lemon grilled chicken & couscous

this recipe originated from here. this is part of an awesome series called "dinner & a movie" by From Me to You. i absolutely LOVE these recipes. they have become favorites. on the original website there's also a recipe for pita bread and hummus. i served the two dishes below with a salad of baby spinach and mediterranean feta crumbles. delightful.

lemon grilled chicken

ingredients

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts pounded to 1/4 inch thick

3 garlic cloves, crushed

juice of 1 lemon

3 tbsp. olive oil

1/2 c. fresh chopped parsley

salt/pepper to paste

directions

1. pound out chicken to 1/4 inch thick, season with salt and pepper to taste

2. combine lemon juice, olive oil, parsley, & garlic in a bowl

3. dredge chicken and let set in marinade in the fridge for an hour (i did it the night before...caution, if you marinade it that long it's really lemon-y, which i liked but you might not)

4. grill

couscous

ingredients

1 cup israeli couscous

1 nectarine, peeled and chopped

handful of dried cranberries

directions

1. bring 4 cups of water to a boil

2. add couscous and fruit

3. simmer 8 minutes and drain

imitation starbucks berry coffee cake

i didn't take this picture...but it seriously looked like this when i made it, which i feel like doesn't always happen. original recipe can be found here.

this recipe seriously tastes just like the berry coffee cake from Starbucks. here it is!

ingredients

½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature


2 tsp. lemon zest or more — zest from 1 large lemon


1 cup sugar (plus 1 tbsp for sprinkling on top)

1 egg, room temperature


1 tsp. vanilla


2 cups flour


2 tsp. baking powder


1 tsp. kosher salt


2 cups fresh blueberries


½ cup buttermilk

directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Cream butter with lemon zest and 7/8 cup of the sugar until light and fluffy.

2. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Meanwhile, toss the blueberries with ¼ cup of flour, then whisk together the remaining flour, baking powder and salt.

3. Add the flour mixture to the batter a little at a time, alternating with the buttermilk. Fold in the blueberries.

4. Grease a 9-inch square baking pan (or something similar) with butter or coat with non-stick spray. Spread batter into pan. Sprinkle batter with remaining tablespoon of sugar. Bake for 35 minutes. Check with a toothpick for doneness. If necessary, return pan to oven for a couple of more minutes. (Note: Baking for as long as 10 minutes more might be necessary.) Let cool at least 15 minutes before serving.

imitation outback potato soup

this potato soup for real is as good as the soup from Outback, and i am a stickler for potato soup. it is so good and ridiculously easy. here's the recipe. enjoy!

ingredients

1 30oz. bag of frozen, shredded hash browns
3 14oz. cans of chicken broth
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/4 tsp. ground pepper
1 pkg. cream cheese 

directions

Combine all ingredients in the crockpot except cream cheese and cook on low 6-8 hours.

One hour before serving add the cream cheese. I had a hard time getting the cream cheese to melt so I whisked it up, which helped. I'm not really sure why it wouldn't melt well, but I guess it might have been because it was generic and not Philadelphia...I am convinced Philadelphia cream cheese is the only way to go. 

menu planning

so i'm working on this whole planning and prepping ahead of time so i will cook dinners and not resort to eating out during the week thing. on saturday i spent some time looking through my pinterest cooking board and some cookbooks and planned out the entire week. it took some time, but i'm thinking it'll tend to get easier and easier, especially as i find recipes that i like to repeat. on sunday while sunday night's dinner was cooking i prepped for the next two nights of dinner so that all i had to do tonight was actually cook it rather than spending 20 minutes or so prepping and then cooking. it was so nice after a long day of work to have an awesome dinner take a total of about 15 minutes. i have high hopes for this process to make dinner-making easier. i'm going to put my menu plan for this week below in this post and i will be posting really successful recipes throughout the week. any links within the menu are links to the original source of the recipe. enjoy!

Menu Plan for Jan. 8th-Jan. 14th

Sunday

breakfast: coupons to BK

lunch: velo fellow after church

dinner: crispy cheddar chicken, baked potato soup

*bake blueberry breakfast cake tonight

Monday

breakfast: blueberry breakfast cake & yogurt

lunch: leftover soup, simple chicken wrap

dinner: lemon grilled chicken, couscous, spinach & feta salad

Tuesday

*put on dinner in slow cooker before leaving for work

breakfast: cereal & yogurt

lunch: spinach & feta salad, simple chicken wrap

dinner: cilantro lime chicken, cilantro lime rice

*cook chicken for tomorrow while fixing rice

Wednesday

breakfast: blueberry cake

lunch: leftover cilantro lime chicken
(also...lunches are flexible. sometimes i eat leftovers, sometimes i make a sandwich. depends on the mood, but i am trying to pack my lunch before i go to bed each night)

dinner: chicken pot pie (thank you elee)

Thursday

*put baked potatoes in crock pot

breakfast: cereal & yogurt

lunch: leftover chicken pot pie

dinner: beef stroganoff & baked potatoes

Friday

breakfast: starbucks gift card

lunch: teacher outing

dinner: in fort mill

Saturday

in fort mill

free printable

i made this to help me with menu planning. so far it has helped having a chart. here it is below in case you want to try it. if you click on it, it should open the original in a new window.