Honey & Pineapple Oven Baked Chicken

It's always hard to bake a whole chicken and keep it from becoming tasteless and dry. This recipe is my secret to soft, fall off the bone baked chicken.

Honey & Pineapple Oven Baked Chicken

What you need:

- whole chicken

- 1 can of pineapple cubes

- 1/8 cup honey

- minced garlic (1 tablespoon)

- basil

- seasoning (black pepper, garlic salt, salt, crushed red pepper flakes, poultry seasoning)

1. Preheat the oven to 475F

2. Place whole chicken (breast side down) on a casserole dish lined with aluminum foil

3. Pour pineapple juice from can liberally over the whole chicken and onto casserole dish

4. Cover chicken with spices, seasoning and minced garlic

5. Stuff the chicken with pineapple cubes. Spread the remaining pineapple cubes and juice all around the chicken

6. Cover with aluminum foil

7. Cook at 475F for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, remove foil covering and cook at 450F for an additional 45 minutes

8. When it's done cooking, use pineapple juice all around casserole dish and spoon over whole chicken

9. Drizzle honey all over the top of chicken

* Outcome is sweet and super soft chicken. The pineapple cubes inside the chicken and in the outside are what contribute to this.

* You can add a side of sweet chili Asian sauce or sriracha if you want

(Uncooked)

(Cooked) - Darker spots are from areas that had more black pepper and basil - not burned areas

Lime Pepper Chicken with Garlic Fried Rice

I typically cook for myself or me and my bf. Because of this, I can't use all of the meat and vegetables I have for one dish. When I buy chicken breast or chicken tenders, I cook half and save the other half for another dish. In this case, I used the first half of the chicken tenders in the Glass Noodles with Chicken & Veggies dish. The second half I placed in a zip lock bag and marinated overnight.

Lime Pepper Chicken

1. Marinate the chicken with 2-3 fresh squeezed lime, salt, black pepper and a few bay leaves. Mix well, seal and leave in the fridge overnight.

2. Next day - Line a glass casserole dish with aluminum foil.

3. Place marinated lime and pepper chicken tenders on the foil. Sprinkle a pinch of salt and more black pepper on each tender. Add places of lime around the casserole dish.

4. Bake in oven on 375F for about 45 minutes. If you have less pieces, you can cook it in under 45 minutes.

5. After it's done baking, place of plate and have a side bowl of soy sauce and garlic to add as needed.

Garlic Fried Rice

* I usually cook this when the rice is a day old and hard from being in the fridge

1. Before you cook the rice in the pan, break it apart as much as you can

2. Heat oil in pan. Add lots of minced garlic and cook until it browns a little

3. Add the rice and season with garlic salt, black pepper and salt.

4. Add in 2 scrambled eggs and cook

5. Cook and mix thoroughly

Glass Noodles with Chicken & Veggies

The great thing with noodles and pastas, is that it doesn't go bad. I had leftover glass noodles that were in its bag in my cupboard for a while. I decided to use it along with chicken and vegetables I already had in the fridge that I didn't want to spoil.

What you need:

- thin glass noodles (you can buy this at Asian markets)

- batchoy

- bell pepper

- tomatoes

- seasoning (black pepper, salt, garlic salt)

- oyster sauce

- minced garlic

* Before you begin prep soak your glass noodles in cold water and let it sit. It needs to soften before you can cook it.

* I made the noodles separately from the chicken and veggies

Glass Noodles with Chicken & Veggies

1. Cut chicken and veggies into small cube-like sizes

2. Heat oil in pan then add minced garlic

3. Add chicken, season with spices and oyster sauce then let it cook thoroughly

4. Add bell pepper and cook for a short while

5. Add the tomatoes and batchoy. Put the lid on then turn off the heat. The heat from the closed pan should be enough to cook those

* You want to keep your veggies crispy, not soggy

6. Transfer to a plate. Use the same pan with the juices from the dish to cook your noodles. Add more oil if necessary

7. Once noodles are soft, add into your pan and season accordingly. If it gets too dry before it cooks, you can add a little water

8. When the noodles are cooked, transfer to a plate then top off with the chicken & veggies

Week 4: Over budget

Last week my bf and I ended up going to a really nice restaurant for a friend's birthday. Just one of the examples how things don't always go as planned. Without having to go into too much detail on the exact cost, let's just say we blew our budget out of the water.

I also ended up eating out last Friday because I didn't get a chance to cook anything the night before. The good thing though, is that I still had a lot of food left to cook this week. Although it doesn't make up for last week's damage, it still helps out a bit.

This week I cooked:

1. Glass noodles with chicken & veggies

2. Lime pepper chicken with garlic fried rice

3. Honey and pineapple oven baked whole chicken

Chicken & Veggie Stir Fry

This is another quick and easy dish to cook. All you need are a few ingredients and you can have yourself a delicious and healthy meal.

Chicken & Veggie Stir Fry

1. Cut chicken breast into small pieces

2. Cut vegetables you want to add to the stir fry. I had sweet onions, red bell pepper, batchoy and white mushrooms

* Remember to cut your meat and vegetables in similar sizes.

* You can add other veggies if you want like carrots, string beans, broccoli, etc.

3. Heat oil and add sweet onions

4. Cook sweet onions (I love the smell of this cooking!)

5. Add chicken breast and season with black pepper, garlic salt, basil, a pinch of salt, oyster sauce, sriracha (Asian

spicy sauce-I add this to lots of things because it's so good!), a little squeeze of lime or lemon

6. After chicken is cooked, add vegetables (batchoy, mushrooms & bell pepper)

7. Stir for about 5 minutes and turn off the stove. You do not want to over cook the vegetables or else they will be

soggy instead of crispy.

Cream of Chicken & Cayote Pita Pocket - An experiment

Friday

I love to experiment with food. I often take recipes I already know and modify it here and there. I don't know how I came up with this one but I just did. Haha! It came out pretty ok. Not anything to rave about but still tasted good. This actually came about because I was thinking about cooking cream of mushroom chicken. But I didn't have any fresh mushrooms. However, I did have cayote (Asian green vegetable) and I didn't think using cream of mushroom would work so I opted for cream of chicken.

Cream of Chicken & Cayote Pita Pocket

1. Heat olive oil (I use olive oil for cooking all the time) and sautee diced onions and garlic

2. Add chicken breast sliced into small square pieces. Add seasoning: black pepper & garlic salt. Cook chicken.

3. Add cayote sliced in small squares/cubes. Cook cayote. (Don't overcook it or else it will become too soft)

4. Add one can of cream of mushroom and mix until it starts bubbling.

This next option you don't have to do, but I did just for experimentation purposes.

5. Mix in white rice with the cream of chicken and cayote.

6. Cut pita bread in half to make 2 pita pockets.

7. Stuff pita pockets with cream of chicken and rice.

It came out ok. Next time, I don't think I'll add the pita bread portion. It took away from the taste of the dish. It was better with rice only.

Week 1: Getting started

For this experiment, the $50/wk budget will be used for all new groceries I buy. I won't count things I already have. I have a lot of food that I don't cook so it's about time I stop wasting.

I was really excited to start this experiment today. I decided that I should start by cooking dinner. I had leftovers so I decided to combine some to create something new. I had leftover white rice, leftover chicken adobo (Filipino dish) and I had a few eggs. So what did I make? Fried rice!

1. Sautee garlic

2. Add leftover rice

3. Scramble eggs (used 2 eggs)

4. Cut up the chicken in tiny pieces and tossed it in

5. Add black pepper, garlic salt and a little teriyaki sauce

Spent: $0 - Used ingredients I already had