chicken – Gabriela Maria

Roasted Red Bell Pepper Chicken with Red Rice

February 4, 2023February 4, 20231 Comment

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I’m hitting a point where I’m cooking more than I can post! It’s very exciting for me because it means I’m starting to build a collection of recipes. It also means I can start posting more frequently. I haven’t decided yet what the new post schedule will look like. I recently switched to posting on Saturdays instead of Fridays, so I’d have to figure out which day in the week would be best for my second post, and when I would be able to write that post based on my work schedule. This change will likely not happen soon, as I’d like to build a bit more of a recipe collection to know I have enough. I only post what I cook, and I don’t want to have to cook extra just to make a post. That seems silly. I’m looking to see if I can make this change in late June, so stay tuned!

Some other changes to the blog are that I will be adding a Series page. Although I’ve only done two months of this Color Series, I’ve had so much func coming up with creative ways to put foods together to make meals. I’d like to do some more series in the future. Like the previous change, this will not happen this month. It will probably come around the May/June timeframe simply because I’ve got to come up with some ideas! Recipes would still be stored under their corresponding category (breakfast, lunch, etc.) but would also be found in the Series tab under their corresponding series title. I hope you’ll stick around to see those changes take effect!

With that, let’s get to it!

Welcome to the Color Series for February! I’ve got three dish ideas to share for the month of February, a lunch, a breakfast, and a side salad. Today I’ll be sharing a lunch recipe. This is a Roasted Red Bell Pepper Chicken with red rice. The sauce ended up coming out more orange than red, but it uses red ingredients, so it counts! The side salad in the pictures will be shared in a later post, so make sure you check back!

Roasted Red Bell Pepper Chicken with Red Rice

Recipe List:

2 cups Red Rice
2 1/2 cups water
Boneless, skinless chicken thigh
1/2 jar of roasted red bell peppers (the thin jar!)
3-5 tbsp olive oil
3-4 garlic cloves
1 cup sour cream
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
Salt and Pepper

Recipe Directions:

Add rice and water to Instant Pot. Cook for 20 minutes on high pressure, and release for 10 minutes. Rice is ready!
Blend the roasted red bell peppers, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper for your smooth chicken cream/sauce.
In a medium skillet, add chicken with Italian seasoning, and cook until lightly browned. Transfer to a plate.
Add your blended sauce and sour cream to the skillet. Cook over medium heat until well mixed and creamy, about 3 minutes.
Add your chicken back to the skillet and coat with the sauce.
Serve over rice (and add your side dish).

Enjoy! Let me know what you think.

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Review: Balsamic Glazed Chicken and Potatoes

January 28, 2023April 29, 2023Leave a comment

It’s only been about 2 weeks since I’ve been back and yet somehow it feels like it’s been longer, but I also can’t believe that January is already over. I also feel like I haven’t done very much. I’ve done some socializing with some coworkers, updated my photo albums, and played video games. That’s essentially my week’s summary. It’s been a good week, very relaxed.

I do have some exciting news. I am part of a rotational program for my job, and for the program, we complete a company sponsored project. The projects are still undecided, but I’m excited to hear what we’ll be working on, and hoping we’ll hear soon. I pitched myself as a project lead to my peers and the program’s leadership team, and I’m excited to share that I was voted for as one of our project leads! I know it’s going to be a lot of work, but I think it’s such a great opportunity. I’m really looking forward to challenging myself and learning through this process. Wish me luck!

In a second round of exciting news, which I may have shared last week, I submitted my preferences for my second location/job. The goal of this program is to help individuals develop a strong skill set to be future leaders, and so they try and rotate associates to different locations to learn the different aspects of the company, but also through different jobs. Supposedly, the leadership team met last week to discuss what was submitted, so I’m also very eager and excited to hear more news on that.

Even with my exciting news, it was still a very relaxed week.

My plan was to share this recipe last week, but I really wanted to kick off my Color Series. Making the January dish was a lot of fun. I was very nervous about it because I haven’t had much experience coming up with recipe ideas. I was worried the combination wouldn’t be good, or it wouldn’t be filling, or it wouldn’t be a good nutritious blend. The first two concerns were removed quickly. The meal was delicious. While I’m not too sure on the nutritional value of the dish, I feel that it was a good mix of different veggies, some carbs and some protein.

I loved having this chicken dish for work. The recipe was very easy, and there was minimal work on my part. I threw everything in a cast iron and essentially my job was done. This was also very filling for work which was nice. I added some rice to help the chicken and potatoes last a little longer through my week. Overall a great combination. I’m typically not a big potato person (I know, a crime), but I do really like red potatoes.

The skin of red potato is filled with fiber, vitamin B, iron, and potassium.
Pulled from Black Gold Farms

I found this recipe in one of my many cooking magazine: delish Chicken Dinners. Although this recipe was not used for dinner, I’ve found that many of the recipes in this magazine can be modified to be lunch or dinner.

Rating

9/10

Recipe

Balsamic Glazed Chicken

This is a dish where, once again, I forgot to take photos. If you are interested in seeing more of the process, check out my Instagram page! Some notes and lessons learned:

Adding rice was a great idea. This would not have lasted me the week otherwise.
I doubled the potatoes. I did one batch on Sunday with the chicken, and a second batch on Wednesday, which didn’t have as much flavor because I wanted it to be quick. However doing the two batches made sure I had enough to eat and meant I could add a little more to each dish.
I wish I had doubled the chicken. Maybe not fully double, but I wish I made more. I felt I had a good amount of rice and a good amount of potato, but I also felt like the chicken went so quickly. If I had made more chicken, I would have made less potato.

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Review: Ranch Marinated Chicken

December 2, 20221 Comment

I announced last Friday that I would not be uploading a post due to the holidays, but it feels like I’ve been away much longer. I spent Thanksgiving at my parent’s place which was nice. We had been debating whether to go out to dinner or to cook at home and ultimately decided to make a home-cooked Thanksgiving meal. I ended up helping out a bit and made Garlic Butter Roasted Carrots which I made a few years ago at my sister’s place. This time we added some broccoli to the mix to use up some of the veggies we had in the fridge. If you decide to add broccoli to this mixture, I would either cook them in a separate pan and mix them in later, or mix them in at the halfway point. The oven temperature is very high and the carrots cook for about 30 minutes. If the broccoli is in for too long it becomes a bit too soft.

Here’s our Thanksgiving spread! Shout out to my dad for making such a delicious meal!

I’m spending some time in California this week. I’m not sure how much cooking I’ll be doing so I may be sharing some old dishes on here. You can tell they’re old because the photos I took are not great, but they’ll do for now. I didn’t take PTO for this trip. Instead I’m working remotely from California following an eastern time work schedule. My day starts early, but I also end early due to the time change, so it’s actually been really nice. I have so much time in the afternoon now. I do a small workout, watch a few episodes of a TV series, and get to make progress toward a certification. Next week I am taking one day of PTO to go on a day trip which I’m excited for!

This recipe is from one of the magazines I picked up at Whole Foods. They have them strategically placed right next to the checkout counter and of course, while I was waiting in line, I was looking around and it caught my eye. That’s how they get you to spend an extra $20 at the grocery store! In all honesty, I could have put it back, but this magazine specifically focused on chicken recipes. If you’ve been following along, you’ll probably have noticed that many of the dishes I post are not very heavy with the meat and instead pull protein from other sources. Well my boyfriend loves to have meat. If eating beef everyday was healthy, he would do so, but he settles for chicken and only has red meat every now and then. I grabbed this magazine hoping it would generate some ideas of what to cook that would offer him a break from my plant-based dishes.

I remember taking a picture of the recipe, the dish name, and the magazine name, but of course I can’t find them on my phone! If I was home it would be quick to just grab the magazine and jot it down, but the official name and magazine will have to wait until I return home!

Rating

9/10

Recipe

Ranch Marinated Chicken and Rice

Don’t let “Ranch Marinated” scare you away from tryin this dish out. I thought it was a bit odd, as ranch is not an ingredient I use at all in my cooking unless it’s to have as dip for my carrots. When I read that I would be marinated my chicken in a bowl of Ranch dressing, I was a bit concerned as to whether or not I was following the recipe correctly, but it turned out delicious.

This recipe also included one of my favorite rice “hacks” which is to cook the rice in broth instead of water. This gives the rice some flavor and it makes cooking easier because there’s one less pot to clean!

Some notes and lessons learned:

Although there is spinach mixed into the dish at the end, I would have liked some additional veggies. To me, this dish was on the heavier side with the chicken broth rice and the chicken. I felt that it needed something to balance that heaviness.
Although the recipe calls for bone-in chicken, it was a hassle to remove the bone when it was time for dinner. I would have much rather purchased boneless chicken. Next time!

Try it out and let me know what you think!

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Balsamic Chicken Broccoli Bake

March 27, 2021September 28, 20221 Comment

Happy Saturday!

There has been a lot going on the last few weeks. Between school work and clubs/extracurricular activities, it’s a bit hard to try and find time for myself. Last week we had our much needed spring break. I spent the second-half of the week up in San Francisco which was really nice. I was planning to a get some work done that week, but I ended up mostly relaxing and playing video games. I also re-made my schedule based on how my first Module went. This past week I’ve followed it really well, and it’s much easier to stick to because I’ve given myself a lot of buffer in between scheduled items. Even so, this week has been very busy with new board positions for one of the clubs I am in, and on Monday we have Student Government speeches, and I’m still trying to piece mine together. We only get 2 minutes, which while I’m speaking will feel like forever, but in reality, it’s not a lot of time. So I want to make sure I’m focusing on the most important points. Wish me luck!

One of my first weekends of the semester I tried this Balsamic Chicken Broccoli Bake recipe from the magazine All-Time Favorite Home Cooking Recipes by Centennial Kitchen. The magazine has a lot of great recipes and I’ve tried a few of them out, which I’m looking forward to sharing in the upcoming weeks. The final photo doesn’t look appealing, but the dinner was really good!

As is the case with most of the recipes I try, this recipe was super easy to follow and didn’t require a lot of work. The veggie mix was broccoli, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, red onion, and mushroom. I’m usually not the biggest fan of mushrooms, but mixed together like this I didn’t really notice them, so it was a great way to get an intake of mushrooms. I will say though, I didn’t think the mushrooms would last very long raw, so I cooked the whole package. This made the mushrooms the more dominant veggie, whereas I would have preferred more broccoli. Also once the veggies were cooked, they seemed to disappear. So if you like a lot of veggies, I would add a little extra to the pan so you know you have plenty left over. On that note, I ran out of chicken super fast! Cooking the chicken as a whole breast was really easy, but it made it very difficult to portion it out over the week. So next time, I might cut the chicken up prior to cooking it so I can better see how much chicken I really have. Additionally, the seasoning on the chicken could have been better. It was very balsamic-y, which is on me, because apparently I missed the chicken with the salt and pepper shakers.

In this recipe, it worked out nicely because there were also veggies included in the dish. However, many of the recipes I try are strictly for cooking the chicken or fish, and so there often aren’t sides. One thing I’ve been trying to incorporate more into my meals are mini side dishes, mostly to make sure I’m full on my meal before I go back for seconds (and then run out by Wednesday!). For the week I made the balsamic chicken, I didn’t actually read the full recipe before going to the grocery store, so I bought ingredients for a side dish and made that as well. For the side dish I made a Creamy Cucumber Salad which I got from the blog The Stay at Home Chef.

This cucumber salad was a great addition, and would likely make a good addition to any meal! It was very easy to make, but I unfortunately think that I managed to mess it up. I may have added a bit too much sugar, and I know for a fact that my cucumbers were not “sliced thin” (Dad would be disappointed with my slicing skills). But overall, it was still really good. I added it on the side of my plate, but this could also be placed in a small separate bowl if you don’t want to risk mixing things on your plate.

Overall, great meal! Just need to get some better photography skills, but you get the gist. On the page to the left of this recipe there’s a recipe for Honey-Lemon Turkey legs which looks REALLY good, but it’ll have to wait until I finish the recipes that are already on my list!

Next time I’m hoping to post some of the lunch wraps I’ve made, but to be honest, it all depends on if I find the photos or not. If not, I’ve got another great salmon dish to share! Until next time 🙂

To be continued…

Gabriela

“Garlic” Chicken and Veggie Pasta

January 10, 2020October 1, 2022Leave a comment

Happy New Year and welcome to week one of winter quarter!

I’m ~almost~ done. Not in the homestretch yet, but I’m sure this quarter will go by quickly. So far I’m really enjoying my classes and I work well with all of my lab partners. I have a lot of work ahead of me this quarter, but somehow it all feels incredibly more manageable than last quarter. Which is great because I have other things that I’m looking forward to doing this quarter other than just sitting in my library cubicle.

As it is a new year, of course there are new year’s resolutions to be said! For starters, I want to firmly stick to my gym schedule AND I want to start using the machines. Even though I grew up as an athlete, I’ve never really gone to a gym because all of my workouts were on the field. Now when I go to the gym, I notice I’m really intimidated and feel like everyone is watching me. It makes me feel really pressured and also makes me scared to try things that I believe “I can’t do.” I started Tuesday and Thursday, and both days I used a new machine. Going on Thursday, I noticed that because I had gone to a machine on Tuesday, I already felt more comfortable approaching the idea and I ended up having a great workout!

Secondly, I really want to expand on my cooking abilities. So for the next 11 weeks (the entirety of my winter quarter), I want to cook a new recipe every week for lunch and dinner. I’ve always wanted to try a bunch of new recipes, like the ones everyone secretly has pinned on their Pinterest boards but never actually tries. I really want to feel comfortable and feel like I can make something delicious!

Of course, as I’m sure it’s clear, I love food and I love to cook. I used to be awful at it (actually though…), but I’ve had a lot of practice and I’m starting to really enjoy it. It’s become a normal part of my Sunday schedule. In the morning, grocery store, buy some flowers to spruce up the living room, come home, and meal prep for the week. Meal prepping has been great for my busy schedule and also helps me stay on track with what I’m eating and making sure that I’m getting all of the calories I need. Between playing lacrosse, going to the gym regularly, AND swimming on weekends, I burn quite a lot of calories and need to make sure I’ve got something in my stomach to keep me going.

To start off with my New Year’s resolution, I made a Garlic Chicken and Veggie Pasta which I found off of a Facebook video from Tasty (I think). Personally, I think this dish is improperly named. One, because I definitely didn’t taste garlic and two, because I have never used THAT much oregano. But it was still really tasty!

Since it was just a video, there were no measurements or super clear instructions, so I just kinda winged it. It turned out great though!! It was delicious. It was super easy to make and lasted me for 4 days of lunch, although to be honest, I probably could have pushed that to 5 days. With the combination of chicken and pasta, the dish was heavier than I was expecting it to be, so I definitely could have stretched it out over another day.

The recipe consisted of chicken breast, zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, shallots, kale, and penne. To start, I had to prep all of the veggies. The carrots were shaved and sliced, and the zucchini and yellow squash were sliced. I used 2 carrots, and 1 zucchini and yellow squash. The chicken was cut into little cubes and cooked in olive oil on the stove. I added some salt, pepper, and oregano. While cooking the chicken, I prepped the penne in a separate pot. I opted for whole wheat penne from Trader Joe’s and used about half the bag (around 3 cups). When the chicken was finished, I placed it into a separate bowl and cooked the carrots, kale, zucchini, and yellow squash in the same pan. While cooking these, I added in about a quarter of the shallot, 3 gloves of garlic, and some salt, pepper, and oregano. When the pasta was finished, I mixed it into the pan and added the chicken in as well. On medium-low heat, I mix everything around in the pan, and added some more salt, pepper, and oregano.

It was a lot of food, but a lot of really good food! I plan on sticking to my schedule of making a new recipe every week, but I definitely can’t wait to try this again. I would highly recommend it! Enjoy!

To be continued…

Gabriela