I have to say, I really outdid myself tonight. We weren’t even expecting anything great, I just decided to whip up this for dinner because it looked fast and easy. But, holy cow was it great! Earl and I both agreed it came out actually restaurant quality. Superb. Go, me! The flavors were just amazing, and so complimentary of each other.

Peppery Chicken with Asian Pears

Peppery Chicken with Asian Pears


If you need a quick easy meal that will impress, I highly recommend this. It’s almost… stealth easy. Fool your guests into thinking you slaved all day over it. It’s from the Better Crocker’s Healthy New Choices Cookbook, which my mother gave me for Christmas two years ago. It’s funny, I tend to use that cookbook as more of a go-to staple for healthful, simple meals… and was never expecting to be blown away by something so delish!

Cook this meal!! :) I didn’t even take pics of cooking it because it was so simple and I never thought it would be anything so crazy good.

Basically you take chicken breasts and coat them in a mix of black pepper, breadcrumbs, rosemary, crushed red pepper and chili powder. Then you bake them. While they are baking you 1.) toast some pecans and 2.) saute a large sliced up onion and two thin-sliced Asian pears in olive oil. When the onion and pears are tender, you add in some honey and white wine vinegar and turn down the heat, simmer for 2 minutes. Take the chicken out of the oven, throw it on top of the pear/onion mixture, top with the toasted pecans and you’re done!

Super, super, super. Eat, eat, eat. :D

Not expecting a standout, but WOW

Not expecting a standout, but WOW

We had a fun day going to the Farmer’s Market and the library in the morning. We really made out at the farmer’s market, too. For some reason (I think it had been the $10 extra large containers of organic blueberries we’d been getting), we kept really blowing a lot of money at the farmer’s market every weekend. Like, it was always more expensive than we planned, and we found ourselves walking way surprised at how much we spent. This week we managed to get a TON of stuff for $40. I think maybe we were just hitting the wrong vendors- some of them really mark up stuff without pricing items… so we’ve been being a bit more careful. Check out everything we snagged today [ed note- eek! apologies for photochop misspelling of "melon"]:

Farmers Market Bounty

Farmers Market Bounty


These bad boys were out of the frame of that photo. They’re sesame-coated almonds. I’m guessing they’re not very “healthy” but… I’m gonna lie to myself and say they are. They taste REALLY great, so that leads me to think they must be rather bad for you.
Healthy? Sesame-coated Almonds

Healthy? Sesame-coated Almonds


No contesting the health benefits of these, however. Helloooo, ladies. Did you know raspberries are my FAVORITE fruit?? Earl bought these for me when I wasn’t looking, and surprised me with them on the car ride home. We were noshing em the whole ride to the library and back… and then when we got home promptly found a few wormies crawling in them. Organic: earthy perils of. :-/
Worm-ladden Deliciousness

Worm-ladden Deliciousness


Also, this bread came out so good! They sell it to you a bit raw, so you heat it in your oven for 8 minutes at 350 to fully cook right before you eat.
Heat and Eat Half-baked Bread

Heat and Eat Half-baked Bread


Oh! I also made this radish-top soup for lunch today, which was about a zillion times harder than what I made for dinner (heh), but still really good. Made enough for leftovers to freeze in individual portions for the week. The only reason I made it was because I was cleaning an prepping all the veggies this afternoon and decided to google “what to do with radish tops” as we had a bunch I was about to compost. Used this recipe- although subbed olive oil for butter and regular milk for the heavy cream… still really good.

All in all, a great day to be Courtney’s stomach.