when we are being “good” and meal planning it goes down like this.
- bust out cookbooks and get online
- pick enough dinners for each night of the time period until we think we will go to the store again.
- make sure that most of these meals have components that translate well to lunch the next day.
- pick which recipe will be the responsibility of which person (me or my husband).
- then i list out all the ingredients, line by line, for each day’s menu.
- i then psychotically reorganize that list into departments, in the order of the store that we are most likely to do the bulk of that day’s shopping list.
from there it is typically Fresh Market, Sam’s Club (the man of the house has a dehydrating obsession, we go through a lot of produce) and then a smaller grocery.
so when i say it is my night, i am doing the cooking.
and last night i did it with no recipe!
we may not know each other well, but this is a big deal for me.
so what did we have?
MEXICAN BAKED CHICKEN WITH AVOCADO CREAM SAUCE AND BLACK BEANS
for the chicken-
- 4 chicken breasts (get the good stuff. seriously)
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- ¾ teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder (fresh minced garlic would be nice for a marinade)
- two pinches dried cilantro (fresh would be nice for a marinade)
- ¾ teaspoon
- fresh cracked pepper as you like
- juice of one lime
preheat oven to 350- i lined a baking sheet with foil to avoid pan scrubbing. then measured out the spices into a dish and mixed them up.
i squeezed lime onto both sides of the breasts and then sprinkled the spice mixture on each side. they cooked for about 35 minutes. chicken is not my sweet spot, so i am always cutting mine open to check.
once the chicken is in the oven, it was avocado cream sauce time.
for the avocado cream sauce-
- avocado
- ½ cup greek yogurt
- three cloves of garlic, minced (save one cloves worth for the beans)
- juice of a lime
- ¼ white onion. chopped (safe half for the beans)
- salt to taste
throw all of that in a food processor. i think a blender would work fine too. blend until smooth. taste plenty along the way. I ended up adding a little water to mine to thin it out more.
and once that was finished up, i turned a burner on medium and put on a non-stick skillet with about a table spoon of olive oil. i sautéed the remaining onion with a clove of minced garlic. when the onion was translucent i added the beans and stirred until they were heated. we like to mash up some of our black beans with the stirring spoon. we support you smashing your beans as well.
once the chicken was done, we put it on a bed of mixed greens with a little grated cheese and the avocado sauce. beans on the side. not my favorite thing ever, but not too shabby.
i wish i would have had time to let them marinade and had some other veg on hand. otherwise, good eats.
grocery list:
-
- 4 chicken breasts
- salt
- chili powder
- paprika
- cumin
- garlic powder
- garlic
- cilantro
- two limes
- one avocado
- one white onion
- greek yogurt
- two cans of black beans
ahoyfriend. 