Grilled Asian Chicken with Bistro Home Fries

So tonight I made a great quick marinade for skinless boneless chicken breast. Now I don't know about you but the chicken that you get at the store, at least for my family, is always too big and too thick. So I have taken to using only two of the gigantic chicken breasts, and butterflying them to create four nicely portioned (in fact might still be on the bigger side as far as a nutritionist is concerned) pieces. I put these in my marinade for maybe 10 minutes while I shucked my corn and prepared my home fries. Now the original idea was to have green beans with this meal, however being camping for the last five days didn't prepare me for the mess that was my green bean stash so I had to switch to something else. Notice too that I call them home fries and not just fries. I could do fries with my mandolin but sometimes just chopping them up into home fries takes less time and energy. My husband does all the BBQ so I can't take credit most of the time during the summer for our meals but I prep it all and then out to the backyard it goes. He uses a Le Creuset grill pan on our grill for anything that might fall through the grate so these potatoes pick up a lot of great BBQ flavor even if it is a gas BBQ.

As you can see above & below I use liberal amounts of pepper and herbs. This particular recipe had salt and pepper, olive oil, garlic powder (fresh garlic tends to burn on the grill) and parsley. Use whatever herbs you like, sometimes I like thyme, or rosemary but not too much to overpower everything else. If you don't have a grill pan, use an old cookie sheet, or even make a "cookie sheetesque" thing of tin foil (easy clean up). Throw it on the grill close the lid, maybe flip once after 10-15 minutes but overall just leave 'em the heck alone for 20-30 minutes (depends on how thick you cut them) but give them a taste as you go, remember they are hot, but you will know when they are ready. My husband likes to think I don't know he does this but honestly I swear they come back significantly lesser in volume than they went out the back door, and not just because of the cooking process, has more to do with the cooker!

Close up!

These home fries are one my families favorite things about summer, and grill action. OK now for the quick Asian marinade!

Grilled Asian Chicken Marinade

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp Dijon mustard

1/4 cup orange juice

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup olive oil

pinch of red pepper flakes

2 tsp sesame oil ( I love this flavoring but some might find it too bold, use as you like)

1. Mix all together in a Ziploc, throw in your chicken breast squeeze it all around to quickly coat, leave on the counter for 10-15 minutes and then straight to the grill.

**Taken from Relish! My favorite go to meal planning site.

QUICK AND EASY! And  as my daughter says, "Yummy in my tummy, mommy. This is good, my favorite." (She is in her favorite stage, everything is her absolute favorite).

This post is linked up with Tasty Tuesday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table.

Zucchini Recipe

So I am still attempting a zucchini adventure this summer with my attempt at liking this ubiquitous summer veggie. I bought a couple of magazines in a moment of weakness at Target, thinking they would be great while camping, which they were. I find that I really like Every Day with Rachel Ray Magazine, not that fond of her show on TV but I really like the magazine. They had a no cook section where they show cased a zucchini lasagna sort of thing. I tried my own version at home, but I found I am not a huge fan of ricotta so I think next time I make it I will try farmers cheese, I am intrigued with it and would like to use it more often. Here is the first attempt, I will post again soon as I try it again with a better cheese.
Zucchini Lasagna
1 zucchini (sliced thin on a mandolin)

1/2 cup Ricotta (soon to try Farmer's cheese)

1/4 cup Pecorino Remano

2 tbsp roasted red pepper

Olive oil

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Getting the ingredients together.

Put ingredients into a small bowl, and mix well.

Slicing the zucchini with my mandolin slicer.

Layer two slices of zucchini with the ricotta mixture like a lasagna, and repeat. End result, makes a tasty side dish.

New Bento Stuff has Arrived!

I went a little crazy on J-list and bought some fun stuff that I have been wanting for awhile. It came much quicker than I thought it would, I mean honestly it came from Japan on a boat! But it seemed to get here in less than two weeks. I got all sorts of fun picks, a sandwich crimper/sealer (you put your stuff inside and then it seals it shut, I am thinking this would be great for Molly because she doesn't fully understand how to keep a sandwich together), and some silicone cups. Bonus was the fun Japanese newspaper that it was all wrapped up in! There are a few things that I know I bought but haven't arrived yet. So hopefully those are coming soon. But I can't wait to do a lunch for Molly while she is taking a nap. Nor can I wait for school to start back up so I can send her off to daycare on Friday's with a super fun lunch!

The sandwich sealer did a PB&J and you can see two new fun picks.
The flower steams were used with cherry tomatoes (she had 3 refills)
and the giraffe and monkey picks have blueberries. I used a new little
silicone cup for some pretzel balls, and there is a slice of turkey
deli meat for good measure. The only thing left on her plate
was a half of the PB&J and some of the pretzel balls. She ate
everything else, include three helpings on the fun new picks.

I have found that if I put these things on her plate sans pick she
might eat a few, but with the picks they are the first things off the plate.

Menu Plan Monday

Holy sunburn! Just got back from a good camping trip with the family. Not sure how I feel about dry camping, especially in super dusty conditions, and a sick child, but overall everyone seemed to have a great time. If I hadn't gotten burnt on our last day there I am sure I would be singing more praises but I don't do sunburns very well! If I can keep my super pale daughter from the sun even touching her you would think I could do the same for myself, and I swear that I kept spraying myself over and over with sun block! This usually happens every few years, where I learn my lesson and am super vigilant until I slip up, like I did this weekend. Live and learn for the next couple years I guess.

Monday: Grilled Asian Chicken Breasts with Sesame Green Beans

Tuesday: BBQ Pulled Pork (slow cooker) sandwiches with nectarine coleslaw and chips

Wednesday: No zoo concert tonight, I am taking a couponing class! So I will probably make some Turkey subs for Brian and Molly to eat while I am gone!

Thursday: Grilled Flank Steak with Bistro home fries

Friday: Grilled Mushroom Skewers over couscous with zucchini no cook lasagna (saw this in a magazine the other day and I am dying to try my own spin on it.

Saturday: Burgers with bistro home fries (we are getting new potatoes in our CSA bag so these are going to be showing up a lot! Which is fine with my family because they are so darn tasty)

Sunday: Stir Fried Chicken with Chinese Cabbage

For more menu plan ideas click here!

Zoo Concert Picnic

So tonight we are going to hear Great Big Sea at the zoo, since we are zoo members we get in for free so we take advantage and go during the summer to as many of the concerts as we can. We went all last summer and have gone all of this summer, and Molly really enjoys it.

This is Molly dancing at the last concert we went to.

On the menu for tonight's picnic:

• Garlic Turkey Subs (we had these last night for dinner and they were so good I changed my plans from what we were originally going to have).
• Kettle Brand Chips (Salt & Pepper) Seen in pic from last night's dinner.

• Crudites with dip

• Blueberries

• Rocky Road Brownies

Now for the brownies on a picnic the best way to take them and store them so they don't all mash together is to wrap them in wax paper and then put them into a plastic container like the following:

We will be meeting up with Auntie Jenn and Uncle Jim for tonight's concert, it should be fun!

Tuesday Blog Hops

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For more recipe's click here!

Grilled Tandoori Chicken & And Business Ventures

The news around the Carter dinner table of late is all of Brian's recent ventures into being a small business owner. As the month of July comes to a close it doesn't seem that much different than any other month other than we now own Pearl Printing. A company that my husband has been working for since graduating college. Apart from now owning it, not much has changed in his day to day activities other than branching the business out. He now has two subsidiary companies (Masterpiece Magnets and Petticoats & Pollywogs) one makes reproductions of classical pieces of work miniature sized, framed and magnets on the back for your fridge, the other is modern nursery art. On display now is growth charts, soon to come matching artwork to complete any nursery. The latter became an idea after I was so pleased with the work he did for our own daughters room and growth chart. Petticoats & Pollywogs just opened on Etsy and we have already made a sale. Fingers Crossed!

We have also hit the terrible two's with Miss Molly, I was hoping the two's were going to be fantastic and the three's were going to be more hellish (I thought I heard that somewhere) anyway she is pushing as hard as she can. Today was not one of her better days, she absolutely would not take a nap, and as I write this blog at 8:00pm she is still crying and/or moving around her bedroom refusing to sleep. On a plus side we spent a good 45 minutes today in our hot tub (reduced to 97 degrees for the summer) with Molly's life jacket on to get her ready for our upcoming camping trip to Wicki-up Reservoir, all children in my extended family must wear life jackets if they are anywhere near the water as a precaution so I thought I would acclimatize her now. That part of the day today was very pleasurable and I was so proud of how far she has come with being comfortable in the water. The rest of the day I wish could be left on the cutting room floor as they say.

You see, people give me the same canned response when they find out I teach middle schoolers, "Oh bless you, I could never." Or something of that ilk. But this age 2-4, is not my cup of tea. When I first started working at the age of 16, and even earlier this was the age group I always worked with. Before and after school care programs, Safety Town, Soccer Coach, T-ball Coach, Golf Coach was all with this age group. And I knew then, what is only getting reinforced now, my patience level is practically nonexistent with this age group. Teenagers, 13-14 is what I teach, we just connect. They can be talked to like an adult, reasoned with, and they are not yet disillusioned with school that I can't make a difference. But this, two year old defiance, is hard to reason with. I am not going to lie, it has been a struggle, one we are working through but lordy when it is hot and your child is working themselves up into a lather and won't go to bed, what is a parent to do?

Anyway... back to dinner. Tonight's dinner was fantastic! My husband commented numerous times on how good the chicken was, so needless to say it is a keeper. Molly even had second helpings, and even though she LOVES cous cous it is going to be the death of me - more of it was on the table and floor and her chair then I think made it into her mouth!
Tonights dinner: Grilled Tandoori with cous cous and grilled sweet onion, and steamed garlicky green beans on the side.
**The last two were added because they needed to be used, they were from our CSA last week and with our new bag arriving tomorrow with more beans why not. Everything was done on the grill or in the microwave to avoid heating up the house (we don't have AC) don't underestimate your grill, it can do anything!

Steamed Green Beans on the grill
3-4 good handfuls of trimmed green beans
1 garlic clove minced (garlic pressed for me)
2 ice cubes
Tin foil
Salt and pepper to taste
1. Throw everything into a tin foil pouch (even the ice cubes) and cook right along with the chicken and onions.

** The ice cube trick I picked up from Relish, it gives the perfect amount of steam/water for great veggies! Brilliant!

Grilled Tandoori Chicken

2-4 Chicken Breasts (I used two, but they were huge and I cut them in half, butterflied really, to make them thinner/smaller portions)
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 1/2 tbsp water
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground turmeric (You should be able to get this in your spice aisle or maybe even in your bulk section, it is a main ingredient in most curry powders, it has a very mild flavor and tons of color punch, it is what makes the curry powder yellow... this chicken will be BRIGHT yellow! Depending on how much turmeric you use.)
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 large cloves garlic (micro-planer)
1 tbsp ginger (micro planer, I keep mine in the freezer it lasts practically forever and it makes using the micro-planer a breeze)
1 1/4 tsp ground coriander
3/4 tsp ground cumin
1/8 tsp cayenne (More of less can be used according to your taste... my 2 year old loved this and I used this amount and she was able to eat it, not spicy at all just a mild kick.)

1 tbsp cooking oil to brush chicken with as you grill so it doesn't stick to the grill. (could leave this out if you don't want excess oil)

1. Marinate the chicken for about 5 minutes in the lemon juice, water, salt, and turmeric. I used a plastic Ziploc for this purpose.
2. Mix together the yogurt, garlic, ginger, coriander, cumin, and cayenne in a small bowl.
3. Reserve a little of the yogurt mix for after you flip your chicken on the grill (just spoon it over at the end of the cooking process for extra flavor and the keep the chicken from drying out) put the majority of the yogurt mix into the plastic bag and allow that to marinate for an additional 10 minutes.
4. Finally grill the chicken until done, again spooning over the set aside yogurt mix at the end of the cooking process for more flavor.

** This recipe is from the Food and Wine cookbook: Quick From Scratch Chicken Cookbook. I have dog- eared so many recipes in this book and so far have only been able to try about three, but they have all been good. For my family my frozen chicken breasts are a fall back when I need to go to the store. It is the protein we probably eat the most of, so cookbooks like this are good to have.


For the cous cous recipe go to one of my previous posts Step Away from the Box part 1. Only difference is that instead of boiling water on the cook top I used my microwave. I heated the water in the microwave for 5 minutes and then added the cous cous and let sit with a lid for about 5 more minutes. Then you add your flavorings and fluff it all together with a fork. This is a brilliant side dish in the summer for this reason!