Make your grilled chicken better

I don't know about you, but when I first started cooking grilling chicken was one thing I could not figure out.  I'd throw a chicken breast on the grill.  Flip it.  Pull it off.  Result: Half was already dry and gross.  Half had pink in the middle.

The problem: chicken breasts don't come in a uniform thickness.  You can easily have a chicken breast that is 2 inches thick on one side and 1/2 inch thick on the other.  There is no way to cook that completely without overdoing one half.

My solution: Beat it.  I put the chicken breasts I plan to grill in a large plastic bag with whatever marinade I am planning on (barbecue sauce, lemon and olive oil, etc).  Get out my metal ladle, put the bag on the floor and go at it until the chicken is a uniform thickness.  The kids can even help.

At this point, my kids know what I am up to when I start walking over to our rug with a bag of chicken and a metal spoon.  They run and get their ladles and join in the fun.

This time I was using Bryant's BBQ sauce.  A favorite for KC natives.

I focus on the large ends of the chicken breasts and work to get them even (or much closer to even) with the other half.

The result:  Easily grilled chicken.  I preheat my grill on high, place the chicken on the grill, and then turn the grill down to medium.  I flip the chicken once it has released from the grill (you shouldn't have to pry it off), which is usually about 5 minutes.  Around 4-5 minutes on the other side and you have tender, moist chicken that is done all the way through.

Bonus: The kids say they "helped cook" the chicken.  And my kids always eat things even better when they've helped make it.  This is an easy and safe way for them to help cook chicken without getting completely gross or making a total mess.

Happy cooking!

About Served With Love (in Colorado)

About me: Hi!  I'm Mel.  I work three days a week at a hospital and live in Colorado with my husband, two kids, and cranky miniature schnauzer.  While I work part-time, I am a mom and wife 24/7.  I enjoy my garden, reading a good book, wine, coffee, time with my kids, time with my hubby, and the rare times I have alone.  My happiest place is in front of my stove whipping up something that my kids and husband will love with some music on and a glass of wine in my hand.

Served With Love (in Colorado) is a place for me to put some ramblings on cooking and raising small humans.  I will mainly share about one way I love on my family: food.  Let's be honest, getting dinner on the table after a hard day's work is sometimes really, really tough.  But I think it is important.  Sitting around the table with my family growing up was a very grounding experience.  We talked, we lingered, we bonded.  I want that for my family so I decided a long time ago that this was something I really wanted to work hard at.  I've put the effort in and now I think this might be one thing I have figured out as a mom, at least 90% of the time.  The goal of this space is to share my tips and recipes to help other working moms out there.

The name: My grandmother was always big on serving things with love and I have something framed in my kitchen from her on the subject as well as a cook book she gave me with that phrase on the front.  Focusing on this phrase on the nights where I'm exhausted from the day helps me get in the mood to cook so it seemed a natural title for this space.

Warning: Served With Love (in Colorado) will not be a professional looking blog and will mostly contain iPhone photos and things I quickly write up, nothing ultra edited in any way.  Because I DO NOT have talent for that or currently the time to learn it!  And those edits probably wouldn't make much of a difference as far as the content I hope to come across.  If you want pretty pictures, check out your favorite design blog.  If you want to see how I love on my family with food and the things I look at when actively trying to figure out this crazy thing called parenting, stick around.  That's all I got.

What's with the code names?

You may have noticed that I use the names Beast, Ladybug, and Bear when discussing my family.  Is this the family with the strangest names on the planet?  No, it is just me protecting my family's privacy.

Beast is my husband.  He calls me Beauty, I call him Beast.  Strange, but it works.  All I have to write is BEAST on a Christmas present and everyone knows who it is from and who it is to.

Bear is my son, born in 2013.  Ladybug is my daughter, born in 2014.

That's the story.

Pantry: Mess to Magnificent

Ya'll, I had a complete tantrum the other day.  Seriously.  A full on toddler-esque tantrum.  What caused it?  My pantry.

I wish I had a "before" picture for you but this description may be enough to help you understand the chaos that had become our food storage.  I went to grab something up high and a glass vase and lightbulb fell down on me.  The glass vase I ninja-like shoved into a shelf mid air by sheer luck and the light bulb hit a nice soft landing on my bare foot.

This was while my children were eating breakfast.  Before they were done the entire pantry was emptied onto the kitchen counters and island.

The problem:  We had so much random crap in our pantry that it has ceased to become the place dedicated to dry food storage.  It truly had become a dumping ground.

The solution: Full decluttering with putting the non-food away where it goes and a trip to IKEA.  A hilarious trip with two toddlers where the stroller became a shopping cart and Bear became my assistant.

Here are the "afters" and then I'll tell you the process and products that worked for me.

Now Angels sing when I open this door. 

A spot for everything and everything labeled to tell the individuals who dump things in here that "Oh no!  That doesn't go here."  (Basically that is a note to Beast.  And me.  Mainly me.)

"This week" bin for items that are claimed for meals I've already planned.  This helps when you go to the store.  I know I need more of X because while I have one in the pantry, it will be gone before the end of the week.

Lazy susans for the oils and cooking products.  Perfect in these deep corners of the pantry that if I put things in there, would disappear.  I kid you not, I found 18 breakfast bars of various types pushed back in the recesses of these corners.  No more.

Several large, rollout bins for the floor that have rarely used or surplus items.  I have one for baking items, vases, and surplus.  Surplus has an extra bag of sugar (again found in one of the back corners), one of those half giant bags of rice from Costco, etc.

Not so healthy stuff up top so it is not at Ladybug and Bear's eye level.  And now I can have one jar of cookies and one jar of snack crackers.  I don't need 3 half empty boxes.

My meal planning clip board is behind the door and removable.  More on meal planning later.  Perfect for those occasional nights when Beast beats me home.  He knows what I was planning and can get it started.  And I always know where to find it when I am ready to plan.  

So here is how I did it.  I bought 8 bins (4 small, 4 big) initially and then went back and bought 4 more (2 small, 2 big).  I bought 5 jars initially and then went back and bought 3 more. I already had a few bins and one small lazy susan on hand.

Here is what I have my items divided into:

Lazy susans:

1) Canned goods

2) Oils and vinegars

3) Kids vitamins, medicine, band-aids, and my ibuprofen

Jars with removable glass lids: 

1) Snack nuts

2) Breakfast bars

Jars with sealable lids:

1) Cookies

2) Snack crackers

3) White rice

4) Brown rice

5) Lentils

6) Cereal

Large pull out bins for ground storage:

1) Vases

2) Surplus

3) Extra baking items (rarely used)

Large bins:

1) Potatoes

2) Onions

3) Drinks

4) Pasta/sauce

5) Breakfast

6) Treats

7) Chips/crackers

8) Baking (regularly used)

9) This week

Small bins:

1) Stock

2) Spreads

3) Seasoning packets

4) Rice/beans

5) Nuts

6) Popcorn

Mason jars:

1) Chia seeds

2) Quinoa

As I said, I pulled everything out, put the stuff that didn't belong the other places in the house where it ACTUALLY was supposed to go, and then started putting everything back in.

I used this time to get rid of the junk that we didn't need like a bunch of old candy and expired items.  Then we lived with it.  I went to get a few more items when I realized I had the space and wanted to separate out a few more items.

After I was 100% sure that I had everything separated out how I wanted them, I labeled everything.  I used chalkboard labels and a white paint sharpie.  Bought from Amazon Prime, of course.  Laminas labels and a Sharpie marker.  The labels peeled off really easy if I needed to move them a little bit and the paint marker wiped off when wet really easy which was important since it took me two times to figure out that I was actually spelling "quinoa" right.  It just looked really wrong. 

I'm super happy with how everything turned out.  My fit was worth it!

Someone Else's Idea: Coconut Curry with chicken

Most of what I cook is based on someone else's good idea with some little tweaks from me to personalize it for my family.  I was looking for a heavy veggie meal and stumbled upon this gem.

http://minimalistbaker.com/30-minute-coconut-curry/

We added some pan seared chicken for Ladybug, our little protein lover.  Turned out really well but I might added a little more curry powder next time just to intensify the flavor.

Happy eating!