Herbed Wild Rice

This side dish is very simple to make - however, it does take a long time to cook. Be sure to start early so that you're not waiting around for the rice.

Ingredients:

2 Tbs butter

1/2 cup chopped onions (or green onions)

1 cup wild rice medley (a combination of long grain brown, short grain brown, and wild rice)

3/4 tsp sage

1 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups chicken stock

3/4 cup water

Over high heat, sauté onions in butter until nice and tender.

Add rice, sage, thyme, and salt. Sauté for one more minute.

Add chicken stock and water to the pan. Bring to a boil. Once it is boiling, place the lid on the pan, reduce the heat to low, and cook for 1 and 1/2 hours or until rice is tender.

Remove from pan and serve while hot.

Rosemary Chicken with White Beans

Everyone needs a crock-pot recipe and this just happens to be one of our family's favorites.

Ingredients:

2 Tbs. Oil

4 to 6 Chicken Breast halves

2 cups Carrots, sliced

1 cup Celery, sliced

2 cans Great Northern or other white beans, drained and rinsed

1 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Pepper

2 tsp. Rosemary

2/3 cup fat free Italian dressing (or low fat...or any kind, they'll all work)

In a large skillet, heat the oil and brown the chicken breast. Remove and drain.

Place the carrots, celery and beans in the bottom of the crock-pot...

...and add the chicken breasts.

(I know the recipe says 4 to 6, but I usually use 2 to 3 large ones and that feeds my family of 6)

In a medium bowl, combine the salt, pepper, rosemary and Italian dressing and pour over the carrot and celery mixture. Stir to combine.

Cover; cook on Low for 8 hours or on High for 4 hours.

Shred the chicken once it is cooked. Stir to combine with other ingredients, and...

serve over rice.

Enjoy!

Printable Recipe:

Teriyaki Chicken Bowl

Last night for dinner I wanted to make Teriyaki Chicken Kabobs.

I marinated my chicken...I diced my vegetables...and I pulled out my skewers - only to discover that I didn't have enough skewers. So I had to improvise.

Instead of putting it all on cute wooden sticks, I pulled out my wok and started to cook. This is what I came up with. It actually turned out really great.

Ingredients:

Marinade

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup sugar

1 clove garlic

1 Tb. oil

1 tsp. ginger

2 to 3 large chicken breasts - cut in 1 to 1 1/2 inch chunks

Vegetables

2 small zucchini cut into 1 inch chunks

1 onion - chunked

1 red pepper - chunked

1 can diced pineapple - drained (reserve juice)

Rice

3 cups water

1 1/2 cups rice

Mix together Marinade ingredients. Add chicken chunks and marinade 4 hours or overnight.

Cook that rice. If you have a rice cooker, great. I prefer to do it the old fashioned way - add the water and rice to a pan. Bring to a boil and cover the pan with a lid. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, add that marinaded chicken to a large wok. You don't need to add oil because there was already some in the marinade. Cook the chicken for about 3 minutes and then add all the vegetables (except the pineapple). Cook until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are tender. Add about 1/2 to 1 tsp of salt. Once the chicken is almost done, add the pineapple. Cook until the pineapple is heated through.

I added my pineapple at the same time, and it was still good, but there was a lot of juice at the bottom of the wok. If this happens to you, take a little of your reserved pineapple juice (about 3 Tbs) and add 1 Tbs of corn starch. Mix it together in a bowl and then add it to your wok. It will thicken up that liquid in the bottom and give you a nice sauce on your meat.

Once your pineapple is warm and your chicken is done, you are ready to eat. Slap some rice down on that plate and then pile it high with teriyaki chicken. I absolutely love the chicken/pineapple combo. Maybe next time I'll just do pineapple and leave out all those vegetables....who need them anyway, right?

*As a side note, this fed my family of 6 but we ate every last bit of it. If you want to make a larger batch, just add more chicken to the marinade.