Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Tonight's Dinner: January 20, 2014

We had a pretty late dinner tonight.  Not surprising when it comes to me.  I took my new running shoes and Emmy for a short run.  When breaking in new shoes, I don’t like to run long distances.  So far, I’m a little apprehensive of the new insoles that I paid an arm and a leg for.  I think the Mizuno Waves that I got are fine, but the insoles make them feel a little too snug at the top.  It’s only day two of wearing them so hopefully they settle in a little.  I wore them to work yesterday and they were much more comfortable by the end of the day and I sit most of the time. The only problem with wearing them to work is that my slacks are hemmed to fit my ballet flats so it looks like I have floods. I’m really starting to appreciate working mostly men because they could care less if my pants are to short.  Right now the tops of the shoes are making my toes fall asleep, which is why I switched to minimalist shoes.  The shoe salesman told me that he ran with minimalist shoes for three years and then he developed a foot problem so that he now is forced to heel strike.  Since my knees and hips have been hurting so much after even short runs, I thought it was time to make a change.  I certainly don’t want to end up like the shoe salesman.  Such a shame because I had no toe or arch problems with the minimalist shoes like I do with traditional.  I’d rather deal with foot numbness now than replacement hips when I’m 40.

I’m also blaming our late dinner on the fact that the chicken was still a little bit frozen.   Now, I’m not going to toot my own horn again like I did with the Taco Bell, but I do try to make dinners healthy.  As much as I prefer white rice to brown, I caved and am finally jumping on the band wagon.  To spruce it up, I roasted some garlic while the chicken was in the oven and Nick squeezed it into the rice to mix around. It’s a great way to add flavor to pretty much anything without adding a ton of extra calories.  You can Google how to roast garlic, but all you have to do is cut the top part of the garlic off, drizzle olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Lightly wrap it up in foil and put it in the oven for 30 minutes at 375 degrees or higher.  Super easy and adds so much flavor.  You can actually just roast garlic and spread it on a piece of toast.

For the main part of the meal, I had defrosted half a chicken that had been premarinated in garlic and sage.  Our local Sprouts was having a great sale on broccoli, three pounds for a dollar, so I got a few giant crowns.  They also had a good deal on red bell peppers so I had to get some of those too.  Since red bell pepper can be a little bit pricey at times, when it’s on sale I try to buy them.  They are much sweeter than the green, which are frequently on sale and generally much less expensive year-round.  I like green bell peppers quite a bit, but having red, yellow, or orange makes me feel posh.  Is it sad that I think having colored bell peppers is a treat?  It’s probably worse that I’ve put so much thought into how bell peppers make me feel.   Somehow buying a rainbow pack of peppers at Costco doesn’t give me the same fuzzy feeling as getting them on sale at the market even though they are much more affordable from Costco.  Maybe it’s because they are so perfectly pepper shaped, which makes me think they are genetically modified.  In all reality, the u-shaped bell peppers that I’ve been getting from Sprouts are probably just as modified as their perfect Costco cousins.  I digress. 


I threw in two crowns of broccoli and two red bell peppers into the pan with the chicken.  I also tossed in some fried garlic chips that had been left out from last week’s pasta dish. I was sure that they were stale, but I figured that throwing them into a 400 degree oven would perk them back up.  I mixed the veggies with extra virgin olive oil, a tiny bit of kosher salt, pepper, and the garlic chips for flavor.  With the chicken on top I knew that the marinade from the chicken would also run off onto the veggies.  It turned out to be a very tasty and healthy meal, albeit, late. 




No comments: