Please Fave the Original Submission:
click here for 1. Seared Chicken
click here for 2. Honey Glazed Chicken
click here for 3. Sweet and Salty Chicken

A Cavalcade of Chicken Dishes and some of the most colourful tasty vegetables from the kitchens of  deragorka

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1. Seared Chicken with veggies

This meal was planned with the paleo diet in mind, though I do understand it is not STRICT paleo. The red potatoes throw it off. You can, however, use a substitute of your choice for them. I'm more or less using the paleo diet as a way of forcing myself to eat a variety of foods and find different alternatives to the "safe" choices like pastas and rices, as those are generally enriched flours which add up to a poor choice for diabetics. I am NOT diabetic, however it does run in my family which is why I'm concerned about it now rather than later. The paleo diet is intriguing to me because I don't have to say "no" to the foods I really really love. It just requires a bit of actual thought about what you prepare it with. That said, recipe is below. Feel free to modify as you desire. :)

Also to note: I used a nonstick grill pan for this recipe. If you choose to go that route, Calphalon's Unison line is the best nonstick cookware for searing. It has a heavily textured finish that allows food to stick just enough to get a nice seared finish to it. The grill pan I happen to have used is the Calphalon grill pan that's part of the Unison set. This pan runs about $80 give or take. Just something to think about.

Omega's Seared Chicken with veggies
(makes enough for one person plus second helpings of veggies)

1 thin sliced boneless chicken breast (feel free to substitute with your favorite cut of chicken)
2 red potatoes
2 zucchini
1 yellow squash
1 orange bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
olive oil
Montreal chicken seasoning
garlic powder
sesame seeds

1. Slice zucchini, yellow squash, and orange bell pepper into pieces about .5" thick. You may need to quarter the squash depending on its size. Place in pot with steamer basket and allow to steam while cooking the rest.*

***Note**** You may want to start this about 5 to 10 minutes BEFORE you start searing the meat and other veggies so that all the veggies are allowed to soften when you're finished. You may choose to flavor these with butter if you wish, but they taste perfect without flavorings of any kind.

2. Preheat the nonstick grill pan with approximately 1 tbsp olive oil. Also make sure you have a non-aerosol olive oil sprayer on hand to rejuvenate the oil during cooking. I use a Misto sprayer, but there are others.

3. Cut red potatoes and red bell peppers into pieces about .5" thick. You may need to quarter the potatoes based on your preference.

4. Place these veggies in the oiled pan and allow to sear for about 2 to 5 minutes before adding the chicken. This will allow the potatoes enough time to soften without overcooking the chicken fillet since it's sliced thin. Sprinkle the garlic powder over the veggies to your preference, and stir them around with a plastic or wooden utensil (this is to protect the non-stick surface of your cookware. You can use any utensil if you happen to be using stainless steel or some other uncoated cooking surface).

5. After about 5 minutes of searing the veggies, add in the chicken breast and sprinkle on the Montreal seasoning over everything in the pan. Be mindful that the chicken will cook FAST due to it being thinly sliced. Sprinkle some garlic powder onto the chicken as well, and continually rotate the filet so it doesn't burn.

6. Sprinkle sesame seeds over all veggies and chicken in the pan while spritzing more olive oil as necessary. The extra oil helps prevent the food from sticking and burning, even if you're using a non-stick surface. Again, be sure the oil you're spritzing is not an aerosol propelled oil. Aerosols are very hard on your nonstick cookware and can damage the coating. Use a Misto or other air-propelled oil spritzer.

7. Once you feel the chicken is adequately seared (should be lightly blackened but not burned in some places), remove it and the veggies to a plate. If you started steaming the other veggies 5 - 10 minutes before you began searing, those should also be nice and soft and ready for consumption. Enjoy your dinner! This recipe does not use any added salts or flavorings outside of what's provided in the seasonings and oil. You may modify this if you please, but this recipe as is provides a great tasting meal with very little added sodium.

NINJA EDIT NOTE: In future fixings of this recipe, I may use two filets instead of one, simply because I did not anticipate the meat shrinking as small as it did. You can also feel free to use whatever cut of chicken you prefer most. I just happened to have had the thin cuts of chicken breast on hand, and wanted to use them. :) I may try it next with a new set of veggies and the leg quarters instead, as I have those too.

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2. Honey Glazed Chicken

This recipe was made with the paleo diet in mind. Yes, Omega's trying to eat better, so leave her alone. ¬.¬ It's actually quite filling, and this recipe is great for a single-person meal. It can be modified to feed more people, of course, or you can choose to eat only one filet. Your choice. This recipe also uses the thin sliced breast filets as my other recipe, except this time I anticipated the meat shrinking. As such, I have 2 filets for one person, which actually fed me a lot better. This silly dragon hasn't cooked in awhile.

You may also notice that I do a lot of cooking with olive oil. I always have as it's a LOT better for you than vegetable and other refined oils. Only downside to it is that it burns a lot faster, so it's not the ideal oil for fried meats or popcorn. Choose your oils accordingly. And as noted in the recipe itself, use an oil spritzer to season your nonstick cookware. Aerosol propellants actually damage the cooking surface of your nonstick cookware, causing unnecessary wear and tear on something that should last you at least 5 years. More expensive cookware, like Calphalon or All-Clad, should last you for life if you take care of it properly.

P.S. I have terrible lighting for photographs of any kind. x.x

Omega's Honey Glazed Chicken and Veggies

1 sweet potato, peeled
1 quarter large yellow onion
2 Roma red tomatoes
2 thin sliced chicken breast filets
olive oil (in a spritzer)
honey
lemon pepper

1. Cut the onion in half, then half the half. You should now have a piece that's roughly 1/4 of the onion. Proceed to cut this piece in half, then in quarters and cut these down into 3 more sections for easier bites to eat. Also cut your tomatoes into eighths. Peel and cut your sweet potato into slices, cutting the larger slices in half so that they're easier to eat.

*Do NOT use the aerosol type oils on your nonstick cookware, as the aerosol propellant WILL damage the surface!

2. Spritz a nonstick grill pan with the olive oil.* Preheat the oiled pan and add in the sweet potato bits. Let them cook for a bit before adding in the tomatoes and onions so that they have a chance to soften. Adding in the onions and tomatoes first will give too much opportunity for the lighter veggies to overcook.

3. After about 2 or 3 minutes, add in the onions and tomatoes and let them cook a little along with the sweet potato. Sprinkle on the lemon pepper to your preference. Stir the veggies a bit so they have a good chance to soften.

4. Place in both chicken breast filets and sprinkle lemon pepper over the filets. You may choose to sprinkle it over the veggies again, as stirring can cause the pepper to get mixed with the oil in the pan.

5. Flip the chicken once, then squeeze (or pour, depending on your honey) the honey generously over the chicken and the veggies. As the honey heats, it becomes liquefied and will eventually glaze. If using a searing grill pan, allow the chicken filets to show the grill marks before pulling it off the pan to ensure it's fully cooked. Just say no to Salmonella. =|

Omega's "What's in the Garden?" salad

1. Grab a deep bowl and fill it with a 50/50 mix green salad. If you have your own lettuces, this mix is made with baby spinach, green romaine lettuce, green leaf lettuce and a crap ton of other lettuces that may not even be in the box I bought. =| It's a spring mix plus baby spinach. Thar. Simple.

2. Top the salad with a few pitted medium black olives (I prefer California olives cos Greek olives are…meh to me), roasted and salted sunflower nuts (you can buy these in the salad section of your grocery store and they come in unsalted variety), fresh raspberries, and sliced baby bella crimini mushrooms.

3. Favor a light dressing such as an olive oil and balsamic vinegar mixture. You don't want to detract from the good flavors mixed in with super flavors like ranch or 1000 island dressings. It would also not work very well with the already sweet flavor of the main dish.


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3. Sweet and Salty Chicken

Yay! Last night's dinner. C: This was incredibly tasty, if not superly too peppery. The cloves I think were also a bit too liberally used, so in the future, I'm going to watch very carefully how much gets sprinkled on. All in all, very tasty dinner.

And in case you're wondering about what inspires me to make some of this stuff, I simply open my pantry and decide what spices sound good to make stuff with. X3 I'm kind of a pantry raider in that regard. lol I also try to add a bit more color to my dishes by using a variety of veggies, but half my veggies had gone bad over the Rainfurrest weekend, so all I really had left were onions, broccoli, and a few bell peppers. I need to go shopping again.

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Omega's Sweet and Salty Chicken & Veggies

2 thin sliced chicken breast filets
1 yellow bell pepper
1 orange bell pepper
1/2 large white onion
dried basil
ground cloves
ground cinnamon
ground nutmeg
black pepper
sea salt
honey
olive oil

1. Cut the peppers in half, and then quarters. Cut the quarters into bite sized pieces about 1" in thickness. Take the large white onion, cut it in half, then cut one half into eighths.

2. Mist a nonstick grill pan with olive oil using an oil mister. Once heated, drop your cut veggies in and season with honey, salt, and pepper to your preference. Let them cook for a minute or two before adding the chicken.

3. Add the chicken and allow to fully cook. Due to the strong nature of the spices, use the remaining spices sparingly. Lightly sprinkle the nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and basil over the entire contents of the pan.

****ALLERGY ALERT!*****
Nutmeg is a tree nut, so if you have allergies to tree nuts, remove this ingredient.

Omega's Lightly Sweetened Steamed Veggies

broccoli
1 yellow bell pepper
1 orange bell pepper

1. Cut the broccoli flourets into bite sized portions. How much broccoli you cut will depend greatly on your pot size and how many you're feeding.

2. Cut the peppers into rings, and then cut the rings into bite sized pieces about 1/2" long. Add to steaming basket first, followed by broccoli.

3. Drizzle honey over all veggies and allow to steam as normal.

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Allergy warning – recipe contains tree-nut products