December 1, 2010

The Toilet Head Dinner (no - wait, it wasn't actually from the toilet. ew. maybe i should rename this post...)

Lately, things have been a little busy at our house and I keep finding myself making quick one dish meals with whatever I can find in the fridge. Yet, they're still filled with healthy ingredients and I am even more happy to say they're delicious!

Check out this one. It took me about 1/2 hour. It was the end of the week and our fridge was nearly empty. So, it was completely experimental and not gourmet - but it's a good example of eating healthy with what you have in the fridge. Thankfully, it turned out to be pretty good. And believe me, my experiments don't always. Just ask my daughter about a recent experimental black bean & couscous soup. I know, what was I thinking? Even our dog refused to eat it!

Here's what I did...

Cut 2 organic chicken thighs I had in the fridge into small slivers and tossed them in a hot wok with a little olive oil and salt. (We buy chicken thighs sometimes because they're more reasonably priced than organic chicken breasts.) While thighs have a little more fat, we only add small pieces of meat to a dish of veggies so it's still a healthy choice.


While the chicken cooked, I cut fresh green beans, two sweet potatoes and zucchini into bite sized pieces, and chopped fresh garlic and shallots. Now, I never liked sweet potatoes as a kid because we always had them at Thanksgiving in one particular recipe, smothered in marshmallows. Sweet on sweet didn't do it for me. Love them prepared in a savory way.

After I cooked the chicken fairly thoroughly, (10 minutes or so - just till it's no longer pink and a little browned), I threw in the sweet potatoes, added a little salt and let the potatoes brown a little while I smashed the garlic and cut the shallots into slivers.

Green beans and zucchini went in next and I cooked those till the green beans were done - probably another ten minutes.


I did get a little distracted at this point because my baby (not yet two), who was using the "big toilet" in the bathroom a few steps and in line of sight from the kitchen, started shouting, "I stuck! I stuck!" As I turned to find out what in the world was going on, she wandered up to me with the Elmo potty seat stuck on her head. I burst out laughing (after I said, "EEWW! Let's not put that on your head, ok?!) and washed her hands and head. So...I think it was ten minutes.  Hahaha~!

Since I got a little distracted I didn't take a final pic of the dinner but it was actually delicious. I thought I'd miss having some kind of acidic element like tomatoes but the sweetness of the potatoes was just yummy against the green beans and savory chicken. I didn't put a lot of spices in this one - salt and pepper and the nice flavor of a little olive oil.

Just a little note on the value of sweet potatoes... they're a great source of Vit A, Vit C, Potassium, Magnesium, Phosphorus and folate. How's that for a fast, healthy dinner?

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