Cooking For 2 Tuesday: Marinated Chicken & Songs to Listen to On Repeat

It's that time again, cooking for two Tuesday.  Posting at 10:16 PM and Lee is the one who cooked this meal so I think it's safe to say I am a little lazy this week.   I must be resting extra this week since I know I am going to be working extra hard next week during my parent teacher conferences.

This is one of our favorite meals.  It is a pretty standard recipe that most people probably know/love/use.  It is chicken breasts marinated in sprite/7up/store brand lemon lime soda.  I think the first time I made it I googled "sprite chicken" and found a recipe that went something like this: marinate chicken overnight in :
1 can of sprite, 1/3 c. olive oil, 1/3 c. soy sauce, & 1 tsp garlic powder.

Well, the first time we made it, it was good, but a little too salty for us (we are sugar lovers up in this house).  So I swapped out the soy sauce for teriyaki sauce and it was much better, but then we noticed the longer we let it marinade (ideal time is 3 days) the sweeter and more flavored the chicken is.  So it's a pretty basic recipe, but with our own twists. 

I marinated the chicken a few days prior and then talked Lee into heading out to the grill, steaming the broccoli,  & boiling and mashing the potatoes.  What a champ! We also had some left over home made rolls because even though I was lazy on this particular night, it doesn't mean I didn't channel Martha on Saturday.

Lastly (as promised) without further ado, songs that I just want to listen to over and over lately. Click to listen to it. PS You are welcome for not making you listen to them by posting a playlist.

Fun. We Are Young
Christina Perri  A Thousand Years
LMFAO I'm Sexy & I Know It


What songs are you listening to on repeat?

quirks

via

Even though I loved this, I never pinned it on pinterest.  I must have been saving it for you.

Today I have been thinking about some of my quirks (AKA my OCD tendencies) like...

Even though I can go a week without washing my hair; I start to twitch if I don't shave my legs (or floss my teeth now) every 24 hours.  Literally.  You can ask Lee about it if you want.  Winter, Summer, pants, skirts, going to work, staying home, it doesn't matter, I have to shave my legs.  I remember when Lee and I started dating whenever he touched my leg he would say, "smoooooth," and I thought it was so weird.  I remember thinking, "Did all the girls you dated before me have prickly legs all the time or something?" Well, apparently I am the weird one.  I am pretty sure he thought that would change when we got married.  Oh, how wrong he was.  Dear Lee, remember the time I shaved my legs at 11:00 PM because I could not go to bed with prickly legs? Yes, true story.

Lee always leaves a cup next to the sink to drink water from though out the day without dirtying tons of cups.  How thoughtful right? Well, every day I put it away about 3 times a day which makes it so all the dishes get dirty anyway.  He nicely reminds me of why the cup is there, but I am like a robot.  I am not even thinking when I put it away I am just like (and read the following in a robot voice) "Must. Clean. House." 

Most of my quirks have to do with cleaning and I am pretty sure the shaven legs thing is related to it. 

Another thing that makes my OCD senses tingle is when I see people (men & children) with their shirt on backwards.  You can always tell when someone has their shirt on backwards because it looks like their shirt is on the verge of choking them to death.  Drives me nuts.  How can that be comfortable? 

Ladies, how often do you shave your legs?

Are you a clean freak? (like me)

Cooking for Two Tuesday: breakfast for din-din

Sometimes you just need some pancakes for dinner.

The trouble with eating pancakes for dinner is that you feel as if you've already eaten dessert.  30 minutes after dinner I usually get up and treat myself to some oreos and milk, but when I eat pancakes for dinner, I am already sugared out and it's very confusing unto me.  This is followed by a battle within my head if I should eat some veggies as dessert since I ate dessert as dinner? I usually just drink some water and frown.

But without further ado: cooking for two: pancakes for dinner.

You were warned.

Supplies needed:

eggs (scrambled eggs)
milk (to drink)
syrup (sugar, brown sugar, water, & maple flavoring)
pancakes (white flour, wheat flour, oats, baking soda, salt, sugar, egg, milk, oil) recipe
cooking spray

prep time: 20-ish minutes
downside: you don't feel like you deserve dessert & it's hard to keep it all warm at the same time
upside: breakfast, who doesn't love breakfast? oat/wheat pancakes: mmmm very filling!

ingredient

Why I eat oatmeal every day: 

Just oatmeal,  no ingredients that sound like another language.

Cooking for Two: Sunday Dinner Edition

Slow Cooker Pot Roast

More like dinner for 6-8 (AKA dinner for 2 with oodles of leftovers ~ which I am good with)



FYI: I added more potatoes and carrots, but I wanted the meat to show in my picture.  That way, if any vegetarians visit my page I can offend them (joke).

STEP ONE: Buy supplies at the store: roast, potatoes, carrots, optional: onions, celery, olive oil, spices.
STEP TWO: Put a little water on the bottom, put the roast in, put seasoning on top
 (for me that means 1/4-1/2 onion, tbsp olive oil, salt, pepper, parsley).
STEP THREE: Wash your veggies, cut up all your veggies, and plop them on the top of the meat.  Add more seasonings if desired.
STEP FOUR: There is no step four! Ha! You're done, just go about your day and dinner is ready in 6-8 hours.



But, for me, I can't only eat the roast with the veggies that cooked in the same pot with the roast, because IMHO pot roast veggies taste too much like the pot roast.  So, of course, I steamed some broccoli.  Then we ate these nummy homemade rolls we had on hand.  I am kind of obsessed with baking bread these days.  Maybe someday I can write a post about the magical 1:00 PM hour on Saturdays when my house smells like clean toliets, fresh laundry, and baking bread, basically my idea of heaven.  Don't ask me for the (bread) recipe, unless you're a Chesnut, because it might be a family secret, or it might be from Betty Crocker, who knows these things? Certainly, not me.

And just for fun, I found this image on Lee's computer and I have no idea if he found it online somewhere or made it himself.  I like to think he made it, because then it is just that much better.

I hope you have a Michael Scott kind of Valentine's Day, whatever that means.

nothing

I am not an artist
I am not a photographer
I am not a writer
so what is the blog about/for?

like the great, Seinfeld: nothing

but sometimes nothing can be something after all

Cooking for Two Tuesday

Well, this post will not be as awesome/detailed as my last cooking for two Tuesday, but the food was pretty awesome.  I attempted my first try at making homemade pizza.  I used this recipe for the dough.  I did use all purpose flour instead of bread flour and it was fine.  I used store bought pizza sauce, because one thing at a time right?  It turned out pretty darn good, but the crust/edge part was pretty dry (compared to the greasy take out pizzas we are used to).  Next time, I would put a light coating of butter on the crust area for just a little bit more flavor.

This dinner did take a while to prep since the bread has to rise (the recipe says 30 min, but I usually have to let dough rise in the oven with a pot of hot water and it still takes an hour for me).  All in all it took about half an hour to prepare everything, 1 hour to rise, and 20 minutes to cook. 

We also had salad, FYI, but I was too excited to try the pizza to stop and take a pic of the salad.

Happy Cooking!