Yummmmy! I just had the following:

Lemon/Garlic/Tarragon Chicken

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, soak in salt water for 20 mins, then rinse and pat dry
Rub chicken with butter (Challenge Unsalted is my fave) or any other fat or oil that suits you (sometimes I use Organic Coconut Oil).
In a ceramic roasting pan put as much squeezed or minced garlic as you like (I put 10 cloves)
Squeeze in the juice of a lemon Myers lemons, when available are sweeter and another tasty version)
Put in seveal sprigs of fresh, or about a tablespoon of dried Tarragon
Add a pinch of red pepper (Cayenne)
Put in the chicken breasts and flip around until they are covered with the mixture.
Add either a little water (maybe 1/4 cup), or broth or a bit more oil or fat (say a teaspoon)
Cover pan with aluminum foil
Cook in oven at 325 degrees for about 30 minutes (check at 15 and flip the meat)

Very very tender, and very tasty. Eat two of them and put the other two in the frige for tomorrow (maybe cut up the leftovers and make pasta primavera with chicken and a bunch of sauteed veggies.

Or cut them up and put them in a salad, as in Ceasars.

Or heat them up again and have the same meal again.

That sounds awesome!! Chicken is my fave meat. I eat/cook it all the time so I love finding new chicken recipes!

This is going to be a great thread!

It's late and I am pooped after this busy day, but I will put a really good green and yellow bean recipe here in the next day or so.

I tried this stir fry the other day.

Take one cup of sweetened plain yogurt.
Peel one cucumber and chop it up. Puree it in a food processor with about half a clove of garlic. Mix into the yogurt and set aside.

Cut up a chicken breast into small pieces for the stir fry. On another cutting board, chop up some squash, mushrooms (I put mushrooms in virtually everything) and eggplant.

Coat the chicken pieces with the yogurt mixture and brown them on the stove. Stir in the vegetables, coating everything with yogurt sauce, stirring everything and cooking until it is tender. Near the end, stir in half a cup of finely chopped mango.

Serve over couscous or rice. My husband raved about it, and he's usually hypercritical of my cooking.

Artichokes

How to make cooking an artichoke faster, and later, How to Eat an Artichoke, for those poor souls who have no clue:

For the artichoke, cut the stem about 3/4 of an inch from the base of the choke.

Peel off and discard all the little leaves on the steam, and about three layers of leaves up from there on the outside.

With a strong knife (I use a serrated long bread knife for this, rather than a chef's knife, but any knife will do if you find it easier): cut off the top of the artichoke, all the way down to half way through the bottom most leaves (so you have a very squat artichoke).

Many recipes say to be sure to cook it stem down. I can't see that it makes any difference, and it goes naturally the other way in the water, with the stem up.

So....put enough water in a pot so you can ignore it for a half an hour and not worry about burning the house down (like enough to mostly cover the artichoke, whichever way it is aimed).

I do not put salt in the water (salted water seems to toughen the artichoke).

Put a lid on the pot. Boil the artichoke until you can easily pull out one of the middle level leaves with a tong. (30 mins).

Turn off the heat.
Drain the water.

Dump the artichoke on a plate (it is too hot to touch, and you will just pull leaves out if you try to get it out any way other than dumping it on a plate).

Meanwhile...make some sauce or dip.

How to eat an artichoke:
With your hands, you pull off each leaf, and dip the base in sauce, and scrape just the bottom of the leaf against your lower teeth.

Once you get down to the red topped inner leaves, you pull them out in clumps.

Then you use a spoon to scrape out the fibers on top of the artichoke heart.

Cut up what is left (the artichoke heart), and use a fork to dip the pieces in the sauce.

I count it as low calorie because you have to do all the work of pulling the leaves and scraping them on your teeth.

I love artichokes..........my favorite thing to dip them in is lemon butter. Just melt the butter and add a splash of lemon juice. I know, it's not low-fat, but it is so good with melted butter.

Butter is one of the best-tasting things on earth. It is something how for all those years we were told that we had to eat margarine it's so much healthier! Ha! Now we know that it's actually worse. I've been buying a "spread" called, Smart Balance that is supposed to be better for you than either. It's supposed to help with cholesterol. The best thing about it is that it actually tastes pretty good (the whipped and/or the organic versions do).

Thanks for the artichoke instructions. I haven't eaten a fresh one in a long time. I actually had chicken sausage yesterday than had artichoke and black olives in it.

I had an amzingly delicious appetizer at Figaro Bistrot on Vermont Ave. in L.A. the other night; Zuccini Carpaccio...strips of cooked zuccini drizzled with olive oil a hint of mustard and lemon and with the freshest toasted pine nuts on top.

I bought some raw pine nuts at both Trader Joe's and Bristol Farms (gourmet shop). the pine nuts were rancid, from both places (I can smell rancid from 50 paces...unless they are wrapped in cellophone, as both were, drat).

I want to find some unrancid raw pinenuts (vacuum packed, I suppose). Anybody know of a source?

You can order them here. $20 a pound

http://www.bulkfoods.com/search_results.asp?txtsearchParamCat=25&txtsearchParamType=ALL&txtsearchParamMan=ALL&txtsearchParamVen=ALL&txtFromSearch=fromSearch&txtsearchParamTxt=1256

Here they are a little cheaper, but I am not sure that these are raw.

http://www.bulknuts4you.com/nuts_cont_pg19.htm#Anchor-Pin-11935

Here are some on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Pine-Nuts-Raw-Organic-All-Natural-Kosher-1-lb_W0QQitemZ4397671883QQihZ001QQcategoryZ25460QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/PINE-NUTS-FRESH-1LB-BAG_W0QQitemZ280054195075QQihZ018QQcategoryZ25460QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Not sure if any of them are shipped vacuumed packed.

I am resurrecting this thread.

I have decided I really need to make healthy lunches to take to work.

I am very sensitive to rotting things, so mayonnaise is out if I make it the night before.

For tomorrow I put this together:

Organic Carrot Juice
Sandwich I made with organic whole wheat/whole grain bread, cream cheese, mustard, romaine lettuce, organic turkey, organic Havarti cheese (minor amounts of the cheeses).
An organic dill pickle slice.

If this did not get too tiring I'd eat that every day...but I know it will get tiring.

I would so love to have rot-resistant organic healthy lunches to know about.

Are you vegeterian? Because I have some vegeterian recipes.

I am not a vegetarian at this point, but I probably eat vegetarian meals 80% of the time.

But here's the thing;

I am allergic to soy. That is how come I stopped being a vegeatarian many years ago.

But I love veggies in general.

I would have a huge dish of sauteed green veggies every day if it did not take so long to prepare them. Frozen doesn't cut it.

I recently discovered how great fresh sugar snap peas are for a snack! My cousin put them in her veggie tray for Thanksgiving and I LOVED them dipped in a no-fat veggie dip. They are even good right out of the bag with no dressing (at least IMO) and I just read that they are VERY healthy!

I could live on salads, all kinds with lots of ingredients in them........if it wasn't such a pain to prepare! I don't eat beef and I love seafood and fresh veggies.

I'm with you on the salads Sky! I love them, yet they are BORING to make. Hubby usually makes them