Clean Eating on a Friday Night

TGIF! Don't you love Friday night? :) The weekend laid out, lengthy seeming in front of you? It's like you have amnesia every Friday night about how fast the two weekend days actually go. Like a little child, you're all innocent and hopeful- planning to do such minor activities as reorganizing your home, having moving family time adventures and getting in a little fitness while planning and prepping menus for the week. At least I usually get dressed in the morning- oh, ok, by early afternoon. ;) (kidding! dh would never let me sleep in THAT long. :P) Anywhooo...

Thought I'd share my meal from last night- which carries on to a meal for Friday night and then Saturday, too. After reading about Clean Eating magazine on some of my favourite blogs AND hearing about it from friends in real life, too, I thought I'd pick up a copy. Roasted Chicken with Cherry Barbecue Sauce & Toasted Almonds is from the current March/April 2009 issue and a part of the article, "Meal Multiplication." The roasted chicken goes into 3 different meals (love that!) Tonight's dish (which I'm going to prep as soon as I post this) is Asian Chicken-Soba Noodle Salad. I will share a review tomorrow.

The roasted chicken was very tasty. I will post the recipe following this and make some notes about ingredients missing, etc. Overall, I was in a super rush to make it as I got to the grocery store late (grounded at home with my little pox patient), so my almonds don't look that browned and my potato side wasn't ready in time for dinner- so I just served quick noodles with it. and my salad looks very "unchopped". It all tasted very good together though. A serving will cost you 9 points, but that is with 1 oz of almonds and 3 oz of the sauce. I misread that part and put almonds all over the dish (and so didn't eat an oz of them).

Roasted Chicken with Cherry Barbecue Sauce

INSTRUCTIONS

olive oil cooking spray
1 cup(s) no-sugar cherry preserves or cherry jam I used regular cherry jam.
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4c low-sodium tomato sauce
2 tbp Dijon mustard
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp liquid smoke I couldn't find this at the store
1 tsp cumin
10 oz boneless, skinless chicken breast (about 5 oz each)
Sea salt and ground black pepper to taste

1. Preheat Oven to 400. Coat a large roasting pan with cooking spray.

2. In a medium saucepan, whisk together cherry preserves, vinegar, tomato sauce, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, liquid smoke and cumin. Set saucepan over med-high heat and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat and simmer for five minutes.

3. Meanwhile, arrange chicken in one layer in prepared pan and season the tops with salt and pepper to taste. Pour sauce over chicken. Roast chicken 25-30 minutes until golden brown and cooked through.

4. Toast almonds in a small, dry skillet over med-heat for 2-3 minutes. Serve 4 chicken breast halves with almonds sprinkled over top. I put mine over the whole dish by accident. Reserve remaining 6 breasts for the next two recipes!