Weeknight Dinner #1

Well hello everyone! I am excited to see I have a few followers! very very exciting.

nummmm num

So, for the next foodie foodie entry, it's all about the weeknight dinner. We are all busy, especially those of us down at IMC (all my design-y friends, you know what I mean...) and hot dogs and pizza can only take us so far... once in a while we need something wholesome. I apologize for the terrible lighting in my photos. Flourecent lighting isn't flattering... even to chicken. My iPhone and I are very sorry :P

So here it is: Weeknight dinner #1

Grilled Chicken with Roasted Asparagus
simple? YES! easy? that too.

For the asparagus you'll need:
One bunch of asparagus
Olive oil
Garlic salt
pepper

Really easy guys. Wash the asparagus and snap off the woody parts on the bottom of the stalks. Those get really tough so you won't want to eat them. Set your oven to 325° and let it warm up (very nice for girls like me who's heaters don't work in their apartments and it is very chilly outside!) Place the asparagus onto a cookie sheet or baking dish and drizzle with olive oil. Then add the garlic salt and pepper (I like a lot of garlic salt, but that's just me.)

sprinkle with olive oil, garlic salt, and pepper

Place those suckers in the oven and let them do their tasty thing for 15-20 minutes. Depending on how hot your oven actually runs, and how mushy or firm you like your roasted veggies, they should be done within that time. I typically let them roast until they're fork-tender and then they're good to go!

doin their thang

Grilled Chicken
I love making this grilled chicken recipe... even though I don't use a real grill outdoors or anything... this is where my friend the cast iron grill pan comes in. Horrah for grilling indoors! The rub on this chicken tastes uber yummy.. and I think the combination of cinnamon and mustard is really good. Just a little note: do not fear the liquid smoke! It is the outdoor summer BBQ in a bottle... utter magic. Don't overdo it though, because the flavor can be a bit overpowering.
Anyway, read on yum-seekers.

You'll need:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (one breast per person)
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tps garlic salt
1/2 tps pepper
a dash of dried dill
3 tbs coarse ground dijon mustard
1/2-1tsp liquid smoke

Put the cinnamon, garlic salt, pepper, and dill into a large zip top plastic bag.  Then place the chicken into the bag, seal it, and mush it around to cover all of the dry ingredients onto the chicken breast.

Let that chill out in the fridge for a few minutes. Then, add the mustard and the liquid smoke into the bag. Take our your handy-dandy cast iron grill pan and put it onto the stove over high heat.

Let it get nice and hot so you can get some great grill marks on your chicken. When the grill pan is hot, place the chicken breasts onto it- and don't mess with them. If you keep screwing with them, you'll ruin the grill marks which are very nice and impressive!

flip it!

yummmm

Turn down the heat to medium-high or even down to medium and cook the chicken until it has nice grill marks and is cooked through. Enjoy!

there it is!

So there you have it, a lovely little healthy meal for the weeknight. This normally takes me about 30 minutes if I time everything right and multi-task. I like making this because the asparagus is super healthy, and the chicken has some really interesting flavors going on there (not the boring salt and pepper deal.) Because this is a little skimpy for my calorie-furnace boyfriend, I like to sneak a little buttered brown rice onto his plate if he's eating with me that night (just follow the rice cooking instructions on the bag, then add butter and salt and pepper.) You know... a little carb action. Hope you enjoyed!



Foodie foodie!


ps
If you have ANY comments or questions, don't be shy! Drop me a comment :)