My cooking (and my eating) schedule has been so off-balance lately, it’s starting to become a foreign experience being in a grocery store. Lately, we’ve been phoning it in with what’s in the freezer or in the pantry, but that can only get you so far. Trying to be more conscientious of our ever-changing schedule requires a bit more strategy when it comes to making sure there’s a homemade meal more than three times a week. Mainly, it’s about portions, or the art of portioning, if you will. As I’ve been writing this column, I’ve noticed an eye for servings starting to develop.
Take, for instance, my recent meat purchases. Now, we all know I love a chicken to go with practically anything. It’s like the vodka of meats in that you can pretty much have chicken in any and every way. That’s beside the point. I had two recipes in mind for this weekend: chicken pistachio salad and meatball subs. Or would you call them meatball heroes? Come to think of it, I’m not sure what the difference is myself.
Anyway, I always try to keep a dish for John in mind, and I bet you can guess which one of those dishes was intended for him. When I was in the meat aisle, I grabbed the first pallet of chicken thighs I saw, which turned out to be 10 of them (oy vey!). Then, I grabbed a pallet of prefabricated meatballs in the pork section when I was looking for sausage. This was mostly for the novelty. Besides, could they possibly be any worse than the frozen ones you’ve no doubt had in a Crock Pot with pineapple chunks and barbecue sauce. If you haven’t had that, it’s really a party food right of passage. I have yet to see a room full of tipsy partygoers turn down a barbecue and pineapple glazed meatball, even if they are the Impossible kind.
Anyway, when I got home I decided to keep four chicken thighs out and freeze the rest for next week. The meatballs? They all got cooked at once. Why? I just had a feeling the meatballs would vanish faster in this house. Besides I don’t have to twist John’s arm for a sandwich. I went ahead and marinated mine in some jarred marinara sauce, but do what you must. If you’re the kind of person that doesn’t like mixing your pasta and sauce together before it’s on your plate, you could always use the leftovers for spaghetti night. Ah, spaghetti night!
Of course, I already told y’all about the pizza. Which reminds me of a meatball pizza I had once, but I’m getting off track again. You may be surprised to hear after all that, that this week’s recipe is, in fact, a chicken pistachio salad. No, this is not a cold salad of mayonnaise and pistachio pudding or something to that effect. I’m talking about a rather delicious contribution from the South Beach Diet.
My grandparents always had a copy of the latest diet book, a fridge full of SlimFast, a BowFlex in the garage. I used to get in trouble for sneaking a SlimFast here and there when I was a kid, but they tastes so darn good. Now, I don’t know if I could live off two a day and a “sensible dinner,” but I can try! When I was in college I went on a smoothie diet, which was my way of soft shoeing an all-liquid diet. It was, in a word, horrible. Surprisingly, it never crossed my mind to get a SlimFast in the rotation every once in a while.
The South Beach Diet is one book cover that’s seared into my brain. I remember my grandparents cooking from it, trying out every trick in the book for keeping healthy. Every so often this would give a festive spin to nightly dinners, like taco salad night, or the introduction of flatbreads. For a while there, they were milling their own flour and making “Ranger Cookies” which (among other bakers) former First Lady Laura Bush is known for calling “Cowboy Cookies.” Either way you bake them, their a nice cookie to me.
This salad is one that’s quite refreshing, but, I made some edits which should be laid out from the start. Given our current circumstances, I just can’t trust the lettuce y’all. It’s killing me, I know, but it’s the trend to say “no” to salads now in America. Thus, I’ve had to expand my range. Eventually I landed on replacing the romaine lettuce with finely chopped celery. My only explanation for this is that I already like celery, so I figured it wouldn’t do me any harm. Fun fact: I used to despise celery, particularly the smell of it. Now? I don’t care all that much.
Also, I replaced the packet of Splenda in the dressing with just a generous pinch of sugar. Honestly, if you’re thinking about using Splenda instead of sugar, you might as well give up the ghost and use sugar. Although, coming from a diabetic great grandmother, I understand the value of keeping Splenda around and at the ready for applications like this. You could also use a little honey, which I did, as well.
Chicken Pistachio Salad
- 1/2 cup shelled pistachio nuts, finely ground
- 3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breast halves
- 2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup diced sweet onion
- 1 head romaine lettuce
Dressing:
- 1 teaspoon grated sweet onion
- 1 large avocado, pitted and peeled
- 3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 3 Tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 1 Tablespoon water
- 1 packet Splenda
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix the pistachios, 1/2 teaspoon salt and black pepper in a shallow pan. Press chicken into the nuts. Heat 1 Tablespoon oil in a skillet and cook the coated breasts 2 minutes per side. Place the breasts in a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes or until the thickest portions reach 160 degrees on a thermometer and juices run clear.
Heat other Tablespoon of oil in a skilled over high heat. Add the diced onion, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and a dash of pepper. Cook until onion is browned. Line 4 serving plates with lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces. Slice the chicken breast and arrange 1 breast on top of each plate. Divide the cooked onion into 4 parts and sprinkle over chicken. Serve with dressing. Serves 4.
Dressing: Puree the onion, avocado, oil, lime juice, water and Splenda in a blender.
Oh! I forgot some other tweaks. I threw in some dried cranberries at the end. Also, I skipped the water and doubled the lime juice. If you’d seen the size of my avocado, though, you’d understand why. It was a green skin avocado, which is new to me. It’s pretty much the same as far as avocados go, just larger. Maybe that’s just because it came from Florida. Maybe it’s just because it’s a green skin avocado.
If you’re wondering how much 1/2 cup of onion takes up in the raw onion world, it’s about one small Vidalia. Or that’s what got me there for this recipe for both the salad and the dressing. The effect of the pistachio chicken impressed me the most and is something I’d like to explore sans salad in the future. It’s akin to Shake-n-Bake chicken, but much healthier. The roasted nut flavor really gives it this taste that is reminiscent of fried chicken, which is not what I was expecting. Fried chicken it will never be, but can’t we still have fun playing pretend every once in a while?
This was a nice break from the ritual of Raisin Bran and green smoothies every morning. Usually by dinnertime I’m ready to throw in the towel, which usually means a dish that’s heavy on convenience and light on nutrition. Well, unless you mean nutrition in the context of 75 years ago when caloric intake from dishes like salt pork and molasses on buttermilk biscuits was seen as a nutritious breakfast for the everyday working man. Sewing garments takes up so much time, before you know it, I’ve got to throw a meal together. Yet, it’s salads like this, or really any salad, that can help me go about my day with a little less guilt. At least until I bust out the post-dinner ice cream. This week’s selection: Blue Bell’s Southern Blackberry Cobbler. It was a personal favorite of my mother’s and I have to say, I look forward to it every year myself. Just consider me your hometown billboard for Blue Bell. Like the Good Humor man, but a cow, I guess.
