I decided a while back to quit cooking chicken. My reasoning: I was tired of plain old chicken. Being a lazy cook, I would throw a whole chicken into a baking pan and roast it. That was it. No salt, no nothing. Surprisingly, folks liked my chicken. They'd say, wow, how'd you do this, and of course I would tell them my easy-does-it method.
So a laid off chicken. I had other reasons too. High cholesteral. Yes, and I'm thin and healthy and eat very little red meat. I exercise and eat my vegetables--and I'm not crossing my fingers here. But something had to change and I thought eating just fish for my protein would do the trick. So I bought a bunch of wild salmon and put it in the freezer. Every day I was serving salmon. Roasted salmon. Just put it in the pan and throw it in the oven. Soon, I was tired of salmon.
And so was my boyfriend. So he brought over chicken to cook. So I tried a new recipe--Morracan Chicken. You glaze the cut-up chicken with olive oil that's been mixed with cumin, cilantro, cardomon, tumeric, and salt. Easy-does-it! Just my style. Throw that in the oven and cook some rice laced with pastachio nuts and dried appricots. Serve with some nice vegetables. Or chicken pizza--yes, a rice tortilla as the crust (I don't eat gluten) layered with pesto, goat cheese, artichoke hearts, black olives, sliced tomatoes, and seasoned chicken. Sweet.
I do care about the cholesteral lowering, so I see there is a new aspirin product that I could take, that might lower it. So I'll try that and keep eating a variety of foods. Chicken roasted on a bed of apples tossed with cinnamon and nutmeg and sage, a nice helping of kale to accent. Or chicken served with fresh barbecue sauce made from the cherry tomatoes that are growing in the garden: cherry tomatoes, onions, sauteed with a little sugar and balsamic vinegar added for a barby flavor.
Yes, I will do all that I can for my heart, (love and cholesteral) and for my palette. My mother told me. The way to a man's heart is through his stomach. And my boyfriend loves the way I cook, so I want to keep him intertained--yes, that's the secret to love, variety.
Happy Nan
