Summery Vegetable Salad

Pretend you're me and it's a rainy Sunday afternoon so you left the confines of your bedroom for the first time since you woke up to rustle up a meal. You open the refrigerator door, one hand on your cocked hip, give the contents a once over then close the refrigerator door. You do this two more times before letting out a big dramatic sigh that implied, “Okay, I give up! The contents of the fridge won't magically change every time I open it, so I'll just make a summer vegetable salad (even though it's raining)!” So you gather all the ingredients and proceed to make the following salad.

Ingredients

Vegetables**
Broccoli
Sweet bell peppers
Cucumber
Onion (optional)

Meat**
Chicken breasts, cooked
Bacon strips, fried til crispy

Dressing
Mayo, 3 to 5 tablespoons
Lemon juice from one lemon
Splenda, 1 packet
Salt and black pepper

**Basically anything in your fridge that you need to use up before it gets too squishy**

1.Prep the veggies. Since you're me, you steamed the broccoli until they were a little soft, but not too soft, crisp tender is the term you're looking for. Slice the bell peppers and cucumber into thin rings. See the remaining half of the onion you used to make something you forgot about a couple of days ago? Dice it up.
2.Prep the meat. Roughly chop the left over chicken breasts that your hubby fried for dinner two nights ago. Crumble up some of that bacon, too.
3.Make the dressing. Add all the ingredients you THINK make up a decent dressing and mix them all up, making sure you dip your pinky in a few times to gauge the taste. Add salt and pepper if you must.
4.Toss the salad. Put everything in a big bowl and armed with two plastic ladles, toss the vegetables, meat and dressing until everything is lightly coated with the dressing. Refrigerate until serving.
5.Serve to sick hubby.
6.Accept compliments.

Now stop pretending to be me and you make this salad.

Chicken Wings

Not too long ago there was a thread on LowCarbFriends that introduced me to the awesomeness that is chicken wings. Unable to control my craving for something I have never made before, I urged my hubby to buy some chicken wings so we can make our own.

Now my hubby loves BBQ sauce but unfortunately for me I wasn't able to find a low carb recipe (I have found one since then that I'm going to try next time)so he made his own high carb BBQ and I just mixed a tablespoon of Emeril's Creole Seasoning mix and some Splenda into soy sauce and dipped the deep fried chicken wings right after they got out of the fryer. My chicken wings did not look as good as his but they tasted great (his tasted awesome but they're PURE EVIL!) and I will gladly make them again. YUM!

Chicken Curry - Second Time Around

Curry is one of my favorite chicken dishes growing up. I'm not a big fan of chicken, given a choice between chicken and pork, I would choose the latter in a heart beat. But chicken curry is different. It's so comforting with its thick and flavorful sauce and not to mention the delicious aroma. A whiff of it brings me back to my childhood when our nanny would cook it for Saturday lunch.

As an adult, I have only cooked it once before with the help of a seasoning packet. It was disappointing to say the least. It didn't pack the same punch and was just lacking in flavor overall. When I started LC-ing, I avoided dishes with sauce simply because they would make me wish for rice, my white enemy.

What about cauliflower rice, you say? Well when I made it before it was so time consuming (I don't own a food processor) and it wasn't that good to make me want to try it again.

So when I had a craving for curry I knew I had to do it right. Not just the curry itself but the cauliflower rice too. Let's just say this is my second chance on both dishes.

I'm so glad I didn't give up. This was so delicious and so filling.

Chicken Curry
*Adapted from Simply Recipe's Chicken Curry in a Hurry



1 pound chicken breasts, skinless and boneless
3 T curry powder plus more to taste
2 T olive oil
1 medium onion, sliced thinly
3 cloves garlic, minced
100 g red bell pepper, sliced in thin strips
300 g string beans, cut 1 1/2" in length
1 C heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste
1 T chili powder (optional)

Procedure

1. Rinse the chicken breasts in running water and pat dry. Lay them flat on a chopping board and sprinkle with half the amount of curry powder on both sides of each chicken breast. Gently rub the powder over the chicken. Let sit for a few minutes.



2. Heat olive oil in pan and saute garlic and onions. Season with salt and pepper.



3. Set the onions and garlic to one side of the pan. Fry the chicken. Cook at least 3 minutes on each side, make sure that the meat is cooked. Remove the chicken from the pan once cooked.



4. Add the remaining vegetables in to the pan. Season with salt and pepper. I sprinkled some curry powder in as well. Cook the vegetables until crisp tender.

5. Put the chicken back into the pan. Add heavy cream and remaining curry powder. If you want it to be spicier, add more curry powder and even chili powder. If the heavy cream is too thick, add a quarter cup of water.

6. Stir until everything is coated in sauce. Salt and pepper to taste.

7. Serve on top of cauliflower rice.



Here's a great video on how to make cauliflower rice.