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).

Dr. Oz @ Google

I heard that Dr. Oz was coming to Google about a month ago and made sure I put a reminder on my calendar. Last week, we got an official announcement letting us know when he was coming and to my disappointment, I had a team meeting scheduled for the same time as Dr. Oz's speech. Over the weekend, the meeting was cancelled and I thought "Yes...I get to go." Unfortunately, less then 24 hours later I had been added to another meeting which conflicted with the Doc. Luckily, it only conflicted with the first half of his presentation, so I was able to make it to the last 30 mins.

For those of you that don't know Dr. Oz, he's a cardiologist, who co-authored You:The Owners Manual, and a number of other "You" themed books. He became a celebrity thanks to his regular appearances on Oprah, and now has his own show 5 days a week.

His presentation at Google was to share the 5 things you need to do to "be a better you." Like I said, I only got to see the last half, so didn't hear much of his presentation, but instead saw the question and answer session that followed.

Here are a couple of pics I took, including one of him with Eric (Google's CEO) and Laszlo (SVP of People Operations). Note: Guy in green shirt - unknown.

Before and After (painting)

I spent most of October dreading the idea of painting my office. Thanks to a lot of help from Alex, and a good edging brush, I'm happy to say the painting is done (before and after pics below). I'm only done with the painting...there is still a lot more to do in the decorating world so stay tuned for more pictures as that progresses.

Before

All the walls in my house were this beige color when I moved in. I started to buy furniture, lamps, and drapes that were dark, modern, and/or bold as I knew some day I'd get around to painting.

After

I selected teal and dark grey for the walls. To be honest, for how small the grey walls are, and the amount of extra work they caused, I think I could have just done the whole thing teal, but we live and learn. I love the way the white pops now with the bold colors on the wall. The wall above my desk (center pic) is the most in need of some help as it's just empty right now. Can't wait to get some things on the walls!

Where did September go?

Wow...a whole month has passed and I haven't posted once. I don't know whether it's because I've been so busy I haven't had time, or I haven't had anything that exciting going on in my own personal life. A little bit of both I guess. Here's a run down of life for the last month:

Social Life:

Babies and Brides - I'm at that age, 32, where everyone is either getting married or having babies. This year I've had 3 friends have babies, with another 3 announcing they're pregnant, and I have 2 weddings coming up. This last month alone I attended a baby shower, a bridal shower, a Bachelorette party, and visited a new mom in the hospital. I'm so excited for all my friends, and it's kept me pretty busy :)

Games - I love me a good game night. My co-worker decided to have a game night just days before having her baby which was a ton of fun, and last Friday I was invited to a Poker Party at my friend Rochelle's house. I've played poker before, but usually with a bunch of chattering girls who aren't really paying attention. This time there would be men, serious men, so I decided to do some pre-reading before heading to her house and providing my "donation" to the winner. I'm happy to say the pre-reading helped. Although the first hand I played was a mess, I quickly got into the swing of things and ended up winning the first game. Woo-hoo!

Movies - I think I've been averaging a movie every weekend. Since Eat, Pray, Love, I've seen The Town (which I loved), Easy A (which was cute), and Social Network (which was interesting although I wish I knew what was true and what wasn't). I love going to the movies and it seems like there are some good ones coming out during the rest of the year.

Other - I went to Santana Row for a girl's night with some of my old co-workers, and went to Palo Alto for a farewell dinner to one of my current co-workers who moved to New York. Both nights were a blast, although I was sad about my co-worker moving (Miss you Leena!)

Baking:

First time - My old team sits in a building that went "healthy" for a month, so there were no sugary snacks in the microkitchens for the whole month of Sept. That's where I came in with Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies. Yum!

Second time - One of my favorite snacks used to be a Hostess Cupcakes. The cake is so dense, the cream filling, and that thick chocolate topping on the top. Strange thing is, lately I haven't craved the Hostess version, but instead the version made at work for lunch a few months ago. It was so delicious so I thought...I can make this. I have to say this was my first VERY BIG FAILURE. I don't know what went wrong, but whole thing tasted horrible. Bleh! One good thing that did come out of this was I got to buy a cake decorating set which included a tool for filing cupcakes.

Third time - This doesn't really count as baking, but I really wanted a double layer chocolate cake with chocolate icing, so I went to store and bought boxed cake mix and canned frosting. I can officially say that I finally realize the importance of making things from scratch as this cake didn't live up to my expectations :(

I won't be baking for at least a month as today is the first day of The Detox. The Detox was introduced to me by my co-worker Cole, who in general keeps a pretty clean diet, but every 6 months she likes to detox her body of toxins, chemicals, etc. She found this program in The Complete Guide to Nutritional Healthy by Pierre Jean Cousin and Kirsten Hartvig. Basically, you eliminate all dairy (yes....cheese included) and wheat based products, reduce your salt intake, avoid meat and animal fat, tea, coffee, white sugar, candies, alcohol, and tobacco. You load up on grains, veggies, fruits, herbal teas, etc. So I'm basically on a vegan, gluten-free diet...or as I like to call it HELL. I was only able to survive 3 out of the 4 weeks the last time I tried this (a year ago) but I must admit I never felt lighter or more energetic. I also slept like a BABY, so I'm going to try to stick it out for the full 4 weeks. My last day of the detox will be Halloween! Last time I didn't have a plan for after the detox, but this time I do, so I'm hoping the effects last a little longer than last time :)

I guess I have been busy, but don't worry, I'll be back in the swing of things soon. My next big project is painting the office in my house. I'm pretty sure I've selected the colors, now all I have to do is paint it (not something I enjoy doing but never seems worth the money to hire someone). I'll be sure to post before/after pics as soon as it's complete.

That's all from here!