light's website. Low and behold we found Spicy Chicken Soup!

Spicy Chicken Soup

3 Tbsp chipotle salsa with adobo sauce
1 tsp olive oil
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 medium to small onion, chopped
1 jalapeno without seeds, diced
1 tsp ground cumin
2 cups cooked chicken breast strips
2 (14 1/2-ounce) cans fat-free, chicken broth
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes and green chiles, undrained
1 can whole-kernel corn with sweet peppers, drained


Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add bell pepper, onions, jalapeno, and cumin; saute 4 minutes or until the vegetables are soft. Stir in salsa, chicken, broth, tomatoes, and corn. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer 3 minutes.

We grated some reduced fat cheddar cheese over the top, with some crackers on the side it was a fabulous dinner. This recipe makes 4 servings of 2 cups.


So this dinner takes about 15 minutes to put together but tastes like it simmered all day, the flavors are so good and spicy. This soup warmed us up on a chilly fall night. (The cooking light nutrition facts are about 350 calories, 11 grams fat, and 40 grams protein.) Ben reheated the extra for lunch and it was just as good the second time around.

Enchiladas y Coronas

It's Cinco De Mayo, well it was yesterday, and it had been a while since Ben and I had made dinner together. So we decided, yes over AIM at work that we would make a Mexican feast to partake in the celebration of Cinco De Mayo. I looked through a few different recipes on Cooking Light's website and found this one. And it looked almost perfect for dinner. Ben was excited all day long saying he could not wait to make our Enchiladas. We enhanced the recipe a bit, but just added a few more veggies in to kick up our version of this traditional Mexican Dish.



Chicken and Cheese Enchiladas
Pam
1 medium onion
1 orange bell pepper*
1 10 oz can enchilada sauce**
3 cups boneless skinless chicken breast***
1 cup pre-shredded reduced fat Mexican blend cheese
1 15 oz can black beans
2 jalapeños
1/2 tsp cumin
8 6 in corn tortillas
1/4 cup fresh copped cilantro

*We used orange becasue we like orange but any color bell pepper you want to buy or have on hand will work.

**We used Old El Paso enchilada sauce like the recipe called for, our supermarket only had mild and hot, so we picked mild to be on the safe side, because neither of us had ever had the enchilada sauce. Next time I'd buy the hot, because even with the jalapeños in the dish I thought it wasn't spicy enough.

***Perdue Short Cuts, precooked chicken is the best product ever. We used the original roasted but the plain grilled would have been fine too. You can also sautee up some chicken breast if you have some handy just with a little salt and pepper or you can use leftover chicken from the night before.


In a medium skillet coated with Pam heat the peppers, onions and hot peppers over medium high heat, saute for just a few minutes. Add in the entire can of enchilada sauce and bring to a boil, then reduce down to a simmer and cover for 5 minutes, to thicken.


In a seperate bowl mix chicken, black beans (strained,) 3/4 cup cheese, and cumin toss well to coat.

In the microwave heat the tortillas according to the directions, we just did 30 seconds and found that they were not warmed enough, and started cracking when we were rolling. Spoon 1/4 cup of the mixture into the tortilla and roll, place seem side down in a 11 X 7 inch baking dish coated with Pam. Repeat until all are filled and rolled. We had extra middle mixture so we just put it on top of the tortillas, then pour the entire sauce mixture over the enchiladas. Bake in a 450 degree oven for 7 to 8 minutes until the enchiladas are heated through. Add the remaining cheese to the top and place back in the oven for another one to two minutes.


Garnish with cilantro and serve.

This makes 4 servings of 2 enchiladas each which was plenty for me, Ben had 3. :)


This was so good, there were a few changes that we would make for next time. We correctly followed the original directions on the website to put under the broiler for 3 minutes, and found that our enchiladas were warm and not hot, and so I made that correction above. I loved the addition of the black beans and jalapeños. This meal was cheap (about 17 dollars for all the supplies) easy, (took about 30 minutes to do everything) and healthy (the original recipe says it was 364 calories 10 grams of fat per serving.) And wow was it yummy. You could not tell that this was a healthy meal it was so flavorful and good, Ben and I have already started making plans for making it again.


I highly recommend this recipe not only for Cinco De Mayo but for any night of the week. So good! Don't forget your Corona and a lime to complete this festive meal.

The Case of the Rotten Vegetables & The First Grill

FINALLY. It's warm enough to grill out. I have been waiting for this day, the first summer like day in Boston for a while. I love to (have Ben) grill us food. We were both feeling a little lazy as it is getting to the end of the week, and decided that we would just grill whatever was in the kitchen and not go out to the store. This turned out to be a tragic story of the case of the rotten vegetables.

What do we do with: brown baby carrots, mushy "fresh" spinach, soft and wrinkly peppers (green and red), brown "white" mushrooms, a green "purple" onion, soft potatoes (both red and Idaho) and white frozen green beans? Well you throw it all away. But what did it leave us with...not much. So we did find a medium size yellow onion and actual white mushrooms. I decided not to put these on the grill, to just let Ben grill up some chicken breasts for us and a couple of hot dogs for him. This did leave Ben with a very empty kitchen, so going shopping for fresh veggies will happen in the near future. Good thing it was trash night!


I sauteed down the mushrooms and onions in a pan together over medium to high heat and made a loverly side dish to our grilled food. Ben also said that if we added in a green pepper and grilled some sausages this would be the perfect Fenway replica of the Sausage Guy's offerings.

Mushrooms and Onions

1 medium size Yellow onion
7 or 8 White mushrooms
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 tsp dried garlic powder

Pam a sautee pan and let it warm to medium to high heat. While the pan is warming slice mushrooms and dice onion. Add the mushrooms to the pan and let start cooking down for a minute or two, then add in the onions and just let cook down, they will start to sweat and let out their juices, then add in the salt, pepper and garlic powder. Continue to sautee until onions are starting to brown and are fully soft and mushrooms have reduced their size by half. Plate, top or just devour this really easy side dish to any meal.


Grilled Chicken

2 Boneless skinless Chicken Breasts
seasonings


I love my grilled chicken with just some salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Ben loves those premixed seasoning that you can pick up in any grocery store. Tonight he used a "char-grill" mix while I did the traditional seasonings (see above.) I don't want to over power the taste of the grill, and therefore like to keep the seasonings on the lighter side. This chicken was just as I love it, a little crunch on the outside and juicy in the middle. My boyfriend is the master of the grill.


Next time we may take a trip to the store to pick up some other vegetables, but the dinner miraculously worked out. Between the smell of the grill and the mushrooms and onions it smelled like a Saturday afternoon and the ballpark.

Spicy Honey Brushed Chicken Breasts

Chicken. Ok, but what kind of chicken do you want to make? I'm not sure either. Is it warm enough to grill yet? No. Ok. Let's find something good. Ok.


So while looking through both food network and cooking light's websites we thought about indoor grilled chicken, which just seemed wimpy compared to a real grill outside, chicken tenders, sauteed chicken...hmmm no I wanted something fun, wild even. Something new and experimental.


Thats when I found this recipe, it looked very good, and pretty easy. A side of broccilini steamed and we'd be all set for a great dinner. I did change the recipe slightly, so see below.

Spicy Honey Brushed Chicken Breasts

2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
Cooking spray
3 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

Preheat broiler.

Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Add chicken to bowl; toss to coat. Place chicken on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray, next time I would put foil down becasue our pan became really messy from the juices and the spices. Broil chicken 5 minutes on each side. They will be cooked through, do not worry.


Combine honey and vinegar in a small bowl, stirring well. Remove chicken from oven; brush cup honey mixture on each chicken breast. Broil 1 minute. Remove chicken from oven and turn over, brush chicken with remaining honey mixture. Broil 1 additional minute until chicken is done.

Plate, serve and enjoy.


We both loved this chicken it was like almost a barbecue sauce with the sweetness from the honey-vinegar and the spiciness from the chili powder and the pepper flakes. Try it either our way or the original (obviously the garlic was taken out, but it did not lack any flavor without it.) Its good!

White Chicken Chili

"Wanna make dinner tonight?" I asked Ben over AIM this afternoon. His answer was "Yes!" Which surprised me because I thought he'd be to tired and hurting too much after spraining his ankle at basketball last night. But to my astonishment he wanted to, and there started the back and forth...fish? chicken? chili? Chili! Such a good idea. I browsed my usual favorite blog sites and also food network and sent Ben some of the best of the best looking recipes. We settled on this one. I originally found it here, but want to give the original blogger its due.


We made a few slight changes one because I don't eat garlic. I know, i know everyone loves garlic but I, I hate it. So when Ben and I make dinner together theres no garlic in anything. As you can tell I will make Ben food with garlic in it, but I will not eat it myself. So we had to omit and we added a few things to compensate. It turned out really great. I've never had a white chili before, this was a really nice alternative to regular chili. Its not weighted down with all the heavy meats and oils and tomatoes as regular chili's are. So try it but don't expect it to be normal, but do expect greatness.

White Chili

1-1/2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions
2 jalapeño peppers
1/4 inch minced ginger root
1 lb chicken breast
5-6 white mushrooms
1 tablespoon flour
2 cups chicken broth
2 15 oz cans white beans
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 small tomato
3 green onions
jalapeño hot sauce

In a large sauce pan over medium heat pour in oil and bring up to temperature add chopped onions and chopped jalapeño pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add ginger and cook until fragrant, another minute. Add chicken and sliced mushrooms. Cover and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to cook chicken on all sides.


Sprinkle in flour and stir to coat (this is the thickening agent to help the broth get to that chili consistency rather than soup.) Cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Add broth, beans, cilantro, bay leaf, oregano, cumin, salt and pepper. Cover, reduce heat and simmer until vegetables are tender and chicken is cooked through will be about 15 minutes.

Discard bay leaf and then spoon chili into bowls and garnish with tomato, green onion and a few shakes of hot sauce.


We really liked this chili, we especially liked adding in the extra jalapeño and hot sauce. It really made the spiciness and the flavors of the other spices come through. The chicken was so tender after simmering in the liquid for a while. I would defiantly recommend trying this recipe.


Yummy, spicy, healthy...is there anything better? I'd give it 5 out of 5 stars. :) Enjoy!

Chinese Food, but not Take Out?

The title of this post may confuse you. Well, I as well was throughly confused by the extreme yumminess of this dish. It was so good, and Ben and I were so proud of our selves. It tasted exactly like General Gao's Chicken, except not fried, didn't cost 8 dollars a dish and was healthy. I know I know all things that don't seem to be real. But its true. It was a great experiment, if only we had made more.


The credit to this dish has to go to Kevin, on his blog I found the original recipe, and made a few changes to it. I thought that the pineapple juice may have too strong of a flavor and over power some of the other more delicate flavors of this dish. I'm always worried about too much pineapple juice, it can make a good cocktail go south with just a splash too much, so I substituted orange juice to keep some acidity. I also wanted to add in chili flakes for a little more heat along with the ginger. I wouldn't make any changes to the recipe the way that mine came out. We both thought it was spectacular.


General Gao's Chicken (Healthy Style)

1 lb chicken (cut into strips)*
4 tbsp light soy sauce
4 tbsp orange juice**
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp dark brown sugar
1 1/2 tbsp minced ginger root
1/8 tsp chili flakes
Pam
1 tsp sesame seeds

*We used the precut "stir-fry chicken strips" that you can buy in the supermarket
**Our orange juice turned out to be a month old, so we just freshly squeezed an orange, either will work.

Mix soy, juice, ginger, honey, sugar, chili flakes and chicken in a zip lock bag and marinate for 45 minutes in the refrigerator. This allows the flavors to start melding together and breaking into the chicken.

Once you have let the chicken marinate Pam a sautee pan and add all chicken and marinate to it, should be over high heat. Chicken will cook through and sauce will start to thicken in about 8 to 10 minutes. During this time we also cooked up some boil-in-the-bag brown rice to go with our chicken. When the sauce is thick turn off the heat and place on top of a mound of rice. Garnish the chicken with the sesame seeds.


Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm so good.

Pizzeria Calvin

We've been talking about making pizza for dinner the past couple nights, that means that eventually we'll get around to it. Maybe we have to build up the idea in our head, or build the want and need for fresh home-made pizza. The need, want and eagerness were all present tonight. A trip to Pizzeria Calvin (ok Ben's kitchen) for both deep dish and thin crust pizza. That's one of the best things about making home-made pizza you can tailor it to your taste you can add toppings without making it a 20 dollar pizza and you can enjoy the freshness and joy of making pizza just as good, or better than you're local joint.


We cheat. Let's just put it out there. I should give you my recipe for pizza dough and tell you I let it rise and kneaded it. But for $1.89 (thats how much ours cost) you can buy a ready made pizza dough in the refrigerated section of any grocery store. This dough say 11 servings, but Ben and I turned out 2 medium size pizzas from one bag. We also bough fresh made pizza sauce from our grocery store. It was a very basic sauce, vine ripened tomatoes, oils, oregano and spices. That was all was in the sauce we used. This was a really fun dinner that got both of us in the kitchen cooking, tossing pizza dough in the air, and having a good time. I recommend this for families or a date night. Simple, easy and good.



Almost Everything Healthy Toppings Pizza
1 bag refrigerated dough
1 container pizza sauce
1 package part skim mozzarella
1 green bell pepper
7 or 8 chopped mushrooms
2 vine ripened tomatoes
1 medium onion
1 chicken breast*

*You can either buy the ready made refrigerated chicken slices or do what we did quickly sautéed a breast with just salt and pepper, and cut into strips.


I recommend first chopping all of your veggies so that they are the right size to go on your pizza, this will make assembly a lot faster. If you want to make 2 separate pizzas like we did, you should divide your dough in half, or into as many pizzas as you want. Then stretch your dough. The best way is to get your dough on your finger tips and pill slightly to stretch it into a circle. Don't forget to rotate so that you get almost a circle. If you are brave you can toss the dough in the air. Ben was good at it. Me not so much. You want it pretty thin, about or a little less than 1/8 inch thick.


I added the pizza sauce to the top of my dough on a Pamed pan. I added my first layer of cheese and then topped off my pizza with all of the raw veggies and the sauteed chicken breast pieces and then another layer of cheese just to top it off.


Ben wanted a deep dish pizza, he used a 9 inch round cake pan. He stretched the dough so that it would just hang over the edge of the pan but slightly dip into the corners so that he would get a nice edge on his pizza. He put down sauce, all the toppings and then more sauce and a thick layer of cheese. We baked both at 450 degrees, Ben's the deep dish went for about 20 minutes while mine was about 15. I think Ben's came out looking professional. They both tasted amazing. Fun, Healthy, Easy, and cheap, what more could you want?

Fettuccine with Chicken, Lemon Asparagus & Sun-dried Tomatoes

This morning I took out chicken from the freeze to defrost, which means I'm making something with chicken in it for dinner. I asked Ben what he wanted and he said Lemon Asparagus. Lemon Asparagus by the way is one of Ben's favorite dishes. He almost ate all of them before they made it in to this dish. So I was thinking what can I make with chicken and lemon asparagus, hmm well we could just grill up some chicken, but that seemed boring. So I came up with this almost gourmet chicken pasta dish.



Fettuccine with Chicken, Lemon Asparagus & Sun-dried Tomatoes

1/2 box of Fettuccine Pasta
Lemon Asparagus
2 chicken breasts
Pam or oil to coat
salt
pepper
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup white wine
7 sun-dried tomatoes, sliced into strips
Parmesan cheese (optional)

Place a medium pot of water on to boil. While waiting for the water to come up, sautee chicken in a pan with a little bit of oil or Pam to coat the bottom . We cut our chicken into bite size pieces so that they would cook faster and would be the right size for eating, cook over medium to high heat. Dust chicken with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes, make sure to go light with the salt especially because sun dried tomatoes are very salty and you don't want to go over board with the salt in the end. Brown on both sides and continue until almost cooked all the way through. Add in 1/4 cup of white wine to get any chicken pieces that have stuck to the bottom of the pan up, and create a bit of a sauce.

Cook pasta according to the directions on the package.

Add one recipe of lemon asparagus to the chicken, white wine mixture. I also cut these bite size, if everything in the end is about the same size it much easier to eat. Since these are already cooked, you just want to toss them in while the chicken is finishing up to meld the favors together. Let simmer until chicken is fully cooked and wine has reduced. Drain pasta and add it to the chicken asparagus mixture, you want to let the pasta absorb some of the flavors from the chicken, asparagus, lemon and wine. Finally add in chopped sun dried tomatoes and just toss to mix everything together.


Serve with Parmesan cheese on top if you like, and enjoy.

This is a light but hearty meal that is pretty easy and healthy. You cannot go wrong with it. Use whatever veggies you have on hand to switch up this meal and reinvent it over again. I think it was more stratifying than the typical "chicken, broccoli and ziti" meal that you find at any restaurant. Without the cream sauce it makes this meal a lot healthier and a bit more interesting with the asparagus and sun-dried tomatoes than boring old broccoli.

Spicy Dirty Rice

Usually one of us, Ben or I actually have a craving for what we want for dinner, usually. Sometimes we can go back and forth for an hour asking, well "what do you want?" Tonight neither of us really wanted anything. I listed off just about everything that I had caned or frozen in my apartment. I can't keep at lot of food in my house since I do share a kitchen with four other girls. If we do actually want something for dinner we'll pick it up on our way over. Tonight we decided to mix everything that I had and attempt to make something good. We came up with Dirty Spicy Rice. It was delicious.

Dirty Spicy Rice

1 cup uncooked rice
2 cups chicken broth or water (or a combination of both)
1/4 tsp salt
2 chicken breasts
Rub*
2-3 Tbsp lime juice
2/3 small can black beans
5 oz frozen corn

In a medium sauce pan cook one cup of any type of white rice according to the package directions. You can either use chicken broth or water, you can even use that 90 second rice in the microwave. Any type will do.

We used 2 chicken breasts that we sliced into bite size pieces before cooking. We added the seasoning to the chicken before putting it in the pan.

*Rub
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp dried basil leaves


In a sautee pan place a little oil or Pam in the bottom to coat, just after placing chicken in the pan to cook add in 2-3 tablespoons of lime juice. Let cook, and sauce render out.

Once chicken is almost finished add frozen corn and black beans. Cook until warmed through and chicken is done.

In a bowl place rice on the bottom and top with chicken mixture. And you're done.