Baked Lemon Herb Chicken w/ Lemon Sauce

Um, so I was supposed to post this recipe up last week! I need to stop promising posts by a certain time. Sorry if you were looking out for this!  Ended up not having the free time I wanted.

It's that time of the year for Shia Muslims to observe the month of Muharram (the beginning of the new Islamic year), which unfortunately is a more somber observance for us as we reflect on the history and stories of that time, and life gets super busy!  Between work, cooking, errands, and making it to the mosque on time, I barely have had enough time to just sit these past 10 days. Just the other day, I came home, threw my purse on the kitchen table, opened the fridge and started cooking dinner because I literally had an hour before having to meet up my friend so we could drive from one side of the city to the other for a sermon at the mosque.  I didn't sit until I got in the car.  If you were wondering though, I whipped up my super fast citrus baked chicken fajitas.

This is another flavorful baked chicken dish that can be whipped up if you are ever in a rush and need to get something on the table to feed growling bellies.  And duh, it's healthy!

Lemon Herb Chicken w/ Lemon Sauce and Orange Veggies (sweet potatoes & carrots)

Baked Lemon Herb Chicken w/ Lemon Sauce:

4 chicken breast cutlets
1 lemon, zested and juiced (reserve the juice separately)
2-3 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves off
1 sprig rosemary, finely chopped
1 tsp. red pepper flakes (more or less)
sea salt
black pepper
olive oil
1 tbs. butter
1 tbs. minced garlic
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 tbs. corn starch
1 tsp Worcestershire
1 chicken or vegetable bouillon cube
fresh parsley, chopped, or lemon slices, for garnish

For the chicken, preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray a baking dish with cooking spray and lay down chicken breasts.  Brush olive oil on both sides of the chicken breasts.  In a small bowl, combine the zest, thyme leaves, rosemary, red pepper flakes, sea salt, and black pepper. Generously sprinkle both sides of the chicken breasts with the seasoning.

Bake chicken in the oven for about 20 minutes.  They'll cook quickly since they are thinner slices of the breast.  Always check the thickest cutlet for done-ness.  Remove the baking dish from the oven, and let the chicken rest as you make the sauce.

Now on to the SAUCE.  In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and add garlic.  Cook until garlic is fragrant being careful not to burn the garlic.

Add 1/2 cup of the stock to the pan, and stir cornstarch in to the remaining half of the stock, and then pour that in as well.  Add the Worcestershire, reserved lemon juice, and bouillon cube to the sauce and cook for about 5 minutes until the sauce has thickness.  Add salt and pepper to your liking.

Transfer the sauce to your blender/bullet and blend the sauce until smooth.

Serve the sauce over the chicken, sprinkle with fresh parsley or top with a lemon slice, and enjoy!!

Spicy Turkey Chili and Jalapeno & Cheddar Sweet Potato Hashbrowns

Hey readers, it's been a bit since my last post.  Things are well in life, no complaints.

It's been a crazy few weeks with birthday celebrations, for the young and older, and as much as I adore birthdays, I am birthay'd out!  No more stuffing balloons in my little car, baking cakes, or fishing for a candle in my kitchen drawers.  I need a mini break.  But don't worry friends, if I love you so much, you will still get a birthday cake :)

A little update on the clean eating/healthy lifestyle, judging from my first progress picture to the one I took 4 weeks later, there is a MAJOR difference in my pooch.  So yay for that!!  My shirts fit a lot better with almost nothing sticking out, so that was a major win. My face looks a little thinner and I feel great!

Although I did not work out at all this past week, I did fine with food, a little more cheating on the weekend, but stayed pretty much in line during the week. It's hard to work out when all you're craving is chocolate and salt and having so many emotions... #girlprobs.  It's back to work this week though with some high intensity interval workouts (HIIT), which will do a number on your legs.  I couldn't walk normally for 2 days.  It was one of those "it hurts so good" feelings, so at least I know I did the exercises correctly and really pushed myself. These are great workouts that can easily fit into a busy schedule and can definitely be done at home. Just Google HIIT workouts, and you'll come across a bunch of different workouts.  So much more efficient than just being on the elliptical for an hour watching Netflix.

The weather is getting cooler day by day, which is great. I love fall and spring, those in between seasons have the best weather.  It's perfect for comfort food and nights by the fire pit, which by the way, I re-painted and am super excited about it.  Those things rust quickly, but with a little work, I have revived the pit.  You know what else is great when the weather gets cooler? Cuddling. And lots of it!  I view comfort food as cuddling for the stomach.

The following recipe is just something I threw together in my cast iron pot while the hubs was away on a work trip.  It's a clean, healthy meal that makes enough to last the whole week for lunches and leftovers and best of all, it's comfort food! I also made some sweet potato hashbrowns which were super easy to whip up to eat along with chili.

Spicy Turkey Chili:

2 tbs. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, diced (I kept the seeds for spiciness)
1 bell pepper, seeded, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound ground turkey
2 tbs. cocoa powder
chili powder
cayenne powder
red chili flakes
ground cumin
sea salt
black pepper
2 cans fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 can red kidney beans (or any beans), drained
hot sauce

Heat olive oil in a a large pot or cast iron pot on medium. Add onion, jalapenos, bell peppers, and garlic and cook until the vegetables have softened and the garlic is fragrant.

Add turkey and cook until no longer pink.  Add all of the spices to your liking and cook for a few minutes with the meat and veggies.

Add the canned tomatoes, beans, beer, and as much hot sauce as you like.  Bring everything to a boil and reduce heat to low.  Simmer, partially covered, for 45 min-1 hour.  Add more spices after tasting.

Top with shredded cheddar, sour cream, avocado, whatever your heart desires!  I did mine simply with shredded cheddar and a dollop low fat sour cream, and some more hot sauce :)

Jalapeno & Cheddar Sweet Potato Hashbrowns:

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled, shredded
1 jalapeno, seeded, diced
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
chili powder
garlic powder
salt
pepper
2 tbs. wheat flour

Combine shredded sweet potatoes, jalapenos, cheese, spices, and flour, until well incorporated.  Spray a medium pan with cooking spray.  Form the sweet potato mixture into small patties and fry 3 minutes on each side until golden brown.  Serve on top of chili.

Enjoy this dish and enjoy the weather!

Almond Butter Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies

So chocolate chip cookies are my favorite cookie, in particular with lots of dark chocolate, pecans or walnuts, and made with salted butter with a sprinkle of sea salt on top. I love salt. I love dark chocolate.  I love butter.

With the whole clean eating thing, I can't exactly have my normal choco chip that I love, or these, since I can't yet control myself and would probably eat the entire batch in bed, falling asleep to chocolate-y, chewy goodness and a stomach ache. So I googled "clean" desserts and I ran across recipes for cookies that use nut butters, natural sugar, and no flour or butter. Um, yes. Please. No need to search for any other desserts because I could just make variation after variation of these cookies and be a happy and satisfied lady.  I first experimented with baking peanut butter cookies using this formula, with a couple of comfort blanket tweeks, like using half white sugar and half brown and honey roasted peanut butter, and my peanut butter hating hubs LOVED them, as did my coworkers.

Since I had company last night, I made a dark chocolate clean version with almond butter and they were soooo yummy.  They are definitely up there with my salted butter ones.  And to think a cookie made without butter and flour would make it to the top of my cookie list!  We polished off an entire batch.  That's how awesome these cookies were, yeah, awe-inspiring delicious.  Even though these cookies are not unhealthy, they still contain sugar, which in the long run...well, you know. But enjoy! Bake these once in a while when you can't be cheating and a want a better alternative.  They are worth it and a great substitute. Or make them for a gluten-free or food sensitive friends! I promise, they'll shed a tear of joy.

The cookie batter will look oily because of the almond butter, but once they come out of the oven and are slightly cooled, they are chewy, have a subtle hint of almonds, and are divinely chocolate-y.  Please try them and let me know what you think!  Next time I make the peanut butter cookies, I will post those up as well!

Almond Butter Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies:

1 cup creamy almond butter
2/3 cup sucanat (dehydrated cane sugar), or raw sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
4 oz. dark chocolate bar, beaten into chunks (70% cocoa or more)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix almond butter with the sucanat until combined.  Add the egg, vanilla, baking soda, and sea salt.  Mix well.  Stir in the chocolate chunks.  Again, the batter will look oily and look as if it's going to fall apart, but believe in your cookies.  They will turn out properly!

Drop by the tablespoon onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake 10-12 minutes.  Let them cool for a bit on the baking sheet until they've set up.  And then nom, nom, nom!

Enjoy!

Cajun Mahi Mahi with Smashed Jalapeno and Garlic Sweet Potatoes

I've started a clean eating challenge with my sister's help where I eat only whole, non-processed food, with no cheating for a few weeks.  This coupled with exercise should help me shed a few pounds and/or inches in a healthy way and hopefully keep it off!  Then eventually in a few weeks, I can add in a cheat day here and there, not everyday or every other day, but maybe once a week.

It's day 8 and I'm feeling pretty great and I'm not really craving as much as I used to.  It hasn't been too difficult keeping up with the healthy eating habits, but it has been a challenge with the willpower and fitting in my workouts. What's been helpful is putting together a meal plan for the week and hitting the gym first thing in the morning before work.  On Sunday we have been getting groceries and then based on what we've purchased, I put together meals for the week.  This includes, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and two snacks. I followed last week's carefully, and this week it's already become a habit.  We go to bed early most of the time, but I make it a clear point now to avoid any late nights so I can wake up in time for the gym.  Gotta make those sacrifices. I have definitely had a few "pat myself on the back" moments, even if they were small, like taking off that extra slice of thin cheese off my sandwich, or not ordering a calorie laden drink, and avoiding even a bite of pizza while watching the Texans lose.  If I'm gonna have those things, I'm going to make them count by eating the cheesiest pizza and having the coldest and tastiest drink I can and enjoy them fully on my cheat day.  But until I feel like I can handle a cheat and not fall off the wagon, I have to power through and make this a lifestyle.  The hubs and my sister are great motivators and keep me going and are the only ones I can show my progress pics to.  Because frankly, they are awkward half naked selfies.

Our dinners for the most part have not included any bread or rice, maybe the occasional whole wheat or corn tortilla, but mainly it's a meat and two veggies.  Hubs and I love our veggies.

I made cajun seasoned mahi mahi the other night and served it on top of jalapeno and garlic smashed sweet potatoes and along side were our favorite roasted green beans.  It was my first time cooking mahi and mahi and I'm not sure we are huge fans.  It's too "meaty" for our liking when it comes to fish.  We like the flakiness of salmon much better.  The taste was good and we finished our meals, but I think we will lay off the purchase of more mahi mahi for a while.

The sweet potatoes.  Yum.  I boiled the sweet potatoes with jalapeno and garlic cloves and mashed it all together into a merry union of creamy delicious-ness.  You do not need any butter or cream or sour cream or milk or any other dairy in these potatoes to make them creamy!  However, any and all of those things in my sweet potatoes, or yours, would be amazing.

Cajun Mahi Mahi:

2 filets of Mahi Mahi fish
Sea Salt
Black Pepper
Cajun Seasoning (your favorite, with no salt added)
Canola Cooking Spray

Season the filets with salt, pepper, and cajun seasoning on both sides.  Heat a medium skillet to about medium to medium high and spray with cooking oil.  Cook the filets on both sides, for about 5 minutes on each side, depending on thickness.  You want the fish to cook to an opaque white.  Don't overcook it! Remember, it's fish.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Smashed Jalapeno Garlic Sweet Potatoes:

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled, diced into same size chunks
1 jalapeno, de-seeded and de-veined to your heat level, chunked
3 cloves garlic, peeled
Sea Salt
Black Pepper

Boil the potatoes with the jalapeno and garlic cloves until potatoes are fork tender.  Drain, reserving just a tiny bit of water in the pot.  Smash up the potatoes with the cloves and jalapeno inside, add salt and pepper to taste.  If you did not leave enough liquid in the pot to get a good consistency, add some broth, or other liquid.  I had left just enough to get them to be the creamy that we liked.

Enjoy!

The different looks of appetizing in insta form.

Happy 2nd Blogiversary!

Happy birthday to you....
Happy birthday to you....
Happy birthday dear liveloveatrepeat...
Happy birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Two years and almost 40 posts later, life has changed quite a bit, with some good and some bad, but always for the better.  I hope that as I come to my third year of this blog, that I have posted much more often than I have not, and have inspired another person to get in the kitchen and cook with love, and find the happiness in it that I do.

A special thank you to everyone who takes the time to read through my ramblings that are made special with my inept writing skills and run on sentences, and to those of you who actually make the recipes I post.  I get such happy feelings inside when someone tells me that they actually made something I posted!  I hope that feeling never goes away nor the people who make this blog worth it.

I just want to say that in the taking of the celebratory mini birthday cake photo, I singed off some of my precious hair as I leaned over the candle, like an idiot, to move something out of the shot.  I went to bed with the smell of burned hair and cake. Most importantly though, no cake was harmed in the taking of this picture. Again, just my hair.

Love, Irene.

30 Minute Meal--Gnocchi with Walnut Pesto and Lime Garlic Shrimp

Visited a farmer's market today for the first time and it was so great.  I love the little stalls and the goodies these people sell!  I scored a bag of trail mix with no peanuts or raisins...i hate raisins.  He makes them with almonds, cashews, dried strawberries, blueberries, and cranberries. YUM.  I also picked up an almond croissant and a loaf of sourdough, some pickling cucumbers and an eggplant, and picked up a smoothie from the Juice Girl truck for my ride home.  This has become my new favorite thing.

Got home a little later than usual, so I wanted to put together something quick.  One of the stalls was selling homemade olive oil, one was infused with lemon, so that gave me the idea of making some lemon infused olive oil over the stove and toss in some shrimp.  I had gnocchi in the pantry and a basil plant with beautiful, fragrant leaves perfect for some pesto.  So I thought, let's combine all of this!

Unfortunately, I didn't have lemons, nor did I have parmesan for my pesto.  Called and texted the hubby, but he came back with neither. Great.  So I did what anyone would do...I chastised him for not calling me from the store to ask if I need anything and then I improvised.

It's a quick meal.  I used ready made gnocchi, threw together the pesto in my magic bullet (sans parmesan), and quickly sauteed the shrimp with some olive oil, lime zest, garlic, onions, bell peppers, and white wine. And then all of it was combined in a bowl.  Enjoy it with some crusty bread, we indulged in a slice of the fresh sourdough.

Gnocchi with Walnut Pesto and Lime Garlic Shrimp:

1 package Gnocchi (I used Trader Joe's or use homemade)
olive oil
1 tbs minced garlic
red pepper flakes
1/2 small onion, sliced
1/2 small red pepper, sliced
1 lime, zested
1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined (tails on optional)
1/2 cup white wine
salt
pepper
garlic powder
1 pat butter
1/2 cup walnut pesto (make your own or use some that you already have on hand)

Heat a skillet over medium heat and add enough olive oil to coat the pan.  Throw in the minced garlic, lime zest, and pepper flakes.  Cook until fragrant.  Add the onions and bell pepper and cook until they have softened down.  Add shrimp, and squeeze in the juice of the zested lime.  Cook for one minute and then add the wine.  Let this cook down for about 2 minutes and season the shrimp with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Add the pat of butter.  The mixture should not be dry, do not overcook the shrimp or burn off all the liquid.

Turn the heat to low and stir the pesto into the shrimp.

Cook the gnocchi according to package instructions.

Toss gnocchi with the pesto lime shrimp and top with fresh basil.

Enjoy!

Hatch Chile Season!

It's August and it's hatch chile season!  They are long, beautiful green peppers that are produced in Hatch, NM and range from mild to hot peppers.  They smell and taste great!  You can use these peppers in sauces, burgers, marinades, etc, etc.  HEB bakes hatch chile and cheddar bread! BREAD!! They also make things real convenient by selling freshly roasted peppers.  I love HEB.

Hubby and I are trying to eat healthy and clean for at least 2 weeks.  It's been a tough two days.  It was hard not to grab that loaf of bread and stuff my face in it.

This was a healthy and extremely flavorful meal, but each component can be made individually to use with other sides or main dishes.  I had a fun time in the kitchen experimenting tonight and I hope that if you try these recipes, you enjoy the meal as much as we did.

Side note, if you do not want to buy the peppers already roasted, you can roast them yourself by rubbing the peppers lightly with olive oil and throwing them in a 425 oven until the skins are charred. Remove from oven and throw in a plastic ziploc and shut tight.  The steam helps the skin to peel easily.  Done. Roasted chiles. For the recipes below, feel free to use hot or mild peppers.

Hatch Chile Chicken:

6 thin chicken breasts (cut 3 large chicken breasts in half to to get 6 thin slices)
1/2 cup greek strained yogurt (Fage is a great brand)
1 large roasted hatch chile, skin removed
1 tbs minced garlic
red chili flakes
ground black pepper
sea salt
1 tbs olive oil
splash of water

Combine yogurt through the water in a blender and blend til smooth, taste and spice accordingly.  Pour over chicken, mix, and let marinate at the very least an hour.

Preheat your grill to 400 (you can also bake at 400 in your oven, I just love grilling).  Thoroughly spray the grates with canola.  Add chicken and let grill 6-8 minutes on each side with the grill lid closed.  Make sure you make some pretty grill marks!  Check the thickest cut to make sure it's cooked through.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Sweet Potato Hashbrowns with Hatch Chile and Cheddar: (makes 6)

1 large sweet potato, peeled and shredded
1/2 large roasted hatch chile, chopped finely
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 egg, beaten
sea salt
cracked black pepper
chili powder
garlic powder

Set your oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat oven to 425 and spray a baking pan with canola spray.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, season to taste, and mix with your hands or spoon until everything is all together and happy.

Carefully form the mixture into small patties and flatten out on the baking pan. They're very wet and may fall apart if you handle them too much. Use a light hand

Bake for 10 minutes, then flip and bake another 10 min.  Get them nice and dark brown on the brink of crispy.  They crisp up once they're removed from the oven.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Avocado Cilantro Sauce:

1 lime, squeezed
1 tbs. olive oil
cilantro, small handful
1 avocado, peeled and chunked
sea salt
ground black pepper
red chili flakes
garlic powder
1/4 cup water

Combine all of this into a blender, spice to taste, and blend until smooth.  Add more water if too thick. Proceed to slurp up with a straw.

I did not use peppers in the avocado sauce because I was combining all three recipes, and I didn't want it to be a hatch chile overload!  But if you are making the sauce for something else, throw in half a peeled roasted pepper...I promise it'll be delicious!

Enjoy, enjoy!