Jamaican Jerk Chicken

What can I say? I love to grill. I prefer a charcoal kettle grill, but the convenience of a gas grill on busy days does come in handy. I have so many favorites on the grill but the ULTIMATE grill food for me is Jamaican Jerk Chicken.

2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1/2 cup Sliced Green Onions
1 Small Red Bell Pepper, chopped
2 Cloves Garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp. Dried Thyme
1 tsp. Curry Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Cumin
1/2 tsp. Ginger
1/4 tsp. Pepper
1/4 tsp. Paprika
1/8 tsp. Cayenne Pepper
6 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts (I cut into strips but you can leave whole)

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Heat oil in skillet over medium heat until hot. Cook all ingredients except for chicken for about2 minutes, stir frequently until pepper is crisp tender, cool. This is where a good ziploc bag comes in handy to coat and smoosh the marinade over the chicken...marinate for 30 minutes - 3 hours (I have been known to leave overnight). Don't be put off by the color of the spice combination...trust me, this won't taste at all like it looks!

Grill chicken 4-6 inches from medium coals 15-20 minutes or until done, less if cooking strips. If cooking for a crowd like I find myself doing quite regularly, you can put the cooked chicken into a crock pot set to warm while you finish cooking the remainder of the chicken.

Leftovers are great cold on a chef salad.

Gourmet Feast

There are those (I won't mention any names, but I commonly refer to him as DH) who thumb their nose up to the idea of healthier meals in schools. He is of the opinion that people should have the choice of what they want to eat and no one should be forcing them to eat healthier. Part of my job is being creative with the healthier food options. I have many healthier options that look appealing and taste great so the challenge to prove him wrong went into full swing today.

Fresh Garden Salad made with fresh greens purchased at the Farmer's Market. After having to buy lettuce in the grocery store all winter long, fresh baby greens hit the spot!

Due to technical difficulties, there is no photo of the pasta salad made with whole grain pasta. Does not change the taste, and the slight color variation of the pasta isn't noticeable. I mixed in peas, red onion, white albacore tuna, a bit of mayo, and garden seasoning with no salt.


Jamaican Jerk Chicken hot off the grill. Made with boneless skinless chicken breast. Always a hit when I make it. I love cooking extra so I can add some of the leftovers to a Garden Salad for lunch. A vegetarian option - the jerk spice mixture would be awesome on a piece of firm tofu then grilled. YUM!


And what EVERY Gourmet Feast should have...Rich Dark Chocolate cupcakes with Whipped Icing. I seriously don't know what happened to the first two or three cupcakes. I certainly didn't go "healthier" on the dessert, although I do have a recipe for chocolate beet cake that is excellent and no one even knows they are eating veggies! I figured I best just break him in "slowly" with the healthier options. After all, he had baby beet greens in the salad and he didn't know what it was.

DH had no complaints, but the look on his face was priceless when I told him today's healthier food experiment worked. He really didn't notice anything different about the baby greens (won't tell him about the beet greens) and the whole grain pasta went unnoticed. It has made him think twice about his earlier opinion.

It's melting....

Yeah!!! I was so excited when I pulled in my drive this afternoon and (gasp) saw the wooden border for my perennial flower beds! They only stand about 6 inches high, but we haven't seen them since...November, December??? The massive doses of sunshine and warmer air this week has greatly reduced the amount of snow we have in our yard. Admittedly, we still have a great deal of snow in our yard but every day we are seeing more of the yard and less of the snow. YEAH!!!! I didn't have time to snap a photo so you'll just have to trust me on this one..I was too busy taking in every last waking moment of the sun and warm air while it was there to be enjoyed.

Our grill has been working double overtime every day since last weekend. We never tire of grilled food around our house...as Rachael Ray would say it...YUM-O!!! Tonight we had BBQ Ribs that were to die for. OK, they could have been tough as a buzzard and we wouldn't have cared! LOL