Fathers Day Dinner - Salubrious Sunday the 3rd

When I asked my husband what he wanted for dinner for his Father's Day dinner he said "That marinated chicken from Vallarta". Vallarta is a chain of stores that specializes in mexican food. They have what they call Marinated Chicken Steaks thats wonderful!

No matter how we cook them...grilled, sauteed....(well, those are the only ways I've made them so far) the chicken comes out so tender and flavorful.


Of course I had to plan a meal around the meat. I don't know how "salubrious" it is but other than cheese and the tortilla (which are optional), there wasn't anything fattening about it. So I guess this would fall under my theme of Salubrious Sunday meals. I just don't have a calorie count or any of those other details. Besides, it was Father's Day and we did what the dad wanted! :)


Here's the menu:


Grilled Chicken Steaks
Spanish Rice
Black Beans
Sauteed Veggies


First I started with the rice. mmmm....I loves me some goooood spanish rice. I found a recipe on BakeSpace.com, posted by Katherina, that is probably the best homemade spanish rice I've come across...here's a link to her Mom's Spanish Rice. I didn't change a thing...it's good as is:

2 cups white rice
Oil
Salt and Pepper
1 tsp garlic, minced
10 oz chicken broth
5 oz water
1 8oz can of tomato sauce
1/2 an onion left whole


Saute the rice and garlic in oil in a good sized pan with high sides. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pour in the liquid (be careful of all the steam):

Now add the tomato sauce:

Stir just to combine, but not too much. Put the onion "face down" in the middle of the rice so that it looks like a dome:

Cover the pot. Let it boil, but keep an eye on it. When most of the liquid has been absorbed, lower the temperature and let simmer until all the liquid is gone. Leave the lid on until you're ready to serve.

Discard the onion, fluff with a fork and enjoy.


While all that was going on I chopped up some veggies. I had onions (both white and red), bell pepper and zucchini:

Saute until crisp tender and a little browned.....mmmmm.....love that aroma!


I made some guacamole but it wasn't all that great so I'm not going to share the recipe with you. My husband came home and said a guy at work and made some just by adding salsa verde and that it was really good. To me, it was tasteless. But it looked pretty LOL

Then I marinated some shrimp in butter and garlic on screwers to also be grilled (have no idea how that turned out since I'm allergic and well....)

Now check out these "Chicken Steaks"

and they look even better on the grill.....

Say hello to Scotty.....

He's my African Grey that lives outside and keeps us company while we grill. He's such an attention hound!


Oh ya...and we heated up some black beans and my favorite tortillas...

I like to heat up the tortillas on my stove. I just love that little bit of charred flavor. We could've done it on the grill but I didn't want to contaminate them with shrimpy juice, ya know?

mmmm...it's all coming together now! One of the fun parts of this meal is that you can basically make what you want, how you want it.... burrito style:

Taco style:

Free form:

aaaaand carbless:

We all enjoyed our Father's Day Salubrious Sunday Dinner. Happy Father's Day Hon!!! We love you!

hmmm...now that I think about it, it's very possible that tonights dinner is more salubrious than last nights....spaghetti sauce with turkey italian sausage over whole wheat, whole grain pasta. Just step away from the garlic bread (cuz it's aaaaaaall mine...muuuaaaah haaa haaa)