Chicken, Rice and Cali Mix

This meal shows up so frequently on my menu it's a staple in this house! It's true I decide how to cook my chicken on the day we're having it. I ended up being pressed for time due to teacher interviews and an incredibly obstinate toddler (how one so small can have so much to fight about I'll never know!) So today I used Knorr's herb soup mix in my rice and over my chicken. This would probably work well as a marinade with white wine or vinegar. I will try that out next week and see how it works. Once again I baked the rice and chicken in the oven altogether. 2 cups water, 1 cup rice, 4 tablespoons of the dry Knorr soup mix (3 in the rice water, 1 over the chicken) and baked at 375 for 40 minutes, until the chicken tested done on a meat thermometer.

We use California Mix frozen vegetables frequently, too. It's a nice blend and steams well in the microwave. I use a large serving bowl which I cover with a lid or a plate and steam for five minutes, stir, and steam some more if needed. I then add a handful of shredded cheese (about 1/2 cup when serving five) replace the lid and let the cheese melt. Amazing what a very small amount of cheese will get a child to eat! All my kids love this vegetable mix. The veggies are al-dente so I know they've retained most of their nutrients and while the cheese adds fat as well as flavour it's not much with a fairly low-fat meal.

While I would prefer to have the apple pancake and smoothies tonight as I still am craving a very light meal after the dense chalupas yesterday, I will go ahead and make the chicken veggie cobbler. I am going to make two small casseroles tonight and freeze one of them for another day.

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Fruited Chicken Salad

This is 'marinating' in the fridge as I type. It's so yummy! I'm serving this on whole-grain buns with lettuce. That wasn't my original intention, but since I chopped everything in my food processor it's the perfect consistency for a sandwich. I think it would be very nice served on a whole-grain focaccia with lettuce, tomato and cucumber.

For four people:

1 lb chicken cooked and diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1/4 of a large red onion diced
1 sweet apple peeled, cored and diced
1/3 c raisins soaked then drained (you don't need to soak them if you're going to let it set an hour before serving)
1/3 cup seedless green grapes, halved
1/2 c chopped walnuts
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 c light mayonnaise
1 tsp lemon juice

Mix everything together in a large bowl and serve! Using the food processor makes it quicker and less messy. I do chop each item separately so they retain their individual flavours.

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Chicken with Rice

Often when chicken breasts are on the menu, I decide how I'll prepare them on that day. Today, I'll bake them in the oven with the rice at the same time. I'm the kind of cook who likes things simple and easy. You probably think cooking from scratch, ugh, that will take forever! But that's usually not the case. I don't care for labour-intensive cooking so I generally don't do it! Tonight's chicken and rice:

Spray 3 quart casserole dish (or 9 X 13 baking dish) with cooking spray. Add 2c hot water, 1T margarine, and 3 T dry Knorr soup mix (I'm using creamy vegetable tonight). Add 1 c parboiled rice and stir. Place four chicken breasts on top of this mixture and season as you like (I'll use lemon pepper tonight, some nights it's just parsley, salt and pepper) then cover with a lid or foil. Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes, until chicken breast shows it is done on a meat thermometer. How hard is that?

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