Friday, May 31, 2013

Easy, Impressive and Healthy Dinner

I haven't been feeling the cooking vibe lately. Chalk it up to being busy and also the nicer weather. Thankfully we haven't been starving around here. :o) One night this week, though, I made this simple, but impressive supper for us. The best part? It only approximately 15 minutes of hand on time to get it to the table. Love that!
I started by putting a small whole chicken into the slow cooker on low around 11 am. I just took it out of its packaging, put it in, and tossed some marinade on top. When I checked the chicken at 4 pm it was done. So I turned the cooker to warm until supper. (Can anyone tell me why my slow cookers always end up cooking fast?? Seriously think that I need to start cooking on warm.)
Right before supper I started up some chicken stock on the stovetop for some Trader Joe's Harvest Grains Blend.
It is a great substitute for rice. We call this bird seed in our house and we love it. You just boil water or stock and simmer it for 10 minutes. This time I threw in a handful of Parmesan cheese when it was done cooking. (I was thinking along the lines of cheese risotto. However, I have no idea what risotto really is, so I could be way off here.)
While the grains were cooking up I chopped up a head of broccoli to steam. (I don't have a steamer. I just use a metal colander in a large pot on the stove. I put the veggies into the colander in the pot with a little water, put the lid on and let them steam away.)
There you have it. An easy to make dinner that is way more impressive than frozen pizza and way healthier for you.

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