Lemon Chicken & Rice with Artichokes - Second Salubrious Sunday

Well, apparently the whole family is all pumped about Salubrious Sunday. Of course I knew my youngest daughter would be. I mean, she's all into the eat healthy stuff (except for when she eats a whole row of Oreo cookies, but I can't really blame her there, I mean....OREOS!! hello?) Anyways, the other morning my husband says to me...."Do you want to go to the book store?" My mind starts ticking....omg...YES YES!!! God!! YES!!! They have COOKBOOKS there!! Does a bear shit in the woods? DUH!!! And my other daughter is like..."Mom, you should cook healthier meals more then just on Sundays." hmmm....are my normal dinners not all that healthy?

Sooooo....off to the bookstore we went and looky at what I got

Of course tonight's dinner came from my shiny brand spankin new cookbook!

Ingredients:

Cooking Spray

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast, but into 1/2" strips

2 1/2 cups chopped onions

1 cup chopped bell pepper

2 cups instant rice

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

14 oz. fat-free, less sodium chicken broth

1 - 14 oz can quartered artichoke hearts

2 tablespoons grated Romano or Parmesan cheese

Heat a large, heavy pot (such as a bean pot or dutch oven) over medium-high heat. Coat with cooking spray. Add your chicken, onions and bell pepper:

look at that color!!! oh man.....and the aroma!! Saute that group for about 5 minutes.

Stir in rice, lemon juice, salt, pepper and chicken broth:

Bring to a boil....cover and reduce the heat. Simmer for 15 minutes or until rice is tender.

Stir in the artichoke hearts and cook until thoroughly heated, about 1 minute.

Sprinkle with cheese and serve

I wasn't thrilled with the dish. The family loved it! I really had to fight with myself to not add garlic. Maybe I should have. Also, instead of instant white rice, I used instant brown rice. I don't think there's much of a flavor different between the two (bummer cuz I love brown rice). Instant is instant. I did have to double the liquid content however. Maybe I shouldn't have doubled the lemon juice and only increased the broth. I suggest just following the box instructions on your particular rice.

Here's the nutritional information:

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 2 cups)

Calories: 340 (8% from fat)

Fat: 2.8 g (sat. 1 g. mono 0.7 g, poly 0.5 g)

Protein 35 g

Carb 40.7

Fiber 8.3 g

Chol 69 mg

Iron 3.1 mg

Sodium 773 mg

Calc 120 mg

**Rant Alert**

If you'd like to bypass my bitch session, just scroll down to the alcohol section below and enjoy! (god, don't you wish it was that easy in real life?)

If I don't make sense, just nod your head every once in a while with a little frown on your face and look interested. If you don't agree, get your own blog. If I'm completely wrong, hand me another glass of wine and lets talk.

I have an issue. Its in regards to fat vs low / no fat vs sodium vs sugar vs flavor yadda yadda yadda. When a recipe calls for no fat mayo or no fat sour cream....that just irritates the crap out of me. I think food products that are labeled as fat free or low fat (which is intended to make the consumer feel better about buying it cuz its suppose to be "healthier" ) are a crock of shit. If you compare the sodium content and the sugar content...its crazy. With the fat, the sodium is lower. Without the fat, the sodium is higher and probably the sugar too. So you trade no fat for high sodium which boils down to one form of the product thats bad for your heart vs another form of the same product thats also bad for your heart....hmm...decisions decisions.

Now I just got this new cookbook that I really like. It wasn't labeled as a "healthy eating" cookbook. Which means that some of the recipes in there aren't as healthy as others. No problem....I'll just make those with my normal sour cream and call it day, on a different day. Ya the new cookbook version is probably a "lighter" version of the norm, with its 1 cup of fat free mayonnaise and 1/2 cup of fat free sour cream, and a can of reduced sodium 98% fat free cream-of-something soup, except I have a problem with the flavor. And that all sounds fine and dandy until you read the small print (the dreaded small print). MSG anyone? (I won't even get into the whole MSG thing that pisses me off even more...but don't take away my Big Mac please! LOL). What I really hate is when all my options are sucky (its like voting for a proposition or a political candidate.) I don't like having to choose between the lesser of two evils.

I guess what this all comes down to is dieting vs. healthy eating. All this hype about sugar free, low calorie, fat free, cholesterol free.....omg. Its enough to drive a person f'ing insane. Lets just cut the crap and call it like it is. If you want to be healthy, eat fresher, less processed foods in a more balanced manner (proteins, simple carbs and complex carbs). If you want to lose weight....change your eating habits and eat healthier.

Soo....I have this really great new "Cooking Light" cookbook right? But I'm not going to prepare several of the meals in it and include them in my Salubrious Sunday posts because I don't consider unnaturally processed funky media-hyped foods as healthy. I refuse to substitute using no-fat, crappy-tasting sour cream. I don't like using plain yogurt in the place of sour cream or mayo either...it just tastes different. For my healthy meals, I'll just leave those creamy, saucy or cheesy recipes out.

And nooooo...I don't consider my alcohol drinks healthy either, but then again I'm not putting a "no cholesterol, fat free" label on them and pretending they are.

And on THAT note...lets break out the alcohol and shake off this irritation

For some reason I'm really on this beer & tequila combo kick. It seems that the tequila drowns out the beer and the ginger ale covers up the tequila bite and makes it go down sooo damn smooth. Then there's all these frozen juice mixes to try....YA BABY!!! Tonight's was Raspberry Lemonade and I wasn't disappointed.

Cool and refreshing....I'm on my third as we speak