Spiced Carrots with Lime Garlic Chicken and Risotto

It's Fall!

The carrots for this dish was the new recipe. The chicken we kind of just made up, marinating a couple of hours in advance and the risotto, we cheated, and just made out of a box. It was a good quick meal. The carrots were so yummy!
The carrots recipe we got from Costco October 2017 page 37 magazine.

Plated

Lime Garlic Chicken

Spiced Carrots

Ingredients:

Carrots:
2 tablespoons olive oil
4-5 large carrots halved and cut into similar sized pieces
1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
3/4-1 teaspoons ground corriander
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup fresh mint
salt and pepper

Chicken:
3 chicken breasts
half a head of garlic, peeled and cloves sliced
juice of two lemons
zest of two lemons
2 tablespoons olive oil
a splash of white wine

Directions:

Carrots:
1. Pre-heat oven to 400F.
2. Add oil to to a large saute pan. When heated, add carrots and cook for about 5 minutes until carrots start to get browned. Add cumin and coriander and stir.
3. Deglaze pan with lemon juice and put carrots and juices into a baking dish. Add water and cover with foil.
4. Cook for about 25-30 minutes.
5. Remove carrots from the oven and drain any remaining water and sprinkle mint. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Chicken:
1. Place chicken in a baking dish and pour the rest of the ingredients on top of the chicken, spreading lemon zest and garlic across all three breasts. Let marinate for about an hour.
2. Cover with foil and bake at 400F for about 40 minutes until done.  

What we liked:

So good and easy and simple. It was great to try a new recipe for the carrots!

What we didn't like:

Nothing, it was good. 

What Kaspian thought about it:

he liked the carrots, so did Astrid!

Next time:

No changes!

Lime Garlic Tilapia with Roasted Carrots

We haven't had fish in a while, so we thought we would make this. It was quick, easy and delicious. We served it with garlic whipped mashed potatoes. We let the tilapia marinade in the sauce for about 30 minutes (mainly because we got distracted with children during that time). This recipe could be made with lemon just as well as lime, but we just did not have any lemon on hand. The carrots turned out really sweet and delicious, none were left for leftovers! We made this in a little dish because our oven broke and we only had our toaster oven to cook in for a while, but it turned out awesome!

Lime Garlic Tilapia

Served

Ready to eat!

Roasted Carrots

Tilapia with salt and pepper

Tilapia and lime butter sauce

Garlic Lime Butter Sauce 

Ingredients:

Tilapia:

2-3 full tilapia filets
1/2 cup of butter, melted
zest of 1 lime
juice of 1 lime
5-6 garlic cloves, chopped or thinly sliced

Roasted Carrots:

4 large carrots, peeled and cut into about 1" pieces
salt
pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions:

Tilapia:
1. Place tilapia into an oven safe dish,  we used 11" x 7" dish, but ours overlapped a little.
2. Combine melted butter, lime juice, zest, and garlic in a bowl. Mix and pour over the tilapia.
3. Bake at 375 F for 15-25 minutes until fish doneness is reached. The cooking time may depend on the thickness of your cut of fish.

Carrots:
1. Place carrots on a cooking sheet, sprinkle with salt and pepper and pour olive oil over them.
2. Bake at 400 F for 20 minutes. 

What we liked:

The fish came out perfect. The carrots were amazing as well. 

What we didn't like:

Nothing, it was great!

What Kaspian thought about it:

He loved the carrots. Astrid loved EVERYTHING; enough to put the mashed potatoes in her hair!

Next time:

Chipotle Lime Steaks with Shallot and Parsley Quinoa and Baby Carrots with Herb Dressing

Tonight, we didn't feel like going out and shopping for ingredients, so this was just made from stuff we already had. The steaks were previously frozen, and they were thin cut flank steaks - a thicker cut might have needed more time than the 4 hours we marinated it for. However, for the thin cut, 4 hours was perfect and the steaks were perfectly limey and just the right amount of smokey spicy - not too overpowering, just a hint of spice.
The carrots were absolutely perfect, the sauce was delicious! (Nick thought they were a bit too limey).
The shallot quinoa was also very good. It was a very citrus-y dinner!

Original Shallot and Parsley recipe: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/shallot-parsley-quinoa
Original Baby Carrots with Herb Dressing: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/baby-carrots-herb-dressing-olives

Plated

Quinoa with shallots and parsley

Cooked Steak

Yummy Herb Citrus Carrots

Ingredients:

Meat:
2 lbs flank steak
juice of 6 limes
2 chipotle peppers, chopped (from a can)
5  cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons oil

Shallot and Parsley Quinoa:
2 cups water
1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed and drained
1 chopped shallot
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup white wine
1 tablespoon butter

Carrots:
1 pound baby carrots
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon grated lime rind
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions:

Meat:
1. Combine all ingredients in a bag and marinade for at least 4 hours
2. Grill on medium high until desired done-ness

Quinoa:
1. Melt butter in a sauce pan. Add wine and shallots and cook until softened.
2. Add water and salt. When boiling, add quinoa, cover and cook for 15 minutes.
3. Add parsley and serve.

Carrots:
1. Place carrots in a steamer basket set over a saucepan of simmering water. Cover and steam 15 minutes or until carrots are crisp-tender.
2. Combine chopped dill, chives, oil, lime rind, lime juice, cumin, salt and pepper in a bowl and mix. Add in carrots and serve. 

What we liked:

Great dinner for just using the items we had on hand. 

What we didn't like:

It was great. 

What Kaspian thought about it:

He was really busy with his trains.

Next time:

No change. Great impromptu dinner

Grilled Pheasant and Chucker breasts with asparagus, carrots and shrimp side salad

Nick and Mitch and their dad went hunting on Saturday and brought back pheasant and chucker breasts.
So, today we made pheasant and chucker breasts marinated in barbecue and cooked on the grill. For sides we made carrots and asparagus that were first steamed, and then grilled. We also made a shrimp side salad with baby spinach.

Plated - with chucker breast

shrimp side salad with baby spinach

carrots and asparagus

grilled chucker (smaller) and grilled pheasant (larger) breasts

Grilled Chucker and Pheasant breasts 

Ingredients:

3 chucker breasts
3 pheasant breasts
barbecue sauce

Directions:

1. Combine the bird breasts and barbecue sauce in a gallon sized ziplock back for about 4 hours. Use enough barbecue sauce to cover the breasts in the bag. 

2. Pre-heat grill on medium high. We have a 3 burner grill - we put 2 side burners to maximum and middle burner to medium, and the birds will go on the middle burner. 

3. Cook breast side up (the bone side down) for 8 minutes. 

4. Flip and cook for 10 minutes breast side down. 

5. Lower middle burner to low and flip the breast side up again - cook for another 5 -10 minutes to keep warm while the sides finish cooking if necessary. 

Grilled lemon carrots and asparagus

Ingredients:

1 lb carrots
1 lb asparagus
1 lemon
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt to taste

Directions:

1. Steam carrots and asparagus for 15 minutes. We use a multi-cooker that has a steam option and wrap carrots in a piece of foil and asparagus in a piece of foil. They can be steamed together. We would suggest doing this while the grill pre-heats. 

2. Move the carrot and asparagus filled foils to the grill to one of the sides (with maximum heat). 

3. Squeeze half a lemon into each foil. 

4. Add a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of olive oil to each foil. 

5. Cover slightly by folding the foil into the middle and cook for 10 minutes. (We put the vegetables on the grill when we flipped the breasts the first time.)

Shrimp side salad with baby spinach

Ingredients:

Shrimp ~ 1/2 lb
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 tablespoons butter
Hard boiled eggs - 3 - one for each plate
grated cheese 1 tbsp per plate
sunflower seeds 1 tsp per plate
3 cups baby spinach (about a cup per plate, can use other lettuces if desired)

dressing:
2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt to taste

Directions:

1. Heat a frying pan. When it is hot, put the 2 tablespoons of butter on it. 

2. When butter stops bubbling, put shrimp onto the hot pan and spread them out. 

3. Put salt, pepper and paprika on the shrimp and cook for 1 minute. 

4. Add chopped garlic to the pan and cook for 1 more minute.

5. Flip the shrimp, and cook for 2 minutes.

6. Remove from heat. 

7. Mound spinach on each plate. Divide evenly between plates.

8. Add sliced boiled eggs, sunflowe seeds, and grated cheese to each mound.

9. Top with shrimp.

10. Combine all ingredients for the dressing in a bowl and whisk together with a fork or whisk. Divide out to each plate. 

What we liked:

It was the easiest and best wild bird recipe yet. The breasts turned out tender and delicious. The lemon on the asparagus and carrots was great and the side salad was very good and light. 

What we didn't like:

There wasn't anything we didn't like. 

What Kaspian thought about it:

He liked the egg yolks and cheese and carrots. 

Next time:

Wouldn't really do anything different. 

Week 1, Day 4 - Sheet pan chicken with roasted baby potatoes and chile and lemon roasted carrots

Tonight we made Sheet Pan Chicken with roasted baby potatoes and Chile and Lemon Roasted Carrots.

Here is where we got the original recipes from: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/sheet-pan-chicken-roasted-baby-potatoes

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/chile-lime-roasted-carrots

Ingredients: 

Cooking spray

24 oz Russian Banana potatoes cut in half lengthwise- can use any small potatoes. 

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil - 3 for the sauce and 1 for frying the chicken

2 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon dry white wine - we used Chardonnay

2 tablespoons dried flaked thyme

2 teaspoon honey

2  skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - defrosted

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, divided

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided

Directions: 

1. Place a cookie pan in oven. Preheat oven to 500° (leave pan in the oven as it preheats).

2. Carefully remove pan from oven. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add potatoes to pan; bake at 500° for 10 minutes.Be careful, my pan popped and the metal deformed a little when I put the potatoes onto it due to the temperature change, but it will straighten out. 

3. Combine 3 tablespoons olive oil and next 5 ingredients (through honey) in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk or spoon. I just used a spoon and it worked just fine. Sprinkle chicken with 1/8 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. <- I missed this step this time (due to fussy children), however, it would add to the chicken a lot. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the last tablespoon of oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add chicken to pan; cook 5 to 8 minutes. Turn chicken over; drizzle chicken evenly with about 2 tablespoons mustard mixture - 1 tablespoon per side.

3.5. If making carrots, add the pan with the carrots to the oven now on the second rack. I just put them on the top rack. The carrots need to cook for 15 minutes

4. Add chicken to the pan with potatoes; bake at 500° for 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender and chicken is done. Drizzle potatoes with remaining mustard mixture; sprinkle with remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt and remaining 1/8 teaspoon pepper. 

Carrots

Ingredients: 

1 teaspoon olive oil

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

8 ounces baby carrots, trimmed

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

Directions: 

1. In a small bowl, combine the carrots, olive oil, crushed red pepper, salt and lemon juice - let stand until ready to go into the oven. 

2. Put the carrots on a cookie sheet pan and bake for 15 minutes at 500°.

What we liked:
Nick loved the chicken, it tasted very good. The sauce complemented it very well. Alona liked it all. It was yummy and fairly easy to make even with fussy children needing attention.

What we didn't like: 

The potatoes were a little bitter. Perhaps the sauce should have been put on the potatoes earlier so that it would have cooked more. Nick did not like the pepper on the carrots. 

What Kaspian thought about it:

Kaspian ate the carrots, after all sauce was removed from them. The sauce was too suspicious. 

Next time: 

Make sure to add salt and pepper to the chicken. Do not add the red pepper to the carrots. We will definitely make it again!