Food!

When I run out of ideas for dinner, things get ugly. I get grumpy and just want to eat take-out all the time, and let's face it, my family just can't afford to eat take-out all the time. Nor should we. But coming up with lunches and dinners every damn day just gets so old. I don't love cooking, but I don't hate it . . . I just have to try new things to mix it up a little. Last week I was nosing around on some online recipe sites, and I tried a Philippino chicken dish called chicken adobo. DIVINE! So I thought I'd share the recipe here:

Ingredients

For the Chicken Adobo:

6 chicken thighs, bone in, skin on
1/2 c. low sodium soy sauce
1/4 c. white vinegar
1-2 T. water
1/2 tsp. cracked black pepper
1/2 bulb garlic, very roughly chopped

For the Garlic Fried Rice:
 
2 T. oil
3 cups cooked rice (leftover rice works GREAT)
1/2 bulb garlic, sliced
1/2 tsp. salt (more or less to taste)

Rinse chicken thoroughly and pat dry. Place in large saucepan with a lid. Pour soy sauce and vinegar over chicken, add garlic and pepper, and stir to mix well and coat chicken with sauce. If there is not enough liquid, add water.

Place chicken over medium flame and cover. Cook for 30 minutes or so, mostly undisturbed, till chicken is cooked through and tender. Check a couple times toward the end of cooking time...the sauce will reduce drastically, which is normal, but if it gets too dry, add a little water as needed.

While the chicken cooks, heat oil in a large frying pan over medium high heat. When oil begins to smoke, add garlic slices and stir fry till light golden. Add rice and continue stir frying till garlic darkens and rice is warmed through. Cover and set aside.

When chicken finishes cooking, serve with rice. A squeeze of kalamansi juice (or lime juice) goes nicely with the chicken.

Number of Servings: 6

I found this recipe on a site called sparkrecipes.com, which is partnered with sparkpeople.com. Imagine a free version of Weight Watchers -- that's Sparkpeople. You can track what you eat, and many foods are available in their database, which means you don't even have to enter the nutritional info. You can track exercises, weight loss or gain, and specific nutritional goals that you might have. You can find recipes and articles, and you can also join groups and create a profile page along the lines of Myspace. You can then add friends to your page and check out what they've been eating so that you can hold one another accountable. I'm on there, and it's pretty crazy to see how much junk I eat sometimes!