Cilantro and Lime Chicken

I got this great recipe from Cooking Light. I learned from the WC Nesties that Cooking Light has great recipes so I bought the most recent issue on the newsstand and found a few new recipes I'd like to try. This one is Cilantro and Lime Chicken with Avocado Salsa. My guys aren't big fans of Avocado, so I left it out this time, but I did feel the salsa was lacking and I think I may sneak it in next time or maybe add some peppers. You can find the original recipe here: http://tinyurl.com/d4puwm

Cilantro and Lime Chicken with Tomato & Onion Salsa
Serves 4

For the chicken:
2 tbsp fresh cilantro minced
2 1/2 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 1/2 tbsp EVOO
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
Cooking spray
Old Bay Seasoning

Salsa (I made mine without the avocado)
2 Plum tomatoes diced
2 tbsp chopped onion (I kinda went overboard on this one. It worked for us though!)
2 tsp. fresh lime juice
Black pepper
Garlic powder* Oregano* *I added these two final ingredients because I felt that the salsa needed a little something*

Add the cilantro, oil and lime juice to a medium sized bowl. What it looks like before the chicken:
Next, add the chicken to the bowl and let sit for 3 minutes.

While the chicken is marinating you can start getting the salsa ingredients ready. Dice the tomatoes and onions. As you can see, I chopped a BIG onion and forgot that it was only supposed to be a few tablespoons of onion. However, since I cut the avocado out, my mistake worked out. Add the tomato and onion to a bowl. Add the black pepper, garlic powder and oregano and mix.


Next heat up your grill pan and spray with cooking spray. Add the chicken to the pan. Discard the marinade. I hit the chicken with a few dashed of Old Bay seasoning. I like to use something flavorful when I cook other than salt.

I love my grill pan. We received it as a Shower gift last year and it's come in handy for when we can't grill outside. Please ignore the "bald" spot on the one chicken breast. I accidentally brushed some of the seasoning off. Grill each side for about 5-7 minutes. Depending on how thick the chicken breast is.

Give the chicken a flip. Look at the pretty grill marks with the green cilantro. It smelled really good too. I didn't add any Old Bay to the other side. I just let them cook for another 5-7 minutes.


Toward the end of the second side cooking, I added some of the tomato and onion salsa to two of the breasts. I left two "plain" so Bear would eat them without complaint. Which he did.

The finished product. Two plain and one breast with the cooked tomato and onion on it.


I served this with Zataran's Spanish Rice mix. It complimented the chicken very well. I would've made my own Mexican rice, but I couldn't find a recipe that I could do. Maybe next time.

For Weight Watchers each serving of 1 breast with salsa and rice is 10 points. The chicken and salsa without the avocado is 3 points (4 points with the avocado) and the rice mix is 7 points for a 1/2 cup serving. I was shocked about that, but the rice is good so I followed the serving size. Here's a picture of what my dish looked like.

As I said, I was surprised by the serving size points for the rice, but I used my handy-dandy measuring cup and measured out the rice. Because of the chicken and tomatoes I did feel full after eating my dinner. I'm sure the water I drank with it helped too.

Enjoy!

Easy Green Bean side dish

I've recently joined Weight Watchers and I'm making a conscious effort to include veggies at every meal. I like veggies, in fact, I'm always trying to convince Bear and The Boy to try a meat-free dinner more than once in a while. Bear hates veggies though. He actually picks them out of dinners I make. It's frustrating sometimes. I've told them both that I will be making them almost every meal and they'll just have to deal. Luckily, I can tell The Boy he doesn't have an option and he's pretty willing to eat them. One of his favorites is Green beans with tomatoes and garlic. My Mom has made this in years past at Holidays. I associate it with growing up Italian, but I don't really know the origin of this dish. This is how I prepare it though and I got compliments from BIL & SIL at Easter, so I'll definitely be making it again! Also, it's something simple that your kids can help you with if you have them cooking with you.

Green Beans with Tomatoes and Garlic
Serves approximately 4 adults

1 lb. fresh green beans, with ends snapped off
3-4 cloves of garlic (depending on your personal preference)
3 medium sized tomatoes diced
1 tbsp. EVOO (for WW people you can also use cooking spray but I find that it works better with oil)
Basil
Black pepper

Rinse the dirt off the green beans and then snap the ends off them. Snapping the ends off green beans is a great activity for your kid helper to do while you're chopping the other ingredients. I spent many a Summer snapping beans at my Grandmother's growing up. Peel and mince the garlic up and also dice the tomatoes. I saw a great trick on the Food Network show "Barefoot Contessa" where Ina took a spoon and scraped the pulp out before dicing the tomato. Works like a charm! The veggies prepared should look like this:
This is just a portion of the green beans as I couldn't fit everything on the cutting board for a pretty picture. LOL I also foolishly didn't take any photos during cooking or once it was done because I was distracted by family. Silly TEE!

After the veggies are prepared, heat up a skillet with the EVOO. Add the green beans first and saute them for about 3 minutes. Till they start to firm up a bit. Next add in the tomatoes and saute for about another minute or two. Finally add in the garlic. I try to add garlic in last just because I don't want to burn it. Burned garlic taste BAD! Saute until you can smell the garlic. Add the black pepper, basil and oregano. Mix them together and let cook for about 30 seconds. Take off the heat and into a serving dish. VIOLA! Green beans that my son will eat and maybe your kids will too!

For Weight Watchers folks that are doing points a serving of this side dish is just ONE point! Plus, the beans and tomatoes are on the filling foods list. You can't beat it. It's quick and easy and a great way to incorporate more veggies into your diet.

Progress

Well, we have are almost repairing our deck and the steps are nearly completed as well. I'm very excited since the weather is starting to warm up and we're spending a little more time outside. We just bought a new patio table as well. It's still in the box because Bear did not want to put it together until the deck boards were repaired. We bought at Bed, Bath & Beyond. At first we wanted to buy a complete set, table, chairs, umbrella, etc. There were some sets that were okay at The Christmas Tree Shop. Normally, I like their furniture and other items, but I have a specific idea in my head about what I want the deck to be like and the CTS set was not doing it for me. The price was right though and Bear said that if I really hated the color of the CTS set he'd paint it. "Nothing a can of Krylon paint can't cure Honey!" But it was more than the color of that set. I just thought it was cheap looking (Sorry CTS!) and really wasn't feeling it. Well, someone was smiling down at us, because the CTS one was out of stock. Now we have the pretty table I liked and I'm very happy. Granted, I have to save up some money for the chairs and umbrella, but I don't mind. My b-day is coming up, when my Mom and Dad ask me what I want, I'll tell them chairs from BB&B!

Here's a picture of our stairs that are almost finished. We have a guy that works for our town and does carpentry work on the side building them for us. Bear knew the young guy when he was a little kid. Bear said "He was in the Church youth group I ran a long time ago." Bear says he feels "old" now. The steps look great and we've walked up and down them already. They're sturdy. I say that because Bear and I are both big people and they didn't bend with our weight on them. I'm very happy with them. I'll be even more happy when the deck boards get replaced on Saturday as well. Our guy can only do the work on weekends because of his "real" job. He's coming here very early in the morning. I think he's only showing up that early because it's going to be an almost summer like day Saturday and he wants to be done early enough to enjoy it. I don't blame him. His coming early will get me moving too and getting things done I want to get done before I head out to dinner with my girls from high school.
If I remember tomorrow, I'll take a picture of our flower bed in front of the house. It looks much different than the previous photo I've posted before. The spring bulbs are blooming and we have all the shrubs put in. It looks nice.
No blog post about the house is not complete without a picture of our Emma. Easter wasn't very "traditional" at our house this year. We opted to do a BBQ. The weather was great for it and no one really wanted to make a fuss. So we invited Bear's Brother and his wife and kid and of course, MIL was with us. I invited my family but my Mother was feeling cranky and my brother was tied up with other plans his wife made. Our 3 year old nephew JB was feeling very happy this past Sunday. He was so full of energy. He wore poor Emma out! But he was having fun and made us all smile. They both played on the deck while Uncle Bear was grilling. They're favorite spot was our chaise lounge. Emma liked it best because that's where the sun was for most of the afternoon.
My next project will be setting up the container garden on the deck. My plan is to have an herb garden and grow some vegetables. My lists so far are:

Herb garden: Basil, Oregano, Garlic, Parsley, Rosemary, Lavender, Cilantro and Thyme
Veggies: Tomatoes (Plum), carrots, cucumbers, spinach, arugula, lettuce, a few peppers.

It's the first time I'm going to really try and grow anything on my own without my Dad. I've only really planted veggies with my Dad and now that he lives in Virginia, I call him constantly asking his advice. I also ask him for a ride to the Home store every time he comes up for his monthly visit. He has a truck and I fill the back of it with everything I need/want.

I'll be posting a few recipes that I've remembered to take photos of and have had a positive reaction from The Boy and Bear.