My Default Dinner Recipe

Good morning blog friends! I hope that you are transitioning well back to the first full work week of the new year. I spent the day catching up on missed phone calls and emails and now have the rest of the week to devote to getting ready for my upcoming presentations next week.

Yesterday at the gym was, um, interesting. The parking lot at my gym was insane and the track was filled with people just walking about in the running and jogging lanes. I am all for getting healthy and fit but WHY do we have this tradition of starting on the first of the year? I know it's about starting anew and all of that, but why limit it to January 1? Okay, rant over. Moving on...

My 3.5 miles went by fairly quickly despite all of the new members in attendance. During the run, I decided I wanted to make my old standby for dinner- Lemon Artichoke Chicken. I LOVE this recipe. It is fairly simple and easy to make. I found it over a year ago on Cooking Light and adapted it along the way to come to the ultimate recipe. You'll need:

-1-1.5 pounds organic chicken breast

-1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

-14 oz organic chicken stock

-2 cups instant brown rice

-2 T olive oil

-1 can (14 oz) quartered artichoke hearts

-1 medium sized yellow onion

-salt, pepper and garlic salt to taste

-parmesan cheese

-approximately half a bag of frozen peas

Optional: 1 Glass Red Wine to ease the cooking process

Loves.

Also optional- puppy photo shoot.

Bailey always sits like a gentleman- I love it!

The goods, minus the brown rice

You'll need a dutch oven or similar baking pot to make the lemon artichoke chicken.

-Cut the chicken and onion in bite size pieces. If I can do this, anyone can do this. I seriously have issues when it comes to knives. Challenged, if you will. It took me a few tries but I can now cut an onion fairly decently.

-Once you have the chicken and onion cut, place 2 T olive oil into dutch oven and place on stovetop over medium high heat. Saute chicken and onion for 5 minutes. Stir throughout the 5 minutes, like so:

After the five minutes is up, add the chicken stock, lemon juice, brown rice, peas, salt, pepper and onion powder to the mix. Stir, and bring the mixture to a boil. This usually takes a minute or two.

After the ingredients reach boiling point, reduce heat to medium, COVER and let simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once this is complete, stir in the (drained) artichoke hearts and let sit for a minute.

Add parmesan cheese and feast!

The finished product.

I really like this recipe because it is easy, has a relatively short ingredient list and keeps well. The rice takes on an almost risotto-like texture. The recipe makes 4 servings (at least), and I've been known to eat it for days on end. The original recipe calls for green peppers instead of peas, but I decided that I like peas better and they are easier to deal with (no cutting!). I think they add a nice flavor to the dish.

Do you have a default dish that you always turn to?

While at the grocery store, I also found that I have an addiction. To bars. I can't seem to stop myself from going down that aisle. I went to the grocery store near my gym, which I haven't been to in years. I've been missing out. They have not only the peanut butter and jelly larabar flavor (which I've been dying to try) but also this new organic clif bar that is made of fruit and nuts. I had to purchase three. The bar damage:

Do you have a favorite "bar" brand? What is your favorite Larabar flavor? Right now mine is cinnamon roll but that is subject to change!

Have a great Tuesday!