You guys are going to be proud of me. It’s been five days since I’ve gone out to eat. That means no breakfast, lunch, or dinners out! Not even a Starbucks drink. But, I can’t promise to go all weekend without dining out. I’m heading to Charleston this afternoon to visit my parents for a week, and Charleston has the best restaurants. My mom and I like to cook a lot together, so there will be recipes posted! I will also have a lot of free time to work on the post about blogging. I have been receiving so many emails about other bloggers who would like to guest blog and I can’t wait to start collaborating more! I know I’ll be working on some things tonight.
Last night, I decided to continue the not-eating-out streak and make a healthy dinner. I thawed out chicken legs all day long in the refrigerator, while they marinated in a bag of olive oil and minced garlic.
I wanted the seasonings to be easy and quick. I grabbed olive oil, roasted garlic & herb ( I put that shit on everything!), and barbecue seasoning. I like the barbecue seasoning because you get the grill taste without having to grill them! Okay, duh Tara!
Preheat then to 350 degrees.
Place the chicken legs in a baking pan and season the tops and bottoms of them with both seasonings.
I love a crispy top on chicken and honey is the trick! It adds a glazed finish and gives the chicken a sweet and savory flavor..
Bake the chicken for approximately 45-50 minutes.
While the chicken is in the oven, start preparing the rice. I don’t like plain brown rice unless it has butter and we all know that’s not too healthy. I do a couple of additives to give it more BAM! After the brown rice is done, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon garlic powder, 1/4 cup italian bread crumbs, pinch of sea salt and a pinch of pepper. I used about 4 cups of uncooked rice.
After adding all the seasonings, you’ll love it and it’ll be hard to go back to eating brown rice the regular way!
Check the chicken to make sure it’s done. It should fall right off the bone.
I haven’t bought store salad dressing in months. I used to be afraid to make my own dressing, thinking that it would taste gross, but now I think store bought is gross!
You can make the dressing in small amounts too. In this cup, I have 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/8 cup Trader Joe’s Balsamic Vinegar of Modena
, 3 tablespoons honey, 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder, pink of sea salt, 1 teaspoon of italian seasonings.
I’ve been living on this dressing for months and I haven’t gotten sick of it yet! So good! Make sure you mix it up well before adding it to the salad.
We had a French baguette with pasta night last Sunday and it definitely went stale. When I used to work at a coffee shop in high school, we would take our stale bagels and make them into croutons. I decided to turn the baguette into croutons for our salad.
The baguette was hard enough and did not need any baking. I mixed together olive oil, garlic powder, minted onion, pepper, sea salt, italian seasoning, and parmesan in a little bowl. I added the diced baguette and coated the bread.
I warmed them up for about fifteen seconds in the microwave and bam! They were delicious and done!
I spy Grumples! I swear he is the best photo bomber, especially when food is around.
Everything tasted delicious!
What did you have for dinner last night?
Those look so good! I love your blog Taralynn 🙂
Last night my husband and I met up with a good friend from college at Olive Garden… needless to say, we ate way too many carbs 😉
I make my own ranch and I love how delicious AND low-cal it is 🙂
I’ve just recently started to experiment with homemade dressings. So much better than store bought!
Haha, I am proud of you! Homemade food is more satisfying anyway if you cooked it yourself.
Mind if I steal all your chicken skin? 😉
Congrats on 5 days of not going out to eat 🙂
That rice looks delicious! 😀
Yesterday’s dinner was Mexican Salad with whole grain pasta, YUM 🙂
Sounds great! How do you cook your brown rice? Ive tried so many ways and have failed every time!
I use a rice cooker and it comes out perfect every time!
Ahhh that chicken looks so good. I can’t wait to try that recipe! So cute that you used to work at a coffee shop. What other jobs have you held?
Try cooking your rice in chicken or beef broth and your favorite seasoning. It adds amazing flavor for just a few calories!
Will you start posting the nutritional info for your recipes again? It was really helpful, especially when trying to watch calories, fat, sodium, etc!
Love your blog, babe. You should be proud of yourself, life is made up of the little things and setting goals (no matter how small they may seem) helps us grow. None of us are perfect, we’re all just trying our best. I love to eat out often (because I can afford to and what’s wrong with that!) and have set myself a task of cooking more. I made a delicious mustard-glazed salmon the other weekend. If you google ‘Martha Stewart mustard salmon’ a video pops up. Keep on trucking, lovely. And remember – of the vitriolic few – they hate you but they check your page religiously 🙂 xxx
YUM! That salad dressing sounds amazing, can’t wait to try!
I wish you would do a “Day in the Life” post that would correspond with your blog posts, showing how much time you spend working everyday and what kind of work that you do. It’d be nice to see a whole day of yours documented down to the minute. I like when bloggers do that cause it makes them seem more real. It seems like you have a lot of free time during your days.
Thanks!
Tara,
I LOOVEEE olive oil and it’s usually my first choice for cooking, but there have been nutrition articles about how great grass-fed, organic butter (like Kerrygold brand) can actually be good for you! I know there is so much “science” backing every different kind of nutrition theory to the point where they often contradict each other, but I love me some Kerrygold on steamed veggies or sometimes as Bulletproof Butter Coffee and thought you might be interested in researching it more for your own lifestyle!
So glad Grumples is feeling better!
I switched up the chicken but put honey on it, and made the brown rice…..so good. The honey really did add a lot!
Glad you liked it! 🙂
This shows that simple ingredients make a great dinner. I’m trying to battle eating every meal on the go from fast food windows. Working 12 hr days will kill you eventually.. literally!
What ever happened to your roommate?
Very easy to make too and only took me about 45 minutes!
Nothing. She’s still living with me. She’s busy working as a nanny and waitress.
You are so creative, Taralynn! I love how you just throw things together and make it work! You’re amazing!