I had decided on the menu plan to make chicken drumsticks for tonight's dinner.  As I went into the kitchen to get it started, I realized I had absolutely no idea as to how I wanted to prepare them.  I knew I wanted something tasty, not fried, and not horribly difficult to make.  I took a look around the kitchen to see what we had, and decided to try my hand at just throwing some stuff together that sounded good.  What I came up with was perfect!  I am pretty dang proud of myself, because it is very rare that I pull something out of thin air.  I am usually a play-it-by-the-recipe cook, and it's almost always from a recipe! 

 The chicken came out slightly sweet, but with a hint of earthiness and bite that made it easy on the taste buds.  (It looked pretty, too, but I had to take a picture with my daughter's Ipod, since the camera is currently out of the area while my boyfriend is away.)  Here's what I did, with a guesstimate on the quantities, since I just threw stuff in without measuring:

Ingredients:

• Package of chicken drumsticks, skinned (about 1 pound's worth)
• 1/3-1/2 cup honey
• 1/4 cup Dijon style mustard (or two very large tablespoons)
• The juice from one medium orange
• 1 tablespoon rosemary, crushed
• 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (I'm a bit of a wuss with spicy... adjust to your taste!)

Directions:

1.   Arrange chicken in a baking pan.  (I used a glass 9x13-inch pan, and did not have any need to grease it.)
2. Over low-med low heat, stir together honey and mustard until melty and combined.  Add remaining ingredients.  Adjust spices as desired to suit your tastes.  *Note:  The sauce on the stove tasted much sweeter than it actually turned out on the chicken.
3. Once well combined, pour over chicken.  (I let mine sit, covered, for a couple hours, but I don't believe this is actually necessary.  I just already had stuff in the oven!)
4. Bake at 375*F for 45 minutes, or until meat no longer pink and juices are clear. 

I served this with rice and corn.  My kids actually both liked it!  Score one for me!

While I am a fan of lasagna, I rarely ever make it.  I know that my kids aren't too keen on the red sauced varieties, so I came up with this one.  None of the recipes I could find online matched the ingredients I had in my cupboards, so this one I just winged.  It's really the first recipe I've done all on my own.  I think it turned out pretty dang good.  I loved the crispy cheese on top.  My kids aren't too hip on spinach, though they liked the rest of it.  It made for wonderful leftovers for lunch the next day, too!

Ingredients:

• 8-10 ounces spinach, quickly cooked and wilted (I used frozen.  Fresh would be awesome.)
• 1 15-oz package of low-fat ricotta cheese
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella
• about 3 cups alfredo sauce (The link is to my homemade sauce.  Jarred would be fine, too.)
• 12 lasagna noodles, cooked al dente
• 2 cooked skinless chicken breasts (I broiled mine with a little salt, pepper and garlic powder.)
• extra shredded mozzarella

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350*F. 
Mix together spinach, ricotta and mozzarella cheeses in a medium bowl.
In a 9x9 pan, pour a very thin layer of Alfredo sauce.  Lay 4 noodles side by side on top, to cover pan.
Spread half of the spinach and cheese mix evenly over the noodles.
Pour about a third of the Alfredo sauce over top.
Lay another layer of noodles, then spinach/cheese mix, then sauce again.
Top with one more layer of noodles.  Pour the remainder of the sauce over top.  Sprinkle with extra mozzarella.
Bake for 45-60 minutes.

  Tonight was one of those nights were I realized suddenly that nothing had been taken out for dinner, and I had a child coming home that needed to be fed before his karate class.  So, something quick and simple and light so as not to weigh him down too much before his class.  Chicken is always our standby for this.  Quickly defrosted and stir fried, it is all three of those qualities in one tasty package. 

  I decided to go with an orange teriyaki combination.  Actually, I let my son choose between that or honey-sesame and he chose the orange-teriyaki.  It was a bit much on the green beans, so next time I will either sans the sauce when cooking them, or cook them with less.  The chicken, however, was delicious.  So much so, that I decided to blog it, even though I have no picture to show it off to you. 

Ingredients:

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, halved and diced
• 2 green onions, diced (both green and white parts)
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, diced (or to taste.. I like a lot of garlic)
• about 2 cups green beans
• about 1/3 cup teriyaki sauce
• about 1/4 cup orange juice

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, whisk together teriyaki sauce and orange juice.  Adjust quantities of each to your taste. 
2. Saute green beans and garlic over high heat (I used a wok- use what you have that will fit them) in a small amount of the sauce mix.  A little goes a long way in flavoring the beans. Saute until tender-crisp and warmed through.  Remove from pan and set aside.
3. Saute onion and green onion in sauce left in pan until onion is clear- a minute or two.  Add diced chicken and some more sauce.  Add sauce in small portions at a time.  The idea was a light coating- not a full on sauce.  This of course you can adjust to your liking.
4. Cook, stirring constantly, until chicken is cooked through.  It took me about ten minutes. 
5. Serve warm with green beans.  I think rice or noodles would go wonderfully with this.  I just didn't make them.

This served 3 of us.  =) 

   I think I've mentioned this before, but we eat a lot of chicken in our household.  My kids' favorite is just a basic poached chicken and rice or noodles.  However, you can only do that so many times before it starts to get boring.  I had forgotten to take anything out yesterday, so we knew it was going to be chicken and rice again, but I wanted something a bit different.  I didn't want to make the same 'ol same 'ol.   So I searched through some websites searching for something that was still quick and easy, but a bit different than normal.  I found this, and tried it.

  While making it, I didn't think it was going to turn out right.  It just didn't look appetizing.  I think that, since my chicken was still partly frozen, that it put too much moisture in the pan, so the cream sauce was much thinner than it should have been.   Also, I had covered it to cook, and I think I should have left the lid off at first.  However, despite all my mess-ups, it still turned out pretty good!  I can only imagine how tasty it will be when I do it right!   The kids both really liked it, and I now have another chicken-and-rice recipe to add to my repertoire. 

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves 
• black pepper to taste (I used about a tablespoon)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 chicken bouillon cubes (mine were not crushed because I couldn't get them to crush)
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• pinch of salt- to taste (optional)
• 1 can (4oz) sliced mushrooms, drained
• 3 tablespoons sour cream

Directions:

1. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat.  Add onion and chicken.  Season with bouillon, paprika, salt and pepper. 
2. When chicken is almost thoroughly cooked, add mushrooms. Cover and cook about 5 more minutes or until mushrooms are tender and chicken is cooked through.
3. Add sour cream and stir.