Lemon Grilled Chicken in Creamy Piccata Sauce

This recipe came right off the pages of Pinterest, and after reading the recipe, realized it's just a healthier, pasta version of Charlie's favorite chicken dish I make him, so I knew it would be a hit! I thought I blogged about his favorite Lemon Chicken, but now I can't seem to find it on the blog, so I guess I'll add it to the list of things to share.

This is a lemony, creamy pasta paired with marinated grilled chicken. It's light, flavorful, delicious and hard to mess up. The original recipe can be found here at Plain Chicken, and mine is below. Make sure you make this for dinner this summer! It's such a great dish that tastes much richer than it is!

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

So if you live in Southern California, perhaps you've heard of Oggi's Pizza. If not, you're missing out on a great little pizza and brewery with a delicious menu. Since Abbey's been born we don't get out as much as we used to, but our cravings for our favorite goods hasn't really subsided, so I've gotten pretty decent at copycatting recipes that we can enjoy at home for less money and less calories! Enter Oggi's Slam Dunk Buffalo Chicken Pizza! My version is less like Oggi's and more Charlie friendly, but it's still a pretty amazing substitute. Feel free to add or subtract toppings as you wish, but please, give this a try sometime this summer. It goes great with blue cheese or ranch.

Guess What? & Roasted Chicken in Potacchio

I should start off by saying that, for the past year plus I have been incredibly busy and this blog has totally fallen by the wayside. I am still cooking, in fact, my new project lately has been purees. That's right, I have a baby now! My daughter, Abbey, was born mid-September and since then, and even before, my time has been consumed with everything baby.

I didn't think being a mom would be so amazing and so tiring at the same time. It's a good thing she's cute, because she stinks, keeps me up at crazy hours in the night and barfs on me.

I am in the middle of starting a new blog, Mommy Like Whoa, that will chronicle my life as a mom, with recipes, crafts, and DIY projects, but like this one, it's subject to the time I find to keep it up. I am also now on Pinterest and will be making a great effort to try pinned recipes and share the worthwhile ones with you. Follow & Repin me!

And since no EKmW post would be complete without some sort of recipe review, I bring to you:

Roasted Chicken in Potacchio by Scott Conant

Photo by ABC's The Chew

I got this recipe on The Chew, which is my new favorite daytime "talk show". I don't usually have time to watch it, but I always DVR it and catch up on the weekends. This week, on a rare occasion, I got to watch it early and this recipe was the inspiration for last nights dinner.

My local Albertson's was having a sale on whole fryer chickens for 88 cents a pound, so I took advantage! This is a super easy one pan meal, and you'll end up having very minimal dishes, plus it's kid friendly!

You start off with;

1 whole chicken, cleaned and patted dry
1 large yellow onion (or whatever color you have on hand or prefer)
1 can tomatoes (I used diced, but once again anything you have on hand)
4-6 potatoes; quartered, 1-2 inch cubed(I used red, and they worked nicely)
1 cup wine or broth
6 sprigs rosemary (I foraged mine from the wild bush that grows outside our house!)
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper
Red pepper flakes, paprika, cayenne, or whatever your favorite roast chicken seasons are

I started off by preheating my oven to 375* and pulled out my roasting pan. I cleaned the chicken and patted it dry, and placed it in the center of the pan. Drizzle the chicken with the olive oil, and season the inside and outside with the salt, pepper, and the seasoning of your choice. Arrange the onion, potatoes and rosemary around the outside of the chicken, drizzle with more olive oil, season, and pour the tomatoes over the top. Place in the oven for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, basting every 20 minutes or so, or until the thigh temperature is 170* and juices run clear. I removed the chicken from the pan to rest and tossed the potato mixture and put it back into the oven for another 15 minutes. Serve.

The best part about this was Charlie LOVED IT, which for some reason lately he hasn't been all that into new dishes for dinner. Even Abbey liked it! I cut off a small piece of the breast and minced it, mixed it with some of the potatoes that I mashed with a fork and she devoured it! Not that I have had a problem with her, she's such a foodie! Just like her mommy!

Semi-Homemade Sundried & Roasted Garlic Chicken Alfredo

The other night Charlie was craving Alfredo. I don't usually make it because it makes me feel like a stuffed pig for about 23.5 hours, but I had everything I needed at home, and honestly wasn't feeling the grocery store in this rainy weather, so I obliged him.

Now if you know me, or read this blog regularly, you know I can't just leave well alone and I always have to one up every meal I make. In other words, I'm not ok with putting jarred sauce on some noodles and calling it a day. I decided to fix up my alfredo with a jar of marinated artichoke hearts, some homemade sun-dried tomatoes my mom made, fresh parsley and some faux roasted garlic.

You will need;
* 1 jar of your favorite Alfredo sauce. I used the Roasted Garlic flavor from Classico
* 1 head of garlic
* 1 jar of marinated artichoke hearts
* 1 jar sun dried tomatoes ( or make your own!)
* 1 tsp sugar
* 1 tbsp butter
* 1/4 cup heavy cream
* Italian flat leaf parsley
* shredded parmesan cheese
* 2 chicken breasts
* Italian seasonings
* 2 tbsp olive oil
* pasta noodles of your choice

Start by faux roasting your garlic by separating the head, peeling, and rough dicing the garlic. Add the sugar and butter into a small pan and melt over medium heat. Add garlic and sautee until straw colored.

Clean and season the chicken breasts with salt, pepper and Italian seasonings. In a medium to large frying pan add olive oil over medium heat and cook chicken breasts until golden brown and juices run clear.

Boil water in a large pot and cook pasta until al dente. Drain.

In a large saucepan, combine Alfredo sauce and heavy cream, whisk together until mixed and smooth. Dice sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts and parsley and add to sauce. Add roasted garlic. Add parmesan cheese.

Serve by placing a serving of pasta on a plate. Top with sliced chicken breast, pour sauce over the top and garnish with additional cheese and parsley. Viola!

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Back from Hiatus!

Well... as the title suggests, I am back from a very long hiatus. I know my blog has suffered greatly since I took a long needed personal break, but well, I needed it.

My relationship with Charlie has progressed a lot since the last time I posted an update or recipe and since then we've been working on building a life and home together. The last time I updated things were going well and since then they have greatly increased. We now live together in an adorable 2 bedroom apartment with a nice kitchen and I've finally got the room and space to be the cook I want to be. Charlie's tummy has been reaping the benefits of my adventures in the culinary world and we've even ventured out of our comfort zone a few times.

Currently I am using my brand new GE 6 quart slow cooker for the first time, trying my hand at making homemade chicken stock as the weather on San Diego has finally come around to admitting that its actually fall.

I decided since I spend so much money on canned chicken stock and broth that I should try my hand a making a more flavorful, delicious option.

I searched the internet for a decently fool proof recipe and found one from Alton Brown with quite nearly 5 stars and after reading the comments and taking their advice into account as well I began to prepare myself for my adventure.

Me being the planner I am, I went to the store almost a week before I actually made the stock and got all the ingredients so I would be ready when the perfect day struck. I started saving the roasted bones from the rotisserie and baked chicken I had made and froze them to make sure I had enough for my stock. After a record breaking blazing hot week, it's finally cooled down to a nice drizzle and luckily I had the day off and the 8+ hours required to prepare and simmer my stock.

I'll link to the recipe I used but basically I threw all this into my slow cooker, cooked on high for 2 hours, then simmered for 6-7, skimming the goop off the top every hour or so. Into my cooker went:

* 2 chickens worth of bones, seasoned skin and whatever meat was leftover
* 1 onion, quartered
* 3 carrots, peeled and broken in half"
* 4 ribs of celery, trimmed leaves intact, cut in half
* 1 leek, green removed, cut in half lengthwise
* half a head of garlic, peeled and smashed
* 8-10 sprigs of fresh thyme
* heaping handful of fresh Italian flat leaf parsley
* salt and pepper to taste, as needed
* enough water to cover

Because I had so much stock, I decided to freeze it in mini cupcake pans, which yield around 1/8-1/4 a cup per stock cube and will last me through the fall and into winter when I'll be going through stock like it's going out of style. As I use it I'll share the recipes.

Good luck!

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Mediterraneo in Alpine

Just recently, I was privileged to get to go to Mediterraneo in Alpine for dinner and drinks. I had never been, but I had heard it was delicious and raved about so I was ready.

We started off with some drinks. I got one of the special martinis of the week, and Charlie got a Cranberry Grey Goose.

We started off with some Bruchetta, with toasted crustinis and shaved Parmesan cheese.

I ordered their Free Range Chicken, which was amazing and came topped on a bed of mashed potatoes with Chinese long beans with a wine reduction. Did you expect any less?

Charlie got this delicious pasta with chicken and cream sauce that was pretty much to die for.

The Del Mar Fair

As a kid, one of my fondest memories of San Diego was going to the Fair every summer. To some the fair means shoddy hastily put together rides, to some it means looking at animals and to some it means randomly booked concerts of people who you thought weren't even touring anymore. But to most it means any kind of food you can think of, battered and deep fried, awaiting your hungry mouth.


Every year there is a "new thing" at the fair. Some new fried anomaly that probably should have just never been thought of, yet you want to order and try anyway. Becca and 1 month old baby Jackson joined me on our quest to find the BEST OF THE FAIR! Read below...

We started off at an old favorite and staple, the Australian Battered Potato. Now I'm not exactly sure if this is something that people actually eat in Australia, maybe my reader from down under can chime in and let me know, but these babies are delicious. They are essentially slices of potato, battered, deep fried and drizzled in an array of toppings of your choice. We chose ranch.

Afterwards, we decided to get some zucchini. Becca swears up and down that Juicy's has the best, but I disagree!!


After ordering some fried zucchini, obviously we weren't going to order more from somewhere else to prove my point, but trust me, Juicy's is only second best.


We needed to let the fried settle, so we went to check out the booths and pitchmen inside the halls.

Inside Becca found the tiny baby donut maker and we just had to get a half dozen.

We didn't stop the fried food bonanza there! After a while we were feeling pretty hungry again (I have no idea how) and Becca wanted a funnel cake, and I wanted a churro. We found the best of both worlds....

MEXICAN FUNNEL CAKES!!! They also had Chocolate Covered Bacon (which we didn't try, but I hear it's all the rage)

It's like a PLATE OF CHURROS! This was the best of at the fair for me, and I would be hard pressed to find something else this year that made me quite as happy.

We mozied over to Chicken Charlie's cuz Bec was jonsin' to try this insane new crazy weird fair treat called a Zucchini Weeni. It's a hollowed out zucchini, stuffed with a hot dog, and you guessed it, battered and deep fried.

It was weird. Mostly because I couldn't figure out what to dip it in. Ketchup on a zucchini sounds nasty to me, and ranch on a corn dog is blaspheme.

For "dinner" we ate the "Fair Special Plate" at Chicken Charlie's.

Chicken strips, onion strings and zucchini curls with like a million kinds of dips. We both left stuffed and smelling of hot frying oil.

The Fair runs until July 5th.

Lisa turns 40, and feeds us all night!

So one of my clients, Lisa, turned 40 this past weekend. She had a fabulous party down in Venice Beach at Big Red Sun, a totally awesome and adorable landscaping and plant arrangement studio, with a big beautiful backyard perfect for a celebration.


The crowd was an awesomely amazing and eclectic mix of artists, foodies, hippies, and friends. The conversation was never dull, and the laughs were constant and hearty. I am amazed at how many people came to show Lisa how much she was loved, my hope is that, at 40, I'll have at least half the crowd she did.


Venice Wines provided an amazing wine bar, with everything you could imagine, including lemonade and sparkling cider for a non-alcoholic option. My favorite was the Argentinian Sparkling Chardonnay, and the sparkling rose.


Adam accompanied me as my date, and we just had the most fabulous of times.


Baby Blues BBQ took care of the grub, and boy was there a lot of grub.


Living in Atlanta for over a year, I got used to amazing BBQ. In fact, some of the best BBQ I've ever had was at Fat Matt's Rib Shack in downtown Atlanta. But I can tell all you Angelenos, that if you want some GOOD 'Q, Baby Blues is about as close as I've ever come in the West. When asking for sutible BBQ substitutes after I had moved back, a few people had mentioned, "I hear Baby Blues in Venice is pretty good." If I had known how close it came, I would have tried it YEARS ago.


Their Corn Cakes are, most simply put, the most amazing cornmeal based bread I've ever had in my life. Sweet, moist, with just the perfect amount of wow. Their ribs, come second to Fat Matt's, but are still fall right off the bone tender.


We had Baby Back and Kansas City ribs, as well as BBQ chicken, and all were just awesome. Their Mac and Cheese was also pretty much to die for. In fact, I don't really have much of anything bad to say about them. They even had collard greens with bacon, and sweet baked beans. I felt like I was back in the South.


My darling, very pregnant client Nina was also there, looking adorable with her newly trimmed bangs, so we had to have a photo op.


The cake, as amazing as I'm sure it was, I didn't get a chance to try. I was wayyyy too stuffed. BAD FOODIE! BAD BAD!


So thank you Lisa, for an amazing party, amazing wine, and amazing grub. Happy Birthday pretty lady!

The GM Diet Plan : DAY SIX

Yes! Maintaining a 5lb weight loss. Time to up the water intake!

Today is Meat and Veggies day!

Day Six

Eat unlimited amounts of lean meat (fish / chicken) or cottage cheese and vegetables.

We were running around a lot today, so we had some cucumbers with lemon to snack on and the we got another bare bones In-n-Out Burger. Plus TONS of water. I think so far today I've had at least 12 glasses of water. TMI; I've been running to the bathroom all day!

We came back home to make dinner and were sooooo happy that we got to eat chicken!!!

So we made......

Veggie Stir Fry...

...cucumbers with lemon...


...and Greek Chicken!!


OMG it felt soooooooooo good to eat chicken again! I missed it EVER so much! :D

Yesterday, and most of last night, all that beef kinda made my tummy all topsy turvy, since I'm not really used to eating that much red meat in one day. But today I felt really energized from all the iron and protein, so I suppose that is the plus side.

Tomorrow for the most part, things get to go back to mostly normal, and we've already started talking about implementing a very healthy diet plan to stick to involving lots of whole foods and grains.

Hell hath no fury like a hungry girl scorned.

I am a nice person. I feel as if I need to preface this post with that, not to convince you all of the fact, but to just let you know that I think on a good day, I am a pretty nice person. I have many people who can attest to that. In fact, if you read my blog you should know I hardly ever write mean, or bad reviews on places, and I try my best to be understanding of circumstances and constructive with my criticisms. Tonight, this will not happen.

I hardly find myself to be in such a mood that could be construed as "Scathing", in fact most of my demeanor is usually bright and cheery with lots of lulz. And on an entirely different note, today was a really great day, I worked hard, I sold a few Blumes (OMG YAY!) and I had a generally easy time home through virtually no Los Angeles traffic. On the way home, I got a hankering for some Cream Cheese Wontons. If you have never had any, order some post haste. But do not, under ANY circumstances, order them from Wokcano in Burbank. Ever. Seriously. I'm not kidding around people.

Tonight we ordered take out from there. WORST. EXPERIENCE. EVER. EVER!!! Not only can their hostesses not properly take down an order, but they give you "bitch-I-will-cut-you" attitude when you call back to let them know they forgot your Singapore Fried Rice. The conversation about said fried rice started off nicely enough.

Me: Yes hello, I just ordered some take out and you seem to have forgotten the rice *bats eyes and grins ever so sweetly*
Her: What was your name? I'll look you up.
Me: Roberta.
Her: One moment.... Yeah you didn't order that.
Me: No I'm sure I did.
Her: Well then I didn't hear you.
Me: Well I paid $23. Your Orange Chicken can't POSSIBLY cost $23.
Her: You got rice and soup too.
Me: Yes, that's $3.50 with an entree.
Her: No. It's not.
Me: Well it says that on your menu.
Her: What menu are you looking at?
Me: *confused* The one on the website. It says soup, rice and salad for $3.50 more.
Her: Yeah that's wrong. We don't do that.
Me: Well then maybe you shouldn't put that on your menu.

This line of back and forth misguided information went on until frankly I had had enough and asked to speak with the manager, something in all honesty, I've NEVER done, but freaking eh, $23 dollars for soggy "crispy" chicken, a box of dry white rice and bowl of not so hot and sour soup? He wasn't much help either and he copped even more passive aggressive attitude as I got progressively angrier.

Him: Yes, how can I help you.
Me: I didn't receive my fried rice.
Him: You didn't order it.
Me: But I did.
Him: No you didn't.
Me: I asked for it, I have 2 witnesses hear me say it, it's not my problem the hostess didn't write it down.
Him: She doesn't write it. It's in a computer.
Me: Whatever! Your website CLEARLY states I get rice, soup and salad for $3.50. I was overcharged and not given the rice I ordered.
Him: We don't use that menu.
Me: Well then MAYBE that should say that SOMEWHERE on the website? No?
Shuan in the background: Does this mean I'm not getting my rice?

This also went on for awhile, with me posing various threats using websites such as Yelp! and CitySearch, but in the end I figured the best way to be angry would be to put it down in a blog post. He told me I could complain to a higher power if I wanted and said I wasn't letting him speak. I won't mention what I said in retort, but by now my food was cold, and I was very very angry that the MANAGER of an establishment I've spent money in was giving me just as much attitude as his employees. In all fairness to him I was being quite snippy, and Shaun and Jordan were laughing at my explosion in the other room, but man hasn't he heard something about the customer being right? I would have paid for the rice, but an extra $10 for COLD SOUP and some white rice?!?! Not to mention the tip I gave the driver! PLUS the online menu that they don't even use has NO PRICES on it whatsoever EXCEPT for the "Add $3.50 for complete dinner..." stuff that they DON'T EVEN HONOR! NOWHERE on the website that I could find did it say anything about every location having a completely different way of pricing everything to use at their own discretion.

In the end, to make me happy, the manager said he would send the rice to the house, rush order, without charging me the extra delivery fee for an item I didn't receive when I paid that very same delivery fee earlier.

Shaun and I went down to the gate to wait for the delivery guy. He jumped out, handed me a bag, smiled (I could see his fear) jumped in the car and drove away. We came back upstairs and I said to the boys, "See? The lesson for tonight is that if you stand up for yourself, you can get free rice!" and Jordan quipped in retort, "Once."

Genghis Cohen

Adam decided a few weeks ago to take me out for my birthday, I'm just getting around to blogging it now. Shame on me I know, but I'm so far back logged I'll be posting things that have long past happened for the next few weeks.

A few years ago I stumbled upon Genghis Cohen with an ex-boyfriend. He was a HUGE Seinfeld fan, and rumor has it that Jerry LOVES this place, so well we had to try it. It's been a favorite ever since. I took Adam there one night and he's a convert as well.

The best thing about eating out with Adam, is that he LOVES to try everything and we usually end up ordering more than we can eat, thank goodness for take home boxes! This night was no exception.

One of the best things about Genghis Cohen is the blatant Jewish references in the restaurant. They are kinda have that New York Chinese food thing going for them, and as far as I know are one of the only places you can get those big East Coast NY egg rolls in LA. They even have silly names for things like, Krispy Kanton Knish , Cohen Slaw & Pickles and my favorite of them all, Shalom Pork.

I ordered a pot of hot tea and a glass of water I had to beg for 3 times while we waited for all the food we ordered. The waitress, as she finished our order, had to mention what fat asses we were by saying "Ooh that's a lot of food."

Hot Tea.

We started off with some crispy noodles. They have the BEST crispy noodles, seriously.

Crispy Noodles, "Duck Sauce" and Hot Mustard.

For our Pork dish we got the BBQ Pork Fried Rice. I think fried rice is pretty hard to mess up, so this compares to most fried rices I've had, but it's still really freaking good.

BBQ Pork Fried Rice.

For our Chicken dish we got the Orange Peel Chicken with Broccoli. Amazing. I've actually had the Fried Tofu version of this as well, and it's the BEST tofu I've ever had to this day.

Orange Peel Chicken with Broccoli.

We decided to be adventurous and order the Crispy Duck, which we didn't like. I'm not a huge fan of duck and I keep giving it second and third chances for some reason and it always lets me down. Their No Name Duck comes with a plum sauce and is actually a lot better than this. I'm not much of a fan of that one either, but Adam eats it up.

Crispy Duck.

For the Beef dish we got my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE THING AT GENGHIS COHEN EVER; Mabu Beef in a Basket. It's yummy thinly sliced beef, tossed with some yummy sweet sauce and then cooked til crispy AND THEN! placed in an Egg Roll wrapper BOWL! YOU CAN EAT THE FREAKING BOWL! I always get this, it's a given.

Mabu Beef in a Basket.

Being pretty close to Hollywood, on the corner of Fairfax and Melrose, lots of celebrities eat here, so we felt we had to do the only thing left to do, Pose like the last remaining heirs to the Massengill fortune. We fit right in.

"Douche Chill!" - Tobias Funke

Mondays Libations and other food related words.

Monday it rained. AGAIN. So on the menu was CHILI!

We used a Chili Kit, which was against my judgment and protest.



Carroll Shelby's Chili Kit comes with Corn Masa Flour (for thickening), "Chili Seasonings" (which is basically garlic, onion, pepper, cayenne, cumin and everything else you can google when asking what seasons are in chili), cayenne pepper, and salt. It seasons 2lbs of beef, and pretty much all you have to do it add onions, garlic and some beans, and VOILA! Chili.

While that crock potted, I had this for lunch.



"Someone" ate all my Trader Joe's flat bread and "replaced" it with this crappy whole wheat generic kind that had twice as many calories a slice. I used half of one, added a tbsp of spicy hummus, and a 1/4 of a chicken breast. On the side, edamame, and 1/2 a cucumber; sliced, with the juice of half a lemon.

The rainy day had got to me a bit so I went down to The Living Room near SDSU for coffee with my friend.



I had a small (yes thats a SMALL) Skinny Mint Mocha, and it was really to die for. I used to go to The Living Room a lot in college, and I would always get this. I am currently reading a very outdated Photoshop book that Brian gave me for a refresher, and Into The Wild, as I would like to see the movie eventually.

When I got home the chili was ready to be nommed on.



I had 1/4 an avocado (for my MUFAs) a bowl of chili, and ONE corn muffin, with spray butter.

All American Sunday

Today I got in around 40 minutes of step aerobics on the Wii Fit before I was kicked out of the living room for Golf.

Lunch consisted of;



1/4 c edamade; steamed (MUFA's!!), 1/4 of a lemon pepper chicken breast, 2 tbsp hummus (spicy and garlic from Trader Joe's) 3 corn crackers snapped in half, and 1/4 c of Black Cherry Sugar-Free Jello with blueberries and strawberries for "dessert".

Then I grabbed my tub'o'granola I made yesterday, and put 1/2 cup into a plastic baggie with 4 tsp of semi sweet chocolate chips (OMG more MUFA's!).



I threw this into my purse for a snack later when I was out running errands.



I'm also currently in love with these pink pouches of happiness.



I used to drink the Tangerine ones, but these are so much yummier! 25 calories a pouch, and I just throw one in a water bottle and shake 'n' chug. It's got like 1600% of my vitamin C, so I think I won't be getting any colds anytime soon.

After some buddy time down at Starbucks in the freezing coldness of San Diego in early February, I came home and had dinner.

It consisted of;



A lean burger; grilled, with 1 slice of American cheese, grilled onions, pickles, ketchup and mustard. A hot dog with kraut, spicy horseradish mustard (OMG YUM) and relish, and 1/4 cup pinto beans with Frank's red hot sauce. Not the HEALTHIEST dinner, but it was far less calories than any fast food place could have served up for the same thing.