- Share This Post
- 0
- submit
- 1
-
Sparkle (0)
Please don't make the "Healthy Choice"...
Bet you never thought you'd hear me say that, right? (except for when discussing dessert choices and food made with really, really good bacon...)
But this time, it's true.
Folks, you can get inspiration from anywhere, and I am discovering that for a Culinary Scientist like myself, while they say the sincerest form of flattery is imitation, the sincerest form of criticism must be re-creation.
Case in point:
As I was flipping through one of my health mags (OK, it was probably US Weekly...I admit. I have a subscription. Don't hate me for what gets me through my elliptical workouts), and pulling out the little subscription cards [that are always stuck in the binding just enough so that they inevitably fall out while in the middle of your workout, fluttering to the ground, and leaving you in a quandary of whether to stop "running" and pick up your unintentional litter or just keep going and pretend like both you and everyone around you didn't notice what just happened, despite the strong possibility that the card hit your neighbor on his quad while taking it's slow descent...] when I came across this advertisement for Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers:
...and I thought to myself, "Yes, it certainly IS getting a lot of attention...for looking highly unappetizing."
I mean, seriously...I'm not on a diet per se (unless you consider diet in the sense of "what I eat every day for healthfulness and happiness), but if I were trying to lose weight and using frozen entrees to help me keep my calories and portion control in check (or, if I were a teacher with little time to make and eat my lunch every day, or a twenty/thirty/forty-something in a hurry or with little culinary intelligence/desire) I would not want to be eating that for dinner.
Take a look at it again:
The picture really doesn't do it justice, but, to me it looked like someone had taken the teeniest, tiniest pieces of barely thawed frozen broccoli, 1/8 of a boneless, skinless chicken breast without any seasoning, and a few bell peppers (although curiously labeled as tomatoes), and one small button mushroom, diced up so small that I had to squint and hold the advertisement up to my eyes to tell if it actually was a mushroom.
Obviously, I thought to myself, "Self, you can make that...but better!" Looking at the picture, I knew I already had most of the ingredients on hand, and I could certainly figure out how to make a Balsamic Garlic Sauce.
So, naturally, I went to my lab [er...um...kitchen?], and set to work!
First, I pulled out my last frozen chicken breast from the freezer, defrosted it a bit, and got it prepped for the oven with some olive oil spray, lemon juice, pepper, and dried oregano. Along with some sliced garlic. (I cut little slivers in the chicken and tucked the garlic pieces in.) This "Oregano Chicken" is my go-to basic chicken breast recipe. It has a great flavor, but it's not overpowering so you can use (and reuse) it in a variety of dishes!
(Doesn't it sort of look like the face of the little pendants they had to win on Legends of the Hidden Temple? No?
