Category Archives: Recipes

Honey Lime Chicken With Grilled Fruit

Posted on by Allen Stern

Honey Lime Chicken With Balsamic Glazed Grilled Pineapple and Mango Recipe

For this week’s recipe, I decided to work on finding a chicken recipe that will help me remove the need for the BBQ sauce that I use with my plain grilled chicken. It’s one of the last processed foods I eat and I know that it has some added sugar which I don’t want at all in my new healthy lifestyle.

After a good bit of research, I came across two recipes that go great together to create one pretty spectacular dish! The bit of honey ties the chicken and fruit together perfectly. I made each recipe twice: first with the original ingredients and second with my edits to reduce a good bit of the honey (I used organic Texas honey).

The great news is that the updated recipe below tastes great, the chicken is moist and juicy. I have eaten it twice without the need for any BBQ sauce! Score one for the home team! The chicken alone would also be great in a salad as the honey and lime will give a bit of pop to a plain salad.

The Honey Lime Chicken With Balsamic Glazed Grilled Pineapple and Mango recipe below serves two and prep time was about 12-14 minutes and total cook time was 15 minutes.

Ingredients for Chicken

  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (2 limes), plus the zest of both limes
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1/2 teaspoon liquid stevia
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
  • 1 pound of boneless skinless chicken breast
 Ingredients for Grilled Fruit

  • 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
  • 1/3 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1/2 teaspoon liquid stevia
  • 2 tablespoons chopped mint or basil (I used basil)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 ripe pineapple peeled, cored and cut into rings
  • 1/2 ripe mango cut lengthwise into slices
  • Metal skewers or wooden skewers

Preparation :
Honey-Lime Chicken: Combine all ingredients (except the chicken) in a bowl and place marinade and chicken in a zip-top bag. Place bag in fridge for up to 24 hours (I marinaded for 12 hours). Grill chicken until completely cooked. I found that using a thicker chicken breast worked better than the butterfly-cutlets I generally use for grilled chicken.

Grilled Fruit: In a small saucepan over high heat, boil the balsamic vinegar for 5 minutes to reduce by half; transfer to a bowl. Add butter, honey, stevia, mint or basil and salt and whisk until smooth and blended. Place pineapple and mango onto skewers, lightly brush the balsamic glaze and grill until browned. I suggest going way light on the glaze during the grilling. I used a grill pan and as you can see in the image below, the fruit came out grilled to perfection. Serve with remaining balsamic glaze on the side.

The original grilled pineapple and mango with balsamic glaze recipe is from Whole Foods. The original chicken recipe is from The Enchanted Cook. Thanks to both sites for their inspiration!

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Lime-Seared Cod With Veggies Recipe

Posted on by Allen Stern

My nutritional goal this month is to find and make a recipe each week. The idea is to push me into trying new foods but also to create a database of recipes that I can pull from anytime instead of eating the same grilled chicken every night.

My first recipe is a variation of the Lime-Seared Haddock recipe found in the August issue of Clean Eating magazine. I say variation because I went to two Whole Foods stores and one Central Market and no Haddock was to be found. I was told they don’t carry it this month but the fishmonger said Cod would be a perfect substitute. So that’s how we get to the “Lime-Seared Cod with Veggies” recipe.

The instructions from Clean Living make this recipe seem a bit difficult – I’ve simplified the instructions and it is seriously easy. The only thing I didn’t do was adjust the cooking time from haddock to cod so I think I may have cooked the cod a pinch too long and some of it broke apart when I tried to take it out of the pan.

I found the overall taste to be very pleasing and so far I am 2-2 on fish dishes! The only things I would change is to add more lime juice into the cod and a pinch more paprika on the sweet potatoes.

Lime-Seared Cod With Veggies

Ingredients

  • 3/4 pound cod fillet
  • 1 pound green beans, trim off the ends
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • sea salt
  • 1 pound sweet potatoes, cut in wedges
  • sweet paprika (took me a bit to find it but if you get the basic Whole Foods brand, it is sweet paprika even though it just says paprika on the jar)
  • 2 limes
  • dried dill (whole foods employee told me “dill weed” is what you want here)

Preparation

Veggies: toss beans, 1/2 of the oil and a pinch of salt in a bowl and then place on a non-stick or parchment-lined baking sheet. In same bowl, toss potatoes, other 1/2 of the oil, salt and paprika and place onto another baking sheet. Cook in the oven at 375 degrees for 35 minutes or until golden brown (took 30 minutes for me).

Cod: heat a large skillet on medium temperature with 1 tsp oil and the zest of one lime. Place the cod into the pan and swirl it around so the zest and oil get all over the cod. I would say cook for 2-3 minutes on each side. When you turn the fish over, add the juice of one lime. The fish will be done when it is flaking – for me this was 6 minutes total.

Serving

Add the zest of the other lime on top of the cod and equally divide the veggies and cod. Serves 4.

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Balsamic Lemon Chicken with Spinach Recipe

Posted on by Allen Stern

There was one recipe that we didn’t get a chance to make in my last cooking session. Since I basically had all of the ingredients, I wanted to go ahead and see the recipe through. This was definitely a light stretch for me as I don’t remember ever eating mustard and I am sure I have never tried Balsamic vinegar before. This is definitely not a recipe I would have tried a year ago, even if cash was offered. Yet now I ate the chicken and really enjoyed it. With the slight modifications below, I think this will easily become a dish I will make in the future and I think the final presentation will help you score a home run with dinner guests.

I think the things I would do differently with this recipe next time are: even more lemon juice and butterfly the chicken breasts. The breasts (as you can see below) that I purchased were huge and took a long time to cook all the way through. Butterflying the chicken breasts (basically cutting them in half the thick way) would help with cook time and also help by allowing those eating the chicken to enjoy more of the sauce.

Balsamic Lemon Chicken with Spinach Ingredients (serves 2-4):

  • 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
  • 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 2 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 chicken breasts
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest
  • 2 large handfuls of spinach per person

Initial Preparation: Combine the vinegar, mustard, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. Transfer this liquid to a zip-top bag. Add chicken and make sure the liquid is well placed around the chicken. Push the air out of the bag and seal. Place bag in the fridge for 2-24 hours to marinade (I did 12 hours).

Cooking: I decided to cook the chicken on the stove – place chicken into a large skillet or grill pan. Add the extra sauce into the pan. Cook the chicken thoroughly until all the pink is gone (I always make a small cut in the chicken to check because I am freakish about undercooked chicken). Once the chicken is done, remove from pan and then add some water (or wine) to the pan to get up the drippings that have attached to the pan (chefs call this “deglazing”).

Serving: Take spinach and place on plate as seen below. Place a chicken breast on top of the spinach, top with lemon zest and serve while chicken is still hot.

I welcome any comments and/or suggestions on how to improve this recipe even further!

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The First Organic USA Flag

Posted on by Allen Stern

Ok, I will admit I was a bit bored yesterday and decided to have some fun with organic fruits. I took strawberries, bananas and blueberries and created what I think is the first organic USA flag. I did this to show support for Team USA in the Olympics!

If you would like to copy this idea for a party or gathering, just slice the strawberries in half and create stripes. Take 2-3 organic bananas, cut them in half length-wise and make the other stripes. And then just add some blueberries for the stars.

I will say that eating this USA flag was a lot more tasty than what a regular flag would taste like :)

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Peach Green Superfood Smoothie

Posted on by Allen Stern

If you are a regular LTF reader, you know my go-to smoothie has been the strawberry green superfood smoothie. I like all of my daily smoothies but I guess since the strawberry was my first, it seems to have stuck as the most popular. These green smoothies are great for weight loss it seems!

The second most popular green smoothie I make is the one below – a green smoothie with peaches as the main ingredient. I find this is a great complement for the strawberry smoothie. Unlike the strawberry smoothie, this one will turn a super bright green color as you can see in the above image.

I’ve also been adding Chia seeds to my smoothies every day since Linda showed me how they help with nutrition and really don’t change the taste of the smoothie. The key is to drink the smoothie straight away as the chia can get a bit like jell-o if you wait too long.

Peach Green Superfood Smoothie Recipe:

  • 6 ounces orange juice – can be fresh squeezed or bottled
  • 6 ounces water
  • 2 cups peaches – should be about 1.5 peaches – I use frozen to help with a better texture
  • 1 banana – frozen
  • 3-4 handfuls of spinach
  • 1 tsp Maca (optional)
  • 1 tbsp Chia seeds (optional)

Directions: blend until reaching desired consistency, makes approximately 24-28 ounces

Enjoy! I think this would be a great smoothie for the kids because the green color is fun!

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