Blackened chicken with "not so dirty rice" and spinach

Hello! It's been a week since my last blog post. I will attribute the silence to a sick toddler, a sick husband and now I'm sick too! This has been a great excuse for recovering hubby and almost recovered toddler to go to her art class together as I finally get some much needed quite time to write this post.

Firstly, I am super excited about the overwhelming response to my Spring flower hat. This hat was such a huge hit that it earned me two new followers and earned me my first time being featured. So, please head on over to Kadie's at Seven Alive to see all the wonderful crafters, cooks and DIYers that she has so kindly featured.

Now, some of you may or may not remember my grill pan chicken post from last week. Well, we had a lot of leftover Kasha from that night. So, I actually ended up upcycling (can you upcycle food?) the kasha for another meal late last week.  I followed another Cooking light recipe for the blackened chicken. Now they served it with Dirty rice which I substituted with Kasha. The reason I call mine not so dirty kasha is because, I swapped the rice out for the kasha and I omitted the chicken livers. I didn't have any and I wasn't motivated enough to go out and buy livers, something that I have never cooked with. Anyhow, my not so dirty version was yummy and super flavorful.

The blackened chicken recipe was fantastic and I would totally make this again to use in wraps, salads or sandwiches. Plus, it is lightened up from a more traditional blackened chicken recipe so it's guilt free too. We've been getting our chicken breast thinly sliced so it helps with the portion control a little more.

I served this with a side of organic spinach sauteed with fresh garlic.
Here is the big reveal, theirs vs. mine.

I am loving this theirs vs. mine theme so much that I think I'm going to make it a weekly feature! What do you think?

Spring hat

I have been knitting and crocheting for a while. Or at least it seems so. It started when I was may be 8 or 9 and my grandmother gave me a ball of thick, chunky, turquoise yarn and some needles and taught me to cast on and knit. Then we had to learn it in school for a year or two. I picked it back up again in design school and really got into it when I was pregnant with my one and only Miss M. She is the end user of all my yarn endeavors and a perfect model of course. She is 2 1/2 years old, which means she is always on the go and super clumsy. She has already lost a wonderful hat I had crocheted for her this winter.

Here is my little one in her colorful crochet hat

 Fortunately, our neck of the woods saw a very mild winter this year and we made do with a store bought fleece atrocity.

The procrastinating mamma that I am, it has taken me until spring time to make her a new one. I was sidelined in between by other projects and the lack of inspiration. The latter finally arrived in the form of "The Little Sister Hat". I loved the pattern for it's dainty shell stitch as well as good coverage.

I used one off white skein of Bernat Satin yarn. I was surprised by how much yarn this hat used! Here is the end result! I love the print for the flower, It's cheery and very spring- appropriate. Plus I really wanted something with yellow in it. So here it is!
Oh, and how cute is the flower button? I found it at Jo-Ann fabrics.

That's it from me for this week! I am hoping to feel especially inspired over the weekend. I hope everyone has a lovely holiday!

Linking up to Debbie-Doo's newbie link party every monday!

Grill pan chicken with mushroom sauce & garlicky asparagus My entry into Wow Me Wednesday sponsored by Appliances Online and Bosch Washing Machines

Every now and again, I get bored of the same old kitchen concoctions and seek out new ideas and recipes. Recently, we scored a free subscription to Cooking Light magazine and I am just so thrilled about it. Clearly, they can think of so many ways to jazz up chicken.

This particular recipe is for grill pan chicken with a mushroom sauce and garlicky asparagus.

This is what mine looked like versus theirs.

My version of Grill pan chicken with mushroom sauce 

 To save myself from washing couple of extra pans, I pan steamed the asparagus. To shave a few more calories from the sauce recipe, I substituted Smart Balance for the butter. I served this with a side of Kasha which is made out of whole grain buckwheat. This was an easy way to get in our whole grains for the day!

This is what was cooking in our kitchen! What's cooking in yours? I'd love to know!