chicken – Page 4 – Loving Food, Fashion, & Life

Buttermilk Baked Chicken

Posted on August 28, 2013 by LFFL

Made with boneless skinless chicken slivers, buttermilk, corn flakes, juice of a lemon, onion, fresh thyme, fresh chopped garlic cloves, Parmesan cheese, and salt & pepper.

Mines doesn’t look exactly like the recipe—maybe because I used chicken slivers. It was still chicken, nonetheless—and edible.

Recipe for—Buttermilk Baked Chicken

So, if you have nothing else to do today, make some buttermilk chicken for dinner with corn flakes.

Take-Away Life Lesson: Baked chicken can taste just as good as fried chicken if you know what you’re doing—it’s just healthier.

Agave BBQ Chicken

Posted on August 20, 2013 by LFFL

Sauce made with olive oil, onions, fresh garlic, tomato sauce, agave syrup, apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, and salt & pepper.

I have to say this was my first time making my very own sauce. The reason I probably had so much fun making it is because it was so interesting to me that I wasn’t using an actual BOTTLE of sauce from the store for the first time ever.

Skinless, boneless chicken breasts covered in sauce.

I used a recipe from the Dr. Oz show but I only made the chicken part of it—not the ribs. It was one of the simplest things I could have made.

Recipe for—Agave BBQ Chicken & Ribs

So, if you have nothing else to do today, try making your own sauces from scratch. Give it a whirl.

Take-Away Life Lesson: Some homemade sauces actually taste much better than store-bought.

Fusilli With Pecorino Romano & Black Pepper

Posted on August 18, 2013 by LFFL

Made with organic durum wheat fusilli pasta, chopped baby spinach, mascarpone cheese, Pecorino Romano cheese, olive oil, fresh chopped garlic, salt & pepper, and seasoned baked chicken breast.

After I read this recipe, I decide I was going to add some seasoned diced chicken to it. I really felt like it was missing something—and I was right!

This was a perfect meal with the chicken added to it.

Recipe for—Fusilli with Pecorino Romano & Black Pepper

So, if you have nothing else to do today, try making yourself a great pasta dish such as this.

Take-Away Life Lesson: If you feel a recipe could benefit from another ingredient, don’t be afraid to experiment with it. Life is a fabulous journey to learning new things!

Triple Salad

Posted on July 11, 2013 by LFFL

Fried Chicken Salad with lettuce topped with strips of fried chicken, tomatoes, cheese, green onion, and homemade croutons with Ranch dressing.

I was on a salad kick the last 3 days at the diner. And even though I got them all to-go each day, these were rare moments that I did NOT set the car up like a dining table for the drive home.

I figured it’d be a big mess if I dared try eating a salad while driving. Plus you can’t really smell a salad wafting through a car like you would, say, a hamburger. So the temptation wasn’t as great.

Cobb Salad with lettuce topped with grilled chicken, bleu cheese, tomato, bacon, red onion, cheddar cheese, and hard-boiled eggs with Ranch dressing.

And every time I called my order in ahead of time, they would ask if I wanted the ‘lunch’ or ‘dinner’ portion. Why is this even a question??? HELLO, it’s ME! You knew who I was when I said my name.

Isn’t dinner bigger? DINNER, PLEASE!! Let’s wake up over there, people!!! In what world do I want the smaller size?

Chef Salad with lettuce topped with turkey, egg, cheese, green onion, tomatoes, and homemade croutons with Ranch dressing.

So, if you have nothing else to do today, try out different salad varieties at your favorite restaurant—and make sure it’s the dinner-sized portion.

Take-Away Life Lesson: Dinner sizes are bigger than lunch sizes—enough said. Now back to meat and potatoes.

It's A Rock Star Mexican Night

Posted on July 8, 2013 by LFFL

Chicken Chimichanga with rice and beans.

So I decided to stop at a Mexican joint to get take-out. Surprisingly, the food actually made it to my house this time without getting devoured in the car first.

If you’re wondering why there are two entrées, wonder no more. It’s ME we’re talking about here! When you can’t decide between entrées, you know my rule of thumb—just get them both to enjoy.

Chicken Quesadilla with rice, beans, lettuce, guacamole, and sour cream.

My fun evening:

Eating Mexican, listening to ‘Treasure’ by Bruno Mars blasting through my crib, bobbing my head like a rock star, dancing all around the house, and stuffing my face.

Yeah, it’s what I do. If you could only see me now. I’m having a great time! Can it get any better than this?! It’s one big party for ONE, y’all!! Heeeyyyyy!

Topped it all off with a Gooey Butter Cake. Yeah, that’s right. The super nice man who is always surprising me with butter cake all the time, DID HIS THING AGAIN!! And I’m LOVIN’ IT! Yeah, baby.

I love unexpected surprises (it makes me smile BIG) and I’m not one to turn down a free butter cake—EVER!

So, if you have nothing else to do today, find your favorite Mexican restaurant and order up some take-out food, crank up Bruno Mars ‘Treasure’ (or one of your favorite songs), and dance like there’s no tomorrow while you bob your brains out!

Take-Away Life Lesson: When you can’t decide what you want the most of off of the menu—just get one of each and stop stressing your brain. It’ll be ok. Eat from both entrées. And if you try really hard, you could probably stretch some of it out for tomorrow’s leftovers.

Double-Up The Fries?

Posted on May 21, 2013 by LFFL

Chicken Tenders with a side of fries and green beans with honey Dijon sauce and ketchup.

Loved my trip to Houlihan’s. The server was great, the food was awesome, even my date was fabulous. Houlihan’s is just like Houston’s. So it felt like home to me.

So the server comes and takes our order. I order the chicken tenders. The server tells me my chicken tenders come with fries and either green beans or asparagus. Well, first off, I thought I was just ordering the chicken tenders as an appetizer by themselves—so I was not expecting side dishes, but whatever. Let’s roll with it.

So the way it was presented to me, I assumed I only had a choice of green beans or asparagus—neither of which sounded appealing. So I opted for the green beans—but it was a tough choice.

Now, my date orders the same thing but tells the server to “double-up the fries.” I didn’t really know what he was saying or what it meant at the time because so much activity was going on around us and the noise level was kinda high with all the babble from other diners. So I just assumed it’s some new side dish they offer that he was asking for with some fancy term word I’ve never used before.

Well, NO, by golly that’s not it. He just ends up with the same dinner as mine and he just has TWICE as many fries on his plate rather than a vegetable. NOW it’s all starting to sink in. Well, NO, I DON’T WANT GREEN BEANS!! Do I LOOK like I want to eat vegetables?!!

Hmmmmm—-fries? green beans? fries? asparagus? fries? green beans? fries? asparagus? Well, that’s a no-brainer! OF COURSE, I would have DOUBLED-UP on the fries had it not been presented to me in such a way that I thought the vegetables were my only two options to choose from. And look how pathetic my plate looks with those sad green beans just sitting there.

So, if you have nothing else to do today, take yourself out to eat anywhere and tell your server you’d rather substitute your vegetable side dish with a much less healthy option.

Take-Away Life Lesson: Never assume your server has your best interest at heart by offering you vegetables instead of more fries.

Soups Du Jour

Posted on May 12, 2013 by LFFL

Made with whole wheat small shell pasta, cannellini & navy beans, carrots, celery, onion, garlic cloves, crushed tomatoes, kale, chicken broth, Italian seasoning, salt & pepper, and topped with parmesan cheese.

Are soups just yummy or what? I could eat soup all day—but, then again, what can’t I eat all day? All these soups were so easy to make. It’s very rare that you should be able to screw up making a soup.

Every soup I’ve made so far has been A-okay. All you really gotta do is just heat up some type of broth of some sort and just throw in a bunch of different veggies and whatnot that you can find lying around the house.

Now if you’re actually finding veggies in every room of your home ‘lying around’, then that’s a completely different topic that needs to addressed separately altogether.

Recipe for—Classic Minestrone Soup

Made with chopped skinless boneless chicken breasts, celery, onion, Yukon gold potatoes, frozen mixed vegetables, flour, chicken broth, half-and-half, butter, poultry seasoning, and pepper.

This Chicken Potpie Soup was just as divine as the Minestrone Soup. I just loved chowing down on this creamy soupiness.

Recipe for—Chicken Potpie Soup

Made with onions, carrots, zucchini, Roma tomatoes, squash, potatoes, garlic cloves, fresh thyme leaves, fresh flat-leaf Italian parsley, polenta, low-sodium chicken broth, butter, salt & pepper.

This was really good, too. As you add more polenta, it gets thicker to your liking.

Recipe for—Rustic Vegetable & Polenta Soup

Made with cauliflower, shallots, chopped garlic cloves, celery, fresh thyme, chicken broth, butter, salt & pepper, and crispy baked turkey bacon; croutons made with sourdough bread drizzled with olive oil, fresh thyme, and salt.

So good for the tummy. The recipe calls for it to be a cold dish, but I ate mine warmed. And I love making homemade croutons. They are SO good and tasty straight from the oven. Love it, love it, love it.

Recipe for—Cauliflower Soup With Bacon & Croutons

Sauteed Leeks & Onions

Leek & Potato Soup

So—I got to use an immersion blender for the first time with this recipe. A new toy = a barrel of fun for me. If it has a button on it and it does something fast—I gotta be a part of it.

This Leek & Potato Soup was made with:

Leeks
Yukon gold potatoes
Yellow onions
Garlic cloves
Extra-virgin olive oil
Chicken stock
Bouillon cubes
Salt & pepper

Where my recipe disappeared to for this—I couldn’t begin to tell you. Just pick any Leek and Potato Soup recipe out online and you should be just fine.

Soup Veggies

Vegetable Soup

As far as this concoction goes, I just made up my own recipe here. Tossed whatever I wanted to in the pot and called it soup. Just like that!

So, if you have nothing else to do today, try making your very own concoction of a soup recipe and enjoy how tasty it is. And if it’s not as tasty as you like—that’s what salt and Mrs. Dash are for.

Take-Away Life Lesson: Apparently if you take an immersion blender out of the pan too soon while it’s still whirring the veggies to bits and pieces, you’ll soon find yourself covered in soup creaminess.