Clean & Delicious with Dani Spies
Fuel your body. Feed your life!
Roasted chicken is and easy and delicious recipe that every home cook needs to have in their back pocket.
In this video, I am showing how I pull together a fast and flavor weeknight meal by roasting a whole chicken on top of some sweet potatoes and then serve it all alongside my go-to kitchen sink salad.
Enjoy!
[Read more…] about Whole Roasted Chicken Recipe (+ A Weeknight Kitchen Sink Salad)
I love a simple meal that my whole family enjoys! It just makes life so easy, doesn’t it?
I’ve found that chicken drumsticks are always a winner. I really think it’s because my kids feel like they’re eating something that’s on a stick and for whatever reason they really like eating things on a stick. I kind of get it, somehow the stick makes things a little more fun!
So, I’m always looking for delicious new ways to bake up a drumstick.
This recipe is both bright and warm. The combination of turmeric and cinnamon give it a nice warm flavor while the lemon keeps it bright and fresh.
You’ll notice that I remove the skin from my drumsticks. I find that because the meat is dark meat, it still stays nice and moist without the skin PLUS since I am baking the chicken the skin wouldn’t get crispy any way, so removing it just seems like the best road to travel.
Oh! And if you like to meal prep, be sure to make some extra chicken. This recipe makes great leftovers.
[Read more…] about Baked Turmeric Lemon Chicken
Scroll down to watch the step-by-step video.
I just love a one pan meal.
Especially on a busy weeknight when you feel like there’s just no time.
But there’s always time, when you have recipes like this.
You can use this recipe verbatim or try swapping out the spices and veggies with some of your personal favorites. Think of this as a blueprint and then make it work for YOU!
Scroll down to watch the step-by-step video.
I grew up eating Chicken Parmigiana and to this day it is one of my all-time favorite meals.
Traditionally, this dish is a pretty heavy meal; pan fried chicken with cheese served over pasta.
Delicious, but not something that would work for the weekly rotation in my house. So I’ve give it a little Clean & Delicious twist so we can all enjoy this Italian classic in a light and fresh way, each and every week.
Simple swaps like baking the chicken instead of frying and serving it over spaghetti squash or zoodles, make it really easy to lighten things up with out sacrificing any flavor.
I’d love for you to give this one a try and then come on down to the comments below and let me know what you think. Enjoy!
Meet my new love.
Salsa Chicken in the crock-pot (aka slow cooker).
This meal requires just 2 ingredients (although I threw in a few extra veggies but thats 100% optional), takes 5 minutes to prepare, cooks while you’re away, and can be used 101 different ways.
For real.
Place some boneless skinless chicken breasts into a crockpot with a jar of your favorite salsa. Crank it up to high and 3-4 hours later you have shredded salsa chicken.
I loved it. My hubby devoured it. And my kids couldn’t get enough.
This makes a great head start ingredient and can be used lots of different ways.
Some of my favorites to enjoy it during a busy week are (*all of these recipes are demonstrated in the video below!).
Grab a non-stick skillet and heat your favorite whole grain tortilla. Flip it over and sprinkle a bit of shredded cheese on half of the tortilla. Layer on some salsa chicken (make sure you heat it first and drain any excess liquid) and top with a bit more cheese.
Fold the tortilla on to itself and cook for a couple of minutes until the cheese begin to melt. Flip it over and cook for an extra minute. Serve and enjoy.
For this salad, you can literally grab your personal favorite salad veggies. Here’s what I used; romaine, red cabbage, frozen corn, and black olives. Then I scoop on some chicken and top with diced avocado and eat it up!
*Note: you could always add some extra salsa, greek yogurt, or ranch dressing if you like dressing.
This is little concoction is literally a 2-minute meal.
I heat up some frozen brown rice (whichI usually buy at Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods). You can also cook and freeze your own brown rice if you have the time.
Then I season my rice with coconut oil, garlic powder, salt and pepper and top with the shredded salsa chicken and diced avocado.
Easy-peasy and this is a kid favorite as well.
I’d love to hear how you like to your salsa chicken down in the comments below!
HELPFUL KITCHEN TOOLS
6-Quart Slow Cooker
Glass Storage Bowls
12 Inch Non Stick Saute Pan
I’ve learned that when it comes to cooking, it’s more important to observe the technique instead of the details of the exact recipe.
So for instance, the details in this recipe would be the balsamic strawberries and feta cheese. They make a great combo, they’re delicious and they’re in season right now, but you could easily change up the topping with whatever you had on hand.
You could do a different fruit or skip the fruit and go right for an all veggie salsa-like topping.
Or you could skip the topping and serve the chicken over a big bed of spinach or arugula. Whatever road you travel the details always have endless options.
Now on the flip side, the lightly sautéed chicken breast would be the technique. It is a super simple, quick, healthy way of preparing the chicken. And since we are using a non-stick pan we are able to get the browning results that sautéing provides without having to use a lot of added fat.
Once you have this cooking technique in your back pocket, you’ll never let chicken sit in your fridge again. At the very least you know you can give it a light sautee and serve it with some of your favorite fruits or veggies.
What are some of your favorite ways to make a quick chicken dish? Have you ever tried adding fruit to your chicken before?
*note: This recipe was one of the strawberry recipes featured in my ‘Strawberries 3x’ video. You can watch the step-by-step below.
[Read more…] about Pan Seared Chicken with Strawberries + Feta Cheese
Scroll down to watch the video.
As much as I love to cook (and I do) weeknight dinners can sometimes stump me.
Be it the lack of inspiration, motivation, or simply failing to plan ahead, every now and then I find myself staring at my fridge wishing dinner would just jump out and serve itself.
But the closest I’ve ever come to a self made dinner would be a crock-pot meal or a meal made in my rice steamer.
I recently had the opportunity to try out the Tiger Rice Cooker with Tacook and what I love about this model is that it can both steam your rice and cook meat and veggies at the same time. So it involves little preparation and absolutely no cooking (at least not on my end).
You can change this dish up 101 ways simply by using different meats, spices and veggies but no matter what road you travel you end up with a pretty effortless, extremely nutritious, delicious meal.
If you guys are interested in learning more about the rice steamer I am using in this video, you can check it out here: http://www.usa.tiger-corporation.com/products/133
The model I’m using is sold in Target stores: http://www.target.com and can also be found in Asian markets or on amazon here: http://www.target.com/p/tiger-america-electric-rice-cooker-white/-/A-14727213?lnk=sc_qi_detaillink
