Halloween Is Coming

I think this is THE cutest costume I have ever seen. I found it on Martha. There are lots of great ideas on there. Check it out.

Spicy Apricot Chicken

So, I have a new favorite chicken recipe I got from the one and only EVERYDAY FOOD mag. It is faster than fast, and D-lish.

Ingredients

Serves 4

1/4 cup apricot jam
1/4 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 6 ounces each)
Coarse salt and ground pepper

Directions
Heat broiler, with rack set 4 inches from heat. In a small bowl, stir together jam and red-pepper flakes; set glaze aside.
Place chicken on an aluminum-foil-lined baking sheet; season with salt and pepper. Broil until chicken begins to turn opaque, 5 to 6 minutes.
Brush glaze on chicken. Broil until glaze is browned and an instant-read thermometer inserted in thickest part of chicken registers 165 degrees, 4 to 5 minutes more.

P.S. I also added salt, pepper, and a little garlic salt to the glaze along with doubling the amount. Next time I will add in a separate cooking sheet with aluminum foil with just a little salt and pepper on chicken, for the kids, the glaze was just a tad too spicy for them.

My Fav

This is my favorite meal right now, and has been for a while acually. It is incredibly easy to make, so yummy, and pretty healthy. Sometimes I add minced garlic too the mix and use yellow onions instead of shallots to help use whats on hand.

Ingredients
Serves 1
1 small zucchini, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
1 shallot, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon butter, cut into pieces
1/4 teaspoon dried dill weed
1 lemon slice, halved, plus 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
coarse salt and ground pepper
1 skinless salmon fillet (6 to 8 ounces)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350. Fold a large piece of parchment paper (about 15 by 16 inches) in half to crease it; open, and lay it flat.
2. On one side of crease, mound zucchini; top with shallot, butter, dill, and lemon slices. Season with salt and pepper. Place salmon on top; drizzle with lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper.
3. To close, fold parchment over salmon; make small overlapping pleats to seal the open sides and create a half-moon-shaped packet. Place on a rimmed baking sheet; bake until salmon is opaque throughout, 15 to 17 minutes. Serve (see note).
4. You can either place the packet on a plate and cut it open, or make a slit in the paper and use a large metal spatula to transfer the contents to a serving plate.

Love this Concept!

This is Jerry Seinfeld's wife's cookbook. She puraids foods and slips them into everyday recipes. I love this idea and am incorporating this into my own recipes along with using some of hers. I haven't tried too many but love the sloppy Joe's recipe. She puts sweet potato into her pancakes, although the grocer was out of sweet potato I used yams. They are now my favorite pancakes along with Shanes. They aren't dry like most pancakes, they really are amazing. Does anyone know the difference between yams and sweet potatoes? Nutritional difference? I know sweet potatoes are suppose to be good for stabilizing blood sugars. Hopefully they are similar in nutrition because I've been eating them like crazy.