Balsamic Glazed Chicken

Yesterday just flew by for some reason.  It got off to an early start with some prep work for the lentil and brown rice pancakes I'll be making for tonight's dinner along with some roasted Veggies.  You know, rinsing lentils can be risky business at 7:30 am since one is not often conscious enought to realize that said lentils are small enough to pass through the holes in some colanders.  The relative inexpensiveness of lentils influenced my decision to just run some water and let them go down the drain as opposed to spending an hour and half picking them out of the sink one by one! 

My mother and I made an emergency run to Bath and Body Works to take advantage of the bag sale.  Our favorite farm stand is on that side of town as well so we stopped off there for some fresh, locally made goat cheese (I probably petted the very goat the milk came from) and some local produce.  From there it was off to BJ's wholesale club to restock some of the essentials.

It probably wouldn't have been such an ordeal if it had not been 115 degree freaking heat index.  Heat like that sucks the life right out of you.  We came home literally THREW ourselves in the pool for a couple of hour.  I always have a pitcher of fruit water in the fridge so I filled some glasses with ice and we drank them out by the pool...super refreshing.  There's no big secret to the fruit water...fresh cut fruit, sweetener or not (stevia in this case) depending on your taste, fresh mint and mineral water...sparkling or plain.  Just let the cut fruit and mint leaves sit in the water in your fridge for a couple of hours.  Waa laa...fruit water, natural and healthy (unlike some of those nasty artifically flavored fruit waters you see in the store).  If I'm going to use sparkling water, I just fill the glass about 1/3 of the way with the prepared fruit water and then top off with sparkling water so as not to water it down. 

Zero calories...plenty of satisfying flavor!  Plus, you get to eat the lovely chilled fruit when the glass is empty.

I seriously had no desire for cooking last night after all that so I didn't really plan on having anything to post.  However, I underestimated the beauty of the fresh produce.  This was about as simple a meal as you could prepare; pan cooked chicken breasts in a thick balsamic glaze with a side of haricots verts, slivered almonds and fresh peaches.

Just cook the boneless, skinless chicken breasts in some olive oil until they are mostly done.  Add 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar to the skillet and bring to a boil.  I also added a couple of tablespoons of honey but you don't have to.  Turn the chicken a few times as the vinegar reduces so that it becomes coated in the glaze.  It ends up being the most beautiful mahagony color and tastes sweet and tangy at the same time.

The beans didn't even require pre-cooking because they were so tiny.  I just sauteed them in olive oil with a little sea salt.  When they are crisp tender, add the slivered almonds and one large peach, sliced.  Toss gently until the peach slices are warmed.  When you plate everything, drizzle the chicken and beans with some of the balsamic glaze and enjoy!

BTW...We uploaded a brand spanking new video to our youtube channel today.

I apologize that it has taken me so long to start the next series of videos.  I haven't made any new ones in about three months.  My life SHOULD be settled back to my version of normal now so hopefully we can go back to adding a new one each week. 

I'll be adding a new page to the blog which will correspond with the weekly youtube video.  The recipes will be dated for the week that they post and then hopefully archived (once I figure out how) for future reference.  Just a note...even though I feature all kinds of foods on the blog, the recipes for my youtube channel are all vegan and vegetarian.  I strive to demo as many vegan recipes as possible because those are the ones viewers seem to want the most.  As you all know, my husband and mother are NOT vegans so I do cook meat (obviously) and those will continue to show up on the blog's main page.  I am working on them though.  Look for tomorrow's post about the incredible vegan dinner they are having!