I thought I would share a couple dinners that I've thrown together recently. Last night we had "grilled" chicken. I say that in quotations because we are without a grill at the moment. Funny story; Hubby was being an awesome boss as always and decided to have a cookout last Thursday before the holiday weekend. I was already in bed the night before, he was so proud of himself - he said, "Did you hear that racket outside?" I was like, "Yeah, what in the world were you doing this time?" He told me about the cookout, and while I had reservations about him taking our grill - I would have gone about it in a completely different way - it was already in the truck so I just told him to have it back home for dinner that night. Fast forward to that afternoon. I call and he says, "Babe, um, I have bad news." When he says that its serious. Like the last time he said that, he told me my favorite restaurant of all time(and the site of our first date) El Chico was closed. I took a deep breath. He told me that he was driving along minding his own business when the grill literally flew out of the truck! He said its worthless now, completely broken. At least no one was behind him, it could've been dangerous. I can just imagine him in his 3 piece suit picking it up on the highway. Glad I wasn't there! I am sad because, (A) its summer and that means grilling (B) grilling means healthy and (C) we bought that grill the week after we got married with a bonus check he got. We thought we were so married. Oh well. If you have a grill you would like to gift us, please let me know.
Back to the good stuff. Last night I wanted to try butternut squash.
Yummmmmm. I cut it in half, scooped the seeds out and baked in face-down in some water in a dish for about an hour. I took it out, drained out the water and put some butter and brown sugar on them-then placed it back in the oven on warm until the rest of the dinner was done. I had chicken that I cooked on a grill pan (there's my secret) with fresh herbs from the garden and some spices. I served it with a spring salad with blueberries,different nuts and raisins, feta, and balsamic dressing. We finished up with the MIL's homemade bread! So good! Jeff was not so keen on the squash which I expected, but I thought it was really good! Tyler said it best when he said if a squash and a sweet potato made a baby, it would be butternut squash.
The next dinner was an open the refrigerator with a hope and a prayer dish. I used these ingredients.
I spruced up the sauce with the brown sugar (guess I'm into it these days)garlic powder, and fresh green onions. Threw in some tomatoes and green peppers with some chicken - used the lovely grill pan. And...
Voila!
I just so happened to have made green tea (in my new vintage strawberry pitcher)earlier in the day. It rounded out the theme of the meal!
We finished up with fresh cherries for dessert! Yummy.
By the way, if you haven't tried that rice, go immediately to the store! Its such a time saver and its super yummy. The hubby and I regulate on Uncle Ben's Ready Rice on the daily. Really. So tell me, do you have any fun meals that you have just thrown together that you loved? Any time-saving yummy hidden gems that I should know about? Leave a comment and let me know!
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