Deviled Chicken for Dinner

I don't often make dinner and when I do, I have a limited list of standard meals. As much as I love to bake, cooking has never really been my thing. At the same time, every month I get at least four "food" magazines with plenty of delicious looking meals. Over the 4-day weekend, I went through the Nov. and Dec. issues and marked any recipe that looked tasty AND easy to make.

I'm sad to say that after a wonderful 8 day visit, it's my Mom's last night in San Jose. (I'm happy to say that I'll see her again in 18 days when I head down to San Diego for a couple of weeks.) With it being my mom's last night, I decided to try out one of my newly found recipes, and decided on Deviled Chicken for dinner. The original recipe, from the Nov. 2010 issue of Cooking Light, serves the chicken with Broccoli with Shallots and Herbed Rice, but I made the side dishes even easier by serving it with peas and Trader Joe's baby tri-colored potatoes (already marinated in oil and herbs).

It was surprisingly pretty good, which in my book is a success. I especially liked that it has a bit of spicy kick, thanks to the red pepper flakes.

Deviled Chicken

Ingredients

4 (8-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

Cooking spray

2 tablespoons prepared mustard (I used French's yellow but I'm sure you could use dijon, honey mustard, or any mustard you like)

1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper (I added more cause I like things spicy, but you can substitute with an equal amount of mild chili powder for a milder flavor)

2 (1-ounce) slices French bread baguette (I used store-bought bread crumbs and the last of the french fried onions we bought for our Thanksgiving green bean casserole)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees*

2. Sprinkle chicken with black pepper and salt; lightly coat with cooking spray

3. Place chicken on rack of a broiler or roasting pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 475 degrees* for 15 minutes; remove pan from oven.

4. Combine mustard and red pepper in a small bowl; brush over chickn. Place bread in food processor; pulse 10 times or until crumbs measure 1 cup. Sprinkle breadcrumbs evenly over mustard mixture on chicken, pressing lightly to adhere. Lightly coat breadcrumbs with cooking spray. Return pan to oven. Bake at 475 degrees* for 10 minutes or until breadcrumbs are browned and a thermometer registers 165 degrees.

*I made this in my toaster oven, which only goes up to 450 degrees, so I just left it in a little longer than the instructions suggest.

Makes 4 servings (serving size: 1 chicken breast half). Calories 214; Fat 3.8g; Protein 34.2g; Carb 8.8g; Fiber 0.4g; Chol 90mg; Iron 16mg; Sodium 408mg; Calc 17mg

Welcoming Brian with some Mini Carrot Cupcakes

One of my favorite co-workers, Brian, is in town from New York this week. For those of you that know Brian, his breakfast usually consists of sugary cereal or M&Ms, so whenever he comes to visit, I make him a "healthy" breakfast which is usually some kind of fruit or vegetable flavored cupcake. For this visit, I've made mini carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting...that's healthy...right? I found the recipe on Martha Stewart's website and tweaked a few things.

Cupcake Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups grated carrots

1/2 cup raisins (excluded from my cupcakes)

Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 tablespoon pure maple syrup (excluded from my frosting)

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups confectioners' sugar

Cupcake Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 42 mini muffin cups with mini cupcake liners; set aside (I didn't have cupcake liners so I just lightly sprayed with Canola Oil.)

2. Beat sugar, eggs, oil, vanilla, and buttermilk together in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle.

3. In a large bowl, sift together flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add three-quarters of the flour mixture to the sugar mixtrue; mix until will combined. Add carrots and raisins to remaining flour mixture; toss to combine. Stir into batter until will combined.

4. Fill each muffin cup with about 2 teaspoons batter. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center of cupcakes comes out clean, 10 to 12 minutes (I actually had to cook for 14 mins). Transfer cupcakes to wire rack to cool. Let cool completely before frosting with cream-cheese frosting.

Frosting Directions:

1. In a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Add maple syrup, vanilla, and confectioners' sugar; continue beating until will combined and smooth.

Makes 42 frosted mini carrot cupcakes.
Recipe found on Martha Stewart

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Today I'm thankful for all the friends and family I have in my life, especially those of you that read my blog!

On Banana's morning walk this morning, I realized something...there are two types of days that I absolutely love when it comes to weather, The San Diego Day and the Bay Area Day.

San Diego Day: A warm day, bordering on hot, where there is a cool ocean breeze to keep you comfortable.

Bay Area Day: A day like today, where it's cool and crisp but with the sun out and no wind it's perfect.

With such a perfect start to my day, I'm looking forward to the rest of the day. My mom is visiting which is great as it's always nice to have family around during the holidays. I'm also cat-sitting, Meeko, who is a Bengal cat that acts and looks more like a leopard than a cat. It's taken a day or two for Meeko to get comfortable at my house, especially with a short-legged, brown, barking dog running around like a maniac, but he seems to be enjoying himself. You might think that cats and dogs don't get along, but Banana seems to like cats more than dogs, and Meeko is big and strong enough to put Banana in his place if needed. Banana goes about his daily schedule, while Meeko perches in high places, occasionally making a sneak attack on Banana when he's not looking. It's actually quite amusing.

Whatever you're doing today, and whoever you're with, I hope you have a wonderful day.

Meeko and Banana relaxing

Meeko and Banana in action

Meeko the leopard....I mean cat

Voting Day

Today was Voting Day in the U.S.

Banana and I hope you were all able to make it out to the polls (or send in your ballot).