What's for Dinner? 2/14/11

 Savory Chicken and Wild rice is what's for dinner! I got the recipe from eatbetteramerica.com . It was really quite tasty, I did tweak it a bit. If you make the recipe as is, each serving is 240 calories and they say it should feed four people. I disagree. Brad and I polished off the whole skillet and probably could have eaten a little more on a normal night (we had a pretty big lunch). BUT even if you eat two servings that's only 480 calories, which is quite respectable for a meal. Or you could serve this as a side dish to a hearty salad or something to make it more of a meal if you're serving it to four people. Anyway, on with the recipe!!! As always, I'll show you what the recipe called for and how I tweak it. Now that I think about it, I hardly ever just make a recipe as is. I pretty much always tweak it. Sometimes I *might* make it as is once, but then I'll almost always change it somehow. I'm not sure why I do that. I guess I just think I can improve it?

Ingredients:

1	lb boneless skinless chicken breast halves, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 1/2	cups sliced fresh mushrooms (4 oz)
1	cup baby-cut carrots
1 2/3	cups water
1	package (4.3 oz) long grain and wild rice mix with herbs

 Here's what I used. I could have used more chicken, but I'm cheap so I only used one (large) chicken breast. I used Rice a Roni wild rice which is packaged in 4.2oz instead of 4.3oz, but you know that missing .1 of an oz isn't going to kill the recipe. Instead of water, I used chicken broth because I had some in my fridge and it needed to get used up. Also, I left out the mushrooms because I think they are vile.

 Cube up your cooked chicken. I just used the skillet I cooked the chicken in to make the rest of the meal. If you haven't already noticed, I'm a fan of one pot/pan meals, for a couple reasons. First, I hate doing dishes. The less dishes I use, the faster clean up is. Second, we eat a lot of chicken. I'm at the point where I don't really like to eat *just* a cooked chicken breast with a few sides; I'm really that sick of it. In fact, when I cook chicken and a couple sides (usually broccoli or peas with sweet potato oven fries) I will usually only make Brad one and then find something else for myself. So i've been on a quest for recipes that have chicken in them, but not just by itself so I can eat it. Keeps it interesting, you know!

 Ok, so after the chicken throw in your carrots. I halved my carrots. I honestly don't like cooked carrots (texture, I think) but these don't get too mushy. They stay a bit crunchy. Still not my favorite, but they were good in this dish. In the future, i think I might also add some peas to give it a little greenery. I think that would be quite a nice addition to this recipe.

 Then dump in the box of rice...

 And the herb packet that has the special herbs and the "wild" part of the "long grain and wild rice".

Then add in the water or chicken broth. Bring it to a good boil, cover it, turn down the heat, and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Uncover it, stir it up, and let it simmer with the lid off until the liquid is pretty much soaked up. Serve it up and eat it!



Just as a little fun update I thought I would tell you that I attempted making home made ravioli yesterday. It was very very tiring. I just rolled out the dough and filled it. I'm going to cook them for dinner tonight as our Valentine's day thing. I didn't take picture of me making them, but I might post a picture or two of the finished product. It was a process because I don't have a pasta press, just my two little hands and a rolling pin. But I think it's going to pay off. They look quite yummy! I'll be sure to let you know how it goes. I'm also making home made lava cakes for dessert. I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THESE. What are you lovies doing for valentines day? Staying in and cooking or going out?

Enjoy!