Grilled Chicken and Corn Salad with Avocado and Parmesan

This salad made me a happy girl last night! I came home later than planned and didn't even feel like cooking, but reluctantly got it going. As soon as I combined the salad dressing ingredients with the lemon and rosemary, I knew things were turning around! This chicken smelled delicious when grilling and the whole meal was ready in less than 30 minutes. Recipe is adapted from Real Simple.

Grilled Chicken and Corn Salad with Avocado and Parmesan

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Ingredients:

1/3 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice

3 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

5 garlic cloves, minced

olive oil

kosher salt and black pepper

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 ears of corn, shucked

5 ounces baby spinach

1 avocado, sliced

2 ounces Parmesan, shaved

Heat grill pan or charcoal/gas grill to medium-high heat. In a medium bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, rosemary, garlic, 4-5 tablespoons of the olive oil, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Transfer 3/4 of the dressing to a small bowl; set aside. Add the chicken to the remaining dressing and turn to coat.

Rub the corn with the remaining tablespoon of oil and season with ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper. Spray the pan or grill with nonstick spray and add the corn and chicken; grill turning occasionally, until the corn is tender and lightly charred, 4 to 6 minutes, and the chicken is cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes. Cut the kernels off the cobs and slice the chicken.

Note: Because I was in a hurry and the chicken breasts I had were pretty thick, I cut the breast into thick slices and the cooking went much faster. Plus, all of the pieces were nice and golden brown!

Toss the spinach, chicken, corn, and avocado with the reserved dressing and sprinkle with the Parmesan.

I thought this salad was really great! Keith didn't think it had enough dressing, so I adjusted the recipe above to reflect making 1.5 times the amount recommended by Real Simple. This is great for using the delicious sweet corn of summer!

PS - Oh yeah, this has a lot of similarities to the last recipe (the grilled chicken, lemon, shaved parmesan....), but at least I'm using ingredients more than once, right!? :)

Summer Lemon-Vegetable Risotto with Grilled Chicken

Risotto. Let's talk about it.

It's soooooo delicious. I love the texture and comfort of a good risotto dish. Risotto seems intimidating to most, but it's really, insanely easy. The trick? Stirring. Stirring a lot. But, it's well worth it in the end.

I made this recipe on Sunday night and it was quite yummy. I've already had leftovers twice, and I'm not a big leftover fan. It's packed with summer veggies, so nothing about this is plain. This Cooking Light recipe didn't call for chicken, but I had to add the protein for my man. I seasoned the chicken breasts with lemon pepper and grilled on a grill pan towards the end of making the risotto, so it was an easy add on. Oh, and if you liked this recipe, you'll love this risotto! It's in the same flavor family with the squash and lemon.

Summer Lemon-Vegetable Risotto with Grilled Chicken

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Ingredients:

8 ounces asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
8 ounces sugar snap peas, trimmed and cut in half
5 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 (8-ounce) zucchini, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
1 (8-ounce) yellow squash, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Lemon Pepper
4 3/4 cups organic vegetable broth
1/2 cup finely chopped shallots
1 cup uncooked Arborio rice
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated fresh pecorino Romano cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon salt

Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Add asparagus and peas; cook for 3 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain and rinse under cold water.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 teaspoons olive oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add zucchini and squash to pan; cook for 7 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

Season both sides of the chicken breasts with the lemon pepper. Set aside

Bring vegetable broth to a simmer in a medium saucepan (do not boil). Keep warm over low heat.

Heat remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add shallots, and cook for 3 minutes or until tender. Stir in rice, and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in wine; cook until liquid is absorbed (about 30 seconds), stirring constantly. Stir in 1 cup broth; cook 5 minutes or until liquid is nearly absorbed, stirring constantly. Reserve 1/4 cup broth. Add remaining broth, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly until each portion of broth is absorbed before adding the next (about 22 minutes total). Stir in vegetables; cook 1 minute or until thoroughly heated. Remove from heat; stir in reserved 1/4 cup broth and remaining ingredients.

Halfway through the risotto, throw the chicken on the grill pan or skillet and let it do it's thing.

Serve the sliced chicken over the risotto.

Enjoy!

Menu Monday 8/29/11

After not cooking for a while, I have been sooo excited to get back to the kitchen this week!

Here's what we've got coming up:

From top left:

Summer Lemon-Vegetable Risotto with Grilled Chicken: I made this last night for dinner and it was fab-u-lo. I will be posting the recipe this week. I've already had leftovers again and just can't get enough of this Cooking Light recipe!

Update: Click here for my recap post!

Rosemary Grilled Steak with Tomato Jam: Another Cooking Light dish that I'll be whipping up soon. It just sounds amazing and the reviews online were positive, which is always positive reinforcement when picking a recipe to make.

Verdict: Fab! Here's my post with the recipe.

End-of-Summer Pork Milanese: I bought an EveryDay with Rachel Ray magazine at the airport and fell in love with it. As a result, I will be adding it to my ridiculous magazine subscription list! I flagged at least 20 pages of recipes and this is one of them.

Result: Tasty! Very colorful. Click here to read about it.

Grilled Chicken and Corn Salad with Avocado and Parmesan: This Real Simple dish sounds perfect for the sweet corn that is in season right now. Plus, I'm an avo addict and can't wait to try this salad.

Update: Excellent salad. A new favorite! Here's my post on it.

Thai Coconut Curry Shrimp: I've been meaning to make this dish for ages, and can't wait to put all of these flavors together! This one from thesisterscafe.com.

Results: Great! This week was full of really tasty meals. Click here for my post.

I'm looking forward to sharing my successes with you!

Vacationes en la Mayan Riviera

Well hello there!

I'm back from vacation dream land, and have the pictures to prove that we had an excellent time! I've got well over 550 pictures! I'm not posting all of them here, but I do want to share some of my favorites.

As you saw in my last blog post, we spent the week in Riviera Maya, Mexico, at a beautiful resort - Adventura Cove Palace. Halfway through the week, we transferred to another sister resort, Playacar Palace in Playa del Carmen to soak up some different scenery and try some other food. Both places were wonderful!!!

This vacation was long overdue!

Soaking up some rays was much-needed, especially for the paler of the two of us - ME ;)

The view from my preferred lounge chair.

Mr Jones didn't sit still long. He stayed on the move...

....while I switched from sun to shade and was very happy to read! Oh, and have a pina colada, or three. Or mojito, or margarita or Miami vice. Whatever I felt like, really.

Keith did water aerobics at noon. Hey, I gave it a try once.

Hey even stayed busy when the occasional rain storms would come through.

He snorkled almost every day.

And I joined him. Once.

Hey - I had books that weren't going to read themselves!

There were lots of cool underwater critters.

And Keith even held this poisonous version of an ocean porcupine - that's a technical term.

We enjoyed the kayak boats at the resort, too!

We did venture out for an excursion one day to XPlor - a zip-line, cavern, adventure-type place that requires a hard hat for the activities.

We rode one of these 'amphibious vehicles' through the jungle, through caves and waterfalls.

It was quite fun!

I felt pretty geological. My sis would be so proud!

The best part of this day? The zip line course!

Wooooohooooo!!

The views were awesome!

We zipped from tower to tower and became quick pros.

Even though we zipped pretty fast down the cables, we managed to snap a few decent pictures among all of the blurry ones. Even when this rain cloud came through, we kept going!

I took this pic as I was zipping into this waterfall/cave for a water-landing.

It was obviously fun!!

One thing I love about vacation is the lazy day on the beach (or busy day zip-lining) followed up by getting spruced up and enjoying a meal prepared by someone else. We had some great evenings!

This is me in my 'for a beach vacation only' dress. Keith also rarely sports the linen in Memphis :)

My handsome (tan) husband!

A trip to Mexico isn't complete without at least one romper outfit. Hah!

We also thoroughly enjoyed the beach over at Playa del Carmen. Simply gorgeous!

Vacation smooches!

The sun got me the worst on this day - and it was cloudy!

I also only used a hair dryer once or twice on this trip. Heaven!

This wonderful vacation that we so enjoyed would not have been possible without these people:

These are our friends, the Burrises. They are lovely folks that are fun to be around, kind, generous and have two of the most precious children I know. Ben is a great mentor to Keith in the dental world and has been very sweet to him and to both of us. They vacation regularly to Mexico and have a timeshare-style membership with Palace Resorts. Because of their awesome perks, we had the opportunity to tag-along on their family vacation and make a little vacation of our own.

So, Keith had William as a buddy in the pool when I was too busy reading, or napping in the sun.

And little miss Berkeley is just too sassy and cute for words.

It was really wonderful to spend most of our time on our own, but be able to check-in regularly with folks we knew, and enjoy some meals and pool time with this great family.

Oh, and we made pretty fast friends with their kiddos, too!

 

Berkeley and I even matched on our last day!

So, to conclude this vacation post, I'm signing off with some of my favorite images that I just may have to use as a new screen saver to get me by until the next sun-filled getaway!

I wonder if these birds know how lucky they are to have this view?

Electric lemonade and a mojito, my personal favorite.

The sign of a good time at the spa/salon!

I don't have photos of the kind staff, but they catered to our every need!

I read two great books! I owe you guys a book review post on what I've read lately anyway!

Love my husband's lobster trunks.

And yes, I wore earrings with my swimsuit.

I will miss the smell of this sunscreen!

Thank you, Keith, for being a wonderful husband! You put up with me this year when I was a huge stress ball and this vacation was the reward for both of us! I had such a great time relaxing with you and I look forward to all of our many more years of seeing the world together.

To the Burris family, THANK YOU! Without you, this vacation would not be possible. Thanks for understanding what it's like to be a student and providing lots of guidance and support to Keith as he navigates dental school. Most of all, we are thankful for our friendship.

And, for anyone else still reading this post, thanks for hanging in there! This was a long one! Recipes to come in the next few days!