Lemon-Dill Butter Chicken and Zucchini

Recipe taken from:
Better Homes and Gardens
8 Grams or Less
Low-Carb Recipes

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
• 1 medium lemon
• 3 tablespoons of butter
• 1/2 teaspoon of dried dill
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 & 1/2 cups coarsely chopped zucchini

Preparation:

1.Preheat broiler. Place chicken on ungreased pan. Broil 4 to 5 inches from heat for 12 to 15 minutes or until no longer pink (170 degrees F), turning once halfway through broiling.
2.Meanwhile, finely shred 1/2 teaspoon peel from the lemon. Cut lemon in half, squeeze lemon to make 2 tablespoons juice.
3.In a small skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in lemon peel, lemon juice, dill, salt and pepper. Stir in zucchini. Cook and stir over medium heat for 3 minutes or just until zucchini is tender. Spoon sauce over chicken.

Notes & Tips

This recipe can also be made with cucumbers instead of zucchini. The recipe does not call to season the chicken before broiling, but I found that it was bland by itself, next time I think I'd season it with lemon pepper before broiling.

I served this with mashed potatoes.

Rating
B-

Nutrition Facts:

Makes 4 servings

244 calories, 11 g total fat (6 g saturated fat), 107 mg cholesterol, 477 mg sodium, 2 g carbohydrate, 0 g fiber and 33 g protein.

Indian-Spiced Eggplant & Cauliflower Stew

Recipe taken from:
Eat Healthy Your Way, Winter 2010

Ingredients

2 tablespoons curry powder
** The origional recipe calls for Hot Madras, I used regular since it was
my first time cooking Indian food
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon garam masala
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 large onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1-pound eggplant, cut into 1-inch chunks
3 cups cauliflower florets
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 15-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed
1 1/2 cup water
1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt, (optional)

Preparation

1.Heat a Dutch oven or large pot over medium heat. Add curry powder, garam masala and mustard seeds and toast, stirring, until the spices begin to darken, about 1 minute. Transfer to a small bowl.
2.Add oil, onion, garlic, ginger and salt to the pot and cook, stirring, until softened, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in eggplant, cauliflower, tomatoes, chickpeas, water and the reserved spices. Bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender, 25 to 30 minutes. Top each serving with a dollop of yogurt, if desired.

Notes & Tips

This is my first venture into the world of Indian Food. Because of that fact I was hesitant to use the Hot Madras Curry that the orgional recipe calls for. Hot Madras Curry is much more spicy than regular curry. Also, our local commissary did not sell Garam Masala and Mustard Seed so I had to go to an all natural food store in town called People's Grocery. I found there that they sell TONS of different spices all by weight, so I just bought a teaspoon of each.

I served this with Couscous mixed with a small can of mushrooms (rinsed).

Rated

B

Nutrition Facts

6 Servings, 1 1/3 Cup per serving

Per serving: 198 calories; 6 g fat (1 g sat, 3 g mono); 0 mg cholesterol; 31 g carbohydrates; 6 g protein; 8 g fiber; 605 mg sodium;

hmmmm

So as Mat's deployment approaches I'm considering a project....

What if I turned my blog into a cooking blog...kinda like a "What's Cooking?" kinda deal....hmmm Nothing fancy, just a what I'm cooking for dinner with recipe, picture, rating and nutrition facts.

FEEDBACK PLEASE!

Blogs

Oh my....2 posts in 1 week...fancy stuff.



Anyways I was just checking up on the blogs that I normally read through the day and thought I would post a few of them here, just so you know what kind of stuff I'm into looking at.



Cake Wrecks -



This is the first "Blog" I ever started reading (except for my friend Erica's, but I won't post her's since I didn't ask her if I could). Everyday Jen posts a different cake wreck, except Sunday which are reserved for Sunday Sweets. A cake wreck if you didn't know is a cake that is unintenionally "messed up" by a professional baker. Her writing style is witty and highly entertaining. Sunday's are a fun day to look because some of the cakes she posts are jaw-droppingly incredible.



http://www.cakewrecks.blogspot.com/



Bakerella -



I actually stumbled upon this blog while reading Cake Wrecks Sunday Sweets. Bakerella is a woman who bakes the neatest stuff. She's pretty famous for "Cake Pops". This past week she posted a tutorial on "Pie Pops". It's a mini pie on a stick. FABULOUS! She is super creative and I've attempted a few of her recipes, all of which have turned out great.



http://bakerella.blogspot.com/



The Pioneer Woman -



I was lead to this website through Bakerella (I can see you're picking up on a trend here). I have actually come to love this blog more than any of the others. Ree post's a "confessional" everyday which typically are about her life on their ranch in Oklahoma. She too has an extremely witty writing style. She also has a section on Cooking, Home Schooling, Photography and Home & Garden. I rarely miss a day reading her blog and feel a weird emotional attchment to her blog. It's a very realistic view of her daily life. (and she does fun giveaways, but since so many people read her blog, I'm sure it would be hard to win one).



http://thepioneerwoman.com/



Design Mom -



This is one I've just started reading recently. I don't have too much info on this one, but she's a mother in New York who is also an Art Director. Neat "craft" ideas (I hesitate to call them crafts since they're so fasionable and stylish).



http://designmom.com/



Really that's about it. I wish I was as dedicated to blogging as these women but I've never been very good at expressing my thoughts through written words. Another thing I'm pretty obsessed with is www.sporcle.com . Don't go there...you'll get addicted...it's not pretty.

I am inconsistant with this thing

So yeah, I have been totally neglectful of our blog (if you can even call it that at this point). It seems the only time I get up the motivation to update is when Mat's gone. Mat left this morning for NTC (National Training Center), he made it safely to California at around 1pm (kansas time) this afternoon, he'll be back sometime late this month. I hope to get alot of reading done and possibly start working on some craft/Christmas things I've been meaning to do.

Ashland and Poodle are doing well. We're trying to help Poodle lose a little weight, I don't know why she's gotten to be kind of a chuck in the last 8 months or so, but she has. She's on weight control food and only dry food. She really doesn't eat a large amount of food. I attribute it to stress (we're pretty sure she hates Ashland) and possibly a traumatic experience with Boarding during Christmas time. Anyway, I've been "exercizing" her everday (as much as you can with a cat (which normally consists of me waving her toy in her face saying "move please, stop being a lazy bones")). Ashland is well, he's spunky and fun and LOVED being boarded. He made lots of new friends while we were attending 2 weddings this summer.

Other than Mat being at NTC and me working alot lately, nothing exciting is going on. I need to post photos of our garden and possibly some photos of the crafty/Christmas things I'll work on while Mat's gone.

I'm already falling of the wagon

PHOTO OF THE DAY:

4.16.09
This weekend Mat's brother, Stephen, was in town. Friday night I went to pick him up from the airport. This shot was taken Sat. but I really feel like it expressed how I felt driving over 5 hours on Friday total. (oh and it reminds me of my friend Drew).



PHOTO OF THE DAY:


4.17.09
Saturday we drove out to Wamego, KS to visit the Tulip Festival. They have the most beautiful tulips scattered all over the park. Just an FYI, tulips are my favorite flower in the whole world. I love them.

YAY It's back!!! Picture of the day!

Well well well....it's been a while hasn't it.

I am here by resurecting Photo of the day! After Mat got home I sent this project to the wayside, but after many (like 3) people asked me to bring it back (I sorta missed it myself) I am going to start doing it again.

So without further ado....(please remember I have no photography training, other than like 1 photo class in college)......

PHOTO OF THE DAY: April 16, 2009

This is my very first Tulip of the year. It's a beautiful red color with yellow stripes. I've never grown anything in my life, so here is my start.