30 Minute Meals

Ok...several of you have been asking me to post recipes that I have for healthy meals that only take about 30 minutes to prepare. I do not claim to be a chef by any stretch of the imagination but after getting married I went on a quest to find meals that were easy, cheap, healthy and could be adjusted to feed as little as two people or a large family. Both my husband and I work full time and by the time we get home we are hungry and don't want to wait until 8:00 pm to eat. I also try very hard to eat healthy and that becomes very hard when you are busy. But I decided that being busy is not enough of an excuse to eat poorly. These meals are budget friendly and use minimal pots, pans and ingredients to keep it simple. Plus most of these recipes are very basic so you can always add things to them as you'd like (I will offer some suggestions as well.). Please note: I will always give credit where credit is due if I am using a recipe that was created by someone else.

30 Minute Chicken Marinade & Rice
Inspired by my aunt Kelly

Ingredients

• 2 - 4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
• 1 Bottle of Lawry's Marinade (your choice of flavor)*
• Use two bottles if you are cooking more than 4 breasts of chicken

Spray the bottom of a 9x9 glass pan with cooking spray (use bigger pan if you are using more chicken). Place the chicken breasts in the bottom of the pan. Pour marinade over chicken until almost covered. Cover pan with foil and bake at 350' for 30 min if chicken is thawed or 40 min if frozen (note: if you start with frozen chicken it may need to cook longer than 40 min depending on your oven. If you pull it out and see that it is still slightly pink cook for about 3 min more and check again. Do NOT over cook. No one likes dry chicken!)

I usually serve this over Minute brown rice and round out the meal with a salad or green beans but you can use whatever kind of rice or vegetables that your family likes.

Suggestions:

• One of our favorite flavors is the Hawaiian and we like to add pineapple tidbits before cooking.

*Other marinade flavors include:

• Baja Chipotle
• Caribbean Jerk
• Dijon & Honey
• Havana Garlic & Lime
• Hawaiian
• Herb & Garlic
• Lemon Pepper
• Louisiana Red Pepper
• Mesquite
• Mexican Chile & Lime (We use the left over for chicken tacos the next day)
  
• Sesame Ginger
• Teriyaki

That's it! So easy and yummy! Now how about dessert? This is one that we like:

Take one of these:



And add a squirt of this (Use the lite if you are watching your calories!!):

And...YUM!! Sweet tooth satisfied. :)

Happy cooking!!