From the Kitchen: Easy Garlic Chicken

It´s about time that I have a food post! It´s not that I haven´t been cooking all this time, the problem is I haven´t been attentive! I forget to take photos and lately remember to do it after we have started eating or after all the food is gone.

Today´s dish is from my Food folder on Pinterest (click to view original recipe, here) and it´s called Easy Garlic Chicken and after reading the preparation instructions, I can tell you it lives up to its name. I´ve prepared this with three people in mind. You will need the following:

3 Boneless and Chicken Breast
6 Garlic Cloves
4 tbs. Honey
1 tbs. Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper.

When I got back from the supermarket I realized that I didn´t remember to get brown sugar and so I changed this out for honey. I also preheated the oven to 250 degrees and once I placed the chicken inside, I kept it at 230 for the first 10 minutes only. I then dropped the heat to 170 and it stayed there until I was sure the chicken was cooked.

I like to prepare baked food this way to avoid the food from getting burned (as much as possible) and to make sure that the food is cooked thoroughly. Slow and sure is my mantra when cooking.

I paired the chicken off with white rice.

As you can see from the photos, I shaped very crude holders for the individual chicken breasts. I did it to keep the honey from sticking to the baking pan and to hold in the honey and garlic mixturee and allow the chicken to just bake in the juices. I was a little worried that it would come out very sweet but that didn´t happen, in the end B loved it :)

From the Kitchen: Spicy Roasted Chickpeas

What a productive day! (If I may say so myself). I woke up early and since then I´ve done yoga, prepared lunch, taken photos and now writing this post while watching the news in Spanish (Hahaha). I still have a long ways to go as I start teaching at 7pm until 10.

I am excited because the other day I found a recipe (Spicy Roasted Chickpeas) from Brewedtogether´s page that I knew I was going to have to try and prepare myself.  (Before anything else, I want to say thank you for sharing, M&K). For the complete list of ingredients and preparation instructions do check out their page and along the way find inspiration, like I have!

I added a new ingredient, Iberian Patatera Spicy Sausage, to make the dish a little more heavy for lunch and to feed a hungry B when he gets back from class. I´m also serving the dish with some couscous. Just writing about it is making me hungry!

To prepare everything (including the coucous) took about an hour. I think this is perfect if you are looking for something quick and very tasty to chow down on.

What´s keeping you busy today? 

Bisous, bisous

XX

Killing time before I had to get ready and leave for my classes, I found myself watching reruns of Cold Case and trying to write! (I like to multitask.) All this is has made me think about what other things I can spend my time on.

1. A Sushi-making class: I had a former student who teaches a class and maybe it would be a nice change to be the student. I know B would like to try this one out with me as we both share the passion for eating Japanese food. This could save us some money too as good sushi is never cheap!

2. Volunteer work: I´ve found one catered for foreigners like me living in Spain. They organize something every 3 months and usually on a Saturday. I can´t say I have done much on this end apart from throwing a Christmas party for homeless kids back in 2007 in the Philippines. I would like to do more and help.

3. Continue Spanish classes and take the DELE. I´ve been practicing and using all that I had learned from 2010 and 2011 when I was going to class 3 hours each week. I want to take it a step further and really speak and understand the language well and along the way get a certificate from the Instituto Cervantes.

4. Spinning classes: I used to go 4 times per week but again back in the Philippines! It is my preferred way of doing cardio exercise. These days, the only cardio activity I do is brisk walking.

5. Cook more. My teaching schedule has lessened the time that I spend in the kitchen. I´ve also allowed myself to get too caught up in other chores around the house which seem to be piling up! There are just too many dishes that are still waiting to be tested out.

Fast forward to 2 hours later. I started preparing some lunch. It´s another one of those dishes that I have pinned and always wanted to try -- Honey Glazed Chicken and Bacon Bites. Based on the positive feedback from B and Sylvie who both had some, this is definitely going to be repeated for other times. I really enjoyed it as it so easy to prepare and tasty! I like to eat it with a bit of rice though and that´s me being Asian.

At the heart of the Madrid experience is trying even once a real Cocido Madrileño which comes in two stages. First the chickpea stew with noodles. The second stage arrives in the form of the actual chickpeas and different kinds of meats (bacon, chicken etc.) with vegetables and the list can go on and on, I guess the ingredients really depend on the restaurant you go to.

We went to Malacatin which is in La Latina. Definitely recommended if you are extremely hungry. 

♥ ♥ ♥

 

I don´t know if it´s just me but once the weekend starts it also seems to go on fast forward -- time flies and there just seems to be endless errands to run, people to see, and things to do! This is how Friday turned out to be.

• Lunch and work meeting in Coslada. Where I enjoyed really good meat! I was surprised because the place we went to didn´t look like an amazing place for anything but I am glad that I was proven wrong. 
• Quick trip to Worten to get B a sewing machine. I don´t even know how to explain why my bf is the one who wants one and not me? Also, we went into Ikea to grab a ´Lack´ shelf for the living room as we are doing some changes around the house too.
• Finally, we had a birthday party to go to and which we arrived 15 minutes late as B was so engrossed in sewing. 

Actually, he promised me some cool t-shirts to wear for the summer so I am going to wait and see! I can´t really be the one laughing and teasing as he is trying and I can only look on with a mix of amazement and admiration.

♥ ♥ ♥

Whew! I´ve been moving non-stop since I got out of bed. Sadly, I didn´t do yoga (again) today as I was too sleepy to wake up at 8!

On the upside, I kicked off yesterday with a two hour conversation class with a really funny and sweet student who works for a fast food chain and she gave me different flavored tea in boxes that they serve to their customers. I had mentioned that I am a tea drinker on the first day of class.

Last Saturday I prepared lunch and had the intention of taking photos of the finished product but forgot to. I cooked yesterday and almost did the same thing! I think this will be the start of a new page on this blog about ´What Comes Out of My Kitchen´ which is basically me bringing to life the recipes I find on Pinterest or in cookbooks.

Only a few people know that before last year I couldn´t and wouldn´t cook. B was always the one in-charge of preparing food and I did all the cleaning. The second task hasn´t changed, I still do ALL the cleaning!

The dish was Baked Chicken with Bloomin Onion Dipping Sauce! I adapted the recipe and changed it up a little bit to use Chicken instead of Zucchini and the spices I used were not exactly what was indicated either and neither was the type of cheese. I take credit for coming up with a very tasty meal but I would´t have been able to conjure anything so good without the pegs I found. 

I´ll keep adding more of my culinary adventures here as the year rolls along!

♥ ♥ ♥