May 14th - Grilled Chicken Skewers with Red Pepper Pesto

Another Late Night...

Well, it's another late night of cooking due to the fact that I decided to get out of the house and enjoy the beautiful weather today.  My friend Nikki and I did some rummage and estate saleing with a little thrift store peppered in there.  No great finds for me!  (I was looking for some cool kitchen stuff).  However, I did have the best fish fry for lunch at this Irish bar.  Yummy!  The fish was so crisp on the outside and delicate on the inside.  The french fries are the best ever!!  They have a crisp coating on the outside as well!  Coleslaw, which I don't ever eat, was great!  Thank god we did a lot of walking!!

THE RECIPE

Ingredients

Roasted Red Bell Peppers: $1.00

Cilantro: $0.69

Balsamic Vinegar: had

Garlic: had

Dry Mustard, Coriander, & Cinnamon: had

Olive oil: had

Almonds: had

Chicken: $4.22

TOTAL: $5.91

I like it when I have most of the stuff for the recipe in my house.  It makes for less grocery shopping.  I happened to have a jar of roasted red bell peppers in the pantry from a recipe last month (I bought extra because they were only $1 a jar).  Also, almonds have been pretty big in the recipes for this month, so I bought a big container of them and kept them in the freezer. 

THE RESULTS

FAST:  The chicken took about 12 minutes to cook through.  The pesto took 2 minutes to blend together.  You could have this on the table in about 15 minutes.

EASY:  Grilling chicken is a snap.  If you don't want to go through that hassle, bake the chicken in the oven or put it under the broiler.  The pesto is so super easy.  Just bust out your food processor and add everything together.

FRESH: MMMM...YES!  The roasted peppers, cilantro, and spices add so much dimension to the pesto.  The almonds give it a nice little crunch.

OVERALL:  The star of this recipe is that pesto, which is so good.  It'll be oh so much more delicious the next day...I'm sure (INSERTED BLOG NOTE:  It is so much better the next day.  It's Saturday morning and I tried some and the flavors have developed a thousand fold.  Yummmm!).  The chicken is good, but I think I would like this pesto mixed in with some pasta.  Maybe some spinach?  Maybe mix the chicken in with the pasta as well?   This pesto would also be a good sandwich spread.  Maybe a grilled veggie sandwich?  Or how about a prosciutto and fresh mozzarella panini?  So many possibilities, so little time.  Can you tell I highly recommend this recipe?

Okay.  The dessert this weekend a granita.  Hmm... I'm going to have to start it Saturday as it needs to sit overnight in the freezer.  See ya then!